Should we coddle angry white men or tell them the truth?

[MosheFeingold]

2. I've given this a lot of thought

I am loathe to judge any person by the actions of a group in which he is in.

I struck a life-long friendship with a fellow immigrant in the 1960s who became my neighbor. He was German, member of the Hitler Youth, and soldier for the Germans in the waning days of WWII. Lost his foot to disease somewhere in Russia.

When we met, I immediately hated him. He was unfailingly polite and gentle. We traded German-language books. And just a good guy, in general. His kids went to my kids' bar/bat-mitzvahs. My son was one of his son's groomsmen. Etc. He died about 1988, too young, of a heart attack. I spoke at his funeral about what a nice man he was.

I look at "white men" the same way. Yes, a lot of white guys get certain advantages. A lot of white guys get lots of disadvantages, notably the working poor and uneducated. They have been very much been left behind in a post-industrial USA. A strong back and a work ethic no longer means a good job when a robot can do it or the coal mine is closed. That's why meth is the only booming industry in certain parts of the USA. Hope is lost, and people are angry.

I think the problem is our human tendency to group people and blame individuals for the faults of whatever group we created.

It's so often racist or sexist. For example, if one treated a given black man unfairly because you looked at various socioeconomic data and decided that that given black guy was much more likely to be a criminal, it would be racist and unfair to that given black guy.

Same with white guys. Or any group we make up. Individuals are not groups. Individuals are individuals, and each person should be judged as such.

Even German males aged 16-39 sometime between 1939-1947.