Portico Darwin: The One Hunter Deuce Wrote, Mostly
TODAY'S RAMBLINGS
<3 Minute Read
Today, I am publishing, in its entirety, a reply I received from star reader Hunter Deuce about my post Monday on Identity Politics.
I'm pretty sure no one has ever chased you down an alley with a baseball bat looking to cave your head in because you're straight or white.
In a perfect world, we wouldn't need Pride Month or Black History Month. But we don't live in a perfect world - we live in a world where certain people (guess who?) are actively doing everything they can to make sure we don't learn and understand about the effects of slavery, Jim Crow laws, or the institutional racism black people have been dealing with. Or what the LGBTQ community has endured, mostly at the expense of - guess who again?
I always give a pretty good side-eye whenever I hear straight, white men tell the rest of us they wish we could all "move on" from identity politics while having been the beneficiaries of a system that favors them the most.
Do I hear people clamoring for a Privileged White Male Heritage Month? Yeah, every fucking time Pride Month or Black History Month rolls around. Too many people just can't stand it if, God forbid, we spend some time acknowledging the very real struggle of someone else. And again, these are the same people actively trying to stop children from learning about things like Black Wall Street or the Stonewall Riots.
If you think we're spending an inordinate amount of time on transgender issues, it's because conservatives have now realized that gay marriage is fairly accepted (for now) and realize that bashing the gay community (both literally and figuratively) isn't as accepted as it was 40 years ago. So now they've turned their hate towards the trans community and - as I'm sure you're very aware of this - are codifying legislation to actively discriminate against them by things like denying them health care. For the side of the political spectrum that claims to love "freedom" so much, it's amazing what lengths they'll go to to deny people who don't look like them their freedom.
I have zero problems with things like Juneteenth or Pride Month. Do they adversely affect me? Not at all.
So I agree with you - in a "perfect world" we wouldn't need them. But we don't live in a perfect world.
Thank you, Mr. Deuce!
I was hoping someone would write something like this, because after I sent my post on Monday, I realized I did let the Republicans off mostly scot-free. My concept of moving on is based on the general public being educated and aware on race and gender to an extent where the differences used to divide us fall away.
Yet my thoughtful friend is correct: one doesn't have to look far to find examples of Republicans in red states actively seeking to make their constituents MORE ignorant and/or LIMIT their freedoms. We're back to banning books - really? Oh, and . . . abortion rights, anyone? So it's not just black and gay people: some clearly want to take women back to a time of white male dominance, too.
But I digress.
I believe what Hunter and I are both saying to our conservative and/or Republican and/or libertarian friends (A.K.A. anyone that won't vote for a Democratic candidate literally regardless of who it is) is this: I think a lot of people would like to "move on".
Just stop making it so f'ing hard by:
limiting voting access in predominantly black districts;
creating panics over non-issues like unisex bathrooms and drag queens;
banning books and even concepts in classrooms;
supporting a party that attempted to overthrow a fairly elected US government; and
refusing to acknowledge the United States' history of oppression of anybody not white and not male.
So perhaps Hunter is right, lacking Republican sanity, we may still need Blah Blah Blah Heritage/Remembrance/History Day/Night/Week/Month. I really wish that weren't the case.
Because I believe we can make the future better by honestly understanding our history on an ongoing basis, not as a series of in-your-face one-offs. If we did that, we might be able to make national course corrections that last and that don't require reminders.
FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES
The whiz-kid executive Kevin Monza called out the all-too-predictable response from my aforementioned Republican friends to the Hunter Biden plea bargain.
Witch hunt! Politically motivated! LOL! You know that this is going to turn into "It was a sweetheart deal".
Do you know what has two B's and adds up to nothing? Biden and Benghazi. Folks, if the Republicans - the majority party in the House of Representatives, giving them subpoena power - could find anything of substance to pin on Hunter and especially Joe, they'd produce it. Certainly nobody doubts that.
But like Benghazi, and sadly so much else, the Republicans have nothing. I wish they had more, because we need two functioning political parties in the US.
Thank you to any one that is reading this newsletter.
KLUF
Played just once previously on KLUF, this fits the desert/pool scene here extremely well. Indeed, I bet it would provide a chill vibe for your own next summer activity. Here, on both TIDAL and Spotify, is my Diamond Certified playlist from the French techno masters Air.
And a bonus photo. Let me just say that Julie's changed while we've been down here. That was yesterday at the beyond-Textbook Blue Moon Bar & Grill, in Radium Springs, New Mexico. This place was easily one of the best and nicest roadhouses I've ever seen. It's right near Hatch, on the Rio Grande, and in the center of the universe for chile farming.
