Posted on 11/11/2023 4:51:47 AM PST by MtnClimber
It’s not about diversity, equity, or inclusion. It is about arrogating power to a movement that threatens not just Jews—but America itself.
Twenty years ago, when I was a college student, I started writing about a then-nameless, niche ideology that seemed to contradict everything I had been taught since I was a child.
It is possible I would not have perceived the nature of this ideology—or rather I would have been able to avoid seeing its true nature—had I not been a Jew. But I was. I am. And in noticing the way I had been written out of the equation, I started to notice that it wasn’t just me, but that the whole system rested on an illusion.
What I saw was a worldview that replaced basic ideas of good and evil with a new rubric: the powerless (good) and the powerful (bad). It replaced lots of things. Color blindness with race obsession. Ideas with identity. Debate with denunciation. Persuasion with public shaming. The rule of law with the fury of the mob.
People were to be given authority in this new order not in recognition of their gifts, hard work, accomplishments, or contributions to society, but in inverse proportion to the disadvantages their group had suffered, as defined by radical ideologues. According to them, as James Kirchick concisely put it: “Muslim > gay, black > female, and everybody > the Jews.”
I was an undergraduate back then, but you didn’t need a PhD to see where this could go. And so I watched, in horror, sounding alarms as loudly as I could.
I was told by most Jewish leaders that, yes, it wasn’t great, but not to be so hysterical. Campuses were always hotbeds of radicalism, they said. This ideology, they promised, would surely dissipate as young people made their way in the world.
It did not.
Over the past two decades I saw this inverted worldview swallow all of the crucial sense-making institutions of American life. It started with the universities. Then it moved on to cultural institutions—including some I knew well, like The New York Times—as well as every major museum, philanthropy, and media company. Then on to our medical schools and our law schools. It’s taken root at nearly every major corporation. It’s inside our high schools and even our elementary schools. The takeover is so comprehensive that it’s now almost hard to notice it—because it is everywhere.
Including in the Jewish community....
When I saw “End DEI” I thought “End of God”? Never.
Very true
There is no remedy for inequality.
I think you mean WWI.
Victimism leads to vindictiveness.
And now today's left ("victimists") is taking victimism to the next level.
“I think she was shocked when she opened her eyes.I think she was shocked when she opened her eyes.”
I recall a situation that happened a couple years ago when Bari sided against the libs, but don’t remember what it was. Maybe she’s officially red-pilled now.
I am not sure it isn’t all of a piece, the DEIdio5s are importing their executioners in the name of assuageing White Guilt
People can have Road to Damascus moments like Paul did. He was a Jew. This author was blind, but apparently now she is beginning to see.
We need to invite them in once their eyes are opened.
“Jews funded, voted, and pushed DEI.
DEI ruined the military, corporations, merit, education, and the country.
Now I’m supposed to give a damn? Sorry, all out.”
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No, SOME Jews funded, vote and pushed DEI - and they certainly weren’t alone, those scumbags undoubtedly included people sharing your religious and ethnic background. NOT all - but you show your innate prejudice (this time against Jews) by assigning blame to all Jews, rather than those who rightfully deserve the blame. I would daresay that none of the Jews on FR have ever supported DEI in any way, and there are quite a few here.
Oh, and you SHOULD give a damn, because DEI is coming for you and yours before long. The alligator will just eat you a bit later, but he (or xe) will assuredly eat you and yours, too.
“Now it affects me” thinking.
I welcome her to reality and equality. Good luck.
Very good points! It saddens me that people are blaming the Jewish people for what is happening to them today. I don’t care if a lot of Jewish people own businesses, newspapers, banks or whatever, that doesn’t excuse the treatment many Jews experience across the world and in Israel today. To me it is the same as the black people out there blaming the white man for all their ills. Should the white men be treated as the Jews because blacks claim they are oppressed? It is something to think about.
The alligator already came for me. It’s why I DGAF about her and her kind.
Reap it.
“She left out the Christians, but otherwise it can’t be said much better than that.”
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I’m pretty sure that Christians were included in the “and everybody” part of that equation. Also, she was quoting someone else, she didn’t come up with it. Otherwise, I completely agree with you.
“Wasn’t Bari a big lib?”
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Yes, but she’s gotten slapped in the face a few times over the years (IOW, she got mugged). I don’t mind honest liberals as much as I used to - at least they are honest and can admit that they lost an election, or that they’re wrong. Unfortunately, honest liberals are a dying species. The problem is that the DEI people despise honesty, even if it is among some people who are sympathetic to their cause. DEI destroys everybody sooner or later.
Yes. That’s what I was trying to remember. Thanks!
Re: #35. I should have said purged rather than silenced. She continues write and publish, I think on substack. But the level of harassment and managerial bad faith was sufficient to drive her out of the NYT.
“Now it affects me” thinking.
I welcome her to reality and equality. Good luck.
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In case you hadn’t noticed, we are losing the culture wars. “We” meaning those people who have traditional values, who are patriotic, who think that hard work should be rewarded, and who believe that the pinnacle of creation is not one person, or even all of mankind, but God. Yeah, we are losing. So perhaps it would be smarter for those of us that are remaining on this side of the culture wars to take any ally that we can get?
There’s that old saying that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. Well, Bari Weiss has just been mugged, and she is now on our side, whether she realizes it or not (and I think that she does). Rather than just wishing her and people like her “good luck,” maybe we should welcome them, maybe we should work to convert them into active allies, so that maybe we won’t actually lose the culture war. That’s how you build a better future for your children and grandchildren, not by dismissing or having contempt for those who realized what you and I did, just later on. We can’t afford, as a society, to just casually throw these people away because they were once our opponents.
Remember, Ronald Reagan used to be a Democrat. Thomas Sowell used to be a pretty radically liberal individual. Both of them saw the light, saw where liberalism was headed, and they became two of the brightest stars on our side of the equation. Their wisdom and their persuasiveness helped to make this country a better place. We dare not throw away the next Reagan or Sowell.
“The alligator already came for me. It’s why I DGAF about her and her kind.
Reap it.”
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Oh, so because you have been victimized by a poisonous ideology, that means that everybody else should be as well, that includes your kids and grandkids, and those of everyone else that you know and care about? What a completely selfish attitude. You’re as bad as the DEI asswipes.
“I recall a situation that happened a couple years ago when Bari sided against the libs, but don’t remember what it was. Maybe she’s officially red-pilled now.”
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IIRC, that previous incident involved her resignation from the New York Times because of her belief that the atmosphere among all of her fellow employees, including management, was poisoned by the censorship of Twitter. One thing that she has always been is a promoter of free speech. To her credit, though she has been very liberal, she has oftentimes criticized the excesses of the far left. Is she red pilled at this point? That is still an open question, but I know a number of people who have definitely had their eyes opened by not only what happened on October 7 in Israel, but because of the reaction on campuses and in the media worldwide since then.
As I have said in other posts on this thread, I believe that we should not gloat to people like this that we were correct but, instead, we should welcome them. We are losing the cultural wars, and need every ally that we can get - our future, and that of our children and grandchildren depends upon winning the culture wars, and restoring this nation to what it was many decades ago. Someone like her has a unique ability that none of us have to persuade people that think like she used to, to wake them up to the dangers posed by the far left, including the DEI agenda.
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