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Forgive the irrelevancies and the digressions, here is as much of the original journal as I could recover. Plus some interesting things about the Indian Nations.
Why the GOP-fueled 'controversy' over critical race theory, nothing to do with critical race theory
Yes, that was the original full title. Might have been clipped.
Reported at The Editorial Board
The right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale, has lately been making a fetish of something called “critical race theory” (CRT). This has prompted academics to defend it. It’s not a radical political ideology, they say. It’s merely a form of critical inquiry. It is not the boogeyman it’s being made out to be. There’s nothing to fear.
I understand the need to defend critical race theory. Colleges and universities are beset on one hand by Republican fascists accusing scholars of indoctrinating students, on the other by anti-left liberals accusing the same of hostility toward freedom of speech. Meanwhile, administrations act more like corporations that privilege efficiency over research and teaching. It’s enough to think CRT is an appropriate hill to die on.
Yes, this is an opinion piece. That does not necessarily entail that it is not news to most Soylentils. And, the important piece:
Explaining CRT’s particulars to people who seem to fear them won’t change their minds if you don’t also take into account that explaining them can be seen as intolerable aggression.
Put it in the same category as "cultural Marxism", Feminazism, and Woke-ness. Operant conditioning, not intellectual discussion.
This, however, overlooks the larger dynamic at work. The more you defend CRT as an ideologically neutral mode of seeing and thinking about the world, the more the propagandists are going to do what they do best, which is terrifying the ignorant. More importantly, CRT defenders are not seeing the true nature of their opponents. From the authoritarian perspective, modes of seeing and thinking about the world are never ideologically neutral because once you learn to see and think about the world on your own, you don’t need authoritarian leaders to tell you what to see and think.
I risk making them seem like cartoons. I risk making people who treasure “traditional” and “conservative” and “Judeo-Christian” values look like they yippy-skippied over the Enlightenment on their way from the Spanish Inquisition to the 21st-century America. But it’s worth the risk given that most respectable white people, in my opinion, tend to overestimate the societal effects of liberal arts education. Critical thinking is so uncontroversial among respectable white people as to be barely worth mentioning. The authoritarians, however, see it quite clearly for what it is—an existential threat.
This is why the particulars of critical race theory don’t matter.1 (You don’t care about the particulars when you’re fighting for survival!) This is also why explaining those particulars to people who seem to fear them won’t change their minds if you don’t also take into account that explaining the particulars of critical race theory can itself be seen as intolerable aggression. What most of them fear is loss of social control. What most fear is loss of authority. Where you see an individual merely muddling through life the best she can, coming to the best conclusions she can, most of them see an individual whose ideological aggression is so monstrous as to justify any response.
Always wondered by the alt- and elder-right brought this up at the strangest of points in a discussion.
Respectable white people look at the right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale, and marvel at the fact that Americans consuming its propaganda inhabit a fact-free world. I think what they misunderstand is lying isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. Facts are available to individuals to see and think about on their own, free and independent of authorities licensed to say what individuals see and think. Facts, therefore, are aligned politically with perceived enemies. A rational response to facts is nonstop lying. So “alternate facts” are not a result of authoritarian politics. They are a first principle.
Critical race theory is not a political ideology, but it may as well be to the world of the right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale. It might as well be because anything that teaches individuals to see and think about facts independent and free of groupthink compromises the integrity of the authoritarian’s grip on the group. Case in point is Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney. The Republican believes the former president tried bringing down the republic. She is factually correct. For the “crime” of seeing and thinking about the world on her own, she’s now being punished. The House Republicans are poised to purge her from the House conference leadership. The Republicans are not individualists. They are collectivists enforcing groupthink.
Who's doing the de-platforming, now?
Other sources:
The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession (MSN)
The GOP’s ‘Critical Race Theory’ Obsession (The Atlantic)
Why 'woke' and 'critical race theory' are the GOP's new favorite words (MSNBC)
GOP Looks to Ban ‘Woke Philosophies’ Like Critical Race Theory in Texas Schools (Yahoo)
The GOP’s bizarre obsession with ‘critical race theory’ has almost nothing to do with critical race theory (DroolingDog)
Oklahoma governor signs ban on teaching critical race theory (Madison)
Texas GOP Passes Bill to Ban Critical Race Theory, Stop 'Blaming White Children' for Slavery
Republicans seize on conservative backlash against critical race theory
Freeze Peaches, indeed!
Previously on Critical Race Matters: Who’s afraid of ‘Critical Race Theory’? Jews should embrace the right’s latest bogeyman (Forward.com)
******
There was an update, before the Deluge, something about Oklahoma, where the right-wing nut-jobs were sweeping down the Planes before the Centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
100 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, last living survivors urge America to not forget, of course. But the Governator of OK signed a law about teaching the Dread Critical Race Theory, and got hisself kicked off the board of the Centennial observance, and was rebuked by the Oklahoma City School board in no uncertain terms.
Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, a Republican, was removed from the commission overseeing the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre on Friday after he signed a bill banning critical race theory in the state’s schools.
So sad, it was such a non-racist feather in his cap.
And, this is popping up everywhere, more than Hunter Biden's laptop, or Seth's assassination, or the pimple on Sean Hannity's left cheek. Seriously. Donald Trump allegedly said there were good people on both sides of the Tulsa Massacre.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Socrastotle on Sunday May 23 2021, @06:49PM (8 children)
I think there's one really basic issue in play that we always fail to consider: desire to do or be something.
CRT mostly applies to young well educated middle to upper class whites. And I think the reason is pretty simple. These people have grown up in a relative "utopia". I put it in quotes because it's not. They've grown up in a world with no real threats, plentiful surplus of everything, and nary a concern in the world. This is what we've always been aiming for as a "utopia", but really? It's just sterile boredom that many will realize at some point leads to a completely meaningless existence. Whether they had been born or not, would not have mattered. And, for the most part, nothing they do will matter. And their children? We'll they'll be set to enjoy such "utopia" themselves.
And so I think this drives people to become overtuned to any sort of cause to fight for, or against. It's easy to claim our rather extreme response to COVID (relative to previous viruses/plagues, many of which have been far more deadly) has been because we've grown weak in safe times. But I don't think that's quite it, at least not alone. I think it's that we WANT something to fear, to have to fight like there's no tomorrow against, to totally change society or face utter annihilation. And so any cause we can find, we tend to be disproportionately more inclined to attach ourselves to - it's like ambrosia for the wistful.
The desire for nothing more than a boring job and a white picket fence made all the sense in the world for the people that lived through the horrors of WW2 and quite literally saved the world as we know it. But, such is the irony of life that those who then grow up within the confines of that white picket fence would go on to seek something, anything, just to make them feel alive. The exact sort of things millions sacrificed their lives to ensure these children of the fence might never have to face.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 23 2021, @08:31PM (4 children)
Ah yes, all those BLM protesters were just bored people looking for something to do.
Why can't those stupid kids, or middle aged families really, just go work every week and stop making waves over things that don't seem to cause you any discomfort???
Sure you're not pandering to the Fox crowd?
Nope, def not, dear christ.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 23 2021, @09:31PM (3 children)
You need look no further for a display of the outright stupidity of BLM than BLM activists in the UK calling for police to investigate the shooting of Sasha Johnson. [bbc.co.uk] Yes - the same police they've been campaigning to defund.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 23 2021, @10:06PM (2 children)
While they are still around, the might as well do what they are supposed to be doing.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 23 2021, @10:27PM (1 child)
ACAB. Defund. There is no middle ground, whitey.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @02:35AM
Apparently so, since they cannot do what they are supposed to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 23 2021, @10:03PM (1 child)
Or perhaps what we lack is the courage to be nothing at all, except a servant of others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 24 2021, @08:50AM
The problem you face here is that if one wishes to stake out on their own, nothing and nobody is stopping them. The barriers you do face, such as the ability to provide self sustenance, are relatively minimal and can be overcome in endless ways. And these organizations people are drawn to will in no way ease these tasks.
And if you believe a social economic system is the cure? Imagine if you had a school with 300 million students in your class, and the grade you received was not your own personal grade, but the average of what everybody made. Many people would simply feel discouraged or disinterested and do the bare minimum, because what does it matter anyway? And so suddenly the school teachers are required to bring down the hammer like never before, only to ultimately see what would likely be a substantially worse overall average anyhow.
When you look to history you invariably find social economic systems do not drive freedom, but authoritarian controls on an unprecedented level. And the above is the exact reason. The country becomes entirely dependent on the production of society to keep the gears turning, but society no longer has a motivation to keep producing. And so coercion (work or starve, study or fail) is replaced with the whip and chains.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday May 24 2021, @02:38PM
I think it's a moderate different basic issue: worry. My take is that worry is the mental equivalent of an immune system that helps protect us from the dangers of the world. But the worry system doesn't go away when the dangers do, your "sterile boredom". Instead, something new is found to worry about - sometimes even if the person has to invent the danger from scratch and shoehorn their entire worldview into a small box.
Except work for it, let us note. This world is filled with amazing opportunity, but you have to act to get it. I think this is how we can distinguish between hypotheses. For so many people, they would rather adopt an imaginary danger, such as a child porn ring in a pizza parlor basement or the looming threat of conservative denialism and worry endlessly about that, than seek something, anything.