Cosmic Stupidity

We are surrounded by so much craziness on a daily basis that one could devote his life to deconstructing the follies of the Left and still not make a dent. I don’t choose to do that, but here are a few items in the news that represent peak stupidity, at least for today.

First, Pramila Jayapal is a member of Congress, a Democrat from Washington. Here is her take on rising prices:

Despite soaring profits, Starbucks is raising prices AGAIN.

We can’t accept this level of corporate greed as the status quo. Tax the rich and make sure every single worker in America can join a union. https://t.co/9GABXwlmTR

— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) February 3, 2022

This is dumb on a number of levels. First, her lack of self-awareness in failing to understand that Starbucks is a luxury product. Most Americans are worried about how they will heat their homes, put food on the table and fill their gas tanks. They aren’t losing sleep over the cost of a decaf latte.

Second, the costs of doing business are indeed rising, not because of “corporate greed” but because of inflation due to the massive spending and borrowing in which the federal government has engaged, and which Ms. Jayapal voted for.

Third, the idea that “every single worker in America” should join a union is laughably retrograde. With only a few exceptions, unions flourish in monopoly environments, which mostly means government. Only around 6 percent of private sector workers are unionized, largely because unions lose most elections. And while unions aren’t great at doing much for their members, which is why membership has dwindled to 6 percent, one thing they do relatively successfully is increase employers’ costs. So if Starbucks becomes unionized, watch for the price of that decaf latte to rise. The horror!

Another manifestation of peak stupidity is this story out of Georgetown Law School. It arises from Ilya Shapiro’s criticizing Joe Biden for his affirmative action Supreme Court appointment. Shapiro, a brand new Georgetown Law faculty member, was suspended as a result of his wrongthink. But that was only the beginning:

Law students became outraged over these comments, with one calling on the university to implement a designated crying room on campus, for students to go to when they “need to break down,” according to a report by National Review.

“Is there an office they can go to?” the student asked. “I don’t know what it would look like, but if they want to cry, if they need to break down, where can they go? Because we’re at a point where students are coming out of class to go to the bathroom to cry.”

This is not law school as I experienced it. When I was a law student, the story was often told–it might have been apocryphal, but it accurately represented the attitude of faculty, administrators and students–of the law student who was not able to respond adequately to a professor’s grilling him about a case. The professor flipped the student a quarter and told him to call his mother and tell her to come pick him up. Because he was never going to be a lawyer.

At Georgetown, the idea of a “crying room” for students who are distraught because they learned of criticism of affirmative action (for the first time, apparently) found favor:

Associate vice president and dean of students Mitch Bailin agreed with the student, telling her, “It is really, really hard to walk out of class or a meeting in tears, and you should always have a place on campus where you can go.”

“If you’re finding that you’re not getting the person that you want to talk to or not getting the space that you need, reach out to me anytime — anytime — and we will find you space,” Bailin added.

God help us. I have seen some online discussion as to whether these pitiful snowflakes are doomed to failure in the law business. I hope they are, but I am not sure that is the case. Pathetic weakness has apparently become a mark of virtue, and today’s students are carrying their distorted values into the workplace. I won’t be shocked if, in a few years time, judges bred in the same ideological hothouse are giving lawyers a recess to cry over a cross-examination that did not go well.

One more: the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, was photographed maskless with Los Angeles Laker star Earvin Johnson and Governor Gavin Newsom. This is a faux pas since California children are being terrorized with mask mandates. The invaluable Libs of TikTok was on the case:

While 5 year olds are forced to mask all day in California, Gavin Newsom and the mayors of LA and San Francisco are enjoying packed events maskless pic.twitter.com/dDTLOHaBpo

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) January 31, 2022

Garcetti’s response? He didn’t exhale:

“I’ll take personal responsibility,” said Garcetti in answer to a reporter’s question about the photos, “and if it makes you and everyone else happy — or even the photographs with people where literally I’m holding my breath for two seconds — I won’t even do that.”

So Gavin Newsom and Eric Garcetti are caught acting normally, and have to fabricate excuses. This is the world we live in. Meanwhile, those poor kids are still being forced, irrationally, into masks.

That’s three; here is a bonus instance of peak stupidity: Michelle Malkin has been banned by Airbnb, along with her husband Jesse–who sometimes books travel arrangements!–because she spoke at a conservative conference.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is a little less dumb.