Is white supremacy a thing of the past?

[Asparagus]

My assumption has been that white supremacy/neo-nazism will rise again at some point in the future. But I'm questioning that. Could it be that it's a thing of the past, declining along with the declining population of white people in the world?

If it is dead and buried, then what might take its place? I ask that because I think historically (in the USA), it has been a reaction to stress and a sense of doom. IOW: fascist.

What's your outlook?

[Watson]

It is alive and thriving. Especially since it got a foot in the White House. It's been in the news.

[Serpent]

It's a thing from the past that refuses to die. The zombie insurgency, if you like.

[wolfhnd]

Nope but then again the Official Chinese position is that they are not from the same out of AFrica lineage as the rest of humanity. I would say Chinese racism is way more dangerous than the white nationalism movement but that doesn't mean we should not keep an eye on both.

[Serpent]

What's dangerous to you depends on where you live.

[wolfhnd]

What's dangerous to you depends on where you live.

What isn't important to you is often a matter of what information you have reviewed.

[doogles]

A frame-worthy truism Wolfhnd.

[TheVat]

WS seems to reflect a sort of dark nostalgia, in some areas of the more rural US especially, for what was a northern European dominated culture that represented a white Protestant ethos. In its essence, white supremacy opposes a modern pluralistic society. It is attractive to angry young people who can't cope in some way with the nation that we are now, and need an Other at which they can direct their anger. They are easy prey for charismatic leaders who promise some kind of restoration of white exceptionalism and privilege. We will have some form of WS to deal with so long as we fail to educate on critical thinking skills and history.

[Asparagus]

@BIV You're close to describing the beginning of Jim Crow in the 1890s. My question about the rise of WS is: could that happen again? The WS creed was that blacks were corrosive to white culture. They were dangerous. The MS-13 attention has the potential to be used in that way.

[Serpent]

It can always happen again - especially since the racial issue has never been settled: it's always been in the interest of some factions to foment conflict and suspicion. For many Americans, it's a question of regaining a lost privilege; for a few powerful families, it's merely a question of retaining what they never gave up.
These young men are easy to recruit: they feel redundant and unworthy. They need someone to feel superior to - in a way that doesn't require any skill or virtue or merit that they're too lazy and ignorant to attain.
It's not just the white supremacists, either. It's all the men who are divested of status - by technology, by their bosses, by their inability to compete with even cheaper labour from abroad, by poor education and global change - by economic fores they don't understand and, as good and faithful capitalists, can't blame. They need somebody to blame.
"Down with...!" is so much easier than "Let's build".

[-1-]

Nearly everyone detests and hates White supremacy yet everyone adored the "Bourne Supremacy".

Jason Bourne was bourne white.

So there is a lot of latent supremacy in the back of our minds. White, black, yellow, don't matter. Heck, Jewish people have a supremacy issue, and so do the Germans, the Japanese, the Albanians, the Arizonians, the Appalachians, etc. etc. all the way down to the Zimbabweans.

I think it's a "me" thing. To feel special, we are equipped with a self-sense, and from that easily we can transfer the importance to the race we belong to.

[BadgerJelly]

White supremacy is a thing of the past. That doesn’t mean its deluded cries don’t still echo through time.

If it was a “me” thing then the group identity nonsense wouldn’t matter. It is the lack of “self-sense” that drives people to form up in ranked groups be they based on eye colour, hair length or any other immediate nonsense for personal comfort over personal discovery.

Sadly, we’re all part neurotic and in youth we’re prone to look for quick fix solution rather than a long term view. Some how humans are still going strong so over all we’ve done something right :)

I think what you’re referring to above is more like tribalism. I do find it peculiar how the staunch patriot will mock the religious man whilst declaring they’re willing to die for their countries flag - the irony would be amusing if it wasn’t so often horrific in how it played out.

[wolfhnd]

I would like to know how many white supremacists there are but maybe it doesn't matter.

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/03/ ... us/555689/

Too many but not enough to significantly influence the political process. The other answer is nobody knows. I personally know one and I have lived in some pretty bigoted places. Even if we assume the estimates are underestimated by a factor of 10 not sure they deserve the attention they get. The number of racists I suspect is much higher and includes people from all races.

[Serpent]

Too many but not enough to significantly influence the political process.

That depends on whom they know and who sponsors them, doesn't it?

The other answer is nobody knows.

I believe that's true. Not only do we not know the numbers, we don't know their placement, affiliations and influence.

The number of racists I suspect is much higher and includes people from all races.

True... but being racist in private is quite different from being active in a racist organization.

[wolfhnd]

Too many but not enough to significantly influence the political process.

That depends on whom they know and who sponsors them, doesn't it?

The other answer is nobody knows.

I believe that's true. Not only do we not know the numbers, we don't know their placement, affiliations and influence.

The number of racists I suspect is much higher and includes people from all races.

True... but being racist in private is quite different from being active in a racist organization.

Just out of curiosity how many do you know personally?

[Serpent]

Just out of curiosity how many do you know personally?

Zero. But that doesn't indicate very much in a disagreeable old codger, living in the boonies, with two friends and maybe a dozen people with whom I converse occasionally but don't know well. Even if I met some, I wouldn't cultivate their acquaintance.