George Rebane
[This piece was rejected by The Union as unfit for their readers. I must admit that I was surprised at that response, and the reasons given by publisher Don Rogers. I will have more to say later about my new understanding of the newspaper’s ideological coloring and journalistic demeanor. The following is an addended version of what was submitted.]
Our public policies, including those now seeking equity, have denied reality for decades, so argues nationally prominent, quantitative sociologist and political scientist Charles Murray in Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America (2021). In his latest scholarly researched and richly referenced book, Dr Murray brings to light data that government collected and our media muffled on the intellectual metrics that characterize race in America. As with his past dissertations (e.g. Bell Curve, Coming Apart), his politically and profusely incorrect Facing Reality is destined for the same opprobrium from progressives that graced his previous volumes. However, his presentation of information and socially impactive conclusions are supported by databases assembled over the decades by our Dept of Education, FBI, and various accredited testing services.
What motivated Murray to produce this illuminating work is today’s broadly held contention that America’s fundamental creed is in peril. The creed is from our Declaration of Independence - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….” And the danger to our way of life comes from a total misapprehension of how our multi-racial culture is viewed through the perspectives of cognitive capability and criminality, and how this gives rise to today’s misguided, and even insane public policies through which government misinforms, mis-enables, and misdirects Americans as we seek our places in the sun.
The long-taught but erroneous common wisdom is that cognitive capabilities are equally distributed across races. Using census data Murray presents his analysis of our four main racial groups and percentages making up our 330M population. Murray labels these European (60%), Latin (17.9%), African (12.8%), Asian (5.7%), Other (3.6%). Volumes of data over the years demonstrate that in the aggregate these groups have measurably different distributions of closely correlating scores in IQ, SAT, ACT, and other skill-based tests which have been meticulously controlled to eliminate the usual sources of non-racial bias. To illustrate this broad-based reality, Murray presents the proxy IQ distributions which are annotated in the nearby figure.
The racial distributions are the familiar ‘bell curves’, the size (area under the curve) of each being proportional to its population. As usual, the data has been adjusted (normed) so that the country’s overall average IQ = 100, with a 15-point standard deviation. The average IQs for each racial group are indicated in the figure. At this point we remind ourselves that such basic measures of cognitive ability are embedded characteristics of people and not subject to rapid change through education and/or training. The importance of such measures are that they reliably predict aggregate abilities to acquire and apply different levels of skill sets.
This is illustrated by the miniscule areas under the respective Latin and African bell curves to the right of the dotted line at, say, IQ = 120, a nominally required minimum for some professions. While there are many African-Americans and Latins at all occupational levels in America, enforcing equity by fiat in high-prestige occupations would result in performance decrements in the affected fields that would cause tremendous damage in our nation – consider medicine, law, and the STEM professions.
Stating this aspect of reality launches our leftwing neighbors into a righteously religious rage for daring to openly state such a penultimately incorrect political conclusion. Their alternative in the policy arena is to lower standards for matriculation and certification so that the dotted line can be moved leftwards to increase the African and Latin populations under their respective bell curves. Such policies have demonstrated time and again to be damaging to the concerned individuals, professional standards, and the quality of service provided society. Data shows that such fiat-promoted individuals know how they stack up in the classrooms, offices, and job sites.
In the face of these realities Murray points out “it is fair to conclude that the American job market is indeed racially biased. A detached observer might even call it systemic racism. The American job market systemically discriminates in favor of racial minorities other than Asians.” His recommendation for a better America is that public policies should be made to recognize aggregate racial statistics. However, all people should be considered on the basis of individual merit, contribution to purpose of relationship, and the content of their character.
[Addendum1] To understand the points Murray makes, it is important to address the Left’s rejection of what is illustrated in the figure. The progressives’ argument remains unchanged over the years, and continues to maintain that all such measured cognitive differences are due to “cultural values and educational levels of families, along with the stronger correlation to poverty”. Their presentation, therefore, is a scurrilous and racist ploy by the Right to denigrate our minorities because “there’s no preponderance of research showing cognitive lacking by race”.
Of course, there is no such preponderance of research, simply because such research in academe and government has been politically off limits at least since the Great Society days. However, rejecting something lacking ‘preponderance of research’ is an extremely anti-scientific argument. All new findings in human affairs, and especially in science, were introduced with no preponderance of supporting research. In fact, the received wisdom of the times was always exactly the opposite. Over the last few decades Charles Murray and a few others have been the first to do this politically incorrect and therefore pioneering research, and present their results.
When we consider the variability in ALL attributes of the variously evolved branches of our species, then modern science has shown that people are almost infinitely varied. Moreover, with modern technology, specific marker attributes have been identified for the races and isolated ethnicities that permits them to be reliably identified without any foreknowledge to which cohort a sample or even individuals belong. And these differentiating attributes range from the obvious to all (e.g. the blacks’ preponderance of talents in sports and succumbing to sickle cell anemia), to the sublime that require a more sophisticated approach to isolate and discover.
Considering this, it is simply beyond the pale for any serious thinker to accept the unsupported proposition that cognitive ability is the only human attribute that is so identically distributed across the racial cohorts that it cannot be used as a discriminant for identifying the membership of any sufficiently sized sample WHEN CONTROLLED for all the variables that have been traditionally summoned to deny race-based cognitive ability.
[Addendum2, 8jul21] Expanding on the arguments in Addendum1, Murray goes to great lengths to explain how the resulting distributions in the figure were obtained, AFTER controlling for all the usual factors that ‘homogeneous IQ’ (HIQ) believers cite and fiercely uphold. The illustrated distributions are strongly correlated to distributions for the same population subgroups obtained from data on various testing programs carried out by industry, the military, civil service testing, academic testing services, academic success data, and, of course, IQ testing which continues to be done by many institutions during a person’s journey from grade school to retirement.
For a student of science and practitioner of various scientific and engineering disciplines, there is overwhelming evidence from everything known about our universe, from galaxies to microbiomes, that the cosmos specializes in variability. The closest we come to homogeneity is in the quantum realm of subatomic particles – e.g. today we still cannot distinguish between two electrons (leptons), save, perhaps, from their ever-changing energy levels. For all practical purposes in the realworld, nothing in nature is homogenous.
In order to understand our world and the universe, humans have developed the cognitive power to taxonomize (structure knowledge about things) and to abstract systems (structure bounded dynamics among and between things). To facilitate the study and use of such structures, we impose the fiction that items in similar places in a taxonomy or a system are identical. We do this knowing that they really aren’t, and, if required, we could discriminate between such items. But abstractions involving certain levels of homogeneity are useful for communicating knowledge and building things that will work tolerably well as predicted by their cognitive abstractions.
As a first cut, it was acceptable to test for cognitive ability and aggregate the data into one distribution for all kinds of critters including humans, who then happened to be almost all Europeans. But as knowledge (some of it racially prejudicial) expanded about human abilities, people started testing various tribal, ethnic, and racially distinct cohorts, and, applying statistics, they noted marked differences. After some mix of scientific cum political wrangling, the psychologists, sociologists, and ‘educators’ learned how to identify and control for the most obvious dependers that affected the IQ distributions for the various cohorts.
For the more technically comfortable readers, I will mention that it is possible to taxonomize our racial cohorts down to even finer levels and discover how their cognition distributions vary. But there is little sense in doing that kind of research cataloging racial divisions to a finer degree than that used by governments to make public policies. The four identified by Murray are good enough for government work – that is, in everything save assigning race-based quotas for equity. There such fine gradations (as shown in the figure) are themselves deemed racist and seen by progressives to serve white supremacist ends.
So, around the advent of the Great Society, civil rights politics took over such inquiries about the intelligence levels of our minorities. The result was that the new narrative called for extra-scientific homogeneity in order to minimize residual obstructions to African-Americans and Latinos achieving parity with whites (Murray’s Europeans) in our schools and workplaces. Studies seeking to advance knowledge and understanding in this area of human performance were proscribed in the increasingly leftwing academe. The knowledge denied would have been used to structure public education curricula so that minorities would derive maximum instructional benefit for the tax dollars we spend on schools. That was not to be unto this day.
As a result, today we deny that there are insufficient numbers of Latins and Africans to satisfy the strictures of equity at present levels of performance standards for a number of high-level/reward jobs. Denial in this area join with a plethora of other civilization-promoting attributes, traits, and characteristics – e.g. perfectionism, merit-based reasoning, objectivity, accuracy, correctness, precision, timeliness, sense of urgency, rewarding skill, individualism, progress, … – all now deemed to be prima facie evidence of “white supremacy culture” and systemic racism that continues to be practiced in America by whites, who by their skin color alone are helplessly racists and white supremacists.
The politically correct answer to the ‘insufficient numbers’ problem is to lower previously-adopted, long-serving standards for qualification into schools and the professions. According to the woke progressives, it is this approach, to veer away from white supremacy (aka European) culture, that will finally establish racial justice in our land. And it all begins with rejecting any assertion that distributions of cognitive abilities, along with so many other human attributes, can also be race-based – HIQ über alles!
I'm surprised Frisch hasn't yet left a steaming pile in response.
I recall vividly a visit to Northrop circa 1983(?). A defense contractor and solid member of the military-industrial complex, they had to prove they didn't discriminate by balancing their numbers with severe and obvious discrimination.
I was there for a 3rd interview on site for an engineering spot in an R&D group. First stop was HR which was solid black. Then on to the group that wanted me led by an older white guy with a mixed white/Asian team... Had they found anyone who could pass for black or Latino they'd have been hired on the spot, but I felt bad for whites who might be desperate for a low skilled job with benefits.
I didn't take their offer, choosing to accept less money for living in Santa Barbara, working for an internet company, before the Internet.
Posted by: Gregory | 05 July 2021 at 07:28 AM
Posted by: Gregory | 05 July 2021 at 07:28 AM
I'm surprised Frisch hasn't yet left a steaming pile in response.
I imagine he’s checking to see if he still has “antibodies” to charges of racism himself after finally hiring somebody a notch further along the brown scale of the color chart.
Not sure that that hire lasted very long.....
Posted by: 🐠 | 05 July 2021 at 07:57 AM
Yes, Frisch's new southern Asian hire does have a very nice year round tan.
Posted by: Gregory | 05 July 2021 at 09:44 AM
Here's an interesting factoid: Of the 100 top-rated English-language scrabble players, how many are Nigerian? Nigerians are black folks, if you've not been paying attention.
https://www.unz.com/article/scrabble-spells-doom-for-the-racial-hypothesis-of-intelligence/
https://www.reddit.com/r/heredity/comments/mk2s28/nigerians_jews_and_scrabble_an_update_on_the_iq/
answer: 30.
Chanda Chisala, in the UNZ website above, compares African blacks (Afb) to American blacks (Amb) for Scrabble. Amb follow the IQ curve George posits above. There are no Amb in the top Scrabble world. Chisala evidently has written a number of articles on Scrabble & IQ, of Nigerians & other Afb in both English- & French-Scrabble, published on the UNZ site.
He also poses the question - where do American women rank in top-level Scrabble or chess? (Hint: they aren't there).
Again, these are just factoids; not scientifically-controlled experiments, that have been peer-reviewed. But they do make you go 'hmmmm'. They certainly made me go 'hmmm'.
Posted by: The Estonian Fox | 05 July 2021 at 12:50 PM
Efox 1250pm - We must remember that almost all African-Americans are to one degree on another mulattos - meaning their 'racial purity', assuming their ancestors had it, has been polluted with white and Indian blood. Have no idea how the Afbs and Ambs compare IQ-wise, and also how Afbs from different (isolated) parts of Africa compare. Thanks to our rabidly anti-science Left, all those inquiries are off limits. However, no one complains much if we selectively determine the IQs of Ashkenazi Jews or, say, the Japanese.
Posted by: George Rebane | 05 July 2021 at 03:05 PM
Wonder what the capture of Africans might do to IQ... would smart Africans be more or less likely to avoid capture by African slavers? What about smart Ashkenazim... less likely to die in a pogrom, more likely to flee the Nazis in time?
Posted by: Gregory | 05 July 2021 at 04:28 PM
FYI. Nigerians (as well as some other ethnic groups) have a higher medium income in the USA than white Americans or black Americans.
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 05 July 2021 at 04:38 PM
Well hell you just have to look at the frischy set to know that -
Woke Democrats dehumanized conservatives more than vice versa during the 2020 election, partly because progressives are more misinformed about their rivals’ view of them, according to a study by four surprised researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“Democrats expressed more dehumanization and antidemocratic spite toward Republicans than vice-versa. … This appears to clash with research suggesting that liberals are more open, tolerant, and less biased toward outgroup members,” said the study.
The four researchers suggested that the higher-than-expected dehumanization by progressives is driven by progressives’ shift from class and economic politics to “woke” identity politics:
This counterintuitive finding may be explained if American political affiliation is based on a “moralized identification with one political group and against another,” more akin to tribal sectarianism than well-reasoned differences in ideological preference … Since denigrating competitive outgroups also bolsters one’s social identity for highly identified Democrats, expressions of their adherence to liberalism and dehumanization of Republicans may go hand in hand.
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/07/05/study-woke-democrats-dehumanize-republicans/
;-)
Posted by: Don Bessee | 05 July 2021 at 06:04 PM
Any discussion about "denying reality" must include the Republican Party or it's total Bullshit (Bill Barr's words not mine.)
Posted by: RXCross | 05 July 2021 at 06:23 PM
Exhibit one of [email protected] 623! LOL
;-)
Posted by: Don Bessee | 05 July 2021 at 06:30 PM
Posted by: Lil Bobby Meshugenah | 05 July 2021 at 06:23 PM
So don’t vote republican.....
Nobody here cares you fat fuck.
Posted by: 🐠 | 05 July 2021 at 06:58 PM
The chi coms and their new red guard (antifa, wokesters and CRT minions) are in full court press mode and the socialist dems are lapping it up like hash oil -
China’s government-run Global Times newspaper observed American Independence Day on Sunday by claiming Americans have nothing to celebrate, as their country has become “selfish,” failed on “the race issue,” and is currently “in its least confident stage.”
Chinese propagandists on social media used the Fourth of July as an excuse to disparage America based on a jumble of unrelated news stories from the country — from Chinese coronavirus vaccination rates to the collapse of a condominium building in Miami. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also joined in by sharing a video of leftist American students stating they did not feel proud of their country, a sentiment the analog of which is illegal to express under the Communist Party in China.
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/07/05/chinas-july-4-message-america-selfish-racist/
;-)
Posted by: Don Bessee | 05 July 2021 at 09:26 PM
Excellence cannot be legislated so the only way to create equity is to force those who would excel to perform at the level of those who will not or cannot excel. The quest for equity is, therefore, a quest for inferiority. Worse, it limits liberty.
Posted by: Michael Kesti | 06 July 2021 at 08:54 AM
6:58 -- getting a little testy are we? I totally understand.. it must be very difficult having to continually deny reality when it hits you in the face., you little Meshugenah you.
Posted by: RXBertie | 06 July 2021 at 09:17 AM
Posted by: Menocross | 06 July 2021 at 09:17 AM
6:58 -- getting a little testy are we? I totally understand.
You don't know the half of it.....listening to you blather about the skill and reliability of the legacy media is remarkably annoying. But then you're always remarkably annoying so I should probably just get over it.
PS: How goes Ukulele practice?
Posted by: fish | 06 July 2021 at 09:36 AM
So George, Trump was elected and supported mostly by the Europeans descendants you refer to in your chart as having a high intelligence . Is their selection of him for President a manifestation of the higher IQ you refer to in your post to that ethnic and cultural group??
Posted by: Paul Emery | 06 July 2021 at 08:04 PM
Posted by: Paul Emery | 06 July 2021 at 08:04 PM
So Punch, still prattling on about Trump....your fetish still intact?
Posted by: fish | 06 July 2021 at 08:19 PM
First Bobbie tried and now it’s Paul Empty’s turn at bat. Who is next? Lavender or the Ghost of Jose Peyote coyote’s shrink? No joy In Mudville tonight.
Trump never sleeps, never rest. If he is in your mind, he is in your present. Another slave to TDS. What you sow is what you reap. The ax meant to slam down on others has come crashing down on yer own head, Mr. emery.
Pssst. A little secret. There is more variance WITHIN a group than BETWEEN groups. That is the authors’ findings. You give white people a bad name, Kemislobie.
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 06 July 2021 at 08:39 PM
LOL Emery,, you can say the same for "O".
Yes, he had to even get the white vote to win.
Sounds like you need to move home to the old country.
Posted by: Walt | 06 July 2021 at 08:42 PM
Well Walt you'd think that the Euro White folks folks that George refers to in hi charts would have more intelligence than to vote for Trump but examples like you have convinced me that they don't.
Posted by: Paul Emery | 06 July 2021 at 09:12 PM
PaulE 804pm - Paul, I think that question is below you. Is it desperation time?
I referred to no intelligence of any specific group, and just presented Murray's compilation of data, along with his conclusion that the data does not support public policies requiring racial equity at any current level of standards in the high-end professions or colleges. To attempt achieving equity, standards already have had to be lowered/changed/eliminated, which supports Murray's research.
Posted by: George Rebane | 06 July 2021 at 09:22 PM
Blame Cultral Idenity Crisis
MSNBC Contributor Criticitized For Blaming 2020 Rise In Latino Trump Supporters On ‘Cultural Identity Crisis’
https://www.dailywire.com/news/msnbc-contributor-criticitized-for-blaming-2020-rise-in-latino-trump-supporters-on-cultural-identity-crisis
Made good inroads with women as well.
Well, Punch and Biden share the same mental (dis)abilities and capabilities, so I would call that equity.
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 06 July 2021 at 09:27 PM
@927 The socialist dems are stuck on their oft repeated ideology that people of color hate conservatives. But alas they dismiss the hard working citizens that are people of color who want stability, love their God and want their kids to not have to get in line for work behind the invasion of unskilled workers.
Especially those that fled socialist shitholes and became citizens with hard work and following the legal process.
As the dnc train wreck analysis of 2020 dem performance notwithstanding the masters of the universes thumb on the scale for creepy grampa joe admitted, those voters are lost for ever and there are likely many more people of color shifting and the socialist defund the police and tolerance of riots destroying their communities is the nail in the coffin in many swing districts and zip codes.
;-)
Posted by: Don Bessee | 06 July 2021 at 09:54 PM
George
I am confounded for example that a huge percentage of Republicans believe that the election was stolen . Since there is no evidence to justify that conclusion the only explanation I have is that those people are just plain ignorant and have lost or never had any skills in rational thought. For example I have a neighbor who honestly believed that the military on duty in Washington after Jan 6 to protect the Capital were actually there so that on inauguration day they would sweep in and capture Biden, Harris and all the other Dems and hustle them into helicopters and take them to Guantanamo Bay because "we all know" that was rebuilt to be a prison for all the high level Dems they would capture.
This person is a very successful local business owner and a long time acquaintance.
I'm not making this up. Look at the Pillow Guy as another example.
All for now
Posted by: Paul Emery | 06 July 2021 at 10:05 PM
As if @1005
;-)
Posted by: Don Bessee | 06 July 2021 at 10:44 PM
And right on "Q",, Emery changed the subject.
Plenty of evidence Emery,, you just flat out refuse to see it.
Posted by: Walt | 07 July 2021 at 04:03 AM
"Here's an interesting factoid: Of the 100 top-rated English-language scrabble players, how many are Nigerian? Nigerians are black folks, if you've not been paying attention."
Now that's a thing I've never run into.
Geeked out for a while on Scrabble(tm) academic papers and articles on Nigeria's obsession with Scrabble. There seems to be some agreement that Scrabble ability is based on practice more than raw ability, but all in all it's a weird thing to show up there.
My own take is that some clever boots from 23andme is going to take their database, match it to people's individual academic records (and any other available measure) and actually dig into the problem via computing brute force. Whether it's released or not will be due to the personal kinks of whoever is running the culture at the time but may surprise everyone. Maybe phrenology is real.
Posted by: scenes | 07 July 2021 at 05:51 AM
Walt, Why was evidence not seen by any of the recounts, State or federal agencies, courts or election officials?
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 07:13 AM
I am confounded for example that a huge percentage of Republicans believe that the election was stolen.
Yes......many things confound you Punch......we know......indoor plumbing, microwave ovens, Magic 8 ball etc.!
You're just going to have to learn to live with these limitations.
All for now
Posted by: fish | 07 July 2021 at 07:19 AM
Punchy... what does a recount, after the ballot box gets stuffed, do for election integrity?
Posted by: Gregory | 07 July 2021 at 07:48 AM
Show me proof the " ballot box gets stuffed" and your post will have integrity. Otherwise it's just an idea that might have happened.
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 08:30 AM
fish: "All for now"
It would be nice if Mr. Emery went back to Paul's Sandbox for the off-topic election stuff. It's like listening to That Guy who is a Giants fan, like it or not, you're going to hear about baseball. Being boring is worse than being wrong.
On George's post. One thing I find unsatisfying is the categories of people. Given the large degree of genetic diversity in Africa (and elsewhere for that matter), splitting into somewhat Victorian-sounding subgroups seems inaccurate. It's like claiming that Bantu speakers have a stronger case of ownership to South Africa than Boers because they are 'black'. Ownership, in the long run, is always based on demographics of course.
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if large groups of somewhat related individuals had different superpowers, it's just that the tools for measuring are still quite dull. I can't say that our AI Lords and Masters will much care about the difference between primitive beings in any case.
To be fair, it's fun to skirt the Forbidden Topics, but given the current era of scrabbling over the Little Red Hen's bread, the rent seekers won't allow real research into this kind of thing. Leave it to the Chinese I guess.
Posted by: scenes | 07 July 2021 at 08:31 AM
Besides that Gregory if the ballot boxes were "stuffed" those ballots would be invalid and wouldn't that also affect all the other elections on the same ballots so shouldn't those elections also be thrown out?
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 08:36 AM
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 08:30 AM
Show me proof the " ballot box gets stuffed" and your post will have integrity. Otherwise it's just an idea that might have happened.
I shouldn't nitpick but it's you Punch.....so.....you know!
/inˈteɡrədē/
noun: integrity
1. the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
"he is known to be a man of integrity"
2. the state of being whole and undivided.
"upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty"
I think the term you're looking for here is validity Punch.
Probably should just stick to molesting your guitar and stop pretending you're Wolf Blitzer......just sayin!
Posted by: fish | 07 July 2021 at 08:46 AM
Totally irrelevant response to the question by the person who calls himself "fish" because he doesn't want to attach his real name to the comments that he makes on this blog.
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 08:58 AM
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 08:58 AM
Owww! You cut me deep Shrek!
Posted by: fish | 07 July 2021 at 09:05 AM
Scenes 831am - As I explain in paragraph three, Murray assigned those labels to the racial cohorts of the US - ‘African’ refers to Americans of African descent, not to the aggregate of all tribes and ethnicities in today’s black Africa. In short, it is same grouping of Americans that is used by DeptEd in their testing and the DeptComm in their counting. Lots of academic and job performance related data has been collected on our ‘Africans’.
Posted by: George Rebane | 07 July 2021 at 09:06 AM
"‘African’ refers to Americans of African descent, not to the aggregate of all tribes and ethnicities in today’s black Africa."
Which is somewhat the same thing, plus the complexities of admixture with Europeans, modern immigration, and selection processes due to just who was caught for sale in the Atlantic slave trade. There's a bit of Rachel Dolezal in the whole deal, it's like people who think of themselves as 'Native Americans' while holding 1/4 or 1/8 (or less) of the membership DNA.
It sounds similar to lumping Germans in together with Mediterranean people like Greeks. At least the Germans pay their bills, so there is that.
I see where Murray comes from in that he has the data he's dealt so you do the best you can.
Now if they can just figure out why gingers don't have souls.
Posted by: scenes | 07 July 2021 at 09:23 AM
Well why else wouldn't you use your name "fish"?
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 09:42 AM
PaulE 1005pm – There was plenty of evidence of election fraud and irregularities, the extent and impact of which is debatable. Patrick Byrne is one of the leading authors on the saga, and has quoted chapter and verse in his ‘Deep Rig’ – naming names, dates, places, quotes, video footage, officially reported precincts counts, … - with no one rising up to dispute him on the cited substance or sue him for whatever. What gives?
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Rig-Election-Fraud-Donald-ebook/dp/B08X1Z9FHP/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Byrne&qid=1625676209&sr=8-1
But the more puzzling question about people continuing to believe unfounded conspiracy theories is why all the Democratic leadership and the country’s progressives still believe in the Trump/Russia conspiracy, namely that the 2016 election was stolen. This was investigated by numerous committees, DoJ, special prosecutor, etc without turning up any supporting evidence whatsoever. "Since there is no evidence to justify that conclusion the only explanation I have is that those people are just plain ignorant and have lost or never had any skills in rational thought." What say you?
Now back to the topic, do you have anything cogent to say about Biden's push for equity? And why are merit-based standards for academe and workplaces being rolled back if sufficient populations with the required cognitive skills exist?
Posted by: George Rebane | 07 July 2021 at 09:55 AM
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 09:42 AM
Well why else wouldn't you use your name "fish"?
......sigh.
Posting under a pseudonym....even a busted pseudonym is a common practice Punch.
My real name has been revealed here on numerous occasions.
Posted by: fish | 07 July 2021 at 10:14 AM
Explanations in cartoon form.
"But the more puzzling question about people continuing to believe unfounded conspiracy theories is why all the Democratic leadership and the country’s progressives still believe in the Trump/Russia conspiracy,"
https://i.imgur.com/tGFG2Qm.jpg
"Now back to the topic, do you have anything cogent to say about Biden's push for equity?"
https://imgur.com/gallery/Q8ePlAS
Posted by: scenes | 07 July 2021 at 11:51 AM
punchy
"Besides that Gregory if the ballot boxes were "stuffed" those ballots would be invalid and wouldn't that also affect all the other elections on the same ballots so shouldn't those elections also be thrown out?"
Yes indeed. That's why ballot box stuffing is bad. But once elections are certified, the results are set in stone.
Posted by: Gregory | 07 July 2021 at 01:47 PM
Equity denies reality. Might be on topic.
‘A Black Man Grabbed A Black Woman And Leftists Are Calling It White Supremacy’
Anti-racism protests are once again racking Washington, D.C., and attorney Benjamin Crump is involved so it’s time to play “find the lie.”
“In that second video, Young is seen at the top of the stairs with about three other men who are fighting, plus two security guards intervening. Young is raining blows on one of the men who is trying to cover his head with his arms. As she’s absolutely wilding out in the fight, the guard reaches over the group of men and yanks Young by the shirt down the steps to remove her from the violence that she was actively participating in.
At the protests outside of the bar, activists have said, “We’re not gonna sit here and let black women be disrespected” and chanted, “protected black women, respect black women.” One demonstrator said, “That’s why we out here, because America, because of this white ass establishment, don’t respect black women and they damn sure don’t respect black people.”
But there’s a niggling detail about this whole saga that complicates the cut and dry narrative that Young’s black body was violated by the hands of white supremacy— the man who put his hands on her is also black.
Shouldn’t that make a difference if we’re going to throw around phrases like “white ass establishment”?
I’m not sure it makes a difference, but Nellie’s is a gay bar, and it used to be the most popular one in D.C. Over the years that I’ve lived here — I used to go on weekends — episodes like Young’s with the fighting and rowdy behavior have become common. It’s anecdotal, but in the most recent times I’ve been to Nellies, at least half of the patrons have been black. It wasn’t infrequent for most of them to be.
In essence, I mean that Nellies is not a “white ass establishment.” To the contrary, at this point, it’s almost a predominantly black bar.
But who can blame the protesters? This is what they’ve been taught to do by academia, the national media, the Democratic Party, and all of the entertainment industry. Claim victimhood based on race, gender, or sexual identity; then make demands; and then reap the rewards. The facts don’t matter. The story does, even if it’s fake or, at best, incomplete.“
https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/06/a-black-man-grabbed-a-black-woman-and-leftists-are-calling-it-white-supremacy/
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 07 July 2021 at 02:18 PM
re: [email protected]:18PM
lol. Wow, that looks like a fun ol' time at that place.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQEn2PeDO5p/?utm_medium=copy_link
I figure that everyone involved can cool their heels at the hoosegow for the evening with a $50 fine.
Posted by: scenes | 07 July 2021 at 02:26 PM
So Gregory what is your evidence that ballots may have been stuffed? You know, arrests, criminal investigations, etc...
A couple of links will be good for a start
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 02:59 PM
An example of stuffing. When thousands of mail-in ballots arrive to be counted without any evidence of having being folded to fit into the supplied envelopes, that gives you a hint that something might be amiss.
Posted by: George Rebane | 07 July 2021 at 04:28 PM
Emery fails the cognitive test here. Knowing Fish's name
has been the standard.
And Emery claims Biden's mind is as good as his?
Posted by: Walt | 07 July 2021 at 04:34 PM
Fake news didn't tell Emery about the photo copy ballots that got "counted"?
There are affidavits sworn to (that would be evidence Emery) of the fact they were counted.
Posted by: Walt | 07 July 2021 at 04:36 PM
Walt, George:
Links so I can check it out?
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 05:20 PM
Nice try Emery,, Provided a LONG time ago. You sent in the crickets to counter.
Go do your own homework.
Not my issue your memory is as bad as Biden's.
Here is some fresh evidence for you to choke on.
The Left has lauded Stacey Abrams for helping Biden “win” the 2020 election.
Was Abrams the activist instrumental in Fulton County, Georgia, during the election?
Absolutely.
What, then, was her role in the massive voter irregularities?
Abrams may be in deep water over her personal connections to the election.
In late 2019, Fulton County contracted with Happy Faces Personnel Group, which was financially associated with a firm cofounded by Abrams.
Happy Faces was contracted “to provide temporary staffing services for Registration and Elections for approximately 340 positions, effective January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020.”
Allegedly, an investigator commissioned by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office confirmed multiple Happy Face workers at the State Farm Arena in Fulton County on November 3.
https://welovetrump.com/2021/07/07/did-stacey-abrams-finance-and-control-staffing-for-fulton-county-georgias-2020-election/
Abram's "army" counting ballots...
Remember the elevator talk Emery? "We are going to f*ck sh*t up"
Now you go right ahead and dismiss it outright, like you do everything else.
Posted by: Walt | 07 July 2021 at 05:27 PM
George
Links so I can have more information on the"stuffing" you refer to?
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 06:53 PM
That's a good hippie. Try and get others to do the work for you. You have a search tool,, USE IT.
Posted by: Walt | 07 July 2021 at 06:56 PM
I can not believe how you continue to put up with Paul hijacking a thread with his constant BS about the election. You know damn well he has stated more than once he isn't serious when he posts on George's blog.
I'd send him Murray's book, but he wouldn't read it as he's too busy doing a sound check at the local McDonald's drive through.
Good grief.
Posted by: Scott O | 07 July 2021 at 07:14 PM
Scotto: "I can not believe how you continue to put up with Paul hijacking a thread with his constant BS about the election."
In the immortal words of Brian Eno, "Same as it ever was". It's just a dominance game that Poll usually wins, like a dog that no one will kick off the couch.
Speaking of equity, I thought I'd poke around local institutions. I really like the language used at Sierra College. https://www.sierracollege.edu/equity.php
"Sierra College is committed to eliminating the equity gaps in all student populations with proactive student centered practices and policies that fully engage the college community while providing intentional high touch support services that advance academic and career success for students." (dunno what 'high touch' is, probably something sexy)
"The Student Equity Plan outlines college success from an equity lens. "
"... professional development opportunities are available and aligned with student equity outcomes"
"The Sierra College Students Speak Report provides the college with an opportunity to self-reflect on our current structure..."
"... the shared governance structure."
These sort of things always have the flavor of an over-florid police report ("the subject transited the parking facility to his vehicle").
Posted by: scenes | 07 July 2021 at 07:32 PM
From George's post - "I must admit that I was surprised at that response, and the reasons given by publisher Don Rogers. I will have more to say later about my new understanding of the newspaper’s ideological coloring and journalistic demeanor."
I'll be waiting for that one.
Murray's book was a direct shot across the bow of the present-day left. He has not only pointed out the king has no clothes, but also that the king is on the horse backwards and is headed the wrong way.
Of course Rogers and the left just want Murray's book to go away.
Reality doesn't care about your feelings.
Posted by: Scott O | 07 July 2021 at 08:15 PM
BS about the election Scott? Biden won the election pure and simple. Are you one of those who believe it was stolen?
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 09:17 PM
@817 demands the resurrection of the 2016 pink pussy hat chant, NOT MY PRESIDENT! LOL
;-)
Posted by: Don Bessee | 07 July 2021 at 09:29 PM
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 05:20 PM
Walt, George:
Links so I can check it out?
Ah yes.....I remember it like it was yesterday.....I haven’t time for your links and never read them when I do have time!
Posted by: 🐠 | 07 July 2021 at 09:54 PM
Fish
Biden won the election pure and simple. Are you one of those who believe it was stolen? Here's a chance to take responsibility directly for what you and implying.
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 10:48 PM
sp
for what you are implying.
Posted by: Paul Emery | 07 July 2021 at 10:49 PM
Sounds like a 13 year old new red guard waving the little red book in the faces of the opressed proletariat but BLM style @1048! ROFLOL
;-)
Posted by: Don Bessee | 07 July 2021 at 11:12 PM
In case Rufo's original article hasn't been posted.
"Raytheon Technologies Corporation, the nation’s second-largest defense contractor, has launched an “anti-racism” program that promotes critical race theory, rejects the principle of “equality,” and instructs employees to “identify [their] privilege”—or else."
https://www.city-journal.org/raytheon-adopts-critical-race-theory
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 06:10 AM
Topic gentlemen, please.
Posted by: George Rebane | 08 July 2021 at 06:16 AM
In order to maintain a fruitful discussion regarding this post which by the way has absolutely nothing to do with the election, ignoring Paul and his rantings about the election would seem advisable. I’ll leave you with this Paul. As George has pointed out, the 2020 election was probably the most sloppy election in modern history. I would posit to you that we do not and will not ever know who actually won the 2020 election. Joe Biden was certified as a winner, and we will have to live with that. The state legislatures, tasked with administering elections by the constitution, will sort out the mess and at least in Republican controlled states will ensure that elections and election integrity remains paramount. If you would like to have a detailed conversation about election integrity and the history surrounding our elections, I am all ears and will gladly participate in your conversation. But this ridiculous bait game that you play is simply juvenile.
That said I’ve read this post repeatedly and noodled the information for a few days now. It seems that the author’s data is based on IQ, SAT scores, ACT scores, and other standardized testing. I am not aware how many people even take IQ tests. If his data is based at all on standardized testing (SAT and ACT),, the relative intelligence of people would be directly related to their level of education in connection with standardize tests. If that’s true, then using racial quotas is dealing with a symptom of the problem and not the actual problem. The problem would lie in the education of people. And the data would seem to indicate that we as a society are not educating Latinos and African-Americans as well as we are educating Europeans and Asians. So George my question to you is am I misinterpreting the source data of the graph provided by the author?
Posted by: Barry Pruett | 08 July 2021 at 06:18 AM
From Raytheon's internal documents.
Establishing Equity Equality is a noble goal. Equal treatment and access to opportunities help each of us perform our best within a shared set of parameters. But we really need to be striving for equity, where we focus on the equality of the outcome,not the equality of the experience by taking individual needs and skills into account.
...the audacity of the power grab is pretty remarkable. I salute it.
"Topic gentlemen, please."
If you moved Paul's Question Time to the sandbox, I'm sure everyone would appreciate it.
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 06:21 AM
[email protected]:18AM
". I am not aware how many people even take IQ tests"
God knows there are plenty of standardized tests to draw from. IQ tests by the few researchers brave enough to do the work (Rushton and Jensen?), military testing, SAT scores. Lots of magic like twin studies, correcting for wealth/education/etc.
Politically, it boils down to anything that shows racial differences favoring whites (whatever a 'white' is) is written by Nazis, anything that boosts other groups (Ashkenazi Jews intelligence, East African prowess in running sports, to some degree Asian intelligence) is A-OK.
You still have the problem of disciplines, like psychology or economics, that have scientific pretensions. Describing something is one thing, finding causalities quite another. Merely assigning 'accurate' numbers to results gives you that even standing with physicists.
In the meantime, I'm waiting for the Big Data approach which includes sufficiently large populations and accurate/measurable things like DNA. This ain't gonna happen in the US due to the current religion sweeping the country, but I'll bet the Chinese are already all over it. Actually creating a superior human has to be a tempting notion.
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 06:39 AM
...one more thing (like anyone asked for my opinion).
You can make a solid argument for simply not caring *why* something is true. If an IQ (or standard) test is highly predictive for success within a school or company, why not give it? By the time someone hits this gate, nature or nurture has done it's thing and the corporation or graduate school can't change your past.
If everyone in the engineering department is a red-headed lefty, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 06:45 AM
...two more thing
A not bad overview of this from the Evil Guys(tm) standpoint.
"THIRTY YEARS OF RESEARCH ON RACE DIFFERENCES IN COGNITIVE ABILITY"
https://www1.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/30years/Rushton-Jensen30years.pdf
followed by googling 'critique of Rushton' of which there are many.
An interesting rabbit hole to go down is the relationship between intelligence and reaction time (a much easier thing to measure). It would be a helluva thing if college entrance exams consisted of you, a light, and a button.
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 07:04 AM
Barry 6:18 - "...the relative intelligence of people would be directly related to their level of education in connection with standardize tests."
A very common misconception that Murray patiently explains.
A proper IQ test actually has nothing to do with education.
An SAT (or related) is a different animal.
Posted by: Scott O | 08 July 2021 at 07:30 AM
scenes 6:39 - "...anything that boosts other groups (Ashkenazi Jews intelligence, East African prowess in running sports, to some degree Asian intelligence) is A-OK."
Only true for the left if you have the darkest skin tones come out on top in some way.
Believe it or not, any standardized testing that displays ANY IQ differences in ethnic groups is considered 'white supremacy' by the left.
Yes - that means that the fact that Asians consistently score higher on IQ tests as a group over white Euros translates to 'white supremacy'.
Once you glom onto the idea that everyone is absolutely equal except for what the govt gives you, then you have to ride that horse off the cliff, if necessary.
Posted by: Scott O | 08 July 2021 at 07:45 AM
[email protected]:45AM
There is such a thing as 'Melanin Theory', which I've always rather liked.
To quote Kristen Clarke, the lady running the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ:
"Dr. Richard King reveals that at the core of the human brain is the "locus coeruleus" which is a structure that is Black because it contains large amounts of (neuro) melanin which is essential for its operation....Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities--something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards."
The whole letter-to-the-editor is worth a read. It's a beautiful thing.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1994/10/28/blacks-seek-an-end-to-abuse/
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 07:56 AM
Another example of San Francisco Values.....(semi on topic).
— And It Will Get Worse
We've gone down this path before for virtually the exact same bleeding-heart reasons, and we lived through the tremendous pain of the results.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/07/when-stores-close-due-to-rising-crime-urban-blight-is-back-and-it-will-get-worse/
Posted by: fish | 08 July 2021 at 07:56 AM
A bit more on Kristen Clarke, Biden's nominee for the DOJ Civil Rights Division.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1994/12/6/my-kristen-clarke-problem-pblbast-week/
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1994/11/9/fire-with-fire-pharvard-has-just/
You'd think that the folks running President Potato's strings would be better at vetting, but there you have it.
Honestly, I'm surprised as hell that these haven't been taken down.
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 08:20 AM
Administrivia - per my 616am, I am deleting all off-topic comments that ignored my request.
Posted by: George Rebane | 08 July 2021 at 09:07 AM
Dear People - I do appreciate the many thoughtful comments and discussion about the very important topic of 'equity' and public policies proposed to achieve it in this comment stream. Admittedly, pursuing equity is another destructive fool's errand of the Left. For me to respond to the points raised on Murray's research requires more than a comment buried in this comment stream. I'll try to do more clarification in the next addendum to the post, and hopefully it will also be of use to other readers.
In the meantime, I note that a couple of commenter questions/concerns were already addressed in the first addendum. Therefore, I recommend its rereading to see if it will suffice.
Posted by: George Rebane | 08 July 2021 at 10:13 AM
Who among you would like to travel on an airplane designed by an engineer who achieved his position not because he was a good engineer, but because equity demanded it. Or be operated upon by a doctor similarly "qualified"?
I can see a good argument that congress critters should be required to be the passengers on the maiden flight of any new airliner designed in the era of equity.
Posted by: Wayne Hullett | 08 July 2021 at 04:31 PM
Speaking of equity,, insider trading at it's finest.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/08/pelosis-husband-bought-amazon-call-options-weeks-before-pentagon-announced-contract-likely-benefitting-company/
"Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), bought Amazon call options just six weeks before the Pentagon announced it was canceling a multi-billion dollar contract with Microsoft and starting a new one that opened a door for Amazon’s participation."
Posted by: Walt | 08 July 2021 at 05:00 PM
"Who among you would like to travel on an airplane designed by an engineer who achieved his position not because he was a good engineer, but because equity demanded it. "
No problem. You just make sure that the inspections and engineering standards are carried out by people drawn from the...most...equitous...hey, wait a minute.
re: Paul Pelosi. I don't think you'll get any of the local bolshies' knickers in a twist on that one. It's pretty obvious how corrupt the whole bunch is with rare exceptions, and I'll bet that the rare exceptions aren't powerful enough to matter. The whole machine runs on lucre, and strangely, Nixon was probably the most financially non-corrupt President in our lifetimes.
Now, why you would give a class of people like this moar and moar and moar money and power is a matter for another day. I guess the only saving grace about being devoured by government is that they claim to save us from Jamie Dimon. The difference that makes no difference.
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 06:00 PM
George, I was thinking about how to get your column in the paper if you can find the data.
Simply use groups that are both remote and aren't extra special protected minorities.
Some sort of chart comparing Finns and Aboriginal Australians perhaps.
Posted by: scenes | 08 July 2021 at 06:05 PM
"The LSI Committee conducted a first review and evaluated candidates based solely on contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion. Only candidates that met a high standard in this area were advanced for further review, narrowing the pool down to 214 for serious consideration. The remaining applications were then opened to review by the departmental ad-hoc search committees for short-list consideration. "
https://ofew.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/life_sciences_inititatve.year_end_report_summary.pdf
Posted by: scenes | 09 July 2021 at 08:34 AM
Scenes: re above post.
I noticed on one of the graphs above that Native Americans made up 1.1% of the applicant pool and 20% of the short list. It’s a miracle!
—————————-
Police Chief demands apology from Dem state law maker. Good luck with that demand. ‘Equity Demands Reality Denial’, a play on words with the title of this post by Dr. Rebane.
WHAT REP. JOHN THOMPSON REPRESENTS
“The driver, an elected official who does not dispute driving without a front license plate, owes our sergeant an apology.”
Meanwhile, Thompson declined to give St. Paul Police permission to release the body camera video of his traffic stop. That prompted the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association to issue a statement demanding the video’s release.
“Rep. Thompson’s signature issue at the state legislature was advocating for rapid release of police officer’s body camera footage,” MPPOA Executive Director Brian Peters said. “Now he’s blocking the public release of body camera footage of his own incident with law enforcement this past week. As a public official, it’s hypocritical and irresponsible. Constituents have the right to see how their legislator conducted himself, particularly when he made such strong claims about what happened during the traffic stop.”
Thompson is a liar and thug and hypocrite of epic proportions. Thompson charges the sergeant with a pretextual stop on account of Thompson’s race, but Thompson is the master of pretext. Among many other things, Thompson represents the use of alleged r-a-a-a-cism for pretextual purposes.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/what-rep-john-thompson-represents.php
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 10 July 2021 at 09:12 AM
"I noticed on one of the graphs above that Native Americans made up 1.1% of the applicant pool and 20% of the short list. It’s a miracle!"
It better be, or non-Native Americans will burn down all the churches.
I had a fun collage of prominent Canadians calling for more burning but in a heatwave I thought it would be better to keep everyone's blood pressure reduced.
Nope, nothing to see here. Jan 6 insurrection! Squirrel!!
Posted by: scenes | 10 July 2021 at 09:25 AM
moi @ 8:34AM
One of my favorites from the hiring process at Dear Ol' Berkeley:
White...Applicant Pool: 58.90% Long List:52.50% Short List:0.00%
The truth is, unless they are part of some other 'disadvantaged' group, ofays might as well steer clear from academia until either rationality reenters the picture, the AI overlords take over, or we find ourselves fighting over the last canned goods on the shelf.
Posted by: scenes | 10 July 2021 at 09:36 AM
Education Insanity: Top 10 Stories Of The Week (Vol. 23)
https://www.dailywire.com/news/education-insanity-top-10-stories-of-the-week-vol-23
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 10 July 2021 at 06:11 PM
Not a bad essay. I'll put it here.
'How All My Politically Correct Bones Were Broken'
https://quillette.com/2021/07/07/how-all-my-politically-correct-bones-were-broken/
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 12 July 2021 at 10:20 PM
re: [email protected]:20PM
That is quite a good article. I have to be careful in that it ticks all my preconceived notion boxes but the author's descriptions sounds accurate.
Truth is, you're not going to turn aside the rolling disaster in your lifetime. The trick is to be as self-sufficient as possible, intellectually/physically/financially, and to make sure that you live near well-behaved people. Unless the Cultural Revolution really cuts loose in earnest, the apocalypse should be an avoidable event.
I was considering how the perfessor in the Quillette article could simply sit back and enjoy the spectacle while still teaching the few students willing to learn. View it as Coyote's or Loki's philosophy of life. There's probably some fun to be had by giving A's to everyone and keeping a bottle in the lower desk drawer but abusive faculty politics from bastards and thieves has to be kind of a drag.
Posted by: scenes | 13 July 2021 at 06:42 AM
@ 6:42 am.
“Truth is, you're not going to turn aside the rolling disaster in your lifetime. “
Yep, I believe you walk twenty miles into the woods, you have to walk twenty miles out. Still, with the homegrown opposition at the local levels against teaching CRT in public schools (and general populace polling showing majority opposition to CRT) gives me optimism....even if the the current outcry is squashed like a bug.
Lord knows that the sixties grads went from their radical professors in college straight to the local school boards to win seats and now they own the whole enchilada. ‘Power to the People’ was a common chant in protests. At least they left us a blueprint.
———-
Beyond CRT....’the longer view’....as an astute commentator posted recently on Sandbox.
‘The Agenda Worse Than Critical Race Theory’
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/the-agenda-worse-than-critical-race-theory-/
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 13 July 2021 at 03:35 PM
‘Dem Party won't admit it's become the party of wealth’
By Victor Davis Hanson
“America is a plutocracy, not a genocracy. Wealth, not race, is the factor most likely to ensure someone power, influence and the good life.
In the pre-civil rights past, race was often fused to class, and the two terms were logically used interchangeably to cite oppression and inequality. But such a canard is fossilized. And so are those who desperately cling to it.
The more the elites scream their woke banalities, the more they seem to fear that they, not most Americans, are really the privileged, coddled and pampered ones — and sometimes the victimizers.”
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0721/hanson071521.php3
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 15 July 2021 at 05:19 PM
re: from BillT's linked article:
"This agenda is still in the preliminary stages, but, like CRT, it is race-centered and obsesses upon evil whites. But here the focus is on “whiteness” apart from anything specific inflicted on blacks by malevolent whites. Whites just infect blacks as if whiteness were a communicable disease."
At least, in the US or Canada or UK, tribal affiliation built on grievance can be ignored, or at least controlled, due to demographics. It's a problem to the extent we allow it to be. Now, South Africa is a different matter. I'd suggest cancelling any travel plans.
For the activist part of Team Blue (20%? 30%?, obviously there are great hunks made out of bureaucrats, coastal 'knowledge workers', tech executives who are less radical) the ironic thing is that the real crazy comes not from ethnic minorities, but from one readily identifiable group:
Young, mentally-ill, white women.
It becomes obvious if you look at group pictures or run a gill net through twitter posts. It's not only obvious but under-reported, I'll probably use that model in the future for understanding.
Question. To what extent was that demographic involved in the Russian Revolution/Civil War? Do they rhyme in some way? or is this something new stemming from the internet, death of traditional families, general changes in gender norms?
Posted by: scenes | 16 July 2021 at 06:08 AM
A surprisingly good article from the Washington Free Bacon.
‘How Critical Race Theory Led to Kendi’
Pop 'antiracism' is the logical conclusion of CRT
https://freebeacon.com/culture/how-critical-race-theory-led-to-kendi/
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 19 July 2021 at 05:58 AM
re: [email protected]:58AM
That article pointed me back to this one..
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/americas-white-saviors
which isn't too bad, for one thing it loops back to the Young Mentally-Ill White Women, or at least close enough.
Generally, I'm unsatisfied with explanations that don't dig deeper into the factions in a more fine-grained way. There are obviously different groups at work with different needs. Maybe it's a difference that makes no difference as a religion for the 21st C. becomes more finely honed. There's always been rich bishops and highly-devout villagers getting drunk on feast days.
Any sufficiently large polity needs shared lies to function. A more egalitarian US, filled with self-employed farmers and tradesmen managed to ignore slavery for some time. Our new Lords and Masters, some metastasized clump of intelligence agencies, mega-corporations, and government unions will have it's own internal contradictions. The problem arises when the two groups share a geography. Individual freedom and (more importantly) self-sufficiency will have to be quashed for the new regime to flourish.
Posted by: scenes | 19 July 2021 at 06:46 AM
Scenes: Finished the article. Explains a lot. Good one. Think I may view comments from the usual suspects in a broader light.
Posted by: Bill Tozer | 19 July 2021 at 10:23 AM