31–40 of 55 posts
When Bari Weiss was a student at Columbia, she was part of a group that targeted Arab professors that criticized Israel, like Joseph Massad. She did a lot to foster "cancel culture", but it seems to be backfiring on her now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is your argument that the ethnic conflict and genocide in several former Yugoslav republics in the 1990s was caused by an education system indoctrinating people with anti-racist attitudes? I didn't grow up in Yugoslavia, so please elaborate a bit how that worked, because I don't understand.
Not anti-racist but anti-capitalist. In Yugoslavia no one could own a business that employs more than 8 people, so all bigger companies were owned by the government, because anti-capitalist. As a result, management of all but micro business was selected not based on ones success and merit, but based on political connections, and in addition to that, there was no competition. The products mostly sucked and companies w…
Unlike Yugoslavia, Poland was ethnically homogeneous at that time and did not disintegrate in an orgy of violence, but the living standards were nothing short of appalling.
Hypothesis, which I have thought about for all of about 30 seconds: the more elitist the school (or workplace, or profession), the more it needs to profess (loudly, and without toleration of dissent) that it is anti-racist, anti-capitalist, etc. The fact that this article is describing a very elite school with wealthy parents is not a coincidence, or even ironic, it is the driving factor that makes it that way. Why i…
I feel sorry for these people that can afford to send their kids literally anywhere have to make the decision about whether they should continue supporting the elitist system that they rode to the top, now that they found something they disagree with. You don’t like that the school is teaching that capitalism is wrong? Do the capitalist thing and vote with your wallet, send your kids somewhere else. If you don’t like…
Individuals can probably opt out of the system, even though at a possibly very high price paid in opportunities of their children. The question is what happens to the entire country if its elite adopts critical race theory as The Truth. It could tear itself apart in a way not too dissimilar from 1861-5. Systems in which your skin color is the most important attribute have little space for meritocracy and movement amo…
Lol. Maybe we are seeing an explosive reservoir of resentment because of exactly that?
Meanwhile in the Midwest, we are having BBQs outdoors and feeling quite sorry for these “progressive” coastal communities too educated to figure out how to resist their own puritanical tendencies. The amount of fear they are living under is quite sad.
It is odd how the puritanical behavior still exists, it has simply been targeted in a different direction.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I grew up in communist Yugoslavia, and it is obvious both to you and me where this is leading to. You get downvotes from people who were sold a lie.
Is your argument that the ethnic conflict and genocide in several former Yugoslav republics in the 1990s was caused by an education system indoctrinating people with anti-racist attitudes? I didn't grow up in Yugoslavia, so please elaborate a bit how that worked, because I don't understand.
It started off as pro-equality and for the people. Then, any evidence that you are outperforming others in a "capitalist" way became evidence that you are anti-equality and therefore against the people. This quickly devolved into merit not being determined by a willingness to pay (the cornerstone of economics) to merit being determined by virtue-signaling and connections (the cornerstone of politics). As many other posters have mentioned, this is a poor way to judge merit and soon beliefs come up against reality. When this happens reality always wins and things that become dependent on higher-productivity (in modern society, this is almost all things) collapse.
I see a lot of parallels. For the left, the structures of capitalism and racism are intertwined. In this article, the author gives examples of how being a white male and doing well is itself evidence of soft-racism. These parents are noticing that in corporate boards, medical schools, law schools, elite colleges across the country, merit is determined not by accomplishments but by virtue-signaling (note: this is not the same as Affirmative Action; one is boosting entrance rates for Blacks, American Indians, and Latinos/Latinas, the other is saying "only this type of White person who has acknowledged that racism/capitalism is inherent to their accomplishments is allowed").
Assuming these beliefs come to dominate American power structures in the next 20 years (more than in the past 20), I am quite worried. Some structural anti-racism might be a net good. Heck, America has a lot of room to move to the left and a bit more equality may also be a net good -- McCarthyism was much more extreme in the other direction, after all. But historically, this cult-like faith-based groupthink where dissension and alternate beliefs are seen as evil has not turned out well; reality always wins over beliefs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Individuals can probably opt out of the system, even though at a possibly very high price paid in opportunities of their children. The question is what happens to the entire country if its elite adopts critical race theory as The Truth. It could tear itself apart in a way not too dissimilar from 1861-5. Systems in which your skin color is the most important attribute have little space for meritocracy and movement amo…
> Systems in which your skin color is the most important attribute have little space for meritocracy and movement among classes, and create an explosive reservoir of resentment. Lol. Maybe we are seeing an explosive reservoir of resentment because of exactly that?
John McWhorter argues that wokeness is simply an ersatz religion, filling up empty spiritual space left by previous creeds. And freshly minted religions tend to be strident and punishing.
https://www.persuasion.community/p/john-mcwhorter-the-neorac...
"Kritische Rassentheorie" seems to be a perfectly acceptable name, so I'll go with that and see how it works out.
This really sounds like late Communist Czechoslovakia to me, where lying at school was an obvious norm, everyone knew what was publicly unspeakable and which one of your colleagues was a snitch. The difference is that by late 1980s there were few true believers. Those who held the power and dictated the indoctrination standards were mostly tired pragmaticists who were in power to be in power and little else. There we…
Ah poor criticized you. The reason why you're getting downvoted (and the reason why nobody bothers to write a reply), is because the analogy you try to pull is obviously wrong, and it makes you come across as a troll.
Society has always ostracized people that do morally egregious stuff. The concept of 'Cancel Culture' has always existed in the form of social stigmatization, laws, religious rules (10 commandments, etc), etc. The only difference is that now racism is seen on the same level as something like being a rapist.
Also why would anybody be against anti-racist sentiment? Do you think anti-racism will come at some cost? I really would like an answer to this.
> The main opposing power is (shudder) China. This really feels like a choice between Sauron and Saruman.
So you actually think China and US are about the same on level of oppressiveness? Really?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Systems in which your skin color is the most important attribute have little space for meritocracy and movement among classes, and create an explosive reservoir of resentment. Lol. Maybe we are seeing an explosive reservoir of resentment because of exactly that?
That would make sense in the streets of Ferguson, but it does not explain why well-off, mostly white coastal elites bought the idea hook-and-sinker. John McWhorter argues that wokeness is simply an ersatz religion, filling up empty spiritual space left by previous creeds. And freshly minted religions tend to be strident and punishing. https://www.persuasion.community/p/john-mcwhorter-the-neorac...
The beginning of his article does not lead me to believe he’s capable of offering a balanced and nuanced view.
His poorly constructed arguments based on his own “Third Wave Antiracist tenets” are a pretty run of the mill strawmans restating the position of those he disagrees with in an absurd way that clearly misses the point intentionally.