Sorry, had to say it. Had to say the truth.
There might be some other problems too.
If you are anti-CRT being taught in K-12 schools, you are a moron, because it isn’t. If you are one of the emerging gaggle of goons who now insist that “liberals are denying CRT being taught in schools” then you are a moronic paranoid eejit.
Maybe you don’t really know much about CRT and realize that, but you have been groomed an organized by a right wing think tank to use CRT as a scare tactic to raise money and run a campaign. The Trump Criminals have a word for when you are being used by someone else, a word I don’t like to use but if fits; You are a cuck. At least you might be less of a moron in this case.
If, however, you understand that CRT is a buzzword for curriculum that honestly addresses history, talks about things like slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, and the systemic racism that exists in so many area of our society, then maybe you are a person who does not want the finger pointed at you. Maybe you make the argument that you don’t want kids to feel bad about their past, but that is bullshit. What you really don’t want is for your kids to come home and look at you, listen to what you say, realize what you do, figure out how you think, and realize their daddy is a Nazi.
Kind of a sensitive subject, I know, but if you are working to get CRT out of our schools, you are not a good person. In the old days (ten years ago) you would know to sit down and shut up. Please consider doing that now.
Anti CRT? That makes you a racist, and more specifically, a white supremacist. Not a good look.
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or Paperback
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All true. Also, locally here in MI, even when CRT isn’t the boogey issue for these clowns, it’s “schools are teaching that being white is evil and being something else is good”. Attacking acceptance of the LGBTQ students in schools is also a big deal for these asshats. I don’t know when the loons on the right decided to target schools and school boards, but they are here and it’s not a calming thing.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/yes-critical-race-theory-is-being-taught-in-public-schools
Washington Examiner? I have to pick myself up off the floor when anyone cites that neofascist rag. RickA tends to forage through the most abominable right wing sources for his world views. I recall he once linked to the Gateway Pundit.
Seriously.
RickA, you would be funny if you were not so deluded.
CRT is not being taught in K-12 schools, but that does not matter. When people say “CRT” what they mean is this:
https://gregladen.com/blog/2021/11/05/yes-crt-is-being-taught-in-our-schools-if-this-is-crt/
https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2021/05/critical-race-theory-in-wisconsin-k12-education/
Ditto Washington Examiner. Another quasi-fascist, Trump-worshipping think tank.
Advice to people here with common sense: AVOID.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeDlo3D0YQ0
Ditto what I said above. Center for the American Experiment is yet another far-right think tank funded (among others) by the Bradley Foundation.
RickA really sifts through the worst sludge to dredge up the slime he does, and he has no shame in doing so.
Underneath all of this is, as Greg said, no controversy whatsoever with regards to CRT. The US was founded not only on racism and slavery but on genocide of the native people who were exterminated in industrial numbers. The story is gruesome but it is the truth and needs to be taught. Similarly, the vile depredations of British empire and the wretched history of other European nations needs to be taught as well. The carnage is too often buried amidst the sophistry of ‘white man’s burden’ and the myth of our nobility. Nothing could be farther from the truth. European nations became rich and powerful through outright expansionism and genocide. It is high time that the long-pervasive myth of our ‘basic benevolence’ was exposed.
Rick: Yes, we have that problem here.
Cops are shooting black people all the time and the dominant white culture is totally into it.
A bunch of statements presented without context or explanation. What does Kendi mean when he says “The remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination”? Having a discriminating taste in food is a good thing — as is having a discriminating FM radio.
And perfectionism equals objectivity now?
I posted those links to push back on Greg’s opinion that CRT isn’t being taught in schools. I think it is being taught. I don’t think I am a moron for thinking it is being taught. But everybody is entitled to their opinion.
I think kids are being taught that if they are white they are inherently racists. I think kids are being taught they are bad because they are white. I think that itself is racist.
I personally do not believe that I am racist because of the color of my skin. I do not believe I am racist because my ancestors were racist. I do not believe that the sins of the father pass down to every subsequent generation.
If you want to teach your white children that they are evil because of the color of their skin, go ahead. Just leave my kids out of it. That sort of teaching will just mess those kids up – for life.
I will teach my children that all forms of racism are bad and people should be judged on the content of their character and not on the color of their skin. It is a person’s actions that determine whether they are racist or not – not who their ancestors were that decides that question.
CRT is itself racist. CRT has no place in our schools.
Sure teach history, teach all the terrible things our ancestors have done – I am for that. But don’t teach that we today are racist just because of what our ancestors have done. That is a lie – it is propaganda and it is evil to be brain washing children with that form of toxic thinking.
I don’t think teaching kids to be racist as a tool to end racism is going to end well. But that is just my opinion.
So go ahead and call me a moron. Call me a racist. I disagree with your opinions, but you are free to hold them and express them. Just as I am free to hold my opinions and express them. At least as long as Greg allows me to (since this is his blog after all).
You are a moron. (You asked.) Despite your ignorant beliefs, and especially despite the lies your sources spew, crt is not taught in k-12. Children are not being taught that being white is equivalent to being racist. They are not being taught that they can “use racism to end racism” ( whatever the hell that means: I assume it means something to idiots).
You’re not identified here as a racist because you’re white: you’re identified because of the types of comments you’ve just made and dozens of other comments over the years.
While I applaud the sentiments expressed in this column, I fear it misses the point. It is like handing someone an axe with which they can chop off your head, while telling them it can be used to cut firewood-to sustain a low-carbon lifestyle.
“If you are anti-CRT being taught in K-12 schools, you are a moron, because it isn’t. “
Not yet, it isn’t…
Biden proposal to teach CRT in public schools which includes quotation from Kendi:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-04-19/pdf/2021-08068.pdf
Support of teaching CRT in public schools from Mayors of Louisville, Kentucky; Boise, Idaho; Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois:
https://legacy.usmayors.org/resolutions/89th_Conference/proposed-review-list-full-print-committee-individual.asp?resid=a0F4N00000PTL6pUAH
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has been pushing back on CRT mandates at Rutgers Law School. It says they are “viewpoint discrimination,” and unconstitutional in public schools.
FIRE is no more a reliable source than the propaganda sites ricka provided. Saying FIRE is a right wing extremist organization is being mild.
“Saying FIRE is a right wing extremist organization is being mild.”
That’s abject nonsense. Being against cancel culture is the epitome of enlightenment values.
Your entire behavior on this thread has been to denigrate sources and impugn motives, intelligence, and character. Simple poisoning of the well.
Talk about the issues, please, and stop with the pernicious labelling.
“Anti CRT? That makes you a racist.”
Seriously?
How about criticizing certain aspects of CRT? Is that allowed? Is that racist also?
Is John McWhorter a racist?
That’s abject nonsense. Being against cancel culture is the epitome of enlightenment values.
Learn about bit about what FIRE has supported.
Your entire behavior on this thread has been to denigrate sources and impugn motives, intelligence, and character. Simple poisoning of the well.
Not at all. If you think the sources ricka produces are reliable you don’t have a clue about them either. If you’re hinting that the comments about him aren’t fair – go back and look at his history of comments about race, social issues, the LGBTQ community, and more.
Talk about the issues …
I do. But when people like him present “another side” that is pure bullshit, as his links here were, there is no reason to give them any positive consideration. Those sites have a long history of pushing anti_science and racist bull crap – it’s why he uses them.
FIRE is no better.
Tell us how FIRE is evil. I see them protecting the freedom of speech of students, professors, and lecturers. Educate me.
You might want to start here – a list of the cases they have taken on. I think you will find them promoting free speech regardless of which side of the aisle the defendants are on:
https://www.thefire.org/category/cases/
Roger, your comments about the ‘robust ecology of agro-ecosystems’ were weak, and here they are even weaker.
FIRE is a conservative think tank and receives substantial funding from the Charles Koch Institute, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Bradley Foundation, all of which fund far right causes and agendas. They also were formerly a part of the State Policy Network, a group of right wing think tanks. Considerable sums of ‘dark money’ have flowed from right wing sources to FIRE. Sourcewatch has some excellent information on them. Clearly, your information sources are as reliable as RickA’s. It seems like you are intent on joining him and MikeN in the right wing echochamber.
The aim of FIRE is openly to counter what they see as ‘liberal bias’ in institutes of higher education. The supposed ‘liberal bias’ ignores the truth completely and simply wants to force universities to teach US exceptionalism to their student bodies. Some of their challenges border on the absurd (see Sourcewatch article).
Free speech is important, but it can of course always go way, way too far. You need to find better sources to defend your position than a wretched organization like FIRE. Dean is 100% correct.
“The aim of FIRE is openly to counter what they see as ‘liberal bias’ in institutes of higher education. ”
I would invite you as well to use that link to see the actual cases FIRE has taken up. You will see examples of them standing up for liberal causes. Or you could just ignore what they actually do, and just riff some more about their funding and supposed agenda.
That they get money from right-wing sources is not surprising – most cancel culture and authoritarian wokism is from the left.
And, lest we forget, I brought up FIRE in the first place, b/c the assertion was made that CRT was not present in schools and FIRE was pushing back against CRT mandates in a law school. Dean decided not to address that issue, but to impugn FIRE, as you have done. Which is basically off-topic.
“That they get money from right-wing sources is not surprising – most cancel culture and authoritarian wokism is from the left.”
Wow — there’s how to say “Don’t take me seriously” without using the words “don’t take me seriously. Good lord.
No, impugning fire is not off-topic. Right-wing disinformation outlets are right-wing disinformation outlets, regardless of what you try to say.
And try to read more carefully. CRT is an academic discipline and is not in K-12 schools, despite the lies that are tossed out by the right. That was the “assertion” (not an assertion but a fact, I’ll stress again).
CRT is something that is highly appropriate in higher education, and most certainly in a law school. The fact that a right wing organization like fire works against education i is not a surprise — they’ve been fighting facts and education since reagan started pushing those buttons.
Roger Lambert literally sunk himself when he said that most cancel culture and authoritarian wokism is from the left.
Utter rubbish. Try telling that to Norman Finkelstein, Ward Churchill, or indeed any truly progressive journalists in the US who are consigned to blogs of sites like Common Dreams, Counterpunch or ZNet. People like Noam Chomsky are avoided like the plague by the mainstream corporate media because their views conflict with the well-worn myth of US basic benevolence. Why are critics of US policy like Chris Hedges, Aaron Mate, Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, et al. never heard on CNN, the NYT or Wash Post? These venues are not liberal; that is a myth. They are establishment to the core.
It is even worse in the UK, where critics of Israel policies against the Palestinians are routinely smeared and denigrated. David Miller recently lost his position at the University of Bristol simply for criticizing Israel. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by a university panel but was fired nevertheless after pressure from the powerful Zionist lobby in the UK. They mobilized using the media to destroy the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as well, even though the anti-Semetic smears used were utterly bogus. Corbyn’s real crime was to be an old-school socialist whose political agenda did not conform with the neoliberal agenda of New Labour. For that he had to go, but the media needed an alternative excuse to skewer him.
Cancel cutlure is, and always has been, a part of the right wing, corporate agenda. I am amused that Roger attempts to defend an organization (FIRE) heavily funded by far right foundations that have been instrumental in supporting conservative think tanks that distort science around climate change. They are simply twisting history to bolster US exceptionalism.
FIRE is not a “Right-wing disinformation outlets “. They are an academic freedom activist group that work through the courts. Which you would know if you had bothered to take a look through the link I provided.
You are just making shit up now. What.The.Fuck.
Jeffh, as ever I find myself in perfect alignment with the thoughts that you air in your posts. I hope to come back to Palestine – Israel – Finkekstein et all. later. (I have constructed a similar bookmark illustration covering book by Finkekstin, Pappe, Chomsky and others on the outrageous bogus calls of anti-Semitism but for now from your earlier post. Most commentary ignore the fact that the Palestinians are also a Semitic people.
For now.
Absolutely . I almost despair when I am attacked for mentioning history as told by sources that explore the sheer nastiness of British imperialism.
Many years ago I had an Anglo-Indian lady friend (her mother taught me how to cook real curries, but then she had the advantage of receiving key ingredients from family in India) who liked to lecture me on the deeds and actions of the British in India. I have since discovered that she really was telling it as it was which was nothing like the received wisdom handed down in grammar school, that ‘hero’ Clive of India’ and all that.
I have made a point of studying British imperial history finding some of the sources depicted in this image (a montage repeated across A4 landscape which can be sliced up and used as bookmarks) useful.
Those by John Keay are useful for general histories of India and China, as are the other books on Egyptian and other cultures. That latter country often forgotten in the story of British imperialism with the effects of the opium wars on the political stability of China and also on the impoverishment of Indians who were sourcing and trading that commodity.
Mike Davis in ‘Late Victorian Holocaust’ provided a disturbing account of the many millions who died in a series of famines created more by imperial policy than drought. The cover image includes a well known image of the awful Lytton Strachey, lazy, venal and corrupt insensitive to the plight of the Indian subjects subjugated. Davis also covers famines in China and Latin America.
Some titles that I have not shown there I found via the Bibliography of some of the other books there. One such is shocking in as much as some Britons were persuaded to speak out and their statements are collected in ‘British rule in India condemned by the British themselves’ aka BIB. Another little known book ‘India for the Indians, and for England’ (1885) by William Digby covers some of the material in BIB but in greater detail.
For those who idolise Winston S Churchill then ‘Churchill’s Secret War’ by Madhusree Mukerjee will provide a counter narrative with the subtitle providing more context, ‘The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during the second world war’
For other aspect of imperialism as pertaining to Britain and other European imperialists then ‘The Scramble for Africa’ by Thomas Pakenham is almost a standard text, ‘Poor Little Belgium’ indeed, Henry Morton Stanley and all that.
“Roger Lambert literally sunk himself when he said that most cancel culture and authoritarian wokism is from the left.
Utter rubbish. ”
You’re serious? Truly?
There are literally dozens and dozens – if not hundreds – of examples of left-wing cancel culture and wokism affecting academics at all levels, employees at multiple corporations. That you would deny this is mind-boggling. Just mindboggling. Have you been hiding under a rock the past few years?
And this has real consequences. It is already a campaign issue for Republicans. Just look at the Virginia governor race which likely came down to McAuliffe’s statements about school curriculums. You want to elect more Republicans ? Keep up the denial. You will get your wish. It certainly ain’t mine.
“You are just making shit up now. What.The.Fuck.”
No, not at all. The fact that you are incapable (or is it unwilling) to review their history and facts is the issue. As far as your clueless comment about the left being behind “cancel culture” (which is, itself, a right-wing myth tossed out without support) — I’m not sure how you can be so gullible.
“Roger Lambert literally sunk himself when he said that most cancel culture and authoritarian wokism is from the left.
Utter rubbish. Try telling that to Norman Finkelstein…”
My God – you think the sad case of Norman Finkelstein is an example of cancel culture? Good grief.
Cancel culture is when white professors and teachers are suspended or fired for using the n-word in context in legitimate teaching examples. There is evidently no occasion in which a white teacher can use this word even once for any reason in any context.
Norman Finkelstein, OTOH, has (mis)spent his entire career aspersing Jews, the state of Israel, and anyone who disagrees with his historical assertions. This includes even the historians he misquotes and takes out of context. The man is vile, an antisemite, and a hyperbolic liar and has demonstrated his nature countless times.
To compare his constant record of antisemitic polemics with the hair-trigger authoritarian woke cancellation of careers over the single use of a now taboo word is completely disingenuous. Finkelstein has earned his opprobrium in spades.
Oh, answering that part emphasised, the likes of Alan Dershowitz I suppose who is totally dismissed in ‘Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History’ which book explains the manner in which anti-Semitism has been weaponised to cow even valid criticism of Israel’s inhuman actions in Gaza and the Westbank. Actions including the deliberate slow, from the end of WW2 to the present, infiltration of settlements in lands designated Palestinian by international laws and conventions. If Israel does not like being called out on its murderous terror agenda vis-a-vis Palestinians (also a Semitic people BTW) then its leaders know what to do.
I find Finkelstein a fair commentator, who like Ilan Pappe who I will also mention, happens to be a retired IDF member.
I suppose the accusations by Finkelstein of ethnic cleansing (see also Ilan Pappe, ‘TheEthnic Cleansing of Palestine’), use of disproportionate force (an invasion using top of the range weapons against a people that used the equivalent of a few fireworks) including the use of banned weapons such as white phosphorus munitions, Cast Lead, and commando attacks at night on humanitarian relief vessels in international waters, Mavi Marmara are made up according to you.
The inhuman treatment of Palestinians, turning Gaza into an ever shrinking with infrastructure destroyed is a crime against humanity. Many Israelis hide behind dehumanising rhetoric from their leaders, leaders who should be indicted for war crimes or crimes against humanity.
It is not only Norman Finkelstein who has described the horrors of Gaza for Ilan Pappe has also in his book ‘The Biggest Prison on Earth’. Noam Chomsky has teamed up with Ilan Pappe in producing, ‘Gaza in Crisis’ and ‘On Palestine’. Pappe has also traced the many ways in which Palestinians have been persuaded to leave their land, land allowed under the mantle of the UN. Palestinians were bulldozed in their homes to make way for wall of separation to allow the strategic placing of Israeli settlements. Is pointing out the barbaric nature of all this ant-Semitic? No.
Other authors who have chimed inb to criticize the actions of the Israeli state are Susan Mendus ‘Politics and Morality’, Gideon Levy ‘The Punishment of Gaza’.
As for historical claims on the land then these can be of dubious provenance given the revealed archaeological evidence which has resulted in narratives such as the following from ‘The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations’ page 42.
At this juncture it may be worth mentioning the historical novel, ‘The Source’ by James A Minchener which is a fascinating chronological journey of one site of ancient settlement.
Continuing from ‘The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilizations’ page 42.
Those familiar with the Biblical account will recall the slaughter that was authorised by the god of the Hebrews, maybe the template for Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, i.e. ethnic cleansing. Handy having a god who gives you carte blanche is it not.
If you are in any doubt about the heinous actions of Israeli forces I offer the selection of books depicted by their covers in this image columns of covers repeated across an A4 page to be sliced up as bookmarks if required.
I have other titles not depicted there, including Finkelstein’s ‘This Time We Went too Far’ and ‘Method and Madness: The hidden story of Israel’s assaults on Gaza’.
“I find Finkelstein a fair commentator, who like Ilan Pappe who I will also mention, happens to be a retired IDF member.”
That would be the same Ilan Pappe who admits he doesn’t write history for truth but rather for politics? Birds of a feather. In case anyone is wondering, Finkelstein calls the IDF “Nazis”.
I won’t go further into your antisemitic and ridiculous screed which conflates Israel with the blood-thirsty God of the Hebrews. It speaks for itself. Ethnic cleansing indeed! “Their land”! It is to laugh.
Nice to know the quality of commentator here on the topic. Here is a tip: Try educating yourself on the other side of the question. You’ve got the bullshit Palestinian propaganda points down pat. Learn something new.
So,
You don’t have valid arguments to counter the valid accusations of Israeli use of brutish and disproportionate force. I must have touched that nerve of humbug. Denial is difficult and painful for sure. I have more accounts of IDF members who have turned against their own government for the slaughter of thousand of children. That you refuse to acknowledge the well documented actions of terror against an almost powerless people is sickening. That you should miss my pointing out, twice, that Palestinians are also a Semitic people indicates that you are not rational on this subject.
This is nominally about Aaron Rodgers but it does a very good job of showing why using “woke” the way roger does is laughably stupid.
https://www.theroot.com/an-open-letter-from-the-woke-mob-to-aaron-rodgers-1848018949
Thanks Lionel for dismantling the bullshit Roger piles on here. Finkelstein is a scholar of utmost integrity. I find it absolutely disgusting for a know-nothing like Lambert to attempt to impugn his integrity for criticizing Israel and Zionism for its abhorrent treatment of the Palestinians. Lambert is like one of those repugnant fools who defends clear human rights abuses of Palestinians by smearing anyone critical of Israel with the old anti-Semetic canard. Just like anyone who criticizes numerous human rights violations by the United States is routinely smeared as being ‘anti-American’. Finkelstein lost relatives in Auschwitz. He has every right to be heard. Pappe’s book ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ is a profoundly important work. All Lambert says to denigrate him is again to dredge up the morally bankrupt ‘anti Semetic’ argument. No empirics. To quote Finkelstein when he was challenged by the vile Oliver Kamm, I think Lambert’s opinions are about as valuable as ‘dust on the floor’.
I knew Lambert was clueless recently when he described agricultural landscapes as having ‘robust ecologies’. A totally vacuous, empirically bankrupt comment. And now he attempts to defend a wretched, right wing think tank (FIRE), funded by all kinds of climate-change denying conservative foundations, by baselessly claiming that cancel culture is a liberal phenomenon. Garbage.
Folks, we have a new RickA here.
No problem Jeffh.
I linked to an image made up of book covers of texts pertinent to the topic of the Israel-Palestine conflict. I have now reworked that into another version to contain a few of the other books I mentioned. Finkelstein’s ‘This Time We Went Too Far’ takes its title from that statement from Gideon Levy author of ‘The Punishment of Gaza’ also well worth a read being slim and inexpensive.
“People like Noam Chomsky are avoided like the plague by the mainstream corporate media because their views conflict with the well-worn myth of US basic benevolence.”
Indeed, Jeffh. Also among them is Jimmy Carter. People praise him now that he’s 97 and still, to the best of his ability, doing the good works his Christian faith requires.
But that’s only because most have forgotten when he stood up for the Palestinians in his 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. The architect of the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt (1978) was vilified for criticizing Israel in any way. It’s a knee-jerk reaction that continues to this day, when any critic of Israel’s policies is called an anti-Semite.
Former President Carter’s book gets a rating of 4.7 on Amazon. But the one-star reviews (numbering 152) are typical of those directed against a book merely because its author presents a view the reviewer dislikes. One writes:
“You don’t have to read this book to know Carter is an antisemite. The title says it all[.]”
To me, that eighteen-word “review” tells me all I need to know about the reviewer. It tells me he doesn’t care about the details of government policy or even the contents of the book. Amazon reviews show me there are far too many of such people in America — and now that Amazon has killed comments on reviews, they can go unanswered.
Yes that has irked me too, but now I don’t trust Amazon reviews of products given their known stealing of ideas and churning copies out in their own Chinese factories.
The dark history of New England.
New England once hunted and killed humans for money. We’re descendents of the survivors