108 Comments

Chris, illuminating piece today. One sentence could be a t-shirt, and I’d buy it:

“ Scholarship without the possibility of robust criticism isn’t scholarship at all—it’s propaganda.”

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That's the one!

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Freedom of speech should never be confused with freedom from criticism

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That could be a bumper sticker too!

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Agree! I'd buy & wear the shirt, and I would also purchase a bumper sticker for my car.

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I'm thinking of "You wanted politics..." (w/o quotation marks, of course).

It would be in punk style, given that I am a Gen Xer who spent his youth at punk shows.

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Amen to that!

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“The communists have never subjugated a nation by winning the loyalties of the oppressed and downtrodden. The communists first win the support of liberal- intellectuals, and then use them to subvert and pervert all established mores and ideals and social and political arrangements.” Dan Smoot - The Invisible Government, 1962

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What about the chilling effect the *children* and young adults feel being taught by communist radicals? These grown up bullies want unsupervised time to freely indoctrinate your children as the big man in the room and then cry cry cry when some bigger man comes along to stop them…

You know what a real good teacher, teaching children the true and the beautiful, feels when his lesson plan is “exposed” to the world? Rightful pride, and the hope that other teachers will use the same plan. If a teacher instead feels scared when his curriculum is publicized, you know he’s up to something he’d prefer to be kept in the dark…

TLDR: Cry harder, bullies. And bless you, Mr Rufo!

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"TLDR: Cry harder, bullies." Bingo!

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I imagine these kids feel like they're in a bootleg version of a Soviet or Maoist classroom. Either way, they're not learning. Many kids nowadays are actually very stressed about their academic wellbeing and/or feel disengaged from the classroom altogether. They need to be taught about the beauty of life and education (which is something I praise the classical learning model for).

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This Floridian thanks God for you and are so incredibly grateful that you are fighting this fight with these academics. It is long overdue.

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Appreciate your support!

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Please, take up any state in New England next.

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100%. Chris, you have performed an outstanding service to those of us that have felt hopeless for so long. ❤️

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Lots of work to be done in Oregon. I Hope something can done here before it’s too late.

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I’m pretty sure it is too late. I have resigned myself to the reality that I live behind enemy lines.

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Just like ANTIFA, behind those masks they are cowards. Exposing them to the light if day is paramount in defeating this dangerous, Marxist ideology.

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Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

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Amen, brother. Amen!

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Oh thank goodness! Keep exposing! If they were truly proud it would be because they were legitimate but this shows they know they are not and their nefarious deeds will catch up to them! Thank you Christopher for the TRUTH!

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Keep up the pressure! The woke world hates it when their Marxist ideology is shown for what it is

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As always, your work is stellar, kudos and thanks. The very large elephant in the room is the money flow to these people - tax payers unwittingly (via government monies to NGO’s, higher ed., etc) provide the life blood for all of this. Stop the government funding and they will all “bleed out.”

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Yes, they're siphoning taxpayer money to their own agenda.

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The "words are violence" idea isn't just random though. Postmodernists believe that words CREATE reality, as distinguished from the classical, Platonic / Aristotelian idea that words DESCRIBE reality. The latter presumes a true, real world that humans are trying to access; the former presumes that there is no "real world" at all, so humans can manufacture it (using their language) however they see fit. That's why a man who says he's a woman must actually become a woman by that statement. Yes, I know this sounds crazy, but this is standard fare in academia and its echoes are everywhere in our society now.

If words create reality, then using the wrong words is destructive of reality. As weird as it sounds, when someone steeped in postmodernism (as essentially all college-educated liberals are today) says your words are... killing them / violence against them / denying their existence... they're right within their own philosophical framework. No argument will convince them otherwise any more than someone could convince you that the sky is purple or the world is flat.

This is what makes postmodernism so dangerous. It is an internally consistent theology, which means disproving it from within itself is impossible. But that theology is utterly divorced (intentionally) from reality. It's not overstating it to compare postmodernist academics to cult followers. There's no reasoning with a cult follower; you must either convert them away from the cult or forcibly deny them the ability to infect others. Mr. Rufo is an early part of the latter process. Thank you, Chris.

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Appreciate your comments here, Brian.

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great comment!

Once the Marxist revolution failed everywhere it was brought into American academia for an overhaul, where "Oppression" was resituated from material wealth to the realm of language.

This allowed the meddlesome priests of Leftist academia to 1) climb the career ladder and collect checks while still performing their radicalism; 2) "problematize" everything from classic lit to pop culture to everyday language, and expand their reach as Thought Police; and 3) define morality as based on language and political platform instead of deeds and action, thus allowing them to preen as moral leaders based on nothing but utopian word castles.

Sadly most people fell for their scam and this is how the New Left were able to seize the means of cultural production.

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That's right, define everything that's against the ideology as "oppression," then use that to justify squashing dissent and imposing orthodoxy.

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Not just define everything that's against the ideology as "oppression," but define every single aspect of existence as crafted and sculpted by Power & Oppression, sort of positing a new and omnipotent god based more or less on Foucault's power obsessions. Power & Oppression are never not present, they just need to be revealed and "problematized" by the priest of theory and their infallible "critical consciousness".

If it thinks like a cult and acts like a cult...etc etc

Thanks, Chris!

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Speaking of this subject, Clever, I have been thinking more than a little about it since we first spoke about it. I made an extensive Twitter thread about it, just this morning (I opened an account last month, at Chris' suggestion). It commences from a weak criticism of Wesley Yang's thinking made by some author or another whom I don't know.

If you feel like thinking about Marcuse for a few minutes, its there. Little by little, I am moving toward a comprehensive account of Bourgeois Radicalism.

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i never like thinking about Marcuse, is bad for my blood pressure, but pls send me a link. im a bit locked out of Twitter lately, Elon doesn't like me;)

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@tommasodi_di

I will do what I can to tap this empty idol with my little hammer...hear that little ringing echo?

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The master of Marcuse:

George Walsh Marcuse article link

https://pc.blogspot.com/2018/09/qotd-this-in-nutshell-is-precise.html

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Turncoat KGB agent Yuri Bezminov did everything in his considerable power to warn us of what he had once been a part of. That was back on the 80s and early 90s. His interviews are still on YouTube for all to see Useful Idiots included.

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Totally agree. The structure of the fantasy castles needs more exposure.

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Wow. Precisely!!

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I used to have a math professor who *loved* math. He thought it was perfect. He talked about how it was a perfect circle that started out as 2+2 and then went through multiplication, algebra, trig, calculus, blah, blah, blah all the way around to 2+2 again.

He talked about math like it was music or art.

If someone had wanted to publicly discuss what he taught in class, he would have been thrilled! He would have thought, “Hooray! People are finally waking up to the beauty of math and now they want to understand it better and enjoy its beauty with me!!” 💞

He would not have felt threatened or “chilled” because he taught the truth and knew he could adequately and accurately explain and justify every single calculus problem he was teaching.

I, on the other hand, got a C. 😕

That’s the difference between real education and indoctrination.

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I'd have been thrilled to pull a C in Algebra I or II.

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It seems that it’s starting to work. KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THESE COMMUNISTS. If they are dedicated to their cause that they insist on promotion of this treasonous crap then they can quit. Let them sacrifice their pension for “ The Cause” and go hand out leaflets on street corners like their grandparents did!

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In the (parts of 5) decades I taught college classes, keeping the interests of students and their tuition-paying parents foremost guided every lesson. I worked for them. My duty was to prep students for future employment and careers, not to propagandize. Even some of my most ardently left wing colleagues were effective educators when they kept the interests of students first. Most college teachers do care about the students. If they'd just prioritize the students' need to earn a living, they can leave the advocacy for private moments when they're not on the academic "clock."

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Yes, they should leave their politics outside the classroom.

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Commies hate sunlight

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They certainly do.

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Yes, I remember when liberals, “progressives” and Democrats pushed the civil political concept that “sunlight is the best disinfectant”.

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In other words...you hurt their whittle feewwings

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So sorry! :)

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You misspelled 'sowwy.'

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So well written. Thank you.

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They wanted politics. Give them politics.

Political supervision is not ideal, but it has become necessary - what are the alternatives for reform? None, and what they are doing is not acceptable. We're there...

Now that they have our attention, it is time to reconsider the institutions comprehensively. Citizens have no obligation to pay for sinecures for radical political indoctrinators and ideologists. Such persons should be shoved out of public academia.

Let the Blue State taxpayers find them sinecures, if they wish to. Or let them work - like the rest of us.

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We're giving them politics and they're finding that they only like politics when they're in complete control. Too bad! No going back now.

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Your presentations are sharpening - the battle suits you.

It can also be ruinous - which you know; your boating pics and hiatuses clarify that you are aware of that. Life should be good!

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Of course, my wife keeps me very aware when I’m out of balance and helps me correct.

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Our 30th Anniversary is here in a few days - so I know what you mean!

Thanks for the forum, Christopher, in addition to your work. Our elected officials hardly ever do much of what you are doing - and certainly not with your clarity and purpose.

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Precisamente, Cristóbal. It is precisely that which they wish not to be known which must be made known.

To paraphrase a Roman expression: They wish to be Master - let them answer.

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