Media: Who practices 'identity politics' more than The Cult of Jimmy Dore

A lot of ugly going down but, as Cher once sang, "Not enough love and understanding."  Amen.

REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT, last week, felt the need to call out African-American Nina Turner not once but twice for stating she found White male Jimmy Dore racist.  Three times if you count the always ineffectual Sabby Sabs who is a member of RB.  RB, for those who don't know, is supposed to offer revolutionary news from a Black point of view -- hence the name and, yes, we are aware, even if they aren't, that Nellie Bailey used to use those words on the weekly intro to BLACK AGENDA RADIO.

So our problem there was that RB, like the White YOUTUBERS, rushed to stick up for Jimmy Dore -- to attack an African-American woman and stick up for Jimmy Dore -- how revolutionary.

As Betty has noted many times (best here), it really is past time for Black YOUTUBE to stop playing Jimmy Dore's security.  Jimmy, despite Kit Cabello claiming otherwise on HARD LENS MEDIA last week, does not present a number of African-American voices.  He presents a lot of White voices and a lot of male voices.  But whether your a woman or a man who is African-American, you're hardly ever a guest on his show.

The same could be said of HARD LENS MEDIA which rushed in to defend Jimmy.  CONVO COUCH also shone in all their Whiteness as they too attacked Nina Turner to defend Jimmy.  It was the usual circle jerk.

The whole thing began with Nina calling out Republicans in Congress who suddenly were opposed to the FBI.  They weren't opposed when the FBI was plotting to force MLK into committing suicide.  They weren't opposed when the FBI was hunting Angela Davis as though she was a rabid animal and not a human being.  They weren't opposed when the FBI was violating civil rights and civil liberties.  

Yet now that the FBI had raided/searched/examined Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago? When that happened, Nina offered, "My prediction of the fallout of the FBI raiding Mar-A-Lago is that we're probably going to see a bunch of MAGA Republicans call to abolish the FBI."

To which Drama Queen Jimmy Dore Tweeted, "When Lefties cheer on the FBI you know they're serious about being a Democrat."

And so Kit and the other Whitests felt the need to attack Nina and prop up Jimmy.

They didn't ever ask why the attack from Jimmy?  They didn't stop to think that Nina's Tweet did not, in fact, "cheer on the FBI."  All it did was note that the MAGA Republicans, in Nina's view, were about to "call to abolish the FBI."  In her other Tweets we're not seeing, "That's a bad idea!" let alone "I love the FBI, I worship the late J. Edgar Hoover."

As Nina noted, "When Jimmy Dore knocks a Black progressive woman for pointing out conservative's hypocrisy when it comes to the FBI, you know he's serious about being anti-Black and protecting conservatives."  Examining Nina's other Tweets, you find, "conservatives were ok with the FBI when it came to the Panthers, MLK, and Malcolm X, now they have a problem with it.  If you have a problem with me pointing that out, you're doing the bidding of these conservatives, which Jimmy is." Later, "And yes, doing the bidding of those conservatives by using a Black woman's words is, in fact, anti-Black."

We agree with her.  Did any of the people -- regardless of color -- rushing to slam Nina Turner think for even one moment before they let the circle jerk impulse automatically kick in?

That they had no reluctance to automatically kick a woman of color also says a great deal about them.

There is no alternative media being built by the constant LIFESTYLES OF THE PLAIN AND SIMPLE approach YOUTUBE channels have taken with regards to defending Jimmy Dore constantly.  He's forever in a flame war, for ever being a drama queen.  And various YOUTUBE shows feel the need to put real issues on hold to all rush to defend Jimmy.  

We can't get coverage of Iraq from these YOUTUBERS but they pretty much weekly do a segment (weakly) on Jimmy Dore and how he's being treated unfairly.

You start to get the feeling that they believe, were MLK still alive, he'd be telling African-Americas, "We need to turn our focus to Jimmy Dore.  He's a podcaster people say nasty things about!"

They may believe that but most of us in the real world know better.  Many of us lived through the previous podcast fever -- blogging -- and we saw the circle jerk then.  In fact, we exposed it here.  How the blogs that CJR promoted were blogs that the people they hot-tubbed with and partied with wrote at.  They didn't disclose that.  We had to do the research via articles and via sources.  

Candy Perfume Boy learned from it -- at least enough to delete his old Tweets.  We did not, as some have insisted, block his advancement.  We even spoke favorably of him when he applied to CBS NEWS..  But, yes, we did point out -- as we did when he later would move to MSNBC -- that he had been part of a circle jerk and that he needed a review of ethics.

Because it is unethical to use your platform to promote your friends over the people who aren't your friends.  It's favoritism and it's unethical.

Looking at Nina's Tweets, it's clear what she was stating.  

And what she was stating wasn't that controversial.

At the heart of it, we have -- as is always the case with the Jimmy Dores -- either/or.

No both/and.  Never that.  Dualism is the path a Jimmy Dore walks.

Jimmy is offended by what he sneeringly calls "special interests" or "identity politics."  

There are a lot of people who sneer at that.

And they've done it for many decades.

In the sixties, the ones sneering felt that Civil Rights and women's rights and the Stonewall uprising were taking the focus off real issues.

Civil rights aren't real issues?  Equality isn't a real issue?

What upset them then -- the men and the token female -- were that others were dictating what the issues were and this included issues that these men and token female (White back then) didn't feel were important.  

Early on, they were stripped of power, these Toad Gitlins, by Bernardine Dohrn and others.

Like Toad did, today's Jimmy Dores try to cast themselves as the real rebels.  But they're not rebels.  They are building their own power so that they can be part of the existing system -- a system that they don't want changed in any form.  

The Toad Gitlins promote themselves and attack others who are advocating for real change.  

It's there today.

What is Jimmy's goal?  To head a political party.

He's not spending his time advocating for change, not even something as simple as ranked choice voting or abolishing the electoral college.  He certainly doesn't want to belong to a political movement (he knows he can't lead one, charisma-free is not a qualification to lead a movement).  

Whenever a Jimmy Dore emerges, we do pay attention.  They always insist that class issues aren't being addressed and they slam "identity politics" and claim it's what has destroyed progress.

No, it's not.  Union corruption, 'activist' sell out and many other issues -- including the media -- are at fault.  So is the basic lazy aspect of human nature.

But 'identity politics' is not the problem.

But we listen to the Jimmy Dores hoping we'll find out that this time they're different.

We listen and we watch.  And as they pretend they're talking class issues -- when they really aren't (and defending Jimmy Dore on your program is not a class issue) -- we notice that they bring on White people and pretty much only White people.  We note that, when it comes to Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, et al, it's easier for them to bring on a White pedophile (Scott Ritter) than it is a person of color.  

And then we see the attacks on Nina Turner and just shake our heads and say "Uh-huh," because we were right all along.

They rush to form alliances with the right-wingers and they bring them on their shows.  But, and this is where they expose themselves, they're so determined to court the right-wing, that they don't court the left -- not any leftie that isn't White.  

Let's say it again, why isn't Margaret Kimberely invited on these shows?

Margert regularly writes about Ukraine, she regularly calls out the president no matter who is in office (Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden).  If it's about building a left, is there a reason Margaret isn't invited to the table?

We're not supposed to notice that.  But they're insane to think we don't.  We pointed that out long ago, as the YOUTUBERS were rising, in fact.  That viewers were going to register these White guests and that the message was being sent that not everyone was being invited to the party.

We also find it interesting how when members of Congress reach across party lines, these same YOUTUBERS have a fit.  But isn't Congress doing the same thing the YOUTUBERS are?

Self-reflection is sadly lacking in this country.

Which is how Lisa Kudrow emerged making racist comments last week.

Her comments were misconstrued by some defending her.  They used RACIST HELPER -- where you take a racist statement, add some water, some noodles and some lies, stir it in and help the racist out.

Lisa was, they lied, saying that the writers needed to be more diverse on FRIENDS.

No, she wasn't.  She was offended that one creator, Marta Kauffman, had apologized for the show Whiteness and pledged four million dollars to Brandeis University which will be used "to establish an endowed professorship in the school's African and African American studies department."

Last week, Lisa Kudrow -- who played Phoebe on FRIENDS -- declared that she didn't agree with that.

And it was really curious to watch Lisa's defenders avoid that comment.  Lisa does not agree with Marta's choice to donate four million dollars to a college "to establish an endowed professorship in the school's African and African American studies department."

It was also cute to watch them invent the claim that Lisa was talking about adding more writers and diverse ones to the writer's room.  This is from NEWSWEEK (which presented the comments and did not try to defend them):

"Well, I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college," Kudrow said, referencing that Crane and Kauffman attended Massachusetts' Brandeis University. "And for shows especially, when it's going to be a comedy that's character-driven, you write what you know.

"They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color. I think at that time, the big problem that I was seeing was, 'Where's the apprenticeship?'"

Some have insisted that apprenticeship is the issue of writers.  Maybe but maybe not.  And excuse us, but if Lisa felt writers of color were needed, she couldn't make that demand?  She is one of six cast members who banded together repeatedly to get huge raises but they can't ask for writers of color?

More to the point, nothing in the two paragraphs above indicate that she's speaking of writers.  She is referring to Marta Kauffman and David Crane who created the show.

She seems to think that if you attend Brandeis, you not only aren't a person of color but you don't know any people of color. (For the record, the current demographics of Brandeis' student population include 5.8% African-Americans.)  

"You write what you know," she lectures.  

Well humanity is a known for most human beings.  And race isn't a sign of a different species.  

More to the point, as noted last week, Lisa produced the 2019 TV film GHOSTING: THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS and despite African-Americans portraying lead characters in that film, Lisa's 'write what you know" wasn't in play since the script was written by a White woman.

Marta and David, Lisa insists, had "no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color."   But her friend Laura Donney, who is White, doesn't have that problem when Lisa's producer.  And this is 2019, after FRIENDS.

It was racist for the show to avoid having Black friends.  Gunther had to be cast White?  Janice had to be cast White?  Monica and Phoebe's old roommate had to be White?  (Jennifer Coolidge played the role in 2003.)  

The race issue was an issue from the start of the show -- from the start of this show that lost each week in the ratings to LIVING SINGLE starring Kim Fields, Queen Latifah, etc.  

It wasn't a whispered conversation.

People were loudly and regularly calling the show out.

Lisa's comments are insensitive and racist.  What she should have done is admit, as Marta has, that the show failed the audience.  Instead, she wants to try to minimize it and justify it.  As Phoebe might say, "Hello, Kettle.  This is Lisa.  You're black." 

She can't get honest.  All these years later.  And these lies that she's serving up not only keep the issue alive, they tie the racism to Phoebe and to Lisa because Lisa's offering excuses when there are none.

Martha and David did not know about being homeless, but they wrote Phoebe that way.  Neither Martha nor David was a lesbian but they wrote Carol and Susan.  Martha and David weren't porn performers but they wrote Ursula as one.  This notion of "write what you know" does not mean that White writers cannot write characters of color.  This is just a cop out used by Lena Dunham and now by Lisa Kudrow.

It needs to be called out.

Anne Heche has died.  She was declared brain dead on Friday.  We knew Anne and thought the world of her.  We praised her acting here many times.  We also praised who she was as a person -- someone who refused the closet and, long after she resumed romantic relationships with men, still stood up for LGBTQ rights.  She was a brave person who broke ground as well as an immensely talented woman.

Last week, she was in a car crash.  She drove her car into a home.  No one was killed at that time (she would die from her injuries later).  Yet when Alec Baldwin rightly supported her on Twitter, he was savaged.

No one knew Anne's condition at that time.  Even now, no one knows that Anne was under the influence at the time.  An initial analysis appears to indicate cocaine.  That is not a final result.  

But it was time to savage Alec who did a play with Anne and acted in two films with her.  

It was time to also savage Anne.

Strange, as we reflect on all the male celebrities who have been arrested for DUI, we're not remembering them being savaged.  As we long ago noted, America loves its bad boys.

"She could have killed someone!" the mob angrily hissed at Alec.

But she didn't.

Cher sang it, Diane Warren wrote it, and we're going to close with it.

We got enough stars to light the sky at night
Enough sun to make the whole world bright
We got more than enough, but there's one thing
There's just not enough of

Not enough love and understanding
We could use some love
To ease these troubled times
Not enough love and understanding
Why? Oh, why?

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For more regarding Lisa Kudrow, see Betty's "Lisa Kudrow needs to apologize," Marcia's "Lisa Kudrow exposes herself as a racist," Ann's "Grand Dragon Lisa Kudrow" and the Friday "Iraq snapshot" -- which also notes the attack on Nina Turner.