Posted on 10/21/2020 5:02:57 AM PDT by karpov
A question I’ve wrestled with this past year or so is a pretty basic one: if critical race/gender/queer theory is unfalsifiable postmodern claptrap, as I have long contended, how has it conquered so many institutions so swiftly?
It’s been a staggering achievement, when you come to think of it. Critical theory was once an esoteric academic pursuit. Now it has become the core, underlying philosophy of the majority of American cultural institutions, universities, media, corporations, liberal churches, NGOs, philanthropies, and, of course, mainstream journalism. This summer felt like a psychic break from old-school liberalism, a moment when a big part of the American elite just decided to junk the principles that have long defined American democratic life, and embrace what Bari Weiss calls “a mixture of postmodernism, postcolonialism, identity politics, neo-Marxism, critical race theory, intersectionality, and the therapeutic mentality.”
It’s everywhere. Across the country, schools and colleges are dumping SATs so they can engineer racial equity, and abolish the idea of merit. The Smithsonian backed the idea that working hard, showing up on time and perfecting a task are functions of “whiteness”. In California, there’s a ballot initiative to legalize government discrimination on the basis of race; and a new mandate that company boards add members from under-represented communities. Corporations who haven’t publicly committed themselves to the full woke project are being hounded by their employees into doing so, meaning hiring and firing on the basis of race, or forcing employees into re-education sessions, guided by DiAngelo and Kendi. The NBA, for Pete’s sake, is now a festival of wokeness, even as viewership collapses. CRT propaganda like the NYT’s 1619 Project can be exposed as untrue and unethical, but the paper can both debunk it in its own pages and still hail it as a triumph.
(Excerpt) Read more at andrewsullivan.substack.com ...
Ask yourself why Nazism won in Germany. Same thing.
If it wasn’t for the internet, Wokeness would have won during the Obama years.
The Frankfurt school has so far succeeded in replacing critical thinking with critical theory.
Communists opposed Nazism to the death. What is opposing Wokeism? Nothing, really. All of our institutions are firmly controlled by progressives and their corportist allies.
Each person has his or her own energy field.
The question is will that energy field be nurtured
And grow into individually expressed accomplishment
Or be controlled and directed by the madness of a group.
My whole life I was told it was important to learn to think for myself.
Now it seems as if the children are told to think like the group.
In a society, when an individual goes haywire, being but one, the damage
Is necessarily limited. But when a group goes haywire, the damage can be
Incalculable..
A group can only advance an agenda, i.e. the taking and control of others.
An individual can advance fantastic discoveries in all the arts and sciences.
America was designed to allow individuals to flourish through protecting their inalienable rights to speech, arms, religion, and association. Civil society was to be protected from the adverse actions of groups by the multiplicity of factions And the carefully structured division and limitation of powers in a federal constitutional order.
Something seems to have gone awry.
What is opposing Wokeism? Nothing, really.
Wokeness did win during the Obama years, when a failed token president won a second term because any valid criticism was suppressed. “Gay marriage” was rammed through the Supreme Court virtually unopposed, and normals were intimidated into silence.
Wokeness is winning because starting with the BJ Clinton presidency white men were marginalized, and in response they simply withdrew - and they are still withdrawn. The attack was deliberate, and had the intended effect.
Gee Andrew, look in the mirror. The destruction of almost two millennia of morality required for you to marry your buddy has left an immense vacuum that schools had to fill with something, they just filled it with the ‘critical theory’ that helped you. Only God knows if this is part of the ultimate plan, but it looks awful from down here doesn’t it Mr. Sullivan?
As the underpinnings of the Left have repeatedly been shown to be false, those who became accolytes of the Left had to create new premises to shore up their faith. The premises have become increasingly distanced from reality.
A relatively small number of committed "progressives" in the media, academia, education and politics control most of the information flow, especially to Leftists. Thus, first the idea that Marxism would come from a revolution of the workers was discredited.
Then the idea that Marxism would be more productive than capitalism was discredited.
Then the idea that workers under Marxism would be better off than under capitalism was discredited.
Then the shift was that capitalism had a greater range between the wealthy and the poor was put forward as the reason to level all with Leftisim... except Leftist societies had an even greater gap between the Leftist rulers and the mass of poor workers. (Consider Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba).
So the Left's reason for being has devolved into Identity politics and critical race theory. It is irrational and unprovable. Those are its virtues.
It won a battle, but is losing the war.
Theauthor should not be surprised. It didn’t happen quickly. It started with the Frankfurt School in 1923. In 1933, the Marxist professors left Germany and took up residence at Columbia University. It was their stated mission to corrupt every institution in the US. They knew they would be long gone before their goals were achieved. But they have succeeded.
YOU MUST KNOW YOUR ENEMY BEFORE YOU CAN DEFEAT THEM. This has been a long WAR OF CULTURAL MARXISM. It must be pulled out by the roots. Radical solution to a radical infestation. It took almost 100 years to get to this point. Let’s pray it doesn’t take 100 years to flush it down the drain.
It is winning the war because there is no new generation being born into our traditional culture.
Well, I have no doubt that socialism will win - eventually. It’s how it works. No civilization lasts forever. It’s the human condition.
It will only get worse until it is ultimately fixed - when the Lord returns.
The more dumbed down people are, the easier it is to control them. How many people do you run in to that cannot read, write, or speak good english? Or do simple math?
Excellent post.
Those preaching the value of diversity ignore the fact that there is far more diversity between individuals in any given group (race, age, education, etc) than between groups.
A culture and legal system that protect the individual have produced America’s success.
But those pesky individuals are so hard to control...
That’s because they were competing for the same malleable minds.
Why? Because “wokeness” is the latest manifestation of liberal mainline Protestantism that has its roots in Puritanism. It’s Christianity without Christ gone hog wild.
because
postmodernism = subjectivism
subjectivism = relativism + emotionalism
relativism + emotionalism = anything goes
Socialism isn’t irreversible; Eastern Europe shows how civilization can rebound when the yoke is thrown off. They understand the importance of breeding while rejecting Islamic hordes in their borders.
Although I’m with you, it’s painful when it happens. e.g. the fall of Rome.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.