Bruce Dowbiggin
White Out: “Some Ideas Are So Stupid Only Intellectuals Believe Them.”
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“So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.— George Orwell
Say this. It took Christianity three centuries to take over the Roman Empire. The new religion of White Guilt has taken over Western culture in about a generation. Through government, schools and media, this cult has been made religion. And, like so many religions, there is no questioning the leap of faith required to believe.
It’s why so many whites took seriously the absurd claims of actor Jussie Smollett who fabricated a story about white men in MAGA hats assaulting him on a freezing cold Chicago street at 2 AM. Smollett knew that if he was exposed— it took over a week— he only needed to play the race card and still be embraced by guilty white liberals.
As author Pedro Gonzalez notes, social engineering has now “conditioned white people to instantly forgive victimizers with sufficient diversity points… The end of social engineering is that it makes people act in certain ways unwittingly—they don’t know they’re doing it.”
Political conservatives have stood by during this conversion, fearful of being called racists. Thus, minorities are now forgiven their trespasses based on past oppressions. For example, sentencing guidelines in Canada require that indigenous criminals receive lighter sentences or be sent to healing circles because Sir John A. Macdonald something-something.
This produced a Catch-22 dynamic we captured in September 2017:
Progressive: You can’t blame an undocumented young Latino for something his parents did 20 years ago.
Also Progressive: Whites can never make up for things their ancestors did 200 years ago.
Psychologist Sam Vaknin, who studies narcissism, says that in the new dynamic victimhood identity now extends to guilty whites. “Certain people are prone to adopt victimhood as an identity. Victimhood endows their life with meaning. They would seek to be victims even in situations where they would not have been victimized otherwise. When they are not victimized, they push you to become victimized.”
The current zeitgeist in the educated white middle class is now unconscious, fashionable contrition for anything people they don’t know allegedly did to those who came out on the short end of history. Distilled, it says white people have it coming, and they know it.
Typical was the Atlanta murder of an 18-year-old white man who was gunned down by two black youths for no apparent reason in front of his girlfriend. Anger? Elijah DeWitt’s girlfriend saw the gunmen as victims. “You don’t know how those kids were raised. You know, what they were going through,” Bailey Rediling said. Elijah’s father, Craig DeWitt, did the same. “You know, we don’t know the kids. We don’t know their backgrounds. We don’t know their story. They’re forgiven from me.”
Yes, it’s Christian charity to forgive. But what about the individual agency of the shooters? To Woke whites that’s a now distraction. The shooters were victims! And should you think otherwise you’re a racist. Progressives are seemingly one of the few factions who remain in denial about America’s social advancement over the past half-century.
The media campaigns tell the evolution of this transition. In Canada it’s the Rez School graves. In America it’s the tragedy of black slavery. In the UK it’s the subjugation of brown peoples around the world.
Ostensibly this retroactive guilt was to benefit those oppressed in your grandaddy’s day. Equating all social ills with the tainted white race etc. That’s what was advertised in liberal stump speeches for the Great Society when the Left went from the party of Jim Crow to the party of Jussie Smollett.
It did produce some guilt money to current black and indigenous and LGBTQ communities. A literal get-out-of-jail-free card. A liberal media so craven you can shoot them, and they can be sued for stopping your bullets. The political and financial strip-mining of white liberal guilt for fun and profit.
While demonstrating to the Rob Reiner Brigade that sufficient remorse allows them to punish their fellow whites who aren’t in on the hustle. As we wrote in 2017: “The high priests of this guilt told their white adherents they were unworthy to judge, disqualified them from feeling pride in culture. Power was instead ceded to anyone who had a gripe from “micro-aggressions” to occupying too much of a bus seat. Rending your $50K garment at the Oscars became the sanctifying moment of your guilty white existence.”
But the real benefit of the new religion has not been to the “victims” since the Democrats dumped their Dixiecrat past in favour of a more contemporary Massa’. No integration of communities for minorities. No holidays on Hyannisport. No mercy from Planned Parenthood’s eugenic past. The same urban blight.
Vaknin says of blacks, like Smollett, being constantly told they’re victims, “It’s very dangerous, because if you are a perennial victim and this is your identity, you would tend to develop attendant behaviours, for example, you would feel entitled to special treatment, and if you don’t get this special treatment you will become aggressive.”
White liberals don’t care. They can hold two thoughts in mind at the same time. Maintain the gated communities and leafy suburbs as befits their sensitivity. While forcing fellow whites to bear the burdens of the chaos they cause with defunding police, opening the border or robbing citizens of the right to protect themselves.
Ah, the blank canvas of a contented mind. Nowhere is the contrition of guilty whites more exploited than in the sudden representation of mixed-race or gay couples in advertising (as we covered in April). Corporations wedded to ESG present white liberals with the racial version of the West Wing: a progressive nirvana to instruct the white majority in Good Think. Heaven help those who resist.
As Orwell said, “ Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” He must have had MSNBC/ CBC in mind.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft YearsIn NHL History, , his new book with his son Evan, was voted the eighth best professional hockey book of by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted seventh best, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
We were watching the Los Angeles Dodgers home opener on Thursday. The defending World Series champs came from behind to beat Detroit 5-4. The big hit was a three-run homer from a player named Teoscar Hernandez off AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal
If that name sounds familiar, Teoscar was a Toronto Blue Jay from 2018-2022. He pounded 121 homers in the span as part of the Jays’ order. But when Toronto decided it needed bullpen help he was traded to Seattle in 2022 for pitchers Erik Swanson and Adam Macko. While Swanson has battled injuries and Macko is no-go, Hernandez keeps pounding the ball.
In his one year in Seattle he had strikeout problems but did hit 26 homers with 93 RBIs. In the winter of 2023-24 he signed as a free agent with the aforementioned Dodgers. Batting behind Shohei Ohtani he launched 33 homers and 99 RBIs. He won the All Star Home Run Derby. His key hit in Game 5 of the World Series propelled L.A. to the title. The stacked Dodgers liked him enough to give him a three-year, $66 million contract.
Why are we telling you this? Because the Blue Jays also started their 2025 season at home, matched against the Baltimore Orioles. And while there are reasons to believe the Jays will not replicate their 74-win disaster of 2024, there remain the old bugaboos of injuries and pitching. In the four games against the division rivals they need to beat, Jays’ pitching gave up 24 runs while scoring 18—nine of them in one game.
The splashy acquisition of 40 year old HOF pitcher Max Scherzer has already gone sideways as a bad thumb has put him on the IL. The new stopper, Jeff Hoffman, was rejected on medical grounds by two other teams before Toronto’s money made him healthy. The rest of the bullpen— a disaster in 2024— got off to a rocky start with Orioles hitters playing BP against them. They’ve already DFA’d one pitcher and called up two more from the minors. The re-made pen performed well in Game 4, but how it holds up in their next 158 games is a mystery.
On offence, while their rivals in Boston and New York added sexy pieces to their rosters the Jays were only able to acquire veteran switch-hitting Baltimore slugger Anthony Santander. More typical of their other signees is ex-Cleveland 2B infielder Andres Giminez who in 2023 had the lowest average exit velocity of all AL batters (84.8 mph), and led the AL in percentage of balls that were softly hit (21.7%). He does play a slick second base.
The winter story line for the Jays offence was what to do about Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, the erstwhile star-dust twins who were— along with Cavan Biggio— supposed to guarantee titles when they emerged in 2019. Biggio is gone, so the other two carry the credibility of the management team of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins. From the outside the Jays seem paralyzed to act.
While the Jays dithered, the price for players like Guerrero and Bichette soared. Using Juan Soto’s Mets $765 M deal as a yardstick Guerrero turned down a Jays offer of just under $600 M, saying he was done talking during the season. If Shapiro/ Atkins had anticipated the market Guerrero would have cost a lot less in 2023-24. If there is no progress by the trading deadline the Jays will be forced to get what they can in a trade.
Shortstop Bichette— a gifted player who battled injuries in 2024—is likewise up for a new deal. He has started strong in 2025 and would command a handsome return in a trade. He says the Jays are waiting to see what happens with Guerrero first. Having sold the pair for years to their loyal fans, having to trade them will be a massive PR blow. And while Jays’ national audience can be an advantage, having a whole country pissed with you is devastating.
The rest of the secret sauce for a Toronto comeback revolves around one of their hitting prospects taking a step forward. Any/ all of Will Wagner, Alan Roden, Addison Barger or Leo Jimenez can have a job if they show their bats are for real. Otherwise Shapiro and Atkins will hope that Dalton Varsho, George Springer and Alejandro Kirk can find a little magic in their aging bats.
A failure to retain talent may prompt fans to recall that Rogers decided that Shapiro and Atkins, who dumped Teoscar, were worthy replacements for the previous GM who’d walked away. The man Schneider and Atkins were hired to improve upon— Canadian Alex Anthopoulos— has made the Atlanta Braves a dominant team. Since AA moved to Atlanta they’ve won 90, 97, 38 (Covid year), 88, 101, 104, 109, 89 games. They’ve won a World Series and two other playoff series. They won six straight NL East titles before injuries sank them last year.
The Braves have developed young everyday superstars like Ronald Acuńa Jr. who don’t get picked off second base. They have built a pitching staff largely from within, not splashy FA signings. They have swagger without cockiness. They are set for years to come.
The Blue Jays? Since AA left they’ve won 73, 67, 32 (Covid), 91, 92, 89, 74 games. They’ve won zero postseason games while missing the playoffs in four seasons. The players they traded are starring for other teams in the postseason. They are again employing an inexperienced company guy as manager.
While it’s true that the sun can’t shine on the same team every day, Jays fans believe it would be nice if the great orb would find their club as it did back in the 1992/93 World Series days. Instead of the reflected glory of past stars winning for other teams. Patience is thin. And time is ticking.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
“The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.”— George Foreman
For those who thought Donald Trump’s role progression (in WWE terms) from face to heel to face again was remarkable, George Foreman had already written the media book on going from the Baddest Man in the World to Gentle Giant.
It’s hard for those who saw him as the genial Grill Master or the smiling man with seven sons all named George (he also had seven daughters, each named differently) to conjure up the Foreman of the 1970s. He emerged as a star at the 1968 Olympics, winning the gold medal in heavyweight boxing. His destruction of a veteran Soviet fighter made him a political hero. In an age that already boasted a remarkable heavyweights Foreman was something unique.
Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle and Jimmy Ellis were still bankable household names for boxing fans— but on the downside of famous careers. They each had their niche. Foreman was something altogether different. Violent and pitiless in the ring. Unsmiling as he dismantled the boxers he met on his way to the top. He was the ultimate black hat.
With the inimitable Howard Cosell as his background track , he entered the ring in 1973 against the favoured ex-champ Frazier, coming off his three epic fights with Ali. While everyone gave Foreman a chance it was thought that the indomitable Frazier, possessor of a lethal left hook, would tame the young bull.
Instead, in under two rounds of savagery , Foreman sent Frazier to the canvas six times. Cosell yelled himself horse crying, “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” This was a whole new level of brutality as the poker-faced Foreman returned to his corner as the most feared boxer on the planet. For good measure Foreman destroyed Norton in 1974.
Fans of Ali quaked when they heard that he would face Foreman’s awesome power in Africa in the summer of 1974. They knew how much the trio of Frazier brawls had taken from him. The prospect of seeing the beloved heavyweight champ lifted off his feet by Foreman’s power left them sick to their stomach. Foreman played up his bad-boy image, wearing black leather, snarling at the press and leading a German shepherd on a leash.
Everyone knows what happened next. We were travelling the time in the era before internet/ cell phones. Anticipating the worst we blinked hard at the headline showing the next day that it was a thoroughly exhausted Foreman who crumbled in the seventh round. The brilliant documentary When We Were Kings is the historical record of that night/ morning in Kinshasa. The cultural clash of Ali, the world’s most famous man, and the brute against the background of music and third-world politics made it an Oscar winner.
But it’s largely about Ali. It doesn’t do justice to the enormity of Foreman’s collapse. Of course the humiliation of that night sent Foreman on a spiritual quest to find himself, a quest that took the prime of his career from him. It wasn’t till 1987 that he re-emerged as a Baptist minister/ boxer. With peace in his soul he climbed the ranks again, defiantly trading blows in the centre of the ring with opponents who finally succumbed to his “old-man” power.
Instead of the dour character who was felled by Ali, this Foreman was transformed in the public’s eye when he captured the heavyweight title in 1994, beating Michael Moore, a man 20 years his junior. He smiled. He teased Cosell and other media types. He fought till he was 48, although he tried to comeback when he was 55 (his wife intervened)
And, yes, for anyone who stayed up late watching TV there was the George Foreman Grill, a pitchman’s delight that earned him more money than his boxing career. HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant commented that “There was a transformation from a young, hard character who felt a heavyweight champion should carry himself with menace to a very affectionate personality.”
There was a short-lived TV show called George. There was The Masked Singer as “Venus Fly Trap”. And there were the cameos on Home Improvement, King Of The Hill and Fast ’N Loud, delighting audiences who’d once reviled him. He cracked up Johnny Carson.
Foreman’s rebound story was uniquely American. Where Canadians are enthusiastically damning Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky for political reasons, Foreman never became a captive of angry radicals or corporate America. He went his own way, thumping the bible and the grill. Rest easy, big man.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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