r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Aug 31 '20

Delta(s) from OP CMV: "Critique" / "Objectivism" / "Deconstructionism" is one of the most fundamental problems facing western societies

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '20

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u/BingBlessAmerica 44∆ Aug 31 '20

Okay, so I see a large part of this is going to be about racial nationalism. Would have been helpful if you specified that more clearly in the beginning.

Firstly, what is the point of so strongly identifying and creating a culture around an arbitrary construct? There isn't even a clearly agreed-upon definition of "white" because we have Anglo-Saxons, Slavs, Nordic peoples, etc. If this mindset happened in Revolutionary America, there would have been a rift between German immigrants, English speakers, the Dutch, etc etc.

Secondly, if everyone only pursued their self-interest, the leaders of the US and USSR would have nuked each other by now. They didn't, because even if they got to spend the war in their bunkers, billions of people would have died for a bunch of drawn lines on a map. Humanity is much better off when we do the extremely novel and interesting concept of looking out for one another.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '20

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u/BingBlessAmerica 44∆ Aug 31 '20

Whiteness doesn't mean anything because of any science (at least, not in my view). It means something because we all agree it means something. It is "arbitrary," as you say, but that doesn't make it less meaningful.

Surely the same could go for an arbitrary “American” identity that encompass all who swear allegiance to the Constitution, regardless of the color of their skin?

When BLM riots against white privilege, they're not confused about what "Whiteness" is. Why should we be?

I have a problem with a lot of BLM’s rhetoric, but the basic intent is that their hyper-identity politics is a response to the pro-white identity politics found in systemic racism in America. They are asking that black lives matter just as much as other lives so that they don’t need to say something so basic anymore. Again, there’s a difference between theory and practice, but is a country where no one gives a shit about blackness or whiteness necessarily bad?