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The Embarrassments of Ideology
American Greatness ^ | 20 Nov, 2025 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 11/20/2025 5:37:35 AM PST by MtnClimber

Rigid ideologies like DEI, climate dogma, and anti-Trump obsession keep collapsing under their own contradictions, leaving their loudest champions looking increasingly absurd.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a euphemism for a rigid racialist theology.

It deductively postulates that a large percentage of the population is oppressed by racism and sexism, mostly by white males.

DEI makes no allowance for the class or wealth of the alleged victims or their supposed victimizers.

So once that rigid party line is set, it cannot account for tens of millions of affluent and privileged non-white Americans or like numbers of poor and non-privileged whites.

Absurdities and ridicule must then follow.

One example is the spectacle of former First Lady Michelle Obama on her current book tour.

Mrs. Obama cannot finish an interview without whining about the racism she allegedly encountered as the once most influential and powerful woman in the United States.

According to Michelle, she was not given the exemptions that other white first ladies received.

She did not get enough free stuff for the First Family.

She had to hire three stylists daily to straighten her hair to meet “white” expectations—as if also Asians and Hispanics do not have straight hair, or many whites do not have hard-to-comb curly hair.

Indeed, she now claims blacks cannot even swim because of white-induced pressures to maintain dry and straight hair.

Because her DEI creed ignores class and wealth, Michelle has no idea how absurd she sounds.

She and husband Barack Obama own three estates in addition to their former Chicago home, together valued somewhere around $40 million.

Their net worth is estimated at between $70 and $100 million. They fly private, surrounded by a throng of Secret Service guardians.

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dei; leftism; tds; vdh; victordavishanson

1 posted on 11/20/2025 5:37:35 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: texas booster

VDH ping


2 posted on 11/20/2025 5:38:07 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
According to Michelle, she was not given the exemptions that other white first ladies received.

And yet, for some reason, we had to see that knuckle-dragging simian on the cover of dozens of magazines for 8+ years.

3 posted on 11/20/2025 5:51:10 AM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: MtnClimber

Mooch is not adapting well to irrelevance.


4 posted on 11/20/2025 5:52:38 AM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: MtnClimber

DEI is just Marxism under yet another name. Marxism always pits one group against another.


5 posted on 11/20/2025 6:01:50 AM PST by EastTexasTraveler
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To: MtnClimber

.


6 posted on 11/20/2025 6:18:10 AM PST by sauropod
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...
It's not ideology, it's call-and-answer buzzwords, partisan branding, indoctrination, and fanaticism.
"Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil."
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer, pp 85-87

Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, aka Anthony Daniels, interviewed by Jamie Glazov [August 31, 2005]


7 posted on 11/20/2025 7:07:33 AM PST by SunkenCiv (NeverTrumpin' -- it's not just for DNC shills anymore -- oh, wait, yeah it is.)
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To: texas booster; pookie18
Indeed, she now claims blacks cannot even swim because of white-induced pressures to maintain dry and straight hair.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!


8 posted on 11/20/2025 7:12:22 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: MtnClimber

DEI depends upon the favored segments of society being bought off by special privileges and government payments, and not taking offense at being assumed to be less intelligent, less capable, less diligent than the rest of society.


9 posted on 11/20/2025 8:48:56 AM PST by csn vinnie
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To: Tell It Right

Thanks, Tell It Right!


10 posted on 11/20/2025 10:30:57 AM PST by pookie18 (You don’t have to be high on crack to enjoy Pookie’s Toons! - Tell It Right)
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To: MtnClimber

Poor widdle me...


11 posted on 11/20/2025 2:34:16 PM PST by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: SunkenCiv
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer, pp 85-87

And here is another "True Believer".


 

Deconstructing Linus: Portrait of a True Believing Pumpkinist as a Young Man




What does the Great Pumpkin offer Linus? Why does Linus spend every Halloween in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear? Is it about the toys?

"Each year on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere and flies through the air with his pack of toys for all the good little children in the world."

No. This is about sincerity, a subjective standard by any definition.

 

 

I wonder if Linus blames himself every year for not picking the most sincere pumpkin patch for his vigil?

I wonder if other Great Pumpkinists castigate Linus by asserting if he were more in tune with the Spirit of the Great Pumpkin, if he were more prayerful, if he read the Holy Writ of the Great Pumpkin with a greater sincerity, that he could indeed rise to the challenge and, via the Spirit, be lead to choose the most sincere pumpkin patch?

I wonder how many years Linus will feel guilty for this failure and blame himself for receiving no answer no matter how sincere he believes himself to be?

I wonder if Linus ever gets frustrated because there is no objective way to measure sincerity?

And if he realizes there is no objective standard for such a thing, I wonder if it ever creeps into his mind that his annual mission is nothing more than mindless busywork?

I wonder... does Linus ever have doubts?

 



For the time being, however, Linus will put aside his doubts and, perhaps as a means of proving his sincerity, begins to proselyte among his friends for converts. Most shrug him off. But Sally, who has a crush on him, believes Linus and agrees to spend Halloween in Linus' Pumpkin Patch.

Linus then explains that by using positive language and positive thinking, they may be able to attract the Great Pumpkin to their Patch. He also cautions Sally that negative language and negative thinking will cause the Great Pumpkin to pass them by.

There is no room for doubt when one is a Great Pumpkinist. One should never say if the Great Pumpkin comes but always when the Great Pumpkin comes. "One little slip like that, can cause the Great Pumpkin to pass you by!"   It's hard to imagine a benevolent icon such as the Great Pumpkin punishing TBPs (True Believing Pumpkinists) for such a minor infraction, but there you have it.


Sally: The Birth of an Ex-Pumpkinist

Because Sally loves her "sweet baboo" Linus, she sets aside her own Halloween plans of trick-or-treating and a Halloween party in order to spend the evening in the Pumpkin Patch. She converts to Great Pumpkinism because she loves Linus. She respects his opinion. And she wants to make him happy and be supportive. And besides, if it's really true, WOW! Wouldn't that be fantastic?

But in the end, the only Being that shows up in the Pumpkin Patch is Snoopy. Linus, believing Snoopy to be the Great Pumpkin, swoons into an ecstatic faint, happy in the knowledge that he has finally deciphered the Great Pumpkin's standard for sincerity. But, alas, it is a misplaced hope, and when Linus regains consciousness, there is not only no Great Pumpkin there to reward him, there is one upset little girl.

"I was robbed! I spent the whole night waiting for the Great Pumpkin when I could have been out for tricks or treats! Halloween is over and I missed it! You blockhead! You kept me up all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin and all that came was a beagle!"

"I didn't get a chance to go out for tricks or treats! And it was all your fault! I'll sue! What a fool I was. And I could have had candy apples and gum! And cookies and money and all sorts of things! But no, I had to listen to you! You blockhead. What a fool I was. Trick or treats come only once a year. And I missed it by sitting in a pumpkin patch with a blockhead. You owe me restitution!"

                                                                                                               

 

 

Luckily for Sally, she only missed one Halloween. And though she is demanding restitution, because her participation was voluntary, she will never receive said restitution. She'll simply have to accept the experience as one of life's absurdities and move on.

However, one can hope that this experience has made Sally a more skeptical person, so that the next time she is presented with such fantastic claims, she'll perhaps be inclined to do her research before committing any time, money or emotion.

After all, fantastic claims should be supported by fantastic evidence, right?

The question now becomes, has this experience made Linus a skeptic? After yet again not having his Pumpkin Patch recognized as sincere and after having endangered his friendship with Sally, will he continue to believe?

In spite of a complete and utter lack of evidence pointing to the existence of the Great Pumpkin, and a complete and utter lack of the Great Pumpkin's Promise ever having been fulfilled, Linus is a True Believing Pumpkinist to the core. To even admit the possibility that he may be wrong would be to negate all those years of hard work and sincere belief. Linus simply cannot turn his back on his belief.

So if Linus doesn't become an ex-Pumpkinist, what is his strategy? Well, he's going to keep on trying, isn't he?

"What do you mean, 'stupid'? Just wait until next year. I'll find a pumpkin patch, and I'll sit in that pumpkin patch and it'll be a sincere pumpkin patch, and the Great Pumpkin will come! Just you wait and see! I'll sit in that pumpkin patch, and I'll see the Great Pumpkin. Just wait until next year!"

 
 


 


12 posted on 11/20/2025 2:37:47 PM PST by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: 5th MEB; 6ppc; agondonter; Alberta's Child; AndyJackson; Aria; artichokegrower; ...
Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list

Ideology makes facts fit dogmas, rather than evidence leading empirically to conclusions.

Late Prof Hanson ping for this article, in case you haven't read it.

FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR

Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall

American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness

His website: Victor Davis Hanson The Sword of Perseus

One of his sponsors' website: The Daily Signal

Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.

As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.

Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience.

https://freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index

13 posted on 11/22/2025 6:53:46 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: bk1000

Perfectly said. So true


14 posted on 11/22/2025 8:06:19 AM PST by Track9 (Liberal tears make me smile. Thank you DJT!)
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