The problem is that there is no room for debate from the left. None. You have professors being banned for supporting the meritocracy, apologizing for facts and research. My daughter's humanities magnet was based on CRT (you can look it up for yourself as they still have the same program in place -- corebaby.org). Because she grew up in Southern California and attended extremely progressive schools under the leadership of Barack Obama, she wasn't exactly inundated with racism day in and day out. Thus, when the school began the practice of dividing children and making the white children sit outside the circle and not participate because nothing they would say would be of value it was something my daughter didn't understand and couldn't process. She became depressed and hopeless. This was in 2015. Even before Trump took power. The extremism has been rising on the left to such a degree that Bret Weinstein was chased off campus at Evergreen in 2018. The idea that white people are oppressors and that there is such a thing as white violence is bizarre and an odd thing to foist upon young kids who can't possibly process this.
A ban is a silly thing to do because it is impossible. CRT is the entire world view of not just the left, but the entire establishment elite. You can't ban it even if you wanted to. But what we must fight for is critical thinking about critical theory. The debate has to be open. If it can't be, if it fundamentalism then it is a religion and should be kept out of schools.
French’s Swamp Civility—“we must not fight too hard against the people who are brainwashing our children, spreading racism, and telling gay teenagers to deform their bodies through surgery ... and we must tone down our rhetoric any time an isolated lunatic from our side does something embarrassing”—needs to be left in the past.
The stakes are way too high right now. The weakness French prefers is dangerous.
how hard is too hard when gay/traumatized/ASD kids are being told to undergo sterilization for distress, and other kids are told, based on the color of their skin, that it is impossible for them to tell the truth?
Sasha, I think you're right about the futility about trying to ban CRT or what state legislators think is the essence of it. I am also wary of Republican politicians who want to ride the coat tails of this issue in their desperate, Johnny Come Lately fetching for something to give them a stamp of relevance. Over several decades the left was able to spread its poison in public schools and universities in states under Republican leadership with no pushback. The did the same in the federal bureaucracy for almost four year under Trump, unnoticed, until Christopher Rufo pointed it out to him last year. This isn't something they cared about until lightbulbs went on in their heads that the issue could be quickly mined to their benefit. A raft of poorly conceived anti-CRT laws, passed in Republican-led states, is the result.
Yes and the problem is that there are two things at play here. One is CRT (has been around for a while) and the other is "antiracism" - which rose to prominence in 2020. The "white fragility" ideology that people clung to in the wake of Floyd's death. THAT is really what people are objecting to but it is easier to call it CRT because it works better in terms of making people afraid. So here is a good example - the Oscars (which I cover for a living) have been working towards "inclusion and diversity" for a while now. They even implemented a mandate to take place in 2024. But after 2020 the BAFTA took away their members rights to nominate actors and directors, choosing instead a small committee to hand pick the nominees to ensure equity and diversity. One is addressing something necessary that has been ignored for too long and the other simply destroys the whole point of film awards. THAT is what people are responding to, the extreme reaction and irrational obsession with race by the left.
Did you read White Fragility? She's basically trying to help white people understand that some of the things they say about Black people or to Black people are cringeworthy from a Black person's perspective. Liberal White people are reading the book because they want to learn how to avoid saying things that will upset Black people. Conservatives, by comparison, are angry at the book and are attacking it without even understanding it or reading it.
And as a liberal, I value diversity, but I don't value it OVER merit. I value diversity because I understand that implicit biases tend to mean that White people tend to focus more on, and therefore overvalue, the achievements of other White people, over minorities. By the way, this seems to work both ways. In the NFL Black general managers tend to hire more Black coaches, for example. I think it's important to fight back against these tendencies in human nature, which I think is why BAFTA chose that approach. It's an intentional effort to combat these insidious tendencies.
Are you white Matt? How I see this: it serves people like you. It does nothing for anyone else. It makes the BAFTA look good. It does nothing for the nominees who know they are being chosen not because of ability but because of skin color. It helps the very rich and the very white relieve their guilt. They can't really fight a class war anymore because the Trump supporters are mostly white working class poor. So it has to be about race. This way the richest celebrities or athletes or politicians are still in the oppressed category because there is no way out of the trap of skin color. Nothing can ever be achieved truly because white people have to hand it to you. Bestow it upon you as a gift and guess what that does for them? It makes them feel better and look better. Poor Robin Diangelo does sound like a racist to me. She is uncomfortable around black people and feels guilty about that. I was taught about racism as a young girl by my stepfather - and I appreciated those lessons. Teaching CRT as an alternative viewpoint is not bad. Teaching kids that they can never escape their skin color and achieve anything or that the only reason they achieved anything is because they're white is silly. Imagine what a young Barack Obama would have thought if they told him that. Or Oprah for that matter.
So you're a psychologist? You read people's minds? I think you generally hate people on the left, and you can't stand to think of us as decent human beings. So you make up what you think our "real motives" are. We're only doing it to feel good about ourselves or to assuage our guilt. It couldn't possibly be that we see injustices in our society and genuinely want to make our society more just, right?
Also, the Dems are still fighting the class war. They still want to tax rich people (of all races) and use the funds to give poor people a better shot at success in life. A progressive income tax helps everyone, of all colors. And believe it or not, it even helps rich people. If you support Republicans, you support the party that wants to give rich people tax cuts and let the working class shoulder more of the tax burden. That's why they want a flat tax. Trump is a populist, but the people who actually run the party are corporatists.
You are very confused about what liberals like me want and believe.
On a finer note, CRT explicitly rejects race essentialism. No one is telling anybody that they can't succeed because of the color of their skin. No one is saying that the reason you achieved something is that you're White. All "white privilege" means is that, in general, life tends to be a bit easier if you were born White than if you were born Black. Anyone who denies that is lying to themselves. It means you were more likely to be born into a good neighborhood with better schools and other resources. It means your parents probably had more social connections with people who decide who to hire and who to promote. I'm not even saying this is happening because people are explicitly racist. Most of this is the result of unconscious biases and habits of thought. And some of us think that making these unconscious biases more conscious might help make life a bit easier for Black people and other minorities in this country. And I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable.
We are not the assholes you think we are. You are assuming that we are acting in bad faith.
I am a very middle class taxpayer who does not itemize deductions. The Trump tax cuts "for the rich" doubled my standard deduction, which shielded an additional 15% or so of my gross income from being taxed. No Democratic administration in my lifetime has presided over a middle class tax cut, and I was born in the 1950's. When I look at states controlled by Democrats, I see the middle class paying not only state income taxes but sometimes municipal income taxes as well, with no apparent improvement in the quality of life or public services. And contrary to the meme that "The rich pay no taxes", the top 1% actually pays a little more than 40% of personal income taxes. And that's not even reaching the issue of Democratic complicity in globalization or offshoring of jobs.
You don't know what I think. You really don't. I don't assign bad faith. I believe you mean well and you think you are doing the right thing. But I also think, in so doing, you have lost your way.
I did read "White Fragility." It is, you should pardon the vulgarity, total crap. Professor DiAngelo's absurd book is specifically aimed at guilt-ridden white progressives who need some way of signaling their virtue and anti-racism without doing anything of substance that might entail real effort or disturb their comfortable lives. And of course, it's a typical specimen of Woke condensation: There you have an entitled white female academic presuming to speak on behalf of the dumb, helpless black underclass. Too funny by half...
I’m not opposed to reaping any benefits that happen along the way and I’m glad that Youngkin won in Virginia, truly a nice guy and I hope he builds on his success, but I’m not going to pretend that his benefitting from the hard work of Rufo, Nomami, and others in the anti-CRT movement makes him much different from a random lotto winner. He received an unearned gift, good for him and us, and I hope he does something good with it.
Yes. We should all thank Chris Rufo for promoting yet another right-wing Big Lie: Our schools are teaching kids that white people are oppressors and that they should hate America. Congratulations fellas. The lies worked. Hope you're proud.
Because I know the game. I have listened to him defend this. But here's the truth: the left controls everything. All institutions. Education, science, media, journalism, etc. They have the power to be authoritarians. The right does not. People would love it if these two sides were equal but at the moment they are not. If that ever changes then yes I would be more concerned.
You seem to be under the impression that we live in a leftist authoritarian state.
So who is going to prison and being tortured for criticizing the state? That's what happens in actual authoritarian states, like China, Cuba, and N. Korea.
In America, you can get rich by criticizing the state. Look at Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson et al.
Part of the problem is that the right in America doesn't value higher education, and you can't get involved in those institutions you mentioned unless you participate in higher education.
The right dominates talk radio, which is a "no liberal thought allowed" zone. It's the most illiberal institution in America, with the possible exception of churches.
You can also get rich by being a grifter and a charlatan, as in the entire "Lincoln Project", Kendi, Hannah-Jones, Diagnelo, and Kappernick - frauds and grifters all.
Perhaps...Hanity and Carlson have done well because they aren't criticizing the state as much as they are the news establishment which is overwhelmingly leftist. CNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, WaPo, NYT, Chicago Trib, LA Times - all left and pushing a narrative. The only mainstream outlets that are "right" are WSJ and Fox News.
You'd do well to step outside your echo chamber. The issue with so many on the left is they simply don't see how out of touch they are, and how offensive they can be at times. As a conservative it's impossible to avoid exposure to the leftist agenda - it's everywhere from the news outlets to academia to sports. It's very easy for leftists and liberals to avoid the opinions and news of the right as you would have to go looking for it or live in a particular community.
The right had George W. Bush for 8 years and Donald Trump for 4. Now the right has 6 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices. The right has had control of one or both houses of congress through many election cycles.
Scientific research is non-partisan.
David French is correct. We need to stop the would-be authoritarians on both sides, right and left. We need to return to polite discussion of issues. My Trumpian friends are not evil and neither am, I even though I lean left and am a Democrat.
Our tribalism is only benefitting a few at the top and we're not dealing with real societal issues.
I'm willing to admit that some people and ideas on the left go too far. Are you willing to admit that the same is true about the right? They are banning thought and banning books in schools for God's sake.
Oh please. You are so confused. Go read some actual history by top-notch intellectuals. They leave out the good things? It's not their job to decide which things are good or bad. They try to get at the real story of what happened as best they can, knowing they can never be completely accurate. They don't make value judgments. They try to stick to the facts, and they take any opportunity to make the story more real, and more accurate. This is the stuff that really gets their juices flowing. They love documents and artifacts and other evidence. The more the better, in their view.
Smith, you have an ignorant and wildly cynical view of what is being taught in high school and higher education. And you are very confused about what we on the left want and believe. I blame right-wing media, and fear mongers like these people at substack who have you in such a moral panic.
What new limits on the first amendment are we lefties pushing for? It's the right that wants to silence and undermine our free press. That's what fascists always do.
Elimination of the electoral college is a pipe dream by some on the left. We want to eliminate it because it's a completely unfair system. Why shouldn't we want a fairer system of government? Why should it be slanted toward rural areas? Where did the founders say that?
And pray tell, what evil things has Joe Biden done lately? Try to tax rich people to help make the lives of everyone else a bit better? The guy is Hitler!
I'm a whole lot safer from the "illiberal right" than from the Left. The "illiberal right" isn't going to attempt to force me to get vaccinated or lose my job. The "illiberal right" won't "cancel" me and try to ruin my life and threaten my family if they don't like my opinions. The "illiberal right" isn't going to negate my parental authority and my right to raise my children. The "illiberal right" won't vilify me for practicing my religion. David French has to bend over backwards for moral equivalency. I'm not buying it. Remember he was the one the Neo-Cons, led by Bill Krystal, wanted to run to challenge Donald Trump. Someone needs to ask David French if he voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden in 2020. That will tell it all. Hey, David French, are you proud of your vote now?
I hate to say this as a lifelong leftie, but I'm also a white guy, and I don't disagree that Trump-style authoritarianism would seem to largely consist of leaving me the fuck alone, whereas woke authoritarianism would consist of micromanaging the shit out of my day-to-day life, and constant risk of cancelation hanging over my head.
There was a time where liberals used to laugh at poor conservatives who were "voting against their own self-interest" in supporting Republicans who largely governed for the rich. But now this woke shit makes me think twice about what "voting for my own self-interest" would actually look like.
President Trump did not force anyone to do anything. Why he has some mannerisms and speech habits that irritate some people, when you look at his policies you will see that they were all pro-American and supported the Bill of Rights. He never exceeded his authority which is why he won every court challenge.
Not when he tried to overturn Biden's electoral victory. He certainly exceeded his authority there to unilaterally decide which votes were "fraudulent", which is why he lost those court challenges badly.
Trump absolutely would have performed a coup in 2020 had he not been thwarted, so he qualifies as an authoritarian. Now, what he would have done had he succeeded in installing himself as President-for-Life, is honestly not that totalitarian.
As far as Pennsylvania is concerned, in quite a few of those districts in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia there were more ballots cast then registered voters in those precincts. That's not fraud? How about six states stopping their counting at midnight and then "finding" hundreds of thousands of pristine ballots, some delivered by truck between midnight and 3 am, so that the vote tallies flipped from Trump ahead to Biden ahead. Dr. Shiva has documented this peculiar "fishtale" graph.
Correction: most judges avoided ruling, and prevented any presentation or hearing of evidence, Miles. Meanwhile I thought the leftists were hell-bent on fact-checking, but an election audit is the ultimate fact-check. Why are leftists determined to prevent and thwart any attempt at audits? Tells you all you need to know about the game on the ground.
Watch Virginia closely, between tonight when Youngkin appears to have won, and Friday afternoon when found votes have been tabulated.
miles...the judges were a part of the problem, They did not look at anything, because Nobody was able to bring a case, because the so called case was closed. what is taking place now , slowly, is trying to open the voting information to the public.
For sure, we do not know just yet but there is plenty of reason for anyone to question the outcome.
Most assured, in Penn. the Judges past a bill prier to the election, this bill changed the voting regs, many concerns, but please note that the ruling for Penn. to change ANY regs is accountable to Legislation and Not the Judges.
Also, first hand notice, i received 3 Ballots from 2 States and i voted on a forth ballot, never happened before...whoooopsy. Too many woooopsies...yep
Sufficient factual evidence has come out of Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia to KNOW there was a whole lot of vote fraud in the 2020 presidential counting. Steve Louder sent teams into Nevada to check out voters addresses from those mail in ballots. They found dozens of phony addresses such as the median on a highway, an empty lot, and the center of an intersection. We watched the fraud taking place at that huge consolidated counting center in Philadelphia. Following the Constitution and challenging questionable electoral votes is perfectly legal. It's a darn shame Mike Pence folded. Eventually a lot of the truth will out and the fraud will be proven. Check out Molly Hemingway's new book, Rigged.
Again, court challenges lost badly due to a lack of evidence. There's about as much evidence for mass voter fraud as their is for Kendi/DiAngelo style systemic racism; both are pure tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.
The court challenges, for the most part, did not look at any evidence. The cases were dismissed on technicalities related to standing and timeliness (laches) and were never progressed past the pleadings stage. In the 2 cases that actually looked at evidence (in Wisconsin), there were factual findings of wrongdoing but partisan judges again used laches as an excuse not to find in favor of the plaintiffs.
Bullshit. He identified and objected to an obviously fraudulent and in many ways illegally run election. Rigged by Mollie Hemingway elucidates much of this. What the Dems did over the last election was a coup.
I've read the court transcripts. 404 error fraud not found.
Even another Fox News truther just acknowledged in a separate thread that "Hemingway's book contains very little about the lawsuits". It's mostly about social media companies thumbing the scale of election discourse from what I gather.
The thing is, he's obviously not stupid. He knows the truth. It's apparent that his assignment/ mission is to keep the comfortably uninformed and ignorant from thinking outside of the "narrative." He's prepped with every MSM preapproved talking point there is. It's a waste of time trying to have a discussion with these types because that's not what they are here to do.
Trumps rhetoric was abhorrent to be sure, but a coup? I think you are being a bit hyperbolic. If Trump had truly attempted a coup a lot more than one foolish rioter would have died.
Can you point to any of his other authoritarian tendencies?
That Eastman memo was basically telling Pence to only count the votes for Trump, and to ignore all the votes against Trump. The rioters were mostly just an attempt to gain more leverage/pressure over Pence.
Kudos to Pence for drawing the line in the sand, and refusing to participate in a coup.
Drafting a memo based on a lawyers interpretation of Constitution and precedent, that was not acted upon by anyone does not meet the definition of a coup or even an attempted coup. I am not sure how to have a discussion with someone who describes everything they disagree with in such exaggerated terms. It tends to make language lose meaning.
Tax cuts on top personal tax brackets, capital gains exemptions, cutting estate taxes, etc. don't really help businesses, but they do help the rich get richer.
most small business owners aren't pulling millions per year out in salary/dividends/bonuses. I'm an accountant by trade, so I know some shit about taxes. Cutting marginal tax rates on top personal brackets helps out nobody except extremely high income earners. (Corporate tax cuts are a bit more complicated).
Sure, it's technically true that cutting personal taxes for billionaires helps out EVERYBODY that accumulates >$1 billion in wealth, but realistically, how many working class Republican voters become billionaires in their lifetime, or even their kids/grandkids lifetime?
The whole "voting against their own interest" thing could I supposed be restated as "voting for policies that will help them once they become billionaires (which is never)". 6 of one, 1/2 a dozen of the other.
the NeoCons, anti-Trump Republicans, Liz Cheney/Adam Kinzinger GOPers, the Lincoln Project are quite literally the worst of the worst. They are the greedy Wall St Scrooges. Their goal is power & greed & money; to destroy everyone & destroy America
It's always instructive to see what the actions are as opposed to the words. Trump's actions strengthened the USA in every way. Biden's actions have weakened the USA in every way. If Trump is such a racist, why did non-white employment reach its highest numbers under his economic program? Although I voted for Trump reluctantly in 2016 because Hillary is a subversive crook, I became pleasantly surprised by his actions in office. I was skeptical about the tariffs but he used them intelligently. He also improved our national security both at home and abroad. What is going on now on our Southern border is unbelievably dangerous. In six months or less we will see an increase in rapes, robberies, car accidents, etc. from many of these illegals. Couple this will this insane move to defund the police and reduce police numbers in many of our major cities. I thank God every day I live in Florida with a common sense governor and a Republican legislature.
I really don't get it: you admit you voted for the candidate that is by far the biggest existential threat to your way of life, rather than retain the administration that was trying to help you, because it was run by an a$$hole?? That is truly mad
Oh, please--more dissembling from one of the least believable men in America. In his convictions, David French has all the consistency and courage of whichever way the wind is blowing. For all practical purposes, there is NO MORAL DOWNSIDE to objecting to, and fighting against, the nihilistic fascism of the Woke Left.
Far from being an attempt at fairness, this article piles on the unfairness by pretending the two sides are equally guilty. This has happened here over and over again, more's the pity
I got about two paragraphs in and thought, "Who is this RINO clown?". Then I started looking for the apologist bullshit that always flows from these people. I was not disappointed.
I find logical fallacies in the push against CRT bans. We should not teach kids falsehoods. Period. No matter what “theory” someone has put there. If you are born with a Y gene there is no way to grow into a “real” woman. One may grow into a transgender woman, but they will never be an actual woman. Telling 6 year olds their bodies will fundamentally change based on their feelings is lying to them. There are people who believe in beating kids. We should not teach them this is a valid form of discipline because we know it is harmful. People believe that race is foundational to our individual being, but modern humans can’t be genetically divided into distinct races. We should not be teaching it. There is even a terrifying movement to be “accepting” of pedophiles…. That is wrong.
I am not in favor of banning hard conversations or discussing controversial theories in society. But we ban all sorts of things from places they are not appropriate - or at least we used to - especially in regards to children during their most foundational years.
There are ideas we SHOULD BAN from k-12 schools. For the sake of this healthy development of children. That is NOT the same as banning these theories where they belong in the university system and the wider society.
This constant conflating of what gets taught to 7 year olds at public with school with the woke, useless, illiberal mess our university system has become is infuriating. A 7 year old has very little in common with a 19 year old academically. That reality should be acknowledged.
Absolutely. We should let kids be kids and teach them the skills to think for themselves. You know, give them the fishing pole instead of the fish. Teach grammar, rhetoric, math, science and physical ed and civics when they are in 8th grade. Teaching kids nuanced and difficult subjects like deconstructivism is not a good idea while language and learning skills are still under construction. As a right-leaning Libertarian I fail to see how "anti-CRT" laws benefit anyone. Two wrongs do not make a right. I support the parents right to express their displeasure at their school boards, but the school boards should pay attention to the parents. What I see are two groups shouting at each other, but not at all listening.
I respect your perspective but still disagree. Teaching young children, in school no less, idiocy like CRT does not serve the children or the public. If parents want to teach their children Marxist ideological crap, that’s fine, but not on the taxpayer dollar.
We ban, or once did snd still should, all sorts of stuff from schools. One would find it appalling to say “we shouldn’t ban KKK propaganda from schools.” I see very little difference between KKK pro-segregationist, pro-vigilante, racists ideology and CRT. It pushed the same bs. Here is the BS pushed by both the KKK AND propers of CRT: Judge people by their skin tone. If the law won’t rid society of the “other,” then you should. All of societies problems fall at the feet of a particular race. Segregation is not only good, but necessary to “protect” people from the evil other race……
It should absolutely be banned from public schools. It’s not education, has absolutely nothing to do with educating kids to have marketable skills (unless being a paid Soros activist is now some mainstream employment field millions of children should be “prepared” for).
I understand the free speech argument, but public education already censors all kinds of speech, I see no good reason that a place which bans the Bible should not also be forced to ban text associated with the religion of the woke.
David French thinks we should teach all sorts of theories including critical race theory, but I'm pretty sure he's against teaching that the earth is flat, or that the universe is here through divine intervention or whatever that religious creationist stuff was.
In the United States, we teach proven theories like gravity exists, we don't teach racist separatist garbage.
Agree completely. CRT and the KKK share a similar ideology (one race is responsible for all of societies problems, the law doesn't protect our race from the evil race so take the law into your own hands. We must segregate society to keep people "safe" from the evil race). I mean, the KKK and CRT really are very similar - and they are both a bunch of evil BS. If the Bible is banned in school, so should the text that guides the religion of the woke. That doesn't mean banning either the Bible from society at large or CRT (though I'll be happy when CRT recedes to the tiny bigoted corners away from the majority of society just as KKK ideology has). I'm not promoting banning other parents from teaching whatever crap they want to teach their kids. But I am absolutely for banning ideological nonsense that has absolutely NOTHING to do with preparing kids to be productive members of society with marketable skills from public schools. There is nothing super compelling about the religion of wokeness that gives it some separate status as necessary t teach in taxpayer funded public schools. Its a theory, a very bad one completely debunked by actual data. And the proponents of CRT have turned it into a religion. Get it out of taxpayer funded schools.
Give me a break. The only equivalency with the hate-filled Wokeists is the hate-filled Alt-Right, but the biggest difference between the two is that while Wokeists seem to have enough power to convince American corporations to adopt their racist agenda, the Alt-Right does not.
There is absolutely no similarities between normal conservatives and Wokeists.
This is a frighteningly ignorant and completely false strawman you've created, David French, but I shouldn't be surprised it's you who did it.
1. Is anyone surprise that 5 years of insanity, censorship and bullying from the progressive/woke mob would not produce some reaction from the other tribe. It shocks me that we have not seen a dramatic rise in violence from the far-right, and we may yet.
2. Please don’t ever mention David French’s name or publish anything he writes again. First, he has been wrong about nearly everything that time has been allowed to shine a light on. Second, he is tethered to no real ideology other than some level of annoying lecturing social conservative piety. Third, he is the worst kind of elite Republican who had and has a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome - he should throw in with the hacks at The Lincoln Project. Please, please, please - spare me David French!
He's the type of person who is very useful to the left. They can point to him and say 'see, even Republicans agree!' He'll basically react with furious anger at any right wing transgressions, but when the left is up to no good he's eager to run cover for them. He might agree they're not great, but he'll never be in favor of doing anything about it.
I think it’s useful to keep the court jester around so we can all point and laugh and use him as an example of what not to become. Rock. Chalk. Jayhawk.
Perfect timing as a podcast comes on with audio of the now adult Greta Thunberg screaming incoherently in genuine terror about the ocean attacking her, thanks to the abuse she experienced at the hands of utopian collectivist scumbags as a child.
Psychological abuse and manipulation is effective, people. Especially with kids.
ALL of this crap has serious consequences and the people who supported and/or hand-waved the systematic child abuse that is now in full view will live in infamy.
“Why aren’t people having kids and repopulating the nation that we told them was despicable and dangerous? Why won’t the people we trained to believe capitalism is slavery take jobs? There’s no food. Why are black children, who we trained to believe that everyone secretly and instinctively hates them, hopeless?”
We don’t need a conservative alternative. We need to stop the people who are psychologically abusing children instead of teaching them about electrons.
You don’t debate a rapist in the marketplace of ideas. You intervene and stop the rape.
“Let’s deal with the confusion first. The most notorious example of this came two weeks ago in Southlake, Texas, when a school administrator told teachers that, if they include a “book on the Holocaust” in their syllabi, then they also have to include one with “opposing perspectives.”
———————————————————-
Oh good a notorious example. Just like the notorious example of the tiki torchers by Youngkins bus.
There wasn’t a link to the audio (I didn’t see a link to the audio within the link provided either). If there was a link to the audio you could hear that the middle aged hag school administrator was a generic Democrat hack who was derisively slippery slope strawmanning the bill in a meeting to suggest that it requires both sides of the Holocaust. It doesn’t. You’re dumb if you think it requires that (or lying.......ahem).
Speaking of straw men, most of this faux conservatism is simply an embrace of the left-wing straw man that conservatives want zero government. No, we want limited government and banning **public funds** for porn and the exact curriculum the CCP would implement is one place that this limited government absolutely should jump in.
These are children.
Next we will have an underhanded bad faith column about how private companies can do whatever they want and simply cannot be regulated..........which I will read while glancing at the compelled speech (nutrition facts) on the side of the Diet Coke can on my desk.
I have never understood how the right-wing limited government side wants total control of unwanted pregnancies and the left-wing cradle-to-grave-government-intrusion side does not even recognize the existence of the unborn.
I think you would find that most small government types would be happy to have abortion sent back to the states even if they kinda think it’s murder. The rest absolutely think it is literal murder so it’s not at all confusing why they want a total prohibition. I think even anarchists want murder to be prohibited.
The anti-woke right is a position of "leave me the fuck alone and let me live my own life"
The woke left position is "government should dictate what you can do, say or earn based on your victim group identity."
It is funny when I read attempts at "right vs left" moral equivalency. I can see the left-tolerant attraction given the fact that the woke left position is adopted by our elite ruling media-chattering political class. How do you be recognized as one of the cool kids while pointing out the cohort of cool kids is mentally deranged? Maybe the cool kids are not really the cool kids?
The woke left position is far worse than that - it is we, the cultural (Hollywood types), intellectual (Haa-av-a-ad, et al types), athletic (Kaepernick, James, et al), and technological elites (Zuckerburg, Gates, et al) are superior to you commoners and we know what is best for you peons. They are a hive and they believe resistance is futile. I am galled.
good one Lynne...did you see where Kaepernick has put the NFL on Notice (my word) "that the NFL is a form of , you got it, Slavery"... oh my, what to do now, so funny.
It's good to know what David French is thinking, and his misrepresentations of right wing "threat" and his own right wing "cred" are adroit. Don't fall for it, friends.
Common sense tells you all you need to know about CRT in schools. It's the New Racism and it's got to go.
French remains the same clown he was during his anti-Trump days. In this case, he goes out of his way NOT to mention that the material the "illiberal" Tennessee moms are complaining about is being taught to second graders. That's kids who are 7 and 8 years old FFS. Go read the complaint of the parents and look at the absolutely fucking intense and crazy shit that is being forced on them at that impressionable age. And make no mistake, it is being done at that age for a very, very obvious reason.
Welcome to French-ism. This guy would have wanted to have Poland slowly and carefully weigh their options as the blitzkrieg overran their country in 1939. The Constitution is under a blitzkrieg attack and the fight is not for the faint of heart or French-ism.
Bari, thanks for giving Mr. Chamberlain..err, French a venue to show how he thinks. This isn't sarcasm, you do present different views and I appreciate that.
Schools have limited time with students and students, especially young ones, need to be taught a lot of stuff that'll be important to their futures. I'm pretty sure that doesn't include learning that they should feel guilty because some people who share their skin color did terrible things to other people with different skin color. Just who does that help, anyway?
Unfortunately David misses the forest for the trees. I cannot pretend to be an expert on these CRT laws; they may or may not be poorly written. But French fails to address the possibility that there COULD be a good law combatting CRT. He just says these are bad. Well, maybe. The point I think is to try and not allow anyone to say essentially 'oh, you're skin color is X? Well then, you're an oppressor/oppressed.' Nobody should be categorized as something based on their skin color. But French completely ignores this to focus on some anecdotes, carefully chosen.
And yes the both sides ism is a problem. There is no equivalency here. The right is capable of being bad, sure. But the power is on the side of the left. They control the bureaucracy of the federal government including the military industrial complex; Hollywood; massive corporations; academia; the news media. To name a few. The right has nothing close to that level of influence.
He mentions some racist incidents, and that's deplorable no doubt. But how is it not just as bad to be smeared as a white supremacist or nazi for daring to disagree? That is truly awful.
The problem is that there is no room for debate from the left. None. You have professors being banned for supporting the meritocracy, apologizing for facts and research. My daughter's humanities magnet was based on CRT (you can look it up for yourself as they still have the same program in place -- corebaby.org). Because she grew up in Southern California and attended extremely progressive schools under the leadership of Barack Obama, she wasn't exactly inundated with racism day in and day out. Thus, when the school began the practice of dividing children and making the white children sit outside the circle and not participate because nothing they would say would be of value it was something my daughter didn't understand and couldn't process. She became depressed and hopeless. This was in 2015. Even before Trump took power. The extremism has been rising on the left to such a degree that Bret Weinstein was chased off campus at Evergreen in 2018. The idea that white people are oppressors and that there is such a thing as white violence is bizarre and an odd thing to foist upon young kids who can't possibly process this.
A ban is a silly thing to do because it is impossible. CRT is the entire world view of not just the left, but the entire establishment elite. You can't ban it even if you wanted to. But what we must fight for is critical thinking about critical theory. The debate has to be open. If it can't be, if it fundamentalism then it is a religion and should be kept out of schools.
Great comment.
French’s Swamp Civility—“we must not fight too hard against the people who are brainwashing our children, spreading racism, and telling gay teenagers to deform their bodies through surgery ... and we must tone down our rhetoric any time an isolated lunatic from our side does something embarrassing”—needs to be left in the past.
The stakes are way too high right now. The weakness French prefers is dangerous.
Why did anyone expect anything better from French, most of whose recent career has been spent covering for the Elites' trashing of the Rabble?
how hard is too hard when gay/traumatized/ASD kids are being told to undergo sterilization for distress, and other kids are told, based on the color of their skin, that it is impossible for them to tell the truth?
Sasha, I think you're right about the futility about trying to ban CRT or what state legislators think is the essence of it. I am also wary of Republican politicians who want to ride the coat tails of this issue in their desperate, Johnny Come Lately fetching for something to give them a stamp of relevance. Over several decades the left was able to spread its poison in public schools and universities in states under Republican leadership with no pushback. The did the same in the federal bureaucracy for almost four year under Trump, unnoticed, until Christopher Rufo pointed it out to him last year. This isn't something they cared about until lightbulbs went on in their heads that the issue could be quickly mined to their benefit. A raft of poorly conceived anti-CRT laws, passed in Republican-led states, is the result.
Yes and the problem is that there are two things at play here. One is CRT (has been around for a while) and the other is "antiracism" - which rose to prominence in 2020. The "white fragility" ideology that people clung to in the wake of Floyd's death. THAT is really what people are objecting to but it is easier to call it CRT because it works better in terms of making people afraid. So here is a good example - the Oscars (which I cover for a living) have been working towards "inclusion and diversity" for a while now. They even implemented a mandate to take place in 2024. But after 2020 the BAFTA took away their members rights to nominate actors and directors, choosing instead a small committee to hand pick the nominees to ensure equity and diversity. One is addressing something necessary that has been ignored for too long and the other simply destroys the whole point of film awards. THAT is what people are responding to, the extreme reaction and irrational obsession with race by the left.
Did you read White Fragility? She's basically trying to help white people understand that some of the things they say about Black people or to Black people are cringeworthy from a Black person's perspective. Liberal White people are reading the book because they want to learn how to avoid saying things that will upset Black people. Conservatives, by comparison, are angry at the book and are attacking it without even understanding it or reading it.
And as a liberal, I value diversity, but I don't value it OVER merit. I value diversity because I understand that implicit biases tend to mean that White people tend to focus more on, and therefore overvalue, the achievements of other White people, over minorities. By the way, this seems to work both ways. In the NFL Black general managers tend to hire more Black coaches, for example. I think it's important to fight back against these tendencies in human nature, which I think is why BAFTA chose that approach. It's an intentional effort to combat these insidious tendencies.
Are you white Matt? How I see this: it serves people like you. It does nothing for anyone else. It makes the BAFTA look good. It does nothing for the nominees who know they are being chosen not because of ability but because of skin color. It helps the very rich and the very white relieve their guilt. They can't really fight a class war anymore because the Trump supporters are mostly white working class poor. So it has to be about race. This way the richest celebrities or athletes or politicians are still in the oppressed category because there is no way out of the trap of skin color. Nothing can ever be achieved truly because white people have to hand it to you. Bestow it upon you as a gift and guess what that does for them? It makes them feel better and look better. Poor Robin Diangelo does sound like a racist to me. She is uncomfortable around black people and feels guilty about that. I was taught about racism as a young girl by my stepfather - and I appreciated those lessons. Teaching CRT as an alternative viewpoint is not bad. Teaching kids that they can never escape their skin color and achieve anything or that the only reason they achieved anything is because they're white is silly. Imagine what a young Barack Obama would have thought if they told him that. Or Oprah for that matter.
So you're a psychologist? You read people's minds? I think you generally hate people on the left, and you can't stand to think of us as decent human beings. So you make up what you think our "real motives" are. We're only doing it to feel good about ourselves or to assuage our guilt. It couldn't possibly be that we see injustices in our society and genuinely want to make our society more just, right?
Also, the Dems are still fighting the class war. They still want to tax rich people (of all races) and use the funds to give poor people a better shot at success in life. A progressive income tax helps everyone, of all colors. And believe it or not, it even helps rich people. If you support Republicans, you support the party that wants to give rich people tax cuts and let the working class shoulder more of the tax burden. That's why they want a flat tax. Trump is a populist, but the people who actually run the party are corporatists.
You are very confused about what liberals like me want and believe.
On a finer note, CRT explicitly rejects race essentialism. No one is telling anybody that they can't succeed because of the color of their skin. No one is saying that the reason you achieved something is that you're White. All "white privilege" means is that, in general, life tends to be a bit easier if you were born White than if you were born Black. Anyone who denies that is lying to themselves. It means you were more likely to be born into a good neighborhood with better schools and other resources. It means your parents probably had more social connections with people who decide who to hire and who to promote. I'm not even saying this is happening because people are explicitly racist. Most of this is the result of unconscious biases and habits of thought. And some of us think that making these unconscious biases more conscious might help make life a bit easier for Black people and other minorities in this country. And I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable.
We are not the assholes you think we are. You are assuming that we are acting in bad faith.
I am a very middle class taxpayer who does not itemize deductions. The Trump tax cuts "for the rich" doubled my standard deduction, which shielded an additional 15% or so of my gross income from being taxed. No Democratic administration in my lifetime has presided over a middle class tax cut, and I was born in the 1950's. When I look at states controlled by Democrats, I see the middle class paying not only state income taxes but sometimes municipal income taxes as well, with no apparent improvement in the quality of life or public services. And contrary to the meme that "The rich pay no taxes", the top 1% actually pays a little more than 40% of personal income taxes. And that's not even reaching the issue of Democratic complicity in globalization or offshoring of jobs.
You don't know what I think. You really don't. I don't assign bad faith. I believe you mean well and you think you are doing the right thing. But I also think, in so doing, you have lost your way.
You're 💯% acting in bad faith and now EVERYONE is woke to the evil of the left.
"You are assuming that we are acting in bad faith" because most of you do so, esp. your leaders.
See e.g. Taibbi, at https://taibbi.substack.com/p/rachel-maddows-shocking-new-low , on how Wokester wheels fail to come clean on any of their years-long RussiaGate deceit.
I did read "White Fragility." It is, you should pardon the vulgarity, total crap. Professor DiAngelo's absurd book is specifically aimed at guilt-ridden white progressives who need some way of signaling their virtue and anti-racism without doing anything of substance that might entail real effort or disturb their comfortable lives. And of course, it's a typical specimen of Woke condensation: There you have an entitled white female academic presuming to speak on behalf of the dumb, helpless black underclass. Too funny by half...
I read it exactly as you did. It is horse pucky. It condescends to blacks and demeans them.
welp...what is going to happen, as in" johnny come lately" is/was the only approach, since it was already in the process, so coat tails were the way.
Unnoticed...because the issue "CRT" was not covered, as in who is C. Rufo...thanks.
I’m not opposed to reaping any benefits that happen along the way and I’m glad that Youngkin won in Virginia, truly a nice guy and I hope he builds on his success, but I’m not going to pretend that his benefitting from the hard work of Rufo, Nomami, and others in the anti-CRT movement makes him much different from a random lotto winner. He received an unearned gift, good for him and us, and I hope he does something good with it.
Yes. We should all thank Chris Rufo for promoting yet another right-wing Big Lie: Our schools are teaching kids that white people are oppressors and that they should hate America. Congratulations fellas. The lies worked. Hope you're proud.
You didn't acknowledge any of David French's concerns. All you're doing is deflecting. But, but, but... the left!
Because I know the game. I have listened to him defend this. But here's the truth: the left controls everything. All institutions. Education, science, media, journalism, etc. They have the power to be authoritarians. The right does not. People would love it if these two sides were equal but at the moment they are not. If that ever changes then yes I would be more concerned.
Which is why we are seeing the rise of a new era of populism.
You seem to be under the impression that we live in a leftist authoritarian state.
So who is going to prison and being tortured for criticizing the state? That's what happens in actual authoritarian states, like China, Cuba, and N. Korea.
In America, you can get rich by criticizing the state. Look at Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson et al.
Part of the problem is that the right in America doesn't value higher education, and you can't get involved in those institutions you mentioned unless you participate in higher education.
The right dominates talk radio, which is a "no liberal thought allowed" zone. It's the most illiberal institution in America, with the possible exception of churches.
You can also get rich by being a grifter and a charlatan, as in the entire "Lincoln Project", Kendi, Hannah-Jones, Diagnelo, and Kappernick - frauds and grifters all.
Perhaps...Hanity and Carlson have done well because they aren't criticizing the state as much as they are the news establishment which is overwhelmingly leftist. CNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, WaPo, NYT, Chicago Trib, LA Times - all left and pushing a narrative. The only mainstream outlets that are "right" are WSJ and Fox News.
You'd do well to step outside your echo chamber. The issue with so many on the left is they simply don't see how out of touch they are, and how offensive they can be at times. As a conservative it's impossible to avoid exposure to the leftist agenda - it's everywhere from the news outlets to academia to sports. It's very easy for leftists and liberals to avoid the opinions and news of the right as you would have to go looking for it or live in a particular community.
WSJ editorial pages bend right but the news is written to the narrative.
The right had George W. Bush for 8 years and Donald Trump for 4. Now the right has 6 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices. The right has had control of one or both houses of congress through many election cycles.
Scientific research is non-partisan.
David French is correct. We need to stop the would-be authoritarians on both sides, right and left. We need to return to polite discussion of issues. My Trumpian friends are not evil and neither am, I even though I lean left and am a Democrat.
Our tribalism is only benefitting a few at the top and we're not dealing with real societal issues.
I'm willing to admit that some people and ideas on the left go too far. Are you willing to admit that the same is true about the right? They are banning thought and banning books in schools for God's sake.
I don't know what video you're talking about. Not ringing a bell.
Oh please. You are so confused. Go read some actual history by top-notch intellectuals. They leave out the good things? It's not their job to decide which things are good or bad. They try to get at the real story of what happened as best they can, knowing they can never be completely accurate. They don't make value judgments. They try to stick to the facts, and they take any opportunity to make the story more real, and more accurate. This is the stuff that really gets their juices flowing. They love documents and artifacts and other evidence. The more the better, in their view.
Smith, you have an ignorant and wildly cynical view of what is being taught in high school and higher education. And you are very confused about what we on the left want and believe. I blame right-wing media, and fear mongers like these people at substack who have you in such a moral panic.
What new limits on the first amendment are we lefties pushing for? It's the right that wants to silence and undermine our free press. That's what fascists always do.
Elimination of the electoral college is a pipe dream by some on the left. We want to eliminate it because it's a completely unfair system. Why shouldn't we want a fairer system of government? Why should it be slanted toward rural areas? Where did the founders say that?
And pray tell, what evil things has Joe Biden done lately? Try to tax rich people to help make the lives of everyone else a bit better? The guy is Hitler!
And in control of everything.
I'd claim it's the illiberal part of the left. What can those on the left and right and wherever else who believe in liberal democracy act?
I tried your link and couldn't find anything referring to CRT or DEI training.
Am I missing it or has it been taken down?
Is CRT racist?
Yes.
I am asking Sasha.
My apologies.
Np. Just curious of her opinion.
I'm a whole lot safer from the "illiberal right" than from the Left. The "illiberal right" isn't going to attempt to force me to get vaccinated or lose my job. The "illiberal right" won't "cancel" me and try to ruin my life and threaten my family if they don't like my opinions. The "illiberal right" isn't going to negate my parental authority and my right to raise my children. The "illiberal right" won't vilify me for practicing my religion. David French has to bend over backwards for moral equivalency. I'm not buying it. Remember he was the one the Neo-Cons, led by Bill Krystal, wanted to run to challenge Donald Trump. Someone needs to ask David French if he voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden in 2020. That will tell it all. Hey, David French, are you proud of your vote now?
I hate to say this as a lifelong leftie, but I'm also a white guy, and I don't disagree that Trump-style authoritarianism would seem to largely consist of leaving me the fuck alone, whereas woke authoritarianism would consist of micromanaging the shit out of my day-to-day life, and constant risk of cancelation hanging over my head.
There was a time where liberals used to laugh at poor conservatives who were "voting against their own self-interest" in supporting Republicans who largely governed for the rich. But now this woke shit makes me think twice about what "voting for my own self-interest" would actually look like.
President Trump did not force anyone to do anything. Why he has some mannerisms and speech habits that irritate some people, when you look at his policies you will see that they were all pro-American and supported the Bill of Rights. He never exceeded his authority which is why he won every court challenge.
Not when he tried to overturn Biden's electoral victory. He certainly exceeded his authority there to unilaterally decide which votes were "fraudulent", which is why he lost those court challenges badly.
Trump absolutely would have performed a coup in 2020 had he not been thwarted, so he qualifies as an authoritarian. Now, what he would have done had he succeeded in installing himself as President-for-Life, is honestly not that totalitarian.
As far as Pennsylvania is concerned, in quite a few of those districts in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia there were more ballots cast then registered voters in those precincts. That's not fraud? How about six states stopping their counting at midnight and then "finding" hundreds of thousands of pristine ballots, some delivered by truck between midnight and 3 am, so that the vote tallies flipped from Trump ahead to Biden ahead. Dr. Shiva has documented this peculiar "fishtale" graph.
Tell it to the judge. Oh wait, that's been tried, and every judge laughed the claims out of court, and for good reason.
Correction: most judges avoided ruling, and prevented any presentation or hearing of evidence, Miles. Meanwhile I thought the leftists were hell-bent on fact-checking, but an election audit is the ultimate fact-check. Why are leftists determined to prevent and thwart any attempt at audits? Tells you all you need to know about the game on the ground.
Watch Virginia closely, between tonight when Youngkin appears to have won, and Friday afternoon when found votes have been tabulated.
miles...the judges were a part of the problem, They did not look at anything, because Nobody was able to bring a case, because the so called case was closed. what is taking place now , slowly, is trying to open the voting information to the public.
For sure, we do not know just yet but there is plenty of reason for anyone to question the outcome.
Most assured, in Penn. the Judges past a bill prier to the election, this bill changed the voting regs, many concerns, but please note that the ruling for Penn. to change ANY regs is accountable to Legislation and Not the Judges.
Also, first hand notice, i received 3 Ballots from 2 States and i voted on a forth ballot, never happened before...whoooopsy. Too many woooopsies...yep
Sufficient factual evidence has come out of Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia to KNOW there was a whole lot of vote fraud in the 2020 presidential counting. Steve Louder sent teams into Nevada to check out voters addresses from those mail in ballots. They found dozens of phony addresses such as the median on a highway, an empty lot, and the center of an intersection. We watched the fraud taking place at that huge consolidated counting center in Philadelphia. Following the Constitution and challenging questionable electoral votes is perfectly legal. It's a darn shame Mike Pence folded. Eventually a lot of the truth will out and the fraud will be proven. Check out Molly Hemingway's new book, Rigged.
Again, court challenges lost badly due to a lack of evidence. There's about as much evidence for mass voter fraud as their is for Kendi/DiAngelo style systemic racism; both are pure tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.
The court challenges, for the most part, did not look at any evidence. The cases were dismissed on technicalities related to standing and timeliness (laches) and were never progressed past the pleadings stage. In the 2 cases that actually looked at evidence (in Wisconsin), there were factual findings of wrongdoing but partisan judges again used laches as an excuse not to find in favor of the plaintiffs.
Read the book asshole
Bullshit. He identified and objected to an obviously fraudulent and in many ways illegally run election. Rigged by Mollie Hemingway elucidates much of this. What the Dems did over the last election was a coup.
I've read the court transcripts. 404 error fraud not found.
Even another Fox News truther just acknowledged in a separate thread that "Hemingway's book contains very little about the lawsuits". It's mostly about social media companies thumbing the scale of election discourse from what I gather.
The thing is, he's obviously not stupid. He knows the truth. It's apparent that his assignment/ mission is to keep the comfortably uninformed and ignorant from thinking outside of the "narrative." He's prepped with every MSM preapproved talking point there is. It's a waste of time trying to have a discussion with these types because that's not what they are here to do.
fine, you caught me. I'm a sockpuppet account run by Kamala Harris.
That's ridiculous, Miles. Pure hyperbole...
I've read Eastman's memos. No hyperbole required. Trump really did try to pull off a coup.
I've read Hemingway's book - he did not try to pull of a coup. You are struggling to support your tyrannical party.
No he didn't. He wanted the state legislatures to do their Constitutional duty and affirm the slate of electors. That's not a coup.
Trumps rhetoric was abhorrent to be sure, but a coup? I think you are being a bit hyperbolic. If Trump had truly attempted a coup a lot more than one foolish rioter would have died.
Can you point to any of his other authoritarian tendencies?
That Eastman memo was basically telling Pence to only count the votes for Trump, and to ignore all the votes against Trump. The rioters were mostly just an attempt to gain more leverage/pressure over Pence.
Kudos to Pence for drawing the line in the sand, and refusing to participate in a coup.
Drafting a memo based on a lawyers interpretation of Constitution and precedent, that was not acted upon by anyone does not meet the definition of a coup or even an attempted coup. I am not sure how to have a discussion with someone who describes everything they disagree with in such exaggerated terms. It tends to make language lose meaning.
Oh. Please.
this from the person who asked for an explanation. I guess the lesson here is don't ask questions you don't want to hear the answers to.
I just didn't imagine that it would be quite that ridiculous.
Trump took away our bump stocks.
Please explain "Trump style authoritarianism" to me.
There is no explanation because Trump is not an authoritarian and his administration promoted all the rights in the Bill of Rights.
and yet, somehow I found a way to post a reply
Votes for Trump = real, votes for Biden = fake
Bingo.
Tax cuts on top personal tax brackets, capital gains exemptions, cutting estate taxes, etc. don't really help businesses, but they do help the rich get richer.
most small business owners aren't pulling millions per year out in salary/dividends/bonuses. I'm an accountant by trade, so I know some shit about taxes. Cutting marginal tax rates on top personal brackets helps out nobody except extremely high income earners. (Corporate tax cuts are a bit more complicated).
Sure, it's technically true that cutting personal taxes for billionaires helps out EVERYBODY that accumulates >$1 billion in wealth, but realistically, how many working class Republican voters become billionaires in their lifetime, or even their kids/grandkids lifetime?
The whole "voting against their own interest" thing could I supposed be restated as "voting for policies that will help them once they become billionaires (which is never)". 6 of one, 1/2 a dozen of the other.
the NeoCons, anti-Trump Republicans, Liz Cheney/Adam Kinzinger GOPers, the Lincoln Project are quite literally the worst of the worst. They are the greedy Wall St Scrooges. Their goal is power & greed & money; to destroy everyone & destroy America
I agree, David did not give the best advice re Trump and so we got JB. I think his advice here is very libertarian but so are open borders.
It's always instructive to see what the actions are as opposed to the words. Trump's actions strengthened the USA in every way. Biden's actions have weakened the USA in every way. If Trump is such a racist, why did non-white employment reach its highest numbers under his economic program? Although I voted for Trump reluctantly in 2016 because Hillary is a subversive crook, I became pleasantly surprised by his actions in office. I was skeptical about the tariffs but he used them intelligently. He also improved our national security both at home and abroad. What is going on now on our Southern border is unbelievably dangerous. In six months or less we will see an increase in rapes, robberies, car accidents, etc. from many of these illegals. Couple this will this insane move to defund the police and reduce police numbers in many of our major cities. I thank God every day I live in Florida with a common sense governor and a Republican legislature.
I really don't get it: you admit you voted for the candidate that is by far the biggest existential threat to your way of life, rather than retain the administration that was trying to help you, because it was run by an a$$hole?? That is truly mad
Biden is a different kind of con man. He won the primary by NOT being woke/far left; people wanted a moderate President.
Then when he got into office he more or less handed the reins to Kamala and AOC.
But wasn’t it obvious from the get go that Biden was just a card-board shield?
I'll be honest, he fooled me.
I thought those were border patrol agents with the reins.
Laughed pretty hard at that one not gonna lie
Oh, please--more dissembling from one of the least believable men in America. In his convictions, David French has all the consistency and courage of whichever way the wind is blowing. For all practical purposes, there is NO MORAL DOWNSIDE to objecting to, and fighting against, the nihilistic fascism of the Woke Left.
Far from being an attempt at fairness, this article piles on the unfairness by pretending the two sides are equally guilty. This has happened here over and over again, more's the pity
I got about two paragraphs in and thought, "Who is this RINO clown?". Then I started looking for the apologist bullshit that always flows from these people. I was not disappointed.
French is a fraud
I find logical fallacies in the push against CRT bans. We should not teach kids falsehoods. Period. No matter what “theory” someone has put there. If you are born with a Y gene there is no way to grow into a “real” woman. One may grow into a transgender woman, but they will never be an actual woman. Telling 6 year olds their bodies will fundamentally change based on their feelings is lying to them. There are people who believe in beating kids. We should not teach them this is a valid form of discipline because we know it is harmful. People believe that race is foundational to our individual being, but modern humans can’t be genetically divided into distinct races. We should not be teaching it. There is even a terrifying movement to be “accepting” of pedophiles…. That is wrong.
I am not in favor of banning hard conversations or discussing controversial theories in society. But we ban all sorts of things from places they are not appropriate - or at least we used to - especially in regards to children during their most foundational years.
There are ideas we SHOULD BAN from k-12 schools. For the sake of this healthy development of children. That is NOT the same as banning these theories where they belong in the university system and the wider society.
This constant conflating of what gets taught to 7 year olds at public with school with the woke, useless, illiberal mess our university system has become is infuriating. A 7 year old has very little in common with a 19 year old academically. That reality should be acknowledged.
Absolutely. We should let kids be kids and teach them the skills to think for themselves. You know, give them the fishing pole instead of the fish. Teach grammar, rhetoric, math, science and physical ed and civics when they are in 8th grade. Teaching kids nuanced and difficult subjects like deconstructivism is not a good idea while language and learning skills are still under construction. As a right-leaning Libertarian I fail to see how "anti-CRT" laws benefit anyone. Two wrongs do not make a right. I support the parents right to express their displeasure at their school boards, but the school boards should pay attention to the parents. What I see are two groups shouting at each other, but not at all listening.
I respect your perspective but still disagree. Teaching young children, in school no less, idiocy like CRT does not serve the children or the public. If parents want to teach their children Marxist ideological crap, that’s fine, but not on the taxpayer dollar.
We ban, or once did snd still should, all sorts of stuff from schools. One would find it appalling to say “we shouldn’t ban KKK propaganda from schools.” I see very little difference between KKK pro-segregationist, pro-vigilante, racists ideology and CRT. It pushed the same bs. Here is the BS pushed by both the KKK AND propers of CRT: Judge people by their skin tone. If the law won’t rid society of the “other,” then you should. All of societies problems fall at the feet of a particular race. Segregation is not only good, but necessary to “protect” people from the evil other race……
It should absolutely be banned from public schools. It’s not education, has absolutely nothing to do with educating kids to have marketable skills (unless being a paid Soros activist is now some mainstream employment field millions of children should be “prepared” for).
I understand the free speech argument, but public education already censors all kinds of speech, I see no good reason that a place which bans the Bible should not also be forced to ban text associated with the religion of the woke.
David French thinks we should teach all sorts of theories including critical race theory, but I'm pretty sure he's against teaching that the earth is flat, or that the universe is here through divine intervention or whatever that religious creationist stuff was.
In the United States, we teach proven theories like gravity exists, we don't teach racist separatist garbage.
Agree completely. CRT and the KKK share a similar ideology (one race is responsible for all of societies problems, the law doesn't protect our race from the evil race so take the law into your own hands. We must segregate society to keep people "safe" from the evil race). I mean, the KKK and CRT really are very similar - and they are both a bunch of evil BS. If the Bible is banned in school, so should the text that guides the religion of the woke. That doesn't mean banning either the Bible from society at large or CRT (though I'll be happy when CRT recedes to the tiny bigoted corners away from the majority of society just as KKK ideology has). I'm not promoting banning other parents from teaching whatever crap they want to teach their kids. But I am absolutely for banning ideological nonsense that has absolutely NOTHING to do with preparing kids to be productive members of society with marketable skills from public schools. There is nothing super compelling about the religion of wokeness that gives it some separate status as necessary t teach in taxpayer funded public schools. Its a theory, a very bad one completely debunked by actual data. And the proponents of CRT have turned it into a religion. Get it out of taxpayer funded schools.
Give me a break. The only equivalency with the hate-filled Wokeists is the hate-filled Alt-Right, but the biggest difference between the two is that while Wokeists seem to have enough power to convince American corporations to adopt their racist agenda, the Alt-Right does not.
There is absolutely no similarities between normal conservatives and Wokeists.
This is a frighteningly ignorant and completely false strawman you've created, David French, but I shouldn't be surprised it's you who did it.
Matthew...i saw that French was a "Time Mag" writer, that was enough for me...yep.
Two comments in response to today’s essay:
1. Is anyone surprise that 5 years of insanity, censorship and bullying from the progressive/woke mob would not produce some reaction from the other tribe. It shocks me that we have not seen a dramatic rise in violence from the far-right, and we may yet.
2. Please don’t ever mention David French’s name or publish anything he writes again. First, he has been wrong about nearly everything that time has been allowed to shine a light on. Second, he is tethered to no real ideology other than some level of annoying lecturing social conservative piety. Third, he is the worst kind of elite Republican who had and has a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome - he should throw in with the hacks at The Lincoln Project. Please, please, please - spare me David French!
He's the type of person who is very useful to the left. They can point to him and say 'see, even Republicans agree!' He'll basically react with furious anger at any right wing transgressions, but when the left is up to no good he's eager to run cover for them. He might agree they're not great, but he'll never be in favor of doing anything about it.
Useful as in useful idiot.
Yep they give him a pat on the head and a treat I'm sure.
Agreed NO MORE FRENCH
I think it’s useful to keep the court jester around so we can all point and laugh and use him as an example of what not to become. Rock. Chalk. Jayhawk.
What nonsense. There is no equivalency. Not surprised that a David French would try to make the argument.
Perfect timing as a podcast comes on with audio of the now adult Greta Thunberg screaming incoherently in genuine terror about the ocean attacking her, thanks to the abuse she experienced at the hands of utopian collectivist scumbags as a child.
Psychological abuse and manipulation is effective, people. Especially with kids.
ALL of this crap has serious consequences and the people who supported and/or hand-waved the systematic child abuse that is now in full view will live in infamy.
“Why aren’t people having kids and repopulating the nation that we told them was despicable and dangerous? Why won’t the people we trained to believe capitalism is slavery take jobs? There’s no food. Why are black children, who we trained to believe that everyone secretly and instinctively hates them, hopeless?”
We don’t need a conservative alternative. We need to stop the people who are psychologically abusing children instead of teaching them about electrons.
You don’t debate a rapist in the marketplace of ideas. You intervene and stop the rape.
Fabulous Ibram X Candy!
“Let’s deal with the confusion first. The most notorious example of this came two weeks ago in Southlake, Texas, when a school administrator told teachers that, if they include a “book on the Holocaust” in their syllabi, then they also have to include one with “opposing perspectives.”
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Oh good a notorious example. Just like the notorious example of the tiki torchers by Youngkins bus.
There wasn’t a link to the audio (I didn’t see a link to the audio within the link provided either). If there was a link to the audio you could hear that the middle aged hag school administrator was a generic Democrat hack who was derisively slippery slope strawmanning the bill in a meeting to suggest that it requires both sides of the Holocaust. It doesn’t. You’re dumb if you think it requires that (or lying.......ahem).
Speaking of straw men, most of this faux conservatism is simply an embrace of the left-wing straw man that conservatives want zero government. No, we want limited government and banning **public funds** for porn and the exact curriculum the CCP would implement is one place that this limited government absolutely should jump in.
These are children.
Next we will have an underhanded bad faith column about how private companies can do whatever they want and simply cannot be regulated..........which I will read while glancing at the compelled speech (nutrition facts) on the side of the Diet Coke can on my desk.
I have never understood how the right-wing limited government side wants total control of unwanted pregnancies and the left-wing cradle-to-grave-government-intrusion side does not even recognize the existence of the unborn.
I think you would find that most small government types would be happy to have abortion sent back to the states even if they kinda think it’s murder. The rest absolutely think it is literal murder so it’s not at all confusing why they want a total prohibition. I think even anarchists want murder to be prohibited.
The anti-woke right is a position of "leave me the fuck alone and let me live my own life"
The woke left position is "government should dictate what you can do, say or earn based on your victim group identity."
It is funny when I read attempts at "right vs left" moral equivalency. I can see the left-tolerant attraction given the fact that the woke left position is adopted by our elite ruling media-chattering political class. How do you be recognized as one of the cool kids while pointing out the cohort of cool kids is mentally deranged? Maybe the cool kids are not really the cool kids?
The woke left position is far worse than that - it is we, the cultural (Hollywood types), intellectual (Haa-av-a-ad, et al types), athletic (Kaepernick, James, et al), and technological elites (Zuckerburg, Gates, et al) are superior to you commoners and we know what is best for you peons. They are a hive and they believe resistance is futile. I am galled.
good one Lynne...did you see where Kaepernick has put the NFL on Notice (my word) "that the NFL is a form of , you got it, Slavery"... oh my, what to do now, so funny.
I did and I perceive as a desperate to get attention. Talk about tone-deaf and childish.
It's good to know what David French is thinking, and his misrepresentations of right wing "threat" and his own right wing "cred" are adroit. Don't fall for it, friends.
Common sense tells you all you need to know about CRT in schools. It's the New Racism and it's got to go.
Be anti-racist: oppose Critical Race Theory.
French remains the same clown he was during his anti-Trump days. In this case, he goes out of his way NOT to mention that the material the "illiberal" Tennessee moms are complaining about is being taught to second graders. That's kids who are 7 and 8 years old FFS. Go read the complaint of the parents and look at the absolutely fucking intense and crazy shit that is being forced on them at that impressionable age. And make no mistake, it is being done at that age for a very, very obvious reason.
good show...Clint
Welcome to French-ism. This guy would have wanted to have Poland slowly and carefully weigh their options as the blitzkrieg overran their country in 1939. The Constitution is under a blitzkrieg attack and the fight is not for the faint of heart or French-ism.
Bari, thanks for giving Mr. Chamberlain..err, French a venue to show how he thinks. This isn't sarcasm, you do present different views and I appreciate that.
i'll go with that...thanks Nicholas
Dude please, you and the Lincoln Project ought to get a room...........
And we'll pull a China on them and lock them inside!
Schools have limited time with students and students, especially young ones, need to be taught a lot of stuff that'll be important to their futures. I'm pretty sure that doesn't include learning that they should feel guilty because some people who share their skin color did terrible things to other people with different skin color. Just who does that help, anyway?
Race grifters. It's been a very profitable marketing strategy for them.
Exactly.
nice and simple there...Ken, nice
Unfortunately David misses the forest for the trees. I cannot pretend to be an expert on these CRT laws; they may or may not be poorly written. But French fails to address the possibility that there COULD be a good law combatting CRT. He just says these are bad. Well, maybe. The point I think is to try and not allow anyone to say essentially 'oh, you're skin color is X? Well then, you're an oppressor/oppressed.' Nobody should be categorized as something based on their skin color. But French completely ignores this to focus on some anecdotes, carefully chosen.
And yes the both sides ism is a problem. There is no equivalency here. The right is capable of being bad, sure. But the power is on the side of the left. They control the bureaucracy of the federal government including the military industrial complex; Hollywood; massive corporations; academia; the news media. To name a few. The right has nothing close to that level of influence.
He mentions some racist incidents, and that's deplorable no doubt. But how is it not just as bad to be smeared as a white supremacist or nazi for daring to disagree? That is truly awful.
that level of Influence, to me..."MLK", good post...Ben