quick comment on the Big Lie supporters (believer?) - I do try to think of the other person's view. If I were convinced that there were actors illegally rigging a presidential election, and all the normal challenges were depleted, what would I want to happen? And did any Big Lie supporters take action to see it done?
Did any members of Congress try to form a committee for secure election guidelines? Did anyone talk to election experts learn what direction a state should be encouraged to go to ensure secure elections? All I saw was GOP legislatures shaving days from early voting, shaving days off mail ballot request & return deadlines, etc.
For example in Ohio, Republicans have no doubts about mail in voting. They do not purge voter registrations until like 2 elections have passed without voting. We even have a mix of paper ballots and touchscreen voting.
So where is the big push for national guidelines of no mail-in/absentee voting, hand marked paper ballots, and a std for voter ID requirements? Where is the recommendation to keep rolls accurate? And of course we all know the answer - these things only matter in "swing" states, and only matter when Republicans lose.
I really hate hearing complaints, with no accompanying ideas for solutions or requests for help with solutions.
On Tim’s question about content moderation and who decides: the government and sports worlds came up with the all-purpose response decades ago. All they said is, ``The decision was made.’’
And if parents in an individual school district conclude that the 1619 project is 'CRT' and is inappropriate for their kids, you will climb up on your high horse and declare them all bigots and morons.
Isn't that kind of where we're at in our national conversation?
I can't see how to teach an honest, painful history of the United States that assumes people act solely as individuals and not as part of a system. Slavery and Jim Crow and Indian removals and lesser rights for women were most certainly systemic.
In Jim Crow states there wasn't a single honest cop, prosecutor, judge or jury member. There wasn't a single business that was allowed to practice unfettered capitalism and accept all customers. The system was written down in laws.
There’s no arguing with the right about CRT. I learned this when I was accused of falling into the trap of believing that critical race theory is exactly what it says it is as opposed to--as near as I can tell--a Trojan horse designed to bring down western civilization as we know it.
I find Charlie's critique of Sen Cruz a bit jejune. Not to defend Ted Cruz, but I also don't think Marxism should be taught to elementary school students who are developmentally unprepared for dealing with the material dialectic or ideology critique (they'll just end up assuming anything their teacher tells them is a mask for class oppression). Far better to start them off with Hegel and make sure they understand the intersection of freedom and the Absolute before letting them loose on the inherent contradictions of surplus value.
I will never understand the right's issues with failing to acknowledge things like systemic racism, systemic classism, and the way that both of these things plus inherited wealth poison the concept of "meritocracy" that this country is supposedly so proud of. If people are excluded from equality of opportunity at universities via a systemic paywall that excludes everyone below a certain class, then you don't have a true meritocracy, you have a faux-meritocracy derived from a skewed sampling pool that excluded a lot of people who aren't there simply because they don't have enough familial wealth to compete.
Either way, once the best of our faux-meritocracy pool makes it in the new economy, they only ever marry across class at scale and concentrate their wealth into their kids so that their kids can grow up and do the same exact thing as their parents some day. Our country's best and brightest aren't doing shit to lift their fellow citizens up, they're just co-mingling with each other and "living their best lives" as they raise the cost of living on everyone else while pretending that racism and classism don't exist anymore. THAT is why systemic racism and systemic classism still exist to such a degree in this country: the rich don't want competition for their kids, they want to maintain their advantage *for* their kids. They would rather keep a sick system that their kids will benefit from in place rather than fixing the system while diminishing the advantage their kids have via familial wealth.
Hi Charlie - Big Bulwark fan here, but I have to take issue with today's piece on CRT. Yes, the Right is distorting and weaponizing their notion of CRT, but the complicating factor is that the Left is weaponizing it as well. Take, for example, the NY Times' 1619 project, a key piece of what most Americans understand to be CRT. At least some material in 1619 is demonstrably false and - like the Marxism of your comparison - is certainly ideologically pointed. Yet unlike Das Kapital, 1619 is being used to create lesson plans for K-12 students. I suspect that using Das Kapital as the basis for K-12 lesson plans might be seen as an attempt at ideological 'influencing'. No less should 1619 be seen as such.
This is certainly not a call for a return of 'Gone With the Wind' style social studies education. But let's not fool ourselves that both Left and Right are deeply engaged in the 'weaponization' of their favorite hobby horses. And in this fight, as in all warfare, truth is the first casualty.
CRT. I don;t know from legislation, but I believe that CRT as it has existed is structural analysis. Marxism is structural analysis, that one's relation to the means of production--or social class--determines one's lot in life For CRT, one's race does the same thing. White people wallow in privilege while Black people continue getting the shitty end of the stick. The White race has sinned against the black race, and now the White race owes the Black race.
I had believed that none of this was being taught to school kids. A commenter in my local paper proved to me that it is, at least sometimes in some places, by referring me to consulting contracts signed and syllabi in use.
I oppose teaching any kids that White is some kind of original sin. Human beings have rights and obligations, races do not.
It's been estimated that fully half of Twitter traffic in Russia consists of bots talking to bots. Musk is a clever man. If he would commit to finding a way to purge the platform of bots and other inauthentic posters, all would be forgiven--at least for me.
The co-opting (or "decodification") of CRT is one in a line of terms for which meanings have been changed in order to weaponize them in teh culture wars.
"Fake news" used to mean social media posts disguised as news articles but now means anything we disagree with (or as Charlie says..."I'm old enough to remember when..."). "RINO" was once used to describe Republicans who do not subscribe to traditional conservative values but now means any Republican who do not kiss the ring. We are seeing it in real time on Twitter with "doxxing" which apparently now means any location information about a person (or other information they do not want shared) instead of revealing their personal information for purposes of harassment.
quick comment on the Big Lie supporters (believer?) - I do try to think of the other person's view. If I were convinced that there were actors illegally rigging a presidential election, and all the normal challenges were depleted, what would I want to happen? And did any Big Lie supporters take action to see it done?
Did any members of Congress try to form a committee for secure election guidelines? Did anyone talk to election experts learn what direction a state should be encouraged to go to ensure secure elections? All I saw was GOP legislatures shaving days from early voting, shaving days off mail ballot request & return deadlines, etc.
For example in Ohio, Republicans have no doubts about mail in voting. They do not purge voter registrations until like 2 elections have passed without voting. We even have a mix of paper ballots and touchscreen voting.
So where is the big push for national guidelines of no mail-in/absentee voting, hand marked paper ballots, and a std for voter ID requirements? Where is the recommendation to keep rolls accurate? And of course we all know the answer - these things only matter in "swing" states, and only matter when Republicans lose.
I really hate hearing complaints, with no accompanying ideas for solutions or requests for help with solutions.
On Tim’s question about content moderation and who decides: the government and sports worlds came up with the all-purpose response decades ago. All they said is, ``The decision was made.’’
Not sure if I quiiiiiite agree with Sully about the legislation being 'well intentioned'.
And if parents in an individual school district conclude that the 1619 project is 'CRT' and is inappropriate for their kids, you will climb up on your high horse and declare them all bigots and morons.
Isn't that kind of where we're at in our national conversation?
Sigh
I can't see how to teach an honest, painful history of the United States that assumes people act solely as individuals and not as part of a system. Slavery and Jim Crow and Indian removals and lesser rights for women were most certainly systemic.
In Jim Crow states there wasn't a single honest cop, prosecutor, judge or jury member. There wasn't a single business that was allowed to practice unfettered capitalism and accept all customers. The system was written down in laws.
There’s no arguing with the right about CRT. I learned this when I was accused of falling into the trap of believing that critical race theory is exactly what it says it is as opposed to--as near as I can tell--a Trojan horse designed to bring down western civilization as we know it.
I find Charlie's critique of Sen Cruz a bit jejune. Not to defend Ted Cruz, but I also don't think Marxism should be taught to elementary school students who are developmentally unprepared for dealing with the material dialectic or ideology critique (they'll just end up assuming anything their teacher tells them is a mask for class oppression). Far better to start them off with Hegel and make sure they understand the intersection of freedom and the Absolute before letting them loose on the inherent contradictions of surplus value.
I will never understand the right's issues with failing to acknowledge things like systemic racism, systemic classism, and the way that both of these things plus inherited wealth poison the concept of "meritocracy" that this country is supposedly so proud of. If people are excluded from equality of opportunity at universities via a systemic paywall that excludes everyone below a certain class, then you don't have a true meritocracy, you have a faux-meritocracy derived from a skewed sampling pool that excluded a lot of people who aren't there simply because they don't have enough familial wealth to compete.
Either way, once the best of our faux-meritocracy pool makes it in the new economy, they only ever marry across class at scale and concentrate their wealth into their kids so that their kids can grow up and do the same exact thing as their parents some day. Our country's best and brightest aren't doing shit to lift their fellow citizens up, they're just co-mingling with each other and "living their best lives" as they raise the cost of living on everyone else while pretending that racism and classism don't exist anymore. THAT is why systemic racism and systemic classism still exist to such a degree in this country: the rich don't want competition for their kids, they want to maintain their advantage *for* their kids. They would rather keep a sick system that their kids will benefit from in place rather than fixing the system while diminishing the advantage their kids have via familial wealth.
Hi Charlie - Big Bulwark fan here, but I have to take issue with today's piece on CRT. Yes, the Right is distorting and weaponizing their notion of CRT, but the complicating factor is that the Left is weaponizing it as well. Take, for example, the NY Times' 1619 project, a key piece of what most Americans understand to be CRT. At least some material in 1619 is demonstrably false and - like the Marxism of your comparison - is certainly ideologically pointed. Yet unlike Das Kapital, 1619 is being used to create lesson plans for K-12 students. I suspect that using Das Kapital as the basis for K-12 lesson plans might be seen as an attempt at ideological 'influencing'. No less should 1619 be seen as such.
This is certainly not a call for a return of 'Gone With the Wind' style social studies education. But let's not fool ourselves that both Left and Right are deeply engaged in the 'weaponization' of their favorite hobby horses. And in this fight, as in all warfare, truth is the first casualty.
CRT. I don;t know from legislation, but I believe that CRT as it has existed is structural analysis. Marxism is structural analysis, that one's relation to the means of production--or social class--determines one's lot in life For CRT, one's race does the same thing. White people wallow in privilege while Black people continue getting the shitty end of the stick. The White race has sinned against the black race, and now the White race owes the Black race.
I had believed that none of this was being taught to school kids. A commenter in my local paper proved to me that it is, at least sometimes in some places, by referring me to consulting contracts signed and syllabi in use.
I oppose teaching any kids that White is some kind of original sin. Human beings have rights and obligations, races do not.
Re: Moderation.
It's been estimated that fully half of Twitter traffic in Russia consists of bots talking to bots. Musk is a clever man. If he would commit to finding a way to purge the platform of bots and other inauthentic posters, all would be forgiven--at least for me.
"and anything written by Jacques Derrida"
I have found it impossible to understand anything written by Jacques Derrida.
The co-opting (or "decodification") of CRT is one in a line of terms for which meanings have been changed in order to weaponize them in teh culture wars.
"Fake news" used to mean social media posts disguised as news articles but now means anything we disagree with (or as Charlie says..."I'm old enough to remember when..."). "RINO" was once used to describe Republicans who do not subscribe to traditional conservative values but now means any Republican who do not kiss the ring. We are seeing it in real time on Twitter with "doxxing" which apparently now means any location information about a person (or other information they do not want shared) instead of revealing their personal information for purposes of harassment.