Political correctness
January 2, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Guest hosting the Dan Proft Show on Wednesday, one of my guests was New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz. Our topic was the stultifying reign of cancel culture that threatens to make free speech obsolete. (See also Scott’s post this morning, How to Read a Society.) During our conversation, I learned that Karol was born in the U.S.S.R. and came to America as a young girl. What she sees today
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January 2, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The original source of this quote from Theodore Dalrymple (Anthony Daniels) appears to date to a 2005 Frontpage article or interview that is no longer accessible online: Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to
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December 24, 2020 — Steven Hayward
As we all know, everything is raaaacist today. Even, the New York Times tells us, tiki bars. Tiki bars? Yup: Since its invention, one kind of watering hole has seen America through its most grueling times: the tiki bar. . . [A] new generation of beverage-industry professionals are shining a light on the genre’s history of racial inequity and cultural appropriation, which has long been ignored because it clashes with
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December 22, 2020 — Steven Hayward
It’s official at Nature magazine: if a published study goes against the diversity narrative and hurts someone’s feelings, it needs to be retracted. Last month Nature Communications published a deep-dive analysis of statistical differences in the academic careers of female scientists who had female mentors versus male mentors. Alas for the study, it found better outcomes for female scientists who had male mentors. The study was conducted by three Arab
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December 19, 2020 — Steven Hayward
If you don’t live in Manhattan, well, first of all, congratulations, but also you probably haven’t heard about the meltdown currently underway at the Dalton School, one of Manhattan’s more elite private schools. While many other private schools in New York City have reopened, Dalton has remained closed, much to the annoyance of tuition-paying parents. The Dalton faculty, it seems, consists of community college rejects who flunked a Dr. Jill
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December 14, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Those of us who view the college campus as a hotbed of Stalinism have a current case in point with Northwestern University’s treatment of long-time university lecturer Joseph Epstein, easily our most prominent essayist. Saturday’s Wall Street Journal carried Epstein’s humorous advisory “Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D.” Subhead: “Jill Biden should think about dropping the honorific, which feels fraudulent, even comic.”
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December 8, 2020 — John Hinderaker
In St. Anthony, Minnesota, a St. Paul suburb, at least four families whose homes displayed Christmas lights received this letter from a neighbor: The letter is classic Woke-Speak. It is way too stupid to be taken seriously, but nevertheless, here goes: I couldn’t help but notice your Christmas lights display. During these unprecedented times… You hear this a lot. But how are our times unprecedented? Because of COVID? How about
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December 7, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
As I discussed here, this weekend fans returned in small numbers (2,000) to some English Premier League soccer matches. Tottenham Hotspur was among the EPL teams to welcome fans. And what a welcome! Spurs defeated their hated rival Arsenal 2-0 in the North London Derby. Spurs are heavily supported by London Jews. They always have been, to the point that many Spurs fans call themselves the “Yid Army.” And, sure
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November 25, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Scott has written this morning of Amazon’s erratic censorship of Alex Berenson’s contrarian work on COVID, as well as his own reviews, but this is just one instance of a leftist censoriousness and authoritarianism that is accelerating. Let’s continue with COVID authoritarianism, with these headlines: NYC Will Have Covid Checkpoints at Key Bridges and Crossings New York City will have vehicle checkpoints at key bridges and crossings, and will strictly
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November 11, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
When the Chicago White Sox named Tony La Russa as their manager last month, it seemed like a good hire. Only two managers in baseball history have won more games than La Russa, and Connie Mack and John McGraw were not available for hire. La Russa, a member of the Hall of Fame, has managed three teams — the White Sox, the Oakland Athletics, and the St. Louis Cardinals. All
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October 19, 2020 — Steven Hayward
For those of you who haven’t listened to our latest “Three Whisky Happy Hour” podcast where “Lucretia” and I ponder Bari Weiss’s Tablet article “Stop Being Shocked,” we summarized and extended her case that the post-liberal progressivism now clearly ascendant in the Democratic Party represents an existential threat not just to Jews, but eventually to everyone who dissents from woke-progressive-social justice orthodoxy. This in turn sent me back to Leo
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October 14, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Sen. Mazie Hirono (Moron-Hawaii) chastised Judge Amy Coney Barrett for using the term “sexual preference.” Judge Barrett uttered these words while discussing Justice Scalia’s dissent in the case that legalized same-sex marriage. Hirono intoned: Not once, but twice you used the term “sexual preference” to describe those in the LGBTQ community. And let me make clear, “sexual preference” is an offensive and outdated term. It is used by the
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August 24, 2020 — Steven Hayward
“Liberal education,” Leo Strauss reminds us in Liberalism Ancient and Modern, “is not the opposite of conservative education, but of illiberal education.” Illiberal education is that which imposes and enforces an orthodoxy, whereas genuine liberal education necessarily involves an openness to and consideration of a wide spectrum of different and often conflicting points of view. Liberal education in this sense has been dying at universities for decades now, but nowhere
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August 2, 2020 — Steven Hayward
Watching the literally insane behavior on display in places like Portland and Seattle has prompted a lot of observers to suggest that many of the Antifa mobs suffer from mental illness. This is a thesis we talked about here back in April in “Does Liberalism Cause Mental Illness?“, in which I passed along some of the survey data Zach Goldberg at Georgia State had turned up and analyzed. One of
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July 30, 2020 — Steven Hayward
We noted in one of our Crazy Chronicles recently that Trader Joe’s was said to be following Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben in expunging product names (like “Trader Giotto” and “Trader Jose”) that someone—it turned out to be some hopped-up 17 year old kid—found offensive. Trader Joe’s has corrected the record with this announcement: A Note About Our Product Naming In light of recent feedback and attention we’ve received about
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July 24, 2020 — Paul Mirengoff
Hundreds of woke employees at the Wall Street Journal signed a letter to the paper’s publisher complaining about the Journal’s op-ed page. The employees protested what they claim is the spread of “misinformation” in the Journal’s opinion section. One of the complaints focused on the publication of a column by Heather Mac Donald. The letter noted that “employees of color publicly spoke out about the pain [Mac Donald’s] Opinion piece
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July 23, 2020 — John Hinderaker
For the 2020-21 season, the Washington Redskins will be called the Washington Football Team. This is actually not a joke: The Washington football team will simply compete as the Washington Football Team for the upcoming season, sources informed NBC Sports Washington on Thursday. That decision allows the organization to continue to work towards a new name and gather input from fans, alumni as well as figure out a plan to
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