Archive for 2020

BECAUSE IT’S FOLLOWING IN THE RACE-BAITING TRADITION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Why is Wokeness so white supremacist? “It says something when you’re at a Black Lives Matter protest, you have more minorities on the police side than you have in a violent crowd and you have white people screaming at black officers: ‘You have the biggest nose I’ve ever seen.’”

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Glenn Loury on Race and Equality:

I don’t know if you saw my piece in Quillette about the looting and the rioting, but I pick up these pieces published in the New York Times, respectable left-wing journals. I’m reading them, and the writer is saying, “America was founded on looting. What did you think the Boston Tea Party was?” Or, “You’re talking about looting when George Floyd lies dead? Oh, I see, black lives don’t matter as much as property.” These are, to my mind, incomprehensibly idiotic. I don’t mean that to cast aspersions. The civilization that we all enjoy rests upon a very fragile foundation. Look. I’m in my backyard. It’s very nice. I’ve got a lot of space. There’s a fence. The birds come. I have a lawn. It’s mine!

Now, if a homeless person comes and squats in my backyard, I call the police. I have him removed, forcibly. There should be no lack of clarity about whether George Floyd’s death somehow excuses or justifies burning a bodega to the ground that a Muslim immigrant spends his whole life building. Being confused about that, equivocating about that, splitting the difference about that—I don’t understand how we’re going to have a reasoned discussion. My thoughts go back to, protect civilization. Again, I know how that sounds. It’s hyperbolic. It’s exaggerated—but only a little! My gut response is that this is not the time for argument. This is the time to protect civilization and protect institutions. When people start toppling statues of Abraham Lincoln and spray-painting on statues of George Washington, “a slave owner,” things fall apart. The center cannot hold. We teeter on the brink of catastrophe.

Read the whole thing.

UIGHURS AND MORE: Roger Kimball: Trump has been right about China for years.

Back in the summer of 2015, all the cleverest people made fun of Donald Trump for obsessing about China. One of them even made a video compilation of the candidate saying ‘China’ over and over again on the hustings. Ha ha ha.

It seems distinctly less funny now.

Indeed.

OPEN THREAD: Say something once, why say it again?

FILE A LAWSUIT: Fordham student punished for holding gun in Instagram photo memorializing Tiananmen Square massacre.

And file a complaint with grant-making agencies under Executive Order 13864.

UPDATE: In the comments, it’s plausibly suggested that Fordham is upset at a picture of a Chinese immigrant student holding a gun and protesting the Tiananmen anniversary because Fordham doesn’t want to upset the Chinese government. Someone should look into whether Fordham is getting money from the PRC, and if they’ve properly reported it if so.