Tucker Carlson tries to distance himself from attacker's brief in Buffalo 2:15
(CNN) --
An army of commentators has rightly condemned a belief known as the "replacement theory," which was cited by a young white man before he killed 10 people, most of them black, on Saturday at a grocery store. of Buffalo, New York.
Those who agree with the theory—many of them white conservatives—believe that a secret group of elites is using non-white immigrants and blacks to marry each other and "outdo" whites "until they stop exist".
ANALYSIS |
How White "Replacement Theory" Evolved From Old Guard Racists To Online Teens, And The Inspiration Of Another Racist Mass Shooting
But there is a variant of the replacement theory that has also become mainstream and is also celebrated by people on the left, says Yascha Mounk, author of a provocative new book called "The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure".
"In recent days... (the replacement theory) has been, with very good reason, widely condemned," says Mounk.
"But the inconvenient truth is that a less conspiratorial strand of it has long been espoused in mainstream public discourse. Indeed, it is one of the few things liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans alike can now agree on." agreement".
Mounk is referring to the belief that Democrats will become a permanent political majority in the coming years as people of color and non-white immigrants end up outnumbering white Americans.
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Some progressives may celebrate such a projection.
But Mounk calls this belief the "most dangerous idea in American politics."
He says it promotes a dystopian future in which white Americans and people of color are reduced to members of "mutually hostile tribes," politicians have little incentive to reach beyond their base, and many whites panic out of fear. to be permanently marginalized.
Still, Mounk, who describes his political values as "center-left," offers an optimistic view of America's future in his new book.
He explains why diverse democracies—countries with multitudes of racial and ethnic groups—sometimes fail and how the United States can succeed.
Drawing on lessons from social psychology and from countries as diverse as Lebanon and India, Mounk comes to a startling conclusion: A genuine and diverse democracy in America, in which all groups are treated fairly, remains a realistic goal.
The political and scientific expert Yascha Mounk.
(Photo by Maria Laura Antonelli/AGF/Shutterstock).
“It is too early to resign ourselves to a vision of the future in which most people will continue to look askance at anyone of a different religion or skin color, in which members of different identity groups have little contact with each other. yes in your family life; in which we all choose to emphasize the differences that divide us rather than the commonalities that might unite us," Mounk writes in "The Great Experiment."
This topic is not abstract for Mounk.
He was born into a Jewish family in Germany that was a victim of the same forces of hate that have destroyed many a democracy.
Mounk, an authority on the rise of populism, recently spoke to CNN.
Her responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
You describe yourself as an unfashionable optimist.
Why is this optimism so important when building a democracy?
If you look at the history of deeply diverse societies, very often they violently fall apart or oppress the minority groups within them in the most terrible way.
When you look at social psychology, you see how easy it is for people to form groups and discriminate in favor of the ingroup versus the outgroup.
So what we're trying to do here is really very difficult, and we've often failed throughout American history.
But you can look at the current state of our society and the changes of the last few decades and recognize that there are many things that warrant hard-earned optimism.
Our country is less segregated and less racist than before.
Immigrants from all over the world are integrating very well and are making a lot of socio-economic progress.
ANALYSIS |
How White "Replacement Theory" Evolved From Old Guard Racists To Online Teens, And The Inspiration Of Another Racist Mass Shooting
When you look away from Washington, at the heart of our society, we are cooperating with each other, across ethnic and religious boundaries, much more than we used to.
None of this should make us feel satisfied, but it should give us confidence that we can build a better society.
Without that confidence, the probability of failure will be much higher.
You say that Americans are cooperating more across these borders than ever before.
What evidence do you have of it?
I start with the highest level.
Just three or four decades ago, most Americans thought that interracial marriage was immoral, and that it was immoral for blacks and whites to have children together.
Today that figure has dropped to single digits due to the real psychological changes in our society and the increasing number of interracial newborns.
Even in the most private realm, Americans are choosing to intertwine their lives.
The same is true when you look at the growth of interracial friendships, the rise of business partners who come from different demographic groups, and the growth of diversity at the top of every American institution.
Police block demonstrators during a voting rights protest in Selma, Alabama, on March 13, 1965.
But if you look at the schools, the neighborhoods, and even the communities of worship in this country, it seems that they are still very racially segregated.
If you compare America today to America 50 years ago, you see a lot more residential integration.
Schools in most parts of the country are seen to be much more integrated than before, with the exception of certain extremely disadvantaged neighborhoods.
But the vast majority of schools are much more diverse than they used to be.
And with the rise of megachurches in the suburbs of major American metropolises, you see a very dynamic form of religion, often multi-ethnic, in a way that rarely existed in American congregations.
Is it possible to have a genuine and diverse democracy without a deep commitment to racial integration?
Human beings are deeply group.
It's natural for us to form groups and favor in-group members over out-groups, especially in a deeply diverse society like America.
We will never change that fact.
And that's perfectly fine.
But precisely because it is so natural for us to place so much importance on certain groups, we also need to foster a certain connective tissue between the different groups in our society.
That can take the form of ensuring that people are educated together, that they come to have a deeper understanding of each other and, hopefully, affection for one another.
It can take the form of a patriotism that allows us to show solidarity with one another even if we differ in religion, national origin, or skin color.
And it also has to include the right of each individual to decide the importance he wants to give to the group in which he has been raised.
People attend Mass on Easter Sunday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on April 4, 2021.
Two cities in India that were populated by Muslims and Hindus are cited in the book.
One was devastated by the violence between the two groups and the other was not.
What was the difference between the two and what does that story illustrate about building a diverse democracy?
Tragically, we have seen in India violent riots between Hindus and Muslims, often killing many people.
But when you take a closer look, you also see some interesting contrasts.
There are two medium-sized cities in India that are roughly two-thirds Hindu and one-third Muslim.
They have similar political histories, and yet we see that one city has experienced an extreme amount of so-called inter-community violence, while the other has managed to keep the peace.
Both cities had a rich associative life.
They had many unions, literature clubs, and all kinds of places where citizens could meet and debate with each other.
But in a city, Hindus and Muslims have separate unions and separate book clubs.
In the other, many, but not all, have members of both groups.
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When tensions have run high, that has historically made the crucial difference.
Because in a city, when rumors spread within each association, there is no bond of trust between the communities.
Therefore, when the Hindus heard rumors about the murder of a child by the Muslims, it is possible that they took revenge based on this false rumour.
In the other city, you have all these interpersonal links.
You have people who trust each other through communities.
And so, at times of heightened political tension, when those rumors were spreading, someone might say, "Look, this isn't true. I've talked to everyone in my community. I know this hasn't happened. Let's try to find a way to reduce these tensions without unnecessary bloodshed.
This shows us the importance of uniting social capital.
A group of people raise their hands as they take the oath of allegiance during a naturalization ceremony on September 17, 2021, in New York City.
Many Americans live in their own social media echo chambers.
We go back to our own kindred communities.
How can we replicate here what happened in that Indian city?
In the last decade, millions of Americans have made decisions that have made the country more integrated than it was.
We see, in particular, the rise of suburbs, some upper-middle class communities and some lower-middle class communities, that are more integrated than they were 40 years ago.
Members of minor leagues and neighborhood associations are much more across ethnic and religious boundaries than they were a while ago.
There is significant work in the interfaith space and by community organizers to try to connect people with each other.
Ultimately, this will depend on the decision that all Americans ultimately make in their individual lives.
Do we stay in the comfort zone in which we have grown up or do we venture out to make new friends and create new bonds with people who come from different communities?
Second-grade teacher Nicole Brown begins class at Carter Traditional Elementary School on Jan. 24, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky.
To what extent does your personal history influence your interest in this topic?
It has done so in two important respects.
The first is that I am Jewish and grew up in Germany.
My family has experienced what it means to be on the wrong end of intergroup conflict for three generations.
My great-grandparents died in the Holocaust.
My grandparents lost most of their families and were displaced.
My own parents, in their teens and early 20s, were expelled from the country they grew up in, Poland, because of a state-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign.
Therefore, I am intimately aware that a society that might seem relatively peaceful, in which people have gotten along for a significant period of time, can suddenly erupt into the most terrifying violence.
What would you say to a reader who said, "I'm pessimistic about the prospects for a prosperous and diverse democracy. Tell me how to make it work."
We have no choice but to make it work because a brief look at history will tell you how terrible the alternative is: how violent, how unstable, how unfair the future will be if we don't get diverse democracies to work.
We must recognize that people will always remain members of cultural, religious, and ethnic groups, and that they can contribute to the beauty of our country.
But we can also do what we can, as individuals, as members of associations, of educational institutions, and as citizens, to create more connective tissue between American citizens from different walks of life, to make sure that people interact in school, on sports teams, in neighborhood associations and to ensure that we come to a deeper understanding of each other.
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