A couple of points that all the pundits analyzing seem to ignore.
1 - The self-described “elites” are largely comprised of MIDDLE INCOME urbanites who have a great deal of anger towards the high school graduates who built businesses and have more success than they do (along with intelligence I would argue). Most in journalism and those in academia are, at best, middle class. They also tend to be nauseatingly entitled.
2 - Don’t under estimate the fear of child vaccine mandates as putting parents and grandparents over the edge. Just as economic jobs analyst ignored the millions of children now being homeschooled likely with adult supervision, many previously employed adults, many are overlooking the fear the a still experimental shot will be mandated by Democrats on their masked 5 year old that faces zero statistical risk of dying from Covid.
3 - The Lincoln project is in a competition with Biden and Bloomberg to see who can waste the most money trying to tell people what to do. Combined success rate of funds spent is 0%.
4 - The main thing people are pushing back on is authoritarianism and insanity. Both are beyond annoying and have consumed the Democrat party.
Sincerely,
A mom in the 1% with a masters degree, two young kids, and zero trust funds, who proudly supported Trump and now votes all Republican (for now anyway) after being a registered Democrat from the age of 18-36. I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, but I did in 2020.
Me too! 18 until 36 - three years after I started a contracting business in CA and came to realize that the democrats were not only NOT helping my company in any way shape or form (and by extension the people working for me) but that everything I'd ever been told about republicans was a lie. For the most part, they were just hard-working, self-reliant, responsible folks with conservative values. And they didn't trust the government any more than I did!
I don't think that most people understand that when you run a business, be it a corporation (as mine was) or not, every mortgage and rent payment, car and insurance payment, and dollar your employees depend on hinges on you and your decisions. That weighed on me a lot. What drives me nuts is this knee-jerk reaction to the word "corporations" and how republicans cater to these "evil organizations". Millions upon millions of people work for corporations - of all different sizes. When you put into place policies that hurt business, you are ultimately hurting the individuals they employ. I know that this is a general statement and that there are greedy corporate officers out that who could care less about those just looking to make a living, but for the most part, I think policies that help businesses to thrive, for corporations to grow their stock, ultimately help those that work for or have invested in them.
The fact that mega corporations and tiny, small businesses are made accountable to the same "rules" when they are completely different animals is really an issue for me. A billion dollar corporation can afford armies of financial, PR, lobbyists, other professionals to help them skirt the "rules" in every sense of the word, while tiny, small business with few resources must live or die by endlessly multiplying, conflicting and often nonsensical bureaucratic edicts. But lots and lots of money make all those headaches go away.
I've seen this first hand, on a smaller scale, when a start up I worked for reached multi-millions in revenue. Once we could afford our own army of professional handlers, all of the various bureaucratic harpies that had been harassing us just kind of disappeared. But before that happened, it had gotten to the point that everyday felt like we were only there to justify some or another bureaucrat's job everyday.
A mega-corporation benefits from economy of scale. A monopoly-corporation benefits from a lock on the market. Small businesses and consumers suffer as a consequence and get exploited. But government has no intention in enforcing anti-trust laws.
And government regulations and red-tape uniquely benefits such a mega-corporation vis a vis their smaller competitors, as they can hire an army of lawyers and accountants and government liaison people and PR people that others can't.
There should be a law that a corporation may not have assets greater than lets say $1 billion (depends on the sector). This will allow competitors to rise up and challenge the mega-corporation and keep it honest.
Corporations are evil unless they are owned by the state, where productivity is 1/2 of the private sector, and where they are propped up by taxpayer subsidies and where the public unions run the corporation, and where they have a monopoly on their sector with high costs and high prices for consumers. That is the mentality of the average supposedly "educated" left-liberal elite, who have worked for government or through government grants all their career.
Yes, and keep their investment in both the physical assets that they build but the human investment in their employees here. Most of my career was in a very large corporation at a senior mgr / director level. The plants employ up to a thousand permanent employees, nearly every one funding a family and the local towns, merchants, etc.
When the business environment drives those enterprises away, all of that support goes away, including overseas. I’ve seen small towns dry up with the accompanying losses of income and opportunity.
If we get beaten in the marketplace, well that’s fault of ours. But when we get chased out because of clueless government policies, the terrible impacts of those lost jobs are unforgivable. The ignorant rubes in “flyover country” are good for nothing but making all the elites’ food and energy.
Why does the author call the purveyors of CRT a "highly educated class"? This is mythology perpetuated by the Left akin to calling themselves "Liberal" or pro-freedom.
What is so educated about a degree in gender studies, colonial studies, or cultural anthropology?
These supposedly "highly educated" class have no education in the sciences, in philosophy, in economics, or history or math. That is the definition of a person lacking an education. Stop calling the elitists with ersatz college degrees as "educated". How educated is it to believe that humans don't have a nature and are blank slates? Or that all is socially constructed? Or that collectivization improves general happiness?
Agree 100%. It’s why I put “educated” in quotations. They aren’t very knowledgeable about the world, replicated science, history, nature, or much else. They also lack intelligence as they view the entirety of life as though it’s a 2nd grade bubble test with pre-determined answer choices dictated to them.
And they have very little real life experience. Having worked for government where they can never be fired, where the workday is not merit-oriented, where they get all those benefits, and where in some places they work only 33 hours a week. Where their income comes from taxes and not consumers willingly buying their product.
90% of Leftists I have met are quite uneducated. They cover that up with judicious use of language, which fools a lot of people. But they have little substance and few facts.
BTW, by "author" in my previous comment,I meant the authorof the article. :)
Great reply and probably all true. They call anyone in between New York and Los Angeles flyover state voters. Which is intended to denigrate anyone not progressive enough to understand their self-serving gibberish. BTW we do that’s our little secret.
Many of us run successful businesses, own homes and raise families. We define success way differently than those that live in the beltway bubble. Which is probably why they don’t understand us.
Most in DC have never owned or ran a business. Been responsible for employees livelihood and by extension their families success. They will never get it or us.
Agree. They don’t build housing, so why not give it away. They don’t grow food, produce energy, build cars, run cable, install electricity, or anything else they insist should be given away to others for free. Statistically, Dems they don’t earn more money either. If you adjust for regional income, Dems make even less than Republicans. Remember, according to the NYTs Trump won the majority of households making over 100K. Biden got the majority under 24K. If Biden also win the majority of college graduates, it doesn’t say much for what most with a college degree have been able to accomplish of value with all that “education.” My husband and I both have master’s degrees. We both voted for Trump. Feelings of superiority for our degrees weren’t the motivating factor. What actually works was…..
Well said NCmom. The bloated public sector are the ones who vote for Democrats unreservedly. Because they have no anxiety about their jobs, even though they produce only 1/2 to 1/3 per employee compared to the private sector.
When your salary is secure and comes from the taxpayer, why not vote for people who will grow the government and then you can move up and get a higher salary and benefits?
And the lack of real world experience by these poorly educated federal, state and city workers, and their illiteracy in economics, results in them believing that all businesses are exploiters of workers and consumers.
You’re right. But I don’t think you fully nailed point #1. And doing so, I don’t think you fully elucidated the entire scope and shape of the problem.
You framed it in educational/“class” structures. It’s 90% there, but it needs more. It’s something more specific and more niche. It’s entirely a distinct culture or maybe more accurately, a religion. There are the consistencies like you mentioned (I.e. higher education). But they’re not constants. It’s more of an “initiated into the set of beliefs” feeling that is more prevalent. Or a cult “us” vs “them” feeling.
And I think that is where the animosity you describe comes from. What more accurately describes the “mostly middle-class, educated people hating those who made it big” feeling. That superior “they don’t deserve it” sentiment. It’s a religious “I acted right, I followed the right path, i did the right things, I am a good person, I believe the right things, they didn’t. They don’t deserve what they have”.
I don’t mean religious to bash “religion”. I mean religious as in it is a faith they have. It is unassailable. It isn’t based on any strong rationale that could be picked apart. It is completely and utterly not self aware. And cannot reference the errors in itself and dissect any mistakes. It is a belief in the truest sense of the word. A belief that when pointed towards something they desire but don’t have can only be described with religious words such as Envy. In the most sinful interpretation of the word.
And when directed at themselves. In a blind faith in their perfect intentions and irreproachable goals. Can only be described as pride. Once again in the most sinful sense.
I do not mean to invoke “religion” too much because I am out of my depth. Never been in a church. But that is how I would more accurately describe the dynamic. It is a faith the other side is wrong. The unshakeable moral belief they are right.
I think that is what defines the group more completely. Based on my experience, how I grew up, who I grew up with, and my age (graduated when so many of the big witch hunts on professors started). That is what I think shapes the group more than class or education. The axioms of postmodernism, that sculpt the faith based belief that they’re good/right. And the other side is bad/wrong.
Yes mostly correlated with education. To get the primers. But also correlated with the failing of failure or not living up to potential (I.e. oppressor vs oppressed). Correlated to the moralizing, good vs bad people. Correlated to the judgment of history, right-side of history. A meaningless phrase when intended objectively, as it is entirely based on what each individual believes. But is taken as a reality.
I am beyond rambling. But I think that is the best descriptor. It’s a faith, it’s is a set of beliefs taken axiomatically as a religion. Anyone can adopt these beliefs although they’re kept mostly for those who are “capable” of understanding “reality”. Those who can “understand” the gospel. Any heretic needs to be expelled. And can be ostracized from the group along any dimension of their character you find fault in.
I agree. Wokeness is a religion. A cult like one that replaces faith in a higher power which offers a consistent moral compass with promoting politicians and activist to the status of God. Because of this followers have given up the moral steadiness of religious beliefs in exchange for the whims of narrative and the flaws of extremely flawed humans.
My issue is that this article is just as condescending, to me, as the woke narrative. Statistically the woke are more likely to be “educated.” A huge percentage of the “educated” is employed in median paying very secure employment academia.
The woke are not more successful. They have not personally earned more income than the average conservative. There is zero evidence of greater intelligence (though lots of evidence the woke are more gullible, and less capable of logical reasoning). The woke/ Democrats have not found more success financially (or otherwise), by their own making.
Obviously people are individuals and I am referencing statistical data, not absolutes. There are all kinds of exceptions. When I read this it reads to me like it says “Democrats have abandoned poor people who weren’t capable of going to university, they may be simple and inarticulate, but they still vote so they still matter.”
This writer is using the same condescending, and completely baseless, tone towards conservatives the woke do. It’s completely negated by actual statistical data. The author likely knows this, which is why “education” is conflated with financial success.
Break the income thing down by county maps and you see something entirely different than the author implies. The more densely populated areas of cities, which are also poorer, vote for Democrats. The “wealthy” suburbs are swing districts with more conservatives, the low income areas in cities a few miles away are solidily Democrat.
Take Loudon county versus Fairfax county right next door. Loudon county is wealthier. Loudon county had a higher percentage for Youngkin. Very wealthy horse country just beyond went overwhelmingly for Youngkin. Break down the precinct maps in either Fairfax or Loudon county and you see the same thing.
The author seems to me to be implying, falsely, that poor, uneducated, inarticulate people are conservative. The statistical reality is that education does not drive political affiliation so much as both current income and long term goals. Strivers are far more often conservative (business owners, tradespeople, commission paid white collar, partners at professional firms). Dependents (wether on welfare, a government job, salaried employees at big corporations, or mommy and daddy) are far more often Democrats. The biggest real shift has been in union employees - the unions have stopped representing them and they are forced into more of a tradesperson mentality as a result. Does this author not realize how much a skilled tradesperson like a welder or oil rig operator earns? A heck of a lot more than teachers and 90% of university professors!!!
To your earlier point we graduated from college this century. (High school too). Our concern over the religion of the woke is a major reason our kids have always gone to private Christian schools. Our local public schools are crap academically, so that was a huge motivation, but we also realized the value to their lives in instilling the consistent moral compass via Christianity. We don’t necessarily care if they are religious, or even Christian, as adults (it’s their choice then), but we do want to instill a moral compass far more steady than the whims of nonsense so many are succumbing to. There are other ways to accomplish this I’m sure, but this is the path we chose for our family.
Very astute observation. From what I can tell, the author is one of the progressive left over educated journalists she seems to be excoriating. I doubt she has much of any direct experience outside of the beltway corridor. She is trying to warn her fellow big government commissars that their schtick isn't working. My guess is that she doesn't have any more of a sense of what you or I are about as those she is criticizing.
You are right but do not grab the essence of the situation. God created all men in his image, so God created all men equal. They want the word equal abolished and want to treat all men with equity. Western Philosophy believes man seeks knowledge in God, Science, and Society. Epistemology, the study of knowledge, claims Morality and Ethics philosophy, Logic, and Metaphysics. are the source of knowledge. Post-modernism takes Science and Ethical principles and collapses them into social constructs of Religion, Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Culture. Age, Technology (science). Their justice is based on the lens of oppression of weighting race, gender, sexual identity higher than the other social constructs. Justice is meta-ethical relative morality. Equity is based on the color of skin, gender, and sexual identity. Kimberly Crenshaw, a black lesbian, made the black lesbian the most oppressed. How original.
God and religion guided Western Philosophy, creating a Universal Morality, which our racist system of justice is based. It is based on equality as per the 14th amendment. Everyone is treated equally in a grievance, and both sides are presented equally to an impartial jury. When the grievance is concluded, both sides have had the opportunity to present their sides of the argument and leave knowing there was a presentation of their side of the argument—perhaps giving a reasonable person some dignity the justice had been done.
Example Meta Ethical Morality in Culture:
1 Gov Cuomo gets taken out of office because of being mean to 11 women and being a bully vs. Nursing home deaths killing 1000s of elderly. No attempt is made to go after him for murder and the death of thousands. Gender and 11 women harassment were what took the bully down. Where is the justice 1000s vs. 11, death vs. groping a woman?
2. Chappelle thought he could use his color to make transgender jokes. The trans-gender people canceled him, and he wanted a forum to talk, and no, he was canceled. So much for skin color.
Relative justice has no laws, and you have to watch what you do.
God guided us to have moral and ethical values. These build trust, and they are standards. God is the ultimate standard that sets the direction we must go. Moral and ethical values and their behaviors build trust. Trust is the fabric of society. Without values of trust being applied with consistency, caring, and competency, society can't exist. SIX PILLARS OF CHARACTER are ethical values that build trust that need to be the standard of society. Listed here:
1. Trustworthy; (don't cheat, don't steal, reliable, dependable, be faithful to your family and your character, do what you say, honest),
2. Respect; (tolerance, listening to others, using good manners, not bad language, being considerate of the feelings of others, don't threaten, hitting or hurting anyone , dealing peacefully with anger, insults),
3. Responsibility; (self-control, be self-disciplined, think before you act, consider the consequences, be accountable for your words, actions, and attitudes)
4. Fairness; (play by the rules, take turns and share, be open-minded; temperate, analytical, sincere, truthful, don't blame others carelessly. treat all people fairly or equally, objectivity)
5. Caring; ( Be compassionate and show empathy, express gratitude, forgive others, Help people in need)
6. Citizenship; (Volunteerism, the environment, don't pollute. paying your taxes no loopholes or hiding money, honoring ideals country was founded on, getting involved in community affairs, stay informed; vote, be a good neighbor, obey laws and rules, respect authority)
Religious, moral values like empathy, humility (don't brag, live within your means and be happy, pray to ask for guidance), charity (tide your wealth, help those in need, pray for those in need) All reinforce the ethical values above. Belief in God creates a strong mind and a happier person.
Trust is the commodity that holds things together; the truth of God makes it righteous. When things are beyond control in a social contract, or relationship, giving it to God removes our stresses. God helps create our imagines self-identity and the Goals we want to achieve.
Postmodernists do not believe in values, and therefore there is no belief in God. You must follow their philosophy without question. Isn't it funny that the men that want to be Gods fund Social Justice through philanthropies run by black people they have empowered? They want no trust; they want to destroy the country that is the truth. Pray for the country and justice against these sociopaths.
NCmom... i do agree with your post, this is not a contradiction, just a slant.
No application here is 100% and i might be off topic, but i know school teachers that make over $100,000/yr and do that while having lots of time off, 4 months off .
I do not teach, retired, with a total of paid vacation being 2 weeks and i am fine.
I think this is why i get frank, those running our Universities, ivy league etc. are pulling in $4,$5,$6 million per year, not bad for part time work.
Let me add that California Universities, they have 5 or 6 of them, put $11,000,000 into the 2020 election, all for one party, tax supported. They have ways to avoid attention.
Money will allow these schools to function impromptu .
Great thoughts… the left’s religion is power and money.. whatever it takes.. including dismantling the Republic to create a communist state where they don’t have to answer to anyone.. “insanity” consequently the educrats and media elite will be the first to go to the gulag..
“Newly educated classes have been especially likely to specialize in softer subjects and to be prominent among those fostering hostility toward more advanced groups, while promoting ethnic "identity" movements, whether such movements have been mobilized against other ethnic groups, the existing authorities, or other targets.”
IOW, this pattern of behavior among intellectuals is not new.
Also:
"Intertemporal abstractions are especially useful to those intellectuals who tend to conceive of social issues in terms which allow the intelligentsia to be on the side of the angels against the forces of evil. When intellectuals are unable to find enough contemporary grievances to suit their vision or agenda, they can mine the past for harm inflicted by some on others.”
And the piece de resistance:
“Because the vision of the anointed is a vision of themselves as well as a vision of the world, when they are defending that vision they are not simply defending a set of hypotheses about external events, they are in a sense defending their souls— and the zeal and even ruthlessness with which they may defend their vision are not surprising under these circumstances. But for people with opposite views, who may for example believe that most things work out better if left to such systemic processes as free markets, families, and traditional values, these are just a set of hypotheses about external events, rather than badges of moral superiority, so there is no such huge personal ego stake in whether or not those hypotheses are confirmed by empirical evidence.“
and: “This asymmetry between the two visions may help explain a striking pattern that goes back at least two centuries— the greater tendency of those with with the vision of the anointed to see those they disagree with as enemies who are morally lacking.”
and: “It has long been taken for granted by those with the vision of the anointed that their opponents are lacking in compassion. Moreover, there was no felt need to test that belief empirically.”
You should try religion; many psychological studies show people are happier and are healthier. One identity is your self-identity; it is a belief or imagination n of who you are. Religion adds a dimension to this belief in who you are. You realize that you can't sense everything, be everywhere, know everything, or do everything because of mortality. You give up your moral weaknesses in prayer and hope to accomplish your goals. You will either be more tenacious in your vision or eventually give up and do something else. Either way, your fears or frustrations are lessened, making you think clearly and have lower cortisol levels.
Seeing God is tricky; many look for a synchronicity of events and things that have a collective consciousness. A synchronicity of events is when two unrelated things happen around the same time. Example of synchronicity in time: Ex 9/11, the twin towers blew up, and so did the computers at the Pentagon that stored proof of trillions of dollars disappearing.
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Collective consciousness, see the elephants in the video below (1) Collective consciousness Durkheim wrote: " society exists because unique individuals feel a sense of solidarity with each other. This is why we can form collectives and work together to achieve community and functional societies. The collective consciousness, or conscience collective as he wrote it in French, is the source of this solidarity.
I disagree with Durkheim; I believe this is trust. Collective consciousness "According to Jung, we carry the memories of our ancestors in our subconscious. We use this collective unconscious to assign structure and meaning to the world." Collective consciousness is spiritual.
Jung had observed similar patterns in images, characters, and events recurring in myths, religions, and cultural beliefs. These communities and societies were unlikely to have been in contact with each other, but their central stories featured the same elements with the same roles.
Jung had observed similar patterns in images, characters, and events recurring in myths, religions, and cultural beliefs. These communities and societies were unlikely to have been in contact with each other, but their central stories featured the same elements with the same roles. Jung refers to these central elements as archetypes. Also, he called the repeated occurrences of these archetypes in cultures isolated from each other synchronicities.
Synchronicities: The JFK assassination, David Ferrie, Barry Seal, Felix Rodriguez, Poppy Bush, Lee Harvey Oswald, Cuban Alpha 66, Operation 40, Zapata Oil, Caesar Diosdado, Kiki Camerena, Meyer Lansky, Myles Ambrose, Double Chek Corporation, Winston Scott, Santo Trafficante, Jack Rub=y, HL Hunt.
All are synchronicities, all were somehow related but you can't pin them together with any agreement to conspire. You suspect they all have connections but can't prove them. You are left with a feeling of cognitive dissonace that something more is at play.
The elites are trying to put postmodern, CRT into society, and many reject it because of trust. But the introduction of CRT is happening in a synchronicity of events. COVID 19 and BLM riots. The men that want to be Gods are also putting a great deal of money into these efforts. Next, it will be the elimination of money and a new Cyber identity living on the cloud.
I'm splitting hairs here, but I attribute that resentment among bureaucrats towards entrepreneurs as being jealous of their balls rather than their brains.
Starting a business requires risk tolerance and taking chances, whereas being a desk jockey urbanite is playing it extremely safe career-wise. I agree the anger is there, but I think it's largely driven by displaced shame; these entitled pencil-pushers weren't brave enough to strike out on their own, so they settled for being a cog in the machine, and they hate anyone whose bravery reminds them of their own cowardice.
With #2, while I have no problem with a parent’s choice to not vaccinate their child, or leaving their child unmasked, and agree likelihood of a child dying from COVID is remote (not impossible, nor is severe illness, just highly unlikely), not sure other parents would want that child sitting next to theirs in school. An unvaccinated person including a child can contract COVID and potentially pass it along to others who would not be as fortunate to not get severely ill or die. So, being a good Christian, and loving your neighbors as yourself, homeschooling your unvaccinated child seems like a good idea to me.
Speaking of dogs, the famous book that Youngkin racistly implied in an ad was not suitable for children, as a dogwhistle to his klan base, contains multiple instances of bestiality and NONE of the animals were dogs. It was just a bunch of cow and goat sex. How rude! Very appropriate for children but somewhat discriminatory towards dogs, honestly.
🐶🐶🐶🍆🍆
PS I can be excessive at times so I should clarify. While David French certainly believes it is unconstitutional book burny right-wing cancel culture to keep the book in question away from children, it absolutely does contain a buttload of bestiality and a bonus episode of a lady murdering her own kid. It’s total unedifying sewage.
PPS Speaking of unedifying sewage, check out my latest newsletter about how the Trump vaccine functions a lot like a combover.
Imagine the hubris it takes to endure the loss they took last night in Virginia and then get right back on the horse for another ride. These people are so out of touch with reality that I wonder how they function as adults on a day to day basis. Really though, I am giving them too much credit, these people are just whores for the next dollar, they will say or do anything to get the next website click. It is theatre and it would be comical if it weren't for the stakes.
There is almost NOTHING more insulting than to be called/labeled a racist. Its like being called a child-molester. It is especially enraging to the 99.9% of the insulted who are avowedly NOT racists.
No matter: the Progressives have decided that viciously attacking great swaths of innocent people is a really winning political formula. Future historians will no doubt have much to say about this folly, but for now, all anyone needs to know is that these innocent victims have finally decided to tell the Left to FUCK OFF. This is just getting started...
Hey, Blacks already figured this out. The called each other the N word to take the sting out of it. Everyone else can do the same. When some leftist cretin screams "racist" just laugh it off or embrace it. Don't play their moronic games. Mock and ridicule them. But never, ever, take them seriously. Except to take seriously the fact that they hate you and the United States of America. Take that very seriously and consider them your implacable foe.
Seriously, being called any of the "ists" doesn't mean anything anymore. Which is too bad, as racism, sexism, etc. do exist and are problems but my God some of these folks (and I'm an independent who is mostly a moderate Dem, and I'm not letting the progressives push me around) have lost it. Listening to some of the college kids in my universe makes me want to cheese grate my knuckles White rice in your stir fry?!? Racist! Some are OK though. Gives me hope.
"This is just getting started..." I hope so. And if so, we've got Bari and others like her who have stood their ground, taken the heat, and rather than cower like so many understandably do, has grown stronger and continued the battle.
It’s genuinely alarming that all of the legacy media outlets (apart from Fox) now state explicitly—on election night broadcasts!—that decent people are required to vote for a particular political party. (Even non-voting and third-party voting are not morally defensible options; you must vote specifically for the party endorsed by the corporate, academic, oligarchic and mass-media consensus.)
I surfed around a bit last night—my first time watching network news in years—and I was surprised by what I heard. The open contempt for viewers/voters... the condescension toward minorities especially (simple folk who are “easily confused/misled” and hence accidentally make the wrong decisions sometimes)... the unstated assumption underlying every comment that the Democrats are the party of good and the Republicans are the party of racism, perversion, deception and evil... it had a “Romanian TV in the 80s” vibe.
For many years, reporters, academics, and campaign hacks have been unwilling to consider that some voters are partially, occasionally driven by real policy concerns—and unwilling to entertain the thought that a non-college-educated voter who disagrees with a Williams or Swarthmore grad could ever be correct. But what I saw last night was a new phase of elite contempt for the masses.
Calling Virginia’s electorate “infected” with “the delta variant” of a mental and moral disease is so stupid and ugly that it actually got my attention for a moment.
On the one hand, I’m glad that this didn’t work for them in Virginia the way it has worked for them for the last five years. On the other hand: these are dark times.
And yet they worship the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who have only attainted the educational level of High School graduate………. They dismiss highly educated DeSantis. It’s so stupid.
I did not get a super genius pill in either under grad or grad school. Neither did any of my rather gullible middle class woke friends. People who earn more money vote Republican, along with most who actually start businesses.
It’s not that hard, nor particularly well paying, to get a job in academia or mainstream media so long as you are incapable of thinking for yourself and enjoy approaching everything in life like a 2nd grade bubble test. Regurgitation is also a good skill in these fields.
Even in my “wealthy” neighborhood there is an economic divide between conservatives and the woke, with the woke averaging incomes about half that of their conservative neighbors.
I’m so tired of these morons misrepresenting the economic data by conflating education with wealth/ success. Trust fund babies are likely to be woke, but they haven’t really had to earn anything. If you look at what they actually earn on average, it’s not much. Sorry, but a high school grad who earns more than me is more financially successful, and probably smarter than me, even bypassing purchasing the degrees my parents bought for me so I could party for 5 years.
The "Critical Race Theory -- which doesn't exist/isn't taught" just dropped into every MSM discussion or article is destined to become a meme as recognizable as the "Republicans pounce" meme of last year. In the last week, nearly every single story I've read in the NYT, WaPo, AP, NPR, etc. includes that exact gratuitous phrase, as if we shouldn't trust our lying eyes and brains. Keep up the great work Batya and Bari and congrats to the Virginia voters!
And let’s give a huge shout-out to Christopher Rufo. About once a week he publishes another whistle-blower’s material revealing a public or private school CRT curriculum or a corporation’s mandatory, race-based, ideological bullying “diversity equity and inclusion” training. Recent reports exposed AT&T, CVS, and Walmart on the corporate end, and The National Education Association confirming its support for CRT-based education in public schools from K-12. https://christopherrufo.com/articles/
As if on cue, the NYT's Lisa Lerer managed to write a story hitting on both the "CRT isn't taught" and "Republicans pounce" memes, although interestingly enough, they changed the headline from when I first read the story this morning (which literally read "Republican Pounce on ...." to a different headline. If we didn't know it was sincere, it would be a parody.
What makes me sad is that the refutation of these lies is easily accomplished by anyone with half a neuron of curiosity left. The MSM relies on the cynical certainty that my intelligent liberal friends and family will not question a thing they read or hear. The ground of contempt and murderous hatred for our right-wing fellow Americans has been so well watered, that skepticism is not an option. Meanwhile, Rufo continues to publish the evidence, kids come home from school spouting racist crap, and we grow ever more alienated from the other half of the country. It's infuriating, and heartbreaking, really.
The election results show that the corporate media is losing its grip (in no small part due to the efforts of Substack creators!) You can also tell from the fact that various songs titled “Let’s Go Brandon” simultaneously topped the iTunes charts despite the corporate media’s initial attempt to ignore it and then to cast the phrase as belonging to “far right”.
You can only lie to people so long before they tune you out and then you are irrelevant, which is where the corporate media is rapidly heading.
The part I can't for the life of me figure out is whether Dems/progressives/elites are consiously gaslighting voters with "CRT isn't real/is only taught in law schools", or if they really just can't see the forest for the trees.
Sure, a lot of what Republicans/Chris Rufo/Younkin call CRT is really other similar ideologies like standpoint epistemology, postcolonial theory, postmodernism, black nationalism, etc., so if you want to get extremely technical and hair-splitting, the issues in schools are often not critical race theory PER SE.
But to make the logical leap from "there are other more technically precise terms to call this stuff" to "move along nothing to see here (you racist)"....I just don't see how Democrats wouldn't anticipate that rhetorical evasive maneuver to be poorly received by voters. Chris Rufo calling a postcolonial white-bashing textbook a CRT white-bashing textbook doesn't mean the white-bashing textbook is a "made-up issue".
So it's either the most incompetent attempt at gaslighting I've ever seen, or else the woke crowd really has drank so much of their own Kool-Aid that they don't see anything problematic in schools right now. I really can't figure it out.
Miles, It's more the latter than the former. The "it's technically not CRT" retort is a loophole. A way to outsmart the "hysteria" of CRT opponents. "When they go low, we go high" mentality. They're digging in their heels.
I've been a public school teacher for 20 years. I've been through many DEI trainings. And while I've never received a 3-ring binder labeled "Critical Race Theory Teaching Materials," all the tenets of it (privilege, white supremacy, implicit bias, intersectionality, etc., etc.) are the foundation of every workshop. Teachers have been hearing about--and actively trying to close--the achievement gap for years. We want our students to thrive, and current DEI trainings propose a very seductive solution to it--as long as you (the teacher) "do the work." I stepped away from teaching for a year and it cleared my head, thank God. I cannot speak for Progressives outside public ed, but those within it are caught up in the fervor. And to be sure, not all teachers are on board, but people should never underestimate the power of groupthink. Particularly right now when Unions are highly visible and calling for teacher unity. The institutional ethos is pretty intense.
I suspect many making the "it's not CRT" argument know they're being pedantic and splitting hairs, but it's a way to self-righteously sidestep a larger, complex discussion they'd rather not have. They're convinced they're right, and they're not going to justify "racist" arguments by engaging in discourse about it. That's my take on it, anyway.
They know, they just think that you don’t, or that they can convince you that the Theory itself is not being taught in K12 schools, which is factually correct, and ignores the truth which is the application of CRT is being taught to teachers and is definitely in schools.
Fair point. I've been fascinated for a while by how progressive thinking has merged the black-and-white Manichean worldview of Marxism with the epistemic nihilism of postmodernism, to arrive at this kind of pessimist/fatalist theory of discourse where there's no such thing as facts; everything is just competing propaganda for different political projects. E.g., when Trump is in office, "vaccines work" is right-wing propaganda, but once Biden is in office, "vaccines don't work" is right-wing propaganda. Whether or not the vaccines work is irrelevant; all rhetoric is evaluated in terms of political cui bono.
Once someone drinks that Kool-Aid, it's more or less inevitable that they say "well fuck it, if all discourse is either propaganda for the good guys, or propaganda for the bad guys, then I'll just be a shameless partisan hack everytime I open my mouth, because at least that way I know that the propaganda I'm shilling is the "good" propaganda, as opposed to the "bad" propaganda.
At which point it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; the people who live their lives by the lights of a theory that teaches all discourse is propaganda and everyone is a shill, end up becoming shills peddling propaganda, and another NPC is born.
In this case, admitting that something has gone wrong in schools is seen as "bolstering problematic right wing talking points", so progressives will just say the opposite (i.e. "nothing to see here"), to make sure that everything coming out of their mouths is "on the right side of history". Narratives > Reality.
Non-Playable Character. Gaming term for someone who can't really think for themselves, and can only cycle through a few pre-scripted lines of dialogue.
Became used as an analogy for super woke people who all sound interchangeable because they're all parroting the same talking points.
Miles you write very well. To answer your question I don’t think they’re gaslighting I think they are sincere, schools are fine and altogether correct to counter the parents presumed racial biases.
Miles your question was of course leading - you well know it’s a bit of both. I chose the true believer explanation and Mike Cranny picked the realpolitik, they know explanation. Go with Mike’s!
The election gives me hope but the real challenge is next November. We will see if Americans are savvy enough to withstand 12 months of propaganda and gaslighting or if they're going to fall in line like sheep and let the country go down in flames...
Depends on where gas prices and food prices and prices for everything are. Plus the fact that all these states and localities are raising taxes at the same time they sit on pots of unspent covid money. There is a lot for someone to work with against the dems.
It'll depend on how angry each voter gets over some part of the Democrat agenda which makes them really angry. Could be gas, high grocery prices, new regulations on workplace rules such as in trucking, empty shelves, etc. I suspect the vaccine mandates are going to die away as more people protest against them and more facts come out on both the dangers and ineffectiveness of the vaccines. There's a whole lot of lying going on from the government, and the media. It only takes one issue to spark a revolt if it is an issue close to your heart. For nearly all it's our children. What is surprising is the race in Virginia was this close for 2 reasons: 1) schools. The father protesting his daughter's rape in the school bathroom and all the cover-up from the school board and superintendent should have convinced 90% of all parents, and 2) new rules from the AG on what crimes will not be prosecuted and the rising crime rates because of this. I say 90% because there is always a solid 8-10% who don't see to notice anything and don't have an opinion on anything. Throw in CRT and parents being told to shut up and sit down; schools know best would should also have done it for most parents.
I mean, it's not unreasonable to expect the government to be responsive to emerging issues, and so far the Dem response to inflation has been more or less the same as their response to the Taliban sweeping through Afghanistan unchecked.
"Crisis? What crisis?"
So, it's more of a fuckup by omission than anything else. The Democrats will move heaven and earth to meet their quota of transgender military promotions; deplorable concerns like inflation are an afterthought at best.
Since the current inflation comes from a massive imbalance of supply and demand, what would you suggest the Biden Administration do about it? Tell people to quit buying stuff? Order corporations to make products only in America to avoid the lines at the ports? This type of inflation is pure capitalism: demand exceeds supply to prices rise. It will not be tamed by normal Fed means. So what should Biden propose?
While I agree with you in large part, miles, I will also note that:
--The Federal Reserve Board, not "the Democrats," are responsible for raising or lowering interest rates.
--Raising interest rates might, or might not, ease inflation. It definitely will crater the stock and bond markets, which will cause immense pain in a different part of the economy.
--Unfuck the ports? By all means. That means forcing the State of California to suspend its truck pollution regulations; override the contracts of a half-dozen trade unions; make private corporations hire more drivers, unloaders, longshoremen, equipment operators, modal specialists, and all the other trades involved with unfucking the ports; and/or flood the ports with a federalized National Guard to do the heavy lifting. If Biden did that, the Republicans would scream "nazi-fascist-dictator-military-invasion-herp-derp!" and file a thousand lawsuits. So what would you have Biden do?
--Repatriate manufacturing, I couldn't agree more. But as you point out, that's a long-term strategy that doesn't cut the knot now.
Americans love to pledge allegiance to capitalism and "free markets for free men." Well, that's fine, I'm a capitalist too. But capitalism means sometimes you gotta wait.
Nah, I suspect Newsweek is just trying to get ahead of the trends while they better define their manipulation propaganda techniques. To their credit, they have definitely realized that the old formula isn't working anymore and they are trying to get ahead of the wave, while the rest of the legacy outlets are just doubling down.
Afraid not. Newsweek was sold a few years ago to a right-wing corporation, so any "manipulation propaganda" you suggest is from the right, not the left. The only thing that remains from Newsweek's storied past is the name.
If it helps, I keep wondering when Twitter and other social media will ban Newsweek as "misinformation". They consistently poke holes in woke talking points, so it's a small miracle they haven't been censored by Big Tech already.
You and I have clashed before on me being more left wing and you being more right wing, so I hope it means something when I say that I have seen literally dozens of recent examples of Newsweek bucking the woke talking points that are rolled out in lockstep across CNN, NYT, WaPo, MSNBC, NPR, etc.
I agree. It's frustrating to listen to the juvenile explanations being offered.
DEMS are trying to spin it so that the donations keep rolling. It's a tragedy to have a better product than your rival and be absolutely incapable of marketing it. The dems need to get rid of the damn consultant class of white college educated stooges whose noses are so far up their own asses they can't see what's in front of them, and start talking to regular people. Not the short clips of the stupid diner talks on the campaign trail. I hate those dumbass mayberry moments. They need to get that most folks don't live in a world of inherited white guilt and 74 genders and think that this kind of crap is insane.
WOW! This was a great piece. Thank you for this unvarnished take on your peers in the professional media. I'm grateful to Batya for explaining it. --> "And here’s the crucial point: The “Critical Race Theory isn’t real” meme is not about race. It’s not about politics. It’s not even a culture war, really. It’s about class. It’s about one class—a highly-educated chattering class—using highly specialized language to tell normal parents that they lack sufficient intellectual capacity and are imagining things because they’ve been brainwashed. A highly-educated progressive media has used its educational advantage—92 percent of American journalists have a college degree—to gaslight working-class parents of all races. Under the guise of fighting racism."
To be fair to the elites, there's an expression in dialectic philosophy called "obscurum per obscurius" which roughly translates to "the obscure through the more obscure".
Basically, it's a known sleazy tactic where people with half-baked ideas try to make their half-baked ideas sound much more profound and intelligent than they are, by phrasing said ideas in the most convoluted, indecipherable prose that they possibly can. To quote the (underrated) show Justified, "using 40 words where 4 will do"
A lot of woke scholars lean HEAVILY on this tactic, and basically use specialized language as a bluff to hide how piss-poor their supposed "insights" really are. It works in elite circles because they've found a bulletproof way to avoid their bluffs being called, by adding in an escape hatch of "anyone who says I'm bluffing is outing themselves as a deplorable".
So the people using specalized language are not necessarily trying to exclude laymen, so much as bluff other elites that they're not completely full of shit. The problem is, a majority of elites at this point are using this bullshitting tactic (for reasons of in-group virtue-signalling), to the point where the whole situation is begging for an "emperor has no clothes" moment, where a supposed laymen calls out all the elites on their collective bullshit in a single high-profile moment of public reckoning.
Here's hoping Chris Rufo and others like him have succeeded in cutting through all the specialized language, and called the bluff for everyone to see.
Language, words are my hobby and I find your explanation very skillfully crafted. Trump was a big bombastic comeuppance for the preening possers, a sledgehammer of incompetence and chortling revenge. But, while I agree with everything you say - I found it instructional - I’m quite sure they are very conscientiously trying to bamboozle the laymen. I think they despise us for putting the orange ignoramus on the world stage.
In 1998, The journal Philosophy and Literature held its fourth and final Bad Writing Contest, which recognized “the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books and articles.” First place went to Judith Butler, a gender theorist and philosopher, for this excerpt from a 1997 article in Diacritics:
"The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power."
So glad Governor-Elect Youngkin won last night. And I used to be a Democrat.
Whenever I hear Democrats and the mainstream media claim "Critical Race Theory isn't taught in schools," my head starts to explode at this ridiculous lie. Everyone paying attention knows the principles of Critical Race Theory have invaded the schools like a cancer that's turned metastatic. The warped principles of CRT are most definitely hammered home every day by hundreds of thousands of teachers, in tens of thousands of public and private schools, at every grade level, all across the country.
If not for CRT, no teacher in their right mind would ever tell a student not to speak in class because that student is white. If not for CRT, no teacher in their right mind would ever tell a student that answering math problems correctly was white supremacy. If not for CRT, no teacher would ever tell a five year old they have the original sin of racism.
It was time for some noisy blowback, and last night we finally got it. Congratulations to Governor-Elect Youngkin. I can't wait to see the sense-making changes you'll institute once you're in office.
If anyone tells you that "Critical Race Theory isn't being taught in schools," smile sweetly, and agree. Then point out forcefully, with raised voice if needed, that the real objection to it is not that it's being taught, but that it's being used to redesign the curriculum on the dubious premise that it is correct.
The politicians and TV Talking Heads think we’re too stupid to recognize their semantics ploy when they push select portions of CRT under different titles and then claim innocence. Well it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck.
As Ibram X Candy relates above, that’s a remake of Fauci’s innocence regarding Gain-Of-Function research.
Re: Thomas Frank, please note that he did go on to write _Listen, Liberal_, one of the most scathing and insightful books about the Democrats smug insularity and its abandonment of all left-wing values.
Not to mention his recent, even more pointed book "The People, No!" which examines the Left's current vilification of populism, and concludes that it says absolutely nothing good about them. I haven't read it, but Matt Taibbi reviewed it and interviewed Thomas Frank at length. Frank's interview echoes many of the themes discussed here.
As a lifelong Virginian, I can't tell you how excited I and my family and friends are about this outcome. The main reason that Virginia has been blue for the last decade or two, is that the Federal Government, where most employees vote left, gets bigger and bigger, and has been bleeding into northern Virginia for years. Two of the most populous counties in the state are Washington suburbs. I contend it's actually purple, not blue.
I would guess most of Virginia is center or center right. Those of us that live in the Richmond suburbs have watched how Democratic policy has destroyed the city. The schools, the crime, the taxes...I can't remember a time when it wasn't under Democrat control.
Hopefully Youngkin can really do what he says he wants to. This is finally our chance to show that is all about the policies.
This is an under-reported fact that is not limited to VA. I live near San Antonio where in a highly hispanic district they just replaced a D with an R. And this is happening all over the place, from what I read.
A couple of points that all the pundits analyzing seem to ignore.
1 - The self-described “elites” are largely comprised of MIDDLE INCOME urbanites who have a great deal of anger towards the high school graduates who built businesses and have more success than they do (along with intelligence I would argue). Most in journalism and those in academia are, at best, middle class. They also tend to be nauseatingly entitled.
2 - Don’t under estimate the fear of child vaccine mandates as putting parents and grandparents over the edge. Just as economic jobs analyst ignored the millions of children now being homeschooled likely with adult supervision, many previously employed adults, many are overlooking the fear the a still experimental shot will be mandated by Democrats on their masked 5 year old that faces zero statistical risk of dying from Covid.
3 - The Lincoln project is in a competition with Biden and Bloomberg to see who can waste the most money trying to tell people what to do. Combined success rate of funds spent is 0%.
4 - The main thing people are pushing back on is authoritarianism and insanity. Both are beyond annoying and have consumed the Democrat party.
Sincerely,
A mom in the 1% with a masters degree, two young kids, and zero trust funds, who proudly supported Trump and now votes all Republican (for now anyway) after being a registered Democrat from the age of 18-36. I didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, but I did in 2020.
Me too! 18 until 36 - three years after I started a contracting business in CA and came to realize that the democrats were not only NOT helping my company in any way shape or form (and by extension the people working for me) but that everything I'd ever been told about republicans was a lie. For the most part, they were just hard-working, self-reliant, responsible folks with conservative values. And they didn't trust the government any more than I did!
Exactly what happened to me. Nothing like some real world experience to open one's eyes about how the deck is really stacked!
That, and for me, having little humans I’m responsible for. Suddenly pretty sounding rhetoric started taking a back seat to actual outcomes.
I don't think that most people understand that when you run a business, be it a corporation (as mine was) or not, every mortgage and rent payment, car and insurance payment, and dollar your employees depend on hinges on you and your decisions. That weighed on me a lot. What drives me nuts is this knee-jerk reaction to the word "corporations" and how republicans cater to these "evil organizations". Millions upon millions of people work for corporations - of all different sizes. When you put into place policies that hurt business, you are ultimately hurting the individuals they employ. I know that this is a general statement and that there are greedy corporate officers out that who could care less about those just looking to make a living, but for the most part, I think policies that help businesses to thrive, for corporations to grow their stock, ultimately help those that work for or have invested in them.
The fact that mega corporations and tiny, small businesses are made accountable to the same "rules" when they are completely different animals is really an issue for me. A billion dollar corporation can afford armies of financial, PR, lobbyists, other professionals to help them skirt the "rules" in every sense of the word, while tiny, small business with few resources must live or die by endlessly multiplying, conflicting and often nonsensical bureaucratic edicts. But lots and lots of money make all those headaches go away.
I've seen this first hand, on a smaller scale, when a start up I worked for reached multi-millions in revenue. Once we could afford our own army of professional handlers, all of the various bureaucratic harpies that had been harassing us just kind of disappeared. But before that happened, it had gotten to the point that everyday felt like we were only there to justify some or another bureaucrat's job everyday.
A mega-corporation benefits from economy of scale. A monopoly-corporation benefits from a lock on the market. Small businesses and consumers suffer as a consequence and get exploited. But government has no intention in enforcing anti-trust laws.
And government regulations and red-tape uniquely benefits such a mega-corporation vis a vis their smaller competitors, as they can hire an army of lawyers and accountants and government liaison people and PR people that others can't.
There should be a law that a corporation may not have assets greater than lets say $1 billion (depends on the sector). This will allow competitors to rise up and challenge the mega-corporation and keep it honest.
Corporations are evil unless they are owned by the state, where productivity is 1/2 of the private sector, and where they are propped up by taxpayer subsidies and where the public unions run the corporation, and where they have a monopoly on their sector with high costs and high prices for consumers. That is the mentality of the average supposedly "educated" left-liberal elite, who have worked for government or through government grants all their career.
Yes, and keep their investment in both the physical assets that they build but the human investment in their employees here. Most of my career was in a very large corporation at a senior mgr / director level. The plants employ up to a thousand permanent employees, nearly every one funding a family and the local towns, merchants, etc.
When the business environment drives those enterprises away, all of that support goes away, including overseas. I’ve seen small towns dry up with the accompanying losses of income and opportunity.
If we get beaten in the marketplace, well that’s fault of ours. But when we get chased out because of clueless government policies, the terrible impacts of those lost jobs are unforgivable. The ignorant rubes in “flyover country” are good for nothing but making all the elites’ food and energy.
Rod...you make good solid points, in that many people view companies in a facet form, many do not see the Trickle...thanks
Why does the author call the purveyors of CRT a "highly educated class"? This is mythology perpetuated by the Left akin to calling themselves "Liberal" or pro-freedom.
What is so educated about a degree in gender studies, colonial studies, or cultural anthropology?
These supposedly "highly educated" class have no education in the sciences, in philosophy, in economics, or history or math. That is the definition of a person lacking an education. Stop calling the elitists with ersatz college degrees as "educated". How educated is it to believe that humans don't have a nature and are blank slates? Or that all is socially constructed? Or that collectivization improves general happiness?
Agree wholeheartedly. Put another, more crass way, just because you have a college degree doesn't mean you're not and idiot.
Agree 100%. It’s why I put “educated” in quotations. They aren’t very knowledgeable about the world, replicated science, history, nature, or much else. They also lack intelligence as they view the entirety of life as though it’s a 2nd grade bubble test with pre-determined answer choices dictated to them.
And they have very little real life experience. Having worked for government where they can never be fired, where the workday is not merit-oriented, where they get all those benefits, and where in some places they work only 33 hours a week. Where their income comes from taxes and not consumers willingly buying their product.
90% of Leftists I have met are quite uneducated. They cover that up with judicious use of language, which fools a lot of people. But they have little substance and few facts.
BTW, by "author" in my previous comment,I meant the authorof the article. :)
Great reply and probably all true. They call anyone in between New York and Los Angeles flyover state voters. Which is intended to denigrate anyone not progressive enough to understand their self-serving gibberish. BTW we do that’s our little secret.
Many of us run successful businesses, own homes and raise families. We define success way differently than those that live in the beltway bubble. Which is probably why they don’t understand us.
Most in DC have never owned or ran a business. Been responsible for employees livelihood and by extension their families success. They will never get it or us.
Agree. They don’t build housing, so why not give it away. They don’t grow food, produce energy, build cars, run cable, install electricity, or anything else they insist should be given away to others for free. Statistically, Dems they don’t earn more money either. If you adjust for regional income, Dems make even less than Republicans. Remember, according to the NYTs Trump won the majority of households making over 100K. Biden got the majority under 24K. If Biden also win the majority of college graduates, it doesn’t say much for what most with a college degree have been able to accomplish of value with all that “education.” My husband and I both have master’s degrees. We both voted for Trump. Feelings of superiority for our degrees weren’t the motivating factor. What actually works was…..
Well said NCmom. The bloated public sector are the ones who vote for Democrats unreservedly. Because they have no anxiety about their jobs, even though they produce only 1/2 to 1/3 per employee compared to the private sector.
When your salary is secure and comes from the taxpayer, why not vote for people who will grow the government and then you can move up and get a higher salary and benefits?
And the lack of real world experience by these poorly educated federal, state and city workers, and their illiteracy in economics, results in them believing that all businesses are exploiters of workers and consumers.
NCmom...right to the point, "they don't build" so, why not give it away...a lot to like
Also the trickle down in the" give away" programs , hurts the one on the receiving end, they lose focus.
"Most in DC have never owned or ran a business." Notably Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
And so many more lifers like Schumer, pelosi, mcconnell…
Yes. And have not even had an executive position such as governor of a state.
You’re right. But I don’t think you fully nailed point #1. And doing so, I don’t think you fully elucidated the entire scope and shape of the problem.
You framed it in educational/“class” structures. It’s 90% there, but it needs more. It’s something more specific and more niche. It’s entirely a distinct culture or maybe more accurately, a religion. There are the consistencies like you mentioned (I.e. higher education). But they’re not constants. It’s more of an “initiated into the set of beliefs” feeling that is more prevalent. Or a cult “us” vs “them” feeling.
And I think that is where the animosity you describe comes from. What more accurately describes the “mostly middle-class, educated people hating those who made it big” feeling. That superior “they don’t deserve it” sentiment. It’s a religious “I acted right, I followed the right path, i did the right things, I am a good person, I believe the right things, they didn’t. They don’t deserve what they have”.
I don’t mean religious to bash “religion”. I mean religious as in it is a faith they have. It is unassailable. It isn’t based on any strong rationale that could be picked apart. It is completely and utterly not self aware. And cannot reference the errors in itself and dissect any mistakes. It is a belief in the truest sense of the word. A belief that when pointed towards something they desire but don’t have can only be described with religious words such as Envy. In the most sinful interpretation of the word.
And when directed at themselves. In a blind faith in their perfect intentions and irreproachable goals. Can only be described as pride. Once again in the most sinful sense.
I do not mean to invoke “religion” too much because I am out of my depth. Never been in a church. But that is how I would more accurately describe the dynamic. It is a faith the other side is wrong. The unshakeable moral belief they are right.
I think that is what defines the group more completely. Based on my experience, how I grew up, who I grew up with, and my age (graduated when so many of the big witch hunts on professors started). That is what I think shapes the group more than class or education. The axioms of postmodernism, that sculpt the faith based belief that they’re good/right. And the other side is bad/wrong.
Yes mostly correlated with education. To get the primers. But also correlated with the failing of failure or not living up to potential (I.e. oppressor vs oppressed). Correlated to the moralizing, good vs bad people. Correlated to the judgment of history, right-side of history. A meaningless phrase when intended objectively, as it is entirely based on what each individual believes. But is taken as a reality.
I am beyond rambling. But I think that is the best descriptor. It’s a faith, it’s is a set of beliefs taken axiomatically as a religion. Anyone can adopt these beliefs although they’re kept mostly for those who are “capable” of understanding “reality”. Those who can “understand” the gospel. Any heretic needs to be expelled. And can be ostracized from the group along any dimension of their character you find fault in.
I agree. Wokeness is a religion. A cult like one that replaces faith in a higher power which offers a consistent moral compass with promoting politicians and activist to the status of God. Because of this followers have given up the moral steadiness of religious beliefs in exchange for the whims of narrative and the flaws of extremely flawed humans.
My issue is that this article is just as condescending, to me, as the woke narrative. Statistically the woke are more likely to be “educated.” A huge percentage of the “educated” is employed in median paying very secure employment academia.
The woke are not more successful. They have not personally earned more income than the average conservative. There is zero evidence of greater intelligence (though lots of evidence the woke are more gullible, and less capable of logical reasoning). The woke/ Democrats have not found more success financially (or otherwise), by their own making.
Obviously people are individuals and I am referencing statistical data, not absolutes. There are all kinds of exceptions. When I read this it reads to me like it says “Democrats have abandoned poor people who weren’t capable of going to university, they may be simple and inarticulate, but they still vote so they still matter.”
This writer is using the same condescending, and completely baseless, tone towards conservatives the woke do. It’s completely negated by actual statistical data. The author likely knows this, which is why “education” is conflated with financial success.
Break the income thing down by county maps and you see something entirely different than the author implies. The more densely populated areas of cities, which are also poorer, vote for Democrats. The “wealthy” suburbs are swing districts with more conservatives, the low income areas in cities a few miles away are solidily Democrat.
Take Loudon county versus Fairfax county right next door. Loudon county is wealthier. Loudon county had a higher percentage for Youngkin. Very wealthy horse country just beyond went overwhelmingly for Youngkin. Break down the precinct maps in either Fairfax or Loudon county and you see the same thing.
The author seems to me to be implying, falsely, that poor, uneducated, inarticulate people are conservative. The statistical reality is that education does not drive political affiliation so much as both current income and long term goals. Strivers are far more often conservative (business owners, tradespeople, commission paid white collar, partners at professional firms). Dependents (wether on welfare, a government job, salaried employees at big corporations, or mommy and daddy) are far more often Democrats. The biggest real shift has been in union employees - the unions have stopped representing them and they are forced into more of a tradesperson mentality as a result. Does this author not realize how much a skilled tradesperson like a welder or oil rig operator earns? A heck of a lot more than teachers and 90% of university professors!!!
To your earlier point we graduated from college this century. (High school too). Our concern over the religion of the woke is a major reason our kids have always gone to private Christian schools. Our local public schools are crap academically, so that was a huge motivation, but we also realized the value to their lives in instilling the consistent moral compass via Christianity. We don’t necessarily care if they are religious, or even Christian, as adults (it’s their choice then), but we do want to instill a moral compass far more steady than the whims of nonsense so many are succumbing to. There are other ways to accomplish this I’m sure, but this is the path we chose for our family.
Very astute observation. From what I can tell, the author is one of the progressive left over educated journalists she seems to be excoriating. I doubt she has much of any direct experience outside of the beltway corridor. She is trying to warn her fellow big government commissars that their schtick isn't working. My guess is that she doesn't have any more of a sense of what you or I are about as those she is criticizing.
You are right but do not grab the essence of the situation. God created all men in his image, so God created all men equal. They want the word equal abolished and want to treat all men with equity. Western Philosophy believes man seeks knowledge in God, Science, and Society. Epistemology, the study of knowledge, claims Morality and Ethics philosophy, Logic, and Metaphysics. are the source of knowledge. Post-modernism takes Science and Ethical principles and collapses them into social constructs of Religion, Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Culture. Age, Technology (science). Their justice is based on the lens of oppression of weighting race, gender, sexual identity higher than the other social constructs. Justice is meta-ethical relative morality. Equity is based on the color of skin, gender, and sexual identity. Kimberly Crenshaw, a black lesbian, made the black lesbian the most oppressed. How original.
God and religion guided Western Philosophy, creating a Universal Morality, which our racist system of justice is based. It is based on equality as per the 14th amendment. Everyone is treated equally in a grievance, and both sides are presented equally to an impartial jury. When the grievance is concluded, both sides have had the opportunity to present their sides of the argument and leave knowing there was a presentation of their side of the argument—perhaps giving a reasonable person some dignity the justice had been done.
Example Meta Ethical Morality in Culture:
1 Gov Cuomo gets taken out of office because of being mean to 11 women and being a bully vs. Nursing home deaths killing 1000s of elderly. No attempt is made to go after him for murder and the death of thousands. Gender and 11 women harassment were what took the bully down. Where is the justice 1000s vs. 11, death vs. groping a woman?
2. Chappelle thought he could use his color to make transgender jokes. The trans-gender people canceled him, and he wanted a forum to talk, and no, he was canceled. So much for skin color.
Relative justice has no laws, and you have to watch what you do.
God guided us to have moral and ethical values. These build trust, and they are standards. God is the ultimate standard that sets the direction we must go. Moral and ethical values and their behaviors build trust. Trust is the fabric of society. Without values of trust being applied with consistency, caring, and competency, society can't exist. SIX PILLARS OF CHARACTER are ethical values that build trust that need to be the standard of society. Listed here:
1. Trustworthy; (don't cheat, don't steal, reliable, dependable, be faithful to your family and your character, do what you say, honest),
2. Respect; (tolerance, listening to others, using good manners, not bad language, being considerate of the feelings of others, don't threaten, hitting or hurting anyone , dealing peacefully with anger, insults),
3. Responsibility; (self-control, be self-disciplined, think before you act, consider the consequences, be accountable for your words, actions, and attitudes)
4. Fairness; (play by the rules, take turns and share, be open-minded; temperate, analytical, sincere, truthful, don't blame others carelessly. treat all people fairly or equally, objectivity)
5. Caring; ( Be compassionate and show empathy, express gratitude, forgive others, Help people in need)
6. Citizenship; (Volunteerism, the environment, don't pollute. paying your taxes no loopholes or hiding money, honoring ideals country was founded on, getting involved in community affairs, stay informed; vote, be a good neighbor, obey laws and rules, respect authority)
Religious, moral values like empathy, humility (don't brag, live within your means and be happy, pray to ask for guidance), charity (tide your wealth, help those in need, pray for those in need) All reinforce the ethical values above. Belief in God creates a strong mind and a happier person.
Trust is the commodity that holds things together; the truth of God makes it righteous. When things are beyond control in a social contract, or relationship, giving it to God removes our stresses. God helps create our imagines self-identity and the Goals we want to achieve.
Postmodernists do not believe in values, and therefore there is no belief in God. You must follow their philosophy without question. Isn't it funny that the men that want to be Gods fund Social Justice through philanthropies run by black people they have empowered? They want no trust; they want to destroy the country that is the truth. Pray for the country and justice against these sociopaths.
NCmom... i do agree with your post, this is not a contradiction, just a slant.
No application here is 100% and i might be off topic, but i know school teachers that make over $100,000/yr and do that while having lots of time off, 4 months off .
I do not teach, retired, with a total of paid vacation being 2 weeks and i am fine.
I think this is why i get frank, those running our Universities, ivy league etc. are pulling in $4,$5,$6 million per year, not bad for part time work.
Let me add that California Universities, they have 5 or 6 of them, put $11,000,000 into the 2020 election, all for one party, tax supported. They have ways to avoid attention.
Money will allow these schools to function impromptu .
Great thoughts… the left’s religion is power and money.. whatever it takes.. including dismantling the Republic to create a communist state where they don’t have to answer to anyone.. “insanity” consequently the educrats and media elite will be the first to go to the gulag..
The left's religion is ego and self-righteousness, which they leverage along with verbal virtuosity, to acquire power and money.
James Lindsay created a podcast that addresses this to some extent: https://newdiscourses.com/2021/05/bourgeois-overproduction-problem-fake-elite/ Behind a paywall unfortunately.
Thomas Sowell wrote an enlightening book about this topic: "Intellectuals and Society" https://www.nationalreview.com/2010/01/divine-right-intellectuals-david-hogberg/
Some choice excerpts:
“Newly educated classes have been especially likely to specialize in softer subjects and to be prominent among those fostering hostility toward more advanced groups, while promoting ethnic "identity" movements, whether such movements have been mobilized against other ethnic groups, the existing authorities, or other targets.”
IOW, this pattern of behavior among intellectuals is not new.
Also:
"Intertemporal abstractions are especially useful to those intellectuals who tend to conceive of social issues in terms which allow the intelligentsia to be on the side of the angels against the forces of evil. When intellectuals are unable to find enough contemporary grievances to suit their vision or agenda, they can mine the past for harm inflicted by some on others.”
And the piece de resistance:
“Because the vision of the anointed is a vision of themselves as well as a vision of the world, when they are defending that vision they are not simply defending a set of hypotheses about external events, they are in a sense defending their souls— and the zeal and even ruthlessness with which they may defend their vision are not surprising under these circumstances. But for people with opposite views, who may for example believe that most things work out better if left to such systemic processes as free markets, families, and traditional values, these are just a set of hypotheses about external events, rather than badges of moral superiority, so there is no such huge personal ego stake in whether or not those hypotheses are confirmed by empirical evidence.“
and: “This asymmetry between the two visions may help explain a striking pattern that goes back at least two centuries— the greater tendency of those with with the vision of the anointed to see those they disagree with as enemies who are morally lacking.”
and: “It has long been taken for granted by those with the vision of the anointed that their opponents are lacking in compassion. Moreover, there was no felt need to test that belief empirically.”
You should try religion; many psychological studies show people are happier and are healthier. One identity is your self-identity; it is a belief or imagination n of who you are. Religion adds a dimension to this belief in who you are. You realize that you can't sense everything, be everywhere, know everything, or do everything because of mortality. You give up your moral weaknesses in prayer and hope to accomplish your goals. You will either be more tenacious in your vision or eventually give up and do something else. Either way, your fears or frustrations are lessened, making you think clearly and have lower cortisol levels.
Seeing God is tricky; many look for a synchronicity of events and things that have a collective consciousness. A synchronicity of events is when two unrelated things happen around the same time. Example of synchronicity in time: Ex 9/11, the twin towers blew up, and so did the computers at the Pentagon that stored proof of trillions of dollars disappearing.
.
Collective consciousness, see the elephants in the video below (1) Collective consciousness Durkheim wrote: " society exists because unique individuals feel a sense of solidarity with each other. This is why we can form collectives and work together to achieve community and functional societies. The collective consciousness, or conscience collective as he wrote it in French, is the source of this solidarity.
I disagree with Durkheim; I believe this is trust. Collective consciousness "According to Jung, we carry the memories of our ancestors in our subconscious. We use this collective unconscious to assign structure and meaning to the world." Collective consciousness is spiritual.
Jung had observed similar patterns in images, characters, and events recurring in myths, religions, and cultural beliefs. These communities and societies were unlikely to have been in contact with each other, but their central stories featured the same elements with the same roles.
Jung had observed similar patterns in images, characters, and events recurring in myths, religions, and cultural beliefs. These communities and societies were unlikely to have been in contact with each other, but their central stories featured the same elements with the same roles. Jung refers to these central elements as archetypes. Also, he called the repeated occurrences of these archetypes in cultures isolated from each other synchronicities.
Synchronicities: The JFK assassination, David Ferrie, Barry Seal, Felix Rodriguez, Poppy Bush, Lee Harvey Oswald, Cuban Alpha 66, Operation 40, Zapata Oil, Caesar Diosdado, Kiki Camerena, Meyer Lansky, Myles Ambrose, Double Chek Corporation, Winston Scott, Santo Trafficante, Jack Rub=y, HL Hunt.
All are synchronicities, all were somehow related but you can't pin them together with any agreement to conspire. You suspect they all have connections but can't prove them. You are left with a feeling of cognitive dissonace that something more is at play.
The elites are trying to put postmodern, CRT into society, and many reject it because of trust. But the introduction of CRT is happening in a synchronicity of events. COVID 19 and BLM riots. The men that want to be Gods are also putting a great deal of money into these efforts. Next, it will be the elimination of money and a new Cyber identity living on the cloud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY1hxwuD1rU
Great piece!!
I'm splitting hairs here, but I attribute that resentment among bureaucrats towards entrepreneurs as being jealous of their balls rather than their brains.
Starting a business requires risk tolerance and taking chances, whereas being a desk jockey urbanite is playing it extremely safe career-wise. I agree the anger is there, but I think it's largely driven by displaced shame; these entitled pencil-pushers weren't brave enough to strike out on their own, so they settled for being a cog in the machine, and they hate anyone whose bravery reminds them of their own cowardice.
With #2, while I have no problem with a parent’s choice to not vaccinate their child, or leaving their child unmasked, and agree likelihood of a child dying from COVID is remote (not impossible, nor is severe illness, just highly unlikely), not sure other parents would want that child sitting next to theirs in school. An unvaccinated person including a child can contract COVID and potentially pass it along to others who would not be as fortunate to not get severely ill or die. So, being a good Christian, and loving your neighbors as yourself, homeschooling your unvaccinated child seems like a good idea to me.
Please come vote in VA, NCmom.
😂. I have family in VA. They voted straight Republican.
You go girl!
I feel like I need to explain to Democrats how dogwhistles work. It’s fairly complex. Let me try to break it down into a series of bullet points.
-If you hear it, YOU ARE THE DOG
And if you hear the dog whistle that’s racist, you’re the racist.
Speaking of dogs, the famous book that Youngkin racistly implied in an ad was not suitable for children, as a dogwhistle to his klan base, contains multiple instances of bestiality and NONE of the animals were dogs. It was just a bunch of cow and goat sex. How rude! Very appropriate for children but somewhat discriminatory towards dogs, honestly.
🐶🐶🐶🍆🍆
PS I can be excessive at times so I should clarify. While David French certainly believes it is unconstitutional book burny right-wing cancel culture to keep the book in question away from children, it absolutely does contain a buttload of bestiality and a bonus episode of a lady murdering her own kid. It’s total unedifying sewage.
PPS Speaking of unedifying sewage, check out my latest newsletter about how the Trump vaccine functions a lot like a combover.
😂😂
Exactly. …wait... Woof.
Woof woof
Sublime
I want to steal this. Perfect.
Imagine the hubris it takes to endure the loss they took last night in Virginia and then get right back on the horse for another ride. These people are so out of touch with reality that I wonder how they function as adults on a day to day basis. Really though, I am giving them too much credit, these people are just whores for the next dollar, they will say or do anything to get the next website click. It is theatre and it would be comical if it weren't for the stakes.
While the saying “if you fall off a horse, get back on” is generally correct, there is a common sense exception when the horse is heading off a cliff.
That also only applies when it’s an actual horse that you actually fell off of……. Most Dems haven’t ever seen one in real life. 😂
Arrogance
There is almost NOTHING more insulting than to be called/labeled a racist. Its like being called a child-molester. It is especially enraging to the 99.9% of the insulted who are avowedly NOT racists.
No matter: the Progressives have decided that viciously attacking great swaths of innocent people is a really winning political formula. Future historians will no doubt have much to say about this folly, but for now, all anyone needs to know is that these innocent victims have finally decided to tell the Left to FUCK OFF. This is just getting started...
Hey, Blacks already figured this out. The called each other the N word to take the sting out of it. Everyone else can do the same. When some leftist cretin screams "racist" just laugh it off or embrace it. Don't play their moronic games. Mock and ridicule them. But never, ever, take them seriously. Except to take seriously the fact that they hate you and the United States of America. Take that very seriously and consider them your implacable foe.
I totally embrace the “racist” label since it means I disagree with Obama et al, am good at mathematics, am punctual and reliable at work, etc.
Great idea actually— maybe we can start a trend whereby white people greet each other: Hey racist, how’s it going? Yo what’s up my racist? And so on.
Seriously, being called any of the "ists" doesn't mean anything anymore. Which is too bad, as racism, sexism, etc. do exist and are problems but my God some of these folks (and I'm an independent who is mostly a moderate Dem, and I'm not letting the progressives push me around) have lost it. Listening to some of the college kids in my universe makes me want to cheese grate my knuckles White rice in your stir fry?!? Racist! Some are OK though. Gives me hope.
White oppressor!
I'm like, so totally triggered right now I like, literally can't even with your comment.
And if you don't think my reaction is deep and insightful, well then that just proves how deplorable you are.
(sarcasm aside, your comment earned a like from me)
"This is just getting started..." I hope so. And if so, we've got Bari and others like her who have stood their ground, taken the heat, and rather than cower like so many understandably do, has grown stronger and continued the battle.
It’s genuinely alarming that all of the legacy media outlets (apart from Fox) now state explicitly—on election night broadcasts!—that decent people are required to vote for a particular political party. (Even non-voting and third-party voting are not morally defensible options; you must vote specifically for the party endorsed by the corporate, academic, oligarchic and mass-media consensus.)
I surfed around a bit last night—my first time watching network news in years—and I was surprised by what I heard. The open contempt for viewers/voters... the condescension toward minorities especially (simple folk who are “easily confused/misled” and hence accidentally make the wrong decisions sometimes)... the unstated assumption underlying every comment that the Democrats are the party of good and the Republicans are the party of racism, perversion, deception and evil... it had a “Romanian TV in the 80s” vibe.
For many years, reporters, academics, and campaign hacks have been unwilling to consider that some voters are partially, occasionally driven by real policy concerns—and unwilling to entertain the thought that a non-college-educated voter who disagrees with a Williams or Swarthmore grad could ever be correct. But what I saw last night was a new phase of elite contempt for the masses.
Calling Virginia’s electorate “infected” with “the delta variant” of a mental and moral disease is so stupid and ugly that it actually got my attention for a moment.
On the one hand, I’m glad that this didn’t work for them in Virginia the way it has worked for them for the last five years. On the other hand: these are dark times.
And yet they worship the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg who have only attainted the educational level of High School graduate………. They dismiss highly educated DeSantis. It’s so stupid.
I did not get a super genius pill in either under grad or grad school. Neither did any of my rather gullible middle class woke friends. People who earn more money vote Republican, along with most who actually start businesses.
It’s not that hard, nor particularly well paying, to get a job in academia or mainstream media so long as you are incapable of thinking for yourself and enjoy approaching everything in life like a 2nd grade bubble test. Regurgitation is also a good skill in these fields.
Even in my “wealthy” neighborhood there is an economic divide between conservatives and the woke, with the woke averaging incomes about half that of their conservative neighbors.
I’m so tired of these morons misrepresenting the economic data by conflating education with wealth/ success. Trust fund babies are likely to be woke, but they haven’t really had to earn anything. If you look at what they actually earn on average, it’s not much. Sorry, but a high school grad who earns more than me is more financially successful, and probably smarter than me, even bypassing purchasing the degrees my parents bought for me so I could party for 5 years.
The "Critical Race Theory -- which doesn't exist/isn't taught" just dropped into every MSM discussion or article is destined to become a meme as recognizable as the "Republicans pounce" meme of last year. In the last week, nearly every single story I've read in the NYT, WaPo, AP, NPR, etc. includes that exact gratuitous phrase, as if we shouldn't trust our lying eyes and brains. Keep up the great work Batya and Bari and congrats to the Virginia voters!
And let’s give a huge shout-out to Christopher Rufo. About once a week he publishes another whistle-blower’s material revealing a public or private school CRT curriculum or a corporation’s mandatory, race-based, ideological bullying “diversity equity and inclusion” training. Recent reports exposed AT&T, CVS, and Walmart on the corporate end, and The National Education Association confirming its support for CRT-based education in public schools from K-12. https://christopherrufo.com/articles/
Let’s Go Brandon!
Let’s go Brandon!
As if on cue, the NYT's Lisa Lerer managed to write a story hitting on both the "CRT isn't taught" and "Republicans pounce" memes, although interestingly enough, they changed the headline from when I first read the story this morning (which literally read "Republican Pounce on ...." to a different headline. If we didn't know it was sincere, it would be a parody.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/us/politics/school-republican-campaign-issue.html
What makes me sad is that the refutation of these lies is easily accomplished by anyone with half a neuron of curiosity left. The MSM relies on the cynical certainty that my intelligent liberal friends and family will not question a thing they read or hear. The ground of contempt and murderous hatred for our right-wing fellow Americans has been so well watered, that skepticism is not an option. Meanwhile, Rufo continues to publish the evidence, kids come home from school spouting racist crap, and we grow ever more alienated from the other half of the country. It's infuriating, and heartbreaking, really.
That has become my go to phrase "[S]hould I believe you or my lying eyes?"
The election results show that the corporate media is losing its grip (in no small part due to the efforts of Substack creators!) You can also tell from the fact that various songs titled “Let’s Go Brandon” simultaneously topped the iTunes charts despite the corporate media’s initial attempt to ignore it and then to cast the phrase as belonging to “far right”.
You can only lie to people so long before they tune you out and then you are irrelevant, which is where the corporate media is rapidly heading.
Coco, I hope you are correct but fear you aren’t.
The part I can't for the life of me figure out is whether Dems/progressives/elites are consiously gaslighting voters with "CRT isn't real/is only taught in law schools", or if they really just can't see the forest for the trees.
Sure, a lot of what Republicans/Chris Rufo/Younkin call CRT is really other similar ideologies like standpoint epistemology, postcolonial theory, postmodernism, black nationalism, etc., so if you want to get extremely technical and hair-splitting, the issues in schools are often not critical race theory PER SE.
But to make the logical leap from "there are other more technically precise terms to call this stuff" to "move along nothing to see here (you racist)"....I just don't see how Democrats wouldn't anticipate that rhetorical evasive maneuver to be poorly received by voters. Chris Rufo calling a postcolonial white-bashing textbook a CRT white-bashing textbook doesn't mean the white-bashing textbook is a "made-up issue".
So it's either the most incompetent attempt at gaslighting I've ever seen, or else the woke crowd really has drank so much of their own Kool-Aid that they don't see anything problematic in schools right now. I really can't figure it out.
Miles, It's more the latter than the former. The "it's technically not CRT" retort is a loophole. A way to outsmart the "hysteria" of CRT opponents. "When they go low, we go high" mentality. They're digging in their heels.
I've been a public school teacher for 20 years. I've been through many DEI trainings. And while I've never received a 3-ring binder labeled "Critical Race Theory Teaching Materials," all the tenets of it (privilege, white supremacy, implicit bias, intersectionality, etc., etc.) are the foundation of every workshop. Teachers have been hearing about--and actively trying to close--the achievement gap for years. We want our students to thrive, and current DEI trainings propose a very seductive solution to it--as long as you (the teacher) "do the work." I stepped away from teaching for a year and it cleared my head, thank God. I cannot speak for Progressives outside public ed, but those within it are caught up in the fervor. And to be sure, not all teachers are on board, but people should never underestimate the power of groupthink. Particularly right now when Unions are highly visible and calling for teacher unity. The institutional ethos is pretty intense.
I suspect many making the "it's not CRT" argument know they're being pedantic and splitting hairs, but it's a way to self-righteously sidestep a larger, complex discussion they'd rather not have. They're convinced they're right, and they're not going to justify "racist" arguments by engaging in discourse about it. That's my take on it, anyway.
Excellent
They know, they just think that you don’t, or that they can convince you that the Theory itself is not being taught in K12 schools, which is factually correct, and ignores the truth which is the application of CRT is being taught to teachers and is definitely in schools.
i'd love to see you debate with RJF, who just replied with the opposite take. I'm torn so I want to see who wins.
But isn’t that what they always do when one of their policies plummet their pol numbers, Deny deny deny nothing to see here move along.
Fair point. I've been fascinated for a while by how progressive thinking has merged the black-and-white Manichean worldview of Marxism with the epistemic nihilism of postmodernism, to arrive at this kind of pessimist/fatalist theory of discourse where there's no such thing as facts; everything is just competing propaganda for different political projects. E.g., when Trump is in office, "vaccines work" is right-wing propaganda, but once Biden is in office, "vaccines don't work" is right-wing propaganda. Whether or not the vaccines work is irrelevant; all rhetoric is evaluated in terms of political cui bono.
Once someone drinks that Kool-Aid, it's more or less inevitable that they say "well fuck it, if all discourse is either propaganda for the good guys, or propaganda for the bad guys, then I'll just be a shameless partisan hack everytime I open my mouth, because at least that way I know that the propaganda I'm shilling is the "good" propaganda, as opposed to the "bad" propaganda.
At which point it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; the people who live their lives by the lights of a theory that teaches all discourse is propaganda and everyone is a shill, end up becoming shills peddling propaganda, and another NPC is born.
In this case, admitting that something has gone wrong in schools is seen as "bolstering problematic right wing talking points", so progressives will just say the opposite (i.e. "nothing to see here"), to make sure that everything coming out of their mouths is "on the right side of history". Narratives > Reality.
Narrative greater than reality, good coinage, bullseye I think.
NPC?
Non-Playable Character. Gaming term for someone who can't really think for themselves, and can only cycle through a few pre-scripted lines of dialogue.
Became used as an analogy for super woke people who all sound interchangeable because they're all parroting the same talking points.
Miles check out Wesley Yang‘s substack - it is a roaring blast furnace of ideas
Cool.
Miles you write very well. To answer your question I don’t think they’re gaslighting I think they are sincere, schools are fine and altogether correct to counter the parents presumed racial biases.
i'd love to see you debate with Mike Cranny, who just replied with the opposite take. I'm torn so I want to see who wins.
Miles your question was of course leading - you well know it’s a bit of both. I chose the true believer explanation and Mike Cranny picked the realpolitik, they know explanation. Go with Mike’s!
The election gives me hope but the real challenge is next November. We will see if Americans are savvy enough to withstand 12 months of propaganda and gaslighting or if they're going to fall in line like sheep and let the country go down in flames...
Depends on where gas prices and food prices and prices for everything are. Plus the fact that all these states and localities are raising taxes at the same time they sit on pots of unspent covid money. There is a lot for someone to work with against the dems.
Isn’t everyone unwoke in Idaho?
Less than you’d think unfortunately.
People everywhere want to be with the “cool group”.
It'll depend on how angry each voter gets over some part of the Democrat agenda which makes them really angry. Could be gas, high grocery prices, new regulations on workplace rules such as in trucking, empty shelves, etc. I suspect the vaccine mandates are going to die away as more people protest against them and more facts come out on both the dangers and ineffectiveness of the vaccines. There's a whole lot of lying going on from the government, and the media. It only takes one issue to spark a revolt if it is an issue close to your heart. For nearly all it's our children. What is surprising is the race in Virginia was this close for 2 reasons: 1) schools. The father protesting his daughter's rape in the school bathroom and all the cover-up from the school board and superintendent should have convinced 90% of all parents, and 2) new rules from the AG on what crimes will not be prosecuted and the rising crime rates because of this. I say 90% because there is always a solid 8-10% who don't see to notice anything and don't have an opinion on anything. Throw in CRT and parents being told to shut up and sit down; schools know best would should also have done it for most parents.
Fuel and grocery inflation is part of the "Democrat agenda"? Not hardly.
I mean, it's not unreasonable to expect the government to be responsive to emerging issues, and so far the Dem response to inflation has been more or less the same as their response to the Taliban sweeping through Afghanistan unchecked.
"Crisis? What crisis?"
So, it's more of a fuckup by omission than anything else. The Democrats will move heaven and earth to meet their quota of transgender military promotions; deplorable concerns like inflation are an afterthought at best.
Since the current inflation comes from a massive imbalance of supply and demand, what would you suggest the Biden Administration do about it? Tell people to quit buying stuff? Order corporations to make products only in America to avoid the lines at the ports? This type of inflation is pure capitalism: demand exceeds supply to prices rise. It will not be tamed by normal Fed means. So what should Biden propose?
Raise interest rates, unfuck the ports (the lines are a self-inflicted problem), and yes repatriate manufacturing though that's a long term project.
While I agree with you in large part, miles, I will also note that:
--The Federal Reserve Board, not "the Democrats," are responsible for raising or lowering interest rates.
--Raising interest rates might, or might not, ease inflation. It definitely will crater the stock and bond markets, which will cause immense pain in a different part of the economy.
--Unfuck the ports? By all means. That means forcing the State of California to suspend its truck pollution regulations; override the contracts of a half-dozen trade unions; make private corporations hire more drivers, unloaders, longshoremen, equipment operators, modal specialists, and all the other trades involved with unfucking the ports; and/or flood the ports with a federalized National Guard to do the heavy lifting. If Biden did that, the Republicans would scream "nazi-fascist-dictator-military-invasion-herp-derp!" and file a thousand lawsuits. So what would you have Biden do?
--Repatriate manufacturing, I couldn't agree more. But as you point out, that's a long-term strategy that doesn't cut the knot now.
Americans love to pledge allegiance to capitalism and "free markets for free men." Well, that's fine, I'm a capitalist too. But capitalism means sometimes you gotta wait.
I predict an outbreak of another variant about that time.
Oh my, Lynne where’s the trust!
Great article. Thank you, Batya. I admire your courage and journalistic integrity.
Me too, very admirable Batya that takes guts, you’ll be freelance on substack very soon ( Newsweek is gonna fire you).
Not this Newsweek. It's not remotely liberal any more.
Nah, I suspect Newsweek is just trying to get ahead of the trends while they better define their manipulation propaganda techniques. To their credit, they have definitely realized that the old formula isn't working anymore and they are trying to get ahead of the wave, while the rest of the legacy outlets are just doubling down.
Well said Candis
Afraid not. Newsweek was sold a few years ago to a right-wing corporation, so any "manipulation propaganda" you suggest is from the right, not the left. The only thing that remains from Newsweek's storied past is the name.
https://dianeravitch.net/2020/10/25/the-new-republic-newsweek-has-turned-into-a-zombie-magazine/
That remains to be seen. The right is not as monolithic as lefties like to think that it is.
If it helps, I keep wondering when Twitter and other social media will ban Newsweek as "misinformation". They consistently poke holes in woke talking points, so it's a small miracle they haven't been censored by Big Tech already.
You and I have clashed before on me being more left wing and you being more right wing, so I hope it means something when I say that I have seen literally dozens of recent examples of Newsweek bucking the woke talking points that are rolled out in lockstep across CNN, NYT, WaPo, MSNBC, NPR, etc.
Neither is the left.
Ya I was surprised, so they changed
“We don’t teach Critical Race Theory.”
is the public school remix of
“We don’t do Gain Of Function.”
What a bunch of demented shysters.
I agree. It's frustrating to listen to the juvenile explanations being offered.
DEMS are trying to spin it so that the donations keep rolling. It's a tragedy to have a better product than your rival and be absolutely incapable of marketing it. The dems need to get rid of the damn consultant class of white college educated stooges whose noses are so far up their own asses they can't see what's in front of them, and start talking to regular people. Not the short clips of the stupid diner talks on the campaign trail. I hate those dumbass mayberry moments. They need to get that most folks don't live in a world of inherited white guilt and 74 genders and think that this kind of crap is insane.
Come on Jay yer a Republican
If you say so?
Well, that would actually make them Republicans, but we can't have that, can we...
WOW! This was a great piece. Thank you for this unvarnished take on your peers in the professional media. I'm grateful to Batya for explaining it. --> "And here’s the crucial point: The “Critical Race Theory isn’t real” meme is not about race. It’s not about politics. It’s not even a culture war, really. It’s about class. It’s about one class—a highly-educated chattering class—using highly specialized language to tell normal parents that they lack sufficient intellectual capacity and are imagining things because they’ve been brainwashed. A highly-educated progressive media has used its educational advantage—92 percent of American journalists have a college degree—to gaslight working-class parents of all races. Under the guise of fighting racism."
I agree that quote you post captures it: elites using specialized language marginalize us.
Exactly. They are looking at us and saying, “you wouldn’t understand.”
Bullseye , we wouldn’t understand, credit to Batya for simplifying
To be fair to the elites, there's an expression in dialectic philosophy called "obscurum per obscurius" which roughly translates to "the obscure through the more obscure".
Basically, it's a known sleazy tactic where people with half-baked ideas try to make their half-baked ideas sound much more profound and intelligent than they are, by phrasing said ideas in the most convoluted, indecipherable prose that they possibly can. To quote the (underrated) show Justified, "using 40 words where 4 will do"
A lot of woke scholars lean HEAVILY on this tactic, and basically use specialized language as a bluff to hide how piss-poor their supposed "insights" really are. It works in elite circles because they've found a bulletproof way to avoid their bluffs being called, by adding in an escape hatch of "anyone who says I'm bluffing is outing themselves as a deplorable".
So the people using specalized language are not necessarily trying to exclude laymen, so much as bluff other elites that they're not completely full of shit. The problem is, a majority of elites at this point are using this bullshitting tactic (for reasons of in-group virtue-signalling), to the point where the whole situation is begging for an "emperor has no clothes" moment, where a supposed laymen calls out all the elites on their collective bullshit in a single high-profile moment of public reckoning.
Here's hoping Chris Rufo and others like him have succeeded in cutting through all the specialized language, and called the bluff for everyone to see.
Language, words are my hobby and I find your explanation very skillfully crafted. Trump was a big bombastic comeuppance for the preening possers, a sledgehammer of incompetence and chortling revenge. But, while I agree with everything you say - I found it instructional - I’m quite sure they are very conscientiously trying to bamboozle the laymen. I think they despise us for putting the orange ignoramus on the world stage.
Judith Butler (the original "gender theorist") once won an award for writing the worst sentence ever written.
https://thewalrus.ca/why-academics-revel-in-bad-writing/
In 1998, The journal Philosophy and Literature held its fourth and final Bad Writing Contest, which recognized “the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books and articles.” First place went to Judith Butler, a gender theorist and philosopher, for this excerpt from a 1997 article in Diacritics:
"The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power."
So glad Governor-Elect Youngkin won last night. And I used to be a Democrat.
Whenever I hear Democrats and the mainstream media claim "Critical Race Theory isn't taught in schools," my head starts to explode at this ridiculous lie. Everyone paying attention knows the principles of Critical Race Theory have invaded the schools like a cancer that's turned metastatic. The warped principles of CRT are most definitely hammered home every day by hundreds of thousands of teachers, in tens of thousands of public and private schools, at every grade level, all across the country.
If not for CRT, no teacher in their right mind would ever tell a student not to speak in class because that student is white. If not for CRT, no teacher in their right mind would ever tell a student that answering math problems correctly was white supremacy. If not for CRT, no teacher would ever tell a five year old they have the original sin of racism.
It was time for some noisy blowback, and last night we finally got it. Congratulations to Governor-Elect Youngkin. I can't wait to see the sense-making changes you'll institute once you're in office.
If anyone tells you that "Critical Race Theory isn't being taught in schools," smile sweetly, and agree. Then point out forcefully, with raised voice if needed, that the real objection to it is not that it's being taught, but that it's being used to redesign the curriculum on the dubious premise that it is correct.
The politicians and TV Talking Heads think we’re too stupid to recognize their semantics ploy when they push select portions of CRT under different titles and then claim innocence. Well it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck.
As Ibram X Candy relates above, that’s a remake of Fauci’s innocence regarding Gain-Of-Function research.
Yes. Fauci didn't fund Gain of Function Research. Biggest lie of the year.
Re: Thomas Frank, please note that he did go on to write _Listen, Liberal_, one of the most scathing and insightful books about the Democrats smug insularity and its abandonment of all left-wing values.
Not to mention his recent, even more pointed book "The People, No!" which examines the Left's current vilification of populism, and concludes that it says absolutely nothing good about them. I haven't read it, but Matt Taibbi reviewed it and interviewed Thomas Frank at length. Frank's interview echoes many of the themes discussed here.
As a lifelong Virginian, I can't tell you how excited I and my family and friends are about this outcome. The main reason that Virginia has been blue for the last decade or two, is that the Federal Government, where most employees vote left, gets bigger and bigger, and has been bleeding into northern Virginia for years. Two of the most populous counties in the state are Washington suburbs. I contend it's actually purple, not blue.
I would guess most of Virginia is center or center right. Those of us that live in the Richmond suburbs have watched how Democratic policy has destroyed the city. The schools, the crime, the taxes...I can't remember a time when it wasn't under Democrat control.
Hopefully Youngkin can really do what he says he wants to. This is finally our chance to show that is all about the policies.
PS - I just read where Youngkin took 55% of the Latino vote as well.
This is an under-reported fact that is not limited to VA. I live near San Antonio where in a highly hispanic district they just replaced a D with an R. And this is happening all over the place, from what I read.