"It is, in essence, an ongoing moral panic against the specter of 'white supremacy,' which is now bizarrely regarded as an accurate description of the largest, freest, most successful multiracial democracy in human history.... The elites, increasingly sequestered within one political party and one media monoculture, educated by colleges and private schools that have become hermetically sealed against any non-left dissent, have had a 'social justice reckoning' these past few years. And they have been ideologically transformed, with countless cascading consequences. Take it from a NYT woke star, Kara Swisher, who celebrated this week that 'the country’s social justice movement is reshaping how we talk about, well, everything.' She’s right — and certainly about the NYT and all mainstream journalism.... The reason 'critical race theory' is a decent approximation for this new orthodoxy is that it was precisely this exasperation with liberalism’s seeming inability to end racial inequality in a generation that prompted Derrick Bell et al. to come up with the term in the first place, and Kimberlé Crenshaw to subsequently universalize it beyond race to every other possible dimension of human identity ('intersectionality'). A specter of invisible and unfalsifiable 'systems' and 'structures' and 'internal biases' arrived to hover over the world...."
Writes Andrew Sullivan in "What Happened To You?/The radicalization of the American elite against liberalism" (Substack).
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6 comments:
LA_Bob writes:
"'It is, in essence, an ongoing moral panic against the specter of 'white supremacy,' which is now bizarrely regarded as an accurate description of the largest, freest, most successful multiracial democracy in human history....'
"This got me to wondering (most all your posts can do this). The "narrative" we've heard over the last several years is that demography is destiny, and the "brown Americans" will gradually marginalize "white Americans" and vote liberal and Democratic forever after. Of course, I've seen arguments against this outcome, mostly noting the cultural conservatism to which many brown Americans subscribe.
"So, I wonder if the "sudden, rapid, stunning shift of the American elites" isn't just an inchoate, knee-jerk reaction to this demographic destiny. The elites are in a panic, because they believe this tide of "woke brownness" will put them -- especially the whites among them -- out of business so fast their heads will spin. The elites need to get in front of the movement, burnishing their woke credentials, before it runs them over.
"So, maybe they're right but for the wrong reason. Maybe it's the potential conservatism of the growing brown population that will do them in. If so, it will come as a complete shock. It will be poetic justice."
Amadeus48 writes:
"Andrew Sullivan is giving a masterclass in how not to persuade anyone who doesn’t already agree with him. That is usually happens with straddlers: they end up insulting people on both sides. Here is a quote from the end of Sullivan’s attempt to straddle the political shifts of the last 20 years:
""Does that mean we should support an increasingly nihilist cult on the right among the GOP? Of course not. Does it mean we should ignore its increasingly menacing contempt for electoral integrity and a stable democracy? Absolutely not. But one reason to fight for liberalism against the successor ideology is that its extremes are quite obviously fomenting and facilitating and inspiring ever-rising fanaticism in response. I fear the successor ideology’s Kulturkampf is already making the 2022 midterms a landslide for a cultish, unmoored GOP. In fighting S.I., we are also fighting Trump.”
"OK—what are the elements of the “increasingly nihilist cult on the right among the GOP”? He doesn’t say. What is it in the GOP or the right generally that is nihilist? He doesn’t say. In fact, the Republicans and the right generally stand with traditional values many of which are classically liberal—our traditional civic religion (all men are created equal, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), stable families, community institutions, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of faith, schools that impart practical knowledge, private property, free enterprise, minimal centralized control, due process of law. That, as they say, is not nothing. What is the GOP’s “increasingly menacing contempt for electoral integrity and a stable democracy”? He doesn’t say. That is coming from the Dems, based on the 2020 election. What is the “a cultish, unmoored GOP” that he fears will win the 2022 elections? He doesn’t say. Sorry, Andrew, I think you are accusing the wrong guys.
"What America needs is a form of Trumpism without Trump, who has managed to self-destruct in his post election struggles: national borders that have secure walls and wide gates for legal immigration; pursuit of relations among nations that put the needs and values (see above) of Americans at the forefront of American policy; reduced bureaucratic and regulatory obstructionism; a strong military capable of defending Americans and their interests; freedom of thought and opinion; and a renewed commitment to the rule of law.
"I don’t need Andrew Sullivan to insult and libel me, and yet he did so. Shame on him."
J writes:
"Sullivan begins by telling us how craven and cynical the GOP-Fox News! is for their efforts pushing back against CRT.
"Sullivan: “Is this a wedge issue for the GOP? Of course it is. Are they using the term “critical race theory” as a cynical, marketing boogeyman? Of course they are.”
"Andrew must make sure to note that when the GOP pushes back – it’s very icky and wrong… and cynical. GOP pounces. So wrong.
"Near the end of his essay, Sullivan reports the truth about the illiberal left. The thought-crime left: and does so in strong terms, similar to the GOP.
"Sullivan:
"“Look how far the left’s war on liberalism has gone.
"Due process? If you’re a male on campus, gone. Privacy? Stripped away — by anonymous rape accusations, exposure of private emails, violence against people’s private homes, screaming at folks in restaurants, sordid exposés of sexual encounters, eagerly published by woke mags. Non-violence? Exceptions are available if you want to “punch a fascist.” Free speech? Only if you don’t mind being fired and ostracized as a righteous consequence. Free association? You’ve got to be kidding. Religious freedom? Illegitimate bigotry. Equality? Only group equity counts now, and individuals of the wrong identity can and must be discriminated against. Color-blindness? Another word for racism. Mercy? Not for oppressors. Intent? Irrelevant. Objectivity? A racist lie. Science? A manifestation of white supremacy. Biological sex? Replaced by socially constructed gender so that women have penises and men have periods. The rule of law? Not for migrants or looters. Borders? Racist. Viewpoint diversity? A form of violence against the oppressed. “
"Isn’t it a bit illiberal to tell the GOP they are not allowed to criticize CRT?"
Tina writes:
"Sullivan is disinterested in the length of this cultural revolution because of the role his beloved Obama played in it.
"On the 2008 campaign trail, Obama’s boilerplate campaign speech denounced the whiteness of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham — who lived modestly to support Obama’s posh schools and world travels, as well as his perpetual student mother and Dunham’s own perpetually lazy husband — took the bus to her job running a bank. Once she told Obama and his grandfather that she was being intimidated by a group of black men at the bus stop and was afraid. Obama wrote and later speechified endlessly about the racism of her saying that and how it broke him, exaggerating his suffering as the story excited mobs of his supporters. He showed no compassion towards the woman who raised him merely because she was female, white, and feared being assaulted.
"Did Obama or his lazy grandfather react by walking her to the bus so she wouldn’t be mugged, or worse? No. Obama repeated the story to captivated liberal crowds, making his utterly decent grandmother out to be a klansman merely because she feared becoming a crime victim, though, of course, as he would always say, she was white so ‘she couldn’t help it.’ This sickeningly divisive betrayal is unsurprising from someone who spent several evenings a week for eight years with cop-killers Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn as they developed their book, Race Course: Against White Supremacy, the real ur-text of CRT, focused on transforming America through its teacher’s colleges. That book was published back in 2009 and became a standard text for nascent CRT teacher training while Ayers was the National Vice President for Curriculum for AERA, the largest K-12 teacher training association in America, Dohrn passed laws to dismantle school discipline, and the SPLC’s shockingly white-bashing Teaching Tolerance program became required reading for training teachers and re-educating the children who now attack Sullivan, to his feigned shock. That’s what happened, and Obama was there at the birth of this new racist nation.
"Mocking and denouncing the very real fears of an old white woman who pays your bills (and the down payment on your ingrate wife’s first mansion) is precisely how Obama got to the White House and there began his war on white cops and mainstreamed the radical empty-the-prisons cabal. I wonder how safe that bus stop is now. It is the perfect symbol uniting two grim eras of officially sanctioned race hatred: we have gone from Rosa Parks to Madelyn Dunham. Things happen slowly, then very quickly. Sullivan is merely replacing one disinformation campaign with another so he can deny his contribution to the current and future purges."
Brian writes:
"LA_Bob wrote: "So, I wonder if the "sudden, rapid, stunning shift of the American elites" isn't just an inchoate, knee-jerk reaction to this demographic destiny. The elites are in a panic"
"I've always assumed, that the BLM signs in white liberal's yard, are saying:
___________"Kill Me LAST!"__________
"None the less, it was scary how quickly those signs went up.
"But, here's a question for all of you" Do you STILL see those signs?
"I was back in Ames Iowa last Thursday, and they looked like they were (nearly) all gone.
Meanwhile, up here in the driftless zone; the only people who have taken down their Trump2020 signs... Took them down to replace them with Trump2024 signs.
"The problem with being an american elitist, that curses america and kowtows to the rioting crowds on the left; is that Now you've pissed off Both sides. The blackshirts on the left aren't going to change their mind about you just 'cause you put up a sign; and the bitter clingers on the right Never liked you either
"GOD help the american elitists, their days are numbered."
@Brian
Yes, I still see "Black Lives Matter" signs around here.
BTW, there's almost no sign of last summer's riots. State Street is almost entirely not boarded up, and it was very crowded with ordinary peole (i.e., not protesters) yesterday. Some places have closed but new places are opening up, mostly places to eat.
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