There’s so much wrong with that article it would take a paragraph by paragraph breakdown to illustrate the absurdity of the method-to-evidence-to-conclusion trail.
But here’s one that jumped out to me, based on my own personal experiences in rural Illinois:
In December of 2006, 45% of white Democrats and 41% of white Republicans reported that they knew someone they considered racist. By June of 2015, this figure increased to 64% among white Democrats, while remaining at a steady 41% among white Republicans. No increases were observed for any of the nonwhite Democrat groups. In fact, what (statistically insignificant) change occurred among Black (52.7% to 47.2%) and Hispanic (41.1% to 33.8%) Democrats were actually in the opposite direction.
Did white Democrats simply come to know more racists in these years? It’s possible, but if so that would indicate that the media’s increased reporting on racism actually correlated to a marked increase in racists being detected by white Democrats.
The use of 2015 is not a coincidence and earlier in the article the author acknowledges this. He uses periods within the Obama presidency to conclude this didn’t all start with Trump. But I’ve never seen anyone suggest otherwise, just that it got worse under Trump. Which it obviously has. Regardless, back to my experience:
I would have still been tallied in 2006 as knowing someone I “considered racist” because I can’t remember ever not knowing at least one racist. Frankly the data should be a 100% affirmative response from all of us. We all know racists.
But setting aside that, of course the numbers jumped by 2015 during Obama presidency, at least based on my experience. Where I live, Democrats have dominated for decades. Our state senator was a democrat for at least half a century and probably longer. The very first election we held after Obama was elected, our female democrat senator was unseated by a white, male, Tea Party candidate. This was not a coincidence, it was a reaction.
Since Obama was elected, I found that dozens more people I knew personally were racists that I had no idea about. They were fine keeping their views to themselves until we elected a black president. Indeed it was this unveiling and the energy surrounding it that helped create the waive leading to Trump’s election.
Yet the author attempts to blame this on - his words - “elite liberal media” bias. It’s a preposterous article from beginning to end, but this is one example that hit home in particular.