Tuesday, March 10, 2015

That Place I Live: Ethnocentrism, Nationalism, and You

Greetings again, from the dark and paranoid end of the internet I inhabit. My sister is hounding me to blog, so blog I shall. And that's "hound" in the good sense, twin. Like, friendly thwapping upside the head to get me motivated.

In other words, we're Irish.

Also, Ceiling Cat is on her side.
Moving on.

Normally, this is the part of the show where Facebook comes out and sings a silly song. However, in their infinite wisdom, the FB design team has added a lovely function to their algorithm that erases whatever I'm lookng at if I scroll. Buh. I swear, there are days I feel my paranoia is justified. Anywho.

I saw a photo on the Ragebooks of a typewritten thing. Predictably, it produced a rage boner, and equally predictably, it vanished as soon as I clicked on it.  I shall attempt to reproduce it from memory.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of Ameria, and to the Republc for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Kids used to recite this in school every morning, but now we don't for fear of offending someone. Repost this is you're a real American!"

I'm pretty certain I lost verisimilitude with that last line. My memory is awful. But really, the gist of it was "We don't say the pledge anymore! That un-Merican! Rah!"

"Why are you beng so lackdaisical about your sources!" gasps Schmoe. "You must support your claims!"

Well, Schmoe, the answer is simple: I'm not here to have a conversation about that post in particular, but about the nationalistic sentiments that inspired it and any of the thousands of "Real America" posts I've seen in the last year alone.

Let's break it down, shall we? Nationalism, is in essence, "fuck yeah that place I live!" It tends to be a bit crazy, especially since nationalistic feelings are often ethnocentric in origin.

Now, normally, this is where I refer to my good friend Merriam-Webster for a definition of ethnocentrism. Apparently, however, if you access Merriam-Webster from any non-desktop platform, you can no longer opt to see the web version, and must instead be relegated to i.word.com. My professors would jump for joy and refer me to the OED for a definition of "ethnocentrism":
  Tending to view the world from the perspective of one's own culture, sometimes with an assumption of superiority; limited as regards knowledge and appreciation of other cultures and communities. Also in neutral sense: aware of membership of an ethnic group, community, or culture.
Well, that's a far sight less useful than I'm used to working with. I mean, honestly, what's the point of a definition I can argue with using only the terms set forth within the definition as definitive? Oy.

Long story short, kiddies, and you can go back to Merriam-Webster on your own, ethnocentrism is commonly used to refer to either the idea that one's own culture is inherently superior, or the act, conscious or unconscious, of judging other cultures by the standards and mores of one's own culture.

Anywho. Synopsis at this point: "Real America(n)" posts express nationalistic sentiments that are often based on ethnocentrism. And yes, I find that offensive. Keep up.

Within a "Real America(n)" post, there's a few inherent assumptions, based on the ideologies I've postulated to be at their core:

1. That there is a definitive, single version of American values, against which any contrasting system may be considered flawed.

2. That "real Americans" are a universally homogenous group in which each member is identical to all other members across all meaningful standards.

3. That dissent from the aforementioned assumptions automatically makes a dissenting individual unAmerican.
3a. That by dissenting, and therefore being unAmerican, one's opinions are less valid.
3b. That a dissenter is unAmerican makes them suspect, and therefore their opinions are inherently destructive to assumptions 1 and 2. 
Starting to get a feel for why I dislike this shite so much?

Kicking these doors in one at a time:

1. That there is a definitive, single version of American values, against which any contrasting system may be considered flawed.

When was the last time you opened your door? Or turned on the news? No, not Fox, the news? If we had a single values system, none of that crazy arguing would be going on. We'd at least be headed in a single direction (even if it was toward our own destruction, it'd be a clear direction.) And politicians would spontaneously combust because they wouldn't be able to artificially divide individuals for their own gain.

Take, for example, my sister. Yes, you, twin. My sister's Ragebook feed is a constant stream of feminism.

Shuddup and siddown, I'm not done yet.

Constant stream of feminism, right. And what rapidly becomes clear when you're plugged into a datastream like that is that the world has a lot of problems. See, feminism (because apparently I'm having a definitive day) is about equality and respect for everyone. Which means that as soon as someone is being marginalized or disrespected, my sister has links, video, pictures, and thoughtful commentary about why that act of marginalization or disrespect is a load of Satan's babyjuice and the parties involved in perpetrating said act should be ashamed of themselves.

Point. I has one.

There cannot be a single "American" view of the world, precisely for the reasons my sister highlights over and over in her posts. We marginalize: half the species, anyone whose skin color is darker than Snooki's, anyone who believes in deity (or doesn't) differently than we do, anyone that has sex in a way that makes us twitch, anyone that presents differently in any way. And yes, I'm using the inclusive because I'm friggin' human and to be human is to be biased. As such, all of us have been marginalistic shitholes at some point.

First person to say "everybody does it makes it ok" gets a slap that starts in orbit and ends in the smoking, cratered rubble that will be memorialized as "the spot where the idiot was standing when the wrath of the Mad Blogger descended."

Anyway. By marginalizing all the views that don't match our own, we create a false majority. A majority that only exists because "none of those other people matter."

Since we'd like not to be marginalizing shitholes, once we take into account that there are other people we have to conclude that any "one true way" is simply an illusion.

2. That "real Americans" are a universally homogenous group in which each member is identical to all other members across all meaningful standards.

Now some of you are going, "well, gee, Uncle Jeremy, you rambled so much on the last point, didn't you pretty much answer this one?"

(Source.)
The first point assumes that there is one true way. While that's dumb, at least it has the value of being inclusive: you too can be a Real American if only you follow the One True Way.

The second point says that only Real Americans can be Real Americans. Let's clarify a bit of terminology to drive this one home.

Universally homogenous -
Completely the same without exception.
Meaningful standards -
Any measure of an individual which may potentially distinguish them from any other individual.
Got there yet? This assumption postulates that by claiming to be a "Real American" one automatically extends "realness" to all others who share one's race, religion, social class, values, and pickametric, while excluding anyone who doesn't share those qualities or support them as the true definition of "realness."

Basically, you can only be a "Real American" if you're just like me.

3. That dissent from the aforementioned assumptions automatically makes a dissenting individual less American.
3a. That by dissenting, and therefore being unAmerican, ones opinions are less valid.
3b. That a dissenter is unAmerican makes them suspect, and therefore their opinions are inherently destructive to assumptions 1 and 2. 
And there's the turn. The distinction drawn isn't between Real Americans and Americans, but between Real Americans and UnAmericans. You don't just get clocked out of the "Real Americans" club by holding an opinion that differs from that of a Real American, you become the enemy. 

You don't even have to actively disagree. Any opinion that is different from one held by the arbiter of American-ness isn't worthy of consideration. In any cases of conflict between your opinions and the opinions held by the Real American, your opinion is construed as undermining American-ness, and therefore simply by thinking differently, you are an active threat to the True American Way.

Ladiiiiiiiies and Gennnnntleeemeeeeeen (aaaannnnnd ooooottthheeeers aaaaaasss aaaaplicable) are you ready to RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Cough. Sorry, that got away from me a bit. The point is, by using nationalism as a platform for ethnocentrism, a fulcrum is created by which people can be divided simply by throwing the words "Real Americans are x" into a group of people.

Think about the old Greek tale of Eris and the golden apple. Eris got snubbed, and decided (as She do) to fix it by getting everyone involved to murder each other. Yeah, we do not provoke the goddess of Chaos and go home for tea and crumpets.

So She grabbed a golden apple and wrote "to the fairest" on it. Then She cracked open the door at the party She had explicitly been excluded from and chucked that apple of fuckery into the group of goddesses who'd snubbed Her. Then She went home for for tea and crumpets as the godesses threw murderbolts at each other while yelling about how each of them was the fairest.

That's what a "Real American" post is all about. Being the prettiest bigot at the ball.

(Source.)
It's funny because bigotry is ugly! Ha!
At the end of the day, I am wary of anything that asks me to declare my allegiance to a nameless, formless group by taking action, even if the action is as innocuous as sharing a Ragebook post. But when that declaration of allegiance comes at the cost of supporting blind ethnocentric nationalism, I offer to the idiot demanding my support through the application of moralistic arm-twisting a slap like unto the power of the Lovecraftian Old Ones. 

Namely, my slap will drive you insane before devouring your body and condemning your soul to a twisted eternity consisting only of my slap.

(Source.)
FLEE BEFORE THE POWER OF SLAPTHULLU!