Ellie Kemper ‘witch-hunt’ shows why it’s hard to fight real racism

By David McElroy · June 1, 2021

Do you know why it’s become hard to get people to take real racism seriously? It’s because ignorant leftist activists scream, “Racism!,” about things which are nothing of the sort.

I don’t care about debutante balls. (They’ve always seemed ridiculous to me.) I had never heard of actress Ellie Kemper until today, so I can’t say I care much one way or the other about her reputation. In the big picture, I don’t even care about the tempest in a teapot which was stirred up on social media about Kemper’s debutante past.

But this latest idiocy is a perfect object lesson in the danger of listening to those who compete with one another to see who can be the most “woke.” Rational people who can still think in sane ways are being bullied by a tiny minority of leftist activists who have no such ability to think rationally.

As these dishonest activists gain influence and power, we’re seeing a small preview of the chaos that lies ahead for this dying culture.

In 1999, Ellie Kemper was crowned “Queen of Love and Beauty” at a debutante ball in St. Louis, Mo. Kemper’s family was part of the wealthy St. Louis elite, so it was no surprise for her to be “presented” at such an event. And for a 19-year-old college student from her background, it was simply a social honor.

This particular St. Louis event was the 105th annual Veiled Prophet Ball. It’s no different from balls which take place all over the country among the upper class. To me, such balls are laughable, but they’ve been traditions in pretty much every city of any size over the last century.

So why are the woke upset with Kemper? Why is she being called a “KKK Princess” by the leftist idiots?

The St. Louis ball was founded by a man named Alonzo Slayback, but he and everything he ever did are now considered evil — simply because he had been a Confederate soldier.

In addition, the ball had not been open to blacks or Jews of St. Louis society prior to 1979. Although this offends our sense of fairness — and would never be done today — that wasn’t unusual for upper class events of the past. You and I can probably agree that this exclusion was completely wrong, but that was before Ellie Kemper was even born.

The leftist woke warriors want you to believe that Kemper is somehow in league with white supremacists, but all they have is the history of an elitist social organization that had views and rules which matched the views and rules of its past.

Kemper was just a 19-year-old college student who was honored to be chosen queen of a ball that was a big deal among her social set. To pretend it has any political significance — or that it reflects poorly on Kemper — is idiocy at best and dishonesty at worst.

I don’t like such balls. I have little sympathy for social elites. I don’t really care one way or the other about Ellie Kemper. (As far as I recall, I’ve never seen her in anything.)

But I do care about honesty and fairness. I believe in seeing the past through a proportional lens. And I can tell you without question that if you’re going to “cancel” everybody who has been connected to an organization or social group which has done something distasteful or morally questionable in its past, you’re going to have to cancel everybody and start all over.

This idiocy has nothing to do with racism or “white supremacy” or anything that Kemper has actually done. This is nothing but another opportunity for activists to scream their hatred for anyone who they can vaguely connect to the evils of the past.

There’s still real racism in this world. There are white racists and black racists and racists of every ethnicity. But it’s harder to get people to take real racism seriously when you scream irrationally about something such as this.

A rational person is going to look at the details of this alleged controversy — then realize there’s nothing to it — and ignore your accusations in the future.

An insane and irrational person is going to grab torches and pitchforks and eventually start an American version of China’s Cultural Revolution.

If you know what that means, you will be very afraid.

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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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