You didn't really expect me to let this one lie, did you? Mr. Obama seemed interested in thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Jean-Paul Sartre, whom he studied in a political thought class in his sophomore year. From the...
You didn't really expect me to let this one lie, did you?
Mr. Obama seemed interested in thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Jean-Paul Sartre, whom he studied in a political thought class in his sophomore year.
From the New York Times piece on how Obama didn't really get high as often as he made it sound like he did in Dreams of My Father.
I'm surprised this hasn't become a bigger issue in the campaign. Just check out the attack ad the Kantians have made attacking Nietzsche:
In some ways Obama has a similar message that you do in that he places an emphasis on "positive" rheteric. Conservatives like Obama in part because he doesn't rub the topic of race in their faces like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpin have done in the past. Could it be that many white people vote for Obama because it makes them feel good about their unconscious racism? If this is the case then perhaps the guilt trips imposed by African Americans like Jackson and Sharpton have actually worked. Switch the word "black" with "environmentalist" and you'll get my point.
Posted by: Richard Heger
at February 21, 2008 2:46 AM
Richard you write:
Could it be that many white people vote for Obama because it makes them feel good about their unconscious racism? If this is the case then perhaps the guilt trips imposed by African Americans like Jackson and Sharpton have actually worked.
There are many reasons unconscious and conscious that people are voting for Obama. Hard to say how much race has to do with it. But it would seem to me that Obama's successful run is evidence that his largely race-free appeals are more successful than "the guilt trips imposed by Jackson and Sharpton."
Posted by: Michael Shellenberger
at February 21, 2008 7:52 PM
Guilt trips imposed by Jackson and Sharpton may be unsuccessful as far as their bid for a political office goes, but guilt trips, whether imposed by Jackson, Hollywood, or the educational system, would help an outwardly race-free canidate like Obama because voting for him would serve as "proof" to the voter that he himself is not a racist and would make him feel good without caving in to his despised attackers who have accused him of racism.
Posted by: Richard Heger
at February 22, 2008 12:26 AM
In some ways Obama has a similar message that you do in that he places an emphasis on "positive" rheteric. Conservatives like Obama in part because he doesn't rub the topic of race in their faces like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpin have done in the past. Could it be that many white people vote for Obama because it makes them feel good about their unconscious racism? If this is the case then perhaps the guilt trips imposed by African Americans like Jackson and Sharpton have actually worked. Switch the word "black" with "environmentalist" and you'll get my point.
Posted by: Richard Heger at February 21, 2008 2:46 AM