Here’s a repost from a few years back. I don’t think I’d agree with everything in it anymore and there are a few problems with the writing I’d probably change today, but I still like the gist of it.
Edit for clarification: There was a lot of pro-liberalism which I forgot about being in this post; that would be among the stuff I don’t agree with anymore and is an artifact of my libertarianism from that time. I only skimmed this when reposting (I posted it last minute after forgetting it was posting day) and forgot exactly how much libertarianism was in this and how much my political views have changed since then. It also seems I was less aware of the dangers of pathological altruism back then. It’s also interesting how bad my writing was back then (maybe it still is). By the gist I do like I was referring to specifically to not being ashamed of the privileges our ancestors blessed us with, which is the key point; that part I still agree with. As for the rest; take with a grain of salt, enjoy it as a snapshot of my change. Anyway, from now on I’m going to have to check these reposts more carefully.
So, this post on white male privilege by some sci-fi author has been making the rounds.
If you’ve ever spent time in the race-baiting and/or liberal weenie area of the blogosphere, you’ve probably heard the term white privilege before; it essentially it means that whites (and males) have inherent social advantages over others (minorities and females) that they don’t notice.
The post provides a fairly good analogy of the concept, and the author mostly avoids the moral superiority, butthurt, and male-shaming/white guilt that invariably accompanies liberal’s discussion of privilege. He doesn’t sound at all like the smarmy, self-hating, morally superior Tim Wise.
Now, among the right, conservatives, the manosphere, etc., the concept of white male privilege usually doesn’t gain much traction, and for quite a while it didn’t for me either; but after reading about it some, I’ve decided that I’ve got to go against the grain of my ideological brethren on this topic.
White privilege probably does exist; so to male privilege.
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Immediately, many reading those will protest: what of affirmative action, what of political correctness, what of family court, what of chivalry, and so on and so forth. Sure, there are many number of things that are against males.
In fact, I’ll go further and say that most codified discrimination that still exists in Western society, is either anti-white (occasionally anti-Asian) and/or anti-male. Codified discrimination against minorities and women has been almost entirely eliminated.
But that’s irrelevant to the concept, as white male privilege goes beyond that.
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So, why do I accept this concept?
I’ll start with male privilege. Yes, females have some advantages over males: family court advantages, being the sexual gate-keeper, chivalry, less chance of prison, etc.
On the other males have so many more social advantages; I’ll just list what I think is the big one:
Unless I go to jail, I really never have to worry about rape. In fact, I almost never worry about my physical safety in relation to other people.
From what I understand, women keep their physical safety in mind quite a bit.
As for white privilege, the big one is this:
White is “normal”, other races are not. If someone describes me it’s based on height or hair colour or some other characteristic. When someone describes a minority to me, race is the first descriptor. In addition, there are no racial expectations placed on me either for bad or good; I never have to think about how I reflect on my race.
There’s more, but you can look elsewhere, this page is not a justification for the concept of privilege. All that’s necessary for my actual point is that I accept the concept of white male privilege.
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If you doubt the concept of white male privilege honestly consider this:
Would you trade being male for being female if given the choice?
Would you trade being white for being a NAM if given the choice?
Probably not. You know it’s awesome being a white male.
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Side note.
Don’t act like white males are victims, even if you don’t buy the concept of white privilege. I hate that.
Sure, some there may be some injustices (ie. family court) and these should be fixed, but creating white males as a victim class to rival other victim classes in being victims is just pathetic.
I disdain when feminist activists act like women are victims and I disdain when racial activists act like victims.
Life’s not fair. Deal with it.
You will eat shit; stop pretending that the shit you eat is worse than others’ shit, and because it’s worse it somehow makes you a better person or more deserving. It doesn’t.
Acting the victim only makes you weak and pathetic.
End side note.
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Of course, white male privilege is not the only privilege there is.
The single greatest social privilege any person can have is parent’s who speak English. Oral and written English is the most useful skill any person in this globalized (ie. anglicized) world can have.
There’s the privilege of being born in North America in the 20th century. The most prosperous and safest civilization of all time.
Not being born a disabled is a great privilege.
Everybody has a wealth of privileges they don’t notice and aren’t grateful for.
As P.J. O’Rourke said to his daughter: “Honey, you’re cute. That’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That’s not fair. You were born in America. That’s not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don’t start getting fair for you.”
The focus on white male privilege, and white male privilege alone, is sometimes silly. Rarely do I see the other privileges (except maybe wealth) talked about. That’s besides my main point though. I just wanted to point out that you have other privileges that you may not be aware of.
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Now, here’s the part where most of those talking about the concept of privilege try to make you feel guilty for having privilege and try to turn you into some bleeding-heart idiot.
I’m not going to do that, because I’m not an emotionalizing liberal; I’m an analytical, cold-hearted conservative.
Instead, I’m going to explain why white male privilege exists.
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Why does it exist?
Simple: White male privilege exists because white males built the greatest civilization in the history of the world.
In particular, the people of a small island off the coast of Europe created and molded the modern world. The Germans, Italians, French, Russians, and Spaniards had some influence, but English liberalism (not modern progressivist liberalism, but Lockian liberalism and Burkian liberal-conservatism) is the basis for all the greatness of modern society.
English liberalism led to the creation of universal freedoms; allowing people to go about their personal and economic business free from worries of arbitrary exercises of power by those with power.
English liberalism championed and created the ideological basis for the free market, the single greatest engine of economic production ever conceived by man.
English common law created a system of justice where the rule of law prevailed, process was paramount, all were protected equally, and where state power was checked by law.
The protestant work ethic and individualist values prepared the English individuals to drive the above.
British heterogeneity in language, race, religion, and political culture created an English culture used to absorbing the best of other cultures.
Given these strengths, English civilization became the preeminent civilization for the last four centuries. (The USA is a part of English civilization).
All it’s real rivals, until the current rise of China, were other white European civilizations who shared some values with Englishmen. (No, the Japanese, Muslims, and Ottomans were never/are not a real threat to English civilization’s preeminence).
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This great civilization was created by Englishmen for Englishmen (and their families); through their blood, sweat, and tears.
Englishmen fought numerous wars against the continentals to keep themselves free and to spread English values.
Rightly or wrongly, Englishmen fought overseas to acquire territory and resources for Englishmen and to spread English values.
The English economic engine was built on the toil, risk, and ideas of Englishmen.
English political culture and law was created and protected by Englishmen.
By doing so, Englishmen created the civilization we currently live in. It is also the richest, most powerful civilization in the history of the world.
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White, male privilege exists because of this: English civilization was created for Englishmen by Englishmen.
Every liberal writer on privilege ignores this, but it is essential to understanding.
Why should white males feel guilty for enjoying the privileges their forefathers created for them?
Do not white males have the right to enjoy the civilization they created for themselves?
(You may be asking yourself right now, aren’t I conflating Englishmen and white males? Just wait, I’ll explain.)
White males absolutely have every right to enjoy the privileges they have created for themselves.
We owe nothing to no one.
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So, what did the English do, having created this unprecedentedly wealthy, free, and powerful civilization?
They shared it.
Think about that. Englishmen created a civilization with power beyond anything the world has seen, but instead of doing what almost every civilization in history would do, they shared it.
They invited their conquered to join their prosperity. They shared their freedom with their slaves.
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What do you mean they shared it? That’s not what I learned in school.
First, they gave it to non-English Europeans: the Irish, Scots, Germans, Norse, etc. Other than French Quebec, they have been fully assimilated. We allowed them into our country and they adopted English values. They hold to English law, English individualism, English liberty, and identify as English (ie. American, a subset of English). In North America, specific types of European blood don’t matter very much. (As an aside: some interesting maps that may illustrate what I mean). They are all honorary English. Europeans of ethnicities have come to positions of power.
I don’t have a drop of English blood in me, but I am English to the core.
Englishmen gave it to women. They gave the benefits of English civilization to women through the family and mores of chivalry. Then they were extended the vote. Then they were giver more rights and privileges through feminism, affirmative action, the welfare state, etc.
The blacks were fucked over by Englishmen who had them as slaves, yes. (Although, not as much as by other Africans who enslaved them in the first place, but that’s neither here nor there).
But, then Englishmen fought a war to free them. Who else, other than Englishmen and a couple of other English-influenced European countries have freed their own slaves en masse out of morality? Who else other than English civilization fought a bloody civil war to free another group from slavery due to compassion? Then, decades later Englishmen allowed their ex-slaves full legal access to politics and economics. They created affirmative action and the welfare state to redress past wrongs. Until today, where the Englishman’s ex-slaves are in a far better position than they would have been had they never been enslaved in the first place.
Others, such as Asians, Jews, Latinos, etc. all had a similar process where we allowed them to share in what Englishmen have built.
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Now, these happened over long time-scales yes, and there were abuses by Englishmen, yes.
But how many civilizations, other than Englishmen (and some English influenced European countries) , have willingly and freely given power, wealth, and freedom to ex-slaves, conquered peoples, immigrants, etc.?
The American welfare state is a program for the mass transfer of wealth from Englishmen to everybody else, put into place by Englishmen. Other than Englishmen, who else has created an political-economic system where they willingly transfer vast amounts of wealth from themselves to others?
By the standards of power politics, Englishmen have been downright generous.
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The more Englishmen shared, the more entitled others became.
Rather than being thankful we allowed others into the prosperity and freedom we built, they demonized us as oppressors.
They demanded more, so we gave them more. Rather than gratefulness, all we earned were more demands.
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Now, you might think to yourself, didn’t others help create English civilization? What about black slaves? What about the Chinese railroad workers? What of Gurkhas? What about English women?
Yes, they did. Black slaves helped build the Southern economy. Chinese immigrants did help build the railroads. Gurkhas, Sikhs, and other such “warrior races” helped expand and defend English territory.
But so what?
These are all exceptions. The vast majority of the blood, sweat, and tears expended building this civilization was that of the Englishman. This no more invalidates what I have wrote, than the average white male not having an easy life invalidates the concept of white privilege.
As for Englishwomen, they helped preserve English culture and pass it on to the next generation. In the main, they did not build it. This is not to invalidate the importance of preservation and transmission, they are essential, but they are different.
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So, next time some emasculated liberal, rabid feminist, or race-baiter starts going on about white privilege this, male privilege that, just put on a smug smile and tell him/her:
Damn right we have privilege and we Englishmen earned every last bit of it. Instead of whining about it, how about some gratitude? We created unimaginable wealth, unprecedented freedom, and a fair legal and political system for ourselves. We created all this, then we willingly allowed you to partake in it. Stop whining about a couple small advantages we still have for creating all this and enjoy what we gave you instead.
Do not let them make you feel white guilt. Do not let them make you feel shame.
You’re privileged. That’s awesome. Enjoy it.
