You knew this had to be coming. Matt Walsh, the know-nothing pundit who got mad attention for asking “what is a woman?” and insisting on a fundamental distinction between the sexes, all to justify his hatred of trans people, is airing a different idea now: white supremacy, white extinction theory, the whole kit-and-caboodle of racist Nazi dog whistles. He’s promoting Great Replacement Theory now.
There are really two parts of this story. The first is the story itself, which is the demographic trend where whites are trending towards extinction in the United States. Like, that’s the way it’s headed. And then the other part of the story is the veil of silence around this issue, the wall that is erected around it. And I know you’re gonna say, well, you just read a story about it. So it’s not a silence. They can report on it. So you report and you celebrate diversity, and then you just move on. We don’t talk about it. We don’t think much about it, and that’s it. You aren’t allowed to talk much about it. You certainly – you certainly can’t be concerned about it. You’re not allowed to express any concern. That’s unthinkable. To hear that whites are on their way to minority status and the white population is declining, the worst that you could possibly do is – to talk about it at all is already a problem, but to suggest that there’s any reason at all to be concerned about that, or to be anything less than thrilled by that development is incredibly racist, we’re told.
Notice how the first two thirds of that paragraph are to set up the idea that he’s being persecuted, that no one is allowed to say these stupid words, and how society is policing your thoughts. That’s essential to his strategy, that you consider that his claim is so obvious and strong that people need to censor it even before he makes it. He’s not even going to consider that his great idea is so stupid and indefensible that intelligent people are already tired of hearing it.
People who identify as white are declining in proportion to those who identify with other ethnicities. That’s it. That’s all that is happening. There is no extinction. No one is being “replaced.” It’s how biology works — our species reproduces by mingling DNA between pairs of individuals, so everyone is a hybrid of their parents. It’s also a product of arbitrary cultural biases: if a white person has a child with a non-white person, there is no more loss of identity than if they had a child with a white person, but because of bigoted attitudes, the child is considered non-white. So of course, by definition, the frequency of “pure” white children declines with every generation, even if there is no decline in the frequency of genes contributed by white people. It’s an invented problem with no basis in reality.
Walsh continues, still feeling the need to prefix his comments with the idea that he’s a brave truth-teller that people want to silence.
We know that it’s — like, it doesn’t even need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway because we all know that’s true. But we know that the continued existence of any other race of people is considered deeply important. And the preservation of the historical and traditional racial identity of any nation is considered deeply important. You know? So, for example, if there was an influx of white immigration to a historically Black country, and that was resulting in a giant demographic shift wherein it was becoming a predominantly white country rather than predominantly Black, this would be considered a major, major problem. And there’s no doubt about it. And yet, in the reverse, it is either neutral or cause for celebration. But really it should be a cause for celebration.
Uh, yes — the continued existence of people is important. I’d also add that preserving unique cultures is also valuable. That is not something to worry about here, because the American historical and traditional identity is not at risk, nor are any white individuals. The culture is thriving and expanding as more people contribute to it, which is what you expect of a healthy evolving population.
He seems to have confused what is happening in the US to colonialism, where an external culture invades, takes over, and works to eradicate the native population … you know, like white Europeans did to the native populations of the Americas. That’s what’s really at the root of his problem, though. He thinks that they will do to us what we did to them. Except that’s not applicable: there is no alien “they”. “They” is us. Immigrants are joining us, not conquering us. The white population is diminishing in relative frequency, not because “they” are murdering us, but because we’re happily having consensual sex with each other.
As usual, he then goes off with half-assed distortions of biology.
And you know what? This pertains even to the the animal kingdom. I mean — think if there’s a particular type of, I don’t know, hummingbird that’s going extinct. Even for that, we’re supposed to panic. And if I were to say, hey, whatever. I mean, what does it matter? We — so we don’t have that of hummingbird. We got plenty of other hummingbirds. What does it matter what type of hummingbird it is? What difference does it make? So, yeah, this type of hummingbird is — there’s more of that then there’s less of this. Like, who cares? If I say that, I’m callous because, no, it’s very important that we have all varieties of hummingbirds. Every variety is very, very important. We have to keep them all around. Every part, every animal in the animal kingdom, we gotta keep them all around. It’s extremely important. If any particular variety starts to dwindle, if any particular type of species of animal gets driven out of its territory, it’s a very bad thing. So, it’s interesting that we can see this with hummingbirds, but not with certain kinds of people — well, in particular, one kind of person, which would be white person. The preservation of the hummingbird community is more important than the preservation of the white race.
No. Just no. Race and species are not synonyms. The analogy falls apart from its onset, and is in fact an extremely common trope among racists. I won’t take it apart word by word because that job has already been done: read Human races are not like dog breeds: refuting a racist analogy by HL Norton et al. Here’s the abstract.
In 1956, evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane posed a question to anthropologists: “Are the biological differences between human groups comparable with those between groups of domestic animals such as greyhounds and bulldogs…?” It reads as if it were posted on social media today. The analogy comparing human races to dog breeds is not only widespread in history and pop culture, but also sounds like scientific justification for eschewing the social construction of race, or for holding racist beliefs about human nature. Here we answer Haldane’s question in an effort to improve the public understanding of human biological variation and “race”—two phenomena that are not synonymous. Speaking to everyone without expert levels of familiarity with this material, we investigate whether the dog breed analogy for human race stands up to biology. It does not. Groups of humans that are culturally labeled as “races” differ in population structure, genotype–phenotype relationships, and phenotypic diversity from breeds of dogs in unsurprising ways, given how artificial selection has shaped the evolution of dogs, not humans. Our demonstration complements the vast body of existing knowledge about how human “races” differ in fundamental sociocultural, historical, and political ways from categories of nonhuman animals. By the end of this paper, readers will understand how the assumption that human races are the same as dog breeds is a racist strategy for justifying social, political, and economic inequality.
Just the fact that Walsh brings this argument up is an indictment, biologists can tell you that it is rank bullshit. It’s old-fashioned garbage that I’d expect of Nazis or the KKK, but Walsh takes it for granted.
Once again, have you noticed how you don’t have to probe a transphobe very deeply before you uncover a Nazi?
Typical of today’s racist political party here in the US, they’re complaining that they’re being silenced, when, in fact, they’re upset with the pushback they receive for the words they freely offered. Walsh, and others, want immunity from their own hateful words and actions. Well, that isn’t going to happen, cupcake. Best get used to it.
I/we are white and if we were being persecuted, genocided, or disappearing, we would know it.
We aren’t.
I/we are white and if we owned and controlled the USA as the dominant race, we would know it.
And, we do mostly own and control the USA and we certainly do know it.
We have most of the money and most of the power.
Most elected officials are white.
Pew research: “Non-Hispanic White Americans account for 75% of voting members in the new Congress, considerably more than their 59% share of the U.S. population.”
Matt Walsh is simply a Nazi racist and an idiot.
These are self-made shits who know the “culture wars” have been lost, and they’re the bad guys who lost it.
What’s left? Burn down the nation, democracy, whatever they can (without personal risk – and while protected by the police if possible) rather than be embarrassed.
They have nothing, want nothing, can imagine nothing other than a momentary sense of empty triumph when they see any living thing that they can label as “against them” is harmed or killed, or something – anything not “theirs” – destroyed.
There’s nothing left to negotiate with, much less reason with. Look at the Supreme Court they’ve cheated into being. Look at every “Republican” leader. Look anywhere.
It’s a death cult and a murder cult, saved only because they are – more than generally – stupid, ignorant, cowardly, lazy.
They believe nothing they promote – this asshole CLEARLY doesn’t. But they feel “powerful” by lying and knowing they lie, pretending to laugh at anyone who actually has a life still human.
There’s nothing to be done, except oppose them – always and everywhere, being honest and not using violence. Certainly not “pre-emptively,” because there’s no need.
These are the worst people of all human history, because they have not one of the traditional excuses. They KNOW they’re shits.
OP: I couldn’t groan “JEEZ” any louder. I’m so tired of reruns.
raven @ #2 — Matt Walsh is also a con man using tired racist tropes to drum up attention, and probably, ultimately money. I’m 100% there’s money in his game somewhere.
We’ve been through this before and recently.
In the 1800s, the big fear was that the Germans and Irish would take over and replace the dominant English ethnic group, the WASPs, (White Anglo Saxon Protestants).
There were riots that killed dozens or hundreds of people and an anti-immigrant political party that came close to taking over the USA, the
GOPthe Know Nothing party.And they were right!!!
The Germans took over the USA and the English are disappearing.
Ethnic makeup of the USA today.
Germans 17% and the largest single ancestry ethnic group
Irish 9.5%
English 8.3%
The English aren’t even in second place any more.
While the English were overrrun, it made no difference and no one cares.
A huge number of people don’t even know that this happened.
A lot of this is because very few white Americans these days are pure anything.
Almost of us are mixes of various European backgrounds.
My friend is a proud Boston Irish aristocrat.
She rarely mentions that her mother is a WASP going back several centuries.
The same thing is happening to American whites today.
And the result will be the same.
We will all blend and mix together and no one is going to much care.
We need a new species name for Walsh, et. al. I propose Imbecilicus Conservitatus.
Oh, and please don’t call him a pundit. The correct term is pinhead. A real pundit (pandit) is an expert, not a charlatan. There are damn few real ones, and an infinite number of posers.
These right wingnut conpeople are so generic that I quickly forget which one said what.
You can call Matt Walsh a Nazi and an idiot and that isn’t wrong.
He is also a terrorist and a wannabe mass murderer.
He wants to kill thousands of health care workers with Trans people as patients.
No Matt, we aren’t going to kill thousands of valued professionals just because you have a sick mind.
It would be far easier to just put you on a plane to Russian or whatever hellhole will take you.
Walsh spills a lot of ink to say something that has been said before, and a lot more concise with only 14 words. It doesn’t seem like he’s added anything to that vile statement.
That beard give away the game.
While I’m not surprised he’s promoting white supremacy, I’m curious as to what motivated his pivot away from transphobia. Is he attempting capture some of Tucker Carlson’s audience?
The only race that matters to this fascist is the race to the bottom.
Presumably, that’s precisely what he has a problem with. After all, it’s quite difficult to get people to hate their own children. Much easier to get them to hate other people’s children.
raven@5:
I’m part English, part Irish, part Scottish, and part German. I argue with myself a lot.
The German branch is actually the one that has been in North America the longest, having arrived before the American Revolution during the rush of ‘poor Palatines’, basically Alsatians who didn’t want to live under a French king. Though they then fought on the British side of the American Revolution and moved north into what would later become Canada. (The Irish branch arrived during the Famines, the Scottish branch is harder to trace, and the English branch are the ‘new arrivals’ having only been here about three generations.)
PZ has been busy in the lab. He has invented a new type of magnetism that works on zinc. I bet it involves spider silk, or maybe venom.
Copper. Impressive.
I’m a little surprised Matt Walsh would so misunderstand what constitutes a species; after all, the concept of reproductive isolation seems like something he would be familiar with.
” Dees Boys is Masegenated”
Loved the movie and the song, links not working. Sorry.
I can’t find the graphic now, but someone once overlayed the quadrants of the well-known “Political Compass” chart with “cliched method of mass murder and genocide”:
Top Left (Authoritarian Left): Gulags
Top Right (Authoritirian Right): Death Camps
Bottom Right (Social liberal right (Libertarian)): Helicopter Rides
Bottom Left (Social liberal left): Consensual Sex
I may have posted this here before, but it bears repeating. Here’s an article about how we can’t even define “race” as a workable scientific concept:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-do-so-many-researchers-still-treat-race-as-a-scientific-concept?utm_source=pocket-newtab
British science journalist Angela Saini tells this story in her exceptional and damning book, “Superior: The Return of Race Science.” “Race was the entire premise upon which they were doing their research, but they were unable to tell her what it was,” writes Saini. “Their work instead seemed to rest upon a hope that if they just persisted, they would eventually come to find meaning in these categories. What they couldn’t yet define would then be defined. Somehow it would become real.”
In the 16 years since the anthropologist made her observations, scientists have still not found any meaningful biological definition of race…
It’s hardly surprising that Alex Jones, the well known conspiracy theorist who was recently court ordered to pay $1.5 billion, has recently joined Matt Walsh’s channel. Alex has repeatedly credited books from the “John Birch Society” for his early education, and frequently names specific wealthy people of Jewish heritage as being part of many of his conspiracies, as well as referring to them as a collective as “globalists”. Turds of a feather, I guess.
Well, Matt Walsh is definitely who one would point to if someone asks the trick question “what is a wanker?”
The hilarious (or not) thing these dim bulbs don’t realise, is that there has already been a “great replacement” – of indigenous, brownish people – and they are it.
Since the 16th century white people have replaced indigenous people throughout North America, Australia and New Zealand. Also to a lesser extent in South America and parts of Africa. Any current population changes are merely a re balancing.
The other “great replacement” was not so long ago, 7,000 years.
The last European population was blue eyed and dark skinned, probably the skin color being left over from our African ancestors who moved north.
They were replaced by:
Those hunter gathers were replaced by no one. They mixed in with the Eastern Hunter-gatherers and at least two groups of early European farmers from the middle east.
Human populations aren’t static.
They are always changing one way or another.
Humans move around and mix a lot and the populations are always changing.
This is good.
If it didn’t happen, we might still be pure bred, genetically similar flatworms.
Oh fuck, this bullshit again.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the 2000 census, which is where your bullshit comes from (emphases added):
There is absolutely no possibility that white Americans as a whole have more German or Irish than British ancestry: the statistics for immigration and population increase across the 19th century (when most German and Irish immigration happened) make this absolutely clear. And how many of those “German Americans” speak a word of German, eat German cuisine, play German music, follow German etiquette…
Hah, yeah. For years my family was laboring under the illusion that my father’s side was largely German — based entirely on the assumed ethnic origin of the names. “Myers” must be German, after all, since Meier is a common German name, and my paternal grandmother’s name was “Hurt”, and Hirt is German for herdsman. Total bollocks. Never trust folk etymology. I could have told them the spelling alone is a giveaway.
My father’s family is mostly English, as revealed by DNA testing, and traditional genealogy traces my ancestors back to the northeast of England, where “Myers” is a fairly common name. If we’d been asked 30 or 40 years ago, we would have been in that self-identified German American category.
Ha! We’re quite possibly related not that far back, PZ. My maternal grandmother, who lived most of her life in Middlesborough, was born Mary England Myers. (The “England” was from her own maternal grandmother’s surname, but she hated the Mary/Merrie England pun, so my mother had no middle name!) Mary’s father was a butcher and his father a farmer in Kirklevington.
… you don’t have to probe a transphobe very deeply before you uncover a Nazi…
I dunno ’bout that: seems more than a bit too binary to lump Rowling/Benson/Dawkins/et alia into that heap. I don’t think the majority of transphobes have passed the wherever-it-lies line into hardcore fascism (unlike Walsh) – but they do appear to continue trending in that direction…
…traditional genealogy traces my ancestors back to the northeast of England, where “Myers” is a fairly common name.
Yeah, but wasn’t that area heavily colonized by Germanic/Scandinavian/Viking people? So maybe you’re still German(ish) a few times removed.
What would actually be so terrible about white people being a minority anyway?
Raging Bee@29,
The last estimate I saw – ideas may have changed – is that the “Anglo-Saxon” invasion contributed about 3%-5%, genetically: an elite takeover rather than full-scale population replacement. The last one of those in Britain seems to have been the arrival of the “beaker folk”, probably bringing Indo-European languages, in the late 3rd millennium BCE (bloody foreigners, coming over here with their new-fangled beakers… oh, wait – that was my ancestors, so obviously perfectly entitled to take land that wasn’t being productively used…).
KG @31: I’ve never seen estimates anywhere near that low. And it’s hard to imagine how such a small group could come to dominate linguistically and culturally in such a short time. In other examples of Germanic tribes filling the power vacuum left by the Romans (Franks in Gaul, Visigoths in Iberia, etc), the invaders were assimilated fairly quickly, at least linguistically.
I’m in the middle of reading David Grann’s, “The Wager.” The crew is shipwrecked, diseased, cold, and starving. Natives, in their sea-craft, befriend the castaways. They bring food and knowledge. The food is readily accepted. The knowledge, not so much.
Their plight continues and I will read on.
Its nothing toactually worry about but even if it was there’s always the easy “fix” of redefining who counts as “white”a term that used to exclude Irish, Italians, Spanish, Slavs, etc. . still arguably excludes Jews -at least in some peiople’s minds – and today also exldues Hispanics. Add them to “white” and its non-problem solvered.
@ ^ Fixing the ratio of decent non-racist good human beings vs the racist people that actually think being “white” means something real is a whole other harder issue to remedy sadly.
Education and anti-racist actism and social change is going to very necessary and badly needed here.
I find it striking that the people who are afraid that their identified group would “become a minority” are also the ones who typically have the influence/power to make life bad for the current minorities.
It’s almost as if they’re afraid that once they’re in the minority, the same would happen to them. Like they’re afraid of some kind of societal revenge.
Still they seem to be unable to grok the obvious solution: build a society where being part of a minority has no adverse effects.
Anyone here remember the good ol’ days when “conservative intellectuals” had at least some veneer of decency and credibility?
I hope the early “leading lights” like George Will are fully aware, and fully ashamed, of how utterly vacuous and fraudulent their movement has proven to be.
Rob Grigjanis@32,
Thanks. At least one of my sources was Stephen Oppenheimer’s The Origins of the British, which gives a figure of 5%. But this book is older than I realised (2006, 2007), and I should have checked more recent studies, which as you say, put the figure a lot higher – around 25%-40% according to one study, and higher in the east than the west. There seems to have been a lot of “intermarriage”, which, given the even higher prevalence of Y-chromosome replacement presumably means the invading men and their male descendants impregnating local women, by force or otherwise. Still, some way short of the degree of replacement that seems to have happened twice in earlier times, first with the arrival of early Neolithic farmers, then that of the beaker-bearers.
That extract from Norton et al was really unhelpful. It made no point as far as I could tell.
Can someone use half as many words, make the point, in such a way that is clear to a non biologist.
KG @38: The Anglo-Saxon contribution is still much lower than had been assumed for a very long time. I wish I’d made a note of the source, but I remember reading some years ago that about a hundred years after the initial incursions, there were battles being fought in the West Country between Romanized Britons on one side, and Saxonized Britons on the other.
I dunno ’bout that: seems more than a bit too binary to lump Rowling/Benson/Dawkins/et alia into that heap.
The problem is, they’re lumping themselves, or letting themselves be led or manipulated, onto that heap — not just by their stupid transphobia itself, but also by allowing the ignorance and faulty logic that supports their transphobia, to end up also supporting other dead-wrong beliefs once it’s infiltrated their thinking. And once they’ve started to let down their reason-based defenses against one form of irrational bigotry, it’s harder for them to keep those defenses up against other forms of bigotry. (Case in point: Dawkins. You’d think a world-famous atheist author would at least be inclined to attack religious authoritarians for saying deranged false things about trans people — but I’ve never heard of him taking such a stand. Does he agree with the irrational religious bigots, or has he just decided he won’t call them out when they hate the same people he does?)
Many of the lies told about trans people had also previously been told (and are, in fact, still being told) about Jews and gays. Once you’ve adopted irrational bigoted beliefs about one group of people, and found ways to rationalize them, it’s very likely you’ll find yourself applying those beliefs and rationalizations to other groups.
Hm. I’ve made the comparison between breeds and races myself, but only to highlight that you need a pedigree to discern to which one belongs, that both are — in that regard — a construct.
I’ll go read that paper.
Matt Walsh is a regular subject at reddit.com/r/Persecutionfetish/