re: #6 cinesimon

Yeah I think before Obama’s election it was obvious there was a lot of vague pretending - and the use oof code words and ‘dog whistle’ stuff.
Now, though, it’s just become so overt. And the demarcation seems to me to have been the election of Obama and his first few months of office - that’s when I began to notice people had stopped trying to hide it.
They feel more empowered and know their particular communities will not hold them accountable for such un-American, anti-freedom, authoritarian beliefs and behavior. Because most of those they deal with, share the same ‘values’. With the advent of Fox and the further rise of hate radio, the fascists that are so loud on the right have empowered the ‘vague, pretending-to-be-a-modern-American’ lost causers to be much more vocal. But their actual feelings and beliefs haven’t changed of course.

Oh, I’m well aware. Perhaps I’m looking at this the wrong way. This could even be a good thing, relatively speaking, if it forces people to face up the massive amounts of racism still present in our culture, rather than pretending it’s not longer there because it’s wearing a fig leaf.

Then again, I worry that maybe it’s just the start of things getting worse again, with feelings coming more to the surface without generating much introspection. Bah, how many more generations before this all ends?