The more frightening thing is that this has extended into Corporate America through HR. In my professional life I have seen multiple examples in which HR has gained a surprising amount of control over general company decisions. They do this as the gatepost for things like promotions. Labeling someone not a team player is the kiss of death and eliminates the labeled from any upward mobility. This has cascading effects. A Manager who wants to promote someone who is not HR approved is then also not a team player. You can get labeled as not a team player arbitrarily. Fighting that label then escalates your label to “a troublemaker “.
This is all about power for the incompetent, both in the corporate and academic sectors. Race, CRT, gender diversity are all just the chosen tools. These bureaucrats are like the embedded Party apparatchik in Soviet Russia and East Germany. Nothing more.
Although long past the educational system, I still read widely, so, Jeff, I am very grateful for your posting. I also believe that Dr. Thomas Sowell is one of the greatest minds of the 20th and early 21st Centuries. His wisdom is consummate and it is based on real life experiences. I love him!
It is always ironic to me when Leftists accuse conservatives of supporting or condoning "systemic racism."
It seems to me that it sure is systemic racism when teacher's unions and democrats deny black kids school choice through vouchers or free application of their tuition dollars. That one has always been a head scratcher for me.
But then when you think about what teacher's unions really are, and who they represent, it makes complete sense to me.
That the Democrat party completely gaslights their electorate on this--and gets away with it--just blows my mind.
Well said. Another commentator on Substack, Rob Henderson, uses the term “luxury beliefs”, a form of performative virtue signaling that the upper-middle classes employ to distinguish themselves in an era of mass luxury goods. Adherence to a woke ideology as a signaling device that imposes little cost but great benefit on the holder. As you mention, those most hurt by progressive policies are not the families of New Trier students who live the in the leafy, wealthy North suburbs, but those who reside in poorer neighborhoods where the “defund the police” slogans and policies are harmful to their personal safety and their communities.
Ultimately it is a form of class warfare, whether against poor communities of color, or poor and rural white communities in the post-industrial wasteland that is the Midwest. It is far easier for the landed gentry to decry “racism” for inequalities, than to address progressive taxation and wealth accumulation by the elites. Unfortunately Americans lack critical thinking skills and thus indoctrination and ideology becomes the smoke and mirrors that misdirects the lower classes against each other.
Adam Curtis mentions this effect in Britain in a recent interview wherein both parties, Tory and Labour, merely seek to maintain the status quo rather than address the true systemic inequalities. which are not related to racism or other forms of identity politics.
The biggest problem with the left is they push idealism at the expense of sensibility, which leads to an exacerbation of hostility and conflict between the extreme left and the extreme right and when that happens, revolutions occur, at least that is what history has shown.
So many good ideas which made sense in the 1960s that took an entire generation to implement and bring about dramatic and effective change are no longer applicable, but the left seems to think they need to expand that rather than contract it, because they don't believe in the ability of others to lift themselves up.
They failed to recognize their own condescension and how it is hurtful rather than helpful.
They failed to recognize that sometimes the strength of a man or woman is in the acknowledgment and admission of one's own limitations.
In so doing, they're tearing apart the fabric of a once great nation.
If their absurd theoretical policies, which have been failing miserably in reality, are allowed to continue to expand unabated, the deterioration of the United States of America will continue and attempts to address it will be too late.
Does it makes sense that leftists unrelenting persistence is because they only suffer temporary setbacks in the political world? They never suffer financial loss for the financial frauds they undertake. In fact their frauds are considered “The Science.” What would happen if a DOJ would use the crimes of “Fraud Against the United States,” “Wire Fraud,” and “Racketeering, Influence and Corrupt Organizations” against these fraud merchants? Would they be able to continue without personal setbacks?
That was quite a condescending Firing Line interview. You don't have to be intelligent at all to tell the difference between A's and E's on a report card. People talk and everyone knows which schools are the good schools.
As a high school graduate from one town over about the same time as you, I can definitely relate. It was one of those who went to community college before graduating from a state school. I left Chicago for California in 1987. At the time I called California “the land of opportunity and sunshine.” It was actually Republican until 1994. As a fellow Republican, I have had to keep quiet about that for the reasons you mention. It’s interesting when friends complain about the situation in California and I indicate we have ourselves to blame because of how “we” voted. Of course, as a Republican my vote hasn’t counted in a long time, but I will not give up the fight.
In my little burg, we all got the email notice of the school board candidates' forum/debate the day AFTER it happened. Think they might be hiding something?
<i>Since the 60s, they have been working to infiltrate every aspect of our civilized society.</i>
It's not an infiltration, it's been an outright colonization, with punishments for those who resist, and rewards for the Politburo members at the top. Time to topple the colonists.
The men I know and associate with are all John Gault types. We see this war can not be won. We also figure the winners will not do well ruling over a smoking ruin as that is all there will be when the cities explode. And they will. It has to happen. Perhaps something decent can be rebuilt at some point. Perhaps it will take a thousand years.
The more frightening thing is that this has extended into Corporate America through HR. In my professional life I have seen multiple examples in which HR has gained a surprising amount of control over general company decisions. They do this as the gatepost for things like promotions. Labeling someone not a team player is the kiss of death and eliminates the labeled from any upward mobility. This has cascading effects. A Manager who wants to promote someone who is not HR approved is then also not a team player. You can get labeled as not a team player arbitrarily. Fighting that label then escalates your label to “a troublemaker “.
This is all about power for the incompetent, both in the corporate and academic sectors. Race, CRT, gender diversity are all just the chosen tools. These bureaucrats are like the embedded Party apparatchik in Soviet Russia and East Germany. Nothing more.
Although long past the educational system, I still read widely, so, Jeff, I am very grateful for your posting. I also believe that Dr. Thomas Sowell is one of the greatest minds of the 20th and early 21st Centuries. His wisdom is consummate and it is based on real life experiences. I love him!
It is always ironic to me when Leftists accuse conservatives of supporting or condoning "systemic racism."
It seems to me that it sure is systemic racism when teacher's unions and democrats deny black kids school choice through vouchers or free application of their tuition dollars. That one has always been a head scratcher for me.
But then when you think about what teacher's unions really are, and who they represent, it makes complete sense to me.
That the Democrat party completely gaslights their electorate on this--and gets away with it--just blows my mind.
Well said. Another commentator on Substack, Rob Henderson, uses the term “luxury beliefs”, a form of performative virtue signaling that the upper-middle classes employ to distinguish themselves in an era of mass luxury goods. Adherence to a woke ideology as a signaling device that imposes little cost but great benefit on the holder. As you mention, those most hurt by progressive policies are not the families of New Trier students who live the in the leafy, wealthy North suburbs, but those who reside in poorer neighborhoods where the “defund the police” slogans and policies are harmful to their personal safety and their communities.
Ultimately it is a form of class warfare, whether against poor communities of color, or poor and rural white communities in the post-industrial wasteland that is the Midwest. It is far easier for the landed gentry to decry “racism” for inequalities, than to address progressive taxation and wealth accumulation by the elites. Unfortunately Americans lack critical thinking skills and thus indoctrination and ideology becomes the smoke and mirrors that misdirects the lower classes against each other.
Adam Curtis mentions this effect in Britain in a recent interview wherein both parties, Tory and Labour, merely seek to maintain the status quo rather than address the true systemic inequalities. which are not related to racism or other forms of identity politics.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=663vLIYBcpI
The biggest problem with the left is they push idealism at the expense of sensibility, which leads to an exacerbation of hostility and conflict between the extreme left and the extreme right and when that happens, revolutions occur, at least that is what history has shown.
So many good ideas which made sense in the 1960s that took an entire generation to implement and bring about dramatic and effective change are no longer applicable, but the left seems to think they need to expand that rather than contract it, because they don't believe in the ability of others to lift themselves up.
They failed to recognize their own condescension and how it is hurtful rather than helpful.
They failed to recognize that sometimes the strength of a man or woman is in the acknowledgment and admission of one's own limitations.
In so doing, they're tearing apart the fabric of a once great nation.
If their absurd theoretical policies, which have been failing miserably in reality, are allowed to continue to expand unabated, the deterioration of the United States of America will continue and attempts to address it will be too late.
Does it makes sense that leftists unrelenting persistence is because they only suffer temporary setbacks in the political world? They never suffer financial loss for the financial frauds they undertake. In fact their frauds are considered “The Science.” What would happen if a DOJ would use the crimes of “Fraud Against the United States,” “Wire Fraud,” and “Racketeering, Influence and Corrupt Organizations” against these fraud merchants? Would they be able to continue without personal setbacks?
That was quite a condescending Firing Line interview. You don't have to be intelligent at all to tell the difference between A's and E's on a report card. People talk and everyone knows which schools are the good schools.
Fascinating Chicago insight once again. The MJ piece, and the comments section, sure feels like a lot of folks firmly in their bubble.
Inclusion, diversity, double f'ing haha.
Great Article Jeff,
As a high school graduate from one town over about the same time as you, I can definitely relate. It was one of those who went to community college before graduating from a state school. I left Chicago for California in 1987. At the time I called California “the land of opportunity and sunshine.” It was actually Republican until 1994. As a fellow Republican, I have had to keep quiet about that for the reasons you mention. It’s interesting when friends complain about the situation in California and I indicate we have ourselves to blame because of how “we” voted. Of course, as a Republican my vote hasn’t counted in a long time, but I will not give up the fight.
In my little burg, we all got the email notice of the school board candidates' forum/debate the day AFTER it happened. Think they might be hiding something?
<i>Since the 60s, they have been working to infiltrate every aspect of our civilized society.</i>
It's not an infiltration, it's been an outright colonization, with punishments for those who resist, and rewards for the Politburo members at the top. Time to topple the colonists.
The men I know and associate with are all John Gault types. We see this war can not be won. We also figure the winners will not do well ruling over a smoking ruin as that is all there will be when the cities explode. And they will. It has to happen. Perhaps something decent can be rebuilt at some point. Perhaps it will take a thousand years.