57 Comments
May 30, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

Christopher, l saw some of your posts and videos a few years ago and was impressed. After seeing your recent work I have become a subscriber to your substack. Your fair minded, rational and reasonable ideas place you at the forefront of individuals who are really effective at debunking and dismantling the Woke lunacy that has so much of America in its grip. Let's hope that the WokeNuts can be ousted from the institutions they are infesting and destroying.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Herbert!

Expand full comment
founding

Love the phrase “conservative counter-revolution in higher education.” I wonder, however, whether the universities will replace any educators with those not steeped in the DEI culture, and if so, where they’ll find politically center/right professors.

Expand full comment
author

That's exactly what we're doing! It's time for institutional reconquest.

Expand full comment
May 30, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

There are more of us professors out there than people think but so many feel stifled in a culture that is actively hostile to viewpoint diversity. Thank you.

Expand full comment
founding

Time to be un-stifled! ♥️

Expand full comment
founding

Going back to the NPR debate, you can see Mounk had all his hopes pinned not on local parents, but on local *teachers and librarians,* whom he knows are captured by the groupthink of their far left credentialing institutions. The counter revolution has to March through those institutions, as you are doing, so we can actually trust those local teachers/librarians again. Bless you for your ceaseless efforts!!

Expand full comment
author

Exactly right. They know the bureaucracy will do their bidding.

Expand full comment
founding

It is your (and the Governor's) institutional approach that I find appealing - reality comes with speech - makes it full. Speech does not capture reality in-full - acts are required. They accompany one-another. If we wait for perfection to act, then we will wait until God wills the end of all things before trying to do good. Better is good - and understanding and excluding the evil that we can is a good!

Expand full comment
author

Well said!

Expand full comment

Exactly ! So well said that I’ll merely add my thoughts here ! Thanks to Rufo two states now have a chance to reintroduce value - our traditional values in place of divisive propaganda that does not belong in education. First step : remove DEI ( as well as gender studies, queer theory and anti-capitalism Marxist underpinnings to Western culture’s heritage); another step - amalgamation of feminist, black, Latino (x), queer programs back into the mainstream. Russia recently listed feminism as a terrorist organization and I for one agree ! Put it back and reestablish true canon studies.

Expand full comment

It is time for the long march through the institutions to be replaced by the brisk bum's rush back out again! Preferably into a grease dumpster.

Expand full comment
founding

The most concise summary of your work that I have seen - your brief statement seems to include everything you have done to-date. It is a great help to be reminded of the whole and its parts in a few words.

Expand full comment

Thx for your work to expose and push back against the trenchant dogma sweeping education. It is my experience that the equity-based DEI bureaucracy in higher Ed and k-12 functions as an end-around to the equality of civil rights legislation. An antiracist affirmative action. Removing them allows universities to hire faculty and staff who best construct knowledge rather than become epistemically bound by orthodox ideology. Yet how to best ensure viewpoint diversity going forward in FL and TX (ie. increase center and conservative thought)? Took 50-60yrs for liberal thought to give way to progressive dogma. I’m finishing my PhD in 1-2yrs in a humanities field (rhetoric and writing), am center-right socially and politically (and white, male, Christian), have fought thru 3 graduate degrees in 10yrs in progressive bastions. My ability to articulate my perspectives and criticize progressive ones has grown tremendously, against vitriol and close mindedness to put it lightly, yet despite these current legislative victories, I’m losing personal desire to remain and teach. The current emotional and cognitive cost to remain is personally high not to mention job placement should my ‘heretical’ beliefs be broadly broadcast (ie. via substack). My family (wife/4girls) and faith keep me afloat yet my academic profession/discipline will likely be a battle (internal and external) for the next decade or two, not some cozy tenure position. Only I can decide, but what could you recommend for someone in my position? 🙏

Expand full comment

Luminas: Thank you for sharing about your internal / external struggle. The battle is long and hard. To win it we need the masses but we also need folks like you who know the system from within and are key to re-establishing a culture of freedom of speech where Western Civilization gets its due recognition. I pray that God help you "not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.: Gal 6:6-10

Expand full comment

Thanks for the response and prayer Daniel! I feel encouraged to continue however I can in my current position and to create my substack relaying my inside perspective to any who will read it. 🙏

Expand full comment
Jun 1, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

They need to go through the University’s College of Education courses with a fine tooth comb. They are still teaching the DEI to our future teachers on how to include the BS in the elementary and high school classrooms.

Expand full comment
founding

God bless you! Thanks for all you have done..I have experienced the world of DEI in a Healthcare Corp. It’s best described as a fast growing malignant cancer. I was shocked at how fast it spread into every aspect of the organization. Including patient care. I think the public is in for a rude awaking in the coming years. We will see how committed someone is to DEI principles when their loved one is having an operation performed by a surgeon who got where they are due to immutable characteristics, not merit.

Expand full comment
May 30, 2023·edited May 31, 2023

Unfortunately, not all campuses are complying. The campus I work for has rebranded the DE&I department and some are now being instructed to, "create modules that will not raise flags with the TX legislature." This was the direction given to some working on a course to be presented to high school students enrolled in a summer program on our campus.

Expand full comment
founding

There must be consequences.

Expand full comment

Not surprising. But if they don't follow the procedures (talk to general counsel), you can narc on them. Hopefully Rufo, the state legislature, or someone else will have a narc-line set up to help ensure compliance. It may take a high profile case or two to scare the bureaucrats into erring on the side of caution.

Expand full comment
author

We are on it.

Expand full comment
May 30, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

Thank you for all you do - you are a man of integrity and courage!

Expand full comment

Amazing and the light at the end of the tunnel. Praying for the warriors like yourself whose courage and bravery in confronting this assault can turn the tide. Thank you so much.

Expand full comment
author

Appreciate it!

Expand full comment
founding

Keep this great work coming!!!!

Expand full comment
author

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Jun 1, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

You have up-dated the word 'reconquista' and made it so much more enjoyable. A stunning success in these states...with more to come! Thank you Chris.

Expand full comment
author

A great word.

Expand full comment
founding
May 31, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

Just upgraded to Founding member.

Keep up the great work.

Any chance of your appearing with Loury and McWhorter on Glenn's podcast?

Expand full comment
author

Thank you, Mark! Yes, I hope to go on the show this summer when my book is out.

Expand full comment

Go Chris!

Expand full comment

Chris, God bless your steady and scholarly forward march to face this battle head on. Thank you for your bravery. And please know that many of us don’t just read and comment, but are inspired to act, we share your words with our legislators, join local groups, sharing there as well, and hopefully spreading and planting the seeds of change.

Expand full comment
author

One step at a time! We'll get there.

Expand full comment

Sure, it should be. But the race to merit didn’t start at the same line. And, long term is now. Any thought of how some students can get up to academic speed to get back into the race?

Expand full comment
author

Better K-12 education, more robust school choice options, stronger families, and a culture change focused on academic excellence.

Expand full comment
May 31, 2023Liked by Christopher F. Rufo

Achieving Education goal isn’t likely, easy or even assured. Absolutely a bedrock requirement for the country. DEI is presented as a cure for the failure of education because education failed because of white people. That’s false but when there are problems, solutions appear, are almost going to fail and spawn unintended consequences. Please keep up your good work.

Expand full comment

Congrats on your win!

What about all the wokies who have just been driven underground in those institutions? Is the follow-up just ensuring that natural selection (eg wokies leaving the state) and rabid bureaucrats do their job, or are there other ways to hit them and keep them reeling? None of the Texas universities have removed a dean or chair for being too woke yet, or investigated any faculty.

Expand full comment
author

We will expose them and enforce the law.

Expand full comment