“Growing up in a place like Nigeria means you appreciate what we have in the UK and in the West,” - As an immigrant myself to the UK (and prior to that to the US), it is remarkable how those of us who have seen true inequality, true racism, true lack of opportunities (and the effects of socialist policies) are the most staunch defenders of Western Civilisation. Thank you MP Badenoch and thank you Zoe Strimpel for a great morning read.
We are alike. I was raised and later worked in a banana republic and know firsthand what it is to live in a real police state repressive country where police brutality is an everyday occurrence, where fear, murder and torture are used to keep the people in line.
Ronald Regan was right when he called the U.S. "The shining city on the hill." The purpose of the Democrat/Communist Party is to use their communist minions, BLM, ANTIFA, Woke, Political Correctness, CRT to destroy us from within.
The left will denigrate what I have just said and call me names. I am not a right-wing nut case. I consider myself to be a right of center conservative. But I am more than that. I am an educated avid reader of history. It is simple for me to justify saying the Democrats are on the road to communism. All you have to do is read a short history of communism and its tactics, to see that I am right.
Absolutely is "The shining city on the hill", and it is SO DARN HARD to get to that shinny city on the hill as an immigrant (especially legally)... it is infuriating that when you arrive, some over-pampered, pseudo-intellectuals with a guilt complex for having it so easy, want to tear it down.
We can all agree that society is perfectible and the West has sins to atone for - but so do every single society on Earth since the beginning of history. We also can all agree that neither extreme (right or left) is good.
But can the West please, please stop this self destruction process? From my side, all sins forgiven and let's move forward to continue with the progress achieved through civilised history.
MP Badenoch is a remarkable woman - lucky Britain!
Now Commonsense needs to report on the many wonderful rising stars in the GOP. I look to the politicians the brilliant Peter Thiel supports: Sen. Josh Hawley, Senate candidates JD Vance in Ohio & Blake Masters in Arizona. Or how about CA gov candidate Larry Elder. I would love to see Candice Owens and Charlie Kirk run for office. But then I believe all have been endorsed or are liked by Trump, so I won't hold my breath. I dare Commonsense to report on one GOP candidate in a positive way. And please not the ones who will never win again as a Republican, Lynn Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
Most histories I've read are long, like a biography of Stalin and I read them between 30 and 40 years ago. Many of these histories can be pretty dry and most people read novels not histories. When I said a short history, I meant for the reader to find a short history themselves.
For example, right now I am reading Wiliam Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" which is over 1700 pages long. I don't know of many people who will slog through a novel that long, much less a history.
Years ago I read his "Berlin Diary" which was excellent so I decided to try his book on Hitler's Third Reich. So far Shirer is true to form and the book is as good as "Diary".
I've known several Nigerian emigrants to America. We have a fairly large population in the Sacramento, CA area, as well as emigrants from the Soviet Union. Both groups tend to be almost militantly conservative. Having experienced socialism first hand, they tend to be extremely attuned to Left-wing lunacy and authoritarianism. One of the USSR refugees goes to my church; he says the actions of the Left today (the LGBT loyalty oaths, the shouting down of dissenting views, the struggle sessions, the forced apologies to keep your job, etc...) remind him of growing up in Soviet Uzbekistan. My dentist (from Communist Romania) says the same thing.
Perhaps we ought to be listening to these emigrants. They seem to understand the good in our civilization better than we do.
When I was in graduate school in the early 00s, I began to notice a phenomenon on campus: African blacks would return a smile in passing, while American blacks would glare.
I had seen the glares before, when we lived in a mixed race (white, black, and hispanic) neighborhood of Topeka. But this was my first introduction to the fact that most black Africans have a very different mindset than American blacks.
As someone with similar experience I can say that, while some of the Left-wing lunacy and theatrics are concerning, but not overly so because I have seen that happen and I have also seen it go away.
What I haven't seen despite my commie childhood and what shocks me much more than brainwashed kids shouting slogans is the likes of Pelosi, Maxine, Feinstein, Clintons, Kennedys, Bushes, Biden, Cuomos, Romneys and I can go on and on - people who are forever in power, whose children are in power, who cannot be replaced. That I have not seen anywhere outside of North Korea - and the US and Canada.
Well said! I had a Hungarian professor in college who had no illusions about Communism, but even then (early 80s) he said (inaccurately, as it turned out) that the major difference between capitalism and communism was that communist elites didn't perpetuate family dynasties, while family dynasties were increasingly dominating America. He was wrong about communist countries, but he was right about America--and of course it's now gotten completely out of control. We may as well be living in late Renaissance Italy, with a bunch of mediocre distantly related heirs of original founding geniuses wrecking our country with their entitled self-indulgence, bad judgment and incompetence.
Her lines about Madame Tinubu are particularly interesting. A strong black entrepreneurial woman who was powerful enough to help elevate men to the kingship in Nigeria and fought for her country's independence, but was primarily a slave trader. She fought for independence of Nigeria from Britain, but in large part because they interfered with her business activities. They had banned slave trading, and that was a primary business for her. She still sold illegally to Brazil and others and sought to get around the ban.
It is actually a truth that in many places in Africa, slavery continued long after emancipation in the US and, when ended, it was usually by the ban and efforts of a white colonial power. Bizarrely, Ethiopa had continued slavery until fascist Italy took it over. Apparently illegal slave trading continued at fairly sizeable levels in Nigeria until around the 1940's.
Chattel slavery still continues as a significant practice today in Niger and places on the southern cusp of the Sahara, of course.
Oh, bloody good show, a Member of Parliament, whom is a black woman, raised by two doctors (one medical the other psychology), in Lagos, Nigeria, where white people are definitely not the majority, she represents Saffron Walden, England’ that doesn’t even have one half of 1% of black people living in the area. Proceeded to lavish red herring dog whistles on the floor of Parliament “according to the parliamentary record, Hansard, the term “critical race theory” had never once been uttered in the House of Commons chamber. By the end of the day on 20 October, however, it was of such importance that the government declared itself “unequivocally against” the concept. “We do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt,” warned the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch…” White privilege, Critical Race Theory, etc. wasn’t being taught in schools, but that really was the point anyway, the point was to make headlines, just like Donald Trump.
Kemi Badenoch says: “Growing up in a place like Nigeria means you appreciate what we have in the UK and in the West,” being raised by two doctors and shipped off to England at 16 years of age to receive a free education, I wonder how many black girls living in poverty, in America, would love to have her problem!
Michelle, an intelligent Individual, doesn’t simply denigrate the source of the material because that would display Intellectual Incompetency or laziness. A wise person knows: It’s better to say nothing and appear unintelligent than to say something and remove any doubt!
I stand by my comment for the simple reason that I DO read, extensively, many sources. I am on this substack....as are you. I have read Guardian articles for years and find their single stance on all issues ultra progressive and unworthy of debate. I am the least intellectually lazy person I know and have a lot of ammo against the Guardian, which is the U. K. version of the NYT. You can kiss my @$$ for your self righteous implication. You have no idea who I am or what I know.
Michelle, a mature intellect has the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff; for example, you could have found out; if it was correct that the parliamentary records showed that critical race theory had never been spoken of before October 20, 2020, on the floor of Parliament. You could’ve also determined that Kemi Badenoch uttered the phrase critical race theory for the first time on the floor of Parliament. But your prejudice prevented you from doing so! When someone says: “ I am the least intellectually lazy person I know….” Implies that your intellect is superior to everyone you know, something I would not do; besides associating with people of all different intellect, I try to associate with people who have a superior intellect to mine; that way, I acquire knowledge. Below you’ll find links to confirm the above.
I don't waste my precious time on political word games. A rose is a rose, except in politics. And since my sphere of influence is quite small, I stand by my statement about intellectual laziness and myself. Since you have no idea how many people I know, nor do you know me, you're not qualified to make a judgement about my intellect or laziness. Anybody who actually knows me would say the exact same thing about me as I stated about myself. Go find something else to do. You have proven beyond a doubt that you are an insecure, self-righteous hack.
You're a real joke. Most everyone here is Your intellectual superior. You ever learn?
Nup.
Your links mean next to nothing. But You certainly prove beyond a shadow of a doubt (if there ever was any) that You're an upjumped kid who is nothing more than a troll. Thank You for making my points.
Try learning from Your betters sometime, instead of waging meaningless battles to assuage Your hero complex.
You maybe should read the article before making such a declaration. It doesn't appear to me to espouse a particular set of opinions rather than give truthful, accurate information and assessment in relation to the conversation on Critical Race Theory. If you are ruling out all of the information strictly because of the source, I would be curious to know what media outlet you think doesn't push propaganda at times. I think your answer would give a useful context to your previous comment.
"By importing Trump’s culture war, the Conservatives are trying to close down any discussion of structural inequality"
Trump's got nothing with how stupid CRT is. And if You had any knowledge of the laws in the U.S. that prohibit the teaching of it, You'd know that they do *not* prohibit discussions of race. They prohibit the stupidity of CRT. Categorizing people according to skin color, for one. Which is the *definition* of racism.
Funny that. How racist "anti-racism" of CRT is. Dunno how it is in England, but know I won't find out much in that propaganda piece from The Guardian.
Apparently you only need to see the cover to read the book.... CRT is more racist than slavery because it creates invisible chains disguised to look like ladders out of poverty. The leftist approach to race relations is all about power and not at all about freedom. As far as your "information", you're either ignorant or a blatant liar. Several states are allowing the CRT approach in the classroom. If you had a child, you would also be hearing about it from them, who see it every day. People like you are the reason that truth becomes propaganda, because it doesn't fit the narrative.
Tell me something I don't know. I agree with what You "said" above except I'm not *as* ignorant as You claim, and anybody who knows me at all knows I just don't lie.
Either Way, it would-a been a waste of time to read that article. I shouldn'a judged the book by it's cover? I'm spending the day reading two books which are more interesting than that article and Your comment.
I had been reading the Guardian, as well as the BBC, The Sun, The Independent, plus multiple other worldwide newspapers for decades. I stopped reading the Guardian about five years ago when it became clear they are a one trick pony. There is nothing neutral written in that paper; everything has an ultra progressive slant. I studiously avoid ANY publication that has an obvious agenda; why else would I be subscribing to substacks??? Does that not speak for itself? I don't need to list my reading material here to prove anything; but I will tell you that my last two books were a history of slavery in the U.S. written in 1872 by Henry Wilson; 3 volumes done; over 2400 pages; and the history of Ireland's conquest by England, going back to the Anglo Saxon and Norman conquests of the 1000's and the papal decree giving Ireland to England, including in detail the political and industrial tactics used by England and the Aristocracy to violently, culturally and financially oppress the Irish Catholics. I spend a minimum of three hours a day reading from multiple carefully cultivated sources. So, yeah, I stand by my assessment. Is that enough context?
Perhaps reading what you write before you add it to a public forum might be a good idea.
You wrote:
"...a black woman, raised by two doctors (one medical the other psychology), in Lagos, Nigeria, where white people are definitely not the majority, she represents Saffron Walden, England’ that doesn’t even have one half of 1% of black people living in the area."
Are you suggesting that this person is not qualify to represent her electorate because of her race, or are you even more radical and believe that a black person raised in Africa is, by that fact, disqualified from representing white folk from England? Regardless, the statement is astonishing and it tells something about you, just like this one:
You also wrote that a black woman was "shipped" to England from Africa.
You accuse a rising political star of trying to "make headlines" which would be equivalent of accusing a football player for trying to score goals.
Your repeated use of the word doctor reminded me of "Spies Like Us", when Chase and Aykroyd pretend to be doctors, stand in a circle with a bunch of other doctors who all great one another by saying "doctor" over and over again. Should be make sure that any aid to say Ukraine does not go to the children of doctors because their parents are, well, doctors?
Fielding, how peculiar, you read multiple facts and conjure up out of thin air that I’m attacking her, it would appear you have preconceived concepts, and It’s quite puzzling how you came up with numerous conclusions.
I only stated two opinions:
1. “…the point was to make headlines, just like Donald Trump.”
2. “I wonder how many black girls living in poverty, in America, would love to have her problem!”
In keeping with your tone, I believe you owe me an apology.
You just described Kamala Harris to a T. Tries to get mileage out of the woman-of-color thing and talks about being bussed as a kid, but grew up a daughter of privilege with two successful parents and is really less than half black. Probably never experienced discrimination in her life.
I wonder how many black girls in Africa, where the average income is $4k, would love to have the problem of being a black girl in what the US defines as poverty, which at the high end is several times that. And they would certainly love to grow up in USA with its greater opportunites, leading to a $44k average african american income.
Substack, the Brits average income is about $7000 more than we Yankee, so we are about comparable. In the United States, the average income is around 31,000. In England, it’s £31 447 or about $38,000. England and the United States' standard of living isn’t that far off compared to Africa; that’s why your comparison isn’t comparable!
Sadly I think too many are way too comfortable with everything the previous generations fought for. What scares me the most though is politicians who immigrate from these countries then want to implement the same failed policies that destroyed their homelands. They really scare me because it shows they haven’t even really thought through any topic of substance.
This is happening when people from blue states come to red states to escape high taxes, to have law and order and in the case of California being able to walk down the street and not step on human feces.
One Californian said about Texas "We're going to turn this state blue." I thought are you crazy? You are escaping the chaos of California and you want to change Texas into a left wing sh*t hole like California or New York?
Agreed about the "too comfortable" part. Seems like if you don't fight for what you have you don't really appreciate it.
About politicians who immigrate, there are two points in my opinion - (1) If I want to immigrate to a new country, it is MY obligation to learn the language, accept the laws and the societal norms. 'Multiculturalism' is the root for having people trying to implement in their new country the failed policies/ideas/customs of their old one; and (2) for every Ilhan Omar, there is a Mayra Flores; what is scary is that people in Omar's district (for example) elect HER to want to implement her political views
If someone wants the congress to make English the official language, that someone is called a racist (the favorite smear of the left). Well if you are a racist, how come the left doesn't condemn most of the countries in the world as racists? Most countries have an official language. Canada has two, English and French. The bulk of Latin America has Spanish. Brazel has Portuguese and the Guianas have English, Dutch and French. Where is the false outrage from the left?
Came on here to share that line, but you beat me to it, Jon. That line comes from the video. If anyone skipped over the embedded video, go back and watch it. Well worth your time.
Took my girls to the British museum the other day to see the Rosetta Stone and pointed out that a museum like that only exists because of the empire and the people that went exploring and collecting
Much would be lost or still buried otherwise
Is what it is now, amazing place to visit if history is your thing.
In the U.S., I would add to that, not only the teaching, but the treating of contested political ideas as if they are accepted fact. Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the so-called mainstream media. Case in point: My small-city daily paper, mind you a supposed general-readership paper, had in large type this headline on its homepage today: The Inside Story of How John Roberts Failed To Save Abortion Rights.
That was one of several headlines in so-called "news" outlets--or what used to be news--on the abortion issue recently that I had to actually re-read and re-re-read to be sure I was seeing it correctly. Not to go off-topic here (because I hate when people do that), but it's just one example of many I could cite involving any hot-button issue such as race.
I canceled my subscription to this particular publication because of this kind of crap a long time ago, and made sure I wrote the editor to tell him why. I said you have no regard for the political diversity of your readership and don't seem to care if you turn large numbers of them off. (This paper went from being more-or-less normal to being Woke in just the last two years.)
I'm so sick of being "talked at" by so-called "reporters," and my revulsion is amplified by the fact that I went to journalism school and this is NOT what we were taught. We were taught editorializing was for the editorial page. But now, editorials are mixed in with the "news," and what really bothers me is that less seasoned (i.e., younger) readers are getting a disservice because it's harder for them to discern the difference. No wonder we're raising a generation of little Stalins.
(Sorry for the rant but that phrase just touched a nerve in me after seeing that today.)
That is straight out of the current academia of intersectional nonsense. They propose an idea as a conclusion rather than a question to be backed by theory and evidence. How this ever got accepted in academia is beyond me.
The report shows that disparities do persist - that racism and discrimination remain a factor in shaping people’s life outcomes. And it is clear about the fact that abhorrent racist attitudes continue in society, within institutions, and, increasingly, online. It calls for action to tackle this.
This report makes clear the UK is not a post-racial society and that racism is still a real force which has the power to deny opportunity and painfully disrupt lives.
That is the issue with the “systemic racism” bullshit, because racism is literally everywhere.
There are many countries in the world with actual systemic racism, codified in law.
Britain isn’t one of them nor is the USA, or Canada where I live.
But everyone is racist. The Indians hate the Chinese and vise versa for example, it’s surprising there isn’t open warfare between them in the lower mainland of BC.
People are tribal, always have been.
The problem today and with CRT is it is an attempt to say that only white people are or even can be racist.
We all have a duty to fight racism, don’t mind me if I ignore those who attempt to use it to pull down society.
Pat, the definition of systemic: fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice, compared to your comment: “…because racism is literally everywhere.”, That sounds systemic to me! The definition of racism: a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race; exactly how are Blacks racist? Rationalization: the act, process, or result of rationalizing: a way of describing, interpreting, or explaining something (such as bad behavior) that makes it seem proper, more attractive, etc., Pat, I propose to you that there is a distinct possibility, this is what you’re doing!
Let's dispose of "blacks" as a collective. In the US, a multitude of communities exist, wealthy to poor, of individuals with various amounts of African genetic backgrounds. To lump all of them into a a single group is, IMO, a throwback to a very recent past revived in the service of a malign ideology.
I'm 80. In my lifetime I've witnessed a society that tolerated routine racist sneers, to a substantial majority celebrating the message of Martin Luther King Jr, to a period of chaos evolving into the racist racketeering of Jesse Jackson and others, to a society that is intolerant of racist sneers.
Intolerant, that is, unless the sneers are directed at those with white European genes, or Asian genes, or African genes in an individual who fails to genuflect, or at least remain silent, with respect to CRT, BLM, or intersectionality.
Further, there is the campaign to denigrate the habits that have proven to be successful in our complex society, such as punctuality, deferring gratification, and diligence in securing a good education while simultaneously pointing at the poverty of those who don't value these habits as proof of victimization. Curiously, people without African genes who lack those habits aren't also categorized as victims of something-or-other supremacy.
So much of this seems to me to be so blatantly irrational. That such is honored by so many people who are articulate and clearly are motivated by good will is beyond my understanding. I also think that some of the advocates are indifferent in their adherence to those ideologies because their underlying goals are to disrupt western society if favor of some dreamed of utopia.
Andrew, evidently, you think the European Genetical whites are being mistreated; the same goes for the Genetical Asian folk. You seem to think they’re withering under the slings and arrows of “…CRT, BLM, or intersectionality.” How could anyone believe that not everyone is enjoying equally the milk and honey of this land?
On the one hand, you say: “Let's dispose of "blacks" as a collective. “Then you turn around and say “…without African genes….” I think it’s safe to say there is some incongruence hear; you know the inverse to without, don’t you?
“Further, there is the campaign to denigrate the habits that have proven to be successful in our complex society, such as punctuality, deferring gratification, and diligence in securing a good education while simultaneously pointing at the poverty of those who don't value these habits as proof of victimization. Curiously, people without (AFRICAN GENES) who lack those habits aren't also categorized as victims of something-or-other supremacy.”
I capitalized (African genes) in the above paragraph; I believe it would be futile to ask you if any of the below described the above paragraph. I think few on this Substack will care, so we’ll leave it to happenstance for comment.
Below are definitions of racism:
A belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
OR
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
OR
The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
Thanks for your reply. I think we have different premises.
You propose that I don't grasp that all people don't benefit equally in this society. On the contrary, my point is that individuals have agency in this modern era, and their individual choices generally will have positive or negative effects on their economic results.
I infer that you believe that I deny the existence of racism as posited in the definitions you cited. Not true. It remains an ugly reality. But contrast the success of people with African genes who came to the US from the Caribbean with the subset of individuals with the same physical appearance in the poverty stricken inner city areas. By what I understand to be your measure, both groups should fail to achieve economic success. Or perhaps you hold that all should receive the same benefits without regard for their efforts and talents. If so, I disagree.
Nor do I hold that those who are successful, whatever their genetic heritage, are suffering from CRT and the like. The true victims are the poor who are convinced by those ideologies that effort is pointless and that they are owed something for nothing.
I'd like this several more times if I was allowed.
Their is no logic train when dealing with these cultural issues. It's all subjective. I'm younger than you, but racism was a much different word back in the 1960-80s than it is today.
Racism is genetic. We're all predisposed to hanging with our own, whether it's sports fans, State pride, Country pride or racial pride. It's an instinct, and we all have it.
In the US, racist policy is out of control. We've turned it into it's own business. And, we've established that racism is only a trait of European descent, which is a very clever way of creating voter blocks.
Every culture/race has it's racists, but in the US we only pin that tag on one, which is how a certain party keeps racism alive.
JustMe....I promised myself I wouldn't respond to any of your future comments, but I lapsed. You can have the last word.
Jon, there is no gene for racism! Your whole comment is pure balderdash, nonsense, and hogwash! Your worldview has been corrupted by ignorance; please educate yourself.
He's written over 60 books. I have "Knowledge & Decision" but didn't get very far into it. It's dense. I am not sure I'm smart enough. "A Conflict of Visions" had a profound impact on my understanding, as did "Vision of the Anointed." "Basic Economics" and "Economic Facts and Fallacies" ought to be required reading in high school.
Naomi I’d never heard of her until this Prime Minister race was on when I did I was blown away by Kemi she has such charisma, leadership and common sense her future in Britain looks very bright wish her luck in whatever she does
Same for me. I subscribe to TCW and Melanie Phillips so I get some information from the UK.
Kemi speaks beautifully. Her command of English is impressive and she chooses her words carefully. She also speaks with passion. She reminds me of Margaret Thatcher.
She won't make it this time to 10 Downing Street but it's in her future. You can feel it. She must be scaring the bejeezus out of the liberals and communists over there in the UK. She is like Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell and Candace Owens. They refuse to be defined by their skin color.
I miss Sowell's best friend, Walter E. Williams. I read his columns faithfully and loved it when he subbed for Rush Limbaugh. Dr. Williams was a natural teacher. He could take a complicated topic and simplify it so it was patently clear.
Let's see if we can modify her birth certificate to read born in New London ( Connecticut) and get her to make the trip across The Pond. A woman for all seasons and all people.
Can we please dispense with the "Barak Obama was an outsider" narrative. That may have been true for a minute but from the fancy private school on Oahu through the double Ivy years to the white shoe law firm and University of Chicago law school, through the rough and tumble of Southside politics to the White House, President Obama was NEVER an outsider.
Obama is an opportunist, nothing more. His presidency was a complete disaster, his many gaffes and insulting remarks a disgrace to the office.
He rankled half the country with continuous, thoughtless partisan rhetoric, he pushed through catastrophic policies such as the "Affordable" Care Act (which actually made medical care less affordable, lower in quality, and pushed many practitioners out of the medical profession), and he divided the ethnic groups with his constant harping about race.
He was the diversity token, and by not rising up to high expectations, but instead bringing the country down to his low level of rancor and disunity, he set back race relations. It will be a long time before another Obama is elected to high office, and the Democrat Black caucus which is full of small-minded race baiters has lost all legitimacy.
Exactly! Although I didn’t vote for him I remember thinking it would be good for the country to have a black man as president. I thought he had a unique opportunity to be a race uniter, then we got just the opposite. I can’t even get started on the bad policies…..
This is exactly how I felt. I waited eagerly for him to promote meaningful policies to help black people. Instead, the only thing he did regarding race was to be immediately become the voice of racial division.
In retrospect, knowing what I do about the Left's ideology, I should not have expected anything else. But at the time I was both shocked and surprised.
He elbowed Hillary out of his way. I wouldn’t give a wooden nickel for her, but I gotta call it like I saw it. He just trumped her identity politics with his.
I take your point, Terry. As someone who voted for Obama, I will honestly say I was disappointed by his performance in office. Absolutely.
Having said that, I can’t see Obama desperately calling Georgia’s Sec of State looking for votes after the election is called, nor do I see him sitting idly by for over three hours while thousands of his supporters trash the Capital looking for his vice president.
Obama did not meet the expectations Americans had for him.
But Donald certainly met the low expectations I had for him.
So the only subject matter in relation to Trump for you is what media tells you to think about? There has been plenty of evidence brought forward since the election that proved that the vote in Georgia was fraudulent. The media narrative on what happened at the Capital and why is lacking truth and important details. As for Trump himself, I don't like the man, but that has nothing to do with how good his policies were for the country. Making the Presidency a cult of personality is exactly what the media want you to do and not a good determiner of job performance. Are you seriously indicating that you wouldn't trade Trump for the imbecile that resides in the White House right now?
Your comment on the media is amusing. Obviously you're reading about or being informed by some entity in regards to the electoral fraud you claim has occurred. And what entity would that have been? Also some form of media?
Your egotistical tenor is amusing. The State of Georgia did there own review and testing of the software vulnerabilities of the Dominion voting machines and the information was so damning that it was sealed under an "Attorneys eyes only" condition. Independent tests revealed equal numbers of votes cast did not produce equal numbers of votes in the count. All of this is common knowledge only "debunked" by the leftist media. I will not be tasked with providing reference material to a fully functional adult that is too lazy or unresourceful to find their own answers. You believe what you want, your wilful ignorance is none of my concern.
Why no judge in Georgia, when shown these alleged irregularities (or others) that apparently are 'common knowledge', agrees with you on their significance or authenticity - is a question I would ask. Are they part of the steal too?
I was a little surprised that anyone would her to Barak Obama. (Zoe did not compare him, she reported only that others do). The only thing she seems to have in common with him is skin color. His ancestry is not even the same as hers. Her political orientation does not seem to align with his at all.
Another snake oil saleswoman Oprah is we were blindsided because of Obama’s color I don’t believe this century we will see another Black President maybe a black woman that could happen now with Joe getting Covid watched a bit of the virtual address he didn’t look good however I don’t think Kamala is the right woman for us either hopefully he can see out his term
Yeah you right on my punctuation I’m always in hurry but the word salad has got me confused I said snake not salad and since you asking I make the best potato salad tell me if you want my method on how 😄😄
A word salad is a collection of words tossed together without structure. And yet still no punctuation in your reply. Being in a hurry doesn't excuse ineffective communication. If you want somebody other than you to understand what you are trying to say, then it's necessary to make it clear. If you don't care if anyone else understands, then don't bother posting it.
Yes. He’s an eloquent liar and a racist. Can’t believe people still look back with nostalgia on his presidency. Times were relatively good because of the America he inherited. The deeply divided America we now suffer is as much his legacy as it is Hillary’s and Trump’s.
It was entirely Obama who started the racial divide in modern America with his personal involvement in the case of the black professor arrested for breaking into his own house (because he lost his keys, and a neighbor called the police) by calling the police "stupid" and the Trayvon Martin case ("if I had a son..."_). Then Ferguson and on and on. His awful Attorney General Holder was a useful lackey, of course.
The professor was an idiot. If I was breaking into my own house because I had lost my keys and the cops showed up, I would be grateful that someone cared enough to be concerned about my property, and I would not mouth off to the cops instead of showing my ID (to demonstrate that this was, in fact, my house). The professor's conviction that it was all about race, and his determination to make the cop appear racist when he was not, was a useful example of how things can go very, very wrong if you make assumptions.
And let us not forget that Obama‘s parents and grandparents were avowed communists. Obama was a master of doublespeak and he employed many well-known Communist techniques when an office; for example, how many communist/socialists did he leave in multiple levels of the DC bureaucracy Who continue to thwart the efforts of President Trump? Or, are as Hannah Arendt notes in “the origins of totalitarianism“ the route to absolute control of a population can be achieved through a corrupt bureaucracy, without firing a single shot.
I agree with your Obama comment. I never thought Obama was a great orator. He would take 15 minutes to make a 30 second comment with his "Uhhh's" and "Umms," and his policies were atrociously divisive.
I think that Obama is not only history’s most overrated man but is largely responsible for the racial divide besetting America. i will give him this. He knew enough to read the thoughts of smarter people displayed on his teleprompter.
At least in my opinion, Obama was no hero. However, the racial divide in America predates him. Did he make things better? No. He made them worse. He lied about Ferguson, even though his own Attorney General told him the truth. Sadly, he had Al Sharpton over to the White House dozens of time.
One of his most galling moments was lecturing wealthy Americans about having too much money. Then he buys multiple mansions and gets $50M/yr from Netflix.
Oh, and the “constitutional scholar” title—-he never argued a case before a judge, never published a scholarly article, wasn’t even an actual professor at U Chicago Law. He taught night classes and wasn’t even tenure track. Tenured professors didn’t even know who he was. And he wasn’t an editor of Harvard Law Review. Editors are appointed competitively and do a lot of work. He was voted President by fellow students, a different position, and he co-authored one article. What chutpah to use the “constitutional scholar” title. He was a Con Artist.
All this was known before his first election. But people just chose to be blind to it all. As Biden called him, a clean and articulate black guy.
You do realise not understanding the comparison is a mark of being got by the same stupid that 'Woke' leveraged, don't you? :-)
Brit writing about a Brit.
Most Brits can name Yank pols lower down the order. The same can't be be said of most yanks. The only important thing to be said about O' Barmpot for us is he attempted to interfere in the Brexit vote. Otherwise he was just another Yank pol for us to laugh at derisively. You knew he was a wanker when Guantanamo wasn't shut by Executive Order in the first 100 hours (let alone 100days!) of his Presidency.
The comparison stands because as at the time of his election (Doesn't matter he turned out to be just another bought fool) O' Barmpot was the Opposition Party's worst nightmare and his Kenyan background and outsiderdom does bear a lot of similarities to that of Kemi Bandernoch.
I find this very interesting. In the US, we were repeatedly told how much the rest of the world simply adored Obama.
I do see the relevant outsider comparison, when it comes to his Kenyan and her Nigerian roots. Very glad that it really seems to stop there. The only way Obama is useful, is as an example of what not to do.
This is what happens when you get all your news from CNN and the BBC. :-)
I was mildly impressed when he was talking the talk. Guantanamo was the litmus test: he didn't fall at the first fence; but right out the gate. The Global Village Idiot was a hard act to follow /s, but, duh! In the end all that impressed was his crapitude.
The disgraceful evacuations of Saigon and Kabul; now that is the America we know and love! /s
I grant you most of us gringos are not really up on UK (& EU) pols. We have our hands full trying to find the less corrupt, Woke-free, US Constitution-supporting US politicians to support - a rare breed. I do follow the Canadian, Latin American political scene more closely because I lived and worked in several of those countries.
I hope you realize that the U.S. is as large (larger, actually) and complicated as the whole of Europe. If it were not for Hollywood and WWII, I would expect Europeans to be just "parochial" in their knowledge of U.S. politics.
Your opinion on Guantanamo Bay is enough for me to discount the rest of your commentary based on big picture ignorance. Until you know the situation from a military standpoint, which is the whole purpose of the installation, you are just parroting what the Leftist media wants you to. Obama was an absolute joke and a failure, but Guantanamo had nothing to do with that. There are things that are ugly but necessary when it comes to military operations, the decisions on what is necessary or not should not be made by civilians who only have the information and viewpoint that was given to them by the media.
There is very little in life more delicious than watching woke progressives lose their collective minds over black conservatives.
Not only are they stupid, insane and laughably comical but they are, in fact, the inherent "racists" they incessantly use to deride normal people who simply view people based on the content of their character and decency.
Progressives feel like they can say the most horribly racist things to Clarence Thomas and Candace Owens. They don't realize this exposes identity politics as a sham and a front for Marxism.
It’s farcical to watch elite white progressives ’angrically’ declare that all whites are evil and need to be stripped of everything they have. What they should get is to be taxed down to the average wealth of the country. I mean ALL of them, starting with Pelosi, Zuckerberg, Sonos et al. That’s what they want for everyone else, they should get some of their own pudding.
Truth is, it’s Class Warfare that’s building, not race.
True but ponder this. Given that they only have their own feelings, ethics and moral beliefs to go on, in their own cases, they may, in fact, be right that they are evil and need to be stripped of everything they have.
The plutocrats seem to be planning to blame the kulaks again. Redistribution schemes never impact the truly wealthy. What are the chances Pelosi or Gates would give up a single red cent for any of this stuff they want? No, it will be moderately successful people who will be expected to do the sacrificing. Apparatchiks are always thrilled to blame the kulaks and always surprised when the state turns on them.
OUTSTANDING! I had never heard of Kemi Badenoch until this article. I was enraptured by the natural eloquence of her speech to the House of Parliament - the video of which is a MUST watch! Best line: “What we are against is the teaching of contested political ideas as if they are accepted fact." Well said. A remarkable woman with more "balls" (...uh, figuratively speaking...) than most male politicians in ANY country. Winston Churchill, move over...
It's still incredible to me that people are shocked that a Black woman can be conservative and intelligent; I guess it just goes to show who the bigots really are. Great piece of reporting, thank you!
Great article. Just one thing: please *do not* compare this woman to Barack Obama. I fell for the idea that just because someone is of a different race, they will have different experiences and a different voice. Barack Obama turned out to be the hundredth coming of the same old self-interested, purchased politician from an upper class background, only with more melanin in his skin. Barack Obama would never have had the moral strength to go against the narrative like this woman does. So just leave Obama out of this conversation.
If I were a minority i'd be wary of these supposedly well meaning progressives. Because their ideology is threatened by your success. Their ideology requires that you be victims. Think about the implications of that for a second.
As usual, immigrants tend to have the clearest view of their adopted lands. The people born and raised in the U.S. and the U.K. are living in odd, distorted landscapes only slightly related to the real world.
“Growing up in a place like Nigeria means you appreciate what we have in the UK and in the West,” - As an immigrant myself to the UK (and prior to that to the US), it is remarkable how those of us who have seen true inequality, true racism, true lack of opportunities (and the effects of socialist policies) are the most staunch defenders of Western Civilisation. Thank you MP Badenoch and thank you Zoe Strimpel for a great morning read.
We are alike. I was raised and later worked in a banana republic and know firsthand what it is to live in a real police state repressive country where police brutality is an everyday occurrence, where fear, murder and torture are used to keep the people in line.
Ronald Regan was right when he called the U.S. "The shining city on the hill." The purpose of the Democrat/Communist Party is to use their communist minions, BLM, ANTIFA, Woke, Political Correctness, CRT to destroy us from within.
The left will denigrate what I have just said and call me names. I am not a right-wing nut case. I consider myself to be a right of center conservative. But I am more than that. I am an educated avid reader of history. It is simple for me to justify saying the Democrats are on the road to communism. All you have to do is read a short history of communism and its tactics, to see that I am right.
Absolutely is "The shining city on the hill", and it is SO DARN HARD to get to that shinny city on the hill as an immigrant (especially legally)... it is infuriating that when you arrive, some over-pampered, pseudo-intellectuals with a guilt complex for having it so easy, want to tear it down.
We can all agree that society is perfectible and the West has sins to atone for - but so do every single society on Earth since the beginning of history. We also can all agree that neither extreme (right or left) is good.
But can the West please, please stop this self destruction process? From my side, all sins forgiven and let's move forward to continue with the progress achieved through civilised history.
MP Badenoch is a remarkable woman - lucky Britain!
Now Commonsense needs to report on the many wonderful rising stars in the GOP. I look to the politicians the brilliant Peter Thiel supports: Sen. Josh Hawley, Senate candidates JD Vance in Ohio & Blake Masters in Arizona. Or how about CA gov candidate Larry Elder. I would love to see Candice Owens and Charlie Kirk run for office. But then I believe all have been endorsed or are liked by Trump, so I won't hold my breath. I dare Commonsense to report on one GOP candidate in a positive way. And please not the ones who will never win again as a Republican, Lynn Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
Liz. It's Liz Cheney.
Which short history of communism would you recommend?
Most histories I've read are long, like a biography of Stalin and I read them between 30 and 40 years ago. Many of these histories can be pretty dry and most people read novels not histories. When I said a short history, I meant for the reader to find a short history themselves.
For example, right now I am reading Wiliam Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" which is over 1700 pages long. I don't know of many people who will slog through a novel that long, much less a history.
Years ago I read his "Berlin Diary" which was excellent so I decided to try his book on Hitler's Third Reich. So far Shirer is true to form and the book is as good as "Diary".
I'm sorry I can't recommend a short history.
Neither short, nor the full story of communism, but I'd recommend the following:
- Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder - All the horrors of the 'isms' in between World Wars
- Martyrmade podcast (by Darryl Cooper) - #19 - The Anti-Humans
- Unraveling 31 podcast (Jocko Willink & Darryl Cooper) - Out of the Frying Pan
I found these particularly enlightening... there are so many more resources, I just have these as recent finds.
Full disclosure, particularly with Bloodlands, it is hard to go to sleep after reading it
Thank you. The Black Book of Communism is what I’ve found, but not completed.
I've known several Nigerian emigrants to America. We have a fairly large population in the Sacramento, CA area, as well as emigrants from the Soviet Union. Both groups tend to be almost militantly conservative. Having experienced socialism first hand, they tend to be extremely attuned to Left-wing lunacy and authoritarianism. One of the USSR refugees goes to my church; he says the actions of the Left today (the LGBT loyalty oaths, the shouting down of dissenting views, the struggle sessions, the forced apologies to keep your job, etc...) remind him of growing up in Soviet Uzbekistan. My dentist (from Communist Romania) says the same thing.
Perhaps we ought to be listening to these emigrants. They seem to understand the good in our civilization better than we do.
When I was in graduate school in the early 00s, I began to notice a phenomenon on campus: African blacks would return a smile in passing, while American blacks would glare.
I had seen the glares before, when we lived in a mixed race (white, black, and hispanic) neighborhood of Topeka. But this was my first introduction to the fact that most black Africans have a very different mindset than American blacks.
As someone with similar experience I can say that, while some of the Left-wing lunacy and theatrics are concerning, but not overly so because I have seen that happen and I have also seen it go away.
What I haven't seen despite my commie childhood and what shocks me much more than brainwashed kids shouting slogans is the likes of Pelosi, Maxine, Feinstein, Clintons, Kennedys, Bushes, Biden, Cuomos, Romneys and I can go on and on - people who are forever in power, whose children are in power, who cannot be replaced. That I have not seen anywhere outside of North Korea - and the US and Canada.
Well said! I had a Hungarian professor in college who had no illusions about Communism, but even then (early 80s) he said (inaccurately, as it turned out) that the major difference between capitalism and communism was that communist elites didn't perpetuate family dynasties, while family dynasties were increasingly dominating America. He was wrong about communist countries, but he was right about America--and of course it's now gotten completely out of control. We may as well be living in late Renaissance Italy, with a bunch of mediocre distantly related heirs of original founding geniuses wrecking our country with their entitled self-indulgence, bad judgment and incompetence.
FGH...and thank you FGH...nice
Her lines about Madame Tinubu are particularly interesting. A strong black entrepreneurial woman who was powerful enough to help elevate men to the kingship in Nigeria and fought for her country's independence, but was primarily a slave trader. She fought for independence of Nigeria from Britain, but in large part because they interfered with her business activities. They had banned slave trading, and that was a primary business for her. She still sold illegally to Brazil and others and sought to get around the ban.
It is actually a truth that in many places in Africa, slavery continued long after emancipation in the US and, when ended, it was usually by the ban and efforts of a white colonial power. Bizarrely, Ethiopa had continued slavery until fascist Italy took it over. Apparently illegal slave trading continued at fairly sizeable levels in Nigeria until around the 1940's.
Chattel slavery still continues as a significant practice today in Niger and places on the southern cusp of the Sahara, of course.
Hey Jim - I believe in gratitude ;-)... very grateful when I read Common Sense
Oh, bloody good show, a Member of Parliament, whom is a black woman, raised by two doctors (one medical the other psychology), in Lagos, Nigeria, where white people are definitely not the majority, she represents Saffron Walden, England’ that doesn’t even have one half of 1% of black people living in the area. Proceeded to lavish red herring dog whistles on the floor of Parliament “according to the parliamentary record, Hansard, the term “critical race theory” had never once been uttered in the House of Commons chamber. By the end of the day on 20 October, however, it was of such importance that the government declared itself “unequivocally against” the concept. “We do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt,” warned the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch…” White privilege, Critical Race Theory, etc. wasn’t being taught in schools, but that really was the point anyway, the point was to make headlines, just like Donald Trump.
Kemi Badenoch says: “Growing up in a place like Nigeria means you appreciate what we have in the UK and in the West,” being raised by two doctors and shipped off to England at 16 years of age to receive a free education, I wonder how many black girls living in poverty, in America, would love to have her problem!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/23/uk-critical-race-theory-trump-conservatives-structural-inequality
If you believe the garbage written in the Guardian, one of the biggest propaganda pushers on earth, then you are part of the problem.
Michelle, an intelligent Individual, doesn’t simply denigrate the source of the material because that would display Intellectual Incompetency or laziness. A wise person knows: It’s better to say nothing and appear unintelligent than to say something and remove any doubt!
I stand by my comment for the simple reason that I DO read, extensively, many sources. I am on this substack....as are you. I have read Guardian articles for years and find their single stance on all issues ultra progressive and unworthy of debate. I am the least intellectually lazy person I know and have a lot of ammo against the Guardian, which is the U. K. version of the NYT. You can kiss my @$$ for your self righteous implication. You have no idea who I am or what I know.
Just me's a troll. Your response was excellent. About all You can do with trolls.
Thank you. I appreciate the heads up.
Michelle, a mature intellect has the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff; for example, you could have found out; if it was correct that the parliamentary records showed that critical race theory had never been spoken of before October 20, 2020, on the floor of Parliament. You could’ve also determined that Kemi Badenoch uttered the phrase critical race theory for the first time on the floor of Parliament. But your prejudice prevented you from doing so! When someone says: “ I am the least intellectually lazy person I know….” Implies that your intellect is superior to everyone you know, something I would not do; besides associating with people of all different intellect, I try to associate with people who have a superior intellect to mine; that way, I acquire knowledge. Below you’ll find links to confirm the above.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/search?searchTerm=%E2%80%9Ccritical%20race%20theory%E2%80%9D%20&partial=False
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-10-20/debates/5B0E393E-8778-4973-B318-C17797DFBB22/BlackHistoryMonth?highlight=critical%20race%20theory#contribution-C8980402-C448-4265-B82A-F3A465E34808
I don't waste my precious time on political word games. A rose is a rose, except in politics. And since my sphere of influence is quite small, I stand by my statement about intellectual laziness and myself. Since you have no idea how many people I know, nor do you know me, you're not qualified to make a judgement about my intellect or laziness. Anybody who actually knows me would say the exact same thing about me as I stated about myself. Go find something else to do. You have proven beyond a doubt that you are an insecure, self-righteous hack.
You're a real joke. Most everyone here is Your intellectual superior. You ever learn?
Nup.
Your links mean next to nothing. But You certainly prove beyond a shadow of a doubt (if there ever was any) that You're an upjumped kid who is nothing more than a troll. Thank You for making my points.
Try learning from Your betters sometime, instead of waging meaningless battles to assuage Your hero complex.
Just me. FIgures.
You subscribe to the National Review? Or are You a hypocrite and show Your own "Intellectual Incompetency or laziness"?
That's what I thought.
You maybe should read the article before making such a declaration. It doesn't appear to me to espouse a particular set of opinions rather than give truthful, accurate information and assessment in relation to the conversation on Critical Race Theory. If you are ruling out all of the information strictly because of the source, I would be curious to know what media outlet you think doesn't push propaganda at times. I think your answer would give a useful context to your previous comment.
Are You even serious? The subtitle.
"By importing Trump’s culture war, the Conservatives are trying to close down any discussion of structural inequality"
Trump's got nothing with how stupid CRT is. And if You had any knowledge of the laws in the U.S. that prohibit the teaching of it, You'd know that they do *not* prohibit discussions of race. They prohibit the stupidity of CRT. Categorizing people according to skin color, for one. Which is the *definition* of racism.
Funny that. How racist "anti-racism" of CRT is. Dunno how it is in England, but know I won't find out much in that propaganda piece from The Guardian.
Apparently you only need to see the cover to read the book.... CRT is more racist than slavery because it creates invisible chains disguised to look like ladders out of poverty. The leftist approach to race relations is all about power and not at all about freedom. As far as your "information", you're either ignorant or a blatant liar. Several states are allowing the CRT approach in the classroom. If you had a child, you would also be hearing about it from them, who see it every day. People like you are the reason that truth becomes propaganda, because it doesn't fit the narrative.
Tell me something I don't know. I agree with what You "said" above except I'm not *as* ignorant as You claim, and anybody who knows me at all knows I just don't lie.
Either Way, it would-a been a waste of time to read that article. I shouldn'a judged the book by it's cover? I'm spending the day reading two books which are more interesting than that article and Your comment.
I had been reading the Guardian, as well as the BBC, The Sun, The Independent, plus multiple other worldwide newspapers for decades. I stopped reading the Guardian about five years ago when it became clear they are a one trick pony. There is nothing neutral written in that paper; everything has an ultra progressive slant. I studiously avoid ANY publication that has an obvious agenda; why else would I be subscribing to substacks??? Does that not speak for itself? I don't need to list my reading material here to prove anything; but I will tell you that my last two books were a history of slavery in the U.S. written in 1872 by Henry Wilson; 3 volumes done; over 2400 pages; and the history of Ireland's conquest by England, going back to the Anglo Saxon and Norman conquests of the 1000's and the papal decree giving Ireland to England, including in detail the political and industrial tactics used by England and the Aristocracy to violently, culturally and financially oppress the Irish Catholics. I spend a minimum of three hours a day reading from multiple carefully cultivated sources. So, yeah, I stand by my assessment. Is that enough context?
Perhaps reading what you write before you add it to a public forum might be a good idea.
You wrote:
"...a black woman, raised by two doctors (one medical the other psychology), in Lagos, Nigeria, where white people are definitely not the majority, she represents Saffron Walden, England’ that doesn’t even have one half of 1% of black people living in the area."
Are you suggesting that this person is not qualify to represent her electorate because of her race, or are you even more radical and believe that a black person raised in Africa is, by that fact, disqualified from representing white folk from England? Regardless, the statement is astonishing and it tells something about you, just like this one:
You also wrote that a black woman was "shipped" to England from Africa.
You accuse a rising political star of trying to "make headlines" which would be equivalent of accusing a football player for trying to score goals.
Your repeated use of the word doctor reminded me of "Spies Like Us", when Chase and Aykroyd pretend to be doctors, stand in a circle with a bunch of other doctors who all great one another by saying "doctor" over and over again. Should be make sure that any aid to say Ukraine does not go to the children of doctors because their parents are, well, doctors?
Fielding, how peculiar, you read multiple facts and conjure up out of thin air that I’m attacking her, it would appear you have preconceived concepts, and It’s quite puzzling how you came up with numerous conclusions.
I only stated two opinions:
1. “…the point was to make headlines, just like Donald Trump.”
2. “I wonder how many black girls living in poverty, in America, would love to have her problem!”
In keeping with your tone, I believe you owe me an apology.
Nobody owes a troll an apology, troll.
Can You get any more ridiculous? No, each time You post, Your delusions are more and more apparent. Thank You for the comic relief, troll.
You just described Kamala Harris to a T. Tries to get mileage out of the woman-of-color thing and talks about being bussed as a kid, but grew up a daughter of privilege with two successful parents and is really less than half black. Probably never experienced discrimination in her life.
I wonder how many black girls in Africa, where the average income is $4k, would love to have the problem of being a black girl in what the US defines as poverty, which at the high end is several times that. And they would certainly love to grow up in USA with its greater opportunites, leading to a $44k average african american income.
Substack, the Brits average income is about $7000 more than we Yankee, so we are about comparable. In the United States, the average income is around 31,000. In England, it’s £31 447 or about $38,000. England and the United States' standard of living isn’t that far off compared to Africa; that’s why your comparison isn’t comparable!
"England and the United States' standard of living isn’t that far off compared to Africa"?
I'm talking about planet Earth, to be clear.
Sadly I think too many are way too comfortable with everything the previous generations fought for. What scares me the most though is politicians who immigrate from these countries then want to implement the same failed policies that destroyed their homelands. They really scare me because it shows they haven’t even really thought through any topic of substance.
This is happening when people from blue states come to red states to escape high taxes, to have law and order and in the case of California being able to walk down the street and not step on human feces.
One Californian said about Texas "We're going to turn this state blue." I thought are you crazy? You are escaping the chaos of California and you want to change Texas into a left wing sh*t hole like California or New York?
Agreed about the "too comfortable" part. Seems like if you don't fight for what you have you don't really appreciate it.
About politicians who immigrate, there are two points in my opinion - (1) If I want to immigrate to a new country, it is MY obligation to learn the language, accept the laws and the societal norms. 'Multiculturalism' is the root for having people trying to implement in their new country the failed policies/ideas/customs of their old one; and (2) for every Ilhan Omar, there is a Mayra Flores; what is scary is that people in Omar's district (for example) elect HER to want to implement her political views
If someone wants the congress to make English the official language, that someone is called a racist (the favorite smear of the left). Well if you are a racist, how come the left doesn't condemn most of the countries in the world as racists? Most countries have an official language. Canada has two, English and French. The bulk of Latin America has Spanish. Brazel has Portuguese and the Guianas have English, Dutch and French. Where is the false outrage from the left?
“What we are against is the teaching of contested political ideas as if they are accepted fact,”
That comment alone would get my vote.
Came on here to share that line, but you beat me to it, Jon. That line comes from the video. If anyone skipped over the embedded video, go back and watch it. Well worth your time.
Gender
Woke
CRT
Climate emergency
Pick your poison
How about woke?
I’d go with
1. Gender
2. Race
3. Post colonialism
4. Climate alarmism
The four horsemen of the Western Apocalypse.
Agreed
Few things are 100% bad.
Took my girls to the British museum the other day to see the Rosetta Stone and pointed out that a museum like that only exists because of the empire and the people that went exploring and collecting
Much would be lost or still buried otherwise
Is what it is now, amazing place to visit if history is your thing.
In the U.S., I would add to that, not only the teaching, but the treating of contested political ideas as if they are accepted fact. Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the so-called mainstream media. Case in point: My small-city daily paper, mind you a supposed general-readership paper, had in large type this headline on its homepage today: The Inside Story of How John Roberts Failed To Save Abortion Rights.
That was one of several headlines in so-called "news" outlets--or what used to be news--on the abortion issue recently that I had to actually re-read and re-re-read to be sure I was seeing it correctly. Not to go off-topic here (because I hate when people do that), but it's just one example of many I could cite involving any hot-button issue such as race.
I canceled my subscription to this particular publication because of this kind of crap a long time ago, and made sure I wrote the editor to tell him why. I said you have no regard for the political diversity of your readership and don't seem to care if you turn large numbers of them off. (This paper went from being more-or-less normal to being Woke in just the last two years.)
I'm so sick of being "talked at" by so-called "reporters," and my revulsion is amplified by the fact that I went to journalism school and this is NOT what we were taught. We were taught editorializing was for the editorial page. But now, editorials are mixed in with the "news," and what really bothers me is that less seasoned (i.e., younger) readers are getting a disservice because it's harder for them to discern the difference. No wonder we're raising a generation of little Stalins.
(Sorry for the rant but that phrase just touched a nerve in me after seeing that today.)
Yip my vote to!
That is straight out of the current academia of intersectional nonsense. They propose an idea as a conclusion rather than a question to be backed by theory and evidence. How this ever got accepted in academia is beyond me.
Jon,Would you give her your vote if she said:
The report shows that disparities do persist - that racism and discrimination remain a factor in shaping people’s life outcomes. And it is clear about the fact that abhorrent racist attitudes continue in society, within institutions, and, increasingly, online. It calls for action to tackle this.
This report makes clear the UK is not a post-racial society and that racism is still a real force which has the power to deny opportunity and painfully disrupt lives.
Context context context
Everything is relative
That is the issue with the “systemic racism” bullshit, because racism is literally everywhere.
There are many countries in the world with actual systemic racism, codified in law.
Britain isn’t one of them nor is the USA, or Canada where I live.
But everyone is racist. The Indians hate the Chinese and vise versa for example, it’s surprising there isn’t open warfare between them in the lower mainland of BC.
People are tribal, always have been.
The problem today and with CRT is it is an attempt to say that only white people are or even can be racist.
We all have a duty to fight racism, don’t mind me if I ignore those who attempt to use it to pull down society.
Pat, the definition of systemic: fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice, compared to your comment: “…because racism is literally everywhere.”, That sounds systemic to me! The definition of racism: a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race; exactly how are Blacks racist? Rationalization: the act, process, or result of rationalizing: a way of describing, interpreting, or explaining something (such as bad behavior) that makes it seem proper, more attractive, etc., Pat, I propose to you that there is a distinct possibility, this is what you’re doing!
How are blacks racist?
Let's dispose of "blacks" as a collective. In the US, a multitude of communities exist, wealthy to poor, of individuals with various amounts of African genetic backgrounds. To lump all of them into a a single group is, IMO, a throwback to a very recent past revived in the service of a malign ideology.
I'm 80. In my lifetime I've witnessed a society that tolerated routine racist sneers, to a substantial majority celebrating the message of Martin Luther King Jr, to a period of chaos evolving into the racist racketeering of Jesse Jackson and others, to a society that is intolerant of racist sneers.
Intolerant, that is, unless the sneers are directed at those with white European genes, or Asian genes, or African genes in an individual who fails to genuflect, or at least remain silent, with respect to CRT, BLM, or intersectionality.
Further, there is the campaign to denigrate the habits that have proven to be successful in our complex society, such as punctuality, deferring gratification, and diligence in securing a good education while simultaneously pointing at the poverty of those who don't value these habits as proof of victimization. Curiously, people without African genes who lack those habits aren't also categorized as victims of something-or-other supremacy.
So much of this seems to me to be so blatantly irrational. That such is honored by so many people who are articulate and clearly are motivated by good will is beyond my understanding. I also think that some of the advocates are indifferent in their adherence to those ideologies because their underlying goals are to disrupt western society if favor of some dreamed of utopia.
Andrew, evidently, you think the European Genetical whites are being mistreated; the same goes for the Genetical Asian folk. You seem to think they’re withering under the slings and arrows of “…CRT, BLM, or intersectionality.” How could anyone believe that not everyone is enjoying equally the milk and honey of this land?
On the one hand, you say: “Let's dispose of "blacks" as a collective. “Then you turn around and say “…without African genes….” I think it’s safe to say there is some incongruence hear; you know the inverse to without, don’t you?
“Further, there is the campaign to denigrate the habits that have proven to be successful in our complex society, such as punctuality, deferring gratification, and diligence in securing a good education while simultaneously pointing at the poverty of those who don't value these habits as proof of victimization. Curiously, people without (AFRICAN GENES) who lack those habits aren't also categorized as victims of something-or-other supremacy.”
I capitalized (African genes) in the above paragraph; I believe it would be futile to ask you if any of the below described the above paragraph. I think few on this Substack will care, so we’ll leave it to happenstance for comment.
Below are definitions of racism:
A belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
OR
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
OR
The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
Thanks for your reply. I think we have different premises.
You propose that I don't grasp that all people don't benefit equally in this society. On the contrary, my point is that individuals have agency in this modern era, and their individual choices generally will have positive or negative effects on their economic results.
I infer that you believe that I deny the existence of racism as posited in the definitions you cited. Not true. It remains an ugly reality. But contrast the success of people with African genes who came to the US from the Caribbean with the subset of individuals with the same physical appearance in the poverty stricken inner city areas. By what I understand to be your measure, both groups should fail to achieve economic success. Or perhaps you hold that all should receive the same benefits without regard for their efforts and talents. If so, I disagree.
Nor do I hold that those who are successful, whatever their genetic heritage, are suffering from CRT and the like. The true victims are the poor who are convinced by those ideologies that effort is pointless and that they are owed something for nothing.
I'd like this several more times if I was allowed.
Their is no logic train when dealing with these cultural issues. It's all subjective. I'm younger than you, but racism was a much different word back in the 1960-80s than it is today.
Racism is genetic. We're all predisposed to hanging with our own, whether it's sports fans, State pride, Country pride or racial pride. It's an instinct, and we all have it.
In the US, racist policy is out of control. We've turned it into it's own business. And, we've established that racism is only a trait of European descent, which is a very clever way of creating voter blocks.
Every culture/race has it's racists, but in the US we only pin that tag on one, which is how a certain party keeps racism alive.
JustMe....I promised myself I wouldn't respond to any of your future comments, but I lapsed. You can have the last word.
Jon, there is no gene for racism! Your whole comment is pure balderdash, nonsense, and hogwash! Your worldview has been corrupted by ignorance; please educate yourself.
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/
Happy to disagree with you, because I don’t agree.
But that’s just me rationalizing.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been reading about this woman for a few weeks now and hoping she would be the next Prime Minister.
She will be Prime Minister in the future. She is solidly grounded and has a strong voice of common sense.
Any fan of Thomas Sowell is top notch in my book.
If you haven't, read or look at Thomas Sowell!!!
Wonderful man brilliant books!
I have several of his books and have been a fan since the mid 1990's. His books are also available as audio books on YouTube for free.
One of earliest, if not his best work, Knowledge & Decisions is my favorite.
He's written over 60 books. I have "Knowledge & Decision" but didn't get very far into it. It's dense. I am not sure I'm smart enough. "A Conflict of Visions" had a profound impact on my understanding, as did "Vision of the Anointed." "Basic Economics" and "Economic Facts and Fallacies" ought to be required reading in high school.
Naomi I’d never heard of her until this Prime Minister race was on when I did I was blown away by Kemi she has such charisma, leadership and common sense her future in Britain looks very bright wish her luck in whatever she does
Same for me. I subscribe to TCW and Melanie Phillips so I get some information from the UK.
Kemi speaks beautifully. Her command of English is impressive and she chooses her words carefully. She also speaks with passion. She reminds me of Margaret Thatcher.
She won't make it this time to 10 Downing Street but it's in her future. You can feel it. She must be scaring the bejeezus out of the liberals and communists over there in the UK. She is like Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell and Candace Owens. They refuse to be defined by their skin color.
Discovering Thomas Sowell was a seminal moment in my life, the man is my intellectual role model.
I miss Sowell's best friend, Walter E. Williams. I read his columns faithfully and loved it when he subbed for Rush Limbaugh. Dr. Williams was a natural teacher. He could take a complicated topic and simplify it so it was patently clear.
Williams was brilliant, I also miss his columns.
His arguments were succinct and brutally honest. And very hard to find faults in them.
He was an incomparable teacher.
Yip Genius!!🇺🇸🇺🇸
Naomi...got that right...easy.
What a great read to start my Sunday morning. Thank you.
Let's see if we can modify her birth certificate to read born in New London ( Connecticut) and get her to make the trip across The Pond. A woman for all seasons and all people.
Fascinating article. We need pols like that here.
Can we please dispense with the "Barak Obama was an outsider" narrative. That may have been true for a minute but from the fancy private school on Oahu through the double Ivy years to the white shoe law firm and University of Chicago law school, through the rough and tumble of Southside politics to the White House, President Obama was NEVER an outsider.
Obama is an opportunist, nothing more. His presidency was a complete disaster, his many gaffes and insulting remarks a disgrace to the office.
He rankled half the country with continuous, thoughtless partisan rhetoric, he pushed through catastrophic policies such as the "Affordable" Care Act (which actually made medical care less affordable, lower in quality, and pushed many practitioners out of the medical profession), and he divided the ethnic groups with his constant harping about race.
He was the diversity token, and by not rising up to high expectations, but instead bringing the country down to his low level of rancor and disunity, he set back race relations. It will be a long time before another Obama is elected to high office, and the Democrat Black caucus which is full of small-minded race baiters has lost all legitimacy.
Exactly! Although I didn’t vote for him I remember thinking it would be good for the country to have a black man as president. I thought he had a unique opportunity to be a race uniter, then we got just the opposite. I can’t even get started on the bad policies…..
This is exactly how I felt. I waited eagerly for him to promote meaningful policies to help black people. Instead, the only thing he did regarding race was to be immediately become the voice of racial division.
In retrospect, knowing what I do about the Left's ideology, I should not have expected anything else. But at the time I was both shocked and surprised.
I felt the same about Bill Clinton. Finally a President of my generation. That feeling did not last long.
Im not a big fan either but least he worked across the isle. We could certainly use that and a balanced budget right about now.
I agree. He was a pragmatist. He met the disapproval head on and the country benefited with a balanced budget.
Obama is a snake oil salesman.
He elbowed Hillary out of his way. I wouldn’t give a wooden nickel for her, but I gotta call it like I saw it. He just trumped her identity politics with his.
"He elbowed Hillary out of his way."
Well, he has that going for him. And, he's still alive.
you left out , he gave us Bi-det
I take your point, Terry. As someone who voted for Obama, I will honestly say I was disappointed by his performance in office. Absolutely.
Having said that, I can’t see Obama desperately calling Georgia’s Sec of State looking for votes after the election is called, nor do I see him sitting idly by for over three hours while thousands of his supporters trash the Capital looking for his vice president.
Obama did not meet the expectations Americans had for him.
But Donald certainly met the low expectations I had for him.
Respectfully.
So the only subject matter in relation to Trump for you is what media tells you to think about? There has been plenty of evidence brought forward since the election that proved that the vote in Georgia was fraudulent. The media narrative on what happened at the Capital and why is lacking truth and important details. As for Trump himself, I don't like the man, but that has nothing to do with how good his policies were for the country. Making the Presidency a cult of personality is exactly what the media want you to do and not a good determiner of job performance. Are you seriously indicating that you wouldn't trade Trump for the imbecile that resides in the White House right now?
Your comment on the media is amusing. Obviously you're reading about or being informed by some entity in regards to the electoral fraud you claim has occurred. And what entity would that have been? Also some form of media?
Your egotistical tenor is amusing. The State of Georgia did there own review and testing of the software vulnerabilities of the Dominion voting machines and the information was so damning that it was sealed under an "Attorneys eyes only" condition. Independent tests revealed equal numbers of votes cast did not produce equal numbers of votes in the count. All of this is common knowledge only "debunked" by the leftist media. I will not be tasked with providing reference material to a fully functional adult that is too lazy or unresourceful to find their own answers. You believe what you want, your wilful ignorance is none of my concern.
Well, at least I'm fully functional.
Why no judge in Georgia, when shown these alleged irregularities (or others) that apparently are 'common knowledge', agrees with you on their significance or authenticity - is a question I would ask. Are they part of the steal too?
I was a little surprised that anyone would her to Barak Obama. (Zoe did not compare him, she reported only that others do). The only thing she seems to have in common with him is skin color. His ancestry is not even the same as hers. Her political orientation does not seem to align with his at all.
She seems like a humble, intelligent person who works hard. Obama is the opposite.
Don't forget the use of Oprah's platform.
Another snake oil saleswoman Oprah is we were blindsided because of Obama’s color I don’t believe this century we will see another Black President maybe a black woman that could happen now with Joe getting Covid watched a bit of the virtual address he didn’t look good however I don’t think Kamala is the right woman for us either hopefully he can see out his term
Yeah you right on my punctuation I’m always in hurry but the word salad has got me confused I said snake not salad and since you asking I make the best potato salad tell me if you want my method on how 😄😄
A word salad is a collection of words tossed together without structure. And yet still no punctuation in your reply. Being in a hurry doesn't excuse ineffective communication. If you want somebody other than you to understand what you are trying to say, then it's necessary to make it clear. If you don't care if anyone else understands, then don't bother posting it.
Understood
Do it however You wanna, Skinny. It's clear enough for those who choose to read. Nobody forced to read if they don't wanna.
Apologize, but I forget name now. There's one other who doesn't worry about punctuation. Nobody ever complained about it.
Punctuation much? That word salad would make much more sense if you included some.... Please?
Yes. He’s an eloquent liar and a racist. Can’t believe people still look back with nostalgia on his presidency. Times were relatively good because of the America he inherited. The deeply divided America we now suffer is as much his legacy as it is Hillary’s and Trump’s.
It was entirely Obama who started the racial divide in modern America with his personal involvement in the case of the black professor arrested for breaking into his own house (because he lost his keys, and a neighbor called the police) by calling the police "stupid" and the Trayvon Martin case ("if I had a son..."_). Then Ferguson and on and on. His awful Attorney General Holder was a useful lackey, of course.
The professor was an idiot. If I was breaking into my own house because I had lost my keys and the cops showed up, I would be grateful that someone cared enough to be concerned about my property, and I would not mouth off to the cops instead of showing my ID (to demonstrate that this was, in fact, my house). The professor's conviction that it was all about race, and his determination to make the cop appear racist when he was not, was a useful example of how things can go very, very wrong if you make assumptions.
And let us not forget that Obama‘s parents and grandparents were avowed communists. Obama was a master of doublespeak and he employed many well-known Communist techniques when an office; for example, how many communist/socialists did he leave in multiple levels of the DC bureaucracy Who continue to thwart the efforts of President Trump? Or, are as Hannah Arendt notes in “the origins of totalitarianism“ the route to absolute control of a population can be achieved through a corrupt bureaucracy, without firing a single shot.
Yip all of the above and then they tell us all we voted this in how crazy!!
Nope he was always part of the swamp!
What a wonderful Sunday morning read after my daily devotional. Badenoch is an answer to my prayers. I cringed, however, with the Obama comparison.
I agree with your Obama comment. I never thought Obama was a great orator. He would take 15 minutes to make a 30 second comment with his "Uhhh's" and "Umms," and his policies were atrociously divisive.
I think Ms. Badenoch would object to that comparison. Obama was and is very much immersed in the whole systemic racism thing.
Absolutely! He was the great divider; she is completely different and the association is very condescending.
I think that Obama is not only history’s most overrated man but is largely responsible for the racial divide besetting America. i will give him this. He knew enough to read the thoughts of smarter people displayed on his teleprompter.
At least in my opinion, Obama was no hero. However, the racial divide in America predates him. Did he make things better? No. He made them worse. He lied about Ferguson, even though his own Attorney General told him the truth. Sadly, he had Al Sharpton over to the White House dozens of time.
One of his most galling moments was lecturing wealthy Americans about having too much money. Then he buys multiple mansions and gets $50M/yr from Netflix.
Oh, and the “constitutional scholar” title—-he never argued a case before a judge, never published a scholarly article, wasn’t even an actual professor at U Chicago Law. He taught night classes and wasn’t even tenure track. Tenured professors didn’t even know who he was. And he wasn’t an editor of Harvard Law Review. Editors are appointed competitively and do a lot of work. He was voted President by fellow students, a different position, and he co-authored one article. What chutpah to use the “constitutional scholar” title. He was a Con Artist.
All this was known before his first election. But people just chose to be blind to it all. As Biden called him, a clean and articulate black guy.
I did, as well. I stopped reading, because that seemed to be the focus. After reading the comments, though, I will go back and finish it.
Yup. Go back and finish reading. Time well spent, I think.
Me too. She is so much more.
You do realise not understanding the comparison is a mark of being got by the same stupid that 'Woke' leveraged, don't you? :-)
Brit writing about a Brit.
Most Brits can name Yank pols lower down the order. The same can't be be said of most yanks. The only important thing to be said about O' Barmpot for us is he attempted to interfere in the Brexit vote. Otherwise he was just another Yank pol for us to laugh at derisively. You knew he was a wanker when Guantanamo wasn't shut by Executive Order in the first 100 hours (let alone 100days!) of his Presidency.
The comparison stands because as at the time of his election (Doesn't matter he turned out to be just another bought fool) O' Barmpot was the Opposition Party's worst nightmare and his Kenyan background and outsiderdom does bear a lot of similarities to that of Kemi Bandernoch.
I find this very interesting. In the US, we were repeatedly told how much the rest of the world simply adored Obama.
I do see the relevant outsider comparison, when it comes to his Kenyan and her Nigerian roots. Very glad that it really seems to stop there. The only way Obama is useful, is as an example of what not to do.
Thank you, for the very intriguing input.
This is what happens when you get all your news from CNN and the BBC. :-)
I was mildly impressed when he was talking the talk. Guantanamo was the litmus test: he didn't fall at the first fence; but right out the gate. The Global Village Idiot was a hard act to follow /s, but, duh! In the end all that impressed was his crapitude.
The disgraceful evacuations of Saigon and Kabul; now that is the America we know and love! /s
Nicole...liked that...useful
I grant you most of us gringos are not really up on UK (& EU) pols. We have our hands full trying to find the less corrupt, Woke-free, US Constitution-supporting US politicians to support - a rare breed. I do follow the Canadian, Latin American political scene more closely because I lived and worked in several of those countries.
This was Americans well before 'Woke' showed its arse though. You lot put the 'P' in parochial. :-)
I hope you realize that the U.S. is as large (larger, actually) and complicated as the whole of Europe. If it were not for Hollywood and WWII, I would expect Europeans to be just "parochial" in their knowledge of U.S. politics.
And when we come to your hotels we dare order a Waldorf salad even if the kitchen is closed!
Your opinion on Guantanamo Bay is enough for me to discount the rest of your commentary based on big picture ignorance. Until you know the situation from a military standpoint, which is the whole purpose of the installation, you are just parroting what the Leftist media wants you to. Obama was an absolute joke and a failure, but Guantanamo had nothing to do with that. There are things that are ugly but necessary when it comes to military operations, the decisions on what is necessary or not should not be made by civilians who only have the information and viewpoint that was given to them by the media.
Ditto
There is very little in life more delicious than watching woke progressives lose their collective minds over black conservatives.
Not only are they stupid, insane and laughably comical but they are, in fact, the inherent "racists" they incessantly use to deride normal people who simply view people based on the content of their character and decency.
Progressives feel like they can say the most horribly racist things to Clarence Thomas and Candace Owens. They don't realize this exposes identity politics as a sham and a front for Marxism.
It’s farcical to watch elite white progressives ’angrically’ declare that all whites are evil and need to be stripped of everything they have. What they should get is to be taxed down to the average wealth of the country. I mean ALL of them, starting with Pelosi, Zuckerberg, Sonos et al. That’s what they want for everyone else, they should get some of their own pudding.
Truth is, it’s Class Warfare that’s building, not race.
True but ponder this. Given that they only have their own feelings, ethics and moral beliefs to go on, in their own cases, they may, in fact, be right that they are evil and need to be stripped of everything they have.
The plutocrats seem to be planning to blame the kulaks again. Redistribution schemes never impact the truly wealthy. What are the chances Pelosi or Gates would give up a single red cent for any of this stuff they want? No, it will be moderately successful people who will be expected to do the sacrificing. Apparatchiks are always thrilled to blame the kulaks and always surprised when the state turns on them.
OUTSTANDING! I had never heard of Kemi Badenoch until this article. I was enraptured by the natural eloquence of her speech to the House of Parliament - the video of which is a MUST watch! Best line: “What we are against is the teaching of contested political ideas as if they are accepted fact." Well said. A remarkable woman with more "balls" (...uh, figuratively speaking...) than most male politicians in ANY country. Winston Churchill, move over...
It's still incredible to me that people are shocked that a Black woman can be conservative and intelligent; I guess it just goes to show who the bigots really are. Great piece of reporting, thank you!
Great article. Just one thing: please *do not* compare this woman to Barack Obama. I fell for the idea that just because someone is of a different race, they will have different experiences and a different voice. Barack Obama turned out to be the hundredth coming of the same old self-interested, purchased politician from an upper class background, only with more melanin in his skin. Barack Obama would never have had the moral strength to go against the narrative like this woman does. So just leave Obama out of this conversation.
Fabulous! I’d vote for her in a heartbeat!
If I were a minority i'd be wary of these supposedly well meaning progressives. Because their ideology is threatened by your success. Their ideology requires that you be victims. Think about the implications of that for a second.
Well, that read was certainly positive! I really hope UK voters keep this lady around. We need heavy doses of sanity in the West right now.
As usual, immigrants tend to have the clearest view of their adopted lands. The people born and raised in the U.S. and the U.K. are living in odd, distorted landscapes only slightly related to the real world.
Winsome Sears, VA Lt Gov, is America’s version of Kemi Badenoch.
She sure us. She needs to move onto the national stage ASAP!
You said it!
Definitely. We're very happy to have her.