“Social justice ideologues don’t like to ponder vices and vicious behavior among “the marginalized”.”
Can you post anything even mildly critical of black culture without being smeared as a racist?
What the fuck, here goes anyway.
It’s far past time for society to quit pandering to the black community and to demand that it take the lead in correcting the problems that the black underclass faces. Here are a few suggestions.
There is a systematic lack of respect for education within the black community. Tolerance of disruptive students by black school administrators and lack of effective discipline hinders learning in many black majority schools, stifling students’ potential achievement. The simple answer is to expel repeat offenders so that those who desire to learn can learn.
There is a casual acceptance of criminal behavior within many parts of the black community that results in a failure to cooperate with police in solving crimes. Until this is reversed there will be zero economic development within areas where they live.
Finally, someone must find a way to make black fathers love and care for their children and especially their boy children. Young black men (15-34) are just 2% of the population and commit about half of the nation’s homicides. A rate fifty times higher than the average American. The lack of a father’s involvement in raising their sons is at the heart of this problem yet no one acknowledges it and seeks answers to it. Where the hell are the middle and upper class blacks (and especially black politicians) who even publicly acknowledge this problem?
One, people suck because pretty much everyone is the hero (protagonist) of their own movie (of their life). Few people ask themselves "Am I the bad guy?" And even the ones that do usually rationalize or compartmentalize their bad behavior. Most people, even bad ones, look in the mirror and tell themselves that they're a Good Person™, and then of course they can justify anything, because they're a Good Person™ and how could they possibly be doing bad things? My attempt to solve this is to try to ask myself how I could do better, and the belief that no actual good person will ever tell themselves they're a Good Person™ and will likely be even harder on themselves than anyone else.
Two, poverty rewires the brain. They've done studies on it. It makes people more impulsive and short-sighted. They're in a "survival" and "right now" mindset, all the time. This is a huge reason why welfare didn't really work much even when wages were better. A welfare check treats the symptom, rather than the disease. But good luck getting a faceless bureaucracy to get people to train their brains to think better. Or even to get them to WANT to change because even people (especially people?) who suck often don't even WANT to change. And you can't change someone who doesn't want to. At least, not to your exact specifications; you're probably more likely to piss them off and make them even more embittered, vengeful, and self-justifying than ever before.
Three, the progressive mindset is that the "enlightened experts" will govern society precisely because people DO suck and are too stupid to think for themselves. Except they overlook that their bureaucracy has no real mechanism to correct its own flaws or wrongdoing. The bureaucracy becomes a magnet for corrupt sociopaths to wield the ultimate power over others that they desperately crave. It never fixes anything, it never admits wrongdoing, it just grows on society like a cancer, until it is either excised or the "patient" (the country) dies or goes into a coma. I think "Who watches the watchers" sums this up and while it's a little cliche, it's nonetheless true. The existence of giant superweapons attracts mostly terrible people. Good people wouldn't even WANT to be responsible for wielding giant superweapons, because deep down, they know nobody should, and it's deeply upsetting to them. So is the alternative, of course, but our society is designed so that basically any truly good person running for any office beyond one in a small town is going to get absolutely crucified and disillusioned VERY quickly.
On all of these, I confess I see few actual solutions, but I think I'm at least identifying the problem closer to accurately than I did when I was younger. It's a bit rough to admit these things as a "systems" type guy (for work, I generate stuff that WORKS right and does what it SHOULD, and have for decades) -- that all the systems across the entire ideological spectrum actually aren't capable of fixing much of anything. You need the right people, and those are becoming rarer every day.
Ideologies are definitely capable of BREAKING stuff, though!
You take it for granted that most people in prison deserve it. Let's assume for the sake of argument that this is true. How do you explain the United States having a substantially higher prison population than the rest of the world, as well as a higher crime rate? If the core problem is just that people suck, this doesn't make any sense. Do Americans just suck that much more than everyone else? The only other explanation I can think of is that there must be some greater systemic issue, but your essay largely seems to dismiss such an explanation out of hand.
Firstly, I don’t think I said that prisoners deserve to be in prison. I think I said that prisoners are in jail because of their actions/decisions.
The high crime rate of the US has absolutely nothing to do with this. If a country has a high crime rate and a (halfway) effective criminal justice then you would expect to see what you see in the US: high levels of crime (especially violent crime) AND a large prison population.
Of course there are systemic factors. There always are with such issues, and their effects are massive. We could write thousands of words about that back and forth but the principle claim of this essay is that those systemic factors don’t outweigh or erase the agency of individuals. I work for a prison nonprofit. I’ve been a criminal and I’ve been in jail and I can tell you with fair certainty that > 90% of the people there are criminals. Even if they didn’t commit the crime for which they were convicted they committed 1000 others. They were associating with criminals and doing criminal things. They knew the risks and took them. The other large cohort is the mentally ill, which is a totally different dynamic as far as agency but even they have choices and bear responsibility.
If you understand that criminals are rarely just victims of systemic factors and are, instead, free agents who made bad choices you’ll be able to help them a lot more, because you’ll be pushing for policies and reforms around them making better choices. You could rejigger every systemic variable to maximum efficacy (change sentencing, improve education, divert resources) but if people are choosing to commit crimes then it will have little effect on criminality. To change the fact that large numbers of Americans commit crimes it will take more than systemic reform. It will take a radical shift in cultural context, which is just a different way of saying it will require a transformation of values and beliefs and choices. There are poor and uneducated and marginalized people in the US who commit almost no crimes and there are rich ones who serially offend. Systemic variables will always be a tiny part of the picture. If you’re talking to a man who blames the system and society for where he is then 99/1 you’re talking to one who isn’t reformed. He’ll be back.
The United States has a far higher percentage of its population in prison than any other country in the world. You seem to be suggesting that other countries either have very little crime or that they have incompetent criminal justice systems. In the former case, this again begs the question- if people suck, why do they suck so much more in the United States? And in the latter case, a different question is begged. How are you defining competency? Just the ability to stock a prison full of people? That seems like an odd definition of competency to me, given that it doesn't actually seem to benefit anyone aside from private prison contractors.
I think you’re drawing the focus of this essay too narrowly. Yes, people in prison tend to be impulsive and addicted and antisocial… but people outside of prison have their own flaws and vices. Obesity? Hypocrisy? Cowardice? Laziness? We pretend as if these are minority qualities-rare flaws. In fact they are the majority. I do not think that some journalist working in DC necessarily sucks less than the man incarcerated in Texas. She probably just sucks in different ways.
Why is any of this worth noting? Because our discourse around social improvement tends to focus only on systemic and social variables, and very little on agency and initiative. Want to increase fiscal rectitude? Health? Professional competency? Community ties? Education? Start with the idea that individual choice and motivation is absolutely crucial.
The U.K. has a much lower imprisonment rate than the US, and they’re thinner. They’re also a cowardly people who are struggling to protect and perpetuate their nation. Labor productivity is atrocious. I could go around the world. Individual choice matters, and those choices are nested within cultures. Culture is a huge part of the equation. When was the last time you heard culture mentioned in connection with public policy.
Rates of imprisonment are totally irrelevant. They indicate certain flaws (on average). We’re no better out here. Just different.
OK, now let's count the dictatorships. Maybe those criminals aren't in prison. Maybe they're just flat-out dead. The recidivism rate for the death penalty is 0%, after all.
Northern Europe uses a reform-based system. Doesn't mean they don't have recidivists, they're just pushing people out.
Much of the world is not industrialized or under total surveillance like the west. Even in an ostensibly democratic African or South American country, there is a LOT of empty, unwatched space for crime to happen.
Some countries are flat-out corrupt and the criminal gangs run them (especially Mexico, but also other parts of South/Central America)
The USA's prison overcrowding is pretty much the War on Drugs with its insanely long mandatory minimums for minor infractions. The difference between the USA and some other zero-tolerance countries on drugs, say, Singapore or Russia, is that in the USA the criminals can get away with more for longer before they're caught. If someone has even a fairly small amount of drugs in the USA and can't turn evidence on a dealer, they'll usually get the massive sentence a dealer/distributor would get. Risk/reward is better in a more liberalized society, so the USA does generate (and manufacture) more criminals. Who's ever going to be dumb enough to f**k with someplace like China or Russia or Singapore unless they are EXTREMELY well connected?
A lot of people, apparently, since China, Russia, and Singapore all have lower average sentences for drug crimes than the United States. Russia doesn't even execute anyone for any crime anymore. Your argument seems to hinge on the idea that foreign prisons are so awful they represent a unique disincentive. A very odd argument to make, given that horror stories of life inside American prisons are quite easy to find in any context that doesn't involve directly comparing them to nebulous foreign entities.
“Social justice ideologues don’t like to ponder vices and vicious behavior among “the marginalized”.”
Can you post anything even mildly critical of black culture without being smeared as a racist?
What the fuck, here goes anyway.
It’s far past time for society to quit pandering to the black community and to demand that it take the lead in correcting the problems that the black underclass faces. Here are a few suggestions.
There is a systematic lack of respect for education within the black community. Tolerance of disruptive students by black school administrators and lack of effective discipline hinders learning in many black majority schools, stifling students’ potential achievement. The simple answer is to expel repeat offenders so that those who desire to learn can learn.
There is a casual acceptance of criminal behavior within many parts of the black community that results in a failure to cooperate with police in solving crimes. Until this is reversed there will be zero economic development within areas where they live.
Finally, someone must find a way to make black fathers love and care for their children and especially their boy children. Young black men (15-34) are just 2% of the population and commit about half of the nation’s homicides. A rate fifty times higher than the average American. The lack of a father’s involvement in raising their sons is at the heart of this problem yet no one acknowledges it and seeks answers to it. Where the hell are the middle and upper class blacks (and especially black politicians) who even publicly acknowledge this problem?
What are they waiting for?
🍞
Thanks buddy. Another one coming soon.
Excellent article, three things jump to mind:
One, people suck because pretty much everyone is the hero (protagonist) of their own movie (of their life). Few people ask themselves "Am I the bad guy?" And even the ones that do usually rationalize or compartmentalize their bad behavior. Most people, even bad ones, look in the mirror and tell themselves that they're a Good Person™, and then of course they can justify anything, because they're a Good Person™ and how could they possibly be doing bad things? My attempt to solve this is to try to ask myself how I could do better, and the belief that no actual good person will ever tell themselves they're a Good Person™ and will likely be even harder on themselves than anyone else.
Two, poverty rewires the brain. They've done studies on it. It makes people more impulsive and short-sighted. They're in a "survival" and "right now" mindset, all the time. This is a huge reason why welfare didn't really work much even when wages were better. A welfare check treats the symptom, rather than the disease. But good luck getting a faceless bureaucracy to get people to train their brains to think better. Or even to get them to WANT to change because even people (especially people?) who suck often don't even WANT to change. And you can't change someone who doesn't want to. At least, not to your exact specifications; you're probably more likely to piss them off and make them even more embittered, vengeful, and self-justifying than ever before.
Three, the progressive mindset is that the "enlightened experts" will govern society precisely because people DO suck and are too stupid to think for themselves. Except they overlook that their bureaucracy has no real mechanism to correct its own flaws or wrongdoing. The bureaucracy becomes a magnet for corrupt sociopaths to wield the ultimate power over others that they desperately crave. It never fixes anything, it never admits wrongdoing, it just grows on society like a cancer, until it is either excised or the "patient" (the country) dies or goes into a coma. I think "Who watches the watchers" sums this up and while it's a little cliche, it's nonetheless true. The existence of giant superweapons attracts mostly terrible people. Good people wouldn't even WANT to be responsible for wielding giant superweapons, because deep down, they know nobody should, and it's deeply upsetting to them. So is the alternative, of course, but our society is designed so that basically any truly good person running for any office beyond one in a small town is going to get absolutely crucified and disillusioned VERY quickly.
On all of these, I confess I see few actual solutions, but I think I'm at least identifying the problem closer to accurately than I did when I was younger. It's a bit rough to admit these things as a "systems" type guy (for work, I generate stuff that WORKS right and does what it SHOULD, and have for decades) -- that all the systems across the entire ideological spectrum actually aren't capable of fixing much of anything. You need the right people, and those are becoming rarer every day.
Ideologies are definitely capable of BREAKING stuff, though!
Great essay.
Some world views differ from others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd-lH8SihAs&ab_channel=ForbesBreakingNews
Thrilled to find your writing, so interesting, I'll be back to read the rest of your articles!
You take it for granted that most people in prison deserve it. Let's assume for the sake of argument that this is true. How do you explain the United States having a substantially higher prison population than the rest of the world, as well as a higher crime rate? If the core problem is just that people suck, this doesn't make any sense. Do Americans just suck that much more than everyone else? The only other explanation I can think of is that there must be some greater systemic issue, but your essay largely seems to dismiss such an explanation out of hand.
Firstly, I don’t think I said that prisoners deserve to be in prison. I think I said that prisoners are in jail because of their actions/decisions.
The high crime rate of the US has absolutely nothing to do with this. If a country has a high crime rate and a (halfway) effective criminal justice then you would expect to see what you see in the US: high levels of crime (especially violent crime) AND a large prison population.
Of course there are systemic factors. There always are with such issues, and their effects are massive. We could write thousands of words about that back and forth but the principle claim of this essay is that those systemic factors don’t outweigh or erase the agency of individuals. I work for a prison nonprofit. I’ve been a criminal and I’ve been in jail and I can tell you with fair certainty that > 90% of the people there are criminals. Even if they didn’t commit the crime for which they were convicted they committed 1000 others. They were associating with criminals and doing criminal things. They knew the risks and took them. The other large cohort is the mentally ill, which is a totally different dynamic as far as agency but even they have choices and bear responsibility.
If you understand that criminals are rarely just victims of systemic factors and are, instead, free agents who made bad choices you’ll be able to help them a lot more, because you’ll be pushing for policies and reforms around them making better choices. You could rejigger every systemic variable to maximum efficacy (change sentencing, improve education, divert resources) but if people are choosing to commit crimes then it will have little effect on criminality. To change the fact that large numbers of Americans commit crimes it will take more than systemic reform. It will take a radical shift in cultural context, which is just a different way of saying it will require a transformation of values and beliefs and choices. There are poor and uneducated and marginalized people in the US who commit almost no crimes and there are rich ones who serially offend. Systemic variables will always be a tiny part of the picture. If you’re talking to a man who blames the system and society for where he is then 99/1 you’re talking to one who isn’t reformed. He’ll be back.
The United States has a far higher percentage of its population in prison than any other country in the world. You seem to be suggesting that other countries either have very little crime or that they have incompetent criminal justice systems. In the former case, this again begs the question- if people suck, why do they suck so much more in the United States? And in the latter case, a different question is begged. How are you defining competency? Just the ability to stock a prison full of people? That seems like an odd definition of competency to me, given that it doesn't actually seem to benefit anyone aside from private prison contractors.
I think you’re drawing the focus of this essay too narrowly. Yes, people in prison tend to be impulsive and addicted and antisocial… but people outside of prison have their own flaws and vices. Obesity? Hypocrisy? Cowardice? Laziness? We pretend as if these are minority qualities-rare flaws. In fact they are the majority. I do not think that some journalist working in DC necessarily sucks less than the man incarcerated in Texas. She probably just sucks in different ways.
Why is any of this worth noting? Because our discourse around social improvement tends to focus only on systemic and social variables, and very little on agency and initiative. Want to increase fiscal rectitude? Health? Professional competency? Community ties? Education? Start with the idea that individual choice and motivation is absolutely crucial.
The U.K. has a much lower imprisonment rate than the US, and they’re thinner. They’re also a cowardly people who are struggling to protect and perpetuate their nation. Labor productivity is atrocious. I could go around the world. Individual choice matters, and those choices are nested within cultures. Culture is a huge part of the equation. When was the last time you heard culture mentioned in connection with public policy.
Rates of imprisonment are totally irrelevant. They indicate certain flaws (on average). We’re no better out here. Just different.
OK, now let's count the dictatorships. Maybe those criminals aren't in prison. Maybe they're just flat-out dead. The recidivism rate for the death penalty is 0%, after all.
Northern Europe uses a reform-based system. Doesn't mean they don't have recidivists, they're just pushing people out.
Much of the world is not industrialized or under total surveillance like the west. Even in an ostensibly democratic African or South American country, there is a LOT of empty, unwatched space for crime to happen.
Some countries are flat-out corrupt and the criminal gangs run them (especially Mexico, but also other parts of South/Central America)
The USA's prison overcrowding is pretty much the War on Drugs with its insanely long mandatory minimums for minor infractions. The difference between the USA and some other zero-tolerance countries on drugs, say, Singapore or Russia, is that in the USA the criminals can get away with more for longer before they're caught. If someone has even a fairly small amount of drugs in the USA and can't turn evidence on a dealer, they'll usually get the massive sentence a dealer/distributor would get. Risk/reward is better in a more liberalized society, so the USA does generate (and manufacture) more criminals. Who's ever going to be dumb enough to f**k with someplace like China or Russia or Singapore unless they are EXTREMELY well connected?
A lot of people, apparently, since China, Russia, and Singapore all have lower average sentences for drug crimes than the United States. Russia doesn't even execute anyone for any crime anymore. Your argument seems to hinge on the idea that foreign prisons are so awful they represent a unique disincentive. A very odd argument to make, given that horror stories of life inside American prisons are quite easy to find in any context that doesn't involve directly comparing them to nebulous foreign entities.