One might ask why the Emperor of the West is in such a hurry to get the 2020 census data.
The bogus U.S. census numbers showing slavery’s ‘wonderful influence’ on the enslaved
By Peter Whoriskey Oct. 17, 2020 at 7:30 a.m. EDT
Americans have long looked to the decennial census for truths about themselves, and the 1840 version presented them with an improbable and incendiary notion.
Slavery was good for Black people, the figures indicated, and freedom led to insanity.
Specifically, free Black people were far more likely than the enslaved to succumb to insanity. “Insanity and idiocy” was ten times more common among free Black people than among those who were slaves.
What else could this mean, advocates of slavery asked, but that Black people were mentally unsuited for freedom? The idea quickly spread to newspapers across the United States, the reports of elite European scientists and the halls of Congress.
“Slavery has a wonderful influence upon the development of moral faculties and the intellectual powers,” Edward Jarvis, a Louisville-based doctor wrote in a prominent medical journal, one of many such reports citing the census. It saves people “from some of the liabilities and dangers of active self-direction.”
As partisans battle this year over how to conduct the 2020 Census, the controversy over the 1840 count illustrates the harm that can come from bad numbers — and how hard it can be to correct a conclusion once it has been endowed with the government’s authority.
The numbers in the 1840 census were profoundly flawed, it would turn out, but for several years, advocates of slavery exploited them to portray Black people as better off enslaved.
Though often little more than a footnote in history texts, the debate over the 1840 census featured a cast of notables, involving, on the pro-slavery side, John C. Calhoun and on the other, John Quincy Adams and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the influential anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Its findings became a rhetorical weapon for slavery’s advocates, and for abolitionists, a source of exasperation.
For the pro-slavery side, Stowe wrote in 1853, the census “has been the very beetle, sledge-hammer and broad-axe.”
They frequently cited the findings, she said, with a “triumphant flourish,” exclaiming, “‘There, sir, what do you think of the census of 1840? You see, sir, the thing’s been tried, and it’s no go’...as it’s down in the census, and as ‘figures never lie,’ we must believe our own eyes.”
‘Insane and idiotic’
While moral controversies are often waged by uncompromising personalities, the rise and fall of the 1840 Census turns on what may be a rarer type in history — a person who admits a mistake and switches sides.
Edward Jarvis, the Louisville-based doctor who had written so cavalierly of the census and slavery’s “wonderful influence” in July 1842, recognized within 18 months that the numbers he had cited were at odds with reality.
He then waged a decade-long campaign for their correction, marshalling assistance from the fledgling American Statistical Association and John Quincy Adams, then a member of the House of Representatives.
Ultimately, he failed to move the government to correct or retract the numbers, but it is through his work that we know how badly flawed they were.
Jarvis had been drawn to the census through his interest in using population statistics to understand mental health, and the census of 1840 was the first to have a separate count for what were then called the “insane and idiotic.” Idiotic was the term used then for an intellectual disability.
Jarvis aimed, he wrote in his diary, to “show that insanity results in part from civilization.”
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Don't let Donald dominate you. Don't be afraid of him ...... Vote for Biden - Harris ...... help save Democracy.
Stephen Miller has joined the White House Covid parade - I cry crocodile tears for this hateful bigot
"All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" ... and how did Vier find his way here?
Though the blind lady touring the White House did not see Trump kick her seeing eye dog, she heard the thump and heard the loud yelp of her helper, followed by the retreating scurry of feet toward the Oval Office.
Since the blind lady saw nothing, nothing was said of the incident by White House staff.
So that is it. That is how easy it is to create a false story.
Keep that is mind next time you hear a story about democrats abusing an innocent Trump follower.
Well the Democratic Convention is over and to no one's surprise Joe Biden is their candidate for president. What is surprising is Kamala Harris was selected as VP. Given Biden's age Harris could well be sitting the oval office chair and the White Supremacists will resultantly again be marching in the streets, wearing white hoods and Nazi armbands, threatening the nation with civil war.
Anyway in just 75 days Trump will be soundly defeated by Covid weary voters. I cry crocodile tears for the CS Trolls.
OH a reminder - I will delete entries that go off topic, use excessive links or fail to converse in clear English, or are just plain insulting.
from the BBC
White supremacy: Are US right-wing groups on the rise?
The election of Donald Trump to the White House has been cited as a factor in the re-energisation of activists and groups in America that reject both left-wing ideology and mainstream conservatism. Social media is also said to be playing a large part in promoting these ideologies.
A prominent US civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says that it is currently tracking more than 1,600 extremist groups in the country. But who are these groups, how popular have they become, and what do they hope to achieve?
Here is a look at the most visible of the white supremacist movements in the US today.
Alternative right (alt-right)
The alternative right (or alt-right) is a disparate group of provocateurs who hate political correctness and love Mr Trump, although critics say they are bigoted white nationalists. This movement's recent rise is said to have been encouraged in part by the rhetoric employed during the 2016 US presidential election campaign, in which Mr Trump was accused of "textbook racism", anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim bigotry.
Mr Trump, for his part, denounced the movement in November 2016, saying he disavowed their views. The phrase "alt-right" started to gain traction in the mainstream media when Mr Trump, as then Republican nominee in July 2016, tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton alongside a six-pointed star resembling the Star of Israel containing the words: "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!".
Alt-right factions, according to a guide written by Breitbart's Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos, include "intellectuals", "natural conservatives" and "the meme team" - mostly young activists with a penchant for internet trolling. The movement's ideals focus on "white identity" and the preservation of "traditional western civilisation", according to Richard Bertrand Spencer, who coined the term "alternative right" in 2008.
Liberty, free speech and the right to offend are its touchstones. Opponents call it racist, misogynist and anti-Semitic.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
America's most infamous supremacist group, the initial KKK was formed by ex-Confederate officers in the southern states of the US in the aftermath of the American Civil War in 1865. The Klan soon flourished in the south before spreading nationwide in the 1900s. Divisions of the group discriminate against black Americans, Jews and immigrants, and more recently gays and lesbians.
It became a vigilante movement with the aim of preventing these groups from enjoying the same civil liberties and rights as their fellow Americans. Members historically wore hooded costumes and carried out lynchings and other violent attacks on those challenging white supremacy in the southern states.
Factions of the group describe it as a "White Patriotic Christian organization that bases its roots back to the Ku Klux Klan of the early 20th century".
Neo-Nazi groups
The term neo-Nazi relates to a group of separatist activists who share anti-Semitic ideals and a love for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. The views of neo-Nazi groups in the US are protected by the courts and the nation's First Amendment. In one well-known case, the Supreme Court invoked the First Amendment to uphold the right of a neo-Nazi group to march through the predominantly Jewish town of Skokie, Illinois, and display swastikas.
Other white hate groups
National Socialist Movement: Founded in 1994, it is one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, with chapters in more than 30 states.
Council of Conservative Citizens: Founded 1985, sprung from the pro-segregation movement in the southern states.
American Freedom Party: Founded 2009, with origins in California. Has a racist agenda and is against immigration.
Too bad, so sad, Trolls, Trump's time is drawing short
Late afternoons, I frequently sit my deck wrestling with story lines on my laptop, when the postman walks past. We exchange hellos and I tease him about being the most popular man in the neighborhood, that all the women await his visit each day. Strangely enough this is all too true as retirement is nine tenths boredom. Checking their mailbox is an event the ladies look forward to each day.
Insert key, open door and remove mail. It is a ritual. Advertisements, catalogs, Medicare announcements and an occasional bill. The contents matter not, it is the anticipation that counts. Though the contents are important. Often very important. The US mail is important for America.
Trolls Delight - America's Russian nightmare
The Trolls came out the cold Siberian night
to no one's delight
looking to serve the Extreme Right
Hey, Hoe, away we go - they sang in their dark gravely tongue
The Trolls came out the cold Siberian night
to TRump's e delight
they weren't very bright.
Hey, Hoe, away we go - they sang in their dark gravely tongue
I will tell you more, when I think of MORE - LOL
These lines came to mind while massaging out a leg cramp - the cramp was not so funny
OldeGuy Blog (78)
