Political correctness
March 29, 2021 — Steven Hayward
So we know that math is officially racist according to the Cult of the Wokerati, but what about compound interest, which Albert Einstein described as “the eighth wonder of the world—he who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it”? The question becomes relevant because the latest object of campus outrage is financial guru Suze Orman, who was recently the online keynote speaker at the annual conference of NASPA: Student Affairs
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March 29, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
On my walk the other day, I passed a group of six people in their late teens or early twenties. One of them, a female, asked what “cancel culture” means. A guy answered, “it means if you say the politically incorrect thing, you’re gone.” I didn’t hear the reaction to this answer. I hope it was negative. In any case, the answer was smart and accurate. Political correctness brought social
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March 27, 2021 — Steven Hayward
One of our faithful readers down in Australia (you know who you are down under) wrote in to say that perhaps we need to have a regular TWiCC (The Week in Cancel Culture) to go with TWiP, and TGiP. Not sure if the topic lends itself to this format, because pictures of witch trials and ritual drownings would get old pretty fast. Plus, if the coverage was comprehensive at all,
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March 24, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
I have been following Creighton basketball ever since our friend Dave Begley, with the help of a very nice man in the athletic department, gave me a tour of the school’s basketball facility. That was in November 2015. Earlier this month, Creighton suspended its outstanding coach Greg McDermott. He had told his players, after a tough loss: “Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need
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March 21, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The mainstream media is struggling to reconcile its attacks on Donald Trump for speaking harshly about nations like China and Iran with its approval of (or at least non-judgmental posture towards) Joe Biden doing the same thing. To this struggle, we can add the task of defending Biden’s anti-China rhetoric while continuing to blame Trump’s rhetoric for “hate crimes” against Asian-Americans. Two Asian-American professors, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Janelle Wong,
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March 11, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Georgetown Law School has fired a professor for noticing and commenting on the fact that Blacks make up a disproportionate number of low-performing students in her class. Another professor has been placed on administrative leave. Adjunct professor Sandra Sellers was caught on video telling adjunct prof David Batson: I hate to say this. I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks.
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March 10, 2021 — Steven Hayward
I was sure that, after canceling Dr. Seuss last week, this week would cancel Peanuts. Do they need a reason? Of course not. But instead, it seems the left wants to cancel . . . Adam Smith. The only question is, what took them so long: Adam Smith’s grave listed in dossier of sites linked to ‘slavery and colonialism’ Adam Smith’s grave has been included in an Edinburgh City Council
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March 7, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Two recent examples are worth noting. First, Creighton University’s excellent basketball coach, Greg McDermott, is suspended from coaching his highly-ranked team as it bids for glory this month. McDermott’s suspension stems from a comment he made to his team after a very disappointing loss. Calling for unity, McDermott said: Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t
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March 3, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Will there ever be a point where liberals look at each other and say, “It’s over. We were crazy. We need to find our way back to reality”? I don’t know. As liberalism in general, and cancel culture in particular, grow ever more absurd, one might have expected that moment to arrive some time ago. Possibly the current effort to cancel Dr. Seuss as a racist might be the one
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February 28, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Lefty “comedian” Bill Maher strikes again, with a largely sensible rant against cancel culture in his latest HBO show last Friday. With all of the usual warnings for his foul language, crude expressions, and attacks on the GOP (because “balance”), he does get off some great keepers, such as “Memo to social justice warriors: when what your doing sounds like an Onion headline—stop.” On top of this are the intimidating letters several
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February 25, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Not since Dan Quayle misspelled “potatoe” has there been such a fuss in the spud world as there was today. Word came out this morning that Hasbro, the maker of Mr. Potato Head, was going “gender neutral” with the famous toy. As usual, Twitter lit up with a lot of spuddering. Hasbro later clarified that they were not giving up the gender binary, but were only dropping the “Mr.” from
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February 22, 2021 — John Hinderaker
The truth is, it is harder being normal. The forces of authoritarianism have come for, of all things, the Muppets. I did not speak out, because I wasn’t a Muppet… But seriously: Disney has gone stark, raving mad: Anyone who streams “The Muppet Show” on Disney+ will see a disclaimer first — warning of “offensive content.” *** The disclaimer shown prior to each episode warns viewers that the show features
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February 12, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
This essay by the great Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky (with Gil Troy) is as insightful and effective a takedown of the Soviet Union as can be written in a short-to-midlength essay. Sharansky’s father was a creative writer and journalist; Sharansky was a scientist. By describing how the totalitarian Soviet government oppressed artists, journalists, and scientists, Sharanksy paints a truly chilling picture. The Soviets forced intelligent members of these professions and
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February 7, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Back in 1973, the liberal journalist Nicholas von Hoffman, the first Point-Counterpoint commentator on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” was fired by producer Don Hewitt for an on-air comment that Hewitt deemed offensive and inappropriate. Hoffman referred to President Nixon, then well into the agonies of Watergate, as “the dead mouse on the kitchen floor of America, and the only question now is who’s going to pick him up by his tail
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February 7, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Roger Scruton liked to say the the core of the contemporary left is a “culture of repudiation,” in which the inheritances of our civilization must be denied and rubbished precisely because it is our civilization, rather than the imaginary one of the left’s making. Harry Jaffa’s explanation of this went as follows: My understanding of Marxist Communism is that—whatever its own understanding of itself—its necessary result is the extinction of
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January 28, 2021 — Steven Hayward
I imagine a lot of readers are following the tulip-mania over Gamestop, which is roiling Wall Street and costing a lot of hedge funds some serious money. It is certain to end as such speculative excess always does—with a crash leaving a handful of people who got out at or near the top with nice gains, and a lot of losers on the side of the road. It is sure
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January 3, 2021 — John Hinderaker
When the House of Representatives opened its session today, the invocation was delivered by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who I take it has been ordained as a minister. This is his conclusion, in which he invokes “the monotheistic God Brahma,” if I am hearing it right. (I know it makes no sense, but that is not the point for now.) Cleaver concludes–I kid you not!–with “Amen and Awomen.” I guess
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