Memory lane is a fertile source of human folly. John Meacham, normally accorded the title of historian but actually more of a journalist, explained his endorsement of Joe Biden on MSNBC in August 2020 (see below). The segment is short (5 minutes) and therefore not one for making a detailed case. What he levels against Trump in essence are a series of grotesquely inflated and abreviated charges.
In his mind, the choice in the election is between good (Biden) and evil (Trump). Bear in mind, by August of 2020 when Meacham went before MSNBC’s cameras, the people of this country saw, at ground level, evil as it marched across their tv screens and on their way to work. The public were inundated with media-supercharged police/suspect confrontations, cities wrecked by gross lawlessness, and residents forced to confront feces, syringes, and massive homeless encampments on their way to school and work. And all of this as an epidemic rages and their kids were unlearning under ZOOM. So, where’s the “evil”? Is it really Trump, or is this thing that Meacham calls evil something he is aiding and abetting? The thought hit me one year into “good” winning.
I was immediately struck by his vague illusion to “white racism” in America. Yet, none of the cop incidents of 2020 can be traced to racist cops. So, when you can’t pinpoint personal racism, invent an impersonal one and call it “systemic”. Meacham purports to be a scholar, but he would sound more like he stepped back into the world of medieval alchemy if he bent a knee to this new wizardry.
No person schooled in rational thought can excusably accept a proposition (systemic racism, white supremacy, et al) that tramples over Karl Popper’s first rule scientific reasoning: falsifiability. It must be testable. Nothing in this blob of political sloganeering is even remotely survivable under the simplest cross-examination. Since Marx, lefties have tried to make their ideologies scientific and this latest generation is no different. They try to do it with “statistical disparities”. The words sound imposing but they’re as simple as aggregating people into racial groups and different stats pop out. They immediately jump to their favorite bogeyman – racism – for the differences without any sound basis. It’s the modern alchemy. Apparently, the revolution is more important than truth.
We are told that we must use racism to combat racism, a militant affirmative action. Sounds like, we must have sin to combat sin. Combat the murder of nuns with the murder of priests. The formulations are endless. In the end, we have dangerous streets, decaying schools, the treachery of Afghanistan, a war on our gas tanks, shortages and inflation, a filthy public square, and a life under powerful potentates. Meacham’s “good” didn’t turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Meacham peddled on us a doddering and compliant agent of far more evils to replace a braggart who got some things right.
I wonder how Meacham views his performance on August 20, 2020. I hope that he cleaned his foot before insertion.
RogerG