I’d like to try a new feature on this Substack: an open Q&A. Please write a question on any topic here in the thread, then, next week, I will record a video responding to a handful of the most thought-provoking reader inquiries.
For those of you who haven’t commented yet, I’d love to have you join the discussion.
Looks like wokeism/Marxism replaced religion. Do you see a religious revival in American future, and do you feel it is necessary for us to win? to be "One nation under God" we have to be "under God"...
Galatians 5:13 “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
Bible verses are a great deterrent to the obnoxious woke, as well as to corrupt politicians who assume that we are idiots. America should deploy its traditional ideology, to protect us from oligarchy and Marxism. This verse is about freedom.
I agree. Wokeism and Marxism have replaced religion. I'm praying for that spiritual revival and believe it is necessary if we are to survive. Reagan said it well. If we aren't a nation under God, we'll be a nation gone under."
The civil rights movement was won in part due to the influence of faith on leaders like leaders like MLK and the courage of Rosa Parks. In the case of MLK all the activists that marched with him were always well dressed and never used violence.
Yes .... It is the only / or best way to go Grow ones FAITH , be it Jewish, Christian, Buddhist... and so on , - Say your Prayers, Do your Work , Hope for the Best........As it relates to Government - forced or compelled assoication is a violation of FREEDOM of ASSOCIATION and thus Forced assimilation.
Forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups during which they are forced to adopt language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of life, and often religion and ideology of established and generally larger community belonging to dominant culture by government.
Many people would like to have a Christian Passport , and pay their taxes to their Identity Governance Body .... First Nations, Secularists , Gays, Queers, Trans, can do like wise... Just as we have State Governments and Municipal Governments we can have virtual or IDENTITY based governance models.
But all this will start with growing ones Religious Faith ... Faith before Freedom ... and as Faith Grows the path to FREEDOM will open up, recall Moses "set my people free" , recall how even the sea itself would open a path to freedom...
Amen we are not each others enemy, our enemy wants to destroy our relationships with God through Jesus Christ as our savior and the one sent to be with us, The Holy Spirit!
They dont understand that no part of Earth belongs to us. God intrusted man to care for the earth. To thrive and grow and be brilliant. But the our enemy didnt want to work with us. He was jellouse of us and so he talkes Eve into mans destruction and Adam Ate it too. The righteous are to protect it of God will give it to our enemies.
The Knights of Columbus got it added circa 1953, to fight communism. It was the God that Nietzsche "killed" and who Marx said was the "opiate of the masses". So you cancelled school prayer and established Marx and Nietzsche as big thinkers on campus. Congratulations! Look what happens when you "kill" God!!!
Many scholars of Nietzsche say what Nietzsche actually meant was, we have killed God and will reap the consequences.
It was a warning. Some scholars have suggested Nietzsche and his writings were co-opted by his sister and later the Nazis.
I have never read Nietzsche so probably should shut up!
I think you right when you say God was added in the 1950’s but I thought it was to the pledge of allegiance. And I have no idea when ‘In God We Trust’ was put on the money I know atheists tried to get it removed...
Your first sentence is Jordan Peterson's interpretation and he seems fond of Nietzsche. So he reads him closely. Second sentence is similar, I have heard that too. Obviously the "Ubermensch" of the Nazis was coopted from Nietzsche. You seem to have good ears for what I have also heard. For me, Nietzsche is too superiorly sarcastic. At least he argued that Kant was, in many ways, entirely obscure. But so were the rest of them --- Schopenhauer, Hegel etc. Germans are good chemists, engineers and soldiers. Then they turn around and pick "philosophers" who, like Kant, tell them that the world is "intrinsically unknowable" and they really only know their own "transcendent" minds, if and only if, they take the time to "peak around in there", which no one can do. Socrates proved that around 450 B.C.
Meanwhile, Germans were too incompetent to figure out why inflating their own money supply led to a hyperinflation [1923; wheel barrows full of money to buy a loaf of bread] and, then elected a goofy corporal with a twisted psyche to lead them out of their own mental darknesses. They were "odd" barbarians in Julius Caesar's time and, later, civilized barbarians --- in general of course. There are some "fun" and "good" Germans --- mostly at Oktoberfest, although some have told me that I am actually thinking about Danes, like Victor Borge!
You're right about the Pledge of Allegiance. The addition was in the updated Pledge of 1954. I don't know about American money. But I googled that too. "In God We Trust" is the American motto, replacing the Latin "E Pluribus Unum" [Out of Many, One] circa 1956.
Nice to hear from you. Thanks for correcting my goofy Canadian errors.
"it never ever was " peat and repeat LOL does not prove your statement to be true! Where did the founding Fathers , as they say, come up with their basic rights and freedoms . One must read AND UNDERSTAND the writings of the Founders of the USA . Until you know the History and thinking of the time please just keep you absolute unsupported statements to yourself ! It will help your image from being laughed at.
This is no longer a Christian Nation. It was at one time based on founding doc.s but for many a year not a single has been passed based upon Christian principles.
The US is a Judaeo/Christian nation with a secular government by design. God-given rights are enshrined in our Founding Documents. This can’t be ignored or denied.
Educurious has found a way to ignore it. If you can find my post above, please take a look. They're replacing Christian values with any other religion in our middle school social studies curriculum.
This country was founded to get away from religious oppression. This country is meant to be where everyone is free to practice any religion or none. Religion of any kind should be no where near politics
Why don't you read your own alleged Declaration of Independence? Religious oppression be damned. Only WOKE-airheads fuss about oppression, in the richest, fattest least oppressive country ever invented.
QUOTE: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
America was founded to get away from political oppression and from "religious" vs. "antireligious" liars such as yourself.
1. I would appreciate if you could answer my question above: "Can you please clarify what do you mean by "a Christian nation"?"
2. I agree with your statement "Religion of any kind should be no where near politics" - that's where my question to Chris comes from. Our government is now pushing militant wokesim religion down our throats, we should take it out of politics ASAP. Since we seem to agree on this - what do you think is the best way to get the woke religion out of politics?
what do you think is the best way to get the woke religion out of politics?
You can't keep religion out of Politics. Politics is a religion for those who don't think that Moses was a reliable law giver or that God inspired him. Since they don't accept God as a Law Giver, they get Nancy Pelosi or AOC! Lucky Americans! We get tyrant-Trudeau, in Canada, because Pierre, his dad, was a pirouetting "god", who did medieval "BUST A MOVES" behind the Queen of England's back while giving Canada a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that you need a legal Ph.D. to even misinterpret!
Americans kept politics out of religion (not religion out of politics); with the first two clauses of the 1st amendment, which read, "Congress shall make NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; (or abridging free speech, a free press etc.); for a very long time. They made that amendment because Catholic Monarchs were making laws to defeat Protestants and Protestant Monarchs were making laws to defeat Catholic and other dissident Protestant sects in Europe.
So the U.S. founders made that amendment to keep Government Bodies [Legislative, Executive, Judicial and Administrative] away from being forced into adjudicating or deciding religious vs. anti-religious squabbles. They simply made it impossible to have any Branch of Government "decide" such squabbles since Congress "SHALL make NO LAW" to use as a judgment standard to decide between such quarrelers/squabblers.
But when civil rights LAW came in, with the M.L. King and J.F. Kennedy generation of Americans, then lawyers and Justices/Judges substituted "rights laws" for the previously forbidden NO LAWS concerning religion or its free exercise. Thus Americans started to litigate essentially "religious" questions, like should we be our brother's keepers, or at least pay support to the women and children our "brother" won't support? Thus the First Amendment was subverted under the guise of "rights" not religion. Inevitably you get "pleadings" to have the "right" to freedom FROM Religion --- when it's already an established fact that a majority of Americans are "free" of and from any religion --- except Woke Marxism, which is anti-religious and pro-everything that may be signified by any single letter of the alphabet and a multicolored flag.
After all, Aristotle never argued that man was a rational animal (which may have been Plato or other Greeks and certainly was the thesis of Renes Descartes). Aristotle clearly stated that "Anthropos/man is POLITICAL animal." or a "Zoon Politikon" in an English imitation of the sounds in/of his language. So when Americans were initially quite religious, they needed very few laws and much less government bureaucracy. Now that you, in many cases, don't believe in God, or do believe that some German lunatic "killed" God or another German lunatic thought that God was the opiate of the masses, politics is a wokester religion ---- and there is so much more of "government" than before, while getting weirder and weirder all the time. Never fear. Check your pronouns and pay your taxes. You're safe --- a senile Catholic pro-abortionist is your Chief Executive and he has got the nuclear codes --- somewhere [Now where did I leave those things. JILL!!!].
lets start with....Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
- the 10 commandments have been the basis for a civilized society-Thank you Moses!
If there is not any moral basis for a civilized, merciful society, we will descend in to chaos. We will not survive when 1/2 of the country lives by the "rules" and is expected to support the other 1/2 that don't. Let's be clear....the "rules" that I am talking about are the outline for a moral society .
"Christian Nationalism" is a bogeyman word the Left uses to engender fear in the uneducated (or miseducated) masses who have no understanding of the founding principles that produced the freest, most prosperous civilization the world has ever known. There is nothing inherently wrong with being either a Christian or a nationalist (though I prefer to use the term "patriot"). Those who fear the Christian or the nationalist do so, not because they are fearsome, but because they represent a worldview that recognizes a reality and a purpose superior to self.
"Woke" (presumably lazy-speak for "awakened") was coined by the Left to imply an affect of moral superiority for those who "cancel" their political opponents, burn down cities, smash and loot businesses, defund the police, promote deviant behavior, etc.
I repeat my question - define Christian Nationalism. FYI - "Woke" is not a boogeyman - it's the transgressive idol worshipping pagan religion, worshipping self, feelings, sodomy, murder, destruction of family and society, lawlessness - in short - it's the opposite of 10 Commandments
Right! Since you WON'T define the word, then it isn't a word at all except one that "triggers" the so-called "right". Alert! More woke-ster denials. America is not Hungary. There, they have Christian nationalism. Then again, Christopher Rufo was recently interviewed by Rod Dreher [The Benedict Option] in HUNGARY of all places!
US history teacher here. I make it a point to learn the origins and tenants of CRT/Critical Theories in general- highly rec Cynical Theories as a starter.
That way I know what the perverted viewpoints are and can consciously teach the factual, evidence based history as opposed to furthering divisive, post truth narratives.
Retired Cdn history teacher here. Disturbed at the activist history revisionism that’s been reified by school authorities in Canada. We’ve got an Indian Residential School genocide declared by our government based on activist produced radar images. Not a shred of forensic evidence to verify foul play and no government action to do so, or if true, hold government and church authorities accountable. We’ve had teachers fired for teaching the verified history about student deaths to tuberculosis and other diseases. Hard to feed your family if you don’t follow the activist’s narratives here. I’ve never seen such pressure to comply with such a sketchy political agenda in my 30 years in schools.
"The Marxification of Education" is by James Lyndsay and that book is about Paulo Freire's writings and teachings which amount to teaching students to be Marxist activists.
PoGo78, you are no doubt aware of this. This comment was for those who might be new to James Lyndsay and Paulo Freire.
In the majority of cases the teachers are teaching the "woke ideologies, disinformation and misinformation." They are the people who lobby administrators to cancel the non-woke teachers among them.
From my experience as a former teacher, I would suggest that the lobbying happens from confused and angry parents on the behalf of their discipline challenged children. The administration seems to placate these parents which unintentionally reinforces the bad behavior. I think this pattern has increased rapidly during and after distance learning which unintentionally taught children the power of lying and social media infamy. They are creating headaches for teachers to become Instagram or Tictoc famous. Just my take.
Right. Cancel culture isn't just for woke teachers and profs. It's as old as Socrates and Galileo, the woman's glee club, and the boy's fraternity, while Ostracism was the most sophisticated and one of the oldest brands.
Cancel culture is a politically motivated way to feign compassion of racial and gender issues without really understanding the implications of cancelling people's contractual agreements. It's equivocal to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
It takes a village to raise a child. We are all to blame. The problem is a disproportionate amount of blame on any one party. It can be difficult to imagine the experience of another party. We need teachers who like kids and teaching just like we need parents who care about education and work constructively with teachers before going straight to admin. It happens a lot. Likewise, parents need to be empowered to develop the relationship with their children by understanding the long-term value of a disciplined mindset.
One of the most fascinating, least understood, but I think absolutely most fundamental puzzles about all of this "stuff" that is going on is how the Left has been able to so successfully subvert language. They've managed to redefine words so effectively to the point that even their ideological opponents use them; which I think has the effect of conceding the ideological war even while the battle of words is underway.
Some examples of words/phrases which have now taken on completely different meanings:
* phobia (doesn't mean "fear" but "disagreement" or something like that)
* hate (now just means disagreement)
* vaccine (see the Wikipedia and CDC change of definition)
* undocumented (doesn't mean "without documents" but "without legal permission")
* "don't say gay" (refers to a bill that doesn't actually say this)
Once Marxism failed disastrously everywhere it fled into the Academy (the Academy being its natural home, as all Left movements are the crusades of disaffected intellectuals), and became almost entirely about language manipulation.
They fanatically police language and zealously police speech bc they believe that if you control what people say or read, you can control what they think, and thus control what they do.
It is a relentless top-down crusade to install their program of "socialist liberation", and things like truth, honesty, clear language, fair play etc are irrelevant to the sacred cause of Permanent Revolution.
* "harm" no longer means actual physical assault/injury, but emotional/spiritual "injury", generally more imagined than real
* "White Supremacy" was, until 5 minutes ago, understood by EVERYONE to mean imbeciles running around in bedsheets with pointy hats fomenting racism. Now it means everything about Western Civilization, including every white person in it. Also, handily, given the Left's facility with moving the goalposts, it includes any "POC" who doesn't agree with them (see Larry Elder, Candace Owens, etc.)
* "equity" has been cleverly twisted into an absolutely magical word. It's sooooo close to "equality", and the Left want the unsuspecting to believe it means exactly the same thing... when it doesn't. Naive, well-intentioned liberals think it's just another word for "fairness"
* "racism" until 5 minutes ago was understood by EVERYONE to mean judging or treating people differently based upon their race. Now, however, they've foisted their "Prejudice + Power" definition on the world, which handily (in their eyes) absolves any non-white people of the sin of racism. Because, as EVERYONE knows, no one has any power but white people.
James Lindsay has an excellent dictionary, "Translations from the Wokish", on NewDiscourses.com.
Well observed, Ben Hekster. I recommend two sources for the further elucidation of this subject: (1) the "Social Justice Encyclopedia" on James Lindsay's website newdiscourses.com (as well as his videos and writings); (2) the book *Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds* by Michael Knowles---an author with whose politics I don't generally agree, but he is right on the money as to how the misnamed "progressive" left of today engineers language to make it impossible to question its political measures.
How do Republicans state legislators go about removing college system DEI administrators, guides, hiring practices documents? How should they message it and what are some tools/tips to insert budget language to remove those administrators and documents?
Oh really? Actually, the word was invented by leftists. They initially used it to describe themselves and their actions. They actually saw it is a POSITIVE thing to say about themselves and people on the Left they agreed with. But now that conservatives have fully recognized what the word entails, many on the left are running away from it. Too late for that now.
It was actually invented by old experienced black people who had survived more open and honest racism (than the sneaky reverse racism of today) by staying "woke" to the danger posed by overt racists. As with all other smart and prudent things, modern woke-sters adopt the words, but not the behaviors, of their elders and betters from previous generations of Americans --- both black and white.
I know gaslighting when I see it. And we're not buying it. Your side can't work 24/7 trying to up-end and undo 250 years of American culture, and then simply deny it when your adversaries point it out. Go peddle your fantasies on a forum where everyone is mindless; it won't work here.
I’m old and white and not the slightest bit scared.
I laugh in the face of wokism wokery or whatever you like to call it!
These pernicious ideas have seeped into the fabric of our society and I challenge the people that I come into contact with that spout this nonsense. On a one to one level it’s important to try to have dialogue but on the policy level we need to step up the fight. Rufo leads by example he right - talking will only get you so far, action is what is needed. Join a school board get involved with a political party or join politics at the local level.
You shouldn't laugh at "wokism" because it is actually Marxist "class struggle" so-called theory. It actually works, whenever people get poor enough and dumb enough to buy into it. That process is well under way. Young people can't afford to buy their own homes these days. American pensions are invested in Ponzi schemes. One good economic collapse and you could end up in an actual class war between and among drag queens, regular folks, antifascists [i.e. Leninist revolutionary types] and alleged right wing extremists, like Mr. Rufo.
My bet is that "the drag queens" have a 50/50 chance of being the winners 'cause they are so mean when you cross them and have really long finger nails, while Mr. Rufo and friends have nice, safe, manicures. Wouldn't be your first civil war. Might not be the last civil war either.
Your friend, in Canada, where WOKE First Nations are winning all the battles and its like seeing an entirely SUBVERTED John Wayne movie. John loses every time.
I think you misunderstood my comment re: laughter…..maybe consider me a happy warrior?! I am aware that it is Cultural Marxism that we now face, dividing people on the basis of skin color and sex and so on, as opposed to Classical Marxism based on economic divisions. My observation of the left is they take themselves far to seriously and they don’t look happy. Maybe it’s what happens to someone when they feel the burden to save the world falls on their shoulders? This is what I find funny, the tragic earnestness, something that you don’t find on the right.
And your final paragraph “Your friend, in Canada, …..” I find it enigmatic, maybe you could clarify? I do have a cousin in Vancouver but no friends. However I do enjoy a good John Wayne movie.
Mr. RUFO is not what comes to mid when I hear “right wing extremist”. He is insightful, honest, has an opinion and agenda to go forward with them.That does not equate to extremism.
It actually does "equate to extremism" by his WOKE-ster adversaries. To anyone with an IQ above 80, Mr. Rufo is a small-L liberal American who actually understands both English and the code words of left wing extremists. I guess you missed my irony. Mr. Rufo is a good guy --- but he is a right wing extremist to bad guys. And that would make you a "good gal". Good for you and your support of a good guy.
Not true. BLM themselves and others employed the term “woke” for several years and wrote and spoke about it online for quite awhile so it became part of our current vernacular.
There's no such thing as "woke": now conform to these diversity, equity, and inclusion policies without raising any questions about them or you will be made exceedingly unwelcome in this place of employment.
Should there be a database for each state that lists the alternatives to the public school system?
Private, parochial, Christian, etc.
That will throw the cat among the pigeons. This is all about power and money. Utilizing public schools for ideological purposes is intended to effectuate a power shift. It will be funded by the tax payers.
Vouchers is the logical answer. Just as "Defund the Police" was a catchy phrase that helped no one, Defund the Schools sends an even more powerful message. Many complaints will ensue with all the histrionic commentary but the "objective" data are clear: The public schools are failing.
The tricky thing, to my understanding, is that the accreditation bodies for private schools have also been captured. So many private schools are also preaching this garbage, and even many Catholic/parochial schools. Additionally, the schools of education are 100% captured and churning out activist teachers like Fords off a production line. These stories also need massive exposure.
But can we devise a voucher system without the strings attached? I’m not sure we can. I suspect that the voucher system will be a race to the bottom for private/charter schools.
In neo-Marxism [‘cultural Marxism’], I get the impression that anything that is considered “normative” in society is deemed “oppressive.” Anything “oppressive” must be brought down, destroyed, leveled. Therefore anything “normative” needs to be brought down, destroyed, leveled. Traditional sexual norms [such as “heterosexuality”] must be “de-normed.” Brought down. Leveled. Destroyed. The nuclear family structure must be “de-normed.” Brought down. Leveled. Destroyed. The idea of only two genders must be “de-normed.” Brought down. Leveled. Destroyed. I don’t know WHY neo-Marxists think destroying societal norms is a good thing. My question is: WHAT is the driving force behind this push toward “de-normalization” of “norms” in society, and WHAT is hoped to be gained by all this bringing down, leveling and destruction?
What is gained is THE REVOLUTION! That is the whole point of Marxism, whether revolutionary Marxism [soviet style], progressive [slow march through the institutions] style, called Fabian Socialism, or, now "cultural". Read Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. The whole point is the revolution. Then you kill the useful idiots who helped the revolution but who are not really "woke" or "conscious" enough. Then you have a classless society --- with neither oppressors nor oppressed --- and the need for government "withers away" because the point of governments is to uphold and continue one class's oppression of other class/es.
It is perfectly circular and stupid "reasoning". But a good percentage of modern Americans are dumb enough to actually think it makes "sense". Joe McCarthy was looking under the wrong beds [government] for commies --- when they were actually establishing themselves in America's universities after fleeing European universities which had taught Marxist rhetoric.
Thank you, Kevin. What is truly baffling to me, is just what you point out: "a good percentage of modern Americans are dumb enough to actually think it makes 'sense.'" WHY do so many Americans seem to think it makes sense? WHAT is it about a "classless society" [which is truly IMPOSSIBLE] that "makes sense?" I honestly do NOT understand WHY so many people think THAT [a "classless society"] is even desirable--let alone attainable. As you say, it is "circular and stupid 'reasoning.'" Can there possibly be THAT many people who are THAT stupid?
No! It is neither possible, nor likely, that there are that many stupid people!
BUT, Most Americans don't actually read about Karl Marx's so-called "classless society" because they don't read Karl Marx. What they do know about, is Marx's so-called "class struggle/s". They can see people who are richer than them and who wouldn't even look down at them --- like Lazarus and the poor man in your Bible. Those people know "class". There are others, who don't like differences between poor and rich people. They want equality. They don't think about Marx's "pipe dream" classless society. They just want Justice and fairness. They become so-called Social Justice "warriors" or "activists". The name is never Marxism. It's named "woke" or "critically aware" or "socially just" --- never flat out MARXISM.
There are not very many "stupid" people at all --- considering their own experiences. But relatively few semi-intelligent Marxists can get a lot of traction with the banal vices, common to all of us, in every age, place and time. Jealousy, Envy, Greed, Anger, Sloth etc. Modern Marxists with their virtuous sounding names [Critical Race Theorists --- don't you want to be able to "think critically"? Social Justice "warriors/activists" --- can you be against justice? Anti-Fascist and Anti-Racist activists --- are you in favor of Fascism or Racism?] appeal to those vices (or they are prone to those vices) or attribute those same vices to their opponents. See Sarah above. [ We actually agree on two things now. Rufo is NOT a "right wing extremist". Vices are involved.]
HENCE, If you want to argue with them, then you're a hater, fascist, racist or a greedy capitalist oppressor --- or all of the above. Simple formula for simple minds. The trick is called "ad hominem" and it only works on people who have not been taught logic. When people quit teaching the first 3 of the so-called 7 Liberal Arts, which are Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic and switched to "language arts" and so-called "modern logic/s", it left everybody wide open to so-called "language games". I think that Bible readers call the process, in effect, building "The Tower of Babel", where, metaphorically, God has come down to confuse American Speech.
So Americans aren't stupid --- just new age Babble-onians! [He said with tongue firmly stuck out the side of his cheek]. Keep smiling BOOMER! Me too!
I think jealousy and greed are the driving forces, with the ruling class of neo-Marxists beating the drums of inequality, and the mandates to tear down anything that allows one person to be more successful than the other...except,,of course, the elitists who are stirring up the masses. They will remain above the fray. It’s like Jessica Tarlov said one day, when the concept of classes was being discussed. She said. “I’ll always be upper middle class”, meaning, of course, that she has legacy wealth to support her lifestyle and protect her from life’s uncomfortable fluctuations.
One 800-pound gorilla in this whole mess is the fully captured mainstream media. Their lockstep march has resulted in a large portion of the population being utterly impervious to "other" voices or messages--- i.e., those of us who see what's actually happening can all too easily be dismissed as "conspiracy theorists".
It's really difficult to combat, because one can understand the disbelief of the masses that the entire media complex is colluding to drive such ugly narratives. I'm continually shocked by the ignorance of so many otherwise intelligent people. It's the greatest mass psy-op in history.
You and Rufo are combatting the mainstream. This is your zone and your potent challengers seem to be Stacy Mason and MarkM --- formidable adversaries indeed. Good luck. Be forewarned, Mark just may accuse you of committing the "ad simian" informal fallacy by calling the mainstream media an "800 pound gorilla". OUCH! That's gonna hurt!
I heard you say something very alarming a couple years ago on a Manhattan Institute zoom where you discussed your research on homelessness/mental illness/drug addiction, etc and I wonder if it is still true? You said when you discussed the factors causing these with the head of Psychiatry at the largest hospital system in San Francisco, she said, "If I said those things, I would get fired." That was very frightening to me. If we can't discuss or admit the real causes of these problems and just pretend it is housing costs and availability or white oppression or other progressive suggested causes, how do we solve them? SF and other cities have since gotten so much worse and have dissolved into chaos. Thank you for all your work!
Florida has been a fantastic test for implementing sane policies opposing the "woke" agenda. What advice would you have for making incremental advancement in a Blue state where the levers of the state are in the hands of the woke foot soldiers?
I’ve been a school board warrior for two years. Our district does the equity-diversity-inclusion on the down low. It’s not often discussed and not in curriculum, but is woven throughout the day.
Any thoughts on how to gather intel from kids & moms?
The early generations of university-indoctrinated woke students have now infiltrated many professional sectors of society: government, finance (ESG), marketing, HR, media, education, etc. This fact incentivizes the next generation of young adults to conform to woke ideology to optimize their chances of succeeding in these professional institutions post-graduation. Reforming the university system is needed to return to a state of honest academic inquiry, research and teaching, but as long as those real-world incentives persist outside academia, there’s a feeling of ultimate futility to the mission. How do you think about this? Do you have any thoughts on effecting incentive shifts in the real world to make the break from woke thinking more enticing?
I have this question too. The woke left has so completely taken over the professions that they can threaten to take away your livelihood if you resist or do not conform and acquiesce to their ideology. Before saw your comment, I had asked a similar question (now buried deep in the comments)
Chris, I would really appreciate if you could look into the ideological take-over of the school accreditation boards. For all the legislation in states for school choice, very little will change if the accreditation boards are dominated by CRT/DEI ideologues.
During the first large immigration to the USA in the 1920's and 1930's after WW1 there was the concept held of the melting pot. People assimilated, learned English, and the the motto E Pluribus Unum, out of many one. That is being lost in the migrations after the 1960's. People continue to fly their own flags, speak their own languages, uphold and maintain their own cultures. What do we get.... Babylon. Diversity is not our strength but a fast walk to divisiveness.
It is nonsense to say that America doesn't have a culture and an ignorance of American history.
Stacy, I think “American culture” refers to the common desire of people who emigrate to our country to preserve their rich cultural heritage while they pursue freedom of speech, thought, right to assemble, etc., and their highest aspirations and goals, rights which are available to every American.
Incorrect. There is a historically correct definition for American culture, that existed for over 200 years or so. Its only in the last few years that radical leftists who despise America have tried to gaslight us and say there's no such thing as this. As usual, you are wrong.
This Mason person is wrong again. American government, not culture, comes straight out of Aristotle's treatise called "The Politics", in a section of the treatise sub-entitled HOW TO DRAFT a Constitution. And the leading American scholar on Aristotle, at the time of The Declaration of Independence, was a fellow named Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He was the only signer who named his location in the, then, English colonies, so that, in his words --- "They cannot mistake me now."
Both the stated location and his reason for giving that location was in response to the assertions of two "wags" who said, respectively, when he signed:- "There goes millions." (given how rich he and his relatives were). VS. "Not so. There are many different men with the name Charles Carrol throughout all the colonies."
Aristotle, himself, didn't think that any form of government over about 50 thousand citizens would ever survive for any length of time. That was because in greater sizes than his alleged limit on the size of a "Polis" [political community; City State], the character of that "State's" legislators would not be known by either direct acquaintance or reliable 2nd hand "word of mouth". Thus, inevitably (it seemed to Aristotle), people with bad characters would begin to make bad laws (to benefit themselves and their friends alone) resulting in class warfare and the dissolution of the/a Polis.
What Aristotle could not know and did not know at the time he wrote his logic treatises was that a very large number of individuals would learn those treatises and, hence, be able to easily determine lies from truth and to distinguish rhetoric (by which masses are swayed) from logic, thereby being able to discern the characters of politicians by simply noticing their words and their actions without personally knowing the politicians or getting 2nd hand reliable information on their characters from their own reliable friends. All that was required was that they have a free and relatively objective press to accurately report the words and the actions of so-called political "elites". America got those things in addition to the poor and huddled masses of Europe who came to America and got both a lot richer and even more smart than rich in most cases --- a huge middle class.
That phenomenon [of logic and rational governments] had, of course, previously resulted in the huge size of Alexander's short lived Hellenistic Empire, followed by the Roman Republic [with its 12 Tables of Law] and then the growth of large European Nations after Rome fell. That is why America became a melting pot, just like ancient Rome became a similar melting pot. It is a phenomenon of rational law, made by rational law makers, which is equitably applied and enforced by rational people.
Take away the reason --- and everything will collapse, just as it did at Rome. "Bye ... Bye ... Miss American pie ... " [a prophetic song by a Rock 'n Roller] as recalled by a snoozing, rather than "woke", old guy.
College seniors on down to grade school - are they indoctrinated to the extent that they are heavily in favor of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America” - from what to what? Thank you.
While Gender Ideology has been widely acknowledged as a cult and a kind of secular neo-religion, no one has yet suggested that its entwinement in law and education be challenged on that basis.
As both a legal and constitutional matter, if beliefs like "gender identity" meet the threshold of religious beliefs -- which they do -- then should they not be subject to the same parameters?
What's happening presently is exploiting a perceived loophole in the First Amendment. While it's commonly agreed that "freedom of worship" is protected, the prospect of an aggressively evangelical movement seeking to circumvent church/state separation in order to use the instrument of government to indoctrinate youth, and to seize legal protections which would otherwise not exist, has been poorly considered.
Why is there no lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to do what it has unfortunately failed to do in the past, and furnish a precise definition of what constitutes a religion? Any faith based belief system, whether or not it calls itself a religion, should be both protected in their freedom of belief and constrained from being taught in public schools or having its doctrinal tenets recognized in civil law.
A Supreme Court ruling to this effect would end this madness once and for all.
Right! A Supreme Court ruling "would end this madness once and for all" --- Just like Roe V. Wade ended the abortion debate. [That would be "irony" --- if and only if you are the sort of "logician" who can only manipulate alphanumeric "chicken scratch" courtesy of Bertrand Russell, Gottlob Frege and fellow travelers in the "logic" business --- but if you can actually think, in English, then you already got the irony]
You alleged "logicians" are the people who have, for many years, promulgated various and interestingly DIVERSE, so-called "theories" of truth, when the founder of the discipline of LOGIC [Aristotle], clearly said that the first Principle of Logic, which is truth, CANNOT be "hypothetical", while repetitively affirmed hypotheses eventually become accepted theories.
Rather, argued Aristotle, the first Principle of logic must be AXIOMATIC. That axiom, called the Law of Contradiction by morally neutral folks, or the Law of Non-Contradiction, by those who are logical moralists, is based on the pure "faith" that basic sentences, called propositions, must be either true or false with no "middle ground" between those 2 polar opposites [So-called LAW OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE or LEM in addition to LAW OF NON-CONTRADICTION or LNC].
But what did you skeptical "logicians" do? You invented specious arguments against Aristotle's theses about truth. Then you invented specious arguments against every one of your own diverse so-called "theories" of truth. Then you invented "fuzzy" logics, after successfully transforming logic into a parody of alphanumeric algebra, when Aristotle had previously told you "logicians" that numbers had "peculiar properties" that were not applicable to other categories of thought and of being. You logicians apparently liked numerous potential middle terms between harsh dialectical opposites, such as true vs. false with "fuzzy" logic. So why are you apparently opposed to numerous potential genders between MALE vs. FEMALE?
In short and in sum --- Your diverse "logics" have come right back into your lying "logician" faces and you don't know how to refute the lies with so-called "Natural Language" sentences. Q. So what do you call for? A. The argument from authority --- the weakest of all philosophical arguments. Q. And what authority, since it is the Supreme Court of your Country? A. Why that would be the authority of lawyers arguing to and before lawyers, while lawyers are the most CONTEMPTUOUS of TRUTH people in the history of civilization. Not only do lawyers NOT know the truth. Their specialty is casting so-called "reasonable doubts" about the truth while admonishing their own clients to SHUT UP.
Who do you think "invented" Critical Race Theory? He was a civil rights lawyer named Derek Bell if memory serves. Who picked it up and ran with it? Uh, that would be Marxist lawyers and professors. What do you think LENIN's profession was, before the revolution? Duh, he was a lawyer. So cut to the chase --- you guys are going to be required to NOT KILL ALL the lawyers, as one of Shakespeare's characters said --- but only the HALF of those lawyers who are the "bad guys" representing the cases of "worse guys". Trouble is --- you don't have FAITH in a logical system [Aristotle's] which enables you to make such distinctions between TRUE vs FALSE and GOOD vs EVIL anymore. So good luck with the next American Revolution because that is where you are going having destroyed all FAITH in ancient logic and its PRINCIPLES.
That's a lengthy, rambling rant which doesn't address the issue.
I'll clarify.
The First Amendment establishes the law of the land on religious liberty -- both for those who practice it and those who wish to not have it imposed upon them.
It does not offer a definition of "religion," however, but rather relies upon the assumption that everyone knows what "religion" is. Unfortunately, in the post-Marxian era, that furnishes a backdoor to those who would seek to circumvent the First Amendment by simply seeking to have their religion recognized as "science" or "fact" without having to meet the same empirical standards as other facts.
Bringing this matter to the Supreme Court is less about seeking the Supreme Court ruling than forcing the "no debate" crowd into a very public debate they cannot possibly win. Because it would expose the simplicity of this:
"I don't believe in God... so why should I have it imposed on me as a belief?"
"I don't believe in gender or gender identity... so why should I have it imposed on me as a belief?"
There is no daylight whatsoever between the non-evidentiary nature of those two claims. Yet one is given favored status under the law which is universally denied the other. Why?
There is no argument which can be made to excuse that contradiction. The hypocrisy prevails only insofar as it remains unchallenged. Challenge it openly -- and the court of public opinion will rule long before the actual courts rule. And the matter will be over.
Americans, humans, the world in general is deeply opposed to this nonsense -- they simply don't know how to articulate it. Smoke the issue out by dragging it into the courts and the court of public opinion -- and the public will quickly learn precisely how to fight it. And the "no debate" cowards will crumble.
Spoken like a true post Marxist obscurantist. It doesn't matter whether your moniker is Ky' Zan' or "Logician" or "MarkM" who is "Ann Doshi", or any of the other names under which you post. You clarify nothing. You post non-sense.
I haven't a clue what you're talking about. There's some strange, paranoid conspiracy theorizing going on here.
If you can't articulate why the First Amendment exists and what it means by "religion," then you're really not qualified to carry on this conversation.
And I don't know what "post-Marxist obscurantist" means. I'm also not those other people... whoever they are. Also not clear why you're in a knot about this. My question is simple: why can't we treat gender ideology as the religious cult that it is and get it removed from the public square, from law and legislation and from the schools on the same basis that Catholic, Jewish, Islamic and Hindu theologies are so excluded?
If you can answer that question without devolving into a rant or deploying the language of a Berkeley doctoral dissertation, by all means do.
Disclaimer up front, this isnt really a question about CRT and wokeism. My name is Kevin McCarville. Im an AI engineer in my early 30s and an Airborne Ranger in the Army Reserves. I think this is the most important issue facing America today and its not even close. Its at the core of who we are as a nation.
I wanna help. But I dont know how.
Can you help me? I have to imagine my career skillset would be very valuable if deployed in the right places. Would be happy to talk to whoever you think would be most beneficial to steer me in the right direction. Let me know if you need any more info or contact details from me. And I know you are awful busy so no hard feelings if you dont have the bandwidth.
Thank you for all that you do man. Please keep it up. I love this nation so much and its guys like you that make it great.
1. Is there a fairly short and simplified version of pamphlet or paper that describes D.E.I. in federal, state governments and schools and what it really is and how it is designed to destroy families, etc. That we could share and also use to push back?
2. What organizations are in which states that are working on laws like Florida to pull D.E.I. tentacles out of state school bureaucracies?
3. What about state departments of education? Like here in MO DESE is pushing D.E.I. stuff down on local districts that don't want it. It becomes money thing.
It looks like you have the support of the Florida Legislature to have the finances to enact real change at New College. Sincerely hoping you have a sound, Hillsdale type experience by the time our child is college bound. Thank you for taking on the challenge.
I am a soon-to-be lawyer, as I will be taking the bar exam in July. Ever since CRT ruined my church, I have been passionate about understanding and fighting it. Question 1: If I get a job at a law firm that pushes DEI, how can I strategically resist? Question 2: What can I do with my bar license to help fight wokeness in the courts?
Thank you Christopher for your fight for America, this land we love, and the memory of Patriot's blood. Plowing forward into the 2024 election without first guaranteeing that Americans even have the ability to vote in a free and fair election any longer, is polishing the brass on the Titanic. I sense a lot of ignoring the elephant in the room on the part of our leaders. Cannot the same 20 representatives who successfully stalled voting in the Speaker in lieu of first safeguarding the Senate from runaway corruption do the same for our electoral system? Without the ability to have every legitimate vote count, and filter out the fraudulent votes, we no longer have a free country. No more Zuckerberg money, no ballot collection boxes, no more mail fraud, no mules.
Trump broke that and the constant lies from the right keep it going. Until they release the lies and realize we are all Americans the divide will stand.
Trump? How old are you, like 25? Does your knowledge of history go back to only 2015 or so? Lady, you need to badly study history. America and it's politics existed a LONG time before you were born. For example, go read about Obama's Presidency, and the constant political divide then. Next, read about Bush's 2000-2008 presidency, and the same situations. Go read about Clinton's 1992-2000 presidency, and the constant fights then. Heck, Clinton was even impeached. Just keep going back. You need some perspective.
No President has resisted the peaceful transfer of power or claimed an election to be fraudulent. The GOP gave birth to Trump with the election of Ronald Reagan. Reagan devalued people, said government was the problem (governance and government are not the same), and started to open the treasury to legalized theft. Trump is just the apotheosis of a 40+ year trend.
Rick. I have audio of both Hillary and J Carter claiming the 2016 election was stolen. What you are saying is provably untrue. Not putting you down at all. Just letting you know the info you are using is incomplete. It happens
Hillary blamed Russia and made other excuses. She lost based on her own merits. Those comments are nothing in comparison to continuously pushing the idea of a stolen election and tacitly promoting the events of January 6th.
Reagan's first speech as the GOP candidate was in Philadelphia, Mississippi. That was a town where 3 civil rights workers were murdered in the 1960s. This sent the message to the South that it was okay to long for the Jim Crow South.
He began the nasty meme with a prime example of "Welfare Queens". Not as objectionable as making fun of someone with cerebral palsy but unnecessary (unless of course you want to further the "Southern Strategy"). That along with firing all the air traffic control workers began the period of devaluing people by a President. It was okay to bust unions and devalue their labor.
He was president at the beginning of the trend towards a widening separation between wages and productivity. Wages actually went down during his Presidency relative to productivity.
He began a period of deregulation which during his term was limited apart from the Savings and Loan crisis which cost the US taxpayer billions (estimated at $124 billion which into today's dollars would be about $250 billion today
He appointed Donald Regan as Secretary of the Treasury. Regan had been the CEO of Merrill Lynch. What follows was a stream of investment bankers as head of Treasury. Deregulation and policy changes led to an unaccountable Wall Street where malfeasance was rewarded.
Iran/Contra
He removed the solar panels from the White House. This was consistent with a policy of disinvestment in the future of the United States. It took decades for infrastructure to deteriorate but it did. The country started to move from making things to wealth acquisition based on so called financial instruments.
He tripled the national debt.
He is credited with ending the Cold War. He was lucky because he was President during the culmination of 30+ years of bipartisan policy concerning the containment of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union could not compete with the US and 45 years after WW2 it dissolved. The US would have won that struggle with or without Reagan.
Reagan was transformational but not in a good way he was at the beginning of a trend that has led us to where we are today. If you consider him in the same league as Lincoln, Washington or FDR you clearly have a passion for middling movie stars.
OK, now you're evolving from the laughable into pure steaming BS.
Reagan is not only easily one of the 5 Greatest Presidents in history, many, including myself, consider him the SINGLE greatest president. He was a seminal, groundbreaking, one-in-a-lifetime President.
The fact that you know so little about history, and how truly monumental Reagan was, shows you're just too ignorant to have access to a keyboard.
Actually I was alive for all of those. I live in the Midwest. Obama was the greatest president of my lifetime. Until Trump and his nazi like techniques I never saw anyone care about who someone voted for.
Obama had really only one exceptional quality; his oratory skills. Problem is, the man was a habitual liar. Lied about everything. Domestic policy, lies, Foreign policy, more lies. Healthcare, tons of lies. But, this silver-tongued devil had most of us fooled. Dems liked him because he was a great speaker, smooth, handsome, and black. And simply because of those mostly superficial things, they loved him and ate up all he said.
Not all conservatives believe it was stolen. I'm very conservative. Initially, I thought there was a chance it had been stolen. But, the more I read, the less I believed that. Now, I think that Trump and his "election was stolen" fans need to MOVE ON from that, whether or not they believe it. Talking about that will NOT help Trump win in 2024. Me, I get a little sick each time I hear Trump mention this. It's like someone who has a grudge that they can't forgive. It doesn't matter if he THINKS he's right. It's just that it's OVER, it can't be relitigated, and he needs to shut up about that and move forward.
Thank you for that answer. My husband is a Republican but he voted for Biden to get Trump out. If Trump wins the primary, he will hold his nose and vote Blue again.
Well, I'm not quite as "far gone" as your hubby. Short of all-out nuclear war or Ebola Virus going airborne in America, I can't think of many worse things than Biden winning a 2nd term. After all, the man is probably at around stage 2 or3 of Alzheimer's now, and (if he wins) by the time he finishes in 2029 the guy would be pushing 90 and at stage 5. For God's sake, the guy doesn't even know what town he's in half the time, and he has no idea what to say without a typed script; and even then he misreads it. He's a walking, breathing, fossil.
But, since I live in CA, I have the luxury of voting any way I want, because it literally makes no difference. The state now votes around 70% Dem in every election. My wife is a moderate Dem, I'm a conservative Rep. And because I can vote any which way I want, I assure her that I vote for more Independent candidates in the General election. (she dislikes Trump and I'm not crazy about him). The electoral college and it's winner-takes-all assures me that CA's EC votes will always go to the Dems. I know it's a waste of a vote to vote for the GOP, and I can't bring myself to vote for a walking adult-diaper commercial like Biden. So, as I tell her, I always vote for the candidate from the Libertarian Party. At least that way I voted for someone.
But if DeSantis is the nominee, that's a whole other story. Even then, DS can't win blue states either. He's just a far more likeable person than DT.
Here's the thing Maria; ask yourself this, if YOU were planning to steal an election, would you try to claim 81 Million votes? Far more than you actually needed to win? Consider that the objective in committing fraud in an election is (1) winning and (2) Not arousing suspicions that it was stolen.
I think what's more likely, is the Dems were simply more effective at building up the vote-by-mail process. They clearly took HUGE advantage of the 2020 Covid crisis, got Fauci and his departments to declare that all polling places were massive disease spreading events, and got as many Federal and State officials as possible to think it was 100% necessary to mail a mail-in ballot to every person in America.
The whole thing was sickening. The entire system was the IDEAL opportunity to commit a large number of slimy and underhanded deeds. And I'm convinced books will be written for decades, how the Dems weaponized Covid politically, to achieve so many of their goals in the 2020-2023 time period.
The GOP has never been the party of habitually using a crisis to take advantage of the American public. Have they ever? Sure. But not even close to the extent that Dems do. For Dems, it's a primary feature of their playbook.
I think we are essentially saying the same thing. You stated it much more articulately. With extended voting ... with multiple ballots being sent out (I had a friend who said she received five) ... withholding the Hunter Biden story, which people later said would have impacted their votes ... juicing up the Trump hatred, there were a lot of factors.
Re: the spread in the numbers between Biden and Trump, there was so much in play, I wouldn't say it was "controllable" necessarily to "look" fair. But I don't think that really matters. Democrats lie directly to Americans, so they can lie about anything, no matter the level of
60 lost court cases, Trumps lawyers admitting under oath that it wasn't stolen and you still think it was? That's cult thinking. I bet you also believe Russia didn't help him get elected?
No. It's not cult thinking. I'm among the LEAST likely to ever become a cult member.
There are more than enough indicators of how the voting system was manipulated. All you have to do is open your eyes, read, look and watch. So you still believe the justice system is blind? Uh, right.
That's so funny. Uh, yah, Russia helped get Trump elected, with their, what $100k spent on FB.
You're obviously a TRUE BELIEVER in the new and corrupt DEM-SOCIALIST-FASCIST-TOTALITARIAN party.
Try to snap out of it. Time to take the red pill. Or keep on sucking down the blue pill and live a lie.
I have found that people that believe the election was stolen are too deep into the right wing propaganda to get through to on any other subject. It's a good basis of sanity question.
I get your drift. It's analogous to how we know that people who believe men can be women are far too deep into the left wing propaganda to get through to on any other subject.
I have found that people that believe the election was NOT stolen are too deep into left wing propaganda, willfully blind and unwilling to do the slightest bit of research that would counter their narrative.
Clearly you're trying to steer society away from going over the woke/socialist, anti-Western values, postmodern moral relativism cliff. Let's presume in 5 years, you are wildly successful in bringing your vision to complete fruition. What do we retain from what the left brings to the table, and how far right would this plebeity become? What would this ideal society look like and be galvanized around?
Just like anything to do with taxes, I'd be willing to pay more if I thought we were getting our monies worth. The Public School system was excellent for the Industrial Revolution. It is not performing well today. We've been hearing about comparatively low math, English, and science scores for years now.
Ideal?
Class sizes no more than 20 students per teacher.
Graduating class sizes no more than 200 students.
Schools no larger than 800 - 1000 students.
More teachers.
Bullying of any form is not tolerated.
Given the rather "nasty" nature of children particularly in groups, there should be surveillance throughout the school and misbehaving is caught in the act and there are consequences.
There should be uniform funding for all public schools (same amount for vouchers) throughout the state. This would help to alleviate some disparities.
Organized sports are a luxury in school. Large sums are spent on football stadiums, teams, and swimming pools. Perhaps 0.001% will play in the NFL or NBA. All students need exercise but only a small percentage will ever have a career in sports.
Trades and Apprenticeships.
Teach history and not mythology. Teaching about the depredations of European Expansion and slavery is fine. Also teach about the Warring States period in China, Mao's failures of governance, and the barbarity of cultures not dominated by White people. Teach also the good achievements of any culture. Teach critical thinking skills which are truly critical and not just "theory". Ideology which is resistant to criticism and being challenged is not learning. It is a religion.
There is a spectrum to humanity; however, ideological programming is not education. Tolerating differences is respect. Forcing one's personal views on another through coercion is bullying. This must stop.
Return manufacturing to the United States to help pay for things.
Stop the redistribution of wealth from the 99.9% to the 0.1%. That disparity is huge. Stop stock buybacks. Apple has spent about $500 billion just on stock buybacks. They don't manufacture anything in the US or so little it is meaningless. None of the money was invested to create superior tools, software, and processes to decrease the need for factories in China with dormitories and 50,000 workers. There are PhDs in physics from top programs who get jobs in finance. This is so ever more elaborate mathematical models can skim an additional 1%. None of that talent is employed to make material goods more efficiently or better.
Of course none of the this will happen. China seeks to bring humankind out of the failures of the West with the Guidance of a New Great Helmsman. So much for critical thinking.
The misuse and abuse of language, which you have discussed in your work on Leftist ideation in the corporate academy (and their corresponding academic corporates), extends to many public intellectuals who consider themselves conservative and, in fact, have been shunned, but who are, in fact, enmired in the Leftist worldview.
As an example, many (even the warrior-thinker Dr. Robert Malone himself), continued to call it unthinkingly a "vaccine" -- a propagandistic term the CDC now intends to re-define to suit the bureaucracy's immediate needs -- when even he stated it was not a vaccine by nature and effect, etc.
The greatest error conservatives make, I believe, is ideationally living within the Leftist worldview: Their own expression fosters in others the ideas they think they argue against. As an example, many call themselves "right-wing," swallowing whole the Leftist's duality of conceptualization, us vs. them, and placing themselves squarely within the Leftist worldview.
I, for example, am politically a constitutional conservative and in aesthetic matters, which are most important to me, a traditionalist, because over 1000s of years, much wisdom and beauty and truth has been gleaned by the Artist with which to feed the soul. But I am not right wing, because I do not agree to be subsumed within the theoretical mindset of the pseudo-intellectuals whose entire purpose is to shun those who don't herd with them and mouth the blather they prostitute upon humankind.
Hence, my question: if you think the thesis above has legs (you will say, I'm sure, if you think it does not), how can these "conservatives" be made aware of their subsumation (are they unaware they are still within "the Borg?") and of the imperative of breaking out of it through accurately meaningful expression?
How do small local Republican clubs fight back against ballot harvesting? We need specific steps to understand this game and beat them at their own game - legally, of course.
What punitive actions can be taken against Blinken, Brennan, Clapper and the 50 or so other "national security experts" that knowingly and falsely convinced the bulk of American that the Hunter Biden laptop story was 'Russian disinformation"? Are there not laws to protect us from credentialed persons using their influence to materially deceive?
When are you starting a series, on "wokeness in the military and foreign policy"? Because, the forces of liberal internationalism, that considers all doemstic political opponents as fascists, are the same forces, that seeks pride parade in Kiev and Kabul, and desires to go to war to promote that ideology.
As much as I appreciate all the theoretical insights on who, when and why all the evils plaguing our society have come to be, I’m tired of them. In fact, the endless reads are a waste of precious time. I know some of it helps wake people up but ultimately who cares if we all agree on the horrors and how they came to be if we do nothing about them? All I want now is a solid, practical action plan to turn this all around. It’s high time. Can anyone at least suggest a “first step?”
Yes. It will sound trite in a short-form comment, but yes.
Quick answer: Mockery. Withering, unending.
Never argue on points, because that depends on good faith in the Leftist. And we are the stupid ones who have done that for decades. They change the meaning of words and use them against us.
Background, again a quick summary: Rationally get a hold of the concept of morality. We all understand it sufficiently to live (I hope), but few of us can define and defend it verbally. My epiphany was the definition that morality is only real when it is iterable. It works today, next week, next year. It works for you, your family, your country. If it doesn't pass that test, it's a lie.
All Leftism leads to death, extinction of the species. We have failed to explain that rationally very well, and we should. But the real game is in mocking them for how stupid their beliefs are.
If we call them evil, they laugh.
If we call them stupid, they are defenseless.
"How can you not notice that your beliefs don't work? Do you forget to breathe, too?"
"You say racism today in payment for racism yesterday. So then it's ok to pay you back tomorrow? That's retarded."
"So, when you are done 'transing' all of the kids, who is going to make babies? You're a moron."
"So, when a group of people debauches themselves for decades, so badly that most of them can't read, should their Leftist demands for equity not be laughed at?"
There are actual definitions and meanings for words like truth and knowledge and opinion, and I wasn't clear on them. The Left has played me for decades. I suggest Mortimer Adler's book "The Great Ideas..." for a very quick primer. All sorts of things came into focus in just a few pages. And I smiled. "Oh, this is easy!"
"Racist? That's just your opinion. And it's a stupid one."
I know this is a "thread", but I thought we were supposed to ask Christopher F. Rufo a question.
Folks seems to be arguing amongst themselves. I want to hear from Mr. Rufo.
Christopher F. Rufo, here is my question for you: How do you think America is going to address the out-of-control transgender-pandering nonsense that we are seeing today? Do you feel that with the election in 2024 drawing closer day by day, that we will see any common sense being forthcoming? Is this strictly a bi-partisan issue with the Democrats going along with the cult and pushing it (such as Biden), and the Republicans trying to temper the acceptance the lobby is demanding? My family has been divided and destroyed by this, and I am horrified by the ignorance of so many regarding mental illness which is at the bottom of it all. We are seeing a flood of younger, vulnerable, mentally unstable people being used and abused by the medical systems, doctors, hospitals, counselors, so-called experts, and death traps such as Planned Parenthood. All following the money. Do you see an end to this in our lifetime? (I pray that it will be resolved in favor of sanity soon, I am a great grandmother who has seen three of my beloved grandchildren fall into this fantasy, which has led to alienation and heart break.) Thank you.
(PS: Stealing from C.S. Lewis, if we see a person proclaiming he is a poached egg, we know he is insane and needs help.) Love, Indio
I have been working in the school system for 14 years, and it has become clear to me that we are in a tremendous SPIRITUAL battle. Those who are pushing this transgender mental illness on innocent and impressionable children worship not our God, but the satanic diety known as BAPHOMET. Please take a minute to google this diety image.
When you look up this demonic “god” and study its characteristics, you will see a half human- half goat creature (much like our chimera experiments). Most importantly, this human/ goat has BOTH female breasts AND male genitalia (transgenderism) In the middle of it’s lap is holding a rod with a serpent wrapped around it (interestingly, this is the SAME sign used for Red Cross, and just about ALL medical facilities in the world)
Did you know that statues of this diety Baphomet, have been put in public parks now in America (idolatry, and worshipping of false gods)? Lastly, Baphomet is often pictured with a young boy and young girl looking up to him. THIS IS A SPIRITUAL BATTLE which means we have to make prayer a regular part of our lives! To just say we are a “Christian” is just NOT enough!! We have to BE and DO as a true Christian is called to be in the Bible.
God is setting up his army right now to help others, and I don’t know about you, but I want to be a part of the GOOD that is left in this world!! We MUST be brave enough to speak up and talk to others about the love and hope that’s found ONLY in Jesus. There is no other religious figure than Jesus who has been so mocked, degraded, falsified, or cast away. And why is this? Because even satan knows that there is only ONE true God who gave His only Son up to die on a cross for you, for me, and for every man woman and child in this world.
Our children are worth rising up, praying for, and getting involved in our school boards for. This is our only way to protect our most innocent from the normalizing of pedophilia, & from political activist teachers looking to recruit the next generation of BLM and ANTIFA. Teachers without a political agenda have been bullied and chased away in our school systems. I’ve sat back and watched it happen for the last 3 years. They are hiring young teachers straight out of woke universities to replace those that have been there for many years and are teaching because they love kids, not to exploit their innocence. We as parents and concerned citizens have to be the VOICE that these school children don’t have, just as Christopher Rufo has so bravely done!
The policies and people funding this woke agenda are causing gender confusion and making children and teens turn their back on the God who created them AS THEY ARE . They must be stopped in their tracks and held accountable for the damage they have done to our kids and continue to do. Darkness is being exposed more and more each day, and we can either choose to deny it because it’s too difficult to accept, or cover it in LIGHT, PRAYERS, and GODLY ACTIONS knowing this is the only way spiritual battles are won. And win, we WILL!!! Who’s with me??
At New College, there are like Woke administration people at all levels, who will undermine every action of your leadership. Do you see the need for top to bottom cleaning house, to bring in people supporting the new direction?
Do you understand the failure to do such will doom your leadership?
Apparently the AP US history exam today was so egregiously focused on women and minorities that even the progressive zoomers were upset by it (39/55 of the multiple choice, 2/3 of the SAQs, the DBQ, and 2/3rds of the LEQs). Nothing about WWI, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam, Reconstruction, Great Depression, Manifest Destiny, etc.
Do you think this is a response to Florida saying no to AP African American History, or just the behavior of an increasingly ideologically captured institution?
I’m the AP European History, the document based question was on the Haitian Revolution. Something the online AP course spends half one of their daily videos on, about 8 minutes. Zero question related to religion, in stark contrast with previous years, even last year. This exam has been watered down in 2018 and looks like now it’s even more politicized.
My question is: When do you think we will see America wake up to the fact that boys are xy chromosomes and girls are xx chromosomes and xy cannot be xx, no matter what they cut off or add to their bodies? I’m sickened by the attempt being made to destroy women.
How can we ever get out of the mess we are in when our media, and especially the "news media," are most all simply activists for the Left more interest in furthering the Left's narratives and covering for them rather than actually reporting the news. Here is an example. Recently, in the Tulsa, OK, area, a black man named Carlton Gilford shot to death two white people who just happened to be there. One who he shot in the back of the head was on a computer monitor at the library at the time and the other was a shopper. Apparently, the motive was solely the victims' race (white). Compare the complete lack of coverage of this with the hysteria over Jordan Neely's death in NYC. Neely was the black man with 44 prior arrests who was mentally disturbed and threatening subway riders when he died apparently while being restrained by white Marine. There is no coverage of the first story and saturation coverage of the latter with virtually all of that coverage being from the angle that Neely was simply a Michael Jackson impersonator who was killed by a white oppressor.
Most k-12 schools venomously deny teaching CRT even when including SEL in their curriculum. (Our school supt. is one of them). How can the average community member convince a school board of what they are doing? Most teachers won't even believe it. It feels like the biggest losing battle there is. Unless people like you can attend all the school board meetings across the country, I'm not sure there is much communities can do.
Do you worry that school choice is a trap to get federal or state control of private education? Once the legislation for ESAs are in place, can't legislatures tighten the conditions and create endless requirements (and data collection) if you accept the funding for "independent" education? What if the real goal is to collect children's P-20 data for public-private stakeholders? Who makes parents aware of strings attached?
I belong to an organization that is experiencing some slight woke infiltration. For example, the attempt to remove gendered language from literature, and the use of "plain language" translation of original texts also to remove "outdated, and gendered language" . In trying to discuss this with people who express their support for these changes I find it difficult because most if not all supporters of these changes are totally unaware of postmodernism and things like queer theory. Does anyone who joins this woke band wagon actually know where the ideologies come from? How do you figure out if they are or aren't aware of the actual theories, and what is a kind way of explaining the origins without being condescending?
I’ve tried to do a couple of FOIA requests for emails from the DEI coordinator in our local school district. The district claimed that it would cost about 150k to do all the necessary redactions, so they’ve effectively blocked my request for information. I’ve appealed the costs to the AG here in Texas. Do you have any other suggestions on how to get this information?
Do you believe there’s a natural limit to how much leftists—or really any institutional power—can indoctrinate children? I understand there are powerful arguments against controversial topics like transgender ideology, DEI in schools, etc., but I can’t help but wonder if we’ve all forgotten what it’s like to be teenagers: chafing against authority, disobeying our parents, bristling against being told what to do. Is there reason for conservatives to be optimistic that a large proportion of the next generation will be primed to chart their own course, one separate from the woke fads currently sweeping the country and being imposed from the top down?
If you want to combat woke, you have to leave religion out of the picture. Most people are not religious and the population is becoming less religious each year.
Woke has a weakness in that there is no validity to it's claims. Social disparities are more related to deficits in capability, competence and consistency than systemic discrimination and racism.
White privilege no doubt exists but unfortunately for its critics, it is there because it was earned.
You can replace it with coloured privilege over time if you wish. All you have to do is get coloured people to exceed the ability of Euro types in fields such as banking, medicine, law, pharmaceuticals, chemistry , physics, chemical production, computing, communications, engineering, mining, refining, exploration etc.
Coloured folk already have privilege in sport and to some extent in music so it's just a matter of turning their talents to these other fields.
As far as I know minorities have access to high school and universities so, let's get cracking people.
Hi, I'm not a believer but I think that religion is crucial to survival, and we leave it out to our extinction. Here's something I recently grasped:
A morality is the articulated description of those behaviours that have proven to promote survival, basically without exception, and the descriptions have been passed down by the survivors since pre-history.
That is religion. We exclude that knowledge at our peril, whether there is a Guy in the Sky or not. And at our current level of knowledge, a guy in the sky explains existence way better than any other. The Big Bang is a creation myth just like every other, and far less meaningful than
"And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." as a metaphorical description of the birth of human consciousness.
So, I'm agnostic.
As to the rest of your post, bravo! Well said! :-)
I agree with you Hugh. religion is a great moral compass and atheists like myself really use that compass all the time. The track record of the 10 commandments is pretty good. It's also clever that the bible anticipated other things coming along and invoked the "shall not have false gods" idea; meaning that in the end you are accountable to god. We (you and I) can see this benefit but at this stage it just antagonizes the left, that's why I think its better to attack the lack of validity in their claims. Chris is just going to apply QA to these idiots and whereas that is the way I would also go, I don't think he has the practical experience to do that successfully. I do because that was my job but I live in Australia and am now 71.
Hi David, thanks for your reply. As we all have been trying to suss out the best way forward, and Mr. Rufo is taking bold action, I've been trying to grasp the best way to have an emotional impact against them. It was pointed out a few years ago by another writer that they (the Left) think they are moral, and that startled me, but it made sense after some thought (Egalitarianist morality). The opposite I believe is the morality of promotion of competence.
I want to have an emotional impact in order to demoralize them and have them lose confidence that egalitarianism is moral at all. I do not believe that we will even win unless we accomplish both, and that the best rational argument in the world will never suffice, as they have not for 70 years.
The two prongs I believe will work are (1.) withering mockery, already well in play, but focused not on hypocrisy, but on their prima facie stupidity. In particular, actually avoiding "proving" our point, but rather pointing to the obvious as obvious per se. "A man is not a woman. Duh!" The main feature here is that they then have to prove that a man IS a woman, or whatever stupid thing they believe this week. We lose when WE attempt to make the argument against the stupid. The amusing quote applies here "Never argue with stupid, no one will be able to tell who is who."
The second point is their basing their entire house of cards on words not having a fixed meaning. This one for some reason has taken me a long time to wrap my head around, I think because it's so mindless, you CAN'T wrap your head around it. Nonetheless, I think we can chop them to bits with it. What makes this one hard to explain is that the method is through wordplay, almost like jokes.
"If words have no meaning, why are you talking?"
"If a man can be a woman, why can't he?"
Variations on Shapiro's famous quip to a harridan's "It's just a clump of cells."
"YOU'RE just a clump of cells!"
And joke writing is fun!
Anyway, thanks for letting me think this through by replying to you. Hope to see you around here, looks like a good group.
I have used the mockery approach but it has not been that effective. I think though that the better approach is as you say, to get them to prove their position. Those who seek to change have the burden of proof.
A few people are comparing their speech evasiveness to the so called Mott & Bailey technique.
This is a feature of English strongholds centuries' back wherein, in time of attack you retreat to the fortified mott and when it's quiet you wander out into the bailey area where you can do much more. So when you attack their meanings effectively they just fall back to the motherhood type explanation of their words (mott) and when you give them an inch they distort the meaning to suit their ends.
By suggesting educational places get certified quality assurance you can also play that game viz;
You can't disagree with quality assurance, "we all want to do a good job don't we?"
Then when you put the QA in, you then reveal the measures of quality. It's exactly what they have done to us.
Has anyone realized that back in the early 2000 Millenial era in Major League Baseball banned athletes who took steroids and other hormones that helped athletes perform better. How is this different than transgender athletes taking hormones to be put into women’s sports to have athletic advantages over biological women?
You know, the far left has really done a stellar job in the planning and takeover of our culture and its institutions. It was started around mid-20th century, they played the long game, and they played it well. The majority of us had no idea it was happening until it was too late, and now they're utterly intrenched in media, tech, business as a whole, and of course, education.
Over the last several years since it's dawned on me (far too late) that this was going on, I've read, watched, followed and/or supported anti-woke journalists and (hmm, what's the word? "fighters" is too strong) *activists* who have diligently uncovered and reported on this woke insanity.
I guess there has to be a discovery process, something has to be known about before an effort to combat it is mounted--I mean, you can't develop a smallpox vaccine unless you know about the existence of smallpox in the first place. Fine. I have a very strong feeling, though, that at this late date we're still focusing on discovery of, you know, "DEI documents", still trying to catalogue and describe the horrors, while we should just go ahead and stipulate that, yes, any big company or governmental/educational entity is highly likely to be lost to the woke mind virus. We don't necessarily need more video of toddler drag queen hour or someone talking about how ambition and biochemistry are racist.
My question is, what are we actually *doing*? There have been small, isolated victories, mostly on the local level (think Matt Walsh with Vanderbilt University, as an example). But what concrete, national, planned and coordinated steps is anybody taking to take our country back, involving business, political, educational and journalist leaders? Feels like not a thing to me.
The left could afford to be slow and sneaky with their attack, as we were all naïve and basically asleep at the wheel--we didn't put up a fight or really even know a fight was going on. Seems to me that, if we want to save our country, we don't have that luxury now. An entrenched and savvy enemy (let's call them what they are) is not about to loosen their grip on the levers of power. We need a French Resistance, and we need one asap. Is there any evidence at all of one?
One last thing--one of my favorite writers is of the opinion that this woke/BLM/LGBTQ(etc.)/whatever movement's ideas are too ridiculous, too absurd, too...dumb, to continue on for much longer, and that they're going to simply collapse in on themselves at some point soon. We'll see, but I disagree. They might be all of that, but what the also are is clever--the sort of folks who know how to keep ahold of power. All the more reason to switch to the action phase.
There are lots of parents groups that work to oppose social justice & DEI initiatives. Do you feel they coordinate effectively to pressure corporations & politicians?
In light of the Bud Light protests, can parents, conservatives, & like-minded organizations work together to form a single pressure group?
Mr. Rufo, what do you think are the most effective actions we can take to "disrupt and dismantle" the woke cult and its hold on our country? The work you are doing with Gov. DeSantis looks to me like the most effective route, but many of us do not have access to that level of power. In addition, here in Portland I think I would be wasting my time trying to influence local or state elected officials. I have thought about starting my own Substack, but as you have observed, the Intellectual Dark Web may not at this point be the most effective strategy for creating change. It is frustrating to want to take action but not see ways to do it.
My professional expertise is designing and implementing QA systems into hostile cultures (retired now). I, like JP & Peter Bhogossian am skeptical that you will have the necessary administrative mechanisms to block recalcitrance and identify sham compliance. This is a tough gig you have ahead and there are certain techniques around that you can copy to make your task easier. I don't think you will have too much trouble validating your measures but the error detection and feedback loops will be hard. For one thing you will need a customized audit function. You already know there will be deliberate subterfuge to continue current practices and there will be cooperative cover up. High possibility of failure or suboptimal outcomes which could undermine confidence in your project. Call me for free advice if you wish.
Gender. Why do we even need it? Locker rooms, bathrooms, Medical treatments, even the right to vote were all based on biological sex. Not gender. The left can’t even define what gender is. Personality shown thru stereotypes? Let them keep gender. It’s a Wittgensteinian language game no? Let’s focus on sex. Thoughts?
I am concerned about the banning of certain ideas on university campuses. Would it not be better to continue to teach a course on WOKE and/or the rise of LBGTQ rights and/or communism and/or marxism at universities. I come from a history background and wonder sometimes if these ideas are taking root because the present generation does not understand what communism or totalitarianism is and what its historical and terrible past is. The saying goes, if you don’t know history you are doomed to repeat it.
Looks like wokeism/Marxism replaced religion. Do you see a religious revival in American future, and do you feel it is necessary for us to win? to be "One nation under God" we have to be "under God"...
Galatians 5:13 “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
Bible verses are a great deterrent to the obnoxious woke, as well as to corrupt politicians who assume that we are idiots. America should deploy its traditional ideology, to protect us from oligarchy and Marxism. This verse is about freedom.
Can you imagine if instead of protesting we show up and Pray over them and Give God praise through worship?
I hear it makes demons flee🤔
Start pulling food out ofback packs and handing it out to thwm, be a blessing.
I agree. Wokeism and Marxism have replaced religion. I'm praying for that spiritual revival and believe it is necessary if we are to survive. Reagan said it well. If we aren't a nation under God, we'll be a nation gone under."
The civil rights movement was won in part due to the influence of faith on leaders like leaders like MLK and the courage of Rosa Parks. In the case of MLK all the activists that marched with him were always well dressed and never used violence.
👆🏻This!
Yes .... It is the only / or best way to go Grow ones FAITH , be it Jewish, Christian, Buddhist... and so on , - Say your Prayers, Do your Work , Hope for the Best........As it relates to Government - forced or compelled assoication is a violation of FREEDOM of ASSOCIATION and thus Forced assimilation.
Forced assimilation is an involuntary process of cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups during which they are forced to adopt language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality, perceptions, way of life, and often religion and ideology of established and generally larger community belonging to dominant culture by government.
Many people would like to have a Christian Passport , and pay their taxes to their Identity Governance Body .... First Nations, Secularists , Gays, Queers, Trans, can do like wise... Just as we have State Governments and Municipal Governments we can have virtual or IDENTITY based governance models.
But all this will start with growing ones Religious Faith ... Faith before Freedom ... and as Faith Grows the path to FREEDOM will open up, recall Moses "set my people free" , recall how even the sea itself would open a path to freedom...
Amen we are not each others enemy, our enemy wants to destroy our relationships with God through Jesus Christ as our savior and the one sent to be with us, The Holy Spirit!
We are one nation under God.
They dont understand that no part of Earth belongs to us. God intrusted man to care for the earth. To thrive and grow and be brilliant. But the our enemy didnt want to work with us. He was jellouse of us and so he talkes Eve into mans destruction and Adam Ate it too. The righteous are to protect it of God will give it to our enemies.
Are you aware that the government added that in the 1950s? Which God?
The Knights of Columbus got it added circa 1953, to fight communism. It was the God that Nietzsche "killed" and who Marx said was the "opiate of the masses". So you cancelled school prayer and established Marx and Nietzsche as big thinkers on campus. Congratulations! Look what happens when you "kill" God!!!
Many scholars of Nietzsche say what Nietzsche actually meant was, we have killed God and will reap the consequences.
It was a warning. Some scholars have suggested Nietzsche and his writings were co-opted by his sister and later the Nazis.
I have never read Nietzsche so probably should shut up!
I think you right when you say God was added in the 1950’s but I thought it was to the pledge of allegiance. And I have no idea when ‘In God We Trust’ was put on the money I know atheists tried to get it removed...
Your first sentence is Jordan Peterson's interpretation and he seems fond of Nietzsche. So he reads him closely. Second sentence is similar, I have heard that too. Obviously the "Ubermensch" of the Nazis was coopted from Nietzsche. You seem to have good ears for what I have also heard. For me, Nietzsche is too superiorly sarcastic. At least he argued that Kant was, in many ways, entirely obscure. But so were the rest of them --- Schopenhauer, Hegel etc. Germans are good chemists, engineers and soldiers. Then they turn around and pick "philosophers" who, like Kant, tell them that the world is "intrinsically unknowable" and they really only know their own "transcendent" minds, if and only if, they take the time to "peak around in there", which no one can do. Socrates proved that around 450 B.C.
Meanwhile, Germans were too incompetent to figure out why inflating their own money supply led to a hyperinflation [1923; wheel barrows full of money to buy a loaf of bread] and, then elected a goofy corporal with a twisted psyche to lead them out of their own mental darknesses. They were "odd" barbarians in Julius Caesar's time and, later, civilized barbarians --- in general of course. There are some "fun" and "good" Germans --- mostly at Oktoberfest, although some have told me that I am actually thinking about Danes, like Victor Borge!
You're right about the Pledge of Allegiance. The addition was in the updated Pledge of 1954. I don't know about American money. But I googled that too. "In God We Trust" is the American motto, replacing the Latin "E Pluribus Unum" [Out of Many, One] circa 1956.
Nice to hear from you. Thanks for correcting my goofy Canadian errors.
Kevin
Vivat Jesu!
The same one that is referenced in our Declaration of Independence
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
This is NOT a Christian nation! People who say it is a misinformed at the very least
It is and it is under attack
"it never ever was " peat and repeat LOL does not prove your statement to be true! Where did the founding Fathers , as they say, come up with their basic rights and freedoms . One must read AND UNDERSTAND the writings of the Founders of the USA . Until you know the History and thinking of the time please just keep you absolute unsupported statements to yourself ! It will help your image from being laughed at.
This is no longer a Christian Nation. It was at one time based on founding doc.s but for many a year not a single has been passed based upon Christian principles.
It never ever was.
Sorry, but you are ill-informed.
The US is a Judaeo/Christian nation with a secular government by design. God-given rights are enshrined in our Founding Documents. This can’t be ignored or denied.
Educurious has found a way to ignore it. If you can find my post above, please take a look. They're replacing Christian values with any other religion in our middle school social studies curriculum.
Amen to that. You finally got something right, despite "killing" God and making Karl Marx a big thinker on campus.
Can you please clarify what do you mean by "a Christian nation"?
This country was founded to get away from religious oppression. This country is meant to be where everyone is free to practice any religion or none. Religion of any kind should be no where near politics
Why don't you read your own alleged Declaration of Independence? Religious oppression be damned. Only WOKE-airheads fuss about oppression, in the richest, fattest least oppressive country ever invented.
QUOTE: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
America was founded to get away from political oppression and from "religious" vs. "antireligious" liars such as yourself.
Or is something elae going on?🤔
1. I would appreciate if you could answer my question above: "Can you please clarify what do you mean by "a Christian nation"?"
2. I agree with your statement "Religion of any kind should be no where near politics" - that's where my question to Chris comes from. Our government is now pushing militant wokesim religion down our throats, we should take it out of politics ASAP. Since we seem to agree on this - what do you think is the best way to get the woke religion out of politics?
what do you think is the best way to get the woke religion out of politics?
You can't keep religion out of Politics. Politics is a religion for those who don't think that Moses was a reliable law giver or that God inspired him. Since they don't accept God as a Law Giver, they get Nancy Pelosi or AOC! Lucky Americans! We get tyrant-Trudeau, in Canada, because Pierre, his dad, was a pirouetting "god", who did medieval "BUST A MOVES" behind the Queen of England's back while giving Canada a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that you need a legal Ph.D. to even misinterpret!
Americans kept politics out of religion (not religion out of politics); with the first two clauses of the 1st amendment, which read, "Congress shall make NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; (or abridging free speech, a free press etc.); for a very long time. They made that amendment because Catholic Monarchs were making laws to defeat Protestants and Protestant Monarchs were making laws to defeat Catholic and other dissident Protestant sects in Europe.
So the U.S. founders made that amendment to keep Government Bodies [Legislative, Executive, Judicial and Administrative] away from being forced into adjudicating or deciding religious vs. anti-religious squabbles. They simply made it impossible to have any Branch of Government "decide" such squabbles since Congress "SHALL make NO LAW" to use as a judgment standard to decide between such quarrelers/squabblers.
But when civil rights LAW came in, with the M.L. King and J.F. Kennedy generation of Americans, then lawyers and Justices/Judges substituted "rights laws" for the previously forbidden NO LAWS concerning religion or its free exercise. Thus Americans started to litigate essentially "religious" questions, like should we be our brother's keepers, or at least pay support to the women and children our "brother" won't support? Thus the First Amendment was subverted under the guise of "rights" not religion. Inevitably you get "pleadings" to have the "right" to freedom FROM Religion --- when it's already an established fact that a majority of Americans are "free" of and from any religion --- except Woke Marxism, which is anti-religious and pro-everything that may be signified by any single letter of the alphabet and a multicolored flag.
After all, Aristotle never argued that man was a rational animal (which may have been Plato or other Greeks and certainly was the thesis of Renes Descartes). Aristotle clearly stated that "Anthropos/man is POLITICAL animal." or a "Zoon Politikon" in an English imitation of the sounds in/of his language. So when Americans were initially quite religious, they needed very few laws and much less government bureaucracy. Now that you, in many cases, don't believe in God, or do believe that some German lunatic "killed" God or another German lunatic thought that God was the opiate of the masses, politics is a wokester religion ---- and there is so much more of "government" than before, while getting weirder and weirder all the time. Never fear. Check your pronouns and pay your taxes. You're safe --- a senile Catholic pro-abortionist is your Chief Executive and he has got the nuclear codes --- somewhere [Now where did I leave those things. JILL!!!].
Brilliant! Thank you!
lets start with....Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
- the 10 commandments have been the basis for a civilized society-Thank you Moses!
If there is not any moral basis for a civilized, merciful society, we will descend in to chaos. We will not survive when 1/2 of the country lives by the "rules" and is expected to support the other 1/2 that don't. Let's be clear....the "rules" that I am talking about are the outline for a moral society .
Christian Nationalism is the only religion being pushed. "Woke" is a boogeyman word the right uses for everything they don't agree with
"Christian Nationalism" is a bogeyman word the Left uses to engender fear in the uneducated (or miseducated) masses who have no understanding of the founding principles that produced the freest, most prosperous civilization the world has ever known. There is nothing inherently wrong with being either a Christian or a nationalist (though I prefer to use the term "patriot"). Those who fear the Christian or the nationalist do so, not because they are fearsome, but because they represent a worldview that recognizes a reality and a purpose superior to self.
"Woke" (presumably lazy-speak for "awakened") was coined by the Left to imply an affect of moral superiority for those who "cancel" their political opponents, burn down cities, smash and loot businesses, defund the police, promote deviant behavior, etc.
I repeat my question - define Christian Nationalism. FYI - "Woke" is not a boogeyman - it's the transgressive idol worshipping pagan religion, worshipping self, feelings, sodomy, murder, destruction of family and society, lawlessness - in short - it's the opposite of 10 Commandments
Right! Since you WON'T define the word, then it isn't a word at all except one that "triggers" the so-called "right". Alert! More woke-ster denials. America is not Hungary. There, they have Christian nationalism. Then again, Christopher Rufo was recently interviewed by Rod Dreher [The Benedict Option] in HUNGARY of all places!
How do teachers effectively stand up against woke ideologies, disinformation, and misinformation when administration has bought into it so fervently?
US history teacher here. I make it a point to learn the origins and tenants of CRT/Critical Theories in general- highly rec Cynical Theories as a starter.
That way I know what the perverted viewpoints are and can consciously teach the factual, evidence based history as opposed to furthering divisive, post truth narratives.
Retired Cdn history teacher here. Disturbed at the activist history revisionism that’s been reified by school authorities in Canada. We’ve got an Indian Residential School genocide declared by our government based on activist produced radar images. Not a shred of forensic evidence to verify foul play and no government action to do so, or if true, hold government and church authorities accountable. We’ve had teachers fired for teaching the verified history about student deaths to tuberculosis and other diseases. Hard to feed your family if you don’t follow the activist’s narratives here. I’ve never seen such pressure to comply with such a sketchy political agenda in my 30 years in schools.
If the tenants are late with their rent, will they be evicted?
I also recommend the book The Marxification of Education. Paulo Freire is a massive influence in teacher Ed programs. Massive.
"The Marxification of Education" is by James Lyndsay and that book is about Paulo Freire's writings and teachings which amount to teaching students to be Marxist activists.
PoGo78, you are no doubt aware of this. This comment was for those who might be new to James Lyndsay and Paulo Freire.
Lindsay
Listen to AFR radio
In the majority of cases the teachers are teaching the "woke ideologies, disinformation and misinformation." They are the people who lobby administrators to cancel the non-woke teachers among them.
From my experience as a former teacher, I would suggest that the lobbying happens from confused and angry parents on the behalf of their discipline challenged children. The administration seems to placate these parents which unintentionally reinforces the bad behavior. I think this pattern has increased rapidly during and after distance learning which unintentionally taught children the power of lying and social media infamy. They are creating headaches for teachers to become Instagram or Tictoc famous. Just my take.
Right. Cancel culture isn't just for woke teachers and profs. It's as old as Socrates and Galileo, the woman's glee club, and the boy's fraternity, while Ostracism was the most sophisticated and one of the oldest brands.
Cancel culture is a politically motivated way to feign compassion of racial and gender issues without really understanding the implications of cancelling people's contractual agreements. It's equivocal to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Yes. Always blame the parents. Then admin, then the kids. Never the teachers.
It takes a village to raise a child. We are all to blame. The problem is a disproportionate amount of blame on any one party. It can be difficult to imagine the experience of another party. We need teachers who like kids and teaching just like we need parents who care about education and work constructively with teachers before going straight to admin. It happens a lot. Likewise, parents need to be empowered to develop the relationship with their children by understanding the long-term value of a disciplined mindset.
One of the most fascinating, least understood, but I think absolutely most fundamental puzzles about all of this "stuff" that is going on is how the Left has been able to so successfully subvert language. They've managed to redefine words so effectively to the point that even their ideological opponents use them; which I think has the effect of conceding the ideological war even while the battle of words is underway.
Some examples of words/phrases which have now taken on completely different meanings:
* phobia (doesn't mean "fear" but "disagreement" or something like that)
* hate (now just means disagreement)
* vaccine (see the Wikipedia and CDC change of definition)
* undocumented (doesn't mean "without documents" but "without legal permission")
* "don't say gay" (refers to a bill that doesn't actually say this)
Once Marxism failed disastrously everywhere it fled into the Academy (the Academy being its natural home, as all Left movements are the crusades of disaffected intellectuals), and became almost entirely about language manipulation.
They fanatically police language and zealously police speech bc they believe that if you control what people say or read, you can control what they think, and thus control what they do.
It is a relentless top-down crusade to install their program of "socialist liberation", and things like truth, honesty, clear language, fair play etc are irrelevant to the sacred cause of Permanent Revolution.
* "harm" no longer means actual physical assault/injury, but emotional/spiritual "injury", generally more imagined than real
* "White Supremacy" was, until 5 minutes ago, understood by EVERYONE to mean imbeciles running around in bedsheets with pointy hats fomenting racism. Now it means everything about Western Civilization, including every white person in it. Also, handily, given the Left's facility with moving the goalposts, it includes any "POC" who doesn't agree with them (see Larry Elder, Candace Owens, etc.)
* "equity" has been cleverly twisted into an absolutely magical word. It's sooooo close to "equality", and the Left want the unsuspecting to believe it means exactly the same thing... when it doesn't. Naive, well-intentioned liberals think it's just another word for "fairness"
* "racism" until 5 minutes ago was understood by EVERYONE to mean judging or treating people differently based upon their race. Now, however, they've foisted their "Prejudice + Power" definition on the world, which handily (in their eyes) absolves any non-white people of the sin of racism. Because, as EVERYONE knows, no one has any power but white people.
James Lindsay has an excellent dictionary, "Translations from the Wokish", on NewDiscourses.com.
Well observed, Ben Hekster. I recommend two sources for the further elucidation of this subject: (1) the "Social Justice Encyclopedia" on James Lindsay's website newdiscourses.com (as well as his videos and writings); (2) the book *Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds* by Michael Knowles---an author with whose politics I don't generally agree, but he is right on the money as to how the misnamed "progressive" left of today engineers language to make it impossible to question its political measures.
Fortification is a large fort
Ratification is a ........
English is flexible. Has nothing to do with intent.
Ben. Your comments is just what I’m looking for. You are my first sub stack follow. Congrats
How do Republicans state legislators go about removing college system DEI administrators, guides, hiring practices documents? How should they message it and what are some tools/tips to insert budget language to remove those administrators and documents?
What recommendations (concrete steps) do you have for faculty at these woke universities to fight back?
Most of the faculty are the ones pushing these theories. Unfortunately. And others risk their livelihood if they speak up. It’s that cancerous.
There is no such thing as "woke" its a word used to scare old white people
I SMELL A TROLL
Oh really? Actually, the word was invented by leftists. They initially used it to describe themselves and their actions. They actually saw it is a POSITIVE thing to say about themselves and people on the Left they agreed with. But now that conservatives have fully recognized what the word entails, many on the left are running away from it. Too late for that now.
It was actually invented by old experienced black people who had survived more open and honest racism (than the sneaky reverse racism of today) by staying "woke" to the danger posed by overt racists. As with all other smart and prudent things, modern woke-sters adopt the words, but not the behaviors, of their elders and betters from previous generations of Americans --- both black and white.
You seem to be quite the contrarian to most of the relevant topics on this page.
I am, it's a bunch of bs. I want people to open their eyes
I know gaslighting when I see it. And we're not buying it. Your side can't work 24/7 trying to up-end and undo 250 years of American culture, and then simply deny it when your adversaries point it out. Go peddle your fantasies on a forum where everyone is mindless; it won't work here.
What do you imagine Stacy is saying? Pretty vague statement.
You just want them to open their eyes which would make them "WOKE"! You really are a stupid woke-ster yourself!
Name calling usually means you have no real argument so you resort to name calling. Not impressed
Right. Name calling is ... name calling! The old "ad hominem".
"...I want people to open their eyes" What do you mean? Open them to...who, what, where?
I’m old and white and not the slightest bit scared.
I laugh in the face of wokism wokery or whatever you like to call it!
These pernicious ideas have seeped into the fabric of our society and I challenge the people that I come into contact with that spout this nonsense. On a one to one level it’s important to try to have dialogue but on the policy level we need to step up the fight. Rufo leads by example he right - talking will only get you so far, action is what is needed. Join a school board get involved with a political party or join politics at the local level.
You shouldn't laugh at "wokism" because it is actually Marxist "class struggle" so-called theory. It actually works, whenever people get poor enough and dumb enough to buy into it. That process is well under way. Young people can't afford to buy their own homes these days. American pensions are invested in Ponzi schemes. One good economic collapse and you could end up in an actual class war between and among drag queens, regular folks, antifascists [i.e. Leninist revolutionary types] and alleged right wing extremists, like Mr. Rufo.
My bet is that "the drag queens" have a 50/50 chance of being the winners 'cause they are so mean when you cross them and have really long finger nails, while Mr. Rufo and friends have nice, safe, manicures. Wouldn't be your first civil war. Might not be the last civil war either.
Your friend, in Canada, where WOKE First Nations are winning all the battles and its like seeing an entirely SUBVERTED John Wayne movie. John loses every time.
Kevin
I think you misunderstood my comment re: laughter…..maybe consider me a happy warrior?! I am aware that it is Cultural Marxism that we now face, dividing people on the basis of skin color and sex and so on, as opposed to Classical Marxism based on economic divisions. My observation of the left is they take themselves far to seriously and they don’t look happy. Maybe it’s what happens to someone when they feel the burden to save the world falls on their shoulders? This is what I find funny, the tragic earnestness, something that you don’t find on the right.
And your final paragraph “Your friend, in Canada, …..” I find it enigmatic, maybe you could clarify? I do have a cousin in Vancouver but no friends. However I do enjoy a good John Wayne movie.
Mr. RUFO is not what comes to mid when I hear “right wing extremist”. He is insightful, honest, has an opinion and agenda to go forward with them.That does not equate to extremism.
It actually does "equate to extremism" by his WOKE-ster adversaries. To anyone with an IQ above 80, Mr. Rufo is a small-L liberal American who actually understands both English and the code words of left wing extremists. I guess you missed my irony. Mr. Rufo is a good guy --- but he is a right wing extremist to bad guys. And that would make you a "good gal". Good for you and your support of a good guy.
Not true. BLM themselves and others employed the term “woke” for several years and wrote and spoke about it online for quite awhile so it became part of our current vernacular.
https://twitter.com/thatumbrella/status/1619362971079290881?s=46&t=IIM6eM54YEstfXgfgp3Ibg
One picture is worth a thousand words. Well done!
Kevin
Woke is a Gnostic Cult.
There's no such thing as "woke": now conform to these diversity, equity, and inclusion policies without raising any questions about them or you will be made exceedingly unwelcome in this place of employment.
Should we defund the Public Schools?
Should there be a database for each state that lists the alternatives to the public school system?
Private, parochial, Christian, etc.
That will throw the cat among the pigeons. This is all about power and money. Utilizing public schools for ideological purposes is intended to effectuate a power shift. It will be funded by the tax payers.
Vouchers is the logical answer. Just as "Defund the Police" was a catchy phrase that helped no one, Defund the Schools sends an even more powerful message. Many complaints will ensue with all the histrionic commentary but the "objective" data are clear: The public schools are failing.
Defund the schools .... I like that!
The tricky thing, to my understanding, is that the accreditation bodies for private schools have also been captured. So many private schools are also preaching this garbage, and even many Catholic/parochial schools. Additionally, the schools of education are 100% captured and churning out activist teachers like Fords off a production line. These stories also need massive exposure.
But can we devise a voucher system without the strings attached? I’m not sure we can. I suspect that the voucher system will be a race to the bottom for private/charter schools.
School choice, the money follows the student.
In neo-Marxism [‘cultural Marxism’], I get the impression that anything that is considered “normative” in society is deemed “oppressive.” Anything “oppressive” must be brought down, destroyed, leveled. Therefore anything “normative” needs to be brought down, destroyed, leveled. Traditional sexual norms [such as “heterosexuality”] must be “de-normed.” Brought down. Leveled. Destroyed. The nuclear family structure must be “de-normed.” Brought down. Leveled. Destroyed. The idea of only two genders must be “de-normed.” Brought down. Leveled. Destroyed. I don’t know WHY neo-Marxists think destroying societal norms is a good thing. My question is: WHAT is the driving force behind this push toward “de-normalization” of “norms” in society, and WHAT is hoped to be gained by all this bringing down, leveling and destruction?
What is gained is THE REVOLUTION! That is the whole point of Marxism, whether revolutionary Marxism [soviet style], progressive [slow march through the institutions] style, called Fabian Socialism, or, now "cultural". Read Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. The whole point is the revolution. Then you kill the useful idiots who helped the revolution but who are not really "woke" or "conscious" enough. Then you have a classless society --- with neither oppressors nor oppressed --- and the need for government "withers away" because the point of governments is to uphold and continue one class's oppression of other class/es.
It is perfectly circular and stupid "reasoning". But a good percentage of modern Americans are dumb enough to actually think it makes "sense". Joe McCarthy was looking under the wrong beds [government] for commies --- when they were actually establishing themselves in America's universities after fleeing European universities which had taught Marxist rhetoric.
Thank you, Kevin. What is truly baffling to me, is just what you point out: "a good percentage of modern Americans are dumb enough to actually think it makes 'sense.'" WHY do so many Americans seem to think it makes sense? WHAT is it about a "classless society" [which is truly IMPOSSIBLE] that "makes sense?" I honestly do NOT understand WHY so many people think THAT [a "classless society"] is even desirable--let alone attainable. As you say, it is "circular and stupid 'reasoning.'" Can there possibly be THAT many people who are THAT stupid?
No! It is neither possible, nor likely, that there are that many stupid people!
BUT, Most Americans don't actually read about Karl Marx's so-called "classless society" because they don't read Karl Marx. What they do know about, is Marx's so-called "class struggle/s". They can see people who are richer than them and who wouldn't even look down at them --- like Lazarus and the poor man in your Bible. Those people know "class". There are others, who don't like differences between poor and rich people. They want equality. They don't think about Marx's "pipe dream" classless society. They just want Justice and fairness. They become so-called Social Justice "warriors" or "activists". The name is never Marxism. It's named "woke" or "critically aware" or "socially just" --- never flat out MARXISM.
There are not very many "stupid" people at all --- considering their own experiences. But relatively few semi-intelligent Marxists can get a lot of traction with the banal vices, common to all of us, in every age, place and time. Jealousy, Envy, Greed, Anger, Sloth etc. Modern Marxists with their virtuous sounding names [Critical Race Theorists --- don't you want to be able to "think critically"? Social Justice "warriors/activists" --- can you be against justice? Anti-Fascist and Anti-Racist activists --- are you in favor of Fascism or Racism?] appeal to those vices (or they are prone to those vices) or attribute those same vices to their opponents. See Sarah above. [ We actually agree on two things now. Rufo is NOT a "right wing extremist". Vices are involved.]
HENCE, If you want to argue with them, then you're a hater, fascist, racist or a greedy capitalist oppressor --- or all of the above. Simple formula for simple minds. The trick is called "ad hominem" and it only works on people who have not been taught logic. When people quit teaching the first 3 of the so-called 7 Liberal Arts, which are Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic and switched to "language arts" and so-called "modern logic/s", it left everybody wide open to so-called "language games". I think that Bible readers call the process, in effect, building "The Tower of Babel", where, metaphorically, God has come down to confuse American Speech.
So Americans aren't stupid --- just new age Babble-onians! [He said with tongue firmly stuck out the side of his cheek]. Keep smiling BOOMER! Me too!
Excellent comments, Kevin!
I think jealousy and greed are the driving forces, with the ruling class of neo-Marxists beating the drums of inequality, and the mandates to tear down anything that allows one person to be more successful than the other...except,,of course, the elitists who are stirring up the masses. They will remain above the fray. It’s like Jessica Tarlov said one day, when the concept of classes was being discussed. She said. “I’ll always be upper middle class”, meaning, of course, that she has legacy wealth to support her lifestyle and protect her from life’s uncomfortable fluctuations.
One 800-pound gorilla in this whole mess is the fully captured mainstream media. Their lockstep march has resulted in a large portion of the population being utterly impervious to "other" voices or messages--- i.e., those of us who see what's actually happening can all too easily be dismissed as "conspiracy theorists".
It's really difficult to combat, because one can understand the disbelief of the masses that the entire media complex is colluding to drive such ugly narratives. I'm continually shocked by the ignorance of so many otherwise intelligent people. It's the greatest mass psy-op in history.
How do we combat this aspect of the problem?
You and Rufo are combatting the mainstream. This is your zone and your potent challengers seem to be Stacy Mason and MarkM --- formidable adversaries indeed. Good luck. Be forewarned, Mark just may accuse you of committing the "ad simian" informal fallacy by calling the mainstream media an "800 pound gorilla". OUCH! That's gonna hurt!
I heard you say something very alarming a couple years ago on a Manhattan Institute zoom where you discussed your research on homelessness/mental illness/drug addiction, etc and I wonder if it is still true? You said when you discussed the factors causing these with the head of Psychiatry at the largest hospital system in San Francisco, she said, "If I said those things, I would get fired." That was very frightening to me. If we can't discuss or admit the real causes of these problems and just pretend it is housing costs and availability or white oppression or other progressive suggested causes, how do we solve them? SF and other cities have since gotten so much worse and have dissolved into chaos. Thank you for all your work!
Florida has been a fantastic test for implementing sane policies opposing the "woke" agenda. What advice would you have for making incremental advancement in a Blue state where the levers of the state are in the hands of the woke foot soldiers?
Actually, the woke ideology is also affecting some counties in FL. The group Parents Defending Education documents this.
I’ve been a school board warrior for two years. Our district does the equity-diversity-inclusion on the down low. It’s not often discussed and not in curriculum, but is woven throughout the day.
Any thoughts on how to gather intel from kids & moms?
Without intel, our advocacy falls flat.
The early generations of university-indoctrinated woke students have now infiltrated many professional sectors of society: government, finance (ESG), marketing, HR, media, education, etc. This fact incentivizes the next generation of young adults to conform to woke ideology to optimize their chances of succeeding in these professional institutions post-graduation. Reforming the university system is needed to return to a state of honest academic inquiry, research and teaching, but as long as those real-world incentives persist outside academia, there’s a feeling of ultimate futility to the mission. How do you think about this? Do you have any thoughts on effecting incentive shifts in the real world to make the break from woke thinking more enticing?
How are universities de-program when new faculty are approved by their peers and all the peers lean left? Only like-minded faculty are hired.
I have this question too. The woke left has so completely taken over the professions that they can threaten to take away your livelihood if you resist or do not conform and acquiesce to their ideology. Before saw your comment, I had asked a similar question (now buried deep in the comments)
Chris, I would really appreciate if you could look into the ideological take-over of the school accreditation boards. For all the legislation in states for school choice, very little will change if the accreditation boards are dominated by CRT/DEI ideologues.
Yes! Similar to my question re National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).
By the numbers, what steps do we need to take to restore the positive features of American culture, civic and otherwise?
What American culture? The USAs culture is a mixture of every country from around the world all mixed together.
During the first large immigration to the USA in the 1920's and 1930's after WW1 there was the concept held of the melting pot. People assimilated, learned English, and the the motto E Pluribus Unum, out of many one. That is being lost in the migrations after the 1960's. People continue to fly their own flags, speak their own languages, uphold and maintain their own cultures. What do we get.... Babylon. Diversity is not our strength but a fast walk to divisiveness.
It is nonsense to say that America doesn't have a culture and an ignorance of American history.
So perhaps the big question is how to restore a melting pot approach?
Stacy, I think “American culture” refers to the common desire of people who emigrate to our country to preserve their rich cultural heritage while they pursue freedom of speech, thought, right to assemble, etc., and their highest aspirations and goals, rights which are available to every American.
Why don’t you stop SHOUTING? Don’t curse the darkness light a candle!
Incorrect. There is a historically correct definition for American culture, that existed for over 200 years or so. Its only in the last few years that radical leftists who despise America have tried to gaslight us and say there's no such thing as this. As usual, you are wrong.
There you go again!
This Mason person is wrong again. American government, not culture, comes straight out of Aristotle's treatise called "The Politics", in a section of the treatise sub-entitled HOW TO DRAFT a Constitution. And the leading American scholar on Aristotle, at the time of The Declaration of Independence, was a fellow named Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He was the only signer who named his location in the, then, English colonies, so that, in his words --- "They cannot mistake me now."
Both the stated location and his reason for giving that location was in response to the assertions of two "wags" who said, respectively, when he signed:- "There goes millions." (given how rich he and his relatives were). VS. "Not so. There are many different men with the name Charles Carrol throughout all the colonies."
Aristotle, himself, didn't think that any form of government over about 50 thousand citizens would ever survive for any length of time. That was because in greater sizes than his alleged limit on the size of a "Polis" [political community; City State], the character of that "State's" legislators would not be known by either direct acquaintance or reliable 2nd hand "word of mouth". Thus, inevitably (it seemed to Aristotle), people with bad characters would begin to make bad laws (to benefit themselves and their friends alone) resulting in class warfare and the dissolution of the/a Polis.
What Aristotle could not know and did not know at the time he wrote his logic treatises was that a very large number of individuals would learn those treatises and, hence, be able to easily determine lies from truth and to distinguish rhetoric (by which masses are swayed) from logic, thereby being able to discern the characters of politicians by simply noticing their words and their actions without personally knowing the politicians or getting 2nd hand reliable information on their characters from their own reliable friends. All that was required was that they have a free and relatively objective press to accurately report the words and the actions of so-called political "elites". America got those things in addition to the poor and huddled masses of Europe who came to America and got both a lot richer and even more smart than rich in most cases --- a huge middle class.
That phenomenon [of logic and rational governments] had, of course, previously resulted in the huge size of Alexander's short lived Hellenistic Empire, followed by the Roman Republic [with its 12 Tables of Law] and then the growth of large European Nations after Rome fell. That is why America became a melting pot, just like ancient Rome became a similar melting pot. It is a phenomenon of rational law, made by rational law makers, which is equitably applied and enforced by rational people.
Take away the reason --- and everything will collapse, just as it did at Rome. "Bye ... Bye ... Miss American pie ... " [a prophetic song by a Rock 'n Roller] as recalled by a snoozing, rather than "woke", old guy.
College seniors on down to grade school - are they indoctrinated to the extent that they are heavily in favor of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America” - from what to what? Thank you.
While Gender Ideology has been widely acknowledged as a cult and a kind of secular neo-religion, no one has yet suggested that its entwinement in law and education be challenged on that basis.
As both a legal and constitutional matter, if beliefs like "gender identity" meet the threshold of religious beliefs -- which they do -- then should they not be subject to the same parameters?
What's happening presently is exploiting a perceived loophole in the First Amendment. While it's commonly agreed that "freedom of worship" is protected, the prospect of an aggressively evangelical movement seeking to circumvent church/state separation in order to use the instrument of government to indoctrinate youth, and to seize legal protections which would otherwise not exist, has been poorly considered.
Why is there no lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to do what it has unfortunately failed to do in the past, and furnish a precise definition of what constitutes a religion? Any faith based belief system, whether or not it calls itself a religion, should be both protected in their freedom of belief and constrained from being taught in public schools or having its doctrinal tenets recognized in civil law.
A Supreme Court ruling to this effect would end this madness once and for all.
Right! A Supreme Court ruling "would end this madness once and for all" --- Just like Roe V. Wade ended the abortion debate. [That would be "irony" --- if and only if you are the sort of "logician" who can only manipulate alphanumeric "chicken scratch" courtesy of Bertrand Russell, Gottlob Frege and fellow travelers in the "logic" business --- but if you can actually think, in English, then you already got the irony]
You alleged "logicians" are the people who have, for many years, promulgated various and interestingly DIVERSE, so-called "theories" of truth, when the founder of the discipline of LOGIC [Aristotle], clearly said that the first Principle of Logic, which is truth, CANNOT be "hypothetical", while repetitively affirmed hypotheses eventually become accepted theories.
Rather, argued Aristotle, the first Principle of logic must be AXIOMATIC. That axiom, called the Law of Contradiction by morally neutral folks, or the Law of Non-Contradiction, by those who are logical moralists, is based on the pure "faith" that basic sentences, called propositions, must be either true or false with no "middle ground" between those 2 polar opposites [So-called LAW OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE or LEM in addition to LAW OF NON-CONTRADICTION or LNC].
But what did you skeptical "logicians" do? You invented specious arguments against Aristotle's theses about truth. Then you invented specious arguments against every one of your own diverse so-called "theories" of truth. Then you invented "fuzzy" logics, after successfully transforming logic into a parody of alphanumeric algebra, when Aristotle had previously told you "logicians" that numbers had "peculiar properties" that were not applicable to other categories of thought and of being. You logicians apparently liked numerous potential middle terms between harsh dialectical opposites, such as true vs. false with "fuzzy" logic. So why are you apparently opposed to numerous potential genders between MALE vs. FEMALE?
In short and in sum --- Your diverse "logics" have come right back into your lying "logician" faces and you don't know how to refute the lies with so-called "Natural Language" sentences. Q. So what do you call for? A. The argument from authority --- the weakest of all philosophical arguments. Q. And what authority, since it is the Supreme Court of your Country? A. Why that would be the authority of lawyers arguing to and before lawyers, while lawyers are the most CONTEMPTUOUS of TRUTH people in the history of civilization. Not only do lawyers NOT know the truth. Their specialty is casting so-called "reasonable doubts" about the truth while admonishing their own clients to SHUT UP.
Who do you think "invented" Critical Race Theory? He was a civil rights lawyer named Derek Bell if memory serves. Who picked it up and ran with it? Uh, that would be Marxist lawyers and professors. What do you think LENIN's profession was, before the revolution? Duh, he was a lawyer. So cut to the chase --- you guys are going to be required to NOT KILL ALL the lawyers, as one of Shakespeare's characters said --- but only the HALF of those lawyers who are the "bad guys" representing the cases of "worse guys". Trouble is --- you don't have FAITH in a logical system [Aristotle's] which enables you to make such distinctions between TRUE vs FALSE and GOOD vs EVIL anymore. So good luck with the next American Revolution because that is where you are going having destroyed all FAITH in ancient logic and its PRINCIPLES.
Kevin James "Joseph" Byrne
That's a lengthy, rambling rant which doesn't address the issue.
I'll clarify.
The First Amendment establishes the law of the land on religious liberty -- both for those who practice it and those who wish to not have it imposed upon them.
It does not offer a definition of "religion," however, but rather relies upon the assumption that everyone knows what "religion" is. Unfortunately, in the post-Marxian era, that furnishes a backdoor to those who would seek to circumvent the First Amendment by simply seeking to have their religion recognized as "science" or "fact" without having to meet the same empirical standards as other facts.
Bringing this matter to the Supreme Court is less about seeking the Supreme Court ruling than forcing the "no debate" crowd into a very public debate they cannot possibly win. Because it would expose the simplicity of this:
"I don't believe in God... so why should I have it imposed on me as a belief?"
"I don't believe in gender or gender identity... so why should I have it imposed on me as a belief?"
There is no daylight whatsoever between the non-evidentiary nature of those two claims. Yet one is given favored status under the law which is universally denied the other. Why?
There is no argument which can be made to excuse that contradiction. The hypocrisy prevails only insofar as it remains unchallenged. Challenge it openly -- and the court of public opinion will rule long before the actual courts rule. And the matter will be over.
Americans, humans, the world in general is deeply opposed to this nonsense -- they simply don't know how to articulate it. Smoke the issue out by dragging it into the courts and the court of public opinion -- and the public will quickly learn precisely how to fight it. And the "no debate" cowards will crumble.
Spoken like a true post Marxist obscurantist. It doesn't matter whether your moniker is Ky' Zan' or "Logician" or "MarkM" who is "Ann Doshi", or any of the other names under which you post. You clarify nothing. You post non-sense.
I haven't a clue what you're talking about. There's some strange, paranoid conspiracy theorizing going on here.
If you can't articulate why the First Amendment exists and what it means by "religion," then you're really not qualified to carry on this conversation.
And I don't know what "post-Marxist obscurantist" means. I'm also not those other people... whoever they are. Also not clear why you're in a knot about this. My question is simple: why can't we treat gender ideology as the religious cult that it is and get it removed from the public square, from law and legislation and from the schools on the same basis that Catholic, Jewish, Islamic and Hindu theologies are so excluded?
If you can answer that question without devolving into a rant or deploying the language of a Berkeley doctoral dissertation, by all means do.
Hi Chris,
Disclaimer up front, this isnt really a question about CRT and wokeism. My name is Kevin McCarville. Im an AI engineer in my early 30s and an Airborne Ranger in the Army Reserves. I think this is the most important issue facing America today and its not even close. Its at the core of who we are as a nation.
I wanna help. But I dont know how.
Can you help me? I have to imagine my career skillset would be very valuable if deployed in the right places. Would be happy to talk to whoever you think would be most beneficial to steer me in the right direction. Let me know if you need any more info or contact details from me. And I know you are awful busy so no hard feelings if you dont have the bandwidth.
Thank you for all that you do man. Please keep it up. I love this nation so much and its guys like you that make it great.
-Kevin
Three questions:
1. Is there a fairly short and simplified version of pamphlet or paper that describes D.E.I. in federal, state governments and schools and what it really is and how it is designed to destroy families, etc. That we could share and also use to push back?
2. What organizations are in which states that are working on laws like Florida to pull D.E.I. tentacles out of state school bureaucracies?
3. What about state departments of education? Like here in MO DESE is pushing D.E.I. stuff down on local districts that don't want it. It becomes money thing.
It looks like you have the support of the Florida Legislature to have the finances to enact real change at New College. Sincerely hoping you have a sound, Hillsdale type experience by the time our child is college bound. Thank you for taking on the challenge.
I am a soon-to-be lawyer, as I will be taking the bar exam in July. Ever since CRT ruined my church, I have been passionate about understanding and fighting it. Question 1: If I get a job at a law firm that pushes DEI, how can I strategically resist? Question 2: What can I do with my bar license to help fight wokeness in the courts?
can you do anything for California?
Rufo can't even get his business out of California --- leave alone do anything "for California"! Funny question!
Kevin
Thank you Christopher for your fight for America, this land we love, and the memory of Patriot's blood. Plowing forward into the 2024 election without first guaranteeing that Americans even have the ability to vote in a free and fair election any longer, is polishing the brass on the Titanic. I sense a lot of ignoring the elephant in the room on the part of our leaders. Cannot the same 20 representatives who successfully stalled voting in the Speaker in lieu of first safeguarding the Senate from runaway corruption do the same for our electoral system? Without the ability to have every legitimate vote count, and filter out the fraudulent votes, we no longer have a free country. No more Zuckerberg money, no ballot collection boxes, no more mail fraud, no mules.
https://thenewamerican.com/print/how-lbj-stole-a-texas-senate-seat-in-1948/
Do you think it possible the United States can overcome the tremendous partisan divide which has so polarized our country? If so, how?
Trump broke that and the constant lies from the right keep it going. Until they release the lies and realize we are all Americans the divide will stand.
Trump? How old are you, like 25? Does your knowledge of history go back to only 2015 or so? Lady, you need to badly study history. America and it's politics existed a LONG time before you were born. For example, go read about Obama's Presidency, and the constant political divide then. Next, read about Bush's 2000-2008 presidency, and the same situations. Go read about Clinton's 1992-2000 presidency, and the constant fights then. Heck, Clinton was even impeached. Just keep going back. You need some perspective.
No President has resisted the peaceful transfer of power or claimed an election to be fraudulent. The GOP gave birth to Trump with the election of Ronald Reagan. Reagan devalued people, said government was the problem (governance and government are not the same), and started to open the treasury to legalized theft. Trump is just the apotheosis of a 40+ year trend.
Rick. I have audio of both Hillary and J Carter claiming the 2016 election was stolen. What you are saying is provably untrue. Not putting you down at all. Just letting you know the info you are using is incomplete. It happens
Hillary blamed Russia and made other excuses. She lost based on her own merits. Those comments are nothing in comparison to continuously pushing the idea of a stolen election and tacitly promoting the events of January 6th.
Robert Jensen
Reagan's first speech as the GOP candidate was in Philadelphia, Mississippi. That was a town where 3 civil rights workers were murdered in the 1960s. This sent the message to the South that it was okay to long for the Jim Crow South.
He began the nasty meme with a prime example of "Welfare Queens". Not as objectionable as making fun of someone with cerebral palsy but unnecessary (unless of course you want to further the "Southern Strategy"). That along with firing all the air traffic control workers began the period of devaluing people by a President. It was okay to bust unions and devalue their labor.
He was president at the beginning of the trend towards a widening separation between wages and productivity. Wages actually went down during his Presidency relative to productivity.
He began a period of deregulation which during his term was limited apart from the Savings and Loan crisis which cost the US taxpayer billions (estimated at $124 billion which into today's dollars would be about $250 billion today
He appointed Donald Regan as Secretary of the Treasury. Regan had been the CEO of Merrill Lynch. What follows was a stream of investment bankers as head of Treasury. Deregulation and policy changes led to an unaccountable Wall Street where malfeasance was rewarded.
Iran/Contra
He removed the solar panels from the White House. This was consistent with a policy of disinvestment in the future of the United States. It took decades for infrastructure to deteriorate but it did. The country started to move from making things to wealth acquisition based on so called financial instruments.
He tripled the national debt.
He is credited with ending the Cold War. He was lucky because he was President during the culmination of 30+ years of bipartisan policy concerning the containment of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union could not compete with the US and 45 years after WW2 it dissolved. The US would have won that struggle with or without Reagan.
Reagan was transformational but not in a good way he was at the beginning of a trend that has led us to where we are today. If you consider him in the same league as Lincoln, Washington or FDR you clearly have a passion for middling movie stars.
OK, now you're evolving from the laughable into pure steaming BS.
Reagan is not only easily one of the 5 Greatest Presidents in history, many, including myself, consider him the SINGLE greatest president. He was a seminal, groundbreaking, one-in-a-lifetime President.
The fact that you know so little about history, and how truly monumental Reagan was, shows you're just too ignorant to have access to a keyboard.
Actually I was alive for all of those. I live in the Midwest. Obama was the greatest president of my lifetime. Until Trump and his nazi like techniques I never saw anyone care about who someone voted for.
Obama had really only one exceptional quality; his oratory skills. Problem is, the man was a habitual liar. Lied about everything. Domestic policy, lies, Foreign policy, more lies. Healthcare, tons of lies. But, this silver-tongued devil had most of us fooled. Dems liked him because he was a great speaker, smooth, handsome, and black. And simply because of those mostly superficial things, they loved him and ate up all he said.
Now your ideology is becoming clearer. Your comments make sense from someone with that mindset!
At the very least can we agree the election was not stolen?
Not all conservatives believe it was stolen. I'm very conservative. Initially, I thought there was a chance it had been stolen. But, the more I read, the less I believed that. Now, I think that Trump and his "election was stolen" fans need to MOVE ON from that, whether or not they believe it. Talking about that will NOT help Trump win in 2024. Me, I get a little sick each time I hear Trump mention this. It's like someone who has a grudge that they can't forgive. It doesn't matter if he THINKS he's right. It's just that it's OVER, it can't be relitigated, and he needs to shut up about that and move forward.
Besides, I'm more of a DeSantis guy anyway.
Thank you for that answer. My husband is a Republican but he voted for Biden to get Trump out. If Trump wins the primary, he will hold his nose and vote Blue again.
When faced with the lesser of two evils vote for none.
Well, I'm not quite as "far gone" as your hubby. Short of all-out nuclear war or Ebola Virus going airborne in America, I can't think of many worse things than Biden winning a 2nd term. After all, the man is probably at around stage 2 or3 of Alzheimer's now, and (if he wins) by the time he finishes in 2029 the guy would be pushing 90 and at stage 5. For God's sake, the guy doesn't even know what town he's in half the time, and he has no idea what to say without a typed script; and even then he misreads it. He's a walking, breathing, fossil.
But, since I live in CA, I have the luxury of voting any way I want, because it literally makes no difference. The state now votes around 70% Dem in every election. My wife is a moderate Dem, I'm a conservative Rep. And because I can vote any which way I want, I assure her that I vote for more Independent candidates in the General election. (she dislikes Trump and I'm not crazy about him). The electoral college and it's winner-takes-all assures me that CA's EC votes will always go to the Dems. I know it's a waste of a vote to vote for the GOP, and I can't bring myself to vote for a walking adult-diaper commercial like Biden. So, as I tell her, I always vote for the candidate from the Libertarian Party. At least that way I voted for someone.
But if DeSantis is the nominee, that's a whole other story. Even then, DS can't win blue states either. He's just a far more likeable person than DT.
No.
You expect reasonable people to believe that a mentally compromised man and a ho got 81 million votes?
12 million more than someone who was popular, Obama?
If it wasn't stolen, then we have the most ignorant, brain-dead population imaginable.
Either situation is a horror show for the future and turning this around. We appear to be on the Eve of Destruction for the country as we've known it.
Here's the thing Maria; ask yourself this, if YOU were planning to steal an election, would you try to claim 81 Million votes? Far more than you actually needed to win? Consider that the objective in committing fraud in an election is (1) winning and (2) Not arousing suspicions that it was stolen.
I think what's more likely, is the Dems were simply more effective at building up the vote-by-mail process. They clearly took HUGE advantage of the 2020 Covid crisis, got Fauci and his departments to declare that all polling places were massive disease spreading events, and got as many Federal and State officials as possible to think it was 100% necessary to mail a mail-in ballot to every person in America.
The whole thing was sickening. The entire system was the IDEAL opportunity to commit a large number of slimy and underhanded deeds. And I'm convinced books will be written for decades, how the Dems weaponized Covid politically, to achieve so many of their goals in the 2020-2023 time period.
The GOP has never been the party of habitually using a crisis to take advantage of the American public. Have they ever? Sure. But not even close to the extent that Dems do. For Dems, it's a primary feature of their playbook.
I think we are essentially saying the same thing. You stated it much more articulately. With extended voting ... with multiple ballots being sent out (I had a friend who said she received five) ... withholding the Hunter Biden story, which people later said would have impacted their votes ... juicing up the Trump hatred, there were a lot of factors.
Re: the spread in the numbers between Biden and Trump, there was so much in play, I wouldn't say it was "controllable" necessarily to "look" fair. But I don't think that really matters. Democrats lie directly to Americans, so they can lie about anything, no matter the level of
incredulity.
60 lost court cases, Trumps lawyers admitting under oath that it wasn't stolen and you still think it was? That's cult thinking. I bet you also believe Russia didn't help him get elected?
No. It's not cult thinking. I'm among the LEAST likely to ever become a cult member.
There are more than enough indicators of how the voting system was manipulated. All you have to do is open your eyes, read, look and watch. So you still believe the justice system is blind? Uh, right.
That's so funny. Uh, yah, Russia helped get Trump elected, with their, what $100k spent on FB.
You're obviously a TRUE BELIEVER in the new and corrupt DEM-SOCIALIST-FASCIST-TOTALITARIAN party.
Try to snap out of it. Time to take the red pill. Or keep on sucking down the blue pill and live a lie.
Where did that come from?
I have found that people that believe the election was stolen are too deep into the right wing propaganda to get through to on any other subject. It's a good basis of sanity question.
I get your drift. It's analogous to how we know that people who believe men can be women are far too deep into the left wing propaganda to get through to on any other subject.
I have found that people that believe the election was NOT stolen are too deep into left wing propaganda, willfully blind and unwilling to do the slightest bit of research that would counter their narrative.
My hospital is so woke - we have Race Caucuses where staff meet monthly to share the stories of oppression and hardship.
So sorry for you!
Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. You should tell them you are sick of being oppressed by the tyranny of woke.
If I were you, I'd be sending my resume to every single other hospital within 30 miles.
Clearly you're trying to steer society away from going over the woke/socialist, anti-Western values, postmodern moral relativism cliff. Let's presume in 5 years, you are wildly successful in bringing your vision to complete fruition. What do we retain from what the left brings to the table, and how far right would this plebeity become? What would this ideal society look like and be galvanized around?
Just like anything to do with taxes, I'd be willing to pay more if I thought we were getting our monies worth. The Public School system was excellent for the Industrial Revolution. It is not performing well today. We've been hearing about comparatively low math, English, and science scores for years now.
Ideal?
Class sizes no more than 20 students per teacher.
Graduating class sizes no more than 200 students.
Schools no larger than 800 - 1000 students.
More teachers.
Bullying of any form is not tolerated.
Given the rather "nasty" nature of children particularly in groups, there should be surveillance throughout the school and misbehaving is caught in the act and there are consequences.
There should be uniform funding for all public schools (same amount for vouchers) throughout the state. This would help to alleviate some disparities.
Organized sports are a luxury in school. Large sums are spent on football stadiums, teams, and swimming pools. Perhaps 0.001% will play in the NFL or NBA. All students need exercise but only a small percentage will ever have a career in sports.
Trades and Apprenticeships.
Teach history and not mythology. Teaching about the depredations of European Expansion and slavery is fine. Also teach about the Warring States period in China, Mao's failures of governance, and the barbarity of cultures not dominated by White people. Teach also the good achievements of any culture. Teach critical thinking skills which are truly critical and not just "theory". Ideology which is resistant to criticism and being challenged is not learning. It is a religion.
There is a spectrum to humanity; however, ideological programming is not education. Tolerating differences is respect. Forcing one's personal views on another through coercion is bullying. This must stop.
Return manufacturing to the United States to help pay for things.
Stop the redistribution of wealth from the 99.9% to the 0.1%. That disparity is huge. Stop stock buybacks. Apple has spent about $500 billion just on stock buybacks. They don't manufacture anything in the US or so little it is meaningless. None of the money was invested to create superior tools, software, and processes to decrease the need for factories in China with dormitories and 50,000 workers. There are PhDs in physics from top programs who get jobs in finance. This is so ever more elaborate mathematical models can skim an additional 1%. None of that talent is employed to make material goods more efficiently or better.
Of course none of the this will happen. China seeks to bring humankind out of the failures of the West with the Guidance of a New Great Helmsman. So much for critical thinking.
The misuse and abuse of language, which you have discussed in your work on Leftist ideation in the corporate academy (and their corresponding academic corporates), extends to many public intellectuals who consider themselves conservative and, in fact, have been shunned, but who are, in fact, enmired in the Leftist worldview.
As an example, many (even the warrior-thinker Dr. Robert Malone himself), continued to call it unthinkingly a "vaccine" -- a propagandistic term the CDC now intends to re-define to suit the bureaucracy's immediate needs -- when even he stated it was not a vaccine by nature and effect, etc.
The greatest error conservatives make, I believe, is ideationally living within the Leftist worldview: Their own expression fosters in others the ideas they think they argue against. As an example, many call themselves "right-wing," swallowing whole the Leftist's duality of conceptualization, us vs. them, and placing themselves squarely within the Leftist worldview.
I, for example, am politically a constitutional conservative and in aesthetic matters, which are most important to me, a traditionalist, because over 1000s of years, much wisdom and beauty and truth has been gleaned by the Artist with which to feed the soul. But I am not right wing, because I do not agree to be subsumed within the theoretical mindset of the pseudo-intellectuals whose entire purpose is to shun those who don't herd with them and mouth the blather they prostitute upon humankind.
Hence, my question: if you think the thesis above has legs (you will say, I'm sure, if you think it does not), how can these "conservatives" be made aware of their subsumation (are they unaware they are still within "the Borg?") and of the imperative of breaking out of it through accurately meaningful expression?
How do small local Republican clubs fight back against ballot harvesting? We need specific steps to understand this game and beat them at their own game - legally, of course.
What punitive actions can be taken against Blinken, Brennan, Clapper and the 50 or so other "national security experts" that knowingly and falsely convinced the bulk of American that the Hunter Biden laptop story was 'Russian disinformation"? Are there not laws to protect us from credentialed persons using their influence to materially deceive?
When are you starting a series, on "wokeness in the military and foreign policy"? Because, the forces of liberal internationalism, that considers all doemstic political opponents as fascists, are the same forces, that seeks pride parade in Kiev and Kabul, and desires to go to war to promote that ideology.
As much as I appreciate all the theoretical insights on who, when and why all the evils plaguing our society have come to be, I’m tired of them. In fact, the endless reads are a waste of precious time. I know some of it helps wake people up but ultimately who cares if we all agree on the horrors and how they came to be if we do nothing about them? All I want now is a solid, practical action plan to turn this all around. It’s high time. Can anyone at least suggest a “first step?”
Yes. It will sound trite in a short-form comment, but yes.
Quick answer: Mockery. Withering, unending.
Never argue on points, because that depends on good faith in the Leftist. And we are the stupid ones who have done that for decades. They change the meaning of words and use them against us.
Background, again a quick summary: Rationally get a hold of the concept of morality. We all understand it sufficiently to live (I hope), but few of us can define and defend it verbally. My epiphany was the definition that morality is only real when it is iterable. It works today, next week, next year. It works for you, your family, your country. If it doesn't pass that test, it's a lie.
All Leftism leads to death, extinction of the species. We have failed to explain that rationally very well, and we should. But the real game is in mocking them for how stupid their beliefs are.
If we call them evil, they laugh.
If we call them stupid, they are defenseless.
"How can you not notice that your beliefs don't work? Do you forget to breathe, too?"
"You say racism today in payment for racism yesterday. So then it's ok to pay you back tomorrow? That's retarded."
"So, when you are done 'transing' all of the kids, who is going to make babies? You're a moron."
"So, when a group of people debauches themselves for decades, so badly that most of them can't read, should their Leftist demands for equity not be laughed at?"
There are actual definitions and meanings for words like truth and knowledge and opinion, and I wasn't clear on them. The Left has played me for decades. I suggest Mortimer Adler's book "The Great Ideas..." for a very quick primer. All sorts of things came into focus in just a few pages. And I smiled. "Oh, this is easy!"
"Racist? That's just your opinion. And it's a stupid one."
I know this is a "thread", but I thought we were supposed to ask Christopher F. Rufo a question.
Folks seems to be arguing amongst themselves. I want to hear from Mr. Rufo.
Christopher F. Rufo, here is my question for you: How do you think America is going to address the out-of-control transgender-pandering nonsense that we are seeing today? Do you feel that with the election in 2024 drawing closer day by day, that we will see any common sense being forthcoming? Is this strictly a bi-partisan issue with the Democrats going along with the cult and pushing it (such as Biden), and the Republicans trying to temper the acceptance the lobby is demanding? My family has been divided and destroyed by this, and I am horrified by the ignorance of so many regarding mental illness which is at the bottom of it all. We are seeing a flood of younger, vulnerable, mentally unstable people being used and abused by the medical systems, doctors, hospitals, counselors, so-called experts, and death traps such as Planned Parenthood. All following the money. Do you see an end to this in our lifetime? (I pray that it will be resolved in favor of sanity soon, I am a great grandmother who has seen three of my beloved grandchildren fall into this fantasy, which has led to alienation and heart break.) Thank you.
(PS: Stealing from C.S. Lewis, if we see a person proclaiming he is a poached egg, we know he is insane and needs help.) Love, Indio
I have been working in the school system for 14 years, and it has become clear to me that we are in a tremendous SPIRITUAL battle. Those who are pushing this transgender mental illness on innocent and impressionable children worship not our God, but the satanic diety known as BAPHOMET. Please take a minute to google this diety image.
When you look up this demonic “god” and study its characteristics, you will see a half human- half goat creature (much like our chimera experiments). Most importantly, this human/ goat has BOTH female breasts AND male genitalia (transgenderism) In the middle of it’s lap is holding a rod with a serpent wrapped around it (interestingly, this is the SAME sign used for Red Cross, and just about ALL medical facilities in the world)
Did you know that statues of this diety Baphomet, have been put in public parks now in America (idolatry, and worshipping of false gods)? Lastly, Baphomet is often pictured with a young boy and young girl looking up to him. THIS IS A SPIRITUAL BATTLE which means we have to make prayer a regular part of our lives! To just say we are a “Christian” is just NOT enough!! We have to BE and DO as a true Christian is called to be in the Bible.
God is setting up his army right now to help others, and I don’t know about you, but I want to be a part of the GOOD that is left in this world!! We MUST be brave enough to speak up and talk to others about the love and hope that’s found ONLY in Jesus. There is no other religious figure than Jesus who has been so mocked, degraded, falsified, or cast away. And why is this? Because even satan knows that there is only ONE true God who gave His only Son up to die on a cross for you, for me, and for every man woman and child in this world.
Our children are worth rising up, praying for, and getting involved in our school boards for. This is our only way to protect our most innocent from the normalizing of pedophilia, & from political activist teachers looking to recruit the next generation of BLM and ANTIFA. Teachers without a political agenda have been bullied and chased away in our school systems. I’ve sat back and watched it happen for the last 3 years. They are hiring young teachers straight out of woke universities to replace those that have been there for many years and are teaching because they love kids, not to exploit their innocence. We as parents and concerned citizens have to be the VOICE that these school children don’t have, just as Christopher Rufo has so bravely done!
The policies and people funding this woke agenda are causing gender confusion and making children and teens turn their back on the God who created them AS THEY ARE . They must be stopped in their tracks and held accountable for the damage they have done to our kids and continue to do. Darkness is being exposed more and more each day, and we can either choose to deny it because it’s too difficult to accept, or cover it in LIGHT, PRAYERS, and GODLY ACTIONS knowing this is the only way spiritual battles are won. And win, we WILL!!! Who’s with me??
At New College, there are like Woke administration people at all levels, who will undermine every action of your leadership. Do you see the need for top to bottom cleaning house, to bring in people supporting the new direction?
Do you understand the failure to do such will doom your leadership?
Apparently the AP US history exam today was so egregiously focused on women and minorities that even the progressive zoomers were upset by it (39/55 of the multiple choice, 2/3 of the SAQs, the DBQ, and 2/3rds of the LEQs). Nothing about WWI, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam, Reconstruction, Great Depression, Manifest Destiny, etc.
Do you think this is a response to Florida saying no to AP African American History, or just the behavior of an increasingly ideologically captured institution?
https://www.reddit.com/r/APStudents/comments/139039v/ap_civil_rights_apush_form_o/
I’m the AP European History, the document based question was on the Haitian Revolution. Something the online AP course spends half one of their daily videos on, about 8 minutes. Zero question related to religion, in stark contrast with previous years, even last year. This exam has been watered down in 2018 and looks like now it’s even more politicized.
My question is: When do you think we will see America wake up to the fact that boys are xy chromosomes and girls are xx chromosomes and xy cannot be xx, no matter what they cut off or add to their bodies? I’m sickened by the attempt being made to destroy women.
How can we ever get out of the mess we are in when our media, and especially the "news media," are most all simply activists for the Left more interest in furthering the Left's narratives and covering for them rather than actually reporting the news. Here is an example. Recently, in the Tulsa, OK, area, a black man named Carlton Gilford shot to death two white people who just happened to be there. One who he shot in the back of the head was on a computer monitor at the library at the time and the other was a shopper. Apparently, the motive was solely the victims' race (white). Compare the complete lack of coverage of this with the hysteria over Jordan Neely's death in NYC. Neely was the black man with 44 prior arrests who was mentally disturbed and threatening subway riders when he died apparently while being restrained by white Marine. There is no coverage of the first story and saturation coverage of the latter with virtually all of that coverage being from the angle that Neely was simply a Michael Jackson impersonator who was killed by a white oppressor.
Most k-12 schools venomously deny teaching CRT even when including SEL in their curriculum. (Our school supt. is one of them). How can the average community member convince a school board of what they are doing? Most teachers won't even believe it. It feels like the biggest losing battle there is. Unless people like you can attend all the school board meetings across the country, I'm not sure there is much communities can do.
Do you worry that school choice is a trap to get federal or state control of private education? Once the legislation for ESAs are in place, can't legislatures tighten the conditions and create endless requirements (and data collection) if you accept the funding for "independent" education? What if the real goal is to collect children's P-20 data for public-private stakeholders? Who makes parents aware of strings attached?
I belong to an organization that is experiencing some slight woke infiltration. For example, the attempt to remove gendered language from literature, and the use of "plain language" translation of original texts also to remove "outdated, and gendered language" . In trying to discuss this with people who express their support for these changes I find it difficult because most if not all supporters of these changes are totally unaware of postmodernism and things like queer theory. Does anyone who joins this woke band wagon actually know where the ideologies come from? How do you figure out if they are or aren't aware of the actual theories, and what is a kind way of explaining the origins without being condescending?
Would you send your kids to college these days? Why, or why not?
I’ve tried to do a couple of FOIA requests for emails from the DEI coordinator in our local school district. The district claimed that it would cost about 150k to do all the necessary redactions, so they’ve effectively blocked my request for information. I’ve appealed the costs to the AG here in Texas. Do you have any other suggestions on how to get this information?
Do you believe there’s a natural limit to how much leftists—or really any institutional power—can indoctrinate children? I understand there are powerful arguments against controversial topics like transgender ideology, DEI in schools, etc., but I can’t help but wonder if we’ve all forgotten what it’s like to be teenagers: chafing against authority, disobeying our parents, bristling against being told what to do. Is there reason for conservatives to be optimistic that a large proportion of the next generation will be primed to chart their own course, one separate from the woke fads currently sweeping the country and being imposed from the top down?
If you want to combat woke, you have to leave religion out of the picture. Most people are not religious and the population is becoming less religious each year.
Woke has a weakness in that there is no validity to it's claims. Social disparities are more related to deficits in capability, competence and consistency than systemic discrimination and racism.
White privilege no doubt exists but unfortunately for its critics, it is there because it was earned.
You can replace it with coloured privilege over time if you wish. All you have to do is get coloured people to exceed the ability of Euro types in fields such as banking, medicine, law, pharmaceuticals, chemistry , physics, chemical production, computing, communications, engineering, mining, refining, exploration etc.
Coloured folk already have privilege in sport and to some extent in music so it's just a matter of turning their talents to these other fields.
As far as I know minorities have access to high school and universities so, let's get cracking people.
Hi, I'm not a believer but I think that religion is crucial to survival, and we leave it out to our extinction. Here's something I recently grasped:
A morality is the articulated description of those behaviours that have proven to promote survival, basically without exception, and the descriptions have been passed down by the survivors since pre-history.
That is religion. We exclude that knowledge at our peril, whether there is a Guy in the Sky or not. And at our current level of knowledge, a guy in the sky explains existence way better than any other. The Big Bang is a creation myth just like every other, and far less meaningful than
"And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." as a metaphorical description of the birth of human consciousness.
So, I'm agnostic.
As to the rest of your post, bravo! Well said! :-)
I agree with you Hugh. religion is a great moral compass and atheists like myself really use that compass all the time. The track record of the 10 commandments is pretty good. It's also clever that the bible anticipated other things coming along and invoked the "shall not have false gods" idea; meaning that in the end you are accountable to god. We (you and I) can see this benefit but at this stage it just antagonizes the left, that's why I think its better to attack the lack of validity in their claims. Chris is just going to apply QA to these idiots and whereas that is the way I would also go, I don't think he has the practical experience to do that successfully. I do because that was my job but I live in Australia and am now 71.
Hi David, thanks for your reply. As we all have been trying to suss out the best way forward, and Mr. Rufo is taking bold action, I've been trying to grasp the best way to have an emotional impact against them. It was pointed out a few years ago by another writer that they (the Left) think they are moral, and that startled me, but it made sense after some thought (Egalitarianist morality). The opposite I believe is the morality of promotion of competence.
I want to have an emotional impact in order to demoralize them and have them lose confidence that egalitarianism is moral at all. I do not believe that we will even win unless we accomplish both, and that the best rational argument in the world will never suffice, as they have not for 70 years.
The two prongs I believe will work are (1.) withering mockery, already well in play, but focused not on hypocrisy, but on their prima facie stupidity. In particular, actually avoiding "proving" our point, but rather pointing to the obvious as obvious per se. "A man is not a woman. Duh!" The main feature here is that they then have to prove that a man IS a woman, or whatever stupid thing they believe this week. We lose when WE attempt to make the argument against the stupid. The amusing quote applies here "Never argue with stupid, no one will be able to tell who is who."
The second point is their basing their entire house of cards on words not having a fixed meaning. This one for some reason has taken me a long time to wrap my head around, I think because it's so mindless, you CAN'T wrap your head around it. Nonetheless, I think we can chop them to bits with it. What makes this one hard to explain is that the method is through wordplay, almost like jokes.
"If words have no meaning, why are you talking?"
"If a man can be a woman, why can't he?"
Variations on Shapiro's famous quip to a harridan's "It's just a clump of cells."
"YOU'RE just a clump of cells!"
And joke writing is fun!
Anyway, thanks for letting me think this through by replying to you. Hope to see you around here, looks like a good group.
Hi Hugh.
I have used the mockery approach but it has not been that effective. I think though that the better approach is as you say, to get them to prove their position. Those who seek to change have the burden of proof.
A few people are comparing their speech evasiveness to the so called Mott & Bailey technique.
This is a feature of English strongholds centuries' back wherein, in time of attack you retreat to the fortified mott and when it's quiet you wander out into the bailey area where you can do much more. So when you attack their meanings effectively they just fall back to the motherhood type explanation of their words (mott) and when you give them an inch they distort the meaning to suit their ends.
By suggesting educational places get certified quality assurance you can also play that game viz;
You can't disagree with quality assurance, "we all want to do a good job don't we?"
Then when you put the QA in, you then reveal the measures of quality. It's exactly what they have done to us.
Has anyone realized that back in the early 2000 Millenial era in Major League Baseball banned athletes who took steroids and other hormones that helped athletes perform better. How is this different than transgender athletes taking hormones to be put into women’s sports to have athletic advantages over biological women?
You know, the far left has really done a stellar job in the planning and takeover of our culture and its institutions. It was started around mid-20th century, they played the long game, and they played it well. The majority of us had no idea it was happening until it was too late, and now they're utterly intrenched in media, tech, business as a whole, and of course, education.
Over the last several years since it's dawned on me (far too late) that this was going on, I've read, watched, followed and/or supported anti-woke journalists and (hmm, what's the word? "fighters" is too strong) *activists* who have diligently uncovered and reported on this woke insanity.
I guess there has to be a discovery process, something has to be known about before an effort to combat it is mounted--I mean, you can't develop a smallpox vaccine unless you know about the existence of smallpox in the first place. Fine. I have a very strong feeling, though, that at this late date we're still focusing on discovery of, you know, "DEI documents", still trying to catalogue and describe the horrors, while we should just go ahead and stipulate that, yes, any big company or governmental/educational entity is highly likely to be lost to the woke mind virus. We don't necessarily need more video of toddler drag queen hour or someone talking about how ambition and biochemistry are racist.
My question is, what are we actually *doing*? There have been small, isolated victories, mostly on the local level (think Matt Walsh with Vanderbilt University, as an example). But what concrete, national, planned and coordinated steps is anybody taking to take our country back, involving business, political, educational and journalist leaders? Feels like not a thing to me.
The left could afford to be slow and sneaky with their attack, as we were all naïve and basically asleep at the wheel--we didn't put up a fight or really even know a fight was going on. Seems to me that, if we want to save our country, we don't have that luxury now. An entrenched and savvy enemy (let's call them what they are) is not about to loosen their grip on the levers of power. We need a French Resistance, and we need one asap. Is there any evidence at all of one?
One last thing--one of my favorite writers is of the opinion that this woke/BLM/LGBTQ(etc.)/whatever movement's ideas are too ridiculous, too absurd, too...dumb, to continue on for much longer, and that they're going to simply collapse in on themselves at some point soon. We'll see, but I disagree. They might be all of that, but what the also are is clever--the sort of folks who know how to keep ahold of power. All the more reason to switch to the action phase.
There are lots of parents groups that work to oppose social justice & DEI initiatives. Do you feel they coordinate effectively to pressure corporations & politicians?
In light of the Bud Light protests, can parents, conservatives, & like-minded organizations work together to form a single pressure group?
Mr. Rufo, what do you think are the most effective actions we can take to "disrupt and dismantle" the woke cult and its hold on our country? The work you are doing with Gov. DeSantis looks to me like the most effective route, but many of us do not have access to that level of power. In addition, here in Portland I think I would be wasting my time trying to influence local or state elected officials. I have thought about starting my own Substack, but as you have observed, the Intellectual Dark Web may not at this point be the most effective strategy for creating change. It is frustrating to want to take action but not see ways to do it.
My professional expertise is designing and implementing QA systems into hostile cultures (retired now). I, like JP & Peter Bhogossian am skeptical that you will have the necessary administrative mechanisms to block recalcitrance and identify sham compliance. This is a tough gig you have ahead and there are certain techniques around that you can copy to make your task easier. I don't think you will have too much trouble validating your measures but the error detection and feedback loops will be hard. For one thing you will need a customized audit function. You already know there will be deliberate subterfuge to continue current practices and there will be cooperative cover up. High possibility of failure or suboptimal outcomes which could undermine confidence in your project. Call me for free advice if you wish.
Gender. Why do we even need it? Locker rooms, bathrooms, Medical treatments, even the right to vote were all based on biological sex. Not gender. The left can’t even define what gender is. Personality shown thru stereotypes? Let them keep gender. It’s a Wittgensteinian language game no? Let’s focus on sex. Thoughts?
I am concerned about the banning of certain ideas on university campuses. Would it not be better to continue to teach a course on WOKE and/or the rise of LBGTQ rights and/or communism and/or marxism at universities. I come from a history background and wonder sometimes if these ideas are taking root because the present generation does not understand what communism or totalitarianism is and what its historical and terrible past is. The saying goes, if you don’t know history you are doomed to repeat it.