Counter-Currents
Fundraiser Update & this Weekend’s LivestreamCharles Murray & the Specter of White Nationalism
Greg Johnson
950 words
One of our readers has asked my opinion of Charles Murray’s new book Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America (New York: Encounter Books, 2021). I breezed through the ebook version of Facing Reality in just a few hours. I think that this book’s publication is an encouraging sign, and I hope that it will be widely read. America has long denied fundamental truths about race, but in the past year, the costs of these lies have become unbearable. In the words of Jef Costello, we need to “Speak the Truth or Kiss it All Goodbye.” Many new minds have been opened to our message by BLM and Critical Race Theory, so Murray’s book has appeared at an opportune moment.
The first truth Murray writes about is that different races in America have different average IQs, which means that they will perform differently in life even in the absence of racial discrimination. This is a very clear and compelling summary of the best science on the issue. This uncomfortable truth means that blaming the unhappy plight of blacks in America (overrepresented among the poor and ignorant, underrepresented among the prosperous and educated) on white racism is not the best explanation, since these patterns persist even in the absence of anti-black discrimination. Indeed, it persists despite pro-black discrimination. It also implies that we will only achieve racial “equity” by discriminating against other races for the benefit of blacks.
The second truth Murray writes about is that different races in America commit crimes at different rates. This is again a useful summary of the latest data. The reason why blacks, especially black men, have so many run-ins with the police is that they commit a disproportionate amount of crime. It has nothing to do with police “racism.” Indeed, if the police are “racist” at all, it is by under-policing blacks and over-policing whites. (See my article “Black Lies Matter” and Richard Houck’s “Law Enforcement and the Hostile Elite.”) Black Lives Matter’s sole purpose and effect is to make it safer for blacks to commit crimes, which has predictably led to an explosion of black crime. (See my article “Do Black Lives Matter?“)
For more thorough discussions of Facing Reality, see the reviews by Jared Taylor (“Two Cheers for Charles Murray“) and F. Roger Devlin (“Charles Murray’s Facing Reality“).
I want to focus on a feature of Murray’s argument also mentioned by Taylor and Devlin. Murray warns the current establishment that if they don’t stop promoting non-white identity politics that they are courting a terrible disaster: the rise of white identity politics. Murray instead hopes that America can embrace a color-blind liberal individualism recommended by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in that speech. It’s all so tiresome.
I am sure that Murray is being sincere. But he really couldn’t say anything else if he wanted his book to be published by a mainstream press and reviewed in the mainstream media. The entire cultural and political establishment in America is united in holding that “racism” and identity politics are terrible things — but only when they benefit white people. This spurious moral dogma is what separates us from the rest of the political spectrum. A morally outrageous double standard is the only thing holding back the floodwaters of white identity politics. But the waters continue to rise, as multiculturalism and open borders continue to ravage white societies.
I don’t know if Joe Sobran coined the phrase “courtier journalist,” but I first learned it from him. A courtier is someone who advises or amuses the powerful. Courtier journalists do this with their pens. It is not necessarily ignoble. For decades, I have been reading Patrick Buchanan columns where he cites historical precedents in order to warn the powerful about the consequences of their follies. He speaks as a member of the establishment to fellow members of the establishment. He assumes a common commitment to preserving the system, then argues that his proposals are the only way to do that.
Murray is one of a host of conservative or neoconservative “courtier scholars” who in recent years have argued against identity politics and for race-blind individualism by raising the specter of white identity politics. For instance, see my reviews of Mark Lilla’s The Once and Future Liberal, William Galston’s Antipluralism, and Francis Fukuyama’s Identity (here, here, and here).
It is flattering, I suppose, to be the stalking horse behind which neocons seek to dial American politics back to their preferred policies. As long as we aren’t loved, it is at least nice to be feared.
But the neocon gambit isn’t going to work, for two main reasons. First, the Left isn’t trying to preserve “the system.” They are trying to destroy it. Some of them hate the system even more than they love themselves. Thus they would be content to destroy it even if they suffer. Second, asking non-whites to dial back their identity politics is basically asking them to replace a winning strategy with a losing one. Nobody in his right mind would do that, no matter how nicely conservatives ask, no matter how piously they intone those lines from the Declaration and the “I Have a Dream” speech. Thus, self-respecting whites will be driven to white identity politics out of sheer self-preservation. (For more on this, see part 1 of my essay “White Identity Politics: Inevitable, Necessary, Moral.”)
Yes, it is tiresome to be invoked as a boogeyman. But in the long run, people like Murry, Lilla, Galston, and Fukuyama are doing us a favor. Their color-blind civic nationalism isn’t going to save white America. And as more whites realize this, white identity politics will seem far less scary than being treated like a conquered people in their former homelands. Thanks for the free advertising, Charles.
1. This Weekend’s Livestream
On Sunday, June 27th, at noon PST, 3 pm EST, 8 pm UK time, & 9 pm CET, Greg Johnson will be joined by fellow Counter-Currents Brain Trust members Millennial Woes and Frodi Midjord to talk about current events and YOUR QUESTIONS, on DLive and Odysee.
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28 comments
The oven is now self cleaning and can’t be unlocked. It’s a good time to be alive believe it or not.
Back in 2015/2016 when I was a “conservative Democrat with libertarian leanings” and very proud of myself for voting for Obama, I found myself very upset with the identity politics of the left. I felt alienated as a white person, the very same white person who felt so good about himself going to pro-illegal immigration assemblies in the Latino part of town and being the only white person there with no one to talk to. Eventually it came to light that one of those nefarious alt-right people, Milo Yiannopoulos was critical of the identity politics. Milo was, at least for me, a sort of seedy back alley entrance to the proverbial libertarian to alt-right pipeline. It felt so intellectually taboo at the time to read Milo. I think that the “alt-lite” acts as a sort of inflection point. I entered this pipeline with a disdain for identity politics but then I saw the light that all politics are identity politics and that white identity politics are simply the mirror image of leftwing identity politics.
I grew up in the 90’s and at least then it seemed like we were well on our way to building a color blind society. There were some bumps on the way like the OJ trial and the Rodney King riots. Eventually this would culminate with Obama winning. Finally, a post racial America. But then the 2016 election came and all the identity politics. “You’re a white male!” Then 2020 came with the George Floyd riot… I mean mostly peaceful protests. Murray’s book sounds good and interesting but as far as building a color-blind society where we see everyone as individuals I think that ship has sailed. As much as I’d like to still believe in the idyllic color blind society, I just can’t unhear Jared Taylor saying,” diversity is a source of conflict and tension.”
White identity is not remotely the moral equivalent to leftist idpol. If millions of whites moved to, say, Honduras, and then started aggressively trying to amass as much morally illegitimate power and politically ill-gotten wealth for our community as possible, one could make that comparison. White identity is a movement of both authentic justice for our people (you know, the paleskins whose ancestors founded, settled and built America, and who have an ethnocollective property right in the nation itself), as well as a post-colorblind movement of racial realism and security. Whites are not trying to take property or liberty from blacks or other minorities; we are trying to prevent them (in league with the white race traitors and socialists called “liberals”) from taking our liberty, rights, property, ability to defend ourselves from criminal predation, and right to unbiased consideration and open competition in school admissions and professional hiring (often now, of course, we’re trying to recover lost rights). Leftist idpol is aggressive; white idpol defensive. They are not “mirror images” at all.
Of course, white nationalists are those wiser ones who not only love their racial heritage and prefer their co-racials as fellow citizens, but who recognize that there will never be colorblindness (not that we want such, either; we want homelands and governments of our own); that whites are a rapidly shrinking population on this overcrowded planet; and that via nonwhite immigration invasions in combination with mendacious white guilt cultural propaganda (which affects both whites and nonwhites, weakening the will of the former, and increasing the racial envy and hatred of the latter), we are placing ourselves, but especially, future generations of whites, in a condition of both ever lowering cultural quality, and ever increasing racial-personal insecurity and physical vulnerability. We are the ones who take intergenerational ethics and good ‘ancestorship’ seriously.
“Whites are not trying to take property or liberty from blacks or other minorities; we are trying to prevent them…”
Exactly.
Excellent post.
In The Bell Curve and since, Charles Murray cites overwhelming evidence about intellectual inequality among races and differences in proclivity to crime, and then tries to inject a dose of anaesthetic into those who might draw the “wrong” conclusions. Here are the facts, he says, but lets not get all fussed about them. So his writing might as well appear on the op-ed page of USA Today.
The Obama Primary campaign was a significant element of my drift out of the left. Not that he beat Clinton, but the way that Edwards was annihilated. He was a proxy for white southerners within the Party Limits. All the rightwingers who made fun of him in that intra party scuffle couldn’t see it was a prelude to a general demonisation of whitey across the entire nation. The Party decided at that moment to stop pandering to white southerners in any way at all.
It’s hard to believe that there was once those Clinton Gore ’92 stickers with the Confederate flag, let a lone a strong contingent of white working class conservative Democrats in the south and rust belt. Yeah, they raked Edwards through the coals. Wasn’t it the affair that was brought to light that did him in? If so, to be fair, that’s a pretty hard thing to survive in politics.
Not so much the individual politician but the manner in which the Party, Divided. Edwards became a sort of annihilated white man. A sort of symbol. At least in retrospect the party turned its back from supporting pandering to white people.
Edwards was a race traitor, as well as a crook (and, less importantly, an adulterer). No tears for that creep. It’s a good thing that the Democrats are now all but openly attacking whites for being whites. We need more polarization. The greatest enemies of white America are never the Malcolm Xs or Al Sharptons, but the MLKs and Obamas. That blacks and Democrats are moving away from King and Obama towards open black supremacism is a wonderful development. Our goal is not stability per se, but a life of peace, dignity and honor for our people, which will only occur with national partition and racial separation (at least for those whites who want it). Greater instability forces people to get off the fence and choose sides, which is the only way partition will happen. “Evolutionarily”, working within and maintaining the present corrupt system, whites will never win their racial freedom.
Absolutely correct.
I don’t disagree about Edwards as a man but the primary was a sign of extraordinary things to come.
Greg, I thought it was agreed that I would write an article on this book.
Nothing is stopping you.
Jared Taylor put it best when he said Murray and his ilk expect whites to sit around quietly hoping the others give up their identity politics and our benevolent elites usher in the post racial utopia.
Tucker Carlson in his book says when whites embrace their identity, that is the end of America.
The one good thing about Murray’s book is his use of the terms African and European as surrogates for blacks and whites in America.
Somewhat related, you can always bet on neocons to invoke the sainted MLK in a discussion of race. I’d like just one of these people for once to do so but instead phrase it something like this ‘you know, that serial philanderer and commie rape accomplice was right about that content of character business ‘.
Martin Luther King was a man of character. Bad character.
“Tucker Carlson in his book says when whites embrace their identity, that is the end of America.” On the contrary, to restore, to reclaim, to ensure, to take back America as a first world nation is to enshrine the 14 words in our Constitution. “The Slow Cleanse aka Restoring White Homelands” by Greg Johnson.
Texas Chainsaw Makeover: “Tucker Carlson in his book says when whites embrace their identity, that is the end of America.”
Tucker Carlson is basically right, even though he comes from the perspective of a civic nationalist. Whites are by and large culturally tolerant. Once that equilibrium has been disrupted to the point that white identity becomes mainstream, the established order is unsustainable.
In Canada’s case, and I speak as some western hick, white identity will only emerge in the wake of an even more severe disruption. I believe the process of effacing the Anglo-European character of Canada will be much more advanced here. Nevertheless, Tucker would be right. By the time whites embrace their identity in Canada, the nation is over. Our PM Justin “Trudeau” Castro was premature in calling Canada a post-national State, but he is not wrong.
Lipton Matthews interviewed Charles Murray.
Around the 41 minute mark Charles Murray says “…they[White Nationalist] can’t report my findings in full in my own words because my findings in full in the full words do not support White Nationalism do not support White supremacy”.
For us Europeans (not unlike any other race) wanting our own homelands is NOT White supremacy. The lying to label us European Nationalists as supremacists is failing. More & more ppl r waking up to these lies & MORE IMPORTANTLY the agenda behind these lies.
I’m not finished it yet, a book of this length could take me several weeks, but so far and from the reviews, I see this mainly as a work of propaganda. It’s important for its source, a mainstream academic, and its apologetic stance, which are aimed at winning over Murray’s intellectual set of white humanities and social science professors and Ivy League grads. As for its intellectual content, that’s nothing more than we read at any of these websites every day. This book is written that in hopes a milquetoast academic will read it, then move on to Amren and Ccc, then who knows Counter currents and TOO, and then (oh god) daily stormer and TRS. It’s like gateway drug; pot leads to meth and crack.
Being facetious of course.
You are not wrong comparing the daily stormer to crack. I hit that site up 6 times a day, minimum. The way AA writes is hilarious.
He’s a unique talent.
“A specter is haunting the Regime —the specter of White Nationalism.”
I like that.
Make it viral!
POTUS Donald Trump DID NOT deport ALL illegals, DID NOT build the wall, DID NOT cancel birthright citizenship, the 3 minimum items to fix USA’s slide into a 3rd world society. Trump was our last chance to save USA & he did not do what needed to b done at the bare minimum. European flight to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming is just buying us some time (as over 100,000 continue to INVADE every 30 days), it is NOT the long term solution, the long term solution is keeping America a European country as our Founding Fathers intended it in first Naturalization Act of 1790. We r witnessing the unraveling of America in this multiracial mode. Trump’s first rally since leaving office was held Saturday 26 June 2021 in Ohio & he did not demonstrate an understanding of the perilous situation America is in. If the sheeple that attended his rally understood the perilous situation, & shown a Specter of European Nationalism, they would have booed Trump off the stage if he did not demonstrate this understanding w/in the first 30 minutes. Donald J. Trump IS A PRESSURE RELIEF VALVE, A WAY FOR US TO VENT OUR FRUSTRATION MEANWHILE THE TRAJECTORY OF OUR REPLACEMENT IS UNAFFECTED, PRETEND FIXING THE PROBLEM WHEN IN FACT THE FIX IS IN. THE SHEEPLE ARE TAKEN FOR A RIDE. THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL.
America is going to perish in a very painful way. Thomas Chittum’s book “Civil War II” is essentially a guideline of what is happening now. America is the ultimate multi-cultural experiment and the entire globe will have a front row seat.
Very recently I had an online debate in the “politics section” of a hobbyist website. The website is predominately Progressive and the topic was “Is the IQ in the US Declining”.
I mentioned that the average IQ in the US used to be around 100 but has now declined to 97. I quoted Herrnstein & Murray’s “The Bell Curve: Intelligence & Class Structure in American Life”, 1994. Very opinionated Progressives took up the case that the “Bell Curve” had been thoroughly discredited as “pseudo-science” and referenced a 2hr,39min YouTube Video posted by “Shaun”. In it, Shaun says that Herrnstein &Murray made a basic mistake in genetics. They specifically pointed out that they need not concern themselves anymore with the book.
I used an “ad hominem” counter that we could find no info on Shaun & didn’t even know if he finished high school. Herrnstein was Psychology Chair at Harvard & Murray has a lot of research into heredity; thus I doubted they made such a basic mistake.
Nonetheless, for everything put out by sources on our side, there are Videos put out by anonymous YouTubers saying this or that is pseudoscience.
Also wasn’t James Watson, who won the Nobel Award for his work in genetics, stripped of his titles and position for basically saying the same thing as Murray? Watson kept his Nobel award but sold the medal in 2014.
I’m sure there are typos here; I really wish we could edit comments.
Not only ‘Shaun’ of YouTube, but the Guardian, BBC and the entire liberal establishment regard IQ as a nonsense, signifying nothing more than an aptitude for silly puzzles.
“Some of them hate the system even more than they love themselves. Thus they would be content to destroy it even if they suffer.”
Chilling.
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