Free Republic

---- The question of what exactly we are meant to do now – other than get rich and have fun – was going to have to be answered by something. The answer that has presented itself in recent years has been to live in a permanent state of outrage. To find meaning by waging constant war against anybody who seems to be on the wrong side of a question to which the answer has only just been altered. ---- The interpretation of the world through the lens of ‘social justice’ and ‘identity group politics’ is probably the most audacious and...

P rogressives do not see the United States as an exceptional uniter of factions and tribes into a cohesive whole—each citizen subordinating his tribal, ethnic, and religious affinities to a shared Americanism, emblemized by our national motto e pluribus Unum. Instead, they prefer e uno plures: out of one nation arise many innately different and separate peoples. Progressivism’s signature brand is now tribalism: all of us in different ways are victims of a white male Christian heterosexual patriarchy—or a current 20 percent hierarchy that past and present has supposedly oppressed anyone not like themselves. In contrast, our differences define who...

Four Democrats vying for their party’s presidential nomination honed in on the economic concerns of the black community during a forum Saturday in South Carolina, a state where nonwhite voters will play a major role in next year’s primary election. Appearing on stage one at a time, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke all stressed the need to increase access to capital for black business owners as part of a broader effort to address wealth inequality. Warren expounded on what she’s called...

LAS VEGAS — Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., on Saturday directly confronted one of his biggest vulnerabilities as a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination: running as a white man who has led a life of relative privilege at a time when many in his party are eager for a woman or a minority candidate to become their next leader. Speaking at a fund-raiser for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender causes, Mr. Buttigieg drew on his own experiences as a gay man in a predominantly straight society. But he also rejected the idea that “there are equivalencies”...

FULL TITLE: US cop is found guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter after he shot dead Australian woman Justine Damond in her pyjamas The US cop who shot dead an unarmed Australian woman in her pyjamas outside her home has been found guilty of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. A jury of ten men and two women reached a verdict on Tuesday in the trial of former Minnesota police officer Mohamed Noor after three weeks of testimony. The jurors were sequestered. Noor, 33, was charged with murder and manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual citizen...

Over the past few years we’ve seen an increasing tendency on the part of liberals who subscribe to intersectionality or identity politics (which classify people according to their “gender identity”, race and sexual identity) to label anyone who is conservative, either politically or theologically, as racist, and increasingly as “White Nationalists.” This has often produced absurdities that would have been worthy of Alice in Wonderland. For instance, the conservative Methodists who helped to defeat the attempt to normalize homosexuality and gay marriage in the UMC were seriously described as affirming a “White Nationalist Strain of Christianity” by Reconciling Ministries Network,...

I find it impossible to disagree with Ryan Saavedra’s Twitter observation: "The Democratic Party, which has called everything under the sun a “Nazi” for the last 3 years, all of a sudden can’t muster up the spine to condemn blatant anti-Semitism within their own party.” It’s been in the works for years under the cloak of intersectionality -- in truth little more than an effort to ingather voting blocs of illegal immigrants, Palestinian supporters, socialists, blacks locked in the ghettoes of their minds, sexual outliers – LGBT (and "whatever other gender” now included), and malcontent women delighted that even post-birth...

Until recently, Kosoko Jackson was considered an expert in the trapdoors of identity-related rhetoric. Jackson worked as a “sensitivity reader” for major publishers of YA fiction, a job that entails reading manuscripts and flagging them for problematic content. His own debut novel, A Place for Wolves, was promoted as an “#ownvoices” book, a hashtag attached approvingly to books in which the author shares a particular marginalized identity with his subject. (Jackson is black and queer.) He believed that, for example, women shouldn’t “profit” from writing gay men’s stories, as he tweeted last year. And he was part of a small...

Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Democratically elected people’s assemblies historically have been known for their mediocrity, and the U.S. has been no different. The great champion of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, in 1835 observed, “I was surprised to find so much distinguished talent among the citizens and so little among the heads of the government. It is a constant fact that at the present day the ablest men in the United States are rarely placed at the head of affairs,” a condition that worsens the more democratic the government becomes. But...

“The future is female.” It’s a favorite slogan of the identity left that has now gone mainstream. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand tweeted it on Wednesday, adding that the future is also “intersectional” and “powered by our belief in one another.” But if the future is female, what happens to our boys? And what message are we sending our present-day girls? Gillibrand is one of about 30 Democrats considering running for president in 2020, and the tweet suggests she’s seizing some strategic left-wing ground (in a primary field crowded with lefties) by appealing to the Dems’ identity-obsessed base. Her mentioning “intersectionality” is...

Heather Mac Donald has written and spoken extensively about how identity politics is hampering America’s ability to maintain its dominance in STEM fields. Our main competitors, most notably China, are focused on making sure the best scientists, mathematicians, and engineers are doing the work. They care nothing about gender. And they spend virtually every dollar related to STEM on hard research and analysis. The U.S., by contrast, is preoccupied with the gender and (to a lesser extent) the race and ethnicity of who is in the lab. And we pour money into promoting identity politics in STEM. Indeed, Elizabeth Harrington...

Even a casual follower of campus happenings has probably heard of the term “intersectionality” by now. Coined by critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw of UCLA and Columbia Law Schools, intersectionality originally was “a way to help explain the oppression of African-American women.” In Crenshaw’s own words, intersectionality is

A new academic year is upon us and, already, the world of Higher Education is being true to form.For example, the University of Maryland-College Park created a new “diversity” group intended to carve out a “safe space” for those white students who are interested in sharing their reflections on their encounters with “racial and ethnic minorities.” The school assigned to the group quite the catchy label: “White Awake.”According to Campus Reform, a watchdog site, this “support group” will assist white students who “sometimes feel uncomfortable and confused before, during, or after interactions with racial and ethnic minorities.”According to the...

Last month, Professor Bret Weinstein gave testimony before Congress on his experience at Evergreen State College and what he believes it means for our future as a nation. Weinstein posted video of his testimony on YouTube last week (see below). Here’s a bit of what he said: Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the day that 50 Evergreen students–students that I had never met–disrupted my class, accusing me of racism and demanding my resignation. I tried to reason with them. I felt no fear because I knew that, whatever my failings might be, bigotry was not among them… The...

(Skip) Nothing could be further from the left’s current vision, which is that the very concept of post-racial integration is an illusion designed to mask the reality of an eternal “white supremacy.” ... there is no recovery from the original sin, no possible redemption, and certainly no space for the concept of an individual citizenship that transcends race and can unite Americans. There is no freedom here. There is just oppression. The question is merely about who oppresses whom. The idea that African-Americans have some responsibility for their own advancement, that absent fatherhood and a cultural association of studying with...

Intersectionality, Tribalism and Farrakhan A movement of bigotries can only divide us. March 20, 2018 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. A funny thing happened on the way to the intersectional future. The proverbial knapsack was unpacked in the Women’s March and inside wasn’t just racial tribalism, but racial and religious supremacism. Why do Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour of the Women’s March like Farrakhan and his hate group? The Nation of Islam preaches that black people are the master...

(Skip) For the in group, it’s easy to see the appeal of the philosophy. There’s an animating purpose — fighting injustice, racism, and inequality. There’s the original sin of “privilege.” There’s a conversion experience — becoming “woke.” And much as the Christian church puts a premium on each person’s finding his or her precise role in the body of Christ, intersectionality can provide a person with a specific purpose and role based on individual identity and experience. The faith is fierce. Intolerance in the name of tolerance is the norm. (Skip) Indeed, you can often prove your faith through your...

Despite the present situation of the academy, some of us nevertheless remain committed to the classical ideal of a liberal arts education, and we remain hopeful that the militant left that has taken control of the University will not succeed in its endeavor to vanquish this ideal.This being said, it would be dishonest to say that there isn’t an all-too frequent number of occasions when my hope is tested.Recent happenings provide several cases in point. 1. At the University of Chicago, several activist student groups—Reparations at UChicago, the UChicago Socialists, UofC Resists, a graduate student union, and a local chapter of...

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is an anti-Semite. This isn't in question. It's a fact, and one the minister continues to underscore with each speech. Last week, he spoke before the 2018 Saviours' Day event in Chicago. He stated: "White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God's grace, has pulled the cover off the eyes of that Satanic Jew, and I'm here to say your time is up, your world is through." Just for good measure, he added, "Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting...

“I hope the irony is not being lost on anyone that three liberal atheists are being sponsored, their event is being sponsored, by the most conservative groups on campus,” Dr. Peter Boghossian said. That statement kicked off an hour-long discussion (plus an hour of Q & A) on the question “Is Intersectionality a Religion?” The discussion took place at Portland State University a couple weeks ago, just days after another group hosted a talk with former Google engineer James Damore. Almost exactly a year ago I pointed out a piece by Andrew Sullivan (yes, that Andrew Sullivan) on the same...