MAGA victimhood hits turbulence on the way to Orania – Ivo Vegter

Key topics:MAGA reporter claims racial profiling en route to South AfricaVegter critiques right-wing victimhood mirroring woke identity politicsSatirical takedown questions truth behind VanBuskirk's passport tale.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..By Ivo Vegter.A white reporter from America who travelled to South Africa to investigate claims of genocide was cruelly mistreated upon boarding his aeroplane.The political right has long criticised the “woke” left, quite fairly, over what has become known as the “victim Olympics”.It criticises a perceived victimhood mentality that ascribes social status to the degree of oppression to which one is supposedly subject, by virtue of one’s membership of one or more marginalised groupings.Ironically, the term itself arose in feminist discourse in 1993, to denounce the idea: “…the general idea is no competition of hierarchies should prevail. No ‘Oppression Olympics’!”Yet critical race theory, intersectionality, and associated ideas that emerged from the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School of sociology did establish de facto, if not de jure, hierarchies.Venn diagramOne could be discriminated against, or enjoy privilege, on the basis of any number of identity factors, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, disability, immigration status, class, poverty, mental health, appearance, and age.The more Venn diagram circles you inhabit, the more oppressed you are, so the logic went. And the only people who weren’t in any of the circles were middle-aged, upper- and middle-class, heterosexual white males.That all of the above have been, and sometimes continue to be, grounds for discrimination and marginalisation is not in dispute.Society has made enormous progress in eradicating institutional discrimination and giving effect to the notion that everyone is equal before the law, but for many, the struggle for equality remains real.How that struggle is conducted varies, depending on where you are. It often does include “affirmative action” strategies that could be considered to violate the non-discrimination principle central to classical liberal thought.It is reasonable to oppose such strategies as a matter of principle, without denying the reality of historical or on-going discrimination.Ever vigilantThat we ought to be ever vigilant against institutional and personal discrimination is an entirely different proposition from valorising membership of nominally oppressed groups and extending preferential treatment to individuals on the basis of their identitarian victimhood.Left-wing identity politics (like its economics) is collectivist, rather than individualist. It ascribes status or prescribes special treatment for individuals based not on their personal traits and circumstances, but on the basis of their group identity.The criticism from the right, that this entrenches rather than eliminates structural differentiation, and even renormalises segregation and privileged classes, is not wrong.Left-wing identity politics guides policy at many companies, at academic institutions, and in governments. It also guides journalists, most of whom emerge from left-leaning academia and haven’t had a real job in their lives.As Marian Tomsey once wrote for the Australian Spectator: “When you don’t have real stories; when your ‘journalists’ aren’t experienced or credible enough to get real stories – or when your ‘journalists’ aren’t really journalists, but ‘content producers’ – run victim stories. All you need is some sad sack (it helps get clicks if they’re easy on the eye) and a semi-credible tale of woe – or woke.”HorrifyingThat brings us to the story of one such sad sack, who has a semi-credible tale of woe.His name is Derek VanBuskirk, and he is a reporter from the Daily Caller, founded by Tucker Carlson as the “conservative answer to The Huffington Post”.VanBuskirk is an intrepid newshound, who with the courage of Daniel undertook to enter the lion’s den of South Africa “to investigate claims of genocide in the country”.As a middle-aged, upper-middle-class and presumably heterosexual white male, he knew to expect danger. He was heading into the jungle, without even as much as a mosquito-netted pith helmet for protection.Upon landing in South Africa, VanBuskirk made a beeline for the “safe-haven” of Orania to uncover The TRUTH™. This is mildly puzzling, because the Daily Caller already published The TRUTH About What’s Happening In South Africa, straight from an Afrikaner who thinks of herself as “the voice of the voiceless”. (It breaks my heart to think how hard her life in South Africa must have been as a pretty, young, blonde, white woman.)Despite VanBuskirk’s prudent retreat to Orania, he fell victim to a black man even before he arrived in the country.He reports: “I actually have already been racially profiled. It actually happened in Paris as I was getting onto the plane.”Dutch nameApparently, a black South African in a suit engaged him in an “intense” conversation, and asked to see his passport. The man allegedly asked where VanBuskirk was from, and when he said “California”, the man told him his last name was Dutch.“I just boarded and the racism has already started,” VanBuskirk reportedly told his editors. “It didn’t even occur to me that I might be confused with an Afrikaner.”I’m calling bullshit. Perhaps something like this conversation took place, but was just friendly small-talk among waiting passengers. I strongly doubt that an actual immigration agent asked VanBuskirk about his name. I also doubt that the incident was “intense”, unless you’re the type to get tense in the presence of black men.I happen to speak Dutch, and VanBuskirk does not look particularly Dutch. There is no place called “Buskirk” in the Netherlands, and “kirk” is not a Dutch word. It looks, in fact, like an Americanised version of what might once have been a Dutch name.Indeed, when I looked up the name, it seems to be a bastardisation of the name Van Boskerck (which transates to “of Bush/Woods/Forest Church”). The only modern references to similarly named places I can find are in Belgium, but Van Boskerck looks like Flemish or old Dutch, at least.If the name had been adopted into Afrikaans, it would have been written as Van Boskerk, and not VanBuskirk.It is highly unlikely that a black South African immigration official would have an opinion on the etymology of VanBuskirk’s name. It has no relevance whatsoever for immigration purposes.It might be of some interest to a well-read, well-travelled black businessman, as a subject for small-talk, but that does not amount to “racial profiling”.I have travelled internationally countless times, and not once did anyone remark on the origins of any of my names, which really are Dutch.ProfilingVanBuskirk’s story doesn’t ring true. Even if it is, however, being asked to produce a passport is a routine part of travelling internationally.It isn’t like being too swarthy on the streets of South Africa and being asked by a policeman to produce a passbook. Showing your passport when boarding an aeroplane is expected of everyone, including middle-aged, upper- and middle-class, heterosexual white males.Clearly, VanBuskirk has already written his story in his head, and he’s playing the lead, personally experiencing the dire oppression of white people in South Africa.He’ll seek out people who will confirm his preconceived notion of what The TRUTH™ is, which is that white people are at least victims of oppression, and likely victims of genocide, in South Africa.How the poor fellow will ever recover from being asked for his passport, or being asked about the origin of his name, I don’t know. Perhaps someone could pass along the contact details of a counsellor who specialises in white trauma.But seriously, if you’re going to criticise the “woke” left over its victimhood complex, it doesn’t do to go around acting the put-upon victim yourself. It clashes with the myth of rugged self-reliance which is such a cultural touchstone for the MAGA movement.VanBuskirk mirrors Donald Trump, at least. Cluck cluck!.*This article was first published by Daily Friend and is republished with permission

MAGA victimhood hits turbulence on the way to Orania – Ivo Vegter

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