Posted under Culture & Immigration & Political Correctness
My friend Bret (see below) was getting his quote from this WSJ column by Jame Taranto. It is a must read.
There is one important difference between the American oik and his European counterpart. American patriotism is not a blood-and-soil nationalism but an allegiance to a country based in an idea of enlightened universalism. Thus our oiks masquerade as–and may even believe themselves to be–superpatriots, more loyal to American principles than the vast majority of Americans, whom they denounce as “un-American” for feeling an attachment to their actual country as opposed to a collection of abstractions.
The article contains this excellent observation from Charles Krauthammer:
a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them.
Of course I could point out how neocons like Krauthammer have long practiced this same elitist slur campaign against paleos, but I’ll save that for another post.
Steve Ryker on 29 Aug 2010 at 10:18 am #
Excellent!! For some time now, I have had these ‘cloudy,’ loosely-formed ‘ideas’ about the very thoughts and concepts so perfectly expressed here in this post, and the one following. And with a term that is perfectly appropriate and also a ‘hard-hitting’ term (the term sounds like a cross between an insult and an actual disease!) I genuinely want to “Thank you” for bringing into crystal-clear relief exactly what it was I trying rather clumsily to bring into ‘sharp relief’ and clear focus, as you have done here. It’s like a “breath of fresh air” with a smile on one’s face. Enjoyed your post immensely. Along with the equally forceful “Ethnomasochist” term, I shall begin using this ‘really slick’ term as well. Thanks again. SR
P.S. – On second thought, I think it is actually superior to the term “Ethnomasochism,” since it sounds just like something ‘serious,’ and is even more readily flexible and adaptable. Again, excellent. SR
Kirt Higdon on 29 Aug 2010 at 2:58 pm #
I have a rule of thumb about terms like this; I just ask if there is anyone who calls themselves that. I have actually met a few people who proudly call themselves xenophobic, but no one knows what oikophobic means and if you call someone an “oik”, they are most likely to think you are saying “oink” and hence calling them a pig. So what has been accomplished?
Also the distinction between being devoted to the real country as contrasted to a collection of abstractions is an argument that can cut both ways. The self-styled patriots (and they are legion) who support the militaristic national security democratic welfare state can plausibly argue that it is they who are attached to the “real country” while those who preach a return to the Constitution and the “vision of the founders” are simply pushing a collection of abstractions.
RedPhillips on 29 Aug 2010 at 8:19 pm #
Kirt, sometimes I think you are contrarian just to be contrarian. The actual test would be whether mental health clinicians used the words to describe actual syndromes. Do mental health professional label people as xenophobic (or homophobic for that matter)? Are there actually people clinically phobic of foreigners or homosexuals in the same way there are people phobic of spiders. Very few if any. So both are clearly slur terms, not used to indicate some sort of actual phobia, but just to label people.
On that basis oikophobia isn’t a clinical term either, but fighting a little fire with fire seems perfectly appropriate to me. Of course I would expect that if someone threw out the word oikophobia they would accompany it with a link to explain it.
Kirt Higdon on 29 Aug 2010 at 11:59 pm #
Dr. Phillips, I hope you are not one of those mental health professionals because here I go being contrarian again. The mental health professionals are among the worst offenders in the corruption of modern society. It was they who decided that homosexuality was a psychiatric disorder rather than a vice and then they changed their minds to decide it was not a disorder after all. They may now be in the process of deciding that homophobia is a disorder if they have not already done so. To the extent that non-professionals like to use psychiatric sounding words as slur terms, it’s because they are following the bad example of the professionals. Inventing a new slur term which is sure to be misused is hardly a solution to the gross misuse of all the slur terms already current.