Gaius

Fictional? Are you seriously suggesting that White communists don't exist? That White Muslims don't exist? That White rapists, criminals, and violent ideologues don't exist? What part of that is fictional, exactly? You are so determined to make this an argument about race that you're missing the much more important argument about CULTURE. I reject Islamist theocracy. I reject the destructive elements of inner-city culture. I reject the grievance politics and authoritarianism of communism. I reject them regardless of the skin color of the people practicing them. Why? Because I find those beliefs and behaviors morally repugnant. Not because of the ancestry of the people holding them. A child raised in an impoverished neighborhood where criminality is normalized is more likely to absorb those values. A child raised in an affluent, progressive household where Marxism is celebrated may absorb those values instead. Culture is learned. It is transmitted. It is reinforced. And, critically, it can be REJECTED. Here's the part that ought to get your attention. You wrote: "Heritage Americans increasingly reject the notion that every ethnic community on Earth is entitled to celebrate its ancestry, preserve its culture, and defend its collective interests, while the descendants of those who actually built this nation are expected to regard those same instincts in their own community as uniquely shameful." I AGREE WITH YOU. COMPLETELY. UNEQUIVOCALLY. White Americans have every right to celebrate their ancestry, preserve their cultural inheritance, and take pride in their ancestors' accomplishments. I have absolutely no objection to that. In fact, I will DEFEND that right. I appreciate the culture that y'all built. I CHOSE it over the culture I grew up in. You lose me the moment you decide that ancestry, skin color, and cultural allegiance are interchangeable concepts. THEY ARE NOT. I'm Black (In case you didn't pick that up yet.) I reject the entirety of the destructive culture commonly associated with Black Americans. There are plenty of Black Americans who feel exactly as I do. Go talk to some ex-Muslims. You'll find people who despise Islamist authoritarianism with a passion that makes my objections look positively mild. Many of those *GASP* have brown skin!!!!! Go talk to people who escaped communist dictatorships. They'll tell you precisely what they think of the ideology that destroyed their countries and families. Some of them might be *gasp* BLACK! These people didn't change their ancestry. They didn't change their skin color. They changed their beliefs, rejected destructive cultural practices, and chose something better. Many of them would stand shoulder to shoulder with you in defending the very civilization you're talking about. You're so obsessed with who their ancestors were that you cannot recognize who THEY are. That is an astonishingly foolish way to build a political movement. You are cutting off your nose to spite your face, alienating people who share your principles because they don't share your pigmentation. And for what? The intellectual convenience of judging millions of individuals by ancestry rather than making the slightest effort to understand their character? If that's how you want to operate, I cannot stop you. But don't you DARE act surprised when people like me, people who have spent over a decade passionately defending conservatism, American traditions, individual liberty, and the cultural inheritance of Western civilization, decide we've had quite enough of being treated as unwelcome guests in our own country. I am not asking you to apologize for being White. I am asking you to stop demanding that I apologize for NOT being White. You want to preserve American civilization? Wonderful. So do I. You want to defend the cultural achievements of our ancestors? Excellent. So do I. Even though they technically aren't my ancestors. They are culturally, if not genetically. You want to resist the importation of destructive ideologies and cultural practices? You will find me standing right beside you. But if you insist that my skin color makes me inherently less American, less trustworthy, or less worthy of standing alongside you, then you have ceased defending a civilization based on its principles and started defending a racial club. I have absolutely no interest in joining that club, or supporting its existence. I grew up in a miserable, Democrat-run environment. I spent forty years of my life learning how to recognize, confront, and survive the political and cultural dysfunction that came with it. I know these people. I know their arguments. I know their tactics. I know how to fight them. And if they take over again? I won't like it. Not one bit. But I'll survive. I escaped that environment once. I can (and will) do it again. The question is whether you would rather have people like me helping you fight for the country we BOTH love, or whether your obsession with racial identity matters more to you than actually winning. I am offering you an ally, not begging you for acceptance. And if you cannot tell the difference, that is your failure, not mine. Grow up. Learn to distinguish race from culture. Learn to judge individuals by what they believe and what they do. Or keep driving away your allies, and then spend the next decade wondering why you keep losing. You cannot build a winning coalition by treating everyone who doesn't look like you as an enemy. You cannot claim to defend American civilization while rejecting Americans who actually believe in it.