Which is ironic, inasmuch as the left used Salem as an analogy for McCarthyism, yet the intolerant prigs described by Ms. Rackoff make the McCarthy followers look like paragons of tolerance and virtue. Not to mention that, in many respects, McCarthy was right about the communist infiltration of our government and institutions.
Me too. I'm 65, and he was the first President that I actually went out of my way to hear him speak. Unfortunately, too many of our society let others form their opinion for them versus actually trying to understand the issues. Most people still believe he made fun of a disabled reporter and defended white supremacists at Charlottesville. I can't imagine what bs will be spouted during the final stages of the 1/6 hearings.
Most of those who hated him never actually listened to him. They listened or read what others said he said. Or what others said others said they thought he said etc. just like that other great American , may he Rest In Peace, Rush Limbaugh, who single handedly changed American politics
I guess I'm an outlier. Well, on this forum, i *know* I'm an outlier. I'll never vote for him because of his character, or lack thereof. You got the kind-a character that's all warts, and I'm just not buying. That's just me.
Now it's my turn to dissent. Yes, McCarthy was right about communist infiltration of our government. But being right did not excuse him from the requirements of common decency, as Joseph Welch so memorably pointed out.
The same, I believe, goes for Donald Trump. Whatever the virtues of many of his policies, they cannot compensate for his authoritarianism -- he would've held on to power by a coup if he could have pulled it off -- his kissing the ass of mass murderer Vladimir Putin, his lying and, to get back to the subject of this article, his lack of tolerance for anyone who won't toe his line and kiss HIS ass on absolutely everything. I cast a write-in ballot for president in 2016 but, out of a need to actively oppose the far-leftism to which the Democrats are in thrall, voted for Trump in 2020. I won't do so again.
Well-said, M. Jaeckel. Minority opinion on these comments. But I think a *lotta* independents will feel this way. That's why I think it's a toss-up between him and Biden in '24 (if it plays out that way). I think just about any Repub *other* than Trump would win. Trump? Dunno. Me? I'll sit it out if it's between those two $)(@!#.
I prefer Charlie Chaplin, one of his victims, to Joseph McCarthy any day. Because Chaplin was a very principled man, who stood with his convictions even when they were unpopular and actively fought against intolerance, whereas McCarthy was as much of a self-righteous coward as his modern successors are.
In today's world we need more Charlie Chaplins, but unfortunately we have way too many Joseph McCarthies and that's the problem.
Yeah, we're racist alright. The Bill Cosby show ran for five years and was about a black family. It was the highest rated show on TV. Only a racist nation would allow that to happen. The highest paid TV entertainer ever was Opra Winfrey. Again, only a racist nation would allow that to happen. And then Barack Obama ran for President in 2004 and won by the largest margin for a non-incumbent. Only a racist nation would allow that to happen. The definition of a racist is anyone who disagrees with a leftist.
You forgot that our most venerated and beloved athletes...pretty much all black. Musicians too. In reality, if you look around, you'll notice we actually get along really well if we're not subject to the progressive racial world view that currently is used against us all.
Yes - it's Zombie -Time on the left - no joke. It's a form of mass hysteria often brought on by threats to the community like Covid....but there's no excuse for the lack of leadership all around today. Starting with Biden who says some of the most racist ("They're gonna put ya all in chains" - to a black audience) and intolerant things. We need better leadership.
Biden might be the most back asswards white supremacist there is....like a grumpy old grandpa from the 1930s who has no sense that time has moved on and people don't care about race anymore. We are all brothers and sisters....connected by something greater and far more intelligent than anyone gives a thought to...but society and its puppet masters are still running the divide and incite game. One by one we need to step off that train and reclaim our true purpose. To love and be loved. That's it. ✌️💜🇺🇸
In that heat and the months that followed (to this day), I expressed my dissent to my American partner over racism and its claimed "systemic" nature. I politely endorsed the Trump administration for Warp Speed and the Abraham's agreements. I used a "European" approach to the conversation (I am from the Old Continent), naively thinking my positions would have been regarded as intellectually stimulating. I became instead a "deplorable", lost my partner, was left in absolute dismay. The wind that is blowing is leaving a trail of devastation behind.
My best friend from childhood (over 20 years) called me racist for disagreeing that they “should have just let Jacob Blake go” and that I thought it was a bad idea to let criminals decide when they wanted to be arrested. He apologized a day or two later, but damage done. It’s been two years and I’m still slowly unwinding for various reasons, most of them to do with his covid safetyism the last two years and his growing ideological intolerance and elitism.
“Racist”, the way people on the extreme left use it, doesn’t mean anything anymore. Neither does “woman”, “transphobic”, “violence”, “safety”, or “harm”. I’m probably forgetting more. I keep thinking of Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy when he said, “This is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of.” It is indeed, Arthur.
Yes I’ve been noticing for a long time now the elevation of mediocrity. I started noticing it about 10 years ago in the NYT whose reviews I had long trusted.
Could we be more speccific here? Are you referring to the dumbing down of our standards across the board? Or to the quality of career politicians who are in charge of legislation under which we must live? Or to the quality of judges and prosecutors and governors? Or all of the above?
If one believes in a concept like the devil or evil, religious or philosophical, I'd imagine evil manifests itself by deceiving us that what we know to be true and good, is actually false and dangerous. That we follow false ideas, create false profits. Guess it depends on what you believe.
I live northwest of Chicago and the Jacob Blake case was a watershed moment for me. It was very close to home. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that Jacob Blake was some kind of victim, especially since he showed up drunk, with his kids, to his side-pieces house, a woman who had a restraining order against him because he shows up drunk, accuses her of cheating on him (the irony) and the last time he came over before he was shot he digitally raped her and that led to the restraining order, which he violated and led to an arrest warrant. The police were serving that warrant because his girlfriend called them, out of fear. I can’t remember ever seeing police officers try so hard not to shoot someone. I’m not a “back the blue” guy. I know darn well there are bad cops, because like the pedos and priesthood, people who want to engage in violence are drawn to it, and aren’t always weeded out before they become actual cops. We all know this. But the vast, vast majority of them try hard to do what’s right. And the cops who arrested Jacob Blake were a testament to that. Blake was objectively a piece of garbage. And then the predictable happened and the city burned, the governor did nothing to stop it. Vigilantism rules where authority refuses to go, which is why we have designated law enforcement. So we don’t have vigilantism. But we had vigilantism, rioting, destruction, violence, death and it seemed like the people in power thought that was acceptable.
I decided that week I’d never vote democrat again. At least not until the madness subsides. And of course I lost most of my friends, because we were all liberals and democrats. But I don’t regret it and neither should you.
Reality eventually wins. You saw it in the Blake case and once seen, with integrity, you can’t unsee it. Sorry that your “friends” walked, suggests they weren’t really that anyway.
Before I say anything else, I am sorry to hear that about your partner. I’ve been married for almost 20 years so it’s been awhile since I’ve lost someone I care alot about over something that is so trivial. That hurt lingers for a time. My question i guess is, do you really think this is a loss for you? We fall in love with people for their qualities, not their thinking about this thing or that. If you are labeled as anything pejorative by anyone who knows you well, then listen, ask yourself if it could be true, and if it’s not, bolt.
The concept of thoughtful discussion has been obliterated by the Salem-esque progressives.
"Thought" has been replaced by "dogma" and virtually no institutions of higher learning teach or encourage critical thinking. I feel a little bit like the little boy in "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Yes. I am at an Ivy League, the overall climate is oppressive. Any dissonance is/would be punished. I lost my lover, and could lose my job, should I voice my opinions in public.
You are not alone. Hopefully, people will stop tolerating the hypocrisy of Wokeness and universities will return to true education rather than indoctrination. I encourage you not to lose hope. You are needed.
Yes but I cannot understand why we don’t stand up and do something why did we vote for this there is hardly a person today who is in favor of the woke and yet we are voicing it on Bari’s comments why are we not out in the streets protesting why aren’t we causing disruptions why aren’t we standing up for David Sabatina and Josh Katz that’s the ? Why do we let the Media dominate us why do we tolerate Brian Stelter Jake Tapper Dana Bash I could go on why don’t we boycott the companies who advertise on these media platforms why are we paying for cable if we all take a stand against this woke ideology we can change it
I am not a citizen and do not vote, I am not even a permanent resident , but have made clear, whenever I could, what my stance is. I have not subscribed/will never subscribe to any documents claiming that US medicine (my field) is poisoned by “structural racism”. Which I believe a claim deprived of any substance, the literature supporting it profoundly flawed and intellectually dishonest. That said, people like me may be easily removed from their jobs. Should that happen to me I will have to return to my country immediately, my visa and my job are one thing.
I am in awe of your courage despite what must seem like a highly precarious situation. The U.S. will be lucky to have you stay for as long as you like. Good luck and thanks for “getting it”.
Yes, be very careful. As a nurse I have been warned about my "unconscious bias" despite my experienced patient care background in very high risk areas and situations. Young docs and nurses are being brainwashed in this. How the hell can you deliver the caliber of care that most receive if you harbor racial or ethnic bias? The woksters believe that this cannot be overcome in a health care situation until your bias is deprogrammed. Experience doesn't matter anymore. We are blessedly biased in our approach to patient care.
I’m sorry to hear of your dilemma. And, I am sure what you are saying is very real. My daughter is a physician and I find myself amazed that she believes this hypothesis regarding structural racism. She can only explain it in a broad and vague way. She doesn’t believe she is a problem. She doesn’t have any specifics of any colleague being biased in treatment of different races. She’s just adopted the dogma. So, her job won’t be in jeopardy - just her world view and her ability to think for herself.
Thank you for your reply. It is a dogma, there is nothing to support the case for “structural racism” in medicine, other than sloganeering ad nauseam, threats and violence. I am professionally involved in the “debate” and I am disgusted by what I see and I hear. Look at what they did to Katz, at what they are cooking for Amy Wax…
My sister says that everyone hates woke. Then I tell her it’s the policy of the Democrats, and she says, “That’s crazy.” Then I show her that so-called affirmative care is in fact federal HHS policy, and she says she will have to look into it. What thu frack!
👍🏻Fully understand but they going to cull you anyway don’t go down without a fight SG even just by your comment here there is a group already working on it but please God it doesn’t happen yesterday year I would have said never today I say be careful 🇺🇸🇺🇸
You asked a good question, Michele, and make a *lotta* good suggestions. Why *don't* people gather in numbers and make their voices heard? I really dunno, but wonder about a couple things.
I think too many people are just afraid of losing their jobs. I dunno if there is *enough* brave people to do these things we would both like to see.
There *aren't* any good leaders out there. None that I know of anyway.
People need to cooperate to get something like this done. Most Conservatives *may* just be too individualistic to follow others. Dunno.
No jt don’t say that don’t say you “dunno” we are the people we have got this America is Gods chosen country Christians Jews Muslims Hispanics and all that live in her legal immigrants to but we can’t keep taking everything g the Democrats are fishing out they want us to keep on hating each other they trade in it the breath they eat it it’s enough we have to stand up otherwise we will not have a country to live in!🇺🇸🇺🇸
I agree there, Michele. Need leaders. And a TON-a followers for *each* leader. So I'll say the old saying, "You and me and what ARMY?" Someone says when and where, mebbe I'll show. But it's not somethin' I'm ready to promise to yet.
Perhaps it is time to rename the "Ivy League." Suggestions welcome. Since so many end up clerking for Supreme Court Justices, and our government, I'm tempted to start the ball rolling with "Ivy leakers."
You have a big decision to make (and a thousand little decisions to make after). You are either going to stay where you are or move to a different environment that will suit you better. If you stay, you’ll have to either remain a closeted free thinker or you’ll out yourself and face the demons (theirs - not yours).
I suggest that you do a simple pros and cons evaluation by considering questions like:
1. How is a cloaked experience in a toxic environment for “x” number of years going to effect me in the short and long term? Will doing so diminish or enhance my character and how?
2. Would you feel better or worse about yourself if you moved to a different setting that supported open dialogue and diverse opinions?
3. Are you willing to cut across the grain of the woke sheep in wolves clothing that surround you and face the consequences of outing yourself as a free thinker? Can you handle being ostracized or worse?
4. If someone you loved deeply found themself in a very similar situation and asked for your opinion on what to do, what would you tell her or him?
My guess is that you already are leaning in a particular direction. I hope and wish the best for you.
Thanks for that post. I was recently given freedom when I was terminated for not being vaccinated. It enabled me to unmask. I am jobless, but happier for having acted with integrity and staying true to my beliefs. And,, yes, I am free of the woke environment of my former employer. Freedom is never free.
Thank you for taking the time of writing your reply. Very insightful, I read it twice and gave me a lot of food for thought. I will try to stick to my principles as much as I can, I know that will come at a price. It already did.
Yes, “giving credit where it’s due” including recognizing the merits on all sides, used to be a basic tenet of educated, civilized discourse on both sides of the Atlantic. We seem to have plunged into the intolerant Dark Ages.
Perhaps it began with so-called "presidential debates"--entertainment venues in which candidates are invited to discuss the complex issues of the day in one minute or less, in a structure as removed from actual debate structure as can be imagined. Which leads me to this query: How many American schools still have debate clubs? And why isn't debate a required class, every bit as important as reading and writing and 'rithmetic?
My brother was in a debate. He actually received a scholarship to debate in college. Some of the neediest kids I’ve ever met but they liked to party. I’m sure it’s still around.
Perhaps the human mind and character are not that different from those of others in the animal kingdom to which we belong: there is an alpha dog, and the pack instinctively follows.
You have to be taught to allow and teach your intellect to over-ride this natural tendency. This is the purpose of civics education (not the re-education currently in vogue in American classrooms.) The ideas in the Constitution guarantee individual liberty, but the constitution --and our Founders--are under attack because the idea in vogue today is that liberty to speak one's mind is a bad thing and adherence to the message of the leader of the pack is one's moral and intellectual duty. Unfortunately the leader of the pack--nay, the leaders, plural--have nearly won the cultural war and are on their way to accomplishing what Obama obliquely promised: fundamental transformation of America. And the blinded followers know not what awaits them.
Contrary to the stereotype, North American culture is much more conformist than European culture. As a result each shift in values is fiercely and loudly fought over. Eventually the new order is enforced and peace settles in for a few decades. Wokeism, being harebrained and unworkable, will be defeated one way or another, after which we'll all calm down.
You will undoubtedly feel lonely at times, but you are in good company and I could not imagine any better place for an internship. Your friendship sounds deep and genuine, hold on to it. You won't have many like it.
In 2020, I made contact with an old friend from many years ago. She was single, as was I, and we reminisced about old times and had a wonderful conversation. Initially. Then the upcoming election came up as a topic, and she began what could only be described as a nonstop rant against the Republican presidential candidate. None of her diatribe was about disagreeing with policy; it was 100% personal - an attack on the candidate himself. It was as if Mr. Hyde had just walked out of this person's body; one of the most unhinged things I'd ever witnessed. When she brought up Trump's alleged "Charlottesville" quote, my response of, "That's not what he said," was met with immediate derision. "Tell you what, I'll email you a couple of news articles that give the entire quote, with no editing. Would that convince you?"
"Yes."
I did that very thing, and then phoned her the next day. Her response? "Thank you." That was it. We've had no contact since.
We have to relearn how to listen and accept the probability that we don’t the the whole story about a lot of things. We have to be willing to listen to the other side.
Here I am, a devout conservative, reading Weiss, Greenwald, Bret and Heather, Taibbi, McWhorter. People on the left whose opinions I respect and who interest me. I wonder how many devout progressives listen to Dennis Prager, Dave Rubin, Douglas Murray, Ben Shapiro.
I had the same experience re. Trump. Even speaking to a PhD engineer was impossible. He went from reasonable to irrational in a heartbeat.
The people on the "left" that you mention are now considered "far right" by the woke ideologues. Pretty much anyone who has been Joe Rogan's guest has been excommunicated from the left wing. Even Bill Maher is on the precipice of being cast out.
The main difference between the "left" and "right" people you listed are their stance on abortion and their opinion of Trump. On everything else, they are in agreement.
Most people I know that are on the right support a woman's right to choose, but don't support infanticide. It's the zealots who support killing a full term human that prevent a solution. It's like the gun zealots who's support claymore mines for all.
It was disgusting the way Democrats “tried” to pass an abortion law that was so extreme they knew it was going to fail just so they would have some ammunition for the November elections. Ordinary Americans do not benefit from those kinds of political games—only rich people do.
Politics in this country, and probably everywhere, is just so, so broken. That and the media on all parts of the political spectrum that incite people to think tribally, demonize those who don't agree w/them, etc.
My personal definition of “rich people” is people who get most of their income from investments instead of salary. My point here is that people who have enough money to fly to other states and who can take time off from work will not be as inconvenienced by not having a national abortion law as people who live paycheck to paycheck and cannot take time off. Meanwhile, a certain class of political donors is most likely to benefit from keeping this crew in office. This includes people who make their living from defense contractors, pharmaceutical companies, and so on.
Here's the problem with your logic. Late term abortions are almost always medical emergencies that are necessary to save the woman's life. But if there are hypothetical heartless women who would terminate a full term pregnancy on a whim, and doctors who would do such a procedure, do you really think that such women would make good mothers? What do you think they would do to their kids after they're born?
That's one of the reasons--despite my personal views about the morally of abortion (chemical, fine; surgical, wrong unless for extreme medical reasons)--I am cynically in favor of allowing abortions for any who want them, and even decriminalizing infanticide.
The problem is that many of these babies--conceived by people whose families are rife with addiction and mental illness--have problem-plagued DNA from the very start. When you add in the epigenetic damage caused by abuse experienced by the birthmother during her childhood, and the direct damage to the fetus caused by substance abuse by the birthmother, you have a baby that may be fundamentally broken in ways that no amount of good parenting can repair.
Disclosure: I was adopted at birth. Despite my wonderful adoptive parents being terminally *sane*, I have struggled throughout my life with mental health issues that I inherited from my birthmother and her bat-shit-crazy family. I know, in the most profound way, whereof I speak.
Ask any doctor, they can deliver a baby late term and save the mother's life. There is no reason to go through an abortion when you can deliver the baby and both mother and baby can live.
Intelligence, unfortunately, is no protection against this madness. I guess that’s because the grip is more religious than social. These people are trying to be saved from the psychic difficulties of postmodern life by becoming a cog in the mindless wheel that’s running away from everything Americans once held dear. Shunning those whose individualist beliefs freak them out—something they can hear after only a few words are said—is a form of piety. To me, our current situation resembles the Protestant Reformation but without a belief in god.
Great points. I think I would throw in the fact that everyone is just hugely oversaturated by information (TV, internet, what-have-you) and by just plain old noise. Sometimes you need quiet, and maybe hours of quiet, to think.
Well said, Maureen. We all have to learn to straddle the fence and listen to views from all sides. (I force myself to - and I'm not always good at it, but I'll keep on trying). Something like these comment threads on Common Sense.
We need to stem the anger that can come up with views we don't adhere to. Because that anger will be met by anger, and then the spiral turns down and never recovers.
Yeah it does seem to me progressives just refuse to read or otherwise imbibe anybody who doesn't agree w/them. Though maybe there are just as many committing the same sin on the conservative side.
I think you should present the swimming-pool question. The one where you are floating in a canoe and toss a quarter into the pool. I really miss those days. My little town is an intellectual desert.
Last week my adult nephew asked me how I can be a conservative since I am well educated. He said this does not make sense, well educated people cannot be conservative. In his small progressive brain he cannot understand that you can have different opinions.
I can see just how your nephew feels, since Biden (from his basement) fixed the Police problem, with obliging elimination and now he is going to fix the School Problem with Student Elimination...problem solved...no more tuition and no more student, so nice joe...brown all around.
Told my quite intelligent liberal friend that people on the left just cannot fathom that someone with a different take on issues than the liberal one might have an equally valid viewpoint. And of course there are so many media people on the left programming their sheep into thinking that conservatives, and Christians, are just ignorant and/or otherwise cognitively deficient.
I can’t see anyone being able to do that with Thomas Sowell. He’s just so easy to get hooked into with the funny anecdotes and sound reasoning. I can see it with Prager because to a Liberals ears he probably sounds crazy.
I agree Madjack I had some friends over and they saw my MAGA hat hanging on my cupboard door why they went snooping around my house only God knows but it was the end of my friendship but you know what I don’t miss them
I lost a 40+ year long distance friendship with my high school foreign exchange student friend from New Zealand in the run up to the 2020 election. She lived in the US one year from 1977-78 and has visited numerous times but certainly never voted for or lived in our political system as an adult. It was so obnoxious that some days I laughed and some days I screamed. To this day, I'll never, ever understand her zeal to involve herself in our politics that would lead to losing a 40 year friendship. I guess when I go back to New Zealand, I don't have to make time for a stop!
Definitely! We met a couple from NZ when we were traveling (with our preteen kids) 12 years ago in Switzerland. We kept in touch and they sent our kids All Black jerseys! So sweet!
To me that would depend on how much I valued the friend. I don't know anyone who I think isn't seriously wrong about something. No doubt I am wrong about something as well.
I noticed the same thing in several liberal friends and family members. God knows there are many legitimate criticisms of Trump and the Republicans, but most of what I heard from them was not coherent criticism but seething blind contempt for their “enemies”. Orange Man Bad, Republicans racist. And I know that many of them are thoughtful people at heart, but somehow that all just fell away the instant that politics or protests came up.
"… most of what I heard from them was not coherent criticism but seething blind contempt for their 'enemies'". Exactly. Wokeism is essentially contempt for the mind.
What is needed is not tolerance, but engagement (civil, of course), understanding why someone thinks what they think; in other words, reason. But if someone isn't interested in understanding your thought or their own, nothing is possible but emotion -- and force.
My wife is an NPR liberal who adamantly refuses to listen to me. Her friends and family are like her. If the subject of Trump comes up, they start shouting. We just avoid politics in order to keep the peace.
I have found that my liberal friends are willing to listen (a little) once I acknowledge the areas where Trump failed to live up to my hopes and expectations. His policies were mostly spot on, his personality flaws not so much. They, however, will defend the current disastrous administration regardless of how deep into recession and chaos we get. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Yes, it's the strangest, most disturbing phenomenon to watch them zealously defend this administration. We're being led off a cliff but they cheer and scream how much better things are under Biden. I've never felt so much like an alien from another planet than when I'm in the presence of such delusion. It doesn't make me hopeful for attaining any middle ground and I've lost 90 percent of my nearest and dearest friends at this point because I refuse to participate in the delusion.
I'm sorry for the loss of your friendships...but what does it say about them that they are willing to give up the relationship over a political perspective? I admire your steadfast
Thanks. I'm convinced that they've been brainwashed by MSM propaganda and may never return to reality. Presumption-of-righteousness is a helluva drug and they're all addicts now.
It gives me a lot of hope when I read a comment in these pages where someone admits they left the dark side. It would be nice to see it in larger numbers, though.
I tell them I didn’t vote personality I voted policy that usually shuts them up because they voted Biden they got neither personality nor policy they didn’t even get America first they got America last
In Trump’s case personality really matters. His influence as president was and continues to be huge. His profound and relentless disrespect for people, particularly for women, normalized vindictive ridicule, and the art of bullying as national discourse, ultimately increasing political violence and leading to January 6th. The Left, instead of learning a moral lesson from this, reacted by becoming the same, adopting the tactics of ridicule, personalization and heartless demonization of the Other. When I point this out to friends on the Left, for instance that when they call Trump “the Orange Man” they are no better than the Right calling Obama a monkey, that in effect the Left allowed Trump to win culturally by becoming like him there is sometimes an open door to discussion. Either that or I am called a Republican and they never speak to me again. I identify as an Independent at this time, BTW.
I tell my friends on the left that yeah, Trump as a person sucks. I don't agree w/his character or behavior. But we are only given two choices for President, and I am voting not for Trump but for outcomes. What will be the outcome if the Dem candidate is elected? Versus the Repub candidate? No, that doesn't mean I am compromising my principles if I vote for Trump. I deplore his personality (though I do enjoy seeing him swing back against the left so that's a qualifier).
Truth though I don't have much use for either party nor politics which are utterly broken (and maybe the process is that way by nature and always has been here and everywhere). I think maybe we all need to decide we are in the one-man party of truth and we support the political ideas that are best no matter which tribe they originate from.
And yet it was Clinton who was the most disrespectful of all....lists of women he raped or used power over to abuse the Oval office...but because he talked the talk, everyone looked away. Trump was brash to everyone and it is wince-worthy, but politicians have been abusing others for centuries. I never ever heard a conservative friend call Obama a monkey (I was thrilled to see a young, black family in the White House even though I'd never vote for him) but I've heard Orange Man hundreds of times.
I started out thinking that way about his "personality flaws" too, but now I'm not so sure. I wonder if we'd become so used to the status quo: the Right postures and says, "We don't behave that way," while there are no rules for the Left - anything goes. Remember their characterizing Reagan as an "amiable dunce?" Doonesbury's "In Search of Reagan's Brain" cartoon series? It seems to me that the criticism of Donald Trump (actual outrage on the Left) is little more than surprise that he would respond to a head-shot with a shot of his own. Maybe that is exactly what we need.
That is what I thought too. He said early on, swing at me, I'll swing back. Maybe that is part of what drew me to him ultimately - people had been swinging at the U.S. and conservatives in the U.S. for decades. I appreciated the defense.
Agreed. I think DeSantis handles the interpersonal stuff better, but who cares if Trump bloodies a few illiberal progressive noses? Frankly, I like it. And now Trump has a record of accomplishment; we know how well he handles problems and how much prosperity we had with him. I held my breath and took a chance on voting for Trump the first time, but it surely paid off.
Yes, it did. But i can’t support him now because all he talks about is having the 2020 election stolen. It’s over. Deal with and discuss what the nation is dealing with NOW. The next election should be a good opportunity for conservatives. When the time comes, we need to try to make sure the elections are as above board as possible. If nominees focus on the election loss of 2020 we will lose the election in 2024.
Ah..NPR. Where I live in the interior West, it tends to be the mouthpiece of what I call the “Coastal Gaze.” Would that there were a journalism grant program that would study the coverage, say, in Wyoming and compare the choice of topics, tone of dismissive ness toward local political values, and fairness of coverage to other outlets, say the Cowboy Daily News. You can taste and feel the difference, but as far as I know it’s never been studied by academics. Could be funding sources or general unpopularity of topic in those academic circles.
NPR is definitely selective and slanted, perhaps even more so in recent years than 20 years ago. The thing is, they do bring on experts to interview, giving them a semblance of respectability and scientific thoroughness, when in reality their "experts" tend to be biased. People like Robert Reich, who speak very eruditely and convincingly yet are totally out in left field. NPR is dangerous in that sense that CNN and MSNBC aren't. Those two wear their woke lunacy on their sleeve and it's just obvious. I despise them and never watch them, of course, because it's a waste of time, other than snippets on the Gutfeld show or Mark Dice or Tim Pool, shown for our amusement. But no one quotes NPR, and everyone seems to treat them like an authoritative source rather than the liberal cesspool that they actually are, because they couch everything in their soft-spoken, "experts say" approach. Of late, actually, I can't stand listening to their soft spoken voices. "Let's all sing kumbayah now!"
I consider myself a liberal (and becoming more independent), but I agree with you. Many years ago on PBS you would get a 15 minute conversation/debate from guest commentators from both sides of the political spectrum. That has conveniently disappeared in recent years. To the detriment of unbiased news and informed viewership.
Another thing to study.. who is interviewed for the story? What knowledgeable organizations are included, which are left out? Among academics is there a Coastal institutional bias (Stanford, Yale, not U of Wyoming or Colorado State) in coverage of issues in other parts of the country, e.g. wildfires? How does this coverage compare to other regional and local outlets? Shouldn’t our journalism schools be studying precisely this kind of question?
Oi I feel sorry for you especially if he comes again but you know what if he does those are the very people who will put their X in the Republican and the DJT box because by 2024 things are going to be very bad for the average American
I’ve been in this same situation. Two of my brothers-in-law, who knew my husband and I had voted for Trump would randomly text us after drinking and tell us how evil he was and how evil we were for voting for him. It was beyond unhinged - I would be upset for days since we were all so close before this election. The most crazy one who wouldn’t let his daughter visit us and her cousins (our two boys) anymore because he convinced himself we were indoctrinating her with Fox News (whaaat?). We no longer speak to him anymore due to his behavior. The other one finally came around -even though his opinions about Trump never changed - and decided family was more important than politics. Over the course of their unprovoked bullying and name calling they never asked us why we voted the way we did. They were so indoctrinated they had lost all ability to reason or engage in an intellectual debate. I am scarred for life by this treatment from family members.
Ahh... don't feel too bad. I had Republican relatives living in Asheville, NC during the War of Yankee Aggression....er, I mean the Civil War, and they got themselves hung on the courthouse lawn for "desertion" - which is to say, they wouldn't join the Confederate army.
My “sister’s brother”, as I no longer refer to him as”my brother” disowned me, after learning from my sister, I voted for Donald Trump in 2016. He sent me an email stating I was no longer welcome at his home, that he would never meet with me if I visited his town and so on. I remember reading the email and being in a state of shock. My liberal friends were shocked as well. There has been no contact since that day. I can only imagine what our parents would think knowing their son had disowned their daughter.
My mother always said, "If somebody hurts you, never let them know. It would do them too damn much good." My response to the brother's email? "That's nice, Sweetie. Wise up and grow up." And cc everybody.
I do not understand people who don't value family ABOVE politics. My fam are pretty liberal and once in a while I try and discuss in the most winsome fashion an issue on which we disagree. But family and friends are just more important to me than browbeating them over these topics.
I had a similar conversation with a friend about Covid and vaccines. She wanted to know what I was reading that had convinced me not to get vaccinated. She said she would share things that had informed her opinion that everyone needed to be vaccinated. I sent her a bunch of articles. She read a few, said thanks, and that was it. Never sent me anything herself, never admitted my choice was logical.
Your situation with your friend sounds just like mine with my twin (fraternal) sister. She has never sent me any support for her POV (also known as Rachel Maddow) and just says “thanks for sending” in response to my attachments. But, then, she’s not interested in reading my novel, either, so …
How interesting! I’m in the process of self-publishing. (I have a friend who’s a great designer/artist and is giving me a deal.) I’m going to put it on Amazon and see what happens. I’m 68. If nothing ever clicks, I’ll be okay with that. But I think it’s a good enough read to go for it. I won’t be out much, and I’ll never regret having tried. Good luck on your endeavors, Vernon.
It’s a novella and is called A Third Thing. It’s kind of a romp involving four women (two in their mid-50s and two in their mid-20s) who take to the road to help one of them escape the clutches of her overly protective father after he finds out she’s gay. There’s lots of dialogue and story-telling describing the heady days (1970s) of radical lesbians. It’s un-PC, a bit quirky, and contains lots of cultural reminiscences as well as a couple of short, funny scenes involving intimacy and characters one rarely sees in fiction. I’ve had a few friends read it, and it has pleased me that each of them identified with a different character—and told me so without me asking. … So how about you? Anything you’d like to say about your writing? I really appreciate your support!
Twain defined a bigot as someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. When it gets to that level, I just say, "I have a theory: whoever pays the bills calls the shots. When you pay my bills, you can call my shots. Now, what else would you like to talk about, DOCTOR?"
I cannot understand people if they had such faith in vaccinations and masks why they so worried about people who don’t get vaccinated or wear a mask if you have been done surely you should be okay when I say it’s a democracy it’s my choice they sit there and scream at me and as fate would have it after Vacs and boosters I am still Covid free they have all been sick twice over already
Before the REAL data on ivermectin/hydroxychloroquine came out, I got the first two shots but then eschewed the third. Neither of my adult sons got a single Beastly Jab. I spent most of the winter working outdoors, and I'm sure generated a lot of Vitamin D3 and melatonin, but never wore a mask anywhere nor did they. We are the only three people I know who have never had a whiff of the CCP Virus.
My older sister is unvaccinated, caught Covid and was mildly ill for two days, I was vaccinated (Pfizer) but not boosted, I caught Covid and was sick for 2-1/2 weeks, my younger sister is vaccinated and boosted, she caught Covid and was sick for six weeks. My elder sister maintains that shots and boosters only address one particular version of virus that's out there, but weakens your immunity to whatever new version comes along. Based on our experiences, I tend to agree. I've decided to stop the shots and boosters--and just get as healthy as I can. (Also--I had Covid way back in January 2020--before vaccines, tests, and boosters. I was only sick for 2 days back then. I know I had it because I had the exact same symptoms the second time).
I read an interesting little article on that. There are five proteins on the CCP virus that offer places for attack. Natural immunity causes the white blood cells to attack all five proteins, some of which are common to other strains of CCP Virus, offering good protection, if not from infection at least vis à vis severity, from multiple different viral strains. The Jab creates an immune response against one protein only - the spike protein.
Interestingly, getting the virus the usual way - through the nose - induces "secretory IGA" in the bloodstream. This immunoglobulin resides primarily in the lungs. By the time the CCP virus gets down to the lungs, the secretory IGA is waiting and ready, reducing morbidity and mortality significantly.
It seems that the CDC and Saint Fauci are just discovering that natural immunity is more effective than the Beastly Jab. What a surprise. It's pretty hard to play "little boy tinkering with Daddy's watch" and do a better job than nature.
Oh, baby, your journey through life is just beginning. You need to get out of NYC and the far Left northeast. The center of the country is a worldview away from the insular, parochial, paralyzing groupthink you have been subjected to. I would love to meet your friend. She is an admirable person of character.
There's a Christian college somewhere in Pennsylvania that I read about recently, forget the name, but they're the opposite of "woke" and I am going to suggest my daughter apply there (we're Jewish). Also there's the new U. of Austin (UATX) being established as we speak, written up in this substack a few months ago. Very interesting.
Truly. I finished my B.A. at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, graduating in 2000. At that time, the English department there had mainly older professors, one of whom was actually a conservative. The others were liberals, but did not bring politics into their classrooms. I studied literature and language there.
I went to graduate school at Kansas State, thinking that I would still be studying literature and language. But I discovered that the entire department was what we now call "Woke." The professors were primarily younger--some of them even younger than me (I was in my mid-30s at that point). Rather than genuinely studying literature, we studied how literature can be interpreted to push a political ideology (critical theory). The younger the professor was, the more likely they were to believe that they had a moral duty to convert their students to the "correct" (Woke) way of seeing the world.
You cannot depend on any given university or department being free of this Woke groupthink, just because of where it is located or how it was a decade or more ago. Investigate the research the professors are doing, and the things they are writing. That will tell you much of what you need to know about the department.
I graduated college in '83, back when most of the professors were WW2 generation or "Silent Generation" (1950s), and were dedicated to scholarship and academic integrity. Some of the students even back then were woke fools, but that's probably always been true. The problem today is that the adults who are supposed to keep the kids in line are themselves woke idiots.
That's the year I graduated from high school. I should have taken a gap year, but that wasn't a thing back then. I had a full-ride scholarship, which I promptly lost due to being too crushed under depression to cope with my classes.
I should have taken a gap year. Wasted the first year or two of college (and Dad's money). I'm encouraging my daughter to do a gap year, or at least start with community college, then transfer to a 4-year to finish up. I'm also warning her about the out-of-control wokeness on most campuses these days. Some of the professors are the worst. "You wore a MAGA cap to class. I'm flunking you."
In the other corner of the ring are my wife & MIL who believe she should go for the full 4-year experience at a small liberal arts college such as Oberlin.
There is nothing like some real life experience to make one appreciate getting an education. When I returned to college in my early 30s, I was once again the straight-A student I had been in high school.
If your daughter is feeling the least bit burned out on studying, I cannot recommend a gap year too highly, particularly a working gap year. Working at a job will give her a look at a different side of life, as well as letting her earn some money to put toward her education.
Yes, the midwest, for the most part is "normal". My nephew attended Babson (a great business school) and took a job in MN (we're from WI) saying he couldn't get out of the NE fast enough. That was in 2004. My children wouldn't even visit colleges in the NE or West coast.
Fortunately we are in Florida. Although there was rot in the curriculum when my kids attended college, the children allowed us to guide them on courses. My daughter went to Florida State. At that time she had to take one class from the X curriculum and one from the Y curriculum. These were those gender studies moronic courses that rot the brain. However there were a handful of meaningful classes buried in with the chaff. She took those. My son went to community college for his first two years and then to University of Central Florida. The community colleges don't waste scarce resources on stupid classes. Most students who go to community college have jobs, are older, or are short on money. There were fewer stupid classes in the junior and senior years at UCF. My son is also not into trendy stuff.
Both managed to get useful degrees and come out with their brains intact.
So true about the community colleges. I taught at one some time ago. Perhaps with the decline in enrollment at the universities, they'll work toward getting rid of this bs.
Ms. Rackoff offers a small glimmer of hope, albeit, at this point, a small one. Of course we remember the Floyd narrative at the time. When people fell over themselves to be "anti-racists" and swooned for the swill of Kendi and D'Angelo. And then we saw racism in full display. The racism of low expectations that permitted an summer long orgy of destruction, violence and murder. That saw C-suite dupes shoveling millions to the grifters of BLM. And that even mind-bogglingly ascribed "systemic racism" to a system of governance that had outlawed discrimination based on race, spent trillions to remedy past racism and even showered benefits based on being a member of one race.
Do students to whom this swill is peddled know they are being lied to? Do the teachers and administrators who dish it out know that they are peddling lies and indoctrination? Why are there so few with the courage to say "no, this is madness and we won't have it?" So, yes, this is a glimmer of hope, but, sadly, Ms. Rackoff, who managed to maintain a shred of decency, still hasn't completely opened her eyes to the lies of the left and the damage they are willing to inflict on our nation.
Wisdom? She still believes the police are mostly bad, and BLM is mostly good. She is still into Wokeism although her eyes are beginning to be opened because her article on Megyn Kelly was unfairly rejected. Did she hear anything Megyn Kelly had to say?
I had the exact same reaction-what “wisdom”? She’s learned almost nothing from her mistakes, and openly admits the sick, oppressive, nightmare she’s part of relies on FEAR to keep people in line. With “insight” like hers, who needs totalitarianism? What tripe!
Well, at least she's still young and has years to grow. Remember the stupid shit that we bought in our late teens and early 20s? Although I always thought the left was mostly overwrought and silly.
Agree. I don't really expect wisdom from anyone who is 20 years old. They don't have the life experience to be wise. However, we shouldn't write her off yet, as she is interning with Bari. No doubt she will continue to be exposed to other viewpoints, which I hope will help deepen her understanding of just how destructive this movement has been to the people in this country.
Bruce is correct. I remember the moronic stuff I believed, learned at school. It wasn't until I was raising my first child that I began to question the liberal/Left programs and initiatives, particularly those aimed at minorities.
Wisdom comes from marriage, children, mortgages, being employed, being fired, living through disasters (both natural and man made), being divorced, etc.
All of the above changed my political views over time.
I think Maya has a way to go, but she's starting down the path, I hope.
I worked since i was 13 had no time for silly liberal crap the rich kids with mommy and daddy paying all the bills ate up and spewed out , most came around once they had to work to put food in their mouth . the ones that inherited big $$ never grew up
It was apparent to me watching the Antifa and BLM riots that those participating had other means of income than a job. They most certainly did not respect work, private property, or understand how things come to be. They would be completely unable to build even a tiny portion of anything they destroyed.
I always heard the old saw if you are not liberal when you are young you do not have a heart and if you are not conservative as you mature you do not have a brain. I always interpreted that as once you have skin in the game (kids, gainful employment, property ownership) your values change. I still agree with that. I don't know whether the problem is that a lot of people are simply not maturing or the message is not being properly understood. I look around all the time and wonder how people can support policies that are not in their best interest?
A lot of it has to do with the majority opinion surrounding you. I recall back to when Richard Nixon ran for president. I did not know one single person who liked him, supported him or voted for him. The shock when he won was astounding. I lived in NYC at the time. Everyone I knew hated him.
Republicans were WASPs. They kept immigrant kids out of camps, better schools, and they kept our parents out of neighborhoods, and all sorts of clubs. We were too poor to even think of a country club but education was the escalator to the middle class. Every immigrant parent wanted their kids to have the best education possible. When their kids were stymied and prevented from getting into "elite" colleges it caused a permanent dislike.
I wonder if the Democrats realize what their quota systems are doing for their future with Asians. The Democrats have tried every underhanded trick in the book to prevent bright, hard working Asian kids from attending the best schools.
Last year, the Democrats tried to win Asians over with a media focus on hate crimes committed against Asians--caused, the Media insisted, by White Supremacy. Unfortunately for the Dems, the uncomfortable truth turned out to be that most of the hate crimes against Asians were being committed by black people.
The anti-success prejudice of the Woke cannot help but impact Asians who have been taught the fundamentals of success all their lives.
Maya believes in constructive dialogue over close-mindedness and in friendships across political divides. That’s more praiseworthy than having what you think are the only correct political opinions.
Giver her time to evolve, Naomi. Giver her time. Perhaps wisdom is best defined as not only the adherence to a specific ideology or set of views, but in the art of listening to other ideas. And if that's the case, she is on her way.
An influencer, in other words. You may want to remember that people have bounced from one opinion to the other and back (and beyond) during the course of their lives. We are older than she is. Her views may change yet again. I know mine has. Maybe yours has too. Such is the course of things. Nothing is absolute.
I am not denying that this drive we humans have to assert our identity by challenging the values and attitudes of the generations before our own is oftentimes self-centered and misguided. I am not denying either that youthful idealism/rebelliousness often annoys me for its lack of perspective. Yet, what we witness now goes beyond that. Within the last decade, the purpose of education has shifted from the pursuit of truth and objectivity and the value of independent thinking to something different. Young people were instructed during a vulnerable time in their lives on how to think and it was implied that they were not moral if they challenged the narrative. Hence, while I hate to use the word “victim” we cannot blame young individuals for circumstances that were in many ways beyond their control. The ideologues in the ivory towers promoting this specific ideology and those directors and CEOs who capitulate are where we should pointing our fingers, not our youth. Anyone who can break from this indoctrination for the sake of loyalty and friendship has my respect.
However, it is the job of parents to either deprogram or to provide the other perspective if 1) we're sending them of to one-sided institutions 2) we're paying gobs of money for that "privilege" 3) we want to enjoy our grandchildren. (I jest about the last one....but only a little. We have to be able to help these young immature frontal cortexes that there is so much they don't know and we are here to help provide the other facts/perspective.
You are so right. The key is to achieve moral authority with your children before they reach age 5. If you can do that it will help tremendously when they hit their teen years of rebellion. It is also a huge help to get them to church, regularly.
Absolutely. That's how we raised our children (maybe being a much older mom was a benefit after all) as well as family dinners every night. We'd catch up on each other's day and what was going on and established the structure kids crave.
I don't think Maya is wise yet. She has indicated she may become wise, but it will be very, very difficult to set her passions aside and look for the objective truth that will challenge and, if she accepts the challenge, dismantle those passions.
Her first step should be to truly investigate if the US is "systemically racist". That seems to be a foundation for her. If she is honest in her analysis, she will find that "systemic racism" is a canard (except I think progressives are probably "systemically racist", even though the country is not). At that point, she will have an incredibly difficult bridge to cross.
I won't. "Systemic racism" is a lever the Woke wanna use to "dismantle" the institutions. I go by one data point: "What percentage of whites would *not* object to a Black person marrying a close relative."
Pew said 16% in 1980; 84% in 2016. Latest I saw was 94%. These are the people who make up the institutions they wanna get rid of.
I love this! I recently just had an argument with one of my best friends from college about politics. It was tough because we come at things from different angles. After some tears and tough conversation, we worked through things. That said, I explained that my beliefs are a part of who I am and cannot pretend not to care about what I see going on in this country. The main stream media, education system, and now even corporations have really tried to shut down half of this country's viewpoints but there is an angry, frustrated undercurrent. People must rise up and speak out even if it risks friendships. Intolerance is NOT the answer, conversations and compassion is what we need more than ever. We must start by finding the good in each of us. Thank you Maya for listening to and conversing with your friend. You can accomplish far more together than as enemies.
I agree that probably the majority of the country doesn't think like this, but the wokesters of every ilk are a very vocal minority whose noise drowns out less strident but more rational ideas. It's almost impossible to avoid this plague; in my son's company, everyone had to attend a series of seminars on "white privilege". Most went because they didn't want to jeopardize their positions, but didn't take it seriously. Yet there are always a few who fall for the propaganda. You also have to be careful what you say and to whom you say it. Reminds me of what my mother told me about Germany in the 1930s. Awful thing to say, I know, but many people are afraid to speak up, and the "woke" revel in their power to destroy people's lives, like the informer who caused one of my uncles to be arrested for hiding a Jewish colleague.
That's my point about the intimidation and fear--and yet we're supposed to buy the bullshit that this is nothing like previous historical totalitarian movements. No, they haven't murdered 6M Jews...yet.
It is great that the author learned a lesson in tolerance.
However, she should have understood earlier that she was doing what others had been accusing her friend of doing:
"I embraced the BLM slogans and ignored the violence that accompanied some of the protests. I even dismissed the antisemitism that seemed to be entangled in some of BLM’s statements."
Glossing over violence and ignoring the obvious racism were wrong, but she appears not to be apologetic or have modified her stance:
"It wasn’t that I regretted many of the slogans I shouted that summer"
Becoming tolerant is commendable, continuing to be a bigot not so much.
Even those willing to take off the inquisitor’s robes are typically unwilling to become an out and out heretic and admit the whole thing was a moral panic.
Having started, myself, at Brown, in 1956, I have seen the place change. Back then professors weren’t allowed to force their political views on students and girls lived on a different campus from boys. There was an unacknowledged but real quota for blacks and Jews. 2 black girls in each new class and a few Jews, most of whom commuted. We attended chapel twice a week. The Dean of Pembroke college discussed such topics as whether it was worth it for girls to go to college. Her reasoning? “When you educate a man you educate an individual. When you educate a woman you educate a family.” We’d be laughed off campus if we even hinted at that idea today. I was there on scholarship since my Dad was the janitor at University Hall. We commuters had a dorm to stay at occasionally and to meet at every day. We thought a couple of the seniors were bonkers because they were running around working for a political party. Politics was not one of our major concerns. Now who to invite to the Pembroke Dance, THAT was up for serious discussions.
I took 4 years off in the middle of my college journey to get married and have a son. (Met my husband in the old Hay Library while recovering from a flu epidemic that, looking back, was as bad as COVID.) I returned to Brown in the fall of 1962. Drugs had arrived while I was gone. Being an older married student made me a suitable ear-cum shoulder for some of the younger students to confide in. The rules had changed, but it was still my beloved Brown.
Over the years, reading the BAM monthly I could tell, as the decades passed that something disturbing was happening. The college bragged that its minority students included Portuguese Americans. In a state where about 30% of the population is of Portuguese descent, and the fact that the Portuguese students were as white as those of English or “Yankee” heritage was odd. They never bragged about it when my neighbor Lenny and I, both of Portuguese descent were there in the fifties.
Dorms became co-ed. A young orthodox Jewish woman was shamed because she refused to shower with the boys. Efforts to make her conform included questions like, “What? Are you ashamed of your body?” Her parents eventually got permission for her to live off campus. Understand that back in the fifties there were strict rules about how and when we girls interacted with boys on campus. So this was alarming to hear.
When I went back for my 25th reunion (That was the year they gave Bill Crosby an honorary doctorate) the major question regarding behavior was insensitivity. You could be shamed for being “insensitive.” The major political cause was divest from South Africa. Students shouted, fists raised, as they marched down college hill for commencement services at First Baptist. The percentage of students’ ethnicity and gender had changed. The balance between men and women had changed from one Pembroker (girl) to Brunonians (boys) in the fifties to the elimination of Pembroke College and an almost even ratio of girls to boys in the late 70s. Blacks were no longer restricted. There were enough Jewish students that one Unitarian friend of mine said, “I won’t let my daughter go to Brown, it’s too Jewish.” Hardly that, but there were more than in the fifties.
As I read BAM over the years it increasingly became an unpleasant reminder of the radical changes at my beloved Alma Mater. ROTC was banished. They started changing the names of holidays. Now they don’t even have “Christmas” break. They call it Winter something or other. No Columbus Day. He was a bad guy. But Brown is still Brown even though it’s named after a slave owner who made a huge financial contribution.
Nowadays I cringe when I hear the things that Brown is up to. Ms Rackoff’s article makes it even clearer that it’s not a place where I would want my grandkids to attend college. On the other hand, they were as brainwashed at the colleges they went to, so it’s irrelevant.
I mourn for my old college. I still love the Brown I went to, but I am horrified by what it has become.
I’m an old lady. 83 last birthday. Thank God I’m still able to get out, even work at a big box store for pin money. The gang there are more like my old college mates at Brown. They aren’t carried away with causes. They work hard. They are bright and relatively unpolluted by what is going on in the college world. Nobody is fighting about pronouns. They are working to make ends meet, put food on the table, feed their kids, and if it comes up, puzzled by the nonsense going in in the mainstream media and on our college campuses. They are a very diverse gang. Old and young, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Arabic, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, etc.
brown should come down to Florida, visit Home Depot, and get a taste of the people who make the world go round.
I need an edit button. Sentence above should read one Pembroker to five Brunonians. 1 girl to 5 boys. Now it’s something like 52 girls to 48 boys — yeah. I said it. Boys and girls. Men and women.
Glad to hear that Maya realizes the value of tolerance. But I cannot help but wonder if she is nothing more than a single grain of sand on a large beach. How many others at Brown or from her high school ( and thousands of others at other colleges, schools , and sundry other organizations and businesses) have had epiphanies like Maya? How many who have excommunicated their friends have said "I'm sorry?" It is easy to say that one hopes we are turning the corner regarding all of the above, but is that really true, especially in cities like NY, SF, LA and various others around the US? Or college campuses. The daily venomous rhetoric and labelling emanating from many of our elected leaders on whatever may be the issue du jour does not suggest that these Orwellian times are about to end anytime soon.
Universities have been split along the faculty-ideology line for decades. Liberal Arts are universally leftist, professional faculties (engineering, medical, accounting, business) are mostly conservative. Law and Computer Science are split within themselves.
That's how it was in the early 80s, probably since the 60s. My fellow engineering students laughed at the massive chips on the shoulders of Sociology and Women's Studies students. It was impossible to have a conversation with them. They considered female engineering students like me to be subservient to our male classmates and hated us for tolerating their sexism. Mostly, we were hated for not being Marxist. No difference from today's attitudes.
This post really spoke to me. I've been greatly saddened by the version of anti-racism I see in universities and in my former high school, which had been an amazing academic institution. When I expressed concerns about a Zoom session in which white alums were asked to examine themselves for "microaggressions" and hidden prejudices which "had" to be there, when I questioned the wisdom of so-called racial affinity groups and called for a return to the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, the response from very old friends ranged from nervous guilt to outright rage ("I won't speak about this with you!") To me, it's sad to see the phenomenon John McWhorter has dubbed "woke racism" entangling so many smart, thinking people, who seem hobbled by misguided guilt. I've lived in Germany a long time, and see what happens when the grandchildren of nazis feel the guilt that ought to have been felt by their forbears. That guilt impedes the understanding effected by honest, friendly conversations. A friend is someone with whom one can speak freely. When that freedom is gone, we are all the poorer.
yes this self-criticism bullshit is straight out of the Marxist playbook. Yeonmi Park, a defector from North Korea now living in the U.S., wrote of her experiences in a graduate class at Columbia University; they were required to sit in a circle and engage in self-criticism, exactly what she had experienced in N. Korea. Unbelievable that academics are almost universally supporting this creepy anti-freedom behavior.
Great article. I think the pendulum is swinging back toward tolerance. True 'diversity' will only be achieved when we can express uncomfortable positions on the issues of the day, engender honest debate, & still remain friends without the acrimony that we seen for the last several years. That is true "liberalism".
I’ll never agree that wokeism has a single positive thing to offer, unless, in a backhanded way, it serves as a warning, illustrating the very worst personal and institutional concepts humans are capable of.
There’s no compromise possible. Agreeing with lies your very own daily reality tells you are impossible is the definition of nihilistic oppression.
Did you ever try to have the "honest conversation about race" that every wokester and race hustler claims to crave and then immediately shuts down in horror the moment that
inconvenient facts are raised? Or, worse, every HR diversity trainer - as they demand conformity to a nonsensical agenda.
So glad they remained friends and grew from this. This reminds me about a book I just read, The Coddling of the American Mind. They should be making that manditory reading before going to these instituions, LOL!
It's so observably sad that this very thing has happened to so many. I've read many accounts throughout my Substack newsletters. Different causes--racism, mandates, vaccines, etc, but all with one thing in common, moral outrage and self-righteousness. Another one, today, from one of my favorite essayists decrying the same thing. It has happened to all of us, especially in the last 2 years, 3 years, now, torn and scattered friendships.
Genuine people are hurt deeply, and it seems to be okay among the in-group. Of course, like a lover who ends an affair and moves on to the next, it's easy for them. The rest of us are left to wonder why, and to patch up yet another scar. How can those friendships be so easily discarded? Were they ever really friendships or just mutual aid societies? Were they ever of any depth, except maybe on one side, like a deep and shallow end of a pool? There's no sense to it.
This demand for Cosmic Justice among the social and cultural warriors, and the certainty that our tribe deserves it, always ends in war. Little wars, big wars. We devolve into squabbles that demand redress. What tribe ever, in all of history, did not wage war continually on its neighbors? We tend to think of our groups as peaceful hunter-gatherers that can somehow ably co-exist, like the silly bumper sticker. That's a faulty remembering of history. It's war, going forward, continual, vengeful, and re-vengeful wars.
You see that a lot these days - people saying that they're ashamed because they felt complicit in supporting systemic racism. How did they support it I wonder? If you knowingly and willfully support racist ideologies then yeah, you've got some serious flaws that need fixing.
What gets me are the people who fall into the belief that just their VERY SKIN COLOR (white) makes them racist - somehow completely missing the fact that being "put in a box" because of the color of your skin IS racist, no matter what color your skin is... man are people really THAT damn dense?
Wokeism is positively *against* rational thought. That's "whiteness." What's more important to the Woke Religion is "lived experience." And that's why Wokeness just doesn't make any sense at *all,* when You look into it.
Yup. If you look at the traits of "whiteness" poster put out by the Smithsonian, EVERY trait that helps make people successful in almost every culture on this planet is labeled "white"...and therefore bad.
The only way they can take over completely is to burn Western civilization to the ground.
In the meanwhile, the more people who fail, the more support the Leftists get as a result of telling people that it was the system that made them fail.
We are reliving the Salem Witch Hunts. Facilitated by the new nuclear weapon—social media. Let’s exorcise this from our lives as much as possible.
Which is ironic, inasmuch as the left used Salem as an analogy for McCarthyism, yet the intolerant prigs described by Ms. Rackoff make the McCarthy followers look like paragons of tolerance and virtue. Not to mention that, in many respects, McCarthy was right about the communist infiltration of our government and institutions.
True. Whitacker Chambers exposed the commies who had infiltrated the FDR administration and that FDR knew it and did nothing.
Even to this day, they defend Hiss and the Rosenbergs, et al, despite KGB files confirming the perfidy and treachery of the American left.
Thank you both for reminding us of the all-important epilogue that few today are aware of regarding the McCarthy era.
McCarthy was absolutely correct. Right message wrong vessel
Right message wrong vessel
Could also be applied to Trump
Certainly some felt that way. I loved him, warts and all
Me too. I'm 65, and he was the first President that I actually went out of my way to hear him speak. Unfortunately, too many of our society let others form their opinion for them versus actually trying to understand the issues. Most people still believe he made fun of a disabled reporter and defended white supremacists at Charlottesville. I can't imagine what bs will be spouted during the final stages of the 1/6 hearings.
Most of those who hated him never actually listened to him. They listened or read what others said he said. Or what others said others said they thought he said etc. just like that other great American , may he Rest In Peace, Rush Limbaugh, who single handedly changed American politics
I guess I'm an outlier. Well, on this forum, i *know* I'm an outlier. I'll never vote for him because of his character, or lack thereof. You got the kind-a character that's all warts, and I'm just not buying. That's just me.
Now it's my turn to dissent. Yes, McCarthy was right about communist infiltration of our government. But being right did not excuse him from the requirements of common decency, as Joseph Welch so memorably pointed out.
The same, I believe, goes for Donald Trump. Whatever the virtues of many of his policies, they cannot compensate for his authoritarianism -- he would've held on to power by a coup if he could have pulled it off -- his kissing the ass of mass murderer Vladimir Putin, his lying and, to get back to the subject of this article, his lack of tolerance for anyone who won't toe his line and kiss HIS ass on absolutely everything. I cast a write-in ballot for president in 2016 but, out of a need to actively oppose the far-leftism to which the Democrats are in thrall, voted for Trump in 2020. I won't do so again.
Well-said, M. Jaeckel. Minority opinion on these comments. But I think a *lotta* independents will feel this way. That's why I think it's a toss-up between him and Biden in '24 (if it plays out that way). I think just about any Repub *other* than Trump would win. Trump? Dunno. Me? I'll sit it out if it's between those two $)(@!#.
Jon...nice catch. thanks. Being that the message was pertinent...endorse.
Yeah.
I prefer Charlie Chaplin, one of his victims, to Joseph McCarthy any day. Because Chaplin was a very principled man, who stood with his convictions even when they were unpopular and actively fought against intolerance, whereas McCarthy was as much of a self-righteous coward as his modern successors are.
In today's world we need more Charlie Chaplins, but unfortunately we have way too many Joseph McCarthies and that's the problem.
What about Charlie McCarthy?
McCarthy. Back when you couldn't get work in Hollywood if you *were* a communist.
Hollywood has always been intolerant and self-righteous. Their causes just change with the zeitgeist.
scuba...because the commun cyst tries to run the show...oust.
Well put.
Witch hunting must be a highly addictive sport. Even while complaining about some witch hunts they still pursue some others.
Yeah, we're racist alright. The Bill Cosby show ran for five years and was about a black family. It was the highest rated show on TV. Only a racist nation would allow that to happen. The highest paid TV entertainer ever was Opra Winfrey. Again, only a racist nation would allow that to happen. And then Barack Obama ran for President in 2004 and won by the largest margin for a non-incumbent. Only a racist nation would allow that to happen. The definition of a racist is anyone who disagrees with a leftist.
You forgot that our most venerated and beloved athletes...pretty much all black. Musicians too. In reality, if you look around, you'll notice we actually get along really well if we're not subject to the progressive racial world view that currently is used against us all.
Regressive not progressive better defines the left.
But, but but......
Lol. Great comment.
s/2004/2008/
Yes - it's Zombie -Time on the left - no joke. It's a form of mass hysteria often brought on by threats to the community like Covid....but there's no excuse for the lack of leadership all around today. Starting with Biden who says some of the most racist ("They're gonna put ya all in chains" - to a black audience) and intolerant things. We need better leadership.
Biden might be the most back asswards white supremacist there is....like a grumpy old grandpa from the 1930s who has no sense that time has moved on and people don't care about race anymore. We are all brothers and sisters....connected by something greater and far more intelligent than anyone gives a thought to...but society and its puppet masters are still running the divide and incite game. One by one we need to step off that train and reclaim our true purpose. To love and be loved. That's it. ✌️💜🇺🇸
In that heat and the months that followed (to this day), I expressed my dissent to my American partner over racism and its claimed "systemic" nature. I politely endorsed the Trump administration for Warp Speed and the Abraham's agreements. I used a "European" approach to the conversation (I am from the Old Continent), naively thinking my positions would have been regarded as intellectually stimulating. I became instead a "deplorable", lost my partner, was left in absolute dismay. The wind that is blowing is leaving a trail of devastation behind.
My best friend from childhood (over 20 years) called me racist for disagreeing that they “should have just let Jacob Blake go” and that I thought it was a bad idea to let criminals decide when they wanted to be arrested. He apologized a day or two later, but damage done. It’s been two years and I’m still slowly unwinding for various reasons, most of them to do with his covid safetyism the last two years and his growing ideological intolerance and elitism.
"Racist" is a knee jerk shibboleth that should now be worn as a badge of honor for having the courage to dissent from a narrative of lies.
“Racist”, the way people on the extreme left use it, doesn’t mean anything anymore. Neither does “woman”, “transphobic”, “violence”, “safety”, or “harm”. I’m probably forgetting more. I keep thinking of Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy when he said, “This is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of.” It is indeed, Arthur.
I’ve been saying for years that this culture war starts with control of language.
Unfortunately, all I see is endorsement of the mediocre, hence my invented word ‘mediocracy’, the opposite of ‘meritocracy’.
Yes I’ve been noticing for a long time now the elevation of mediocrity. I started noticing it about 10 years ago in the NYT whose reviews I had long trusted.
Could we be more speccific here? Are you referring to the dumbing down of our standards across the board? Or to the quality of career politicians who are in charge of legislation under which we must live? Or to the quality of judges and prosecutors and governors? Or all of the above?
They keep-a usin’ that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
Very true, words seems to have lost their meaning all over.
Left redefines words to mean what the left wants them to mean. No wonder we can no longer communicate. Babel.
Newspeak
Maybe we need to stop referring to them as “the left” and start taking control of the language. Any ideas?
Good question…. This Dennis Prager characterization might serve to trigger some ideas.
https://dennisprager.com/column/a-guide-to-basic-differences-between-left-and-right/#:~:text=Right%3A%20not%20basically%20good%20%28Therefore%2C%20the%20individual%20is,United%20Nations%2C%20and%20no%20single%20country%20is%20dominant
What would be the common denominator, in a word, for those characteristics?
"white supremacy" is on that list too. As are "sexist" and "homophobic".
If one believes in a concept like the devil or evil, religious or philosophical, I'd imagine evil manifests itself by deceiving us that what we know to be true and good, is actually false and dangerous. That we follow false ideas, create false profits. Guess it depends on what you believe.
Yup - Call me 'racist' - I say bring it on! They have made the word meaningless.
Agree, fully.
I live northwest of Chicago and the Jacob Blake case was a watershed moment for me. It was very close to home. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that Jacob Blake was some kind of victim, especially since he showed up drunk, with his kids, to his side-pieces house, a woman who had a restraining order against him because he shows up drunk, accuses her of cheating on him (the irony) and the last time he came over before he was shot he digitally raped her and that led to the restraining order, which he violated and led to an arrest warrant. The police were serving that warrant because his girlfriend called them, out of fear. I can’t remember ever seeing police officers try so hard not to shoot someone. I’m not a “back the blue” guy. I know darn well there are bad cops, because like the pedos and priesthood, people who want to engage in violence are drawn to it, and aren’t always weeded out before they become actual cops. We all know this. But the vast, vast majority of them try hard to do what’s right. And the cops who arrested Jacob Blake were a testament to that. Blake was objectively a piece of garbage. And then the predictable happened and the city burned, the governor did nothing to stop it. Vigilantism rules where authority refuses to go, which is why we have designated law enforcement. So we don’t have vigilantism. But we had vigilantism, rioting, destruction, violence, death and it seemed like the people in power thought that was acceptable.
I decided that week I’d never vote democrat again. At least not until the madness subsides. And of course I lost most of my friends, because we were all liberals and democrats. But I don’t regret it and neither should you.
Reality eventually wins. You saw it in the Blake case and once seen, with integrity, you can’t unsee it. Sorry that your “friends” walked, suggests they weren’t really that anyway.
Before I say anything else, I am sorry to hear that about your partner. I’ve been married for almost 20 years so it’s been awhile since I’ve lost someone I care alot about over something that is so trivial. That hurt lingers for a time. My question i guess is, do you really think this is a loss for you? We fall in love with people for their qualities, not their thinking about this thing or that. If you are labeled as anything pejorative by anyone who knows you well, then listen, ask yourself if it could be true, and if it’s not, bolt.
The concept of thoughtful discussion has been obliterated by the Salem-esque progressives.
"Thought" has been replaced by "dogma" and virtually no institutions of higher learning teach or encourage critical thinking. I feel a little bit like the little boy in "The Emperor's New Clothes."
Yes. I am at an Ivy League, the overall climate is oppressive. Any dissonance is/would be punished. I lost my lover, and could lose my job, should I voice my opinions in public.
You are not alone. Hopefully, people will stop tolerating the hypocrisy of Wokeness and universities will return to true education rather than indoctrination. I encourage you not to lose hope. You are needed.
Things like this do not just happen because we "hope" they will. It takes direct engagement.
agreed. Many whose livelihoods are on the line are not prepared for that direct engagement because the cost would be too high.
Yes but I cannot understand why we don’t stand up and do something why did we vote for this there is hardly a person today who is in favor of the woke and yet we are voicing it on Bari’s comments why are we not out in the streets protesting why aren’t we causing disruptions why aren’t we standing up for David Sabatina and Josh Katz that’s the ? Why do we let the Media dominate us why do we tolerate Brian Stelter Jake Tapper Dana Bash I could go on why don’t we boycott the companies who advertise on these media platforms why are we paying for cable if we all take a stand against this woke ideology we can change it
I am not a citizen and do not vote, I am not even a permanent resident , but have made clear, whenever I could, what my stance is. I have not subscribed/will never subscribe to any documents claiming that US medicine (my field) is poisoned by “structural racism”. Which I believe a claim deprived of any substance, the literature supporting it profoundly flawed and intellectually dishonest. That said, people like me may be easily removed from their jobs. Should that happen to me I will have to return to my country immediately, my visa and my job are one thing.
I am in awe of your courage despite what must seem like a highly precarious situation. The U.S. will be lucky to have you stay for as long as you like. Good luck and thanks for “getting it”.
Yes, be very careful. As a nurse I have been warned about my "unconscious bias" despite my experienced patient care background in very high risk areas and situations. Young docs and nurses are being brainwashed in this. How the hell can you deliver the caliber of care that most receive if you harbor racial or ethnic bias? The woksters believe that this cannot be overcome in a health care situation until your bias is deprogrammed. Experience doesn't matter anymore. We are blessedly biased in our approach to patient care.
Pure madness, I agree with you
I’m sorry to hear of your dilemma. And, I am sure what you are saying is very real. My daughter is a physician and I find myself amazed that she believes this hypothesis regarding structural racism. She can only explain it in a broad and vague way. She doesn’t believe she is a problem. She doesn’t have any specifics of any colleague being biased in treatment of different races. She’s just adopted the dogma. So, her job won’t be in jeopardy - just her world view and her ability to think for herself.
There IS structural racism today--in reverse.
Thank you for your reply. It is a dogma, there is nothing to support the case for “structural racism” in medicine, other than sloganeering ad nauseam, threats and violence. I am professionally involved in the “debate” and I am disgusted by what I see and I hear. Look at what they did to Katz, at what they are cooking for Amy Wax…
"here is hardly a person today who is in favor of the woke"
I doubt the veracity of this.
My sister says that everyone hates woke. Then I tell her it’s the policy of the Democrats, and she says, “That’s crazy.” Then I show her that so-called affirmative care is in fact federal HHS policy, and she says she will have to look into it. What thu frack!
👍🏻Fully understand but they going to cull you anyway don’t go down without a fight SG even just by your comment here there is a group already working on it but please God it doesn’t happen yesterday year I would have said never today I say be careful 🇺🇸🇺🇸
You asked a good question, Michele, and make a *lotta* good suggestions. Why *don't* people gather in numbers and make their voices heard? I really dunno, but wonder about a couple things.
I think too many people are just afraid of losing their jobs. I dunno if there is *enough* brave people to do these things we would both like to see.
There *aren't* any good leaders out there. None that I know of anyway.
People need to cooperate to get something like this done. Most Conservatives *may* just be too individualistic to follow others. Dunno.
No jt don’t say that don’t say you “dunno” we are the people we have got this America is Gods chosen country Christians Jews Muslims Hispanics and all that live in her legal immigrants to but we can’t keep taking everything g the Democrats are fishing out they want us to keep on hating each other they trade in it the breath they eat it it’s enough we have to stand up otherwise we will not have a country to live in!🇺🇸🇺🇸
I agree there, Michele. Need leaders. And a TON-a followers for *each* leader. So I'll say the old saying, "You and me and what ARMY?" Someone says when and where, mebbe I'll show. But it's not somethin' I'm ready to promise to yet.
Perhaps it is time to rename the "Ivy League." Suggestions welcome. Since so many end up clerking for Supreme Court Justices, and our government, I'm tempted to start the ball rolling with "Ivy leakers."
Poison Ivy league...
Icky League
You have a big decision to make (and a thousand little decisions to make after). You are either going to stay where you are or move to a different environment that will suit you better. If you stay, you’ll have to either remain a closeted free thinker or you’ll out yourself and face the demons (theirs - not yours).
I suggest that you do a simple pros and cons evaluation by considering questions like:
1. How is a cloaked experience in a toxic environment for “x” number of years going to effect me in the short and long term? Will doing so diminish or enhance my character and how?
2. Would you feel better or worse about yourself if you moved to a different setting that supported open dialogue and diverse opinions?
3. Are you willing to cut across the grain of the woke sheep in wolves clothing that surround you and face the consequences of outing yourself as a free thinker? Can you handle being ostracized or worse?
4. If someone you loved deeply found themself in a very similar situation and asked for your opinion on what to do, what would you tell her or him?
My guess is that you already are leaning in a particular direction. I hope and wish the best for you.
Thanks for that post. I was recently given freedom when I was terminated for not being vaccinated. It enabled me to unmask. I am jobless, but happier for having acted with integrity and staying true to my beliefs. And,, yes, I am free of the woke environment of my former employer. Freedom is never free.
Thank you for taking the time of writing your reply. Very insightful, I read it twice and gave me a lot of food for thought. I will try to stick to my principles as much as I can, I know that will come at a price. It already did.
Exactly. I’m at a Big Ten school in a red state (albeit a blue county) and the environment is stifling to say the least.
Faculty of 1000?
Thanks
Yes, “giving credit where it’s due” including recognizing the merits on all sides, used to be a basic tenet of educated, civilized discourse on both sides of the Atlantic. We seem to have plunged into the intolerant Dark Ages.
Perhaps it began with so-called "presidential debates"--entertainment venues in which candidates are invited to discuss the complex issues of the day in one minute or less, in a structure as removed from actual debate structure as can be imagined. Which leads me to this query: How many American schools still have debate clubs? And why isn't debate a required class, every bit as important as reading and writing and 'rithmetic?
Well, they don't teach those anymore, either...
Excellent points
My brother was in a debate. He actually received a scholarship to debate in college. Some of the neediest kids I’ve ever met but they liked to party. I’m sure it’s still around.
We been in the intolerant Dark Ages for the last 50 years it has now overwhelmed us we need to say enough is enough
Stories like this are just too numerous. Good for you - you’re better off!
Perhaps the human mind and character are not that different from those of others in the animal kingdom to which we belong: there is an alpha dog, and the pack instinctively follows.
You have to be taught to allow and teach your intellect to over-ride this natural tendency. This is the purpose of civics education (not the re-education currently in vogue in American classrooms.) The ideas in the Constitution guarantee individual liberty, but the constitution --and our Founders--are under attack because the idea in vogue today is that liberty to speak one's mind is a bad thing and adherence to the message of the leader of the pack is one's moral and intellectual duty. Unfortunately the leader of the pack--nay, the leaders, plural--have nearly won the cultural war and are on their way to accomplishing what Obama obliquely promised: fundamental transformation of America. And the blinded followers know not what awaits them.
Contrary to the stereotype, North American culture is much more conformist than European culture. As a result each shift in values is fiercely and loudly fought over. Eventually the new order is enforced and peace settles in for a few decades. Wokeism, being harebrained and unworkable, will be defeated one way or another, after which we'll all calm down.
Or not--after which we'll all be living in a dictatorship.
Yeah maybe but I’m not optimistic at this time that things will calm down
They won't.
You well rid of all of them
If by partner, you mean boyfriend / girlfriend, consider yourself lucky. Someone who puts political posturing over you, does not deserve you.
I am sorry for your losses but proud you’ve remained true to yourself.
You will undoubtedly feel lonely at times, but you are in good company and I could not imagine any better place for an internship. Your friendship sounds deep and genuine, hold on to it. You won't have many like it.
Actually I firmly believe she will find many over a long and productive life which is my wish for her
In 2020, I made contact with an old friend from many years ago. She was single, as was I, and we reminisced about old times and had a wonderful conversation. Initially. Then the upcoming election came up as a topic, and she began what could only be described as a nonstop rant against the Republican presidential candidate. None of her diatribe was about disagreeing with policy; it was 100% personal - an attack on the candidate himself. It was as if Mr. Hyde had just walked out of this person's body; one of the most unhinged things I'd ever witnessed. When she brought up Trump's alleged "Charlottesville" quote, my response of, "That's not what he said," was met with immediate derision. "Tell you what, I'll email you a couple of news articles that give the entire quote, with no editing. Would that convince you?"
"Yes."
I did that very thing, and then phoned her the next day. Her response? "Thank you." That was it. We've had no contact since.
Cognitive dissonance.
We have to relearn how to listen and accept the probability that we don’t the the whole story about a lot of things. We have to be willing to listen to the other side.
Here I am, a devout conservative, reading Weiss, Greenwald, Bret and Heather, Taibbi, McWhorter. People on the left whose opinions I respect and who interest me. I wonder how many devout progressives listen to Dennis Prager, Dave Rubin, Douglas Murray, Ben Shapiro.
I had the same experience re. Trump. Even speaking to a PhD engineer was impossible. He went from reasonable to irrational in a heartbeat.
The people on the "left" that you mention are now considered "far right" by the woke ideologues. Pretty much anyone who has been Joe Rogan's guest has been excommunicated from the left wing. Even Bill Maher is on the precipice of being cast out.
The main difference between the "left" and "right" people you listed are their stance on abortion and their opinion of Trump. On everything else, they are in agreement.
Most people I know that are on the right support a woman's right to choose, but don't support infanticide. It's the zealots who support killing a full term human that prevent a solution. It's like the gun zealots who's support claymore mines for all.
It was disgusting the way Democrats “tried” to pass an abortion law that was so extreme they knew it was going to fail just so they would have some ammunition for the November elections. Ordinary Americans do not benefit from those kinds of political games—only rich people do.
Politics in this country, and probably everywhere, is just so, so broken. That and the media on all parts of the political spectrum that incite people to think tribally, demonize those who don't agree w/them, etc.
what is your definition of rich people ? What percentage of Americans benefit ?
My personal definition of “rich people” is people who get most of their income from investments instead of salary. My point here is that people who have enough money to fly to other states and who can take time off from work will not be as inconvenienced by not having a national abortion law as people who live paycheck to paycheck and cannot take time off. Meanwhile, a certain class of political donors is most likely to benefit from keeping this crew in office. This includes people who make their living from defense contractors, pharmaceutical companies, and so on.
Here's the problem with your logic. Late term abortions are almost always medical emergencies that are necessary to save the woman's life. But if there are hypothetical heartless women who would terminate a full term pregnancy on a whim, and doctors who would do such a procedure, do you really think that such women would make good mothers? What do you think they would do to their kids after they're born?
How about they opt for adoption rather than murder? Just a thought.
AMEN!
That's one of the reasons--despite my personal views about the morally of abortion (chemical, fine; surgical, wrong unless for extreme medical reasons)--I am cynically in favor of allowing abortions for any who want them, and even decriminalizing infanticide.
The problem is that many of these babies--conceived by people whose families are rife with addiction and mental illness--have problem-plagued DNA from the very start. When you add in the epigenetic damage caused by abuse experienced by the birthmother during her childhood, and the direct damage to the fetus caused by substance abuse by the birthmother, you have a baby that may be fundamentally broken in ways that no amount of good parenting can repair.
Disclosure: I was adopted at birth. Despite my wonderful adoptive parents being terminally *sane*, I have struggled throughout my life with mental health issues that I inherited from my birthmother and her bat-shit-crazy family. I know, in the most profound way, whereof I speak.
Ask any doctor, they can deliver a baby late term and save the mother's life. There is no reason to go through an abortion when you can deliver the baby and both mother and baby can live.
Intelligence, unfortunately, is no protection against this madness. I guess that’s because the grip is more religious than social. These people are trying to be saved from the psychic difficulties of postmodern life by becoming a cog in the mindless wheel that’s running away from everything Americans once held dear. Shunning those whose individualist beliefs freak them out—something they can hear after only a few words are said—is a form of piety. To me, our current situation resembles the Protestant Reformation but without a belief in god.
Great points. I think I would throw in the fact that everyone is just hugely oversaturated by information (TV, internet, what-have-you) and by just plain old noise. Sometimes you need quiet, and maybe hours of quiet, to think.
Well said, Maureen. We all have to learn to straddle the fence and listen to views from all sides. (I force myself to - and I'm not always good at it, but I'll keep on trying). Something like these comment threads on Common Sense.
We need to stem the anger that can come up with views we don't adhere to. Because that anger will be met by anger, and then the spiral turns down and never recovers.
Yes. Reply graciously and patiently. I do this but it does wear you out somewhat, the other person's anger and insistent obtuseness is toxic.
I'd like this a few more times if that was allowed.
Yeah it does seem to me progressives just refuse to read or otherwise imbibe anybody who doesn't agree w/them. Though maybe there are just as many committing the same sin on the conservative side.
If x = right/left, what’s y doing?
I think you should present the swimming-pool question. The one where you are floating in a canoe and toss a quarter into the pool. I really miss those days. My little town is an intellectual desert.
Thanks. I didn't know about this.
I'll be pondering that theory. Thanks
Last week my adult nephew asked me how I can be a conservative since I am well educated. He said this does not make sense, well educated people cannot be conservative. In his small progressive brain he cannot understand that you can have different opinions.
Mon...got me laughing all over, good.
I can see just how your nephew feels, since Biden (from his basement) fixed the Police problem, with obliging elimination and now he is going to fix the School Problem with Student Elimination...problem solved...no more tuition and no more student, so nice joe...brown all around.
Told my quite intelligent liberal friend that people on the left just cannot fathom that someone with a different take on issues than the liberal one might have an equally valid viewpoint. And of course there are so many media people on the left programming their sheep into thinking that conservatives, and Christians, are just ignorant and/or otherwise cognitively deficient.
Dan...try to bring this to a liberal, it is proof in the pudding.
Search "NOAA clean air Atlantic". Noaa is saying The Increased Pollution is Cooling in E.Asia, and the Pacific Ocean, hence less Storm.
While the Atlantic has more storm, due to LESS POLLUTION, from the US and Europe. Less pollution heats the ocean, hence more storm.
I assume this story is not being covered thru TV...so funny, i even forgot to laugh.
This is me, but if this be the case, Warming is because of clean air.
I can’t see anyone being able to do that with Thomas Sowell. He’s just so easy to get hooked into with the funny anecdotes and sound reasoning. I can see it with Prager because to a Liberals ears he probably sounds crazy.
should have been our first REAL black president
I lost a friend over the Charlottesville hoax. Will not abide lies. For me truth is more important then friendship.
I agree Madjack I had some friends over and they saw my MAGA hat hanging on my cupboard door why they went snooping around my house only God knows but it was the end of my friendship but you know what I don’t miss them
I lost a 40+ year long distance friendship with my high school foreign exchange student friend from New Zealand in the run up to the 2020 election. She lived in the US one year from 1977-78 and has visited numerous times but certainly never voted for or lived in our political system as an adult. It was so obnoxious that some days I laughed and some days I screamed. To this day, I'll never, ever understand her zeal to involve herself in our politics that would lead to losing a 40 year friendship. I guess when I go back to New Zealand, I don't have to make time for a stop!
Definitely not but if you are going make sure you go when the All Blacks are playing you will be watching an amazing rugby game
Definitely! We met a couple from NZ when we were traveling (with our preteen kids) 12 years ago in Switzerland. We kept in touch and they sent our kids All Black jerseys! So sweet!
better be careful where you wear that shirt
To me that would depend on how much I valued the friend. I don't know anyone who I think isn't seriously wrong about something. No doubt I am wrong about something as well.
I noticed the same thing in several liberal friends and family members. God knows there are many legitimate criticisms of Trump and the Republicans, but most of what I heard from them was not coherent criticism but seething blind contempt for their “enemies”. Orange Man Bad, Republicans racist. And I know that many of them are thoughtful people at heart, but somehow that all just fell away the instant that politics or protests came up.
"… most of what I heard from them was not coherent criticism but seething blind contempt for their 'enemies'". Exactly. Wokeism is essentially contempt for the mind.
What is needed is not tolerance, but engagement (civil, of course), understanding why someone thinks what they think; in other words, reason. But if someone isn't interested in understanding your thought or their own, nothing is possible but emotion -- and force.
What we need is a movement for reason.
Please bring Orange Man back and his beautiful wife Brandon and Jill so boring
My wife is an NPR liberal who adamantly refuses to listen to me. Her friends and family are like her. If the subject of Trump comes up, they start shouting. We just avoid politics in order to keep the peace.
I have found that my liberal friends are willing to listen (a little) once I acknowledge the areas where Trump failed to live up to my hopes and expectations. His policies were mostly spot on, his personality flaws not so much. They, however, will defend the current disastrous administration regardless of how deep into recession and chaos we get. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Yes, it's the strangest, most disturbing phenomenon to watch them zealously defend this administration. We're being led off a cliff but they cheer and scream how much better things are under Biden. I've never felt so much like an alien from another planet than when I'm in the presence of such delusion. It doesn't make me hopeful for attaining any middle ground and I've lost 90 percent of my nearest and dearest friends at this point because I refuse to participate in the delusion.
I'm sorry for the loss of your friendships...but what does it say about them that they are willing to give up the relationship over a political perspective? I admire your steadfast
support for reality. It is truly their loss.
Thanks. I'm convinced that they've been brainwashed by MSM propaganda and may never return to reality. Presumption-of-righteousness is a helluva drug and they're all addicts now.
It gives me a lot of hope when I read a comment in these pages where someone admits they left the dark side. It would be nice to see it in larger numbers, though.
Don’t despair when you leave home you will find a lot more people will be with you then against you
I tell them I didn’t vote personality I voted policy that usually shuts them up because they voted Biden they got neither personality nor policy they didn’t even get America first they got America last
In Trump’s case personality really matters. His influence as president was and continues to be huge. His profound and relentless disrespect for people, particularly for women, normalized vindictive ridicule, and the art of bullying as national discourse, ultimately increasing political violence and leading to January 6th. The Left, instead of learning a moral lesson from this, reacted by becoming the same, adopting the tactics of ridicule, personalization and heartless demonization of the Other. When I point this out to friends on the Left, for instance that when they call Trump “the Orange Man” they are no better than the Right calling Obama a monkey, that in effect the Left allowed Trump to win culturally by becoming like him there is sometimes an open door to discussion. Either that or I am called a Republican and they never speak to me again. I identify as an Independent at this time, BTW.
I tell my friends on the left that yeah, Trump as a person sucks. I don't agree w/his character or behavior. But we are only given two choices for President, and I am voting not for Trump but for outcomes. What will be the outcome if the Dem candidate is elected? Versus the Repub candidate? No, that doesn't mean I am compromising my principles if I vote for Trump. I deplore his personality (though I do enjoy seeing him swing back against the left so that's a qualifier).
Truth though I don't have much use for either party nor politics which are utterly broken (and maybe the process is that way by nature and always has been here and everywhere). I think maybe we all need to decide we are in the one-man party of truth and we support the political ideas that are best no matter which tribe they originate from.
And yet it was Clinton who was the most disrespectful of all....lists of women he raped or used power over to abuse the Oval office...but because he talked the talk, everyone looked away. Trump was brash to everyone and it is wince-worthy, but politicians have been abusing others for centuries. I never ever heard a conservative friend call Obama a monkey (I was thrilled to see a young, black family in the White House even though I'd never vote for him) but I've heard Orange Man hundreds of times.
agreed
I started out thinking that way about his "personality flaws" too, but now I'm not so sure. I wonder if we'd become so used to the status quo: the Right postures and says, "We don't behave that way," while there are no rules for the Left - anything goes. Remember their characterizing Reagan as an "amiable dunce?" Doonesbury's "In Search of Reagan's Brain" cartoon series? It seems to me that the criticism of Donald Trump (actual outrage on the Left) is little more than surprise that he would respond to a head-shot with a shot of his own. Maybe that is exactly what we need.
That is what I thought too. He said early on, swing at me, I'll swing back. Maybe that is part of what drew me to him ultimately - people had been swinging at the U.S. and conservatives in the U.S. for decades. I appreciated the defense.
I hear you and i liked that he pushed back, too. Now I am inclined to support Ron DeSantis b/c he pushes back but doesn’t
get stuck in old grudges.
Agreed. I think DeSantis handles the interpersonal stuff better, but who cares if Trump bloodies a few illiberal progressive noses? Frankly, I like it. And now Trump has a record of accomplishment; we know how well he handles problems and how much prosperity we had with him. I held my breath and took a chance on voting for Trump the first time, but it surely paid off.
Yes, it did. But i can’t support him now because all he talks about is having the 2020 election stolen. It’s over. Deal with and discuss what the nation is dealing with NOW. The next election should be a good opportunity for conservatives. When the time comes, we need to try to make sure the elections are as above board as possible. If nominees focus on the election loss of 2020 we will lose the election in 2024.
Exactly what we need actually yesterday that is how bad America has become
Good plan because even if you win and grind them into the dirt, you don't win; it doesn't change their minds. There are better tactics.
I can think of one, lol........
Ah..NPR. Where I live in the interior West, it tends to be the mouthpiece of what I call the “Coastal Gaze.” Would that there were a journalism grant program that would study the coverage, say, in Wyoming and compare the choice of topics, tone of dismissive ness toward local political values, and fairness of coverage to other outlets, say the Cowboy Daily News. You can taste and feel the difference, but as far as I know it’s never been studied by academics. Could be funding sources or general unpopularity of topic in those academic circles.
NPR is definitely selective and slanted, perhaps even more so in recent years than 20 years ago. The thing is, they do bring on experts to interview, giving them a semblance of respectability and scientific thoroughness, when in reality their "experts" tend to be biased. People like Robert Reich, who speak very eruditely and convincingly yet are totally out in left field. NPR is dangerous in that sense that CNN and MSNBC aren't. Those two wear their woke lunacy on their sleeve and it's just obvious. I despise them and never watch them, of course, because it's a waste of time, other than snippets on the Gutfeld show or Mark Dice or Tim Pool, shown for our amusement. But no one quotes NPR, and everyone seems to treat them like an authoritative source rather than the liberal cesspool that they actually are, because they couch everything in their soft-spoken, "experts say" approach. Of late, actually, I can't stand listening to their soft spoken voices. "Let's all sing kumbayah now!"
I consider myself a liberal (and becoming more independent), but I agree with you. Many years ago on PBS you would get a 15 minute conversation/debate from guest commentators from both sides of the political spectrum. That has conveniently disappeared in recent years. To the detriment of unbiased news and informed viewership.
Another thing to study.. who is interviewed for the story? What knowledgeable organizations are included, which are left out? Among academics is there a Coastal institutional bias (Stanford, Yale, not U of Wyoming or Colorado State) in coverage of issues in other parts of the country, e.g. wildfires? How does this coverage compare to other regional and local outlets? Shouldn’t our journalism schools be studying precisely this kind of question?
Not on point but I recently traveled through Wyoming. It is a lovely place and the people I encountered were my kind of people. I loved it.
I can already hear the eye rolling that would ensue from such a proposal. :-) Maybe Rogan would be open to such a study (now!)
Oi I feel sorry for you especially if he comes again but you know what if he does those are the very people who will put their X in the Republican and the DJT box because by 2024 things are going to be very bad for the average American
I’ve been in this same situation. Two of my brothers-in-law, who knew my husband and I had voted for Trump would randomly text us after drinking and tell us how evil he was and how evil we were for voting for him. It was beyond unhinged - I would be upset for days since we were all so close before this election. The most crazy one who wouldn’t let his daughter visit us and her cousins (our two boys) anymore because he convinced himself we were indoctrinating her with Fox News (whaaat?). We no longer speak to him anymore due to his behavior. The other one finally came around -even though his opinions about Trump never changed - and decided family was more important than politics. Over the course of their unprovoked bullying and name calling they never asked us why we voted the way we did. They were so indoctrinated they had lost all ability to reason or engage in an intellectual debate. I am scarred for life by this treatment from family members.
A new low in drunk-texting - political drunk texting.
Ahh... don't feel too bad. I had Republican relatives living in Asheville, NC during the War of Yankee Aggression....er, I mean the Civil War, and they got themselves hung on the courthouse lawn for "desertion" - which is to say, they wouldn't join the Confederate army.
As we say in West Virginia, it's all relative.
My “sister’s brother”, as I no longer refer to him as”my brother” disowned me, after learning from my sister, I voted for Donald Trump in 2016. He sent me an email stating I was no longer welcome at his home, that he would never meet with me if I visited his town and so on. I remember reading the email and being in a state of shock. My liberal friends were shocked as well. There has been no contact since that day. I can only imagine what our parents would think knowing their son had disowned their daughter.
My mother always said, "If somebody hurts you, never let them know. It would do them too damn much good." My response to the brother's email? "That's nice, Sweetie. Wise up and grow up." And cc everybody.
That is so very sad Linda. I am sorry for your pain.
Thank you, Lynne, for your response.
I do not understand people who don't value family ABOVE politics. My fam are pretty liberal and once in a while I try and discuss in the most winsome fashion an issue on which we disagree. But family and friends are just more important to me than browbeating them over these topics.
I had a similar conversation with a friend about Covid and vaccines. She wanted to know what I was reading that had convinced me not to get vaccinated. She said she would share things that had informed her opinion that everyone needed to be vaccinated. I sent her a bunch of articles. She read a few, said thanks, and that was it. Never sent me anything herself, never admitted my choice was logical.
We’re still friends, just not as close.
Your situation with your friend sounds just like mine with my twin (fraternal) sister. She has never sent me any support for her POV (also known as Rachel Maddow) and just says “thanks for sending” in response to my attachments. But, then, she’s not interested in reading my novel, either, so …
I’m a novelist too! I mean, unpublished so far, but still. Weird.
How interesting! I’m in the process of self-publishing. (I have a friend who’s a great designer/artist and is giving me a deal.) I’m going to put it on Amazon and see what happens. I’m 68. If nothing ever clicks, I’ll be okay with that. But I think it’s a good enough read to go for it. I won’t be out much, and I’ll never regret having tried. Good luck on your endeavors, Vernon.
That’s fantastic! What’s the title if you don’t mind sharing it? I’ll get a copy when it comes out.
No worries if you don’t want to list is here.
I’m in the process of editing my second one, before sending it out to agents.
It’s a novella and is called A Third Thing. It’s kind of a romp involving four women (two in their mid-50s and two in their mid-20s) who take to the road to help one of them escape the clutches of her overly protective father after he finds out she’s gay. There’s lots of dialogue and story-telling describing the heady days (1970s) of radical lesbians. It’s un-PC, a bit quirky, and contains lots of cultural reminiscences as well as a couple of short, funny scenes involving intimacy and characters one rarely sees in fiction. I’ve had a few friends read it, and it has pleased me that each of them identified with a different character—and told me so without me asking. … So how about you? Anything you’d like to say about your writing? I really appreciate your support!
Twain defined a bigot as someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. When it gets to that level, I just say, "I have a theory: whoever pays the bills calls the shots. When you pay my bills, you can call my shots. Now, what else would you like to talk about, DOCTOR?"
I cannot understand people if they had such faith in vaccinations and masks why they so worried about people who don’t get vaccinated or wear a mask if you have been done surely you should be okay when I say it’s a democracy it’s my choice they sit there and scream at me and as fate would have it after Vacs and boosters I am still Covid free they have all been sick twice over already
Before the REAL data on ivermectin/hydroxychloroquine came out, I got the first two shots but then eschewed the third. Neither of my adult sons got a single Beastly Jab. I spent most of the winter working outdoors, and I'm sure generated a lot of Vitamin D3 and melatonin, but never wore a mask anywhere nor did they. We are the only three people I know who have never had a whiff of the CCP Virus.
My older sister is unvaccinated, caught Covid and was mildly ill for two days, I was vaccinated (Pfizer) but not boosted, I caught Covid and was sick for 2-1/2 weeks, my younger sister is vaccinated and boosted, she caught Covid and was sick for six weeks. My elder sister maintains that shots and boosters only address one particular version of virus that's out there, but weakens your immunity to whatever new version comes along. Based on our experiences, I tend to agree. I've decided to stop the shots and boosters--and just get as healthy as I can. (Also--I had Covid way back in January 2020--before vaccines, tests, and boosters. I was only sick for 2 days back then. I know I had it because I had the exact same symptoms the second time).
I read an interesting little article on that. There are five proteins on the CCP virus that offer places for attack. Natural immunity causes the white blood cells to attack all five proteins, some of which are common to other strains of CCP Virus, offering good protection, if not from infection at least vis à vis severity, from multiple different viral strains. The Jab creates an immune response against one protein only - the spike protein.
Interestingly, getting the virus the usual way - through the nose - induces "secretory IGA" in the bloodstream. This immunoglobulin resides primarily in the lungs. By the time the CCP virus gets down to the lungs, the secretory IGA is waiting and ready, reducing morbidity and mortality significantly.
It seems that the CDC and Saint Fauci are just discovering that natural immunity is more effective than the Beastly Jab. What a surprise. It's pretty hard to play "little boy tinkering with Daddy's watch" and do a better job than nature.
Oh, baby, your journey through life is just beginning. You need to get out of NYC and the far Left northeast. The center of the country is a worldview away from the insular, parochial, paralyzing groupthink you have been subjected to. I would love to meet your friend. She is an admirable person of character.
The college campuses are like this everywhere, even in conservative regions. They’re ugly, cancerous growths.
I was impressed with St Johns in Annapolis and Santa Fe when my children were there. Western Civ based quest for truth and knowledge. I envied them
There's a Christian college somewhere in Pennsylvania that I read about recently, forget the name, but they're the opposite of "woke" and I am going to suggest my daughter apply there (we're Jewish). Also there's the new U. of Austin (UATX) being established as we speak, written up in this substack a few months ago. Very interesting.
And Hillsdale in MI
Truly. I finished my B.A. at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, graduating in 2000. At that time, the English department there had mainly older professors, one of whom was actually a conservative. The others were liberals, but did not bring politics into their classrooms. I studied literature and language there.
I went to graduate school at Kansas State, thinking that I would still be studying literature and language. But I discovered that the entire department was what we now call "Woke." The professors were primarily younger--some of them even younger than me (I was in my mid-30s at that point). Rather than genuinely studying literature, we studied how literature can be interpreted to push a political ideology (critical theory). The younger the professor was, the more likely they were to believe that they had a moral duty to convert their students to the "correct" (Woke) way of seeing the world.
You cannot depend on any given university or department being free of this Woke groupthink, just because of where it is located or how it was a decade or more ago. Investigate the research the professors are doing, and the things they are writing. That will tell you much of what you need to know about the department.
I graduated college in '83, back when most of the professors were WW2 generation or "Silent Generation" (1950s), and were dedicated to scholarship and academic integrity. Some of the students even back then were woke fools, but that's probably always been true. The problem today is that the adults who are supposed to keep the kids in line are themselves woke idiots.
That's the year I graduated from high school. I should have taken a gap year, but that wasn't a thing back then. I had a full-ride scholarship, which I promptly lost due to being too crushed under depression to cope with my classes.
I should have taken a gap year. Wasted the first year or two of college (and Dad's money). I'm encouraging my daughter to do a gap year, or at least start with community college, then transfer to a 4-year to finish up. I'm also warning her about the out-of-control wokeness on most campuses these days. Some of the professors are the worst. "You wore a MAGA cap to class. I'm flunking you."
In the other corner of the ring are my wife & MIL who believe she should go for the full 4-year experience at a small liberal arts college such as Oberlin.
There is nothing like some real life experience to make one appreciate getting an education. When I returned to college in my early 30s, I was once again the straight-A student I had been in high school.
If your daughter is feeling the least bit burned out on studying, I cannot recommend a gap year too highly, particularly a working gap year. Working at a job will give her a look at a different side of life, as well as letting her earn some money to put toward her education.
Admirable a true star!!!
Yes, the midwest, for the most part is "normal". My nephew attended Babson (a great business school) and took a job in MN (we're from WI) saying he couldn't get out of the NE fast enough. That was in 2004. My children wouldn't even visit colleges in the NE or West coast.
Fortunately we are in Florida. Although there was rot in the curriculum when my kids attended college, the children allowed us to guide them on courses. My daughter went to Florida State. At that time she had to take one class from the X curriculum and one from the Y curriculum. These were those gender studies moronic courses that rot the brain. However there were a handful of meaningful classes buried in with the chaff. She took those. My son went to community college for his first two years and then to University of Central Florida. The community colleges don't waste scarce resources on stupid classes. Most students who go to community college have jobs, are older, or are short on money. There were fewer stupid classes in the junior and senior years at UCF. My son is also not into trendy stuff.
Both managed to get useful degrees and come out with their brains intact.
So true about the community colleges. I taught at one some time ago. Perhaps with the decline in enrollment at the universities, they'll work toward getting rid of this bs.
Ms. Rackoff offers a small glimmer of hope, albeit, at this point, a small one. Of course we remember the Floyd narrative at the time. When people fell over themselves to be "anti-racists" and swooned for the swill of Kendi and D'Angelo. And then we saw racism in full display. The racism of low expectations that permitted an summer long orgy of destruction, violence and murder. That saw C-suite dupes shoveling millions to the grifters of BLM. And that even mind-bogglingly ascribed "systemic racism" to a system of governance that had outlawed discrimination based on race, spent trillions to remedy past racism and even showered benefits based on being a member of one race.
Do students to whom this swill is peddled know they are being lied to? Do the teachers and administrators who dish it out know that they are peddling lies and indoctrination? Why are there so few with the courage to say "no, this is madness and we won't have it?" So, yes, this is a glimmer of hope, but, sadly, Ms. Rackoff, who managed to maintain a shred of decency, still hasn't completely opened her eyes to the lies of the left and the damage they are willing to inflict on our nation.
Political opinions are a fashion statement.
Ah, yes, but only if the wearer has the "right" opinions - and they'd better not be of the right.
Maya your wisdom gives me hope, thank you
Wisdom? She still believes the police are mostly bad, and BLM is mostly good. She is still into Wokeism although her eyes are beginning to be opened because her article on Megyn Kelly was unfairly rejected. Did she hear anything Megyn Kelly had to say?
I had the exact same reaction-what “wisdom”? She’s learned almost nothing from her mistakes, and openly admits the sick, oppressive, nightmare she’s part of relies on FEAR to keep people in line. With “insight” like hers, who needs totalitarianism? What tripe!
Well, at least she's still young and has years to grow. Remember the stupid shit that we bought in our late teens and early 20s? Although I always thought the left was mostly overwrought and silly.
Agree. I don't really expect wisdom from anyone who is 20 years old. They don't have the life experience to be wise. However, we shouldn't write her off yet, as she is interning with Bari. No doubt she will continue to be exposed to other viewpoints, which I hope will help deepen her understanding of just how destructive this movement has been to the people in this country.
Most knowledge is acquired incrementally. I agree with Bari that Maya deserves respect and admiration.
Yes, she is a work in progress (as are we all). It takes time and courage to grow.
you don't outgrow stupid
Bruce is correct. I remember the moronic stuff I believed, learned at school. It wasn't until I was raising my first child that I began to question the liberal/Left programs and initiatives, particularly those aimed at minorities.
Wisdom comes from marriage, children, mortgages, being employed, being fired, living through disasters (both natural and man made), being divorced, etc.
All of the above changed my political views over time.
I think Maya has a way to go, but she's starting down the path, I hope.
I worked since i was 13 had no time for silly liberal crap the rich kids with mommy and daddy paying all the bills ate up and spewed out , most came around once they had to work to put food in their mouth . the ones that inherited big $$ never grew up
It was apparent to me watching the Antifa and BLM riots that those participating had other means of income than a job. They most certainly did not respect work, private property, or understand how things come to be. They would be completely unable to build even a tiny portion of anything they destroyed.
I always heard the old saw if you are not liberal when you are young you do not have a heart and if you are not conservative as you mature you do not have a brain. I always interpreted that as once you have skin in the game (kids, gainful employment, property ownership) your values change. I still agree with that. I don't know whether the problem is that a lot of people are simply not maturing or the message is not being properly understood. I look around all the time and wonder how people can support policies that are not in their best interest?
A lot of it has to do with the majority opinion surrounding you. I recall back to when Richard Nixon ran for president. I did not know one single person who liked him, supported him or voted for him. The shock when he won was astounding. I lived in NYC at the time. Everyone I knew hated him.
Republicans were WASPs. They kept immigrant kids out of camps, better schools, and they kept our parents out of neighborhoods, and all sorts of clubs. We were too poor to even think of a country club but education was the escalator to the middle class. Every immigrant parent wanted their kids to have the best education possible. When their kids were stymied and prevented from getting into "elite" colleges it caused a permanent dislike.
I wonder if the Democrats realize what their quota systems are doing for their future with Asians. The Democrats have tried every underhanded trick in the book to prevent bright, hard working Asian kids from attending the best schools.
Last year, the Democrats tried to win Asians over with a media focus on hate crimes committed against Asians--caused, the Media insisted, by White Supremacy. Unfortunately for the Dems, the uncomfortable truth turned out to be that most of the hate crimes against Asians were being committed by black people.
The anti-success prejudice of the Woke cannot help but impact Asians who have been taught the fundamentals of success all their lives.
IMO Democrats talk the talk but do not walk the walk. But Republicans are far from perfect. I agree about the mistreatment of Asian students.
I think humility is the beginning of wisdom and she certainly displays that.
I love that yelnan.
Thank you.
Maya believes in constructive dialogue over close-mindedness and in friendships across political divides. That’s more praiseworthy than having what you think are the only correct political opinions.
I agree.
Giver her time to evolve, Naomi. Giver her time. Perhaps wisdom is best defined as not only the adherence to a specific ideology or set of views, but in the art of listening to other ideas. And if that's the case, she is on her way.
At least she has one balanced intelligent friend to listen to.
An influencer, in other words. You may want to remember that people have bounced from one opinion to the other and back (and beyond) during the course of their lives. We are older than she is. Her views may change yet again. I know mine has. Maybe yours has too. Such is the course of things. Nothing is absolute.
My views are 180 degrees from where they were when I was a teenager and in my 20's.
Haha! My views are 180 degrees from what they were a little over a year ago!
Not really. I just finally found out the Dems didn't represent my values like I thought they did. My values informed by Thomas Sowell a lot.
I am not denying that this drive we humans have to assert our identity by challenging the values and attitudes of the generations before our own is oftentimes self-centered and misguided. I am not denying either that youthful idealism/rebelliousness often annoys me for its lack of perspective. Yet, what we witness now goes beyond that. Within the last decade, the purpose of education has shifted from the pursuit of truth and objectivity and the value of independent thinking to something different. Young people were instructed during a vulnerable time in their lives on how to think and it was implied that they were not moral if they challenged the narrative. Hence, while I hate to use the word “victim” we cannot blame young individuals for circumstances that were in many ways beyond their control. The ideologues in the ivory towers promoting this specific ideology and those directors and CEOs who capitulate are where we should pointing our fingers, not our youth. Anyone who can break from this indoctrination for the sake of loyalty and friendship has my respect.
However, it is the job of parents to either deprogram or to provide the other perspective if 1) we're sending them of to one-sided institutions 2) we're paying gobs of money for that "privilege" 3) we want to enjoy our grandchildren. (I jest about the last one....but only a little. We have to be able to help these young immature frontal cortexes that there is so much they don't know and we are here to help provide the other facts/perspective.
You are so right. The key is to achieve moral authority with your children before they reach age 5. If you can do that it will help tremendously when they hit their teen years of rebellion. It is also a huge help to get them to church, regularly.
Absolutely. That's how we raised our children (maybe being a much older mom was a benefit after all) as well as family dinners every night. We'd catch up on each other's day and what was going on and established the structure kids crave.
Yes, you are right. Excellent points.
mine too
I don't think Maya is wise yet. She has indicated she may become wise, but it will be very, very difficult to set her passions aside and look for the objective truth that will challenge and, if she accepts the challenge, dismantle those passions.
Her first step should be to truly investigate if the US is "systemically racist". That seems to be a foundation for her. If she is honest in her analysis, she will find that "systemic racism" is a canard (except I think progressives are probably "systemically racist", even though the country is not). At that point, she will have an incredibly difficult bridge to cross.
There are some pertinent things I could say here but will hold my tongue about "systemic racism."
I won't. "Systemic racism" is a lever the Woke wanna use to "dismantle" the institutions. I go by one data point: "What percentage of whites would *not* object to a Black person marrying a close relative."
Pew said 16% in 1980; 84% in 2016. Latest I saw was 94%. These are the people who make up the institutions they wanna get rid of.
Most of us now have interracial family members and interracial neighbors.
I got a jump on that back in the 80s. It [Edit: "was" -> "was not"] thought very highly of back then. *Some* changes lately (few) are for the better.
why hold your tongue ? not like you'll be run off the site
I'll certainly open up a fire storm and be run off the site if I do give my opinion on the recent outcry of systemic racism. It's my cowardice.
Whatever suits, but I don't picture You and cowardice in the same sentence. Dunno..
Oh, my gosh. hugs to you jt. Sometimes I am a bit of a coward. Honesty is the best policy.
Why?
I love this! I recently just had an argument with one of my best friends from college about politics. It was tough because we come at things from different angles. After some tears and tough conversation, we worked through things. That said, I explained that my beliefs are a part of who I am and cannot pretend not to care about what I see going on in this country. The main stream media, education system, and now even corporations have really tried to shut down half of this country's viewpoints but there is an angry, frustrated undercurrent. People must rise up and speak out even if it risks friendships. Intolerance is NOT the answer, conversations and compassion is what we need more than ever. We must start by finding the good in each of us. Thank you Maya for listening to and conversing with your friend. You can accomplish far more together than as enemies.
It’s not “half the country”, it’s 90%. The woke supporters are kept in line through fear, which the article illustrates, however unintentionally
I agree that probably the majority of the country doesn't think like this, but the wokesters of every ilk are a very vocal minority whose noise drowns out less strident but more rational ideas. It's almost impossible to avoid this plague; in my son's company, everyone had to attend a series of seminars on "white privilege". Most went because they didn't want to jeopardize their positions, but didn't take it seriously. Yet there are always a few who fall for the propaganda. You also have to be careful what you say and to whom you say it. Reminds me of what my mother told me about Germany in the 1930s. Awful thing to say, I know, but many people are afraid to speak up, and the "woke" revel in their power to destroy people's lives, like the informer who caused one of my uncles to be arrested for hiding a Jewish colleague.
That's my point about the intimidation and fear--and yet we're supposed to buy the bullshit that this is nothing like previous historical totalitarian movements. No, they haven't murdered 6M Jews...yet.
It is great that the author learned a lesson in tolerance.
However, she should have understood earlier that she was doing what others had been accusing her friend of doing:
"I embraced the BLM slogans and ignored the violence that accompanied some of the protests. I even dismissed the antisemitism that seemed to be entangled in some of BLM’s statements."
Glossing over violence and ignoring the obvious racism were wrong, but she appears not to be apologetic or have modified her stance:
"It wasn’t that I regretted many of the slogans I shouted that summer"
Becoming tolerant is commendable, continuing to be a bigot not so much.
Even those willing to take off the inquisitor’s robes are typically unwilling to become an out and out heretic and admit the whole thing was a moral panic.
She's 20 years old, for God's sake. You sound like the oppressors.
If you think these lukewarm criticisms are oppression, you must really be upset with the silence is violence crowd.
Having started, myself, at Brown, in 1956, I have seen the place change. Back then professors weren’t allowed to force their political views on students and girls lived on a different campus from boys. There was an unacknowledged but real quota for blacks and Jews. 2 black girls in each new class and a few Jews, most of whom commuted. We attended chapel twice a week. The Dean of Pembroke college discussed such topics as whether it was worth it for girls to go to college. Her reasoning? “When you educate a man you educate an individual. When you educate a woman you educate a family.” We’d be laughed off campus if we even hinted at that idea today. I was there on scholarship since my Dad was the janitor at University Hall. We commuters had a dorm to stay at occasionally and to meet at every day. We thought a couple of the seniors were bonkers because they were running around working for a political party. Politics was not one of our major concerns. Now who to invite to the Pembroke Dance, THAT was up for serious discussions.
I took 4 years off in the middle of my college journey to get married and have a son. (Met my husband in the old Hay Library while recovering from a flu epidemic that, looking back, was as bad as COVID.) I returned to Brown in the fall of 1962. Drugs had arrived while I was gone. Being an older married student made me a suitable ear-cum shoulder for some of the younger students to confide in. The rules had changed, but it was still my beloved Brown.
Over the years, reading the BAM monthly I could tell, as the decades passed that something disturbing was happening. The college bragged that its minority students included Portuguese Americans. In a state where about 30% of the population is of Portuguese descent, and the fact that the Portuguese students were as white as those of English or “Yankee” heritage was odd. They never bragged about it when my neighbor Lenny and I, both of Portuguese descent were there in the fifties.
Dorms became co-ed. A young orthodox Jewish woman was shamed because she refused to shower with the boys. Efforts to make her conform included questions like, “What? Are you ashamed of your body?” Her parents eventually got permission for her to live off campus. Understand that back in the fifties there were strict rules about how and when we girls interacted with boys on campus. So this was alarming to hear.
When I went back for my 25th reunion (That was the year they gave Bill Crosby an honorary doctorate) the major question regarding behavior was insensitivity. You could be shamed for being “insensitive.” The major political cause was divest from South Africa. Students shouted, fists raised, as they marched down college hill for commencement services at First Baptist. The percentage of students’ ethnicity and gender had changed. The balance between men and women had changed from one Pembroker (girl) to Brunonians (boys) in the fifties to the elimination of Pembroke College and an almost even ratio of girls to boys in the late 70s. Blacks were no longer restricted. There were enough Jewish students that one Unitarian friend of mine said, “I won’t let my daughter go to Brown, it’s too Jewish.” Hardly that, but there were more than in the fifties.
As I read BAM over the years it increasingly became an unpleasant reminder of the radical changes at my beloved Alma Mater. ROTC was banished. They started changing the names of holidays. Now they don’t even have “Christmas” break. They call it Winter something or other. No Columbus Day. He was a bad guy. But Brown is still Brown even though it’s named after a slave owner who made a huge financial contribution.
Nowadays I cringe when I hear the things that Brown is up to. Ms Rackoff’s article makes it even clearer that it’s not a place where I would want my grandkids to attend college. On the other hand, they were as brainwashed at the colleges they went to, so it’s irrelevant.
I mourn for my old college. I still love the Brown I went to, but I am horrified by what it has become.
I’m an old lady. 83 last birthday. Thank God I’m still able to get out, even work at a big box store for pin money. The gang there are more like my old college mates at Brown. They aren’t carried away with causes. They work hard. They are bright and relatively unpolluted by what is going on in the college world. Nobody is fighting about pronouns. They are working to make ends meet, put food on the table, feed their kids, and if it comes up, puzzled by the nonsense going in in the mainstream media and on our college campuses. They are a very diverse gang. Old and young, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Arabic, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, etc.
brown should come down to Florida, visit Home Depot, and get a taste of the people who make the world go round.
Gotta go. I’m due at my service desk at 10.
Thank you for this wonderful comment, from a slightly younger old lady.
I need an edit button. Sentence above should read one Pembroker to five Brunonians. 1 girl to 5 boys. Now it’s something like 52 girls to 48 boys — yeah. I said it. Boys and girls. Men and women.
There is an edit button - finally. The three dots.
Great comment. So often these kids are coddled and have no idea of the real world.
Thanks. I didn’t know that.
Glad to hear that Maya realizes the value of tolerance. But I cannot help but wonder if she is nothing more than a single grain of sand on a large beach. How many others at Brown or from her high school ( and thousands of others at other colleges, schools , and sundry other organizations and businesses) have had epiphanies like Maya? How many who have excommunicated their friends have said "I'm sorry?" It is easy to say that one hopes we are turning the corner regarding all of the above, but is that really true, especially in cities like NY, SF, LA and various others around the US? Or college campuses. The daily venomous rhetoric and labelling emanating from many of our elected leaders on whatever may be the issue du jour does not suggest that these Orwellian times are about to end anytime soon.
Universities have been split along the faculty-ideology line for decades. Liberal Arts are universally leftist, professional faculties (engineering, medical, accounting, business) are mostly conservative. Law and Computer Science are split within themselves.
That's how it was in the early 80s, probably since the 60s. My fellow engineering students laughed at the massive chips on the shoulders of Sociology and Women's Studies students. It was impossible to have a conversation with them. They considered female engineering students like me to be subservient to our male classmates and hated us for tolerating their sexism. Mostly, we were hated for not being Marxist. No difference from today's attitudes.
that is funny ,subservient some of the best engineers i worked with were women , they were anything but subservient
This post really spoke to me. I've been greatly saddened by the version of anti-racism I see in universities and in my former high school, which had been an amazing academic institution. When I expressed concerns about a Zoom session in which white alums were asked to examine themselves for "microaggressions" and hidden prejudices which "had" to be there, when I questioned the wisdom of so-called racial affinity groups and called for a return to the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, the response from very old friends ranged from nervous guilt to outright rage ("I won't speak about this with you!") To me, it's sad to see the phenomenon John McWhorter has dubbed "woke racism" entangling so many smart, thinking people, who seem hobbled by misguided guilt. I've lived in Germany a long time, and see what happens when the grandchildren of nazis feel the guilt that ought to have been felt by their forbears. That guilt impedes the understanding effected by honest, friendly conversations. A friend is someone with whom one can speak freely. When that freedom is gone, we are all the poorer.
yes this self-criticism bullshit is straight out of the Marxist playbook. Yeonmi Park, a defector from North Korea now living in the U.S., wrote of her experiences in a graduate class at Columbia University; they were required to sit in a circle and engage in self-criticism, exactly what she had experienced in N. Korea. Unbelievable that academics are almost universally supporting this creepy anti-freedom behavior.
Great article. I think the pendulum is swinging back toward tolerance. True 'diversity' will only be achieved when we can express uncomfortable positions on the issues of the day, engender honest debate, & still remain friends without the acrimony that we seen for the last several years. That is true "liberalism".
I’ll never agree that wokeism has a single positive thing to offer, unless, in a backhanded way, it serves as a warning, illustrating the very worst personal and institutional concepts humans are capable of.
There’s no compromise possible. Agreeing with lies your very own daily reality tells you are impossible is the definition of nihilistic oppression.
Did you ever try to have the "honest conversation about race" that every wokester and race hustler claims to crave and then immediately shuts down in horror the moment that
inconvenient facts are raised? Or, worse, every HR diversity trainer - as they demand conformity to a nonsensical agenda.
So glad they remained friends and grew from this. This reminds me about a book I just read, The Coddling of the American Mind. They should be making that manditory reading before going to these instituions, LOL!
It's so observably sad that this very thing has happened to so many. I've read many accounts throughout my Substack newsletters. Different causes--racism, mandates, vaccines, etc, but all with one thing in common, moral outrage and self-righteousness. Another one, today, from one of my favorite essayists decrying the same thing. It has happened to all of us, especially in the last 2 years, 3 years, now, torn and scattered friendships.
Genuine people are hurt deeply, and it seems to be okay among the in-group. Of course, like a lover who ends an affair and moves on to the next, it's easy for them. The rest of us are left to wonder why, and to patch up yet another scar. How can those friendships be so easily discarded? Were they ever really friendships or just mutual aid societies? Were they ever of any depth, except maybe on one side, like a deep and shallow end of a pool? There's no sense to it.
This demand for Cosmic Justice among the social and cultural warriors, and the certainty that our tribe deserves it, always ends in war. Little wars, big wars. We devolve into squabbles that demand redress. What tribe ever, in all of history, did not wage war continually on its neighbors? We tend to think of our groups as peaceful hunter-gatherers that can somehow ably co-exist, like the silly bumper sticker. That's a faulty remembering of history. It's war, going forward, continual, vengeful, and re-vengeful wars.
This doesn't end well.
History teaches - sadly, again and again - that if the lunatic left isn't crushed, nothing good ensues.
You see that a lot these days - people saying that they're ashamed because they felt complicit in supporting systemic racism. How did they support it I wonder? If you knowingly and willfully support racist ideologies then yeah, you've got some serious flaws that need fixing.
What gets me are the people who fall into the belief that just their VERY SKIN COLOR (white) makes them racist - somehow completely missing the fact that being "put in a box" because of the color of your skin IS racist, no matter what color your skin is... man are people really THAT damn dense?
Yes, wokeism apparently shuts down rational thought and even common sense.
Wokeism is positively *against* rational thought. That's "whiteness." What's more important to the Woke Religion is "lived experience." And that's why Wokeness just doesn't make any sense at *all,* when You look into it.
Yup. If you look at the traits of "whiteness" poster put out by the Smithsonian, EVERY trait that helps make people successful in almost every culture on this planet is labeled "white"...and therefore bad.
It's as if they WANT people to fail.
Yeah.
Well, there's no small percentage that actually DO want people to fail. For the nation to fail. I think all the Global Elites are in that boat.
And some other unknown percentage is people whose ideology just blinds them to the facts of the matter.
The only way they can take over completely is to burn Western civilization to the ground.
In the meanwhile, the more people who fail, the more support the Leftists get as a result of telling people that it was the system that made them fail.