I beg to differ, "black" is term co-opted to refer to a social grouping today, witness the woman in Washington, (the professor at some eastern college) who "claimed" to be black, was a professor of black studies, and who was, in the end white. It is a term that is used today to describe a social as well as a physical trait, and that is part of the issue with using ANY labels. Again, i prefer to look at the individual, their goals and motivations, and always ask "why" in relation to all that goes on. The "why" is more important that the "what", because that's where the true motivations are. If BLM was valid, they would have burnt down Chicago by now, over the 5,000 blacks killed there each year. But that does not matter when you look at their "why".

Also, I do not consider AR as an "intellectual" in the term that we are using. She actually had a moral and ethical basis to her philosophy, where as I see the others who get that label to just blather their opinons wrapped in fabrication.

fosterj717, seems that you are being kind of acidic here, I am not sure I took the discussion in that way. You are absolutely correct in your assertions about "intellectuals", I agree there has never been a case I am aware of, where they have achieved anything positive. In fact, any time I see that term applied, it is always a negative, in that they seem to just be another take on the same political worms who use everyone to continue to loot society for their own agendas. I do not see where any intellectual has produced anything of value in regards to social or political system. They are great if we are talking fusion reactors, physics or electronic circuits. They should limit their work to that. I think the term was pirated a hundred years or so ago to separate the looters who can tie their shoes and the ones who need slip ons. In the media, I have found no such creature as an "intellectual", they are all self absorbed gas bags who continue to peddle their specific brand of theft. The media just uses them to get out of the use of mono-syllabic words now and then.

So! You "worship" at the feet of the "Intellectual Elite"? Concentrating power in the hands of a few is quite alright with you? I'm not sure why you are lurking no this blog being that it is essentially for folks who are at least somewhat "Objectivist" in nature. If you think that these "Intellectuals" that you find so compelling in the better understanding of the nature or things is so solid, perhaps you can explain why the "Best and Brightest" of Camelot so screwed up our country with the Vietnam war and the "not so" Great Society. Perhaps you can also explain how this administration made up of the highest percentage of "Intellectual Elites" ever seen in any Presidency could have the economy and the world as screwed up as it is. Contrary to the "Intellectual" mantra, you cannot lead from behind, especially when trying to implement a Top Down, Command and Control Tyranny such as is now emerging. Your arguments in favor of "Intellectuals" being the one's to save us is foolish at best and downright criminal at worst! The philosophical corrupt belongs to modern academia sorry to say! Again, Ayn Rand seems to be spot on!

No, it's not a matter of "political correctness". Being opposed to "political correctness" does not mean opposing rational standards of thought and action.
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We are all tired of hearing some black people chanting O-bam-a' as they demand free Obamaphones and the equivalent in their mindless, anti-conceptual shrieking, but we are also tired of the white (olive, brown, yellow, orange, etc.) intellectuals and agitators supporting it. It can't be opposed by becoming racist oneself, sinking into the tribal battles.

It is an anti-conceptual trend which is itself racist and ethnist as it promotes the primitive in the name of an alternate "culture". For the relation of this process to the rest of the decline we are seeing, read the articles cited above in Ayn Rand's anthology *The Return of the Primitive". This rot is much deeper than crude racism and welfare statism, but thoroughly related to both. You will find a lot in those essays that you already see in what your object to, plus a more fundamental explanation.

"Black" refers to inherited color. Don't equate that with ideas. The "their" you are referring to is all "black people".

Adopting tribalist ideas is an intellectual state, which itself usually includes its own racism but is not inherited along with color. In particular it is thoroughly anti-conceptual. Read Ayn Rand's essay on "Global Balkanization" cited above.

The "mainstream media" is "complicit" in the ideas of the intellectuals that have spread for over a century. That is their "true motivation". Reforming the philosophical corruption requires spreading the right ideas, not anti-intellectual conspiracy theories about "conglomerates" and "wealth".

You are on the right track, there appears to be something in the background that is instigating and controlling the spin of a series of events. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but the Beast cannot get away with all her crap, unless someone higher up wants it. Also, many will contest, but I have seen the different levels of security clearances, and there are several above the President. How can that be? Too much goes on today both in and out of the US, not for it to manipulation. One reason I am leery of Trump. Look at Ben Carson, paraded on Fox for 2 years as logical, smart, and cool. Let him run and then he is lecturing a group on why the word is only 30,000 years old. Hello?

What a cabal . Thanks Rockefeller's for your helping create this institution that would enslave all of us to fund the fascist socialist majority in the world. The US is not to be divvyied up by a majority vote from the rest of the world in the form of UN anti white edicts.

Yes! The mainstream media is complicit in this idiotic charade of the sublime. What is their true motivation I wonder? Well! I guess one shouldn't be surprised when all of the media outlets are owned by 6 conglomerates. That is an incredible amount of power concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy oligarchs (including George Soros and his clown friends).....

A valid point, and something that indicates BLM is more than a social movement, but is a political creation intended to make the non progressive side the bad guy and the killer of all blacks. There has yet to be an honest and open discussion of the issue and may never be, as it does not seem to be on the agenda, only the manipulation factor of the group is important to those who created it.

ewv, I disagree, in that their ideas are not a result of color but of culture. It is also a group mentality issue, just as the Progressive movement is. I know many black people, all of whom do NOT fit the issue that term was addressing. I have seen perfectly educated, straight talking black people go into a predominantly black area and immediately change their speech and patterns, and they have told me it is to "fit into the neighborhood". It is the same as someone gong to the deep south, or acquiring an accent. It is not racist to recognize that that group mentality has certain traits, one of which appears (and that is not based on direct observation of all members) a group identity that says "you owe me" or want handout. That does not directly translate as a racial trait, it is cultural. You will find the same trait in what are colloquially known as "white trailor trash" as well. It cmes from the political manipulation of special interest groups, and MAKING them believe they are dependent on the government, and not requiring each individual to own their own actions. Instead, it offers them the option to blame all issues on the system, and others.

Perhaps I should have written it in a more politically correct way- such as " I am tired of hearing black people complaining about not being treated the way they feel they are entitled to be treated". I AM tired of listening to that. I do think the police are a bit trigger happy in general, and that should be stopped.

Dr. Edwin Locke said it best in an '80s-'90s era taped lecture (I forget which,) that used to be available at Second Renaissance Books. To paraphrase from memory:

The demand for "slavery reparations" is a demand that one group of people be forced to pay a second group of people for something a third group of people did to a fourth group of people, centuries earlier, because people in the first group look a little like the people in the third group and people in the second group look a little like the people in the fourth group.

Therefore the demand itself is blatant racism - racial collectivism, to be precise.

This kind of thing could only fail to be laughed right out of public discourse at its first uttering, in a society in which reason has been so corrupted by institutional (read: educational,) irrationality that virtually any claim to anything, no matter how absurd, is given fair hearing as legitimate. Which latter is a good description of present-day America, unfortunately.

What this fiasco tells us is two things, loud and clear:
1. Our educational "system" - IOW America's schools, from K through advanced collegiate levels, is permeated with intellectual poison and must be given a complete overhaul. What this means in real terms is a complete separation of education and state, and everything such a separation would imply. But as Peikoff noted a full 34 years ago in "Ominous Parallels," we are arguably beyond the point of no return. That was true in 1982, far more the case now;

2. The International Tyrants' Day Care Center, Manhattan Campus (a.k.a. the "UN,") must be eradicated. It's pointless to attempt repealing or even repelling any of its edicts and outrages past or present. The entire entity must be dissolved - not just on this particular bit of UN insanity, but on the entire seven-decades-long edifice of similar insanity. The United States should formally withdraw both its presence and funding from it, in total; it should send a non-negotiable eviction notice to all its members, kick the entire pack of them off of American soil and turn the complex into a combination shopping mall and apartment building; it should lean as hard as diplomatic channels allow on its allies the world over, encouraging them to do the same, including a refusal to grant them real estate for relocation. Let the remaining dregs of the political world set up shop in the banquet hall of some ratty nightclub in Kiribati or Socotra, and plot their world conquest schemes over shiny plastic tablecloths while they fight to keep the flies off of their sandwiches.

Unfortunately, any chance to get anyone with the inclination to take either of these essential actions into office this year, was wiped out when a Democrat was handed the "Republican" nomination for President.
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Racism is an evil. This is not a matter of "sensitive". It is dead wrong. You wrote "i am so DONE with black people and their entitlements". That is an overtly racist statement, not someone else "lumping a lot of things into that category". It's your own statement.

I think you are too sensitive on the issue of racism, and lump a lot of things into that category. Maybe for political correctness, I dont know. I am not politically correct, I will admit 100%

You can stay out of neighborhoods and restaurants you are wary of, and you can denounce the tribalist racists, without making sweeping, racist statements yourself lumping all blacks into one mentality.

I understand your points, but I dont care about their race or color. Its just that on the news every day are black people crowing about being treated right, and demanding things like "black lives matter" as opposed to "all lives matter". THAT is racism in that there is an expectation of special treatment BECAUSE they are black.

We profile all the time, not only relative to other people, but also relative to neighborhoods, restaurants, etc. I like your definition of profiling in your post.

He made a sweeping, all inclusive statement about the mentality of "black people". All "black people" do not have a "group mentality" demanding "special treatment". those who do, of any color, are racist tribalists demanding entitlements by birth, but that is not what he wrote.

You don't have to know everyone who is black to know that that their ideas don't come from their color. You wrote, "i am so DONE with black people and their entitlements", not that you don't like people "with their pants hanging halfway up". The sweeping reference to 'black people' is obvious racism. Those were you own words and you are still trying to defend it.

Profiling in a legal context means to narrow down suspects of a crime in accordance with known partial descriptions, recognizing that is only an investigation under which everyone is innocent under the process proven guilty.

It does not mean that everyone who may meet the partial description is guilty and it doesn't mean that such people have the same ideas associated with their color. "Profiling" in that way is racism. It's an irrational, crude collectivism grouping people into 'classes' on the basis of race.

Exactly. It is the individual characteristics that determine how you will relate to them, and when they seek to attach themselves to a specific "special group", that interpretation naturally transfers.

I am not arguing the point of what counts as inclusion, I do not see terms statement as racist, in that it is a definition of the issue of the "group mentality" that says "I am different, therefore treat me different". I a group asking for special treatment isn't racist, then what is is? By definition, they are defining themselves in a racist format. The statement "All blacks are mistreated and not presented" such as is bandied about by the "feel sorry for them" crowd, is just as racist, and also does not represent Thomas or Carson or many others either. It goes both ways. I am saying I agree with term that I am not supportive of ANY group that tells me they are special because of some unique trait. All are to be treated and evaluated as individuals. In such we are an incredibly racist society, go fill out any form you can find, and there is a racist block where you tell them what special interest group you belong to.

I appreciate your abhorrence of the concept of racism. Treating another human being as an animal devoid of human rights just isn't accurate

But I don't think it's an "injustice" to like or not like anyone. I respond to someone's core values, which seems to be formed to a large extent by the culture in which they are raised and by their reaction to it.

If I lived in a town of 50 people, I could take time to know each of those people and react to each of them individually. In Las Vegas with nearly 3 million residents and 40 million visitors- one needs to develop ways to more quickly evaluate the people one meets.

Hence the concept of profiling came to be used as a way to more quickly but less accurately form initial impressions of people based on observation of certain traits and personal experience. It's a normal and reasonable reaction to living in a populated place. It's not racism. It's a recognition of the powerful effect of cultural upbringing. You could call me a culturist, but not a racist. For example. I have no issues with Ben Carson , an obviously black man. I
don't know him and I really don't notice his color or care about it. On the other hand when I see black young people with their pants hanging halfway up, I initially categorize them as undesirable, as I would a white person who acted that way. My initial assessment could be wrong possibly, but that's a chance I am willing to take

Including every black in a sweeping statement about the primitive ideas of some who are notorious is racism. It obviously does not include Clarenc Thomas or Ben Carson, to name just two prominent examples. Racism versus the ethnic primitives is a false alternative. It is very important as an individualist to not engage in any kind of racism. Read or reread the essays cited nearby https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

You wrote "i am so DONE with black people and their entitlements". The sweeping reference to 'black people' is racism. Judging individuals as members of a racial group by what you think a percentage are is racism, which is an injustice and offensive to all of us.

The entitlement mentality within some groups is dangerous but is not countered by racism. You should read or reread Ayn Rand's essays "Racism" in The Virtue of Selfishness and "Global Balkanization" on "ethnicity", entitlement by birth, and racism and their cause and their role in the process of the decline of civilization in The Return of the Primitive. Also Peter Schwartz's "Multicultural Nihilism" in The Return of the Primitive.