Let’s take a couple of things for granted at the moment. First, let’s take for granted that in the final analysis, the 2020 US presidential election will be decided in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (who must be mentioned—for, shall we say, reasons). Second, let’s accept the assumption that Joe Biden is genuinely a moderate Democrat and less likely than his history and record suggest to govern along with the trends, which on the left half of the universe right now are decidedly radical. Where would that leave us with regard to “Wokeness,” say like the Critical Race Theory President Trump successfully hamstrung in federal agencies and their contractors by means of executive order?
Nowhere good.
Many people who are skeptical of or opposed to Critical Race Theory and the rather distinctly neo-Maoist flavor of Wokeness more generally vociferously supported Joe Biden and, presumably in most cases, voted for him in this election. They did so on the assumption that the best way to put a halt to the excesses of the Critical Social Justice movement—by which it should be known—would be to remove the irritant in chief, Donald J. Trump, and then take to fighting the culture war against CSJ properly, with the “but Trump!” defense removed from play. I’m not unsympathetic to this argument at the level of the culture war because it is, in fact, right. I think it misunderstands the nature of how the Critical Social Justice ideology works, however.
It must be understood that Critical Social Justice is an administrative and bureaucratic ideology by its very design. It was formulated by activist academics to train not just activists but, very specifically, either people who will go on to produce the culture industry (like in media and arts) or who will become administrative bureaucrats where they can produce a kind of unaccountable policy that we find in HR departments, where pushback is irrelevant unless it’s from the top down. These sorts of people dream of positions not specifically of power and influence, like the presidency, but of training and administrative roles where they will receive relatively little scrutiny or opposition while they engage in their favorite activity of all: telling other people what to do, not directly, but through a shield of very official and institutionally binding paper.
For any of his late and thin comments about the violence that has rocked our streets for the last half of this year, Biden has given us absolutely no indication that he’s going to resist any of this bureaucratic totalitarianism. In fact, he’s done the opposite, using the language of the ideology, like saying he has a “mandate” from the voters (in an election that hasn’t yet even been decided, two weeks later) to take on “systemic racism,” and tapping individuals like Mehrsa Baradaran (who believes in full reparations) for the Treasury Department and Margaret Salazar (whose focus is on “cultural responsiveness”) for Housing and Urban Development. These come among roughly 500 more appointments to his administrative bureaucracy—so far—who allegedly express a commitment to racial justice, in line with precisely the racial equity programs touted by Biden and Harris on their campaign and now transition websites. In few domains has it been signaled that this will be more powerfully considered than in public health and the Covid-19 response, which Biden has already indicated will lead to a permanent position: “At the end of this health crisis, it will transition to a permanent Infectious Disease Racial Disparities Task Force,” we’re told on the Covid-19 priorities page on Biden’s “Build Back Better” transition site.
This renders Biden and, perhaps, Harris largely irrelevant to the “Woke” impacts of their election. They are, if you’ll accept the metaphor, “not the room.” These administrators are the room. Biden (and Harris, maybe) can be as moderate as moderate gets, and if even a modest fraction of the administrators in key departments favor the Critical Social Justice style of policy, that’s most of what we’ll get. So far, we have reason to suspect that at least an eighth of Biden’s administrative apparatus will be in that vein, including in key and powerful sectors like public health—to say nothing of apparatuses like the FBI.
What can we expect from these administrators under Biden the Irrelevant? Equity. Equity is intended to be brought into roughly every sector of the federal government, from education to jobs to banking to climate policy to public health—which will, itself, be used as a rather potent lever against the people. And what is equity? Equity is the adjustment of shares of resources in a society so as to make people or groups of people equal when certain disparities of outcomes exist. Equity is both the measuring stick and functional opposite of “systemic racism,” which is to say that which Critical Race Theory believes is the cause of all racial disparities that do not favor blacks, some Latinos (but not others), and members of other non-white races (under certain conditions).
How any of this will be resisted with entities like the Department of Education, Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, Housing and Urban Development, and so on, stuffed with people whose chief ambition in life is to order the affairs of others so that nothing against the Theory of Critical Social Justice is permissible or tolerated remains unclear. It was, in fact, for the clear-eyed, the central issue on the table in this election: who gets to control these unaccountable administrators? Someone permissive or even sympathetic, or someone who has indicated that he’s starting to understand the problem and is willing to take fair steps to stop it. And all of this goes even without considering that the Senate still hangs in the balance, its majority to be decided in Georgia’s January runoff elections.
In addition to skewing policy so that equity is a priority—indeed, Biden’s campaign website said that it will be achieved, which, in practice, will imply racial quotas, skewed admissions using diversity statements and other means, and other forms of redistribution of opportunities and resources, like preferential jobs investments into certain races but not others—we can also expect Biden will overturn Trump’s executive order that, nominally, “bans Critical Race Theory” training from the federal government and its contractors in certain capacities, though not universally. This is a curious matter, though, to anyone who has taken the ten minutes required to read the executive order itself (which is not long, not complicated, and not drowning in legalese). It’s worth lingering on the issue of this executive order, not because of its symbolic status of fealty or opposition to Critical Social Justice and Critical Race Theory, or even because of its practical effects, but because of the symbolic status that it implies about someone who wants it overturned.
First, let’s dispel a widespread and pervasive myth that seems so deliberately applied as to qualify as something simpler: a systematically pushed, disinforming lie. Trump’s executive order does not ban diversity training or racial sensitivity training, nor does it prohibit teaching the claims of Critical Race Theory in an academic fashion. This doesn’t need to be inferred, by the way. It’s actually explicitly in the order, in Section 10:
Sec. 10. General Provisions. (a) This order does not prevent agencies, the United States Uniformed Services, or contractors from promoting racial, cultural, or ethnic diversity or inclusiveness, provided such efforts are consistent with the requirements of this order. (b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to prohibit discussing, as part of a larger course of academic instruction, the divisive concepts listed in section 2(a) of this order in an objective manner and without endorsement.
Now, what does it prohibit? Teaching as uncontested fact in workplace or academic training settings certain “divisive concepts,” as mentioned, among them race and sex stereotyping, race and sex scapegoating, that meritocracy is itself racist and oppressive, that discrimination should be acceptable, and teaching that the United States is itself an inherently racist or evil entity. The first of the listed concepts prohibited by the order is, to be clear, “(1) one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.” One will notice, by the bye, that this order therefore would ban teaching white supremacy and patriarchy in addition to those portions of Critical Race Theory that do the same in a different way (which happens to be the functional core of it). This means that people who are against this order or who would overturn it—like Biden the Irrelevant—must support at least some of these things.
It is incumbent upon us, in our relative powerlessness against the administrative state that we have presumably collectively empowered, to therefore ask that question repeatedly of Biden, Harris, and everyone else with enough power to be held accountable to it. If they want to (or will) overturn that executive order, which is it that they support: race or sex stereotyping, race or sex scapegoating, believing that merit is racist, racial or sex discrimination, or that America itself is racist or evil? Which things among these do they want taught as uncontested fact, by employer mandate, to our federal employees and employees of federal contractors? And why do they want these things taught, possibly in violation of the Civil Rights Act and other laws? These questions must be put to as many officials in this administration, including Biden and Harris themselves, and many officials in other institutions and organizations, as widely and as often as possible.
So long as we’re talking about things of this kind that Biden, Harris, and others need to be pushed upon as vigorously as possible by those with the courage to do it, is what protection is offered to the everyday American who cares about the relevant issues and yet does not subscribe to the tenets of this sociological faith. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and liberal secular humanism all have different views about race and racism than the Critical one—all of which could rightly be called “anti-racist.” Christians see neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free; all are Muslims in Islam; Buddhists see superficial features like race as worldly illusions; and liberal secular humanists believe that race and racism are matters of individual belief and action, not complex and indescribable systems of domination and power. What protections for their beliefs exist in our workplaces, our professional societies, our schools, and our public lives to hold these admirable beliefs as is guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution, the cornerstone of our republic?
Finally, on the issue of the Constitution itself, since Biden, Harris, and administration are already signaling support of and perhaps fealty to the doctrines of Critical Race Theory, they should be asked—and asked clearly and repeatedly—how it is that they intend to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution given that Critical Race Theory explicitly calls into question the very idea of neutral principles of constitutional law. In their own words, in Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, the authors are quite clear that Critical Race Theory is opposed to such an idea:
The critical race theory (CRT) movement is a collection of activists and scholars engaged in studying and transforming the relationship among race, racism, and power. The movement considers many of the same issues that conventional civil rights and ethnic studies discourses take up but places them in a broader perspective that includes economics, history, setting, group and self-interest, and emotions and the unconscious. Unlike traditional civil rights discourse, which stresses incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law. (emphasis added)
Given that this is the case—it is not mere interpretation or speculation—those who would support or install Critical Race Theory in our federal government and who would enable it within our country owe a tremendous debt of obligation to the American people to explain how they can thread the impossible needle of doing so while protecting and upholding their oath to the Constitution of the United States (if elected and sworn to do so) or its ideals (as responsible Americans mostly should). Sadly, this includes Biden and Harris, along with their administration, not to mention many lawmakers who, in having taken that same oath, should be put to the same basic American test. The questions must be asked, and clear answers must be given.
In summary, there is very little to suggest to me that the Biden administration that we have presumably elected to the highest office in the land and as the leadership of the free world for at least the next four years is prepared to safeguard its people on this issue. In fact, I see quite the opposite, based both upon knowing the Theory itself and understanding how it tends to implement itself through bureaucratic, administrative, and personnel training apparatuses. Whether right or wrong, we seemingly now have to play the game on the field set for us by anti-Woke Biden voters and do everything in our power to hold the relevant parties as accountable as possible.
This article was originally published at RocaNews.
50 comments
I must first apologize for not reading all of the comments. I may be repeating what others have already said.
In his many lectures, Dr. Jordan Peterson has repeatedly stated that in the free enterprise system hierarchies are based on competence, not identity.
In my 30 years as a contract software engineer, I have found this to be true. As a woman, there have been a few instances where I strongly suspect I was hired to fail. There were simply times when the lower level IT staff wanted to prove that the requests of senior management were wrong. I was hired. I delivered and my immediate seniors were not happy.
Far and away, the majority of the times I was hired, it was because my employer wanted success and based upon my resume, had confidence in my ability.
The idea that hierarchies are based on identity, rather than competence is total hooey.
Putting people who lack true competence into power positions inevitably results in a loggerjam with reality. Competence matters. It has nothing to do with race, sexuality, gender or any other shallow and superficial characteristic.
Deliberately giving people power who lack true competence runs headlong into reality, as you have said many times, and disaster is the result.
I have been a contractor in IT for over 30 years. I have worked with and for many truly exceptional people, and many of them have been of one or another minority statuses, including blacks, gays, Indians and women of different backgrounds. I never had a problem working for them and never preferred to work for white, Christian heterosexual men, though many of them were also very competent. I always appreciated the unique abilities of the wonderful people to whom I reported.
The simple fact is that most of us are average, regardless of “woke” characteristics. Average does not equate to competent or leadership abilities. Those are the qualities needed for “power” or “leadership” positions. In my experience, people of truly exceptional abilities are put in leadership positions in the corporate world.
As a person with exceptional ability, but minimal business ambition, I am very grateful. My current manager is a young woman from Venezuela, and I admire the hell out of her and am so grateful for her leadership. One other point, she always listens to my concerns and seems to instinctively know when I am mistaken and when to take heed. That is what leadership is about, not being “important” or “powerful”.
But those relationships were always based upon competence and sincere mutual respect.
NONSENSE! Stop this crazy BS CRT is fine, nothing wrong with it. It’s true and not earth shattering news. You don’t know that peoiple had slaves and that it was bad? COME ON! GET REAL! Stop this utter bullshit before it DROWNS you and everyone else you dumb fucks!
That’s ridiculous. You don’t need to have CRT to know people had slaves and it was bad. What are you talking about?
The link to the executive order changed since the administration changed. It’s been archived.
In the link to the executive order, replace “www.whitehouse” with “trumpwhitehouse.archives” – yes you need to remove the www part or it won’t work. (assuming it hasn’t already been fixed).
Brad-
A little OT: Happy to see I’m not the only one to notice that state governments crap on the Bill of Rights in the name of “fighting” covid. The invocation of the war metaphor re covid doesn’t bode well for liberty or getting rid of masks. National mask mandate anyone?
How many “wars” on (poverty, drugs, obesity, opioids, child porn, human trafficking, ad nauseum), has the US government ever won? Uhhh…none. The wars seem to never go away, people simply forget about them. Then government wages a new one on something else. The control never goes away.
Unfortunately, humans tend to seek authoritarian leadership during crises. They are also sadly willing to “do whatever it takes” “to get over this/stay safe, etc”. They also form tight in/out groups.
An older South Park (Troll Trace) episode contains the line, “We can rely on the rationality and basic decency of the American people”. in fighting a problem. I laughed pretty hard at the rationality part.
Not entirely tangentially, Fauci, governors, et al, never seem to mention may things about covid like:
Nasal swabs (nasopharyngeal) for covid have no reliability. The only way to get a definitive positive finding is to autopsy the body or take (3) different samples simultaneously-nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, and bronchial and test them simultaneously. If all three come back positive, a person likely is infected.
The percent of the US population who have died from covid begins with the number 0 followed by a decimal point and then another zero, etc. For what it’s worth, WHO doesn’t use the term “pandemic”. They refer to covid as a “health emergency or crisis”.
I mentioned the above points and some other data to my fearful neighbor and got a blank stare. I learned my lesson-don’t expect people to be rational when they’re afraid.
Satire websites won’t have to work too hard with Biden/Harris in office.
‘Satire websites won’t have to work too hard with Biden/Harris in office.’
They won’t have to. They’ll be censored out of existence. Remember, criticism=hate speech. Can’t allow that, might cause harm.
‘Satire websites won’t have to work too hard with Biden/Harris in office.’
They won’t have to. They’ll be censored out of existence. Remember, criticism=hate speech. Can’t allow that, might cause harm.
If America had paid attention to the severe discrimination against Blacks from the time they were brought to America, Critical Race Theory wouldn’t have been created. Now America is in a tough spot where it may be required to make restitution.
Turning to the more current, do you think America needs to pay attention to the recent violence against Asian Americans? Or should it just let that go like other previous racial issues?
Unfortunately almost all the people I see and encounter behave like sheep. They have not read any peer-reviewed journal articles on mask effectiveness studies (the unbiased ones conducted before last spring when mask-wearing became political). They know nothing but what they hear from late-night talk show hosts or equally uninformed and biased NPR commentators. They blindly and unquestioningly do what they are told to do by idiots like Newsom, Cuomo, and Fauci. There is simply no thinking going on out there, none at all.
“I expect Biden’s presidency to be a souped up version of the Obama presidency.”
With one notable difference being that Obama’s VP covered up his corruption by masquerading as a goofy Drunk Uncle in the Attic. Biden’s VP, on the other hand, doesn’t even bother to hide her villainy.
Biden’s presidency might not last very long. The real fun could start when the failed Harris Regime is enthroned.
‘With one notable difference being that Obama’s VP covered up his corruption by masquerading as a goofy Drunk Uncle in the Attic.’
The legacy media and Social Media will bury all evidence of corruption under a continental glacier’s worth of of lies, damn lies, censoring, and demonizing. Besides, it isn’t corruption when THEY do it.
Time for some non-cooperation on human growth hormone.
“Time for some non-cooperation on human growth hormone.”
While we agree on the general sentiment, I’ll be glad to see the females to safety, while the younger he-men die on the ramparts. We’ll sing ballads in their memory.
For more than a half-century, Sovereign Patriot gun nutters have been threatening darkly to rise up as one, if’n the statist folderol don’t stop right NOW. In all that time, about the loudest sound that we’ve heard out of them is the tinkling of empty beer cans being thrown at televisions from BarcaLoungers.
We did not see any kind of insurrection, when Nixon was railroaded out of the White House; when Jimmy Carter sold out the Chinese and recognized the Red Chinese; when Boy Clinton turned the White House into a brothel; when George Bush the Younger shredded the Constitution with the USA PATRIOT Act; when Barry Soetero shredded the shreddings of the Constitution with the PPACA’s Mandate that all Americans do business with commercial firms, when his henchmen sold weapons to Mexican narcoterrorists, and when he drafted a Kill List and ordered the assassinations of US citizens; or when governors and local officials violated citizens’ First Amendment rights out of hand in the name of a plague theater plandemic.
WTF are they waiting for, Godot?
All this talk about a third revolution is unconvincing. Our ancestors won one in the late 1700s and lost one in the mid-1800s. Let’s leave it at that and stop making empty promises.
Trump (my opinion) has been the most Libertarian-like president in my lifetime. Unlike Obama, Clinton, and others before them, Trump involved America in no new foreign wars. He also reduced the size and scope of the regulatory state. I fully expect Biden to undo Trump’s Executive Orders.
On another note, Biden supported/voted for American involvement in the wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Biden support other military interventions in foreign countries. I hope not.
I expect Biden’s presidency to be a souped up version of the Obama presidency.
“Anyone ever notice the revolving door of government service/lobbying, sitting on the boards of corporations/working for corporate entities?”
Yes.
https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/index.php
https://www.pogo.org/database/pentagon-revolving-door/
Peggy Noonan from the Wall Street Journal spoke ill of Trump too. News Corp. (Rupert Murdoch) owns The WSJ, Fox News and, The Dow too.
American government is a crony corporatist system. Anyone ever notice the revolving door of government service/lobbying, sitting on the boards of corporations/working for corporate entities?
The American economy is not a free market and hasn’t been for a very long time. Government supports entities that support them. It’s incestuous. Take a look at the loans given to huge corporations, the Export-Import Bank, subsidies, industry friendly legislation, etc.
I frequently have a very difficult time seeing the difference between Democrats and Republicans in terms of spending and desire to increase the size of government. The debt is the largest it’s ever been. It’s going to be young people who have to pay for it, not the 50 y/o and older.
It’s a kind of thievery.
Biden is simply another professional politician. I shall enjoy schadenfreude when he doesn’t turn out to be what people expected. H. L. Mencken once wrote (I paraphrase) voters deserve the government they elect. I didn’t vote for Biden.
Hey, how many of you commenters knew that in 2019, Rand Paul (R) from Kentucky introduced a bill mandating terms limits for congress? It didn’t go anywhere. Big surprise (not).
I am one of those opposed to Critical Race Theory and Wokeness who voted for Joe Biden in this election. I even have firsthand experience with some of the excesses of Wokeness: I am a public school teacher in a school district run by The Woke. And despite that experience, I still voted Biden/Harris without hesitation. Because as I have said before, the MAGA right poses a much greater threat to American liberal society than the Woke left does — at least for this moment in time. Not only do we have the legitimately defeated 1-term President making every effort to overturn the results of that election — including pressuring state election officials to “find 11,780 votes” for him that don’t exist — but we have dozens of members of the US House of Representatives and a dozen members of the US Senate who are all too eager to do their part in this thankfully ill-conceived attempted coup. I recognize that the Woke have worked their way into government bureaucracies and especially into school districts and schools of education, and that some of their language has infected the discourse of the mainstream left. But on the whole, the Democratic Party still believes in democracy, and increasingly, the Republican party is showing itself to be a party that isn’t so committed to the idea. So let us do the work of asking the uncomfortable questions of our elected leaders on the D side as to some of the bad ideas that they rhetorically give credence to. But let us not pretend that a party that increasingly pushes lies about voter fraud and uses them as the basis for attempting to subvert elections is the party that will protect and defend liberal democracy. The MAGA right is the greater threat — at least at the present moment.
Congratulations on posting the first dumb comment I’ve seen on New Discourses.
Charles – we should hold ourselves to a higher standard on this site than what we might say/post on twitter. IMO your one-line put-down response to Scott was twitter level. Please provide a reasoned explanation of your disagreement.
Congratulations on seamlessly pivoting to the next wave of ‘but Trump’ like the election never happened.
People like you are never going to change, you’ll talk out of both sides of your mouth like you care about opposing the woke and but then the second the media blows up another rorschach moment you’ll come down on the side side of your ‘liberal’ betters over and over again.
If people like you genuinely opposed the logic behind BLM and other related moments you’d address your compulsive need to criticise Republicans before you say anything interesting. The thing is you never will because that compulsive need is more foundational to your character than your superficial criticism of wokeness ever will be.
Sandy Ocasio, her Sqaudmates, and her puppetmasters are not even shy about their disdain for the US Constitution—that they swore oaths to uphold—the American Experiment, and Western Civilization. There is no equivalent faction within the Republican Party.
“[T]he MAGA right poses a much greater threat to American liberal society than the Woke left does — at least for this moment in time.”
Please provide examples, and explain them with specificity, and not vague, broad, sweeping generalizations.
In particular:
Which cities have members of the ‘MAGA right’ terrorized?
Which politicians have members fo the ‘MAGA right’ tried to assassinate?
Which Black- and Latino-owned businesses have members of the ‘MAGA right’ burned?
Which police officers have members of the ‘MAGA right’ killed?
‘In particular:
Which cities have members of the ‘MAGA right’ terrorized?
Which politicians have members fo the ‘MAGA right’ tried to assassinate?
Which Black- and Latino-owned businesses have members of the ‘MAGA right’ burned?
Which police officers have members of the ‘MAGA right’ killed?’
All of them, by Proxy. Because if it hadn’t been for the MAGA right and Orange Man Bad in particular, the Woke/Progressives wouldn’t have had to take those extraordinary measures to get him out of office. ‘Look at what you made me do by not kissing my a**’. See how it works?
Which cities have the Maga right terrorized? How about Washington DC, just today (January 6) — specifically the US Capitol?!
You mean the same city that Antifa and BLM set on fire way back in 2020? That Washington DC?
I love the selective outrage.
And this compares to Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Milwaukee, and other places how exactly? One short-lived event compared (in the case of Chicago) to looting sprees coordinated on social media? The staggering homicide spikes in those cities (and others) were not caused by your MAGA boogiemen.
I would say at this point NEITHER party is especially interested in defending liberal democracy, but the Democrats are much less interested. This is especially true of you look at what comes out of the mouths of their younger leaders. And stealing an election? Interesting how no one talks about how the dems managed to bury Bernie Sanders not once, but twice. And they had their candidates sign party loyalty oaths early in the primary process. And then skewed the process to favor candidates with rich backers. And when was the last time you saw a democrat actually call out some of those woke excesses you mention, Scott? Those “mostly peaceful” super-spreader events of the past summer? Or even admit they screwed up when they violated their own COVID restrictions (and no, “I wasn’t thinking” or “perhaps I could have made a better choice” doesn’t qualify as standing up and saying “I was wrong to do this”)?
Would this be the same Democrat party that established the precedent in every presidential election they’ve lost in recent history, that a few Republicans are only just now finding the gumption to follow? That Democracy™-loving party?
Honestly, if you want to be taken seriously here, or anywhere else for that matter, it would behoove you to form your opinion with all of the facts, and not just those which cleave to your obvious biases.
I could continue refuting your superficial opinion, but I’d like to see you address this one glaring flaw in your argument before continuing, just to see if you’re here in good faith, or simply trolling.
well said. Now we need to do what James halfheartedly suggested: now have to play the game on the field set for us by anti-Woke Biden voters and do everything in our power to hold the relevant parties as accountable as possible.
well said. Now we need to do what James halfheartedly suggested: now have to play the game on the field set for us by anti-Woke Biden voters and do everything in our power to hold the relevant parties as accountable as possible.
Well said? I estimated your grasp of the situation to be firmer than this. Another disappointment from a significant contributor here. It might be time to re-evaluate this website’s utility if this level of analysis is the most prevalent.
Your outlook will attract no allies beyond what remaining few you already have on the center Left.
The events of today, January 6th, the storming of the Capitol by a Trump-inspired mob, prove me correct. I stand by what I said.
What happened in DC today pales in comparison to the violence and destruction Leftist rioters unleashed upon our nation’s capitol last year, let alone the rest of the country. 2020 showed that violence and anarchy is an acceptable mode of expression in the United States. If you don’t like that, turn your ire to the politicians and media who gave their blessing to it. One of them is about to preside over the Senate.
You can pretend that protesters entering the rotunda, a public building, is comparable to leftist violence which inflicted tens of billions of dollars in damage nationwide and, by the way, also resulted in a significant body count and the destruction of lives, but that would be foolish. This was all violence, murder, and anarchy that Joe Biden has yet to condemn to this very day, in stark contrast to Trump who has condemned it all up to this very day.
Other than a Trump supporter who was killed under dubious circumstances, who was physically assaulted by the protesters? How many buildings looted and set alight? Care to compare notes about protests?
I have run out of patience for disingenuous, partisan garbage takes like yours.
gmmayo70
I bet you too noticed how the defund the police advocates were suddenly happy to have police protection from yesterday’s rioters. Could that mean they really don’t care about the plebs?
Considering the mayor of DC told Federal Law Enforcement to stand down and not protect the capital because her police – who can be seen in videos allowing the protesters into the capitol building – were supposedly prepared to handle the threat of “armed groups” (her words) that apparently didn’t seem to whip out all those guns and start shooting…it looks to me like yesterday was a result of the same sort of city leadership we saw throughout 2020 that encouraged and enabled violence, rather than maintaining order.
But the narrative was set last night and sober analysis never had a chance to see the light of day.
gmmayo70-
The attack on Congressmembers brought to mind a Twilight Zone episode, The Obsolete Man.
This episode is a comment about how truth and logic/thinking are enemies of the state.
I had a very similar discussion with someone. You’ll notice congress got back to business within hours…no CHAZ was established in the rotunda or anything even close. I also have yet to see significant footage of Molotovs being thrown in the building or at responding officers. And the spin that’s being put on the story of the woman who was killed is disgusting. The same people who buried mention of Floyd’s background are making sure the less-savory aspects of hers are front and center.
Is Trump blameless? No. To claim he is would be disingenuous and right up there with the people on the other side who absolve their own of at least partial responsibility for the events of the summer of 2020. I fault the elites of BOTH sides for cynically exploiting the anger and hopelessness of those they claim they want to help.
And yes, the irony of the “defund” people hiding behind the very officers they want to defund does not escape me. Nor do their howls when not long back they were loudly proclaiming “it’s only property ” and rushing to dismiss charges against other demonstrators. The media stampede to call this an insurrection is also pretty irresponsible in my view.
Relatedly, media and the democrats now “think” the election process is secure. They weren’t saying that in 2016.
For four years, Americans heard how the election was stolen/Russian collusion, etc. Somehow, I’m not convinced Biden/Harris will not “unify” the country.
James is censoring content which gets to the actual heart of the matter of what allows this conspiracy theory and racial scapegoating? Not so brave after all…
James says there are two strategies available to disrupt the progress of this increasingly hegemonic pseudo-reality on it’s way to implementing totalitarian control over all of us– reject it or refute it. I see James doing a lot of rejecting it. I haven’t seen him fully refute it. And I can understand why because it comes at great cost and serious risk to anyone who does– yet I think refute it we must do. Yes, reject it. But the bogus arguments on which it builds it’s pseudo-reality must also be addressed head-on and refuted. Why is it’s primary tenet not being more directly refuted by practically anyone? Because it is so incredibly taboo. But this taboo must be broken. The longer we shun acknowledging the reality the more we are allowing the pseudo-reality to expand it’s destruction. Let me be direct— the primary tenet of woke social justice is that there is systemic racism everywhere. Despite the fact that nobody seems to have specific examples of actual practices of racism we can infer it is there because of disparate outcomes among population groups (races). Ergo the only (acceptable) explanation as to why one population group would be over or under represented in any particular area can only be oppression/ unfair discrimination/ racism. This is a system of para-logic. Clearly there are many more variables to consider that could be much more causally linked and have actual evidence of their existence than the bald assertion that: differences in outcome exist, hence racism, QED. So far I have only rejected their assertion which is really a baseless conspiracy theory and scapegoating – as it is of course the fault of an evil, privileged cabal- straight white men for the failings of another group- mostly blacks. But refuting this nonsense goes further. A thorough refuting provides an alternative explanation for differential outcomes. For example- Why are black men more likely to be over-represented in prisons? Because they tend to commit more crime. Why is the black crime and murder rate way out of scale with other population groups? Because they commit way more crime and murder. But why do they commit more crime and murder? Ultimately there are biological explanations for this. Why are asians over-represented in intellectually rigorous fields (STEM) and higher education in general? Because they tend to have high IQs and are very capable in these fields which also fosters a culture which further reinforces academic success. Why would we expect population groups which evolved separately under different selective pressures for hundreds of generations to all have identical distributions of traits? We shouldn’t. And THAT is the real explanation that DOES explain the differences with no para-logic involved in order to uphold a pseudo-reality which results in a para-morality which demonizes one group who happens to do relatively better than another and leads to a world none of us would want to live in. We have reached a crescendo of madness wherein we either finally accept and even welcome the reality of true human diversity (yes we are different- so what?!). We are all unique as individuals and that should be our focus. If we compare population groups of course we will find average differences. So what? The obsession with splitting everyone into groups and then looking for differences and unfairly blaming each other is leading to the destruction of everything good. It’s time to directly refute racial conspiracy theories and racial scapegoating. James has done monumental work in the field of understanding CRT but I suspect he has not dared allow himself to examine the ultimate taboo that racial differences are real and significant in important ways and that there are biological underpinnings for these differences. But I suggest all of us, as thinking people interested in maintaining civilization and avoiding the abyss which we are now peering into need to begin confronting uncomfortable truths – especially the fact of human variation among population groups and the genetic underpinnings of such. Because they are truths. If you doubt that- do your homework. I have. And honestly it’s not so scary. And besides, trying to pretend reality is not reality only leads us back into this same problem- the construction of pseudo-reality based on para-logic and the resulting para-morality which follows.
I doubt if James agrees with this genetic bull squash you are spouting, Brian. Your post, which appears to suggest that Asians are genetically inclined toward higher IQs, and that blacks, like Klingons, have a genetic predisposition toward violence and aggression, gives little consideration to cultural influences. Are you suggesting that such influences are simply an outgrowth of a particular gene pool?
For example, many Asian-American families put an emphasis on scholastic achievement that might seem draconian to many. And even if they, as a group, do have higher IQs, the myriad other factors at play don’t justify your confidence — which is not shared by the bulk of the scientific community — in the role played by genes in the dynamics of various groups.
Historic black-white tensions in this country have resulted in many bizarre pathologies, such as the idea that doing well academically is considered “acting white” by a noteworthy swath of the young black population. This in turn may affect the importance they attach to scholastic achievement as parents, as well as lead to low expectations on the part of educational institutions.
Whatever part genetics plays in various cultural memes and mores is murky at best. I certainly don’t think discussion of the genetic variances among different populations, or any other topic, should be taboo. I just think you have lost sight of the forest as you bark up this one tree.
I have done that homework as Brian mentioned AND HE’S RIGHT. I have an advanced degree in genetics as well as an MD and I have studied this question exhaustively. The problem is that the taboo has grown so great, that no one can get published on anything that addresses the real, substantive, increasingly quantifiable genetic differences.
‘Many people who are skeptical of or opposed to Critical Race Theory and the rather distinctly neo-Maoist flavor of Wokeness more generally vociferously supported Joe Biden and, presumably in most cases, voted for him in this election. They did so on the assumption that the best way to put a halt to the excesses of the Critical Social Justice movement—by which it should be known—would be to remove the irritant in chief, Donald J. Trump, and then take to fighting the culture war against CSJ properly, with the “but Trump!” defense removed from play.’
Putting the symptom ahead of the cause. These are the same people who worship style over substance, appearance over reality, words over deeds. The Woke, who obey no rules other than might makes right, will rip them up and trample on their bodies on the way to absolute power.
I like the reference to what happened to the Puritan Revolution. I call it the ‘Cromwell effect’, in that Oliver Cromwell once he came to power out of necessity was forced to implement many of the odious practices he denounced while a backbencher. This can be seen time and again during and after the consolidation of power after a government overthrow.
‘which is it that they support: race or sex stereotyping, race or sex scapegoating, believing that merit is racist, racial or sex discrimination, or that America itself is racist or evil?’
All of them, of course.
Regarding freedom of religion: ‘What protections for their beliefs exist in our workplaces, our professional societies, our schools, and our public lives to hold these admirable beliefs as is guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution, the cornerstone of our republic?’
Islam will get a free pass. Everyone else will be forced to bow down to the Neon God the Woke have erected.
‘In summary, there is very little to suggest to me that the Biden administration that we have presumably elected to the highest office in the land and as the leadership of the free world for at least the next four years is prepared to safeguard its people on this issue.’
They’ll safeguard the Woke as they march in lockstep. Everyone else is fair game for the Woke.
‘how it is that they intend to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution given that Critical Race Theory explicitly calls into question the very idea of neutral principles of constitutional law.’
They won’t, and their answer to that question will be a big FU, you bigot. If the Georgia Senate election is stolen for the Democrats, we’ll probably found out within the year how big an FU it is once the court is packed.
‘Thank you Jonah Goldberg for the failed Harris Regime. Thank you Tucker Carlson for the failed Harris Regime. Thank you National Review editors for the failed Harris Regime.’
And once the new administration takes power, the NeverTrumpers traitors to the American Experiment will be kicked to the curb by the people who financed their efforts, and deservedly so. Without Trump in office they’re just kittens in a sack mewling piteously and helplessly as they’re carried to the harbor. They hated Orange Man Bad because he wasn’t part of their clique of ineffectual gracious oppositional losers.
“And once the new administration takes power, the NeverTrumpers traitors to the American Experiment will be kicked to the curb by the people who financed their efforts, and deservedly so.”
The biggest shame of it is that they likely will go back to pretending to be Opposition mouthpieces, seamlessly resume nipping at Democrats’ heels—which inevitably leads to a rude and humorous image, in Harris’s case—and re-ingratiate themselves with those who oppose Biden’s handlers. For them, it will be back to business-as-usual.
Meanwhile, poor Trump will have to slink back to his palatial home in Palm Beach with his smoking hot bride, and console himself with his billions of dollars and with his newfound popularity among the Deplorables.
‘Meanwhile, poor Trump will have to slink back to his palatial home in Palm Beach with his smoking hot bride, and console himself with his billions of dollars and with his newfound popularity among the Deplorables.’
The new Attorney General will go hammer and tongs after Orange Man Bad. Because it is not enough to defeat him; he must be thoroughly destroyed so that his kind never rise again (David Plouffe). The pursuit of this goal may make make the Trump haters and NeverTrumpers feel go, but they’ll be making a martyr of the man to even those who hated him but voted for him. It may make him even more powerful than he was when he was President.
It is amazing how much they hate him. He really must have touched a nerve.
He threatened them where it hurt the most, in the piggy bank.
Let us all take a moment to thank all the Never Trupmers for delivering us into the hands of the failed Harris Regime. But for their dogged efforts over the past four years, Pres. Trump likely would have won reelection in a landslide.
Thank you Jonah Goldberg for the failed Harris Regime. Thank you Tucker Carlson for the failed Harris Regime. Thank you National Review editors for the failed Harris Regime.
Thank you. Thank you all.
Don’t forget Bill Kristol, David French, and Tom Nichols. All board members of the Habitually Wrong, Never in Doubt Club.
All of them undoubtedly oblivious to the fact that they are no longer relevant to anyone other than themselves.
“Don’t forget Bill Kristol, David French, and Tom Nichols.”
Not that we should follow Sandy Ocasio’s example and maintain a blacklist, but, yes: Do not forget them or any other RINO who would rather see the USA ruled by unregistered Red Chinese agents than risk having their fragile sensitivities injured by being one-upped by a boor who keeps the promise made by almost every US President since the end of WWII to relocate the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; a boor who negotiates peace in the Middle East and between Kosovo and Serbia; a boor who orders the drawdown of the US military in Afghanistan, rather than drone-strike wedding parties; a book who does not maintain a Kill List; and a boor who does not sell weapons to Mexican narcoterrorists.
exactly
“… which on the left half of the universe right now are decidedly radical”
Many (perhaps most) on the left also don’t believe in CRT and Wokeness. Why do you turn your back on potential allies as your first move? You are surprisingly like CRT’s followers in that regard. If you truly want to kill these bad ideas, you need all the allies you can get. I offer this because I believe in your analysis but not so much your tactics. I want you to succeed. We must succeed.