Question: Do you like seeing these X Spaces recordings here on Substack? I'm experimenting with new formats this year and would love to hear your feedback.
Yes! I hardly ever listen to podcasts as I can read a lot faster than most people can speak, and in a transcript, I can easily bypass the meaningless chatter at the beginning and the end of the show (and often in the middle!)
Mr. Rufo- you left out the fourth criterion in the the cycle you mentioned. There are the three you included: hard men make for good times, good times make for soft men, and soft men make for bad times. The criterion that completes the cycle is "bad times make for hard men". Unfortunately I believe that, while you are doing good work out in the wilderness to harness a return to common sense cultural equilibrium, Western civilization is going to require an existential shock to the system to bring us to our senses. It may be in the form of war, infection, or economic calamity. But to raise a new generation of hard men, we're going to have to experience tragically bad times. Sadly, it will not be an academic exercise.
Ah apocalypse, that male dream! As far as I can see, it's already happened to men. The young women I know can't find a single boyfriend worth the trouble. As Rufo said - fat, sick, tattooed, drug-addicted. Luckily, young women can support themselves on their own these days.
Just so the Republican party! Stefanik interrogates college presidents & Haley debates live, while Trump hides behind a script and Rufo blogs.
You can already tell the "hard men" - the few who aren't addicted to the internet, the few who aren't addicted to processed food, the few who aren't broken to a career. Few there are indeed! If there is a single one here, I would be surprised.
Correct. Men are soft. We live in a Chick Era. Emotion over reason, indulgence over accountability. This is why Trump is so jarring to the current cultural gestaldt. Into the garden of frailty and spinelessness charges a Rat Pack-minded alpha male, and the whole world is suddenly clutching their pearls. It may be counter intuitive, but the world desparately leads more Trumps, not fewer.
I didn't know "alpha males" were so fond of makeup and poofy hairdos. I didn't know "alpha males" hid from oppositional debate.
The great men I remember took all comers, and won with grace. What a clown show we have today. You mistake vulgarity for bravery and spittle for substance.
What's worse, the man already had four years, and didn't get jack done! He's a grandiose loser who can't see past his own nose.
And you really think he'll get anything done this time! You really believe he wants to! You really believe he cares about you!
A sucker is born every day, but truly you're a special one!
Oh, the frightful makeup is an illusion? They've merely photo-shopped him that way? He really was at the late debates, they just hid him with camera tricks? His vulgar "tweets" aren't his? Good to hear. Oft do these old eyes deceive.
Give me a break, woman. I’m a hard man and recognize a hard man in Trump. Obama and Biden are soft men, and they have produced bad times for America. Haley would crumble under what Trump has fought out like a hard man.
Ruth, I agree there are fewer good men. I know young women with the same common problem -- the men they meet are so stupid they do not know how to provide leadership, how to bring out women's feminine side and make them feel safe and empowered. Too many men are addicted to social media and live in an artificial world. At the same beauty, sensitivity, female power, and love are no longer valued in society. Women are tought to be like men -- which forces them to devolve and fill with anger, spitefulness, and a search for themselves -- which feeds senseless liberal activism. It's a huge problem all the way round. But I agree the remedy falls on good men, as leaders, to speak put and change the culture. Women will follow. (Unrelated...my wife and I have been Paleo for 10+ yrs).
The next Republican Administration MUST eliminate DEI across the board; commit to this 110% no exceptions; the only one who can do this in my belief is Donald Trump.
Yes, Double Mc, Ron DeSantis has been superb for Free State Florida. He should have waited until 2028 to run for POTUS, picking up the mantle from a second Trump Presidency. Not sure why he made the decision to run for 2024 after such a huge victory in 2022.
I ran a moderate size county, Sarasota FL, for 14 years. The comments that were made in the last 20 minutes are backed by my experience. You need to starve the beast (stop feeding it money) and eliminate civil service protection (especially for the management class). I did just these two things, lowered property taxes by 1/3 and didn’t add any new employees for five or more years (except for public safety and voter approved services) and still managed to build all reserves to make us sustainable (translates to deficit mgmt at the Fed level).
Perhaps we can take this discussion elsewhere but I am very bullish on the Sarasota area. After my wife and I moved, five more family members followed and we all love the area. Unfortunately, we do not have visibility to the behind-the-scenes people who, like yourself, served as great custodians. Kudos. Can you clone yourself?
But come on: "75% of the American population of military-age males....too fat, too drugged, too tattooed, or too mentally ill to even qualify to join the military. But when you have a president that can hardly walk across the stage, that’s a problem."
Three in four young Americans are too unhealthy to serve....and it's somehow old man Biden's fault, for being a normal, healthy octogenarian!!! Ridiculous.
Your fundamental problem is that merely uprooting DEI doesn't change the factors that led to its rise in the first place. And it certainly doesn't change the factors making three in four young Americans unfit for military service.
DEI bad, but it's stupid to focus on it as some root of all evil. It's a mere fruit, and a late one. You are engaging in the same empty, pointless, identity-first, politics that they are.
You ask for a common ethos for the country, but *you don't have one.* Conservatives cannot even articulate a common ethos for themselves. That's why they lost their party to Trumpians, and lost it hard.
The unifying ethos of this country is Liberty. Our founding documents are rather clear on that subject.
Republicans & Democrats have alike betrayed that ethos - in differing degree, and in differing manner, but they have betrayed it. The golden door is closed, the lamp is gurttering, we've barred the huddled masses out.
Let me shut down your nativism before it starts. Do you want the United States to remain a foremost world power?
We're not going to do it with a paltry 400 million, not with 75% of our young men too sick to fight, not with 1 billion, 2 billion people in India, China, the EU. If that doesn't get it through your skull, consider this - immigrants *hate* DEI. Almost any immigrant from anywhere will be more culturally conservative than almost any suburban American. They want to have families and build lives.
It's ironic. Deeply. If conservatives welcomed newcomers, as everyone should, things like DEI and genderism would never have gotten a foothold. Immigrants are culturally conservative. Your nativism has in fact created the environment that birthed DEI and everything else of its nature.
So here's the carrot: As culturally-conservative immigrants in liberal towns, states and cities vote to roll back each and every piece of identitarian nonsense, you'll get to watch liberals scream bloody murder. Liberals only like their "sanctuary cities" because undocumented immigrants can't vote.
An ethos of Liberty gives you firm moral ground. You'd be the only one in the room with it. At the moment, you have nothing - just warmed-over, hollow, cultural-conservative platitudes. I mean, come on - the stuff you're fighting is some of the most bizarre, deranged, nonsensical crap anyone ever came up with. If you had an ethos, and didn't have Trump, you'd have won before this started.
Liberty is a treasure that can not be stored up. It sours. Yet share & cast & sow its seed, and every year it multiplies.
So easy to criticize, especially someone making a difference. You want Christopher to have every answer for all the ills and all at once? The Academy is producing American professionals and leaders. Reforming it is a priority and Christopher has made a dramatic impact.
I watched Elise Stefanik make an impact, that's for sure. I also watched a coalition of Asian-American parents & students win a Supreme Court case & get racialist affirmative action prohibited nationwide. I think those folks struck a far more significant blow than either Rufo or Stefanik, as a matter of fact.
Abolishing DEI won't reverse the decline in reading & math scores we see among most groups of Americans. Abolishing DEI won't make bevies of conservative intellectuals pop into existence. Abolishing DEI won't change the fact that progressive-sphere social media discourse determines university policy. After DEI, they will come up with something else stupid. You'll fight them, and win, and congratulate yourself, like now.
But it's whack-a-mole. Why are universities governed almost entirely by so-called progressives, even in red states? Where are the conservative intellectuals?
Rufo's newfound importance - which is well-deserved, don't get me wrong! - is in fact an excellent case-in-point. Rufo is *not* an academic. He is not a typical appointee for his position. (And it shows - watch him prattle about the "80/20 rule" like it's anything but pop-science foofery.) It's him because there's no one else. Nobody qualified appears to have the desire, or the guts.
We need a broader, deeper, more vigorous "Academy" that will produce intellectuals - liberal and conservative - who are inured by education against cultural viruses like DEI, and who have the courage to fight such things where they see them. This is not a fight won by subtraction. It requires addition - *more* history, *more* science, *more* logic, *more* reading. That's how this virus is fought.
Stripping out a few particularly useless administrators & their particularly noxious ideology is good, but it makes next to zero difference in the long run. Conservatives must think about planting in addition to pruning, because the weeds won't stay cut long.
Your 17,000 words didn’t sway me or anyone else on this thread, Spiky. Are you a speech writer for Nikki Haley? You could have been brief with “DEI bad, but it’s the Republicans fault...” Your long windedness is PRECISELY why Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee if not the 47th President getting sworn in on 1/20/2025. Most, yes, MOST Americans are tired of bullshit 17,000 word speeches by the establishment in both parties. Someone like Donald ‘Fuck You Establishment’ Trump is gaining more and more traction across the country. Across all demographics. The mainstream media is scared. As they should be.
Apparently you're not tired of Trump's never-ending two-hour stumps - so you must have *some* appetite for words. Or is this an admission that no one really listens to him? That you just bask in his aura, and let his words wash over you like the tide, seen but not heard?
You ought to be careful - you just confirmed pretty much everything liberals say about Trump voters. "You're don't care about politics. You don't care about policy. You don't care about the country. You're only interested in surface victory." That's what they say, and you're working hard to prove it.
But I don't think so little of you. I think you do care about the country. You want it to have a strong defender. You want someone who speaks boldly and unapologetically and forthrightly about how great this country is. You see that in Trump and you're willing to forgive anything else.
That's understandable, to a degree. We all saw the 2016 debates, where Trump wiped the floor with the Republican establishment. That was a plain fact, and here's what I'd say - anyone who could lose a debate to Trump has got some real problems of their own. (Biden, you'll note, did not lose. He took Trump in a debate the way establishment Republicans couldn't. So he won.)
Your real questions should be, "Why is Trump the best we've got? Why does Ron DeSantis whine like a hit dog every other sentence? Why do we have to choose between morons and mealy-mouths? What are we going to do when Trump dies?"
That last one is a fun question. When Biden's gone, liberals will have Antony Blinken, who's vigorous, intelligent, and plays a mean guitar. (He's the present Secretary of State, in case you weren't aware.) Trump won't live forever, and won't let anyone share his spotlight. You need a plan, and you don't have one.
Anyway, I, for one, would sure like to see a Trump vs Haley debate. Why do you think he isn't showing?
(My post was 504 words, by the way - about the length of a typical fifth grade essay. If that makes me a speechwriter in your universe, things are worse than I thought. Here, you can learn too - start with http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Historicum/roman_rhetoric2.php and analyze my post in those terms.)
Spiky, you make some good points, especially about the need to propose alternatives. And the need for conservatives to fill the cultural gap. But DEI is bad. It is deranged. Nothing wrong with killing it but, yes, it needs to be replaced with a proper "purpose." If you think the focus should be on Liberty then tell me more. What is your solution? Please do not blame conservatives for not presenting an alternative if you yourself do not have one. Please share.
I shared it. Liberty. You think there must be some equivocation. There is not.
I share the Founders' Christian ideal, that a free land makes a free people - that all who would come freely to a free land, who would leave their nations, their ancestors, their holy places behind, across an ocean, earn, by that daring, a place in it.
It is not our gate to keep - it is God's! He who comes to freedom is our God-given brother. Let us pack in, side by side and six by six, one atop another if we must, that no free man should live under a tyrant!
Thanks. Not to sound rude, but have you taken in your 36 boarders? I only ask, because I am skeptical of those who preach for others to do or to give away what they themselves are unwilling. Nothing good about that. Again, not to sound rude, your position has the feel of virtue signaling. To be a good Christian, oneself does not need to preach for others to do good but oneself should do good for others to follow.
I'm not a Christian, nor am I an especially good person, nor did I claim to be. You may consider me the devil himself, for all I care. We all cede ethical imperatives to larger bodies, whether governments or charities - this is at times more effective than individual action, but more importantly, it lets us actually live our lives, without constant worry about whether we're helping as much as we should.
To break from rhetoric, I think it's quite clear that openness to newcomers would revitalize the economy - immigrants start businesses at far higher rates, as one data point - but it would still be the right thing to do, even if it didn't.
And I don't think unrestricted immigration would get us anywhere close to being packed shoulder-to-shoulder. I don't think unrestricted immigration would even get us anywhere close to China's 1.5 billion, not in this century. That's what ought to really scare you, if you think China is a threat.
In any case , we have nothing to give away - no ancient right, no royal line - we have inherited from our founders nothing but a notion,, Liberty, and sharing only grows it.
Oh, and while it’s top of mind, eliminate two words from the vocabulary and EVERYTHING associated with the two words: CLIMATE CHANGE, the Global elitist pricks scam to screw the middle and working classes.
Amen! I worked in the military for 45 years. Right after 9/11/01 we stood up a number of new organizations. They were light (in terms of personnel count) and both efficient and fast. We largely ignored the Pentagon and its bureaucracy while doing what was legally and ethically right. But after about 2008 the Pentagon bureaucracy started to creep back in. The head count swelled. The number of useless reports and rules proliferated. The level of micromanagement was stunning. And efficiency dropped like a rock. Things we had done in a matter of weeks before now took years and was completely screwed up in the end. Good people got frustrated and left. With the right leadership recovery is possible.
As a former Navy researcher I agree. But it will always be the guys that bypass the bureaucracy that do amazing things. I could tell stories... Best the bureaucracy be slashed with leadership that believes in the real mission, of course.
Chris, once again a great thought provoking piece. You point out so clearly the need to cut the funding to our institutions. Yes, the unproductive layer has been ideolog-ized. As they say, idle hands are the devil's workshop.
I also agree that the unproductive class needs a new purpose. A healthier purpose. As a conservative it must require moving them back into the free market.
But I also believe this discussion may need a new CG (center of gravity) because we cannot talk simply about slashing institutional finances 80% without discussing "purpose."
We need serious discussions about how to make America strong with the elimination of crazy woke and crazy DEI to make us a more rational nation, and more financing of national infrastructure projects like coast-to-coast bullet train projects to make us stronger, and more space exploration to feed our dreams, and so on... as we cut the finances of our institutions and pay off our national debt.
I would love to see congress delivering "negative" trillion dollar cost proposals that dismantle the funding of old institutions and allocate half of the trillions to debt reduction and the other half to important private-sector infrastructure projects of national importance.
There was some discussion of an almost universal human desire for excellence. Maybe I misunderstood the concept that was presented. Based on my experience, I don’t believe that a desire for excellence is universal.
I went to a small 4-year high school with 400 students. I was well acquainted with a wide spectrum of my fellow students even though I graduated in 1965 as my class valedictorian, I saw mostly a desire to get by. Even when I was at the US Naval Academy there was a lot of “2.5 and survive” mentality. I also saw a lot of that when I worked in the private sector and as a federal employee
Yes. I do not think this has changed much over the decades. More of a perception as our eyes open up to reality. But what has changed is the expansion of government and the expansion of virtue signaling. We need to shrink both.
Ideology is the refuge of scoundrels. Remember the old water cooler jokes of the past. As a former (California!) state government worker, my cubicle was in close proximity to one of those. The entire morning and, if anyone remained at work that long, extending into the afternoon, I was forced to endure the endless, breathless, discussions of the micro world of that particular bureaucracy. It was endless, repetitive gossip designed specifically to eat up large portions of the day. I’m sure that is where some of the seeds of DEI were hatched.
Meanwhile in Canada: “But rest assured, sleeping Canuck sheep: your Charter of Rights is a facade,” he wrote. “And you will be fleeced while you bleat.” Jordan Peterson.
On a side note, my husband asked me if we’ll have another Civil War, he’s really worried about the possibility. I tell him not to get all worked up over it, the Democrats seem like they’re itching for CW2, they’ll probably start it just like the first one. And like the first one, CW2 will end badly for the Dems. THIS time, the Republicans have about 90% of the guns and 10 billion bullets, while the Democrats will be too busy trying to decide which of their 64 genders to send into battle.
Don’t be too sure, Christopher. Today’s Democrats are evil and vicious. Their hatred for Donald Trump is equal or greater than their hatred for Abraham Lincoln, and... I can’t even bring myself to say it.
Question: Do you like seeing these X Spaces recordings here on Substack? I'm experimenting with new formats this year and would love to hear your feedback.
Yes. I don't often listen to x spaces but I do read succinct Substacks.
Ditto
Yes, please! I like being able to download and listen on the go while working out. Can't do that from X.
yes, multi-format is great. Sometimes I can listen, sometimes I can read.
yes - better listening experience here
Yes! I hardly ever listen to podcasts as I can read a lot faster than most people can speak, and in a transcript, I can easily bypass the meaningless chatter at the beginning and the end of the show (and often in the middle!)
“The most important thing that Republicans can do is to cut off the money.” True.
George Will! Now there was a man!
Mr. Rufo- you left out the fourth criterion in the the cycle you mentioned. There are the three you included: hard men make for good times, good times make for soft men, and soft men make for bad times. The criterion that completes the cycle is "bad times make for hard men". Unfortunately I believe that, while you are doing good work out in the wilderness to harness a return to common sense cultural equilibrium, Western civilization is going to require an existential shock to the system to bring us to our senses. It may be in the form of war, infection, or economic calamity. But to raise a new generation of hard men, we're going to have to experience tragically bad times. Sadly, it will not be an academic exercise.
Ah apocalypse, that male dream! As far as I can see, it's already happened to men. The young women I know can't find a single boyfriend worth the trouble. As Rufo said - fat, sick, tattooed, drug-addicted. Luckily, young women can support themselves on their own these days.
Just so the Republican party! Stefanik interrogates college presidents & Haley debates live, while Trump hides behind a script and Rufo blogs.
You can already tell the "hard men" - the few who aren't addicted to the internet, the few who aren't addicted to processed food, the few who aren't broken to a career. Few there are indeed! If there is a single one here, I would be surprised.
Correct. Men are soft. We live in a Chick Era. Emotion over reason, indulgence over accountability. This is why Trump is so jarring to the current cultural gestaldt. Into the garden of frailty and spinelessness charges a Rat Pack-minded alpha male, and the whole world is suddenly clutching their pearls. It may be counter intuitive, but the world desparately leads more Trumps, not fewer.
I didn't know "alpha males" were so fond of makeup and poofy hairdos. I didn't know "alpha males" hid from oppositional debate.
The great men I remember took all comers, and won with grace. What a clown show we have today. You mistake vulgarity for bravery and spittle for substance.
What's worse, the man already had four years, and didn't get jack done! He's a grandiose loser who can't see past his own nose.
And you really think he'll get anything done this time! You really believe he wants to! You really believe he cares about you!
A sucker is born every day, but truly you're a special one!
I'm sorry you've been misled by your news sources. You have my condolences.
Scott!!! That's some Real Coffee right there--- glad to see you here. Well done. :)
Correct
Oh, the frightful makeup is an illusion? They've merely photo-shopped him that way? He really was at the late debates, they just hid him with camera tricks? His vulgar "tweets" aren't his? Good to hear. Oft do these old eyes deceive.
I understand he accomplished a great deal that was in fact very good for the country.
Stopping Hillary was enough for me.
MAGA!
" Emotion over reason, indulgence over accountability."
DOUBLE BINGO!
Unfortunately its not just the women, its the guys too.
Give me a break, woman. I’m a hard man and recognize a hard man in Trump. Obama and Biden are soft men, and they have produced bad times for America. Haley would crumble under what Trump has fought out like a hard man.
Ruth, I agree there are fewer good men. I know young women with the same common problem -- the men they meet are so stupid they do not know how to provide leadership, how to bring out women's feminine side and make them feel safe and empowered. Too many men are addicted to social media and live in an artificial world. At the same beauty, sensitivity, female power, and love are no longer valued in society. Women are tought to be like men -- which forces them to devolve and fill with anger, spitefulness, and a search for themselves -- which feeds senseless liberal activism. It's a huge problem all the way round. But I agree the remedy falls on good men, as leaders, to speak put and change the culture. Women will follow. (Unrelated...my wife and I have been Paleo for 10+ yrs).
Sad, but likely true.
I agree. Those whom become complacent soon learn of their mistake.
No, it’s hard times make plumbers. Plumbers make good times. Good times make lawyers. Lawyers make hard times.
Amazing.
😂😂😂
Lol
😂😂love it!
The next Republican Administration MUST eliminate DEI across the board; commit to this 110% no exceptions; the only one who can do this in my belief is Donald Trump.
I disagree. Ron DeSantis has already made headway in Florida. Just ask Christopher Rufo! but it sure isn't Nikki Haley.
Yes, Double Mc, Ron DeSantis has been superb for Free State Florida. He should have waited until 2028 to run for POTUS, picking up the mantle from a second Trump Presidency. Not sure why he made the decision to run for 2024 after such a huge victory in 2022.
At least he has received some national attention. Add a bit more charisma and humor and he'll become unstoppable.
It would've worked - if only he didn't talk like a pig with an ulcer.
He's still young. I wish I had 1% of what he has at his age.
I tend not to bet on horses that have already lost.
I ran a moderate size county, Sarasota FL, for 14 years. The comments that were made in the last 20 minutes are backed by my experience. You need to starve the beast (stop feeding it money) and eliminate civil service protection (especially for the management class). I did just these two things, lowered property taxes by 1/3 and didn’t add any new employees for five or more years (except for public safety and voter approved services) and still managed to build all reserves to make us sustainable (translates to deficit mgmt at the Fed level).
Thanks Jim. You rock. Perhaps why I moved to Sarasota from CA!
Good choice. 13 years later (I left the County Administrator position in 2011) the County Commission continues with my guidance for the most part.
Perhaps we can take this discussion elsewhere but I am very bullish on the Sarasota area. After my wife and I moved, five more family members followed and we all love the area. Unfortunately, we do not have visibility to the behind-the-scenes people who, like yourself, served as great custodians. Kudos. Can you clone yourself?
Hilarious article. Yes, DEI bad.
But come on: "75% of the American population of military-age males....too fat, too drugged, too tattooed, or too mentally ill to even qualify to join the military. But when you have a president that can hardly walk across the stage, that’s a problem."
Three in four young Americans are too unhealthy to serve....and it's somehow old man Biden's fault, for being a normal, healthy octogenarian!!! Ridiculous.
Your fundamental problem is that merely uprooting DEI doesn't change the factors that led to its rise in the first place. And it certainly doesn't change the factors making three in four young Americans unfit for military service.
DEI bad, but it's stupid to focus on it as some root of all evil. It's a mere fruit, and a late one. You are engaging in the same empty, pointless, identity-first, politics that they are.
You ask for a common ethos for the country, but *you don't have one.* Conservatives cannot even articulate a common ethos for themselves. That's why they lost their party to Trumpians, and lost it hard.
The unifying ethos of this country is Liberty. Our founding documents are rather clear on that subject.
Republicans & Democrats have alike betrayed that ethos - in differing degree, and in differing manner, but they have betrayed it. The golden door is closed, the lamp is gurttering, we've barred the huddled masses out.
Let me shut down your nativism before it starts. Do you want the United States to remain a foremost world power?
We're not going to do it with a paltry 400 million, not with 75% of our young men too sick to fight, not with 1 billion, 2 billion people in India, China, the EU. If that doesn't get it through your skull, consider this - immigrants *hate* DEI. Almost any immigrant from anywhere will be more culturally conservative than almost any suburban American. They want to have families and build lives.
It's ironic. Deeply. If conservatives welcomed newcomers, as everyone should, things like DEI and genderism would never have gotten a foothold. Immigrants are culturally conservative. Your nativism has in fact created the environment that birthed DEI and everything else of its nature.
So here's the carrot: As culturally-conservative immigrants in liberal towns, states and cities vote to roll back each and every piece of identitarian nonsense, you'll get to watch liberals scream bloody murder. Liberals only like their "sanctuary cities" because undocumented immigrants can't vote.
An ethos of Liberty gives you firm moral ground. You'd be the only one in the room with it. At the moment, you have nothing - just warmed-over, hollow, cultural-conservative platitudes. I mean, come on - the stuff you're fighting is some of the most bizarre, deranged, nonsensical crap anyone ever came up with. If you had an ethos, and didn't have Trump, you'd have won before this started.
Liberty is a treasure that can not be stored up. It sours. Yet share & cast & sow its seed, and every year it multiplies.
So easy to criticize, especially someone making a difference. You want Christopher to have every answer for all the ills and all at once? The Academy is producing American professionals and leaders. Reforming it is a priority and Christopher has made a dramatic impact.
I watched Elise Stefanik make an impact, that's for sure. I also watched a coalition of Asian-American parents & students win a Supreme Court case & get racialist affirmative action prohibited nationwide. I think those folks struck a far more significant blow than either Rufo or Stefanik, as a matter of fact.
Abolishing DEI won't reverse the decline in reading & math scores we see among most groups of Americans. Abolishing DEI won't make bevies of conservative intellectuals pop into existence. Abolishing DEI won't change the fact that progressive-sphere social media discourse determines university policy. After DEI, they will come up with something else stupid. You'll fight them, and win, and congratulate yourself, like now.
But it's whack-a-mole. Why are universities governed almost entirely by so-called progressives, even in red states? Where are the conservative intellectuals?
Rufo's newfound importance - which is well-deserved, don't get me wrong! - is in fact an excellent case-in-point. Rufo is *not* an academic. He is not a typical appointee for his position. (And it shows - watch him prattle about the "80/20 rule" like it's anything but pop-science foofery.) It's him because there's no one else. Nobody qualified appears to have the desire, or the guts.
We need a broader, deeper, more vigorous "Academy" that will produce intellectuals - liberal and conservative - who are inured by education against cultural viruses like DEI, and who have the courage to fight such things where they see them. This is not a fight won by subtraction. It requires addition - *more* history, *more* science, *more* logic, *more* reading. That's how this virus is fought.
Stripping out a few particularly useless administrators & their particularly noxious ideology is good, but it makes next to zero difference in the long run. Conservatives must think about planting in addition to pruning, because the weeds won't stay cut long.
You are ignorant about the origins and rigor of the 80/20 rule and power law distributions. Hint: look up Vilfredo Pareto.
You’re absolutely right! I’m going to start following you this minute! I love your long winded replies as well! Bravo to “spiky!”
I sure hope you don't. I'm but a farmer. As for wind, which moves millstones, I don't compare to Stefanik in effect.
Your 17,000 words didn’t sway me or anyone else on this thread, Spiky. Are you a speech writer for Nikki Haley? You could have been brief with “DEI bad, but it’s the Republicans fault...” Your long windedness is PRECISELY why Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee if not the 47th President getting sworn in on 1/20/2025. Most, yes, MOST Americans are tired of bullshit 17,000 word speeches by the establishment in both parties. Someone like Donald ‘Fuck You Establishment’ Trump is gaining more and more traction across the country. Across all demographics. The mainstream media is scared. As they should be.
Apparently you're not tired of Trump's never-ending two-hour stumps - so you must have *some* appetite for words. Or is this an admission that no one really listens to him? That you just bask in his aura, and let his words wash over you like the tide, seen but not heard?
You ought to be careful - you just confirmed pretty much everything liberals say about Trump voters. "You're don't care about politics. You don't care about policy. You don't care about the country. You're only interested in surface victory." That's what they say, and you're working hard to prove it.
But I don't think so little of you. I think you do care about the country. You want it to have a strong defender. You want someone who speaks boldly and unapologetically and forthrightly about how great this country is. You see that in Trump and you're willing to forgive anything else.
That's understandable, to a degree. We all saw the 2016 debates, where Trump wiped the floor with the Republican establishment. That was a plain fact, and here's what I'd say - anyone who could lose a debate to Trump has got some real problems of their own. (Biden, you'll note, did not lose. He took Trump in a debate the way establishment Republicans couldn't. So he won.)
Your real questions should be, "Why is Trump the best we've got? Why does Ron DeSantis whine like a hit dog every other sentence? Why do we have to choose between morons and mealy-mouths? What are we going to do when Trump dies?"
That last one is a fun question. When Biden's gone, liberals will have Antony Blinken, who's vigorous, intelligent, and plays a mean guitar. (He's the present Secretary of State, in case you weren't aware.) Trump won't live forever, and won't let anyone share his spotlight. You need a plan, and you don't have one.
Anyway, I, for one, would sure like to see a Trump vs Haley debate. Why do you think he isn't showing?
(My post was 504 words, by the way - about the length of a typical fifth grade essay. If that makes me a speechwriter in your universe, things are worse than I thought. Here, you can learn too - start with http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Historicum/roman_rhetoric2.php and analyze my post in those terms.)
Spiky, you make some good points, especially about the need to propose alternatives. And the need for conservatives to fill the cultural gap. But DEI is bad. It is deranged. Nothing wrong with killing it but, yes, it needs to be replaced with a proper "purpose." If you think the focus should be on Liberty then tell me more. What is your solution? Please do not blame conservatives for not presenting an alternative if you yourself do not have one. Please share.
I shared it. Liberty. You think there must be some equivocation. There is not.
I share the Founders' Christian ideal, that a free land makes a free people - that all who would come freely to a free land, who would leave their nations, their ancestors, their holy places behind, across an ocean, earn, by that daring, a place in it.
It is not our gate to keep - it is God's! He who comes to freedom is our God-given brother. Let us pack in, side by side and six by six, one atop another if we must, that no free man should live under a tyrant!
Thanks. Not to sound rude, but have you taken in your 36 boarders? I only ask, because I am skeptical of those who preach for others to do or to give away what they themselves are unwilling. Nothing good about that. Again, not to sound rude, your position has the feel of virtue signaling. To be a good Christian, oneself does not need to preach for others to do good but oneself should do good for others to follow.
I'm not a Christian, nor am I an especially good person, nor did I claim to be. You may consider me the devil himself, for all I care. We all cede ethical imperatives to larger bodies, whether governments or charities - this is at times more effective than individual action, but more importantly, it lets us actually live our lives, without constant worry about whether we're helping as much as we should.
To break from rhetoric, I think it's quite clear that openness to newcomers would revitalize the economy - immigrants start businesses at far higher rates, as one data point - but it would still be the right thing to do, even if it didn't.
And I don't think unrestricted immigration would get us anywhere close to being packed shoulder-to-shoulder. I don't think unrestricted immigration would even get us anywhere close to China's 1.5 billion, not in this century. That's what ought to really scare you, if you think China is a threat.
In any case , we have nothing to give away - no ancient right, no royal line - we have inherited from our founders nothing but a notion,, Liberty, and sharing only grows it.
Unrestricted immigration is allowing in enemies, criminals and terrorists
Could you please show me the polling that recent mass immigrants are voting overwhelmingly for conservative politicians? Would love to see it.
Oh, and while it’s top of mind, eliminate two words from the vocabulary and EVERYTHING associated with the two words: CLIMATE CHANGE, the Global elitist pricks scam to screw the middle and working classes.
Raise taxes and we will change the climate.
Can you also stop the sky from falling?
?
Terrific! Thank you CRufo If CRT became a footnote in the dustbin of history it would be a gift to humanity.
Yes indeed, but the Marxist-Leninist will keep pumping out more critical theories
Amen! I worked in the military for 45 years. Right after 9/11/01 we stood up a number of new organizations. They were light (in terms of personnel count) and both efficient and fast. We largely ignored the Pentagon and its bureaucracy while doing what was legally and ethically right. But after about 2008 the Pentagon bureaucracy started to creep back in. The head count swelled. The number of useless reports and rules proliferated. The level of micromanagement was stunning. And efficiency dropped like a rock. Things we had done in a matter of weeks before now took years and was completely screwed up in the end. Good people got frustrated and left. With the right leadership recovery is possible.
As a former Navy researcher I agree. But it will always be the guys that bypass the bureaucracy that do amazing things. I could tell stories... Best the bureaucracy be slashed with leadership that believes in the real mission, of course.
That was their plan
Chris, once again a great thought provoking piece. You point out so clearly the need to cut the funding to our institutions. Yes, the unproductive layer has been ideolog-ized. As they say, idle hands are the devil's workshop.
I also agree that the unproductive class needs a new purpose. A healthier purpose. As a conservative it must require moving them back into the free market.
But I also believe this discussion may need a new CG (center of gravity) because we cannot talk simply about slashing institutional finances 80% without discussing "purpose."
We need serious discussions about how to make America strong with the elimination of crazy woke and crazy DEI to make us a more rational nation, and more financing of national infrastructure projects like coast-to-coast bullet train projects to make us stronger, and more space exploration to feed our dreams, and so on... as we cut the finances of our institutions and pay off our national debt.
I would love to see congress delivering "negative" trillion dollar cost proposals that dismantle the funding of old institutions and allocate half of the trillions to debt reduction and the other half to important private-sector infrastructure projects of national importance.
There was some discussion of an almost universal human desire for excellence. Maybe I misunderstood the concept that was presented. Based on my experience, I don’t believe that a desire for excellence is universal.
I went to a small 4-year high school with 400 students. I was well acquainted with a wide spectrum of my fellow students even though I graduated in 1965 as my class valedictorian, I saw mostly a desire to get by. Even when I was at the US Naval Academy there was a lot of “2.5 and survive” mentality. I also saw a lot of that when I worked in the private sector and as a federal employee
Interesting perspetive.
Yes. I do not think this has changed much over the decades. More of a perception as our eyes open up to reality. But what has changed is the expansion of government and the expansion of virtue signaling. We need to shrink both.
The author of this quote can't be determined although it seems to find it's origin in either G. Orwell or R. Kipling?
' We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those that would do us harm. '
George Orwell
Ideology is the refuge of scoundrels. Remember the old water cooler jokes of the past. As a former (California!) state government worker, my cubicle was in close proximity to one of those. The entire morning and, if anyone remained at work that long, extending into the afternoon, I was forced to endure the endless, breathless, discussions of the micro world of that particular bureaucracy. It was endless, repetitive gossip designed specifically to eat up large portions of the day. I’m sure that is where some of the seeds of DEI were hatched.
Yep. Idle hands...
Meanwhile in Canada: “But rest assured, sleeping Canuck sheep: your Charter of Rights is a facade,” he wrote. “And you will be fleeced while you bleat.” Jordan Peterson.
- https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/exclusive-jordan-peterson-loses-fight-with-psychology-college-over-mandatory-social-media-training/ar-AA1n5jXT?ocid=socialshare&pc=DCTS&cvid=75f118a675fe40dcb7d9e2dbac9c9704&ei=20
Also in Canada...
https://youtu.be/Nk1IdZA-7QU?si=nq8zQ7xSooIQ9hGV
On a side note, my husband asked me if we’ll have another Civil War, he’s really worried about the possibility. I tell him not to get all worked up over it, the Democrats seem like they’re itching for CW2, they’ll probably start it just like the first one. And like the first one, CW2 will end badly for the Dems. THIS time, the Republicans have about 90% of the guns and 10 billion bullets, while the Democrats will be too busy trying to decide which of their 64 genders to send into battle.
I don't think a civil war is likely. We can overcome these challenges.
Don’t be too sure, Christopher. Today’s Democrats are evil and vicious. Their hatred for Donald Trump is equal or greater than their hatred for Abraham Lincoln, and... I can’t even bring myself to say it.
The Democrats haven’t been this angry and deranged since Abraham Lincoln freed their slaves.
Lol