Saturday, 30 October 2021

Daily Digest

Daily Digest

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“Passing” In the 21st Century

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 03:52 PM PDT

(John Hinderaker)

A central tenet of Critical Race Theory is that America’s institutions are “systemically” rigged to favor white people. POCs just can’t catch up, no matter what they do. Of course, if that were true it would be hard to explain why whites rank only 17th in median income, trailing such allegedly oppressed groups as Lebanese, Iranian, Pakistani, Syrian, Ghanian and Nigerian Americans, as well, of course, as Indian-Americans, whose median income is close to double that of whites. But devotees of Critical Race Theory have never worried much about facts.

Then, too, we have the phenomenon of whites pretending to be people of color. If it is a crippling drawback to be Native American, why did Elizabeth Warren pretend to be one? Everyone knows the answer to that question–affirmative action–but somehow, it is improper to mention it in polite society. Everyone who applies for anything knows that it is a help, not a hindrance, to be a minority. Or, in more up-to-date jargon–I’m not kidding–to have been “minoritized.”

Apparently a lot of whites, pursuing their rational self-interest, have followed in Warren’s footsteps. What makes this tweet funny is Ibram Henry Rogers’ Ibram X. Kendi’s failure to realize that the statistics he tweeted destroy the entire basis of the fraudulent theory that has earned him millions:


I will conclude with an incident from some years ago: a high school senior applied to an elite college and checked the box on his application stating that he was African-American. He was admitted. The college asked him for a photograph to include in their freshman Facebook–the good old days!–and he sent one in. The school responded by revoking the student’s acceptance on the ground that he had committed fraud. The boy’s skin was white. But, he responded, my father emigrated to the U.S. from South Africa, so I really am an African-American. The school’s response: That’s not what we meant.

The affirmative action regime has been hopelessly corrupt for 50 years, and in its current iteration, fueled by Critical Race Theory, it is not just corrupt but incredibly destructive.

“Yes, Minister” Explains Facebook’s Dumb New Name

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 09:35 AM PDT

(Steven Hayward)

Leave it to the old “Yes, Minister” series to offer up an explanation of Facebook’s silly new name “Meta,” and several other current things as well. One obvious parallel: one thing MetaFacebook has in common with Metadioxin is that social media is certainly as toxic as dioxin. (Four minutes long.)

Podcast: The 3WHH, “Let’s Go Bruno” Edition

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 08:50 AM PDT

(Steven Hayward)

The title of this week's episode—"Let's go Bruno"—requires some explanation, though you'd be right in assuming that "Bruno" fills the same place as "Brandon" in the more familiar slogan of the moment. In this case it refers to the famous and celebrated child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. Lucretia was struck by Ann Bauer's searing article at Tablet, "I Have Been Through This Before," which recounts the awful abusiveness and quackery of Bettelheim which somehow never drew any critical attention, and suggests some obvious parallels with today's COVID mandate mania, not to mention a parallel public celebration of an obviously defective doctor whose name rhymes with grouchy.

Sample from Bauer:

[He] required the unquestioning, devout allegiance of his team to constantly remake reality so that it conformed to his recommendations.

It jogged my memory, as a long time ago I knew someone who had been committed to Bettelheim's care as a child, and who wrote after Bettelheim's death with the same point in Commentary in 1991: Ronald Angres, "Who, Really, Was Bruno Bettelheim?" The close:

So to the scandal of terror spread by Bruno Bettelheim in his school another scandal needs to be added: the fact that so many people who knew about the terror went to such lengths to cover up for him—and, to judge by the mostly adoring accounts that have appeared in the press after his death, that they are still willing to do so.

We don't actually get to the Bettelheim story until the last half of the episode, as we cover a lot of related ground getting to that point, including some new whisky reviews, some samples from the Babylon Bee’s great new Guide to Wokeness, the continued descent of President Brandon, what's up with Kyrsten Sinema, and the prospects of the Virginia gubernatorial election next week. Lucretia, to my shock and surprise, is actually optimistic about Youngkin's chances! Otherwise, as she says herself, she's "mad as hell and not going to take it any more!"

Listen here, or boogaloo over to our hosts at Ricochet.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Sapp’s law in Mankato

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 06:11 AM PDT

(Scott Johnson)

The Mankato (Minnesota) School board met on September 20. Concerned parents showed up to use the open forum time to voice disappointment with mask mandates. This was apparently the first meeting during which speakers were asked to state their addresses before speaking.

The board next met on October 18. Ahead of open forum time board chairman Jodi Sapp announced a new ban on comments critical of specific school board members and district staff. The address rule was upheld against a man who suggested the board already knows his address. Kyle Hooten covered the story for Alpha News here (video below).

The New York Post picked up Kyle’s story and credited Alpha News here. The story is a sign of the times.

You don’t want to get on the wrong side of Jodi. Nurse Ratched has nothing on Sapp. But is Sapp’s law legal? I don’t think so. Kyle followed up in the story “Lawyer: Parents can sue Mankato board for banning criticism of members.”

“Racism” is the last refuge of a scoundrel

Posted: 30 Oct 2021 04:46 AM PDT

(Scott Johnson)

Local Virginia reporter Elizabeth Holmes tweeted out the purported “white supremacist”/neo-Nazi stunt designed to taint Glenn Youngkin in the closing days of Terry McAulliffe’s desperate gubernatorial campaign. The reporter tweeted it out as a straight news story.

It’s funny in a Saturday Night Live sort of way, but SNL hasn’t been this funny since its heyday.

Observers more sapient than Elizabeth Holmes quickly sussed out the thing as a hoax, a phony, a stunt. In a matter of hours the Lincoln Project and self-described “progressive political communications strategist” or “Democratic operative” (per Will Sommer/Daily Beast) Lauren Windsor stepped forward to take the fall.

The New York Post reports that “members of McAuliffe's campaign team were quick to draw attention to the stunt on Twitter and frame Youngkin's supporters as white nationalists. Communications staffer Jen Goodman tweeted that the gathering was ‘disgusting and disqualifying.’" The Post has more along the same lines.

Observers have also tentatively identified at least two of the actors as Democratic staffers. You don’t have to be a cynic to surmise this was a Democratic stunt. On the contrary, you’d have to be a fool not to. Smells like Dem spirit!

In 1775 Samuel Johnson famously observed that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” His statement has been interpreted with reference to the particulars of the British politics of his era, but that’s not how Boswell takes it in his Life of Johnson. Boswell explains that Johnson “did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest.”

This particular hoax demonstrates something similar about imputations of “racism.” It certainly does so in this case. “Racism” is the last refuge of a scoundrel, including Terry McAuliffe and his campaign.
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