Here's a take: both democratic socialism and blood and soil racial fascism are way more popular in 2021 than they were in 2016 and neoliberal chamber of commerce "centrism" is way less popular than it was in 2016. The chattering class of conservatives, especially the donor classes, are neoliberals. Rather than accepting that this half of decade of reality exists, Rufo and Lindsay and Sullivan have an alternate version: people at big companies and public employees were subjected to diversity and equity initiatives over the last half decade that inculcated them with CRT. As someone who's been to diversity and equity trainings for over a decade as a public school teacher, I find the idea that they changed the minds of any of my racist/sexist/classist colleagues hilarious and sad. I find the idea that a fascist presidency and a pandemic reoriented American politics plausible.
After my first read I thought you misconstrued Traldi's angle, conflating him with Rufo et al, but I think you may have a point John. Traldi reads the woke side's language games as meta-arguments without substance. But maybe they are (at least for good faith actors) a genuine commitment to a belief they have not fully conceptualized. In the French revolution, republicans zealously defended liberty and equality while tolerating slavery. That may be hypocritical, but I don't discount their good faith.
However, I do think the Marxist approach is necessary, not because it stands opposed to the critical theory/woke stuff, but because it ensures the ability to criticize and fix any mistakes as institutionalization threatens to take that away.
Well. Of course you’ve been proved right on how claims of CRT would be used to suppress any discussion of racism in public spaces like schools. I’m interested in the passing references to the bureaucracy being too liberal and projects to suppress that. I work in a Westminster (but not UK) bureaucracy, very different from your 18C US bureaucracy. The contradictions that are being exposed by some irrefutable evidence of systemic racism, along with an organization-wide effort to address it, are almost unbearable.
This should be more broadly read. Would love to see you continue to explore this engine of power critique going on with the right on this topic. It’s a total funhouse mirror.
Here's a take: both democratic socialism and blood and soil racial fascism are way more popular in 2021 than they were in 2016 and neoliberal chamber of commerce "centrism" is way less popular than it was in 2016. The chattering class of conservatives, especially the donor classes, are neoliberals. Rather than accepting that this half of decade of reality exists, Rufo and Lindsay and Sullivan have an alternate version: people at big companies and public employees were subjected to diversity and equity initiatives over the last half decade that inculcated them with CRT. As someone who's been to diversity and equity trainings for over a decade as a public school teacher, I find the idea that they changed the minds of any of my racist/sexist/classist colleagues hilarious and sad. I find the idea that a fascist presidency and a pandemic reoriented American politics plausible.
After my first read I thought you misconstrued Traldi's angle, conflating him with Rufo et al, but I think you may have a point John. Traldi reads the woke side's language games as meta-arguments without substance. But maybe they are (at least for good faith actors) a genuine commitment to a belief they have not fully conceptualized. In the French revolution, republicans zealously defended liberty and equality while tolerating slavery. That may be hypocritical, but I don't discount their good faith.
However, I do think the Marxist approach is necessary, not because it stands opposed to the critical theory/woke stuff, but because it ensures the ability to criticize and fix any mistakes as institutionalization threatens to take that away.
Well. Of course you’ve been proved right on how claims of CRT would be used to suppress any discussion of racism in public spaces like schools. I’m interested in the passing references to the bureaucracy being too liberal and projects to suppress that. I work in a Westminster (but not UK) bureaucracy, very different from your 18C US bureaucracy. The contradictions that are being exposed by some irrefutable evidence of systemic racism, along with an organization-wide effort to address it, are almost unbearable.
This should be more broadly read. Would love to see you continue to explore this engine of power critique going on with the right on this topic. It’s a total funhouse mirror.