You are, however, insisting that they are not a tiny, tiny minority; but are simply openly proclaiming what everybody white in the country really believes in secret. Which is nothing but a steaming pile of nonsense.
Not exactly. I'm not saying that half the country is actively hiding their true nazi identity from the world. I'm saying that the shittiness we do still see from not-a-minority which is distanced somewhere on a gradient from the outright nazi shit grows from the same emotional roots. There's a limit today on how far it grows, because of a feature we managed to install in our cultural make-up through much blood and tears and the way social psychology works. But those roots aren't completely starved out and dead, and the taboo isn't self-sustaining. If the forces that want to challenge it are fiercer than those that want to maintain it, then its influence will erode and that tiny minority will grow.
-Behind the hundreds who are bold enough to march in the flesh proclaiming white supremacy are thousands who will share those beliefs online, but are not so bold to go out and do so in person.
-Behind the thousands who will only risk outing themselves online are tens of thousands who share those beliefs, but wouldn't dare risk associating themselves for fear of the social consequences.
-Next to those tens of thousands are hundreds of thousands who harbor an ugliness that they keep hidden and scarcely admit to themselves, unless they're in the right company, but wouldn't dare allow themselves to fully embrace that ugliness because society tells them it's wrong and they don't want to be shunned as terrible people or risk questioning to themselves whether they really are terrible people. But what happens with them when society's condemnation weakens?
-Behind those hundreds of thousands are millions who don't have strong feelings of hatred, but tend towards negative feelings regarding anyone who's different from them. The people who will throw a "Like" on social media towards someone pointing out the black guy who just got murdered by police looked like a thug, but don't say it themselves. Doesn't risk feeling terrible about themselves, because they never actively wish any direct harm on anyone but will express some smug satisfaction or just-world-fallacy sentiments when it does happen. Doesn't feel strongly about pursuing it, but wouldn't care too much if other groups were oppressed, and would align themselves with the oppressors if it were most convenient for them. Most anyone who watches Fox News is at least a part of this grouping.
Everybody white probably ain't accurate, but SG saying most folks in his social circle are probably is. Chunks of this country are still quite like that, and actually aren't more than a loosening of taboo from cheering that sort of filth on pretty openly.
Not *in* my social circle
But *outside* of my social circle, here in Indiana, I'd say at least 10% of the people I interact with are among the hidden ugliness group described above, and another 40% on top of that are among the next group. And I live close to the city. Farther out, it's much worse. If you don't see these people, you either live in a much better place than I do, or you're not paying attention.
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