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Encountering Thomas Sowell

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Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#11

Post by JPKab »

sradman wrote: post #9

Written by Thomas Chatterton Williams [1], author of Self-Portrait in Black and White [2]: > “It’s not about color for me,” my aunt said while railing against Obama. “For example, I love Thomas Sowell.” > To that side of my extended family, I became the stereotype of a coastal liberal, writing for the New York Times and wholly out of touch with the real America. In fact, I’ve always prided and defined myself as an an…

Yes and no. He doesn't burn bridges, but left of center media elites pull up the drawbridges.

On topics like this, they view college activists as authoritative, objective sources of truth on race. Those activists view Sowell, and TCW, as heretics.

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#12

Post by ed25519FUUU »

JasonFruit wrote: post #10
seneca wrote: post #4

It's a loss for Americans of all political stripes that Sowell hasn't been the public face of American Conservatism for decades. He's passionate, articulate, and, most of all, deeply nuanced in his thoughts. I don't always agree with him, but I've rarely read or listened to his thoughts and not come away with something to consider. I'm excited to read the linked biography when it's published.

I'm on the conservative side, mostly, and I'm deeply disappointed by most prominent conservative voices. There's much more of value in conservative thought than people hear from conservative mouthpieces in the media, but instead we get ugly stupidity.

If you look at the political incumbents on both sides you’ll be sorely disappointed. Many people who end up in positions of leadership in either parties are basically insiders who did their time and climbed the ladder, and who are deeply unpopular.

Candidates who garner a lot of attention are actually viewed as a threat by the incumbents and are usually buried, destroyed, or sidelined. Take Yang, Tulsi and Ron Paul as a few examples.

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#13

Post by nullifidian »

f154hfds wrote: post #2

> Many people wondered last summer why, for example, on the Black Lives Matter website the organization declared (and has since deleted) a “disruptive” stance on the nuclear family. What did that have to do with mobilizing against police violence? For a long time I was very sympathetic to BLM, I would even have considered protesting with them. It was the above that caused me to rethink my position and eventually deci…

"Just ask BLM leaders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.

In a revealing 2015 interview, Cullors said, “Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists.” That same year, Tometi was hobnobbing with Venezuela’s Marxist dictator Nicolás Maduro, of whose regime she wrote: “In these last 17 years, we have witnessed the Bolivarian Revolution champion participatory democracy and construct a fair, transparent election system recognized as among the best in the world.”"

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#14

Post by inglor_cz »

languagehacker wrote: post #8

This post is awful . The author takes a drastic misunderstanding of the operating model of BLM, which is largely decentralized, and uses it to attribute degenerative philosophical characteristics to a group of people all banded together on a loose set of shared goals -- primarily stopping racial violence instigated by police, a problem which cannot be denied in the US. Kendi's work is extremely good, very provocative…

> Kendi's work is extremely good

Kendi proposes a constitutional amendment that would enshrine the principle that Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy (from certain threshold that he does not specify), and create Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees. The DOA would be responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they won’t yield racial inequity, monitor those policies, investigate private racist policies when racial inequity surfaces, and monitor public officials for expressions of racist ideas. The DOA would be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas. [0]

Do you find this proposal even good, much less extremely good? I don't. This is an attempt to bend reality by law, which rarely works, but usually has a plethora of unexpected negative consequences.

It also goes completely against any individualism that characterizes the Western society and elevates racial groups to basic building blocks of the country.

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/how-to-fix-politi...

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#15

Post by kyrra »

languagehacker wrote: post #8

This post is awful . The author takes a drastic misunderstanding of the operating model of BLM, which is largely decentralized, and uses it to attribute degenerative philosophical characteristics to a group of people all banded together on a loose set of shared goals -- primarily stopping racial violence instigated by police, a problem which cannot be denied in the US. Kendi's work is extremely good, very provocative…

Have you read critiques of Kendi's works? Here's Coleman Hughes review of one book: https://www.city-journal.org/how-to-be-an-antiracist

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#16

Post by inglor_cz »

seneca wrote: post #4

It's a loss for Americans of all political stripes that Sowell hasn't been the public face of American Conservatism for decades. He's passionate, articulate, and, most of all, deeply nuanced in his thoughts. I don't always agree with him, but I've rarely read or listened to his thoughts and not come away with something to consider. I'm excited to read the linked biography when it's published.

He is probably too decent to meddle in practical politics.

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#17

Post by inglor_cz »

JasonFruit wrote: post #10
seneca wrote: post #4

It's a loss for Americans of all political stripes that Sowell hasn't been the public face of American Conservatism for decades. He's passionate, articulate, and, most of all, deeply nuanced in his thoughts. I don't always agree with him, but I've rarely read or listened to his thoughts and not come away with something to consider. I'm excited to read the linked biography when it's published.

I'm on the conservative side, mostly, and I'm deeply disappointed by most prominent conservative voices. There's much more of value in conservative thought than people hear from conservative mouthpieces in the media, but instead we get ugly stupidity.

Social media reward clickbait, ergo clickbait grows.

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#18

Post by [deleted] »

inglor_cz wrote: post #14
languagehacker wrote: post #8

This post is awful . The author takes a drastic misunderstanding of the operating model of BLM, which is largely decentralized, and uses it to attribute degenerative philosophical characteristics to a group of people all banded together on a loose set of shared goals -- primarily stopping racial violence instigated by police, a problem which cannot be denied in the US. Kendi's work is extremely good, very provocative…

> Kendi's work is extremely good Kendi proposes a constitutional amendment that would enshrine the principle that Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy (from certain threshold that he does not specify), and create Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees. The DOA would be responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies…

[deleted]

Re: Encountering Thomas Sowell

#19

Post by chumich1 »

nullifidian wrote: post #13
f154hfds wrote: post #2

> Many people wondered last summer why, for example, on the Black Lives Matter website the organization declared (and has since deleted) a “disruptive” stance on the nuclear family. What did that have to do with mobilizing against police violence? For a long time I was very sympathetic to BLM, I would even have considered protesting with them. It was the above that caused me to rethink my position and eventually deci…

"Just ask BLM leaders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. In a revealing 2015 interview, Cullors said, “Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists.” That same year, Tometi was hobnobbing with Venezuela’s Marxist dictator Nicolás Maduro, of whose regime she wrote: “In these last 17 years, we have witnessed the Bolivarian Revolution champion participatory democracy and c…

The idea of somebody being a "trained Marxist" is very funny. Personally, I'm a 4th degree Historical Materialist and I'm training for the 2nd level Communist obstacle course
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