Leftism
September 18, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Despite Joe Biden’s absurd search for “white supremacist” criminality, the reality is that virtually all political violence comes from the left. The latest case in point occurred on Thursday at the University of New Mexico, where Turning Point USA sponsored a speech by Tomi Lahren. Far-left students, determined not to allow speech they disagree with, created an ugly and dangerous scene (via Breitbart): BREAKING: State police called at TPUSA event
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September 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Collin Anderson reports at the Washington Free Beacon that, in his capacity as President Biden’s climate prince, “John Kerry Has Flown More Than 180,000 Miles, Emitting 9.5 Million Pounds of Carbon.” Although Kerry’s air travel supposedly endangers the future of humanity, Kerry is in the air to save the world from the “existential crisis” of climate change caused by carbon emissions. Collin cruelly quotes Kerry: “If you offset your carbon,
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August 28, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Leftists will get impatient or roll their eyes when they hear someone like Jordan Peterson describe postmodernist “critical theory,” critical race theory, or any aspect of identity politics (especially the phenomenon of “gender fluidity”) as “cultural Marxism.” And yet. . . Michael Anton drew my attention to a passage in the transcript of Leo Strauss’s seminar on Marx that he taught at the University of Chicago in 1960 (emphasis added): Partly
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August 23, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I don’t know that there has ever been a place and time in American history when only racists were permitted to teach in the public schools. Mississippi in, say, 1935? I don’t know, maybe. But to my knowledge they had no purity test. Contrast that with Minnesota in 2022, where the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board is considering a new standard that would only allow people who profess
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August 23, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Some new definitions of popular lefty terms have reached us, and I thought it is high time to update the whole list, since it is such a handy reference. We’ve got new definitions for “woke” and “nationalism,” among others. Herewith: Populism: When the wrong person or cause wins a free election, like Brexit or Trump. [Alternative: John Gray’s definition—“Populism is a term used by centrist liberals to describe political blowback
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August 20, 2022 — John Hinderaker
In recent years, many liberals have become openly hostile to the Constitution. The present moment in history, with the Democrats controlling the House by the barest of majorities, a 50/50 Senate with a Democratic vice president, and a Democratic president, has heightened liberal frustration with the Constitution. With their hands, for a brief moment at least, on all of the levers of power, why can’t the Democratic Party effect a
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August 16, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Whittaker Chambers—a Quaker—wrote to William F. Buckley in 1956 that “There is only one fully logical conservative position in the West—that of the Catholic Church.” This may explain why a central cause of the modern left is destroying the Catholic Church above all other nodes of opposition to secular leftism. I know I am not the first to suggest that anti-Catholic bigotry is one of the few kinds of bigotry
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August 10, 2022 — Steven Hayward
We have commented previously on the fad of “land acknowledgments” that are currently the rage on college campuses and at city council meetings in progressive outposts like Burlington, Madison, etc. I’ll repeat, for the record, why land acknowledgements are so unserious that they can hardly be dignified even as virtue-signaling: I want to ask: “If the land the university sits on rightfully belongs to an Indian tribe, why don’t we
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August 6, 2022 — John Hinderaker
You probably know about what has happened in Sri Lanka, where the government’s attempt to impose organic farming led to food shortages, impoverishment, and a revolt that caused that country’s prime minister to flee. Also the Netherlands, where the government’s attempt to drastically reduce fertilizer use has led to massive protests by farmers that continue to this day. At Hot Air, Jazz Shaw notes that farmers in other countries are
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August 4, 2022 — John Hinderaker
The Gadsden flag has been around for a long time, but I had to look it up to remember where it came from: Before the departure of the United States Navy’s first mission in 1775, Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden from South Carolina presented the newly appointed commander with a yellow rattlesnake flag to serve as a standard for his flagship. Accompanying the Navy on its first mission were five companies
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August 1, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Ken Green takes up the old moral instruction “two wrongs don’t make a right,” but in fact game theory suggests that a strict tit-for-tat response actually leads to optimal outcomes eventually. Rather than walk through the headache-inducing and opaque equations and symbols of game theory, he simply ponders why treating the left with their own medicine is more likely to make them discover game theory for themselves: So, I was
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July 28, 2022 — John Hinderaker
The “trans” fad has devastated the lives of many people, especially children. Will there ever be an accounting? In the U.K., there are signs of one: the National Health Service’s Tavistock gender identity clinic for children is being shut down. The NHS is shutting down its gender identity clinic for children after a review found that it failed vulnerable under-18s. *** It will be replaced by regional centres at existing
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July 24, 2022 — John Hinderaker
This is a shocking story: One of President Biden’s latest judicial nominees serves on the board of a group that backed calls to defund the police and has called to abolish prisons. Biden nominated Roopali Desai, a litigation partner at the law firm Coppersmith Brockelman, to the 9th Circuit Appeals Court bench last month. The 9th Circuit is notoriously liberal, but this is ridiculous. Before we get to abolishing prisons,
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July 16, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Cast your mind back to 2016 for a moment, when it seemed a lock that Hillary Clinton would win the election, and nominate a leftist to succeed Justice Scalia. (Remember that Hillary refused to commit to re-sending the nomination of Merrick Garland—a clear signal to progressives that she’s pick someone younger and more progressive.) Mark Tushnet, one of the leading leftists at Harvard Law School, let loose with his id
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July 13, 2022 — John Hinderaker
On the night of July 4, criminals used fireworks to terrorize innocent bystanders in Minneapolis. Now it’s moved indoors. Criminals set off fireworks inside a movie theater just a couple of miles from my house: "Occurred about 8:30 p.m. at Imagine Theater, according to dispatch audio. One person was injured with part of a firework embedded in their leg and they were bleeding. Suspect: Somali M in a red shirt.
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July 10, 2022 — John Hinderaker
The Left has a rather schizophrenic attitude toward protests and demonstrations. Some are wonderful, like the George Floyd riots, which were not, in fact, protests at all. Or like arson and other destruction committed at pro-life facilities. Others are detestable, like the Dutch farmers’ protests, or the French “yellow vests,” or the Canadian truckers. Some protests, too, can only be ignored, like when hundreds of thousands of pro-life citizens show
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June 27, 2022 — Steven Hayward
I know, this is not an original question, but the evidence continues to accumulate that there’s something deeply amiss with the psychology of many leftists. Such as the people who think this is an effective look for protesting the Dobbs decision: Dallas women TWERKING for abortions. WTF “Shakin dat a** so we can kill our babies, proud to be a hoe and not to be a ladies” pic.twitter.com/tyTCEbDXhr — ELIJAH
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