A Liberal Reader Has A "Respectful Inquiry" — AKA Epic Virtue Signalling About VDARE.com’s Mission Statement

By VDARE.com Reader

08/22/2017

Re: VDARE.com’s Mission Statement

From: Joe-Pop Bachofen

In the interest of clarity can you add one educational feature to your website? Please provide a clear list of the "philosophies, values, social structure, attitudes, festivals, foods and aesthetic" that define America along with the Article in the Constitution of the United States or the Amendment thereof that defines those. Also, in the interest of intelligent dialogue, consider the following questions:

  1. Under what conditions would you choose to be Black, Hispanic, Asian, Cherokee (or any other First Nation descendant), Gay, Male/Female (the opposite of what you are), or any other group that you feel diverges from the ideal you imagine?
  2. What motivated the individuals you would exclude from America to be different from your ideal definition of a True American?
I assume you hold to your beliefs strongly and feel certain they are correct and I respect that. I also accept the fact that you not only have a right to your beliefs, you also have a right to share them by publishing them.

To be frank, I would not invite you into my home to hold a meeting with people that share your beliefs because I see the obvious flaws in your premise.

  1. We do not choose our parents.
  2. We do not choose our birth place or culture.
  3. We are a nation of individuals with diverse origins and histories.
  4. We define what it means to be American on a daily basis and that definition has never been the same for all citizens or even two consecutive days; our freedom and prosperity has always been the result of the dynamic mix of our population.
  5. However, as Americans we are free to come and go as we wish and to invite others to join us in this experiment in freedom.
Personally, I do not believe in believing; I believe in understanding the things I experience in the course of my life.

Nonetheless, the 5 "flaws" I listed above could be considered to be my beliefs which I think are easily defensible and I would welcome a discussion with you about those topics simply because the most valuable question I have found to protect myself from self delusion is: What if I’m wrong?

Please consider asking yourself the same question.

In my experience, the most valuable discussions are those I had with people that disagree with me; not because either of us convinced the other but because respectful discussion is the key to understanding.

I do hope you understand what I have written.

James Fulford writes: I do understand what the reader has written. It’s called high level virtue-signalling. However, to answer two of his questions, we don’t need to provide a specific list of the "philosophies, values, social structure, attitudes, festivals, foods and aesthetic" because, to quote Louis Armstrong, "If you have to ask, you'll never know."

As for “the Article in the Constitution of the United States or the Amendment thereof” that would define such things, that is case of “not getting it” about the National Question. The American Nation wasn’t created by Constitution — it existed before the both Constitution and the Declaration — and continues to do so.

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