There’s a thing Martin Luther King Jr said, that’s partially quotedHere, and I apologize for the source, but I’m a busy bee this morning and that’s the first link I could find that covered it.
Anyway, the point being is that this guy personifies exactly what MLK was saying. Outwardly an American liberal (which isn’t really the same thing that everyone everywhere uses the word liberal for, hence the specification). On the surface, he’s all for the typical ideas of equality and humanity that the word liberal is supposed to cover. But underneath, he convinces himself he’s not racist or sexist because he’s willing to vote and speak around those ideas.
But, in practice, he’s internalized the same patriarchal, bigoted fallacies as many other people do. Mind you, it is difficult to abandon the sense of superiority that thinking you’re open minded gives you long enough to actually examine yourself. And it’s his arrogance that makes it unlikely he’ll ever do the kind of self examination necessary to police himself enough to try and change.
That arrogance was reinforced by the power he held.
I mean, I don’t hate the guy. For one, hating some random stranger is a waste of energy. But he isn’t unique in his failings. Damn near every human on the planet fails at the kind of self examination necessary to see themselves as flawed. Even the best efforts can fail because it’s just so damn hard to look at yourself and divorce that view from your own inner thoughts and motivations. Being objective about the self is hard. Even when someone knows all of that, actually pulling off that objectivity is a long road filled with potholes. I know I sure as fuck fail at it often.