Conservative ideology is based in the belief white people are the true victims in American society
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Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities has been called “the quintessential novel of the 80s” in satirizing the racial and class politics of New York City during the era, which saw the city severely divided after multiple incidents where wConservative ideology is based in the belief white people are the true victims in American society
Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities has been called “the quintessential novel of the 80s” in satirizing the racial and class politics of New York City during the era, which saw the city severely divided after multiple incidents where white and black people had different perspectives about what was right and what was wrong. The novel, which depicts a clusterfuck of awful people using a car accident involving a wealthy, white bond trader and a young African-American in the Bronx to advance their various agendas, both hits upon ideas about white fears of being around black people and the exploitation of that racism for wealth and fame. Bonfire also reiterates similar themes present in a lot of Wolfe’s work as a journalist and writer, mainly the idea of appearing concerned about an issue while really using it for personal gratification. Wolfe coined the term “radical chic” after composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia hosted a fundraiser for the Black Panthers in the Bernsteins’ Park Avenue apartment, implying the assorted group of rich, white liberals cared more about looking “fashionable” in their association with Black Panthers than actually doing something about the underlying causes which created the group. Wolfe, who passed away last year, became more vocal in these conservative sentiments as he got older, stating in 2004 he supported George W. Bush because of “resentment” against a liberal elite who want to impose their “East-Coast pretensions” on the rest of society. Whether Wolfe’s writing or The Bonfire of the Vanities are worthy of the acclaim they’ve gotten over the years is a question I’ll leave for another time. But what I’ve found interesting is how the views surrounding the novel speak to the current mindset of conservatives and alt-right fascism about the impact of racism, progressive ideology, and objective truth. I’ve written in the past about how the most vocal Republican voters are presenting themselves as the true victims of American society. The essential nature of the past 50 years of the conservative movement is predicated on re-purposing white people as the victims of liberal agendas who need to be saved by Jesus and freedom to be made great again. The reason manufacturing jobs have disappeared is not mismanagement or corporate greed, but “libtard” regulations which care more about unions and spotted owls than «working people.» The problem with public schools or why one’s kid couldn’t get into a good college has nothing to do with shitty parenting or the subjective merits of the academic system, but Title IX taking Jr.’s football dreams away to give funds to little girls, and affirmative action and its “reverse-racism” against whites wrongly valuing diversity as a strength. And racism is bad, but liberals are just so “mean” for saying it. All of these are rationalizations for why it’s okay to be an asshole and not give a shit. This leads to people claiming all the sides suck and are out to fuck everyone, so why should anyone care about anything? And it all becomes a big joke. Because, if there’s anything conservative trash excels at, it’s the ability to devalue people into concepts and things, even when their value is self-evident, because we can rationalize being terrible to “things” with little to no moral consequence. This leads to some interesting observations about the current controversy surrounding actor/musician Jussie Smollet, and whether the alleged racist and homophobic attack against him by Trump supporters is actually a hoax. Read more