The story of the creator is one I like to reference when talking about the indoctrination of would-be former white allies in the US. The alt-right purposely utilized propaganda in the form of the fascist dogwhistle slogan “It’s Okay to Be White” in direct opposition to the “Black Lives Matter” movement with the intent of radicalizing the uninformed.
Think of mid-western born white guys privileged enough to go about their entire lives never needing to understand Critical Race Theory because they’re unaffected by it. They have no idea what’s going on, other than there were some “riots” following a black man’s death in Minneapolis. But they don’t really “follow politics” (again, unaffected for the most part by policy makers) outside a few sensationalist echo chambers like Facebook.
One day, they see someone make the post “It’s okay to be white” on social media, taking it at face value and possibly not even realizing its slogan for a counter-movement. All they see in response is all the people vehemently arguing that no, this post “Is not okay”… which he then in turn perceives as an attack, ironically on his skin color, rather than on the initial propaganda poster’s ideals inciting hatred.
If you listen to the first interview Dilbert guy gave about it, it becomes even more evident that this was what inspired his reaction. He’s not unique, just one of the most high profile examples. This has happened thousands of times over in the US and had no small hand in leading towards the currently hateful and radicalized hard right division the country is currently undergoing. Some of the people were always there, and were orchestrating this propaganda from as far back as the Obama-McCain days (or further).
The story of the creator is one I like to reference when talking about the indoctrination of would-be former white allies in the US. The alt-right purposely utilized propaganda in the form of the fascist dogwhistle slogan “It’s Okay to Be White” in direct opposition to the “Black Lives Matter” movement with the intent of radicalizing the uninformed.
Think of mid-western born white guys privileged enough to go about their entire lives never needing to understand Critical Race Theory because they’re unaffected by it. They have no idea what’s going on, other than there were some “riots” following a black man’s death in Minneapolis. But they don’t really “follow politics” (again, unaffected for the most part by policy makers) outside a few sensationalist echo chambers like Facebook.
One day, they see someone make the post “It’s okay to be white” on social media, taking it at face value and possibly not even realizing its slogan for a counter-movement. All they see in response is all the people vehemently arguing that no, this post “Is not okay”… which he then in turn perceives as an attack, ironically on his skin color, rather than on the initial propaganda poster’s ideals inciting hatred.
If you listen to the first interview Dilbert guy gave about it, it becomes even more evident that this was what inspired his reaction. He’s not unique, just one of the most high profile examples. This has happened thousands of times over in the US and had no small hand in leading towards the currently hateful and radicalized hard right division the country is currently undergoing. Some of the people were always there, and were orchestrating this propaganda from as far back as the Obama-McCain days (or further).
Others were lead there.