American nationalism and American greatness

Is America great again? Trump says yes. But Trump also describes Baltimore as follows:

disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess . . .

very dangerous & filthy place.

You might argue that Baltimore is just one city.  But are Trump’s views on other old industrial cities any different?  What about Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, Memphis, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc.  The elephant in the room is that Trump is obviously not talking about the nicer areas of metropolitan Baltimore, rather the poorer African-American neighborhoods throughout all of America.

So can America actually be great again if many of its older industrial cities are doing as poorly as Trump describes?  (And just to be clear, I think he somewhat exaggerates some very real and serious problems.)

If you viewed “nationalism” through the rose-tinted glasses of certain right wing intellectuals, then Trump’s views on American greatness would seem to make no sense.  How can a rat infected country be great?  But these intellectuals are either naively or willfully ignoring the reality of nationalism.  It’s not about pride in your country.  For nationalists, the plight of minorities don’t even enter the picture.  This is true in America, in Hungary, in Italy, in India, in China, in Burma, or anywhere else where authoritarian nationalism is on the rise.  Trump’s nationalism is white nationalism.  If you are uncomfortable with that fact, I’d suggest you look for an alternative ideology.

Even defined as white nationalism, Trump hasn’t really addressed the problems in places like West Virginia.  But at least from that perspective his comments on Baltimore no longer seem so illogical, so out of tune with his claim of renewed American greatness.

PS.  While Trump keeps railing about murderous Mexicans and Muslims, and rat-infested African American neighborhoods, we keep experiencing one mass shooting after another.  Have you noticed how many of these shootings involve white males, often right-wing nationalists?  I don’t see Trump talking about the evils of nationalism.  Maybe that’s because Trump himself is a white nationalist, the ideology that sparks so many of these shootings.


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36 Responses to “American nationalism and American greatness”

  1. Gravatar of Michael Sandifer Michael Sandifer
    4. August 2019 at 08:55

    Well put.

  2. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 08:56

    The mental gymnastics in this post to evade the fact Baltimore is indeed a rat infested shithole (never asked where the $16 billion in federal aid in 2018 alone all went)….going right to orange man bad, is proof of TDS.

    Sad!

  3. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 09:28

    The core of the ‘left’ today:

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democratic-socialists-convention-erupts-due-to-sensory-overload-gendered-pronoun-usage

    Sick, brainwashed people!

  4. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 09:40

    “Have you noticed how many of these shootings involve white males, often right-wing nationalists?”

    Have you noticed the fake news IGNORES the much more frequent shootings that do not fit the racist ‘narrative’ pushed by the blog author?

    73 people were shot in Chicago the last week alone.

    Blog author does not mention it because blog author is a sheep to fake news.

    The El Paso shooter was half Iranian and the fake news as expected is pushing ‘white nationalism’.

    These are sick people, and the effects are warped minds such as the blog author.

    The shootings were coincidentally timed, narrative shift, away from public learning of more and more bad news for Demokkkrats.

    Happens every time.

    https://www.axios.com/dnc-lawsuit-wikileaks-russia-trump-campaign-dismissed-5e32b1f4-03af-4e4e-900c-c3d00a364f37.html

    https://magaimg.net/img/8mw7.jpg

  5. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 09:42

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/05/the_lie_that_will_not_die_and_the_truth_about_black_mass_shooters.html

  6. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 09:42

    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/07/31/assa-j31.html

  7. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 09:46

    https://twitter.com/paul_furber/status/1157781637658292231

  8. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 09:48

    In other words, MULTIPLE SHOOTERS were killing people in El Paso.

    Pattern fits leftist ANTIFA terrorists

  9. Gravatar of Russ Abbott Russ Abbott
    4. August 2019 at 09:55

    “Maybe that’s because Trump himself is a white nationalist, the ideology that sparks so many of these shootings.” Do you really intend this so tentatively?

  10. Gravatar of Major_Freedom Major_Freedom
    4. August 2019 at 10:40

    https://i.imgur.com/D4Fxvxi.jpg

    Patrick Crusius, one of the El Paso shooters, is a registered Democrat.

    ““Maybe that’s because Trump himself is a white nationalist, the ideology that sparks so many of these shootings.” Do you really intend this so tentatively?”

    DEMOCRAT FAKE NEWS.

    Democrats started the KKK.

    Democrats are keeping black people poor and dependent, all for political power.

  11. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 10:43

    https://8ch.net/qresearch/res/7054029.html#7059278

    Racist Democrats projecting their own racism onto Trump.

  12. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 10:46

    These mass shootings are manufactured events that are designed to push a false narrative to keep sheep like Russ Abbott voting Demokkkrat.

  13. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 10:50

    The people are waking up!

    http://m.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/july_2019/trump_support_up_this_week_among_black_voters

    Trump Support Up This Week Among Black Voters AFTER he called out the badly run city of Baltimore.

    Facts like these make racist liberals think or even say “uncle Toms” or “race traitors” or whatever other racist pejorative that denies black people thinking for themselves and walking away from the Demokkkrat plantation.

    Fake news is finished

  14. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 10:53

    This is why liberals are harvested votes.

    https://i.imgur.com/mfC9CaK.jpg

  15. Gravatar of Neon__Wolf Neon__Wolf
    4. August 2019 at 10:56

    Easiest way to prove the TDS sheep are brainwashed is to just ask them how exactly Trump is a ‘white nationalist’ and ask for documented evidence.

    Proof is never given, only “dog whistles”, or “interpretations”, or “context”.

    The only response ever given is guffaw, or anger, or projection and accusing the questioner of being racist.

    SHEEP, THE LOT OF YOU

  16. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    4. August 2019 at 12:01

    “Trump’s nationalism is white nationalism.”

    No; it’s not. He would refer to Tim Ryan’s district the same way. Trump has done NOTHING to advance the cause of the White race any other Republican would not do. He has never used the term White in a positive way. Meaning he is not a White Nationalist. He’s an advocate of the Jews ruling over everybody.

    So can America actually be great again if many of its older industrial cities are doing as poorly as Trump describes?

    Uh… obviously? There’s a lot of ruin in a nation, no matter its greatness.

    I don’t see Trump talking about the evils of nationalism.

    He talks about the supposed evils of White nationalism all the time. That’s not a good thing; that’s a bad thing. Virtually all the key innovations behind modern economic growth have come from White-majority countries.

  17. Gravatar of Michael Sandifer Michael Sandifer
    4. August 2019 at 15:13

    There’s actually someone in these comments complaining that Trump isn’t racist enough. lol Unbelievable.

  18. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    4. August 2019 at 15:39

    Michael, Unfortunately, lots of people wish he were more racist.

  19. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    4. August 2019 at 18:21

    Why “unfortunately”? The White race is in a very precarious position in this country. Trump is racist; he’s racist in favor of Jews.

  20. Gravatar of Michael Sandifer Michael Sandifer
    4. August 2019 at 19:06

    I’m white and I have no concerns about the “white race” or anything associated with “race”, except for concern about minorities everywhere who might be abused.

    And when I say I’m white, I’m boringly white. If my genetic tests are any indication, my recent ancestors were almost entirely from the UK, with most from England, and most of the rest from Scotland and Ireland. There’s a smattering from Germany and Scandanavia, and tiny sliver from eastern Europe.

    I’ve never understood racial animosity, or cultural or religious bigotry, for that matter, at least first-hand. I grew up in Houston, having lived in very diverse neighborhoods and having gone to very diverse schools. I loved it. I loved iiving in a bilingual city. I love the influence of Mexican culture on my home state.

    When I was 13, I lived in Jacksonville for a year, and was bussed to an inner-city school, in which I was one of just a handful of white kids in a predominently black school. It was only then that I understood how black people and other minorities must feel everyday, nearly everywhere they went. I was very consciously a minority for the first time. It made me more sensitive to how minorities must feel, generally, even though I only had a small, temporary taste of it. I wasn’t picked on anymore in that school than I had been in any other, and I had no particular social problems there. It was a valuable, eye-opening experience.

    The first neighborhood I ever moved into when I moved out on my own was a poor, black neighborhood in Gainesville, FL. It had a reputation for drugs and violence, and my brother and I moved into our very inexpensive apartment in the middle of the night, because that’s how it was done in that neighborhood. We had to get out of a bad home situation, and it was all we could afford without having strangers as roommates.

    There were annoyances living there, like the occasional knock on the door asking for money, or being asked if I wanted to buy pot most of the times I left the house, but there was no real trouble that I saw. There were apartments there where drugs were probably being sold, and one in which there may have been prostitution, but the vast majority of residents left for work early in the morning and came home several hours later, like me and almost all other American adults. We just earned less money, on average.

    The biggest annoyance was having my 1982 Toyota Tercel searched against my will after being stopped by police in the neighborhood, without probable cause. I know first hand what many black people complain about, because it doesn’t only happen to black people. All of us in that neighborhood were profiled. It seemed to be assumed I must be up to no good to be in that neighborhood.

    So, spare me the white genocide bullshit. You’ll never convince most of us that we’re all anything, but people.

  21. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    4. August 2019 at 20:06

    I’m white and I have no concerns about the “white race” or anything associated with “race”

    And you’re proud of this? Are we supposed to clap?

    Lots of people don’t care about race. Doesn’t matter. Race cares a lot about them.

    except for concern about minorities everywhere who might be abused.

    Of our ten largest cities, none have a White majority.

    You’ll never convince most of us that we’re all anything, but people.

    That’s the point, Mike. All men are not created equal.

  22. Gravatar of Michael Sandifer Michael Sandifer
    4. August 2019 at 20:17

    What am I supposed to be worried about? Being in a racial plurality? Why would I be concerned about that?

  23. Gravatar of Steve Steve
    4. August 2019 at 21:55

    Well you are half right. The Texas shooter was a vile racist turd.

    But, the Ohio shooter was a good ‘ol Boston Boy, a.k.a., an openly Satanic anti-fascist commie socialist Warren Bernie bro.

  24. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    4. August 2019 at 23:27

    Just my own 2 cents, lived much of my life as a minority-white person in various countries where whites were a minuscule minority. Yes I have had the occasional racism directed at me. I may even have lost a job opportunity or two due to ethnicity. But I have similar experiences of being vilified by other whites. I may also have lost job opportunities due to political or social comments I made. The vast majority of lost opportunities were boringly due to not having a local passport, whichever country that was in I lived.

    And in spite of all of this, I STILL believe I had great net opportunities because I’m white, and came from a wealthy Western country. I don’t “get” this white whining. At all. Just by being white, you still have an advantage pretty much anywhere in the world.

  25. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    5. August 2019 at 04:33

    “And in spite of all of this, I STILL believe I had great net opportunities because I’m white, and came from a wealthy Western country.”

    If you believed that, why don’t you want to preserve it?

  26. Gravatar of Michael Sandifer Michael Sandifer
    5. August 2019 at 04:56

    What makes you think white privilege needs preserving, or should be desirable to preserve? You don’t trust the meritocracy of markets?

    No wonder so many racists are anti-free market. They would use the law to restrict access for those who are different than them and assume pretty everyone else thinks the same way. Most of us don’t.

  27. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    5. August 2019 at 05:36

    Harding,

    “If you believed that, why don’t you want to preserve it?”

    I could say, out of a sense of fairness, I could say, because I want to be judged based on facts and not based on prejudice, even if it helps me occasionally. But importantly, unfounded privilege also end up drawing, necessarily, the associated hate. In the end, if white people are being stereotyped, in a good or a bad way, I end up paying for it, the same way as any other group being stereotyped pays for it. All it takes is having an undeserving white fellow receiving unwarranted advance laurels and then not delivering. And we all know that there are plenty out there like that.

  28. Gravatar of LC LC
    5. August 2019 at 07:31

    Not sure Scott intended for discussions on this post to veer toward race, but there is something that I have observed while traveling in US that doesn’t seem to get sufficient coverage. I am referring to the homeless epidemic in American cities and the majority of the homeless I see are white. They are camping out under freeways, sleeping on public transit benches and go through garbage cans in search of left over food and drink. They are various age groups, going from young 20s to people in their 60s or 70s (my estimate). It’s hard to imagine in a country this wealthy that we are seeing this kind of poverty. This might be part of the puzzle on the upsurge of white nationalism and might explain some of the insecurity some white people are feeling. Interestingly, AFAIK, neither Trump nor his cohorts talk about this problem and the need to solve this problem. Media coverage tend to focus on the whole homeless issue but gloss over the constituents of homeless population. Has anyone else in US observed the same phenomenon?

  29. Gravatar of George George
    5. August 2019 at 08:34

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/274528/media-not-interested-47-people-shot-chicago-over-daniel-greenfield

    Because these shootings do not fit the MSM’s “white supremacy” narrative that they are desperately trying to pin on Trump after the Russia Collusion hoax was a bust.

  30. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    5. August 2019 at 08:40

    Steve, You said:

    “Well you are half right.”

    Based on the information you provided it looks like I was 100% right. Doesn’t it?

    LC, When I go to Paris or London or Rome I see homeless people all over the place.

  31. Gravatar of George George
    5. August 2019 at 08:51

    https://i.imgur.com/UP9aGu2.jpg

    Dayton, Ohio shooter was trained by ANTIFA.

    Just like the Portland shooter.

    Leftist violence is real. MSM trying to blame Trump for these socialists’ evils.

    They never blamed Obama for his hate speech that encouraged similar acts of violence.

  32. Gravatar of George George
    5. August 2019 at 08:54

    Does Biden not know where he is, or did he get his false flag locations all mixed up in the communications?

    https://twitter.com/SecretsBedard/status/1158323464664756224

  33. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    5. August 2019 at 16:14

    What makes you think white privilege needs preserving, or should be desirable to preserve?

    The country was built on it.

    You don’t trust the meritocracy of markets?

    Not in the least bit. The aristocracy of money leads the worst to rise to the top.

    who are different than them

    Glad you admit the reality of the difference.

  34. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    5. August 2019 at 17:06

    Michael Sandifer,

    “What makes you think white privilege needs preserving, or should be desirable to preserve? You don’t trust the meritocracy of markets?

    No wonder so many racists are anti-free market. ”

    Spot on. This goes way back to Thomas Carlyle. Read and weep:
    https://www.econlib.org/archives/2015/07/the_origins_of_1.html

    Excerpt: “It was this fact–that economics assumed that people were basically all the same, and thus all entitled to liberty–that led Carlyle to label economics “the dismal science.””
    Racists, socialists, what have you, hate the markets because they don’t produce the end results that they desire, i.e. static, structured societies that don’t change socially. Popper called them the enemies of open societies, societies that do allow social and economic evolution.

  35. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    6. August 2019 at 13:06

    @mbka

    No sane person thinks all people are basically the same. The reason Carlyle called economics “the dismal science” was because economists (according to him) would support mass immigration to the Caribbean over slavery in order to resolve labor shortages, which would, he thought, have resulted in a Malthusian “Black Ireland”. Do not read summaries of Carlyle; read Carlyle. He was smarter than us. Also, people are not basically the same; that is obvious just by looking at racial gaps within societies. And, as Gregory Clark proved in 1987, societies aren’t the same in terms of labor discipline, either.

    Popper called them the enemies of open societies, societies that do allow social and economic evolution.

    Quit being dumb. The only society in history that didn’t allow social evolution was pre-British India.

  36. Gravatar of mbka mbka
    6. August 2019 at 20:03

    Harding,

    I never claimed that people are all the same. Quite the contrary, our individual differences are more important than any “average” differences between ethnicities you may dig up.

    But all of this is besides the point – you may believe what you want about races or differences between people. Fact of the matter is that personhood, human rights, and civil rights, are conferred based upon being a human, as simple as that, in pretty much any contemporary society. We don’t ask anymore for ethnicity, gender/sex, belonging to special families, or a specific SAT score before conferring equality before the law. This is progress. This means, you have the same rights, and results in your life are now upon you, not upon your origin. And this is what an open society should mean.

    Note, the one factor that makes rights still different is the color of your passport. Having the wrong passport routinely means that people are prevented from escaping harm, or seeking better lives, because many specific rights are still passport dependent. Imagine having the wrong passport and now being condemned to die at the hands of some evil people, and this passport preventing you to move to a safer place. This is the reality for hundreds of millions of people on this planet today – passport based serfdom. This is why true libertarians support liberal immigration policies (very few people support immigration w/o any due process btw).

    Re: Carlyle opposing “economists (according to him) would support mass immigration to the Caribbean over slavery in order to resolve labor shortages” – sounds bad enough to me.

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