Lavoisier’s work led to the theory that matter can neither be created nor destroyed: it can only change form.
Four centuries later, we’re all seeing how right that weird little Frenchman was.
Now, we all know that racists need groups. Groups give them guts. And while racist groups may occasionally change in style, they never become completely obsolete.
Think of it like this: the do-rag and fitted look that was so popular 7 years ago is almost criminally punishable today.
Similarly, some of the groups that racists once ran to join have become so old-school that a new group had to be formed.
Take the Ku Klux Klan (please!) Those bozos have nowhere near the same swagger that they had when they were responsible for the extremely conservatively estimated lynching-only deaths of over 4700 people (mostly Black, of course).
Klan membership is now nearly non-existent. Dropping from a peak of 4 million in 1920, the Klan’s current 6,000 couldn’t even fill the stands at a good high school football game.
So what’s a modern race-hater to do? Join a Tea Party of course!
Tea Parties have the same homogenized racial make-up as the Klan, the same fundamental white supremacist ideology and even the same psuedo-political origins.
And notice how I keep making allusions to fashion? I do that because the only genuine differences between Tea Parties and the Klan are cosmetic.
Just like you might cringe when your pops or grandpops comes strolling out of the house wearing a Shaft leather, stacked shoes, flared pants and a butterfly-collared shirt, ruining good white linen to make hoods and robes is seen as passé by many of today’s younger bigots.
And as far as the psuedo-politics, remember, it was former President of the United States Woodrow Wilson that said, “The White men were aroused by a mere instinct of self preservation until at last there sprang into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable Empire of the South, to protect the Southern Country.”
How much different is that from “We want our country back”?
