Nov 14·edited Nov 14Liked by Christopher F. Rufo, ParisApodaca
The most effective attack, in my view, is to expose the bogus PSYCHOLOGY that drives Leftism....and always has, whatever the supposed CAUSE it embraces....which changes to suit the fashions of the day. It is a psychology of middle class people wanting to FEEL virtuous but in a cost-free way. FEELING virtuous whilst actually carrying on with their essentially selfish personal agenda....their self-interest in other words. It has always been a mostly middle-class intelligentsia pose right from Marx and Engels.
If ever holding trendy Leftist opinions came to have painful costs to the middle-class holder of those opinions themselves (rather than costs they impose on people lower down the social scale) the whole 'woke' thing would disappear like the puff of windbaggery that it has always truly been.
When I read Christopher's work, I so wish I were 20 years younger. This is a fight worth engaging in, worth sacrificing for, worth the long years it's going to take. Thanks for the work you're doing, Chris, in the trenches.
For awhile, during the pandemic lockdowns and a few months afterward, all this Leftism craziness was out in the open. I am a middle school teacher and the DEI person was emailing anti-Thanksgiving curriculum to all the teachers and promoting Angela Davis on MLK Day. I confronted her many times over her activism. However, she and the other activist teachers seem to have taken it more underground now. I was heartened at first, but now I feel that although the radicals are still there, contaminating our curriculum and classrooms, it's just much harder for parents who don't follow people like Chris Rufo, to understand what is going on. It troubles me and angers me that the Left is manipulating school children and it is very difficult to convince parents that, though it sounds innocuous and even worthy to learn about Aztec religion and celebrate Indigenous people Day instead of Columbus, American history, values and traditions are being lost down the memory hole.
Well put. I also think about the digital realm and how much power this ideology has when you think of bots, to just make it appear that they have overwhelming support. Obviously online isn't going to be how we necessarily win, but for instance i'll go to a site like Reddit and even conservative themed subreddits will have lots of lefties or accounts appearing to be left wing. So it's a tricky thing. Even on Substack i've had interactions that were a little odd and made me wonder about bots. It's an ideology that is intolerant towards dissenting views, as you well know. So they seem to feel a need to corrupt these spaces.
There are in my experience plenty of Americans out there who detest or at least feel ill at ease in the presence of the radicals and their new "revamped" orthodoxy. So, you're right, if these Americans who disagree with the new normal start to vote against the policies of the radicals, we could push the synthetic commies back to the fringes where they belong.
Interesting that you would use the new term "African American" to describe black people living in an era when they were proudly and loudly proclaiming themselves to be "black" ("black power", "black is beautiful", etc.), within the context of a talk about the old vs. the new and controlling the public language.
Our societal wealth has so far protected the leftist ideologues. They enjoy the same, if not better, quality of life as do those who actually produce. I agree that until or unless the leftists and soft socialist urbanites face hurtful consequences they will never change.
Some historians believe that we are on the down slope of "empires rise and empires fall" and that the fall is inevitable. Maybe it was for Greece and Rome, but they did not have the ethos of individual freedom/responsibility that our nation is founded upon. I believe we can change the trajectory. I think it's no accident that candidates (like Mayra Flores for instance) are now rising, dedicated to the values of our Founders. I have to believe this is the next major development in the story of nations and freedom.
Mr. Rufo, I would disagree, in part, with your claim regarding the role that postmodernism has had in the current state of our country. There is a kind of postmodernism that has been and continues to be a basis for where we are today. This kind of postmodernism operates as the basis for CRT, especially Ms. DiAngelo's version, and in some transgender theory in that it insidiously attempts to displace any biological source as responsible for human gender. This is a kind of postmodernism that denies any kind of "objectivity" in our experience of the world.
This denial reaches into how we experience the world. That is, with the denial of "objectivity," culture and/or language become the primary or the only possible sources for how we experience the world. (Your video is rather clear on the importance of this kind of claim.) The makes our "ordinary" experience of the world more elusive even reaching into mathematics and science and, thereby, making them subject to their claims.
I just wanted to clarify what seems to be an important part of how we have arrived to where we are today. Thanks, Dale Vaughn
It’s crazy to me to see how fringe ideas have become so mainstream, and how traditional values and beliefs are seen as extreme.
My youngest child calls everyone he. So the other day, my middle son told him “boys are he’s and girls are she’s”. I half jokingly told my husband, “Hopefully no one is listening to our extreme conversation.” I often feel like I’m living in the twilight zone.
Thanks for all your work. Our local school district is nutso. You wouldn’t believe (actually, you probably would) the signs that were recently put up in some of the schools. “My parents are great... at pointing out my flaws” is one of them - with a reference to a “crisis line” run by individuals with their own mental health issues - and there’s no age limit. It’s scary what they have said. Our school district is full on anti-parent - we are seen as a disease to be eradicated. My kids are homeschooled, but I still stay quite involved. It’s scary because most people have zero clue how bad it is.
My thoughts on this subject: Overcome this horrible onslaught by abandoning the need for others' agreement. Unconscious craving for others' agreement is a hard wired human psychological need, but a weakness. If you escape that mental prison; you'll never turn back. You will have power to act boldly and express without reservation. Stop caring what others think. Leftist : "That's hate speech." Response: "What you're saying is hate speech. You don't like what I'm saying, and want to shut me down." Leftists thrive on intimidation. They're well funded (big problem), but paper tigers.
Great talk. Loved this," Conservatives who adopt the posture of the establishment are deluding themselves because, in reality, we are now on the outside, the fringes, the margins. Our ideas—the ideas of the founding of this country—are no longer the public orthodoxy. Consequently, it’s not a matter of conserving the institutions as they are; it’s a matter of going on offense and changing the institutions into what they might be."
An excellent speech. I would add that the new orthodoxy is a mutation of Marxism that has infected our institutions and spread. The new orthodoxy is Marxism applied to the culture. Critical race theory is Marxism applied to race. Critical gender theory is Marxism applied to gender. I think Marxism expert and political science professor Paul Kengor, PhD, explains this very well in the following 24-minute American Spectator video: https://spectator.org/video-marxism-culture-education-bella-dodd/
The Synthetic Revolution
The most effective attack, in my view, is to expose the bogus PSYCHOLOGY that drives Leftism....and always has, whatever the supposed CAUSE it embraces....which changes to suit the fashions of the day. It is a psychology of middle class people wanting to FEEL virtuous but in a cost-free way. FEELING virtuous whilst actually carrying on with their essentially selfish personal agenda....their self-interest in other words. It has always been a mostly middle-class intelligentsia pose right from Marx and Engels.
If ever holding trendy Leftist opinions came to have painful costs to the middle-class holder of those opinions themselves (rather than costs they impose on people lower down the social scale) the whole 'woke' thing would disappear like the puff of windbaggery that it has always truly been.
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/are-we-making-progress
When I read Christopher's work, I so wish I were 20 years younger. This is a fight worth engaging in, worth sacrificing for, worth the long years it's going to take. Thanks for the work you're doing, Chris, in the trenches.
So thankful for your voice on all of this!
For awhile, during the pandemic lockdowns and a few months afterward, all this Leftism craziness was out in the open. I am a middle school teacher and the DEI person was emailing anti-Thanksgiving curriculum to all the teachers and promoting Angela Davis on MLK Day. I confronted her many times over her activism. However, she and the other activist teachers seem to have taken it more underground now. I was heartened at first, but now I feel that although the radicals are still there, contaminating our curriculum and classrooms, it's just much harder for parents who don't follow people like Chris Rufo, to understand what is going on. It troubles me and angers me that the Left is manipulating school children and it is very difficult to convince parents that, though it sounds innocuous and even worthy to learn about Aztec religion and celebrate Indigenous people Day instead of Columbus, American history, values and traditions are being lost down the memory hole.
Well put. I also think about the digital realm and how much power this ideology has when you think of bots, to just make it appear that they have overwhelming support. Obviously online isn't going to be how we necessarily win, but for instance i'll go to a site like Reddit and even conservative themed subreddits will have lots of lefties or accounts appearing to be left wing. So it's a tricky thing. Even on Substack i've had interactions that were a little odd and made me wonder about bots. It's an ideology that is intolerant towards dissenting views, as you well know. So they seem to feel a need to corrupt these spaces.
There are in my experience plenty of Americans out there who detest or at least feel ill at ease in the presence of the radicals and their new "revamped" orthodoxy. So, you're right, if these Americans who disagree with the new normal start to vote against the policies of the radicals, we could push the synthetic commies back to the fringes where they belong.
Interesting that you would use the new term "African American" to describe black people living in an era when they were proudly and loudly proclaiming themselves to be "black" ("black power", "black is beautiful", etc.), within the context of a talk about the old vs. the new and controlling the public language.
Our societal wealth has so far protected the leftist ideologues. They enjoy the same, if not better, quality of life as do those who actually produce. I agree that until or unless the leftists and soft socialist urbanites face hurtful consequences they will never change.
Some historians believe that we are on the down slope of "empires rise and empires fall" and that the fall is inevitable. Maybe it was for Greece and Rome, but they did not have the ethos of individual freedom/responsibility that our nation is founded upon. I believe we can change the trajectory. I think it's no accident that candidates (like Mayra Flores for instance) are now rising, dedicated to the values of our Founders. I have to believe this is the next major development in the story of nations and freedom.
Mr. Rufo, I would disagree, in part, with your claim regarding the role that postmodernism has had in the current state of our country. There is a kind of postmodernism that has been and continues to be a basis for where we are today. This kind of postmodernism operates as the basis for CRT, especially Ms. DiAngelo's version, and in some transgender theory in that it insidiously attempts to displace any biological source as responsible for human gender. This is a kind of postmodernism that denies any kind of "objectivity" in our experience of the world.
This denial reaches into how we experience the world. That is, with the denial of "objectivity," culture and/or language become the primary or the only possible sources for how we experience the world. (Your video is rather clear on the importance of this kind of claim.) The makes our "ordinary" experience of the world more elusive even reaching into mathematics and science and, thereby, making them subject to their claims.
I just wanted to clarify what seems to be an important part of how we have arrived to where we are today. Thanks, Dale Vaughn
It’s crazy to me to see how fringe ideas have become so mainstream, and how traditional values and beliefs are seen as extreme.
My youngest child calls everyone he. So the other day, my middle son told him “boys are he’s and girls are she’s”. I half jokingly told my husband, “Hopefully no one is listening to our extreme conversation.” I often feel like I’m living in the twilight zone.
Thanks for all your work. Our local school district is nutso. You wouldn’t believe (actually, you probably would) the signs that were recently put up in some of the schools. “My parents are great... at pointing out my flaws” is one of them - with a reference to a “crisis line” run by individuals with their own mental health issues - and there’s no age limit. It’s scary what they have said. Our school district is full on anti-parent - we are seen as a disease to be eradicated. My kids are homeschooled, but I still stay quite involved. It’s scary because most people have zero clue how bad it is.
My thoughts on this subject: Overcome this horrible onslaught by abandoning the need for others' agreement. Unconscious craving for others' agreement is a hard wired human psychological need, but a weakness. If you escape that mental prison; you'll never turn back. You will have power to act boldly and express without reservation. Stop caring what others think. Leftist : "That's hate speech." Response: "What you're saying is hate speech. You don't like what I'm saying, and want to shut me down." Leftists thrive on intimidation. They're well funded (big problem), but paper tigers.
T h i s I s G r e a t
T h a n k Y o u 🇺🇸
Great talk. Loved this," Conservatives who adopt the posture of the establishment are deluding themselves because, in reality, we are now on the outside, the fringes, the margins. Our ideas—the ideas of the founding of this country—are no longer the public orthodoxy. Consequently, it’s not a matter of conserving the institutions as they are; it’s a matter of going on offense and changing the institutions into what they might be."
Keep leading!!
An excellent speech. I would add that the new orthodoxy is a mutation of Marxism that has infected our institutions and spread. The new orthodoxy is Marxism applied to the culture. Critical race theory is Marxism applied to race. Critical gender theory is Marxism applied to gender. I think Marxism expert and political science professor Paul Kengor, PhD, explains this very well in the following 24-minute American Spectator video: https://spectator.org/video-marxism-culture-education-bella-dodd/
Brilliantly crafted and well written, Mr. Rufo. Thank you for again saying what needs to be said in a cogent manner.