June 29, 2021

I would like to make this image the face of googling "critical race theory"

There needs to be a free lesson in critical race theory, I think this would be a good one.



This, by the way, was the pinned tweet of a Twitter account that I was a part of, it was reported numerous times, I suspect, after tweeting a couple negative things about Michael Flynn.

June 29, 2021

Oh, THOSE 'different ideas' (6-29-21 edition)

“It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you’d be exposed to a lot of different ideas,” DeSantis said during a bill signing ceremony. “Unfortunately, now the norm is, these are more intellectually repressive environments. You have orthodoxies that are promoted, and other viewpoints are shunned or even suppressed.”

Read more: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/06/florida-students-faculty-will-declare-political-views-prevent-liberal-indoctrination

"Oh, so you mean like in sociology; you have functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory; and now they're only teaching one of those things and not even talking about the other two at all?"
"No, not like that."

"Oh! So in studies of evolution, you mean they're only teaching gradualism OR punctuated equilibrium and not having discussions of both, while they both have merit?"
"Uh... no, we're not talking about that."

"OH! You mean they're stifling the "is the universe explained by quantum mechanics or general relativity" debate in physics and have come down on the side of one and are refusing to talk about the other at all? Those jerks!"
"... no, no."

"OK, so in the college restrooms, they have now cruelly decided to put all the toilet paper under instead of over? Those totalitarians!"
"No!"

"Oh... so by 'different ideas', you mean...
Marjorie Taylor Greene Calling AOC a ‘Little Communist’ and ‘Not an American’ at Trump Rally in Ohio. (Despite AOC being an American, not a communist, and taller than Marjorie Taylor Greene)
Rudy Giuliani claiming his law license was suspended to ‘shut (him) up’ because Trump is on verge of winning.
Greg Locke using his Sunday sermon to allege that there are child-trafficking “tunnels” under the U.S. Capitol and White House and accusing President Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, and Tom Hanks of being “a bunch of pedophiles.”
Josh Bernstein saying that Bill Gates is investing in farmland as part of a demonic plan to take away your meat, thereby keeping you weak and unable “to overcome their tyrannical governments.”
Nick Fuentes claiming that Making Juneteenth A Federal Holiday Is ‘About Furthering The Genocide Of White People.’
... right?"

Yes, they actually said these things:
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-round-up-unbanned/
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-bonus-tracks-a-bunch-of-pedophiles/
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-round-up-fear-of-a-white-genocide/

June 27, 2021

So with all this talk about "critical race theory", I decided to revisit my notes on critical theory

This is from 2015, between lectures about Erving Goffman and Michel Foucault (Also both great theorists), you will find few direct quotes here, this is all from me, when I saw or heard something interesting, I decided to jot it down in my own words. I will also add a few new notes here how I think it applies to the screaming we hear when it comes to critical race theory...

Critical race theory - Frankfurt school
* Society's not that great
* "Progress" can also be a source of domination and dehumanization
* Culture, science, and technology can be ideological forces distorting human progress
* "Critical" refers to critique, not having assumptions

There is no real scarcity anymore, so we go ahead and create new forms of scarcity, new needs, new lacks of things.
---
Me in 2021: We have multi-billionaires and corporations approaching assets of a trillion dollars. So yes, scarcity does NOT have to be a thing. And yet some people are more concerned that they didn't get that minimum wage job and they think some immigrant refugee or affirmative action is responsible?

Critical theory has a concern for the loss of individuality.
---
Me in 2021: How much individuality do we let get subsumed by race? Take a look at race vs individuality and one will see that is always, ALWAYS, restricted choice rather than expanding and enhancing it. Race has been used to exploit labor, tell you where you could sit on a bus, where you could live, if you go into town after sundown, who you could love and marry, etc. Or today, one can be "white" and "poor" but it seems like a lot of people would rather be a part of the "white" "us" and struggle against the "non-white" "them" rather than be part of the "poor" "us" and struggle against the "rich" "them".

Distinction between aspiration and false need. Culture has declared what we need now. (I jotted down "Black Friday" next to this, I remember thinking that this was a good manifestation of culture declaring we need "that thing" and right now)
---
Me in 2021: You don't need to not hear "press 1 for English". You don't need to be told "Merry Christmas" at the cash registers, yet they have become needs for some people.

Eclipse of Reason - Horkheimer
* Decline of the individual
* Reason used to be an instrument of our selves, we used to use technology to further our interests, the machine has dropped the driver.
* More concerned we are with power over things, the more things dominate us and the more we lack genuine individuality.
* A desire for conformity has become openly proclaimed

Repression and the social order
* Happiness has been reduced to banality, leading a "normal life" is considered "happiness" today
* Idea of truth has been reduced to a useful tool alongside the control of "nature"
* If repression was truly abolished, people would turn against the social order and question the status quo

Technocrats and industrialization
* Our minds are closed to a different world, we will get upset when people violate the rules of the game, but we do not question those rules
* It is not really technology that destroys the individual but is social relations specific to industrialization

A way out
* Can escape repression, not linked to technology but to social relations
* Individuality can break free from industrial discipline state
* A better understanding of fascism and the totalitarian state can help with this escape

One-dimensional man - Marcuse
* Choices are not real
* Productivity and freedom are linked
* Contemporary society is totalitarian
* True freedom can only be expressed in negative terms now. Freedom "from" something? Hard to do. "Crazy" if one proposes something new altogether, like a whole new economic system in today's world.
---
Me in 2021: We're told we should be colorblind, that "red, yellow, black, and white we are all precious in God's sight", and race is a social construct... yet if I, 9,999 other white people, 10,000 Asians, 10,000 black people, and 10,000 Hispanic people all got together and said "We no longer identify as our former race, starting today, we are all the some-shade-of-brown race", what would happen? How much would that choice truly be respected? Could we put it down in the census? Could we put it down if we wanted to adopt? Would the people screaming at schoolboard meetings be OK if their child suddenly identified as some-shade-of-brown? Or if they brought a some-shade-of-brown person home to meet the family for the holidays?

It's funny, going over these notes, I remember there was a lot of criticism, ironically, of critical theory. A lot of it is considered rumination and navel-gazing. Goffman worked in a mental health facility and ended up dissecting total institutions and concepts of stigma, honestly, I think if THAT was more widely disseminated and digested in popular culture, that would do far more damage to right-wing thought than any critical theory could.

Critical Race Theory

June 23, 2021

Oh, THOSE 'different ideas'

“It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you’d be exposed to a lot of different ideas,” DeSantis said during a bill signing ceremony. “Unfortunately, now the norm is, these are more intellectually repressive environments. You have orthodoxies that are promoted, and other viewpoints are shunned or even suppressed.”

Read more: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/06/florida-students-faculty-will-declare-political-views-prevent-liberal-indoctrination

"Oh, so you mean like in sociology; you have functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory; and now they're only teaching one of those things and not even talking about the other two at all?"
"No, not like that."

"Oh! So in studies of evolution, you mean they're only teaching gradualism OR punctuated equilibrium and not having discussions of both, while they both have merit?"
"Uh... no, we're not talking about that."

"OH! You mean they're stifling the "is the universe explained by quantum mechanics or general relativity" debate in physics and have come down on the side of one and are refusing to talk about the other at all? Those jerks!"
"... no, no."

"OK, so in the college restrooms, they have now cruelly decided to put all the toilet paper under instead of over? Those totalitarians!"
"No!"

"Oh... so by 'different ideas', you mean...
Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers promoting the sham election “audit” on an antisemitic network that warns of “seditious Jews.”
The American Family Association calling for a boycott of Kellogg’s because “each box of Kellogg’s sold affirms to the company Kellogg’s support for homosexuality.”
‘Prophet’ Robin Bullock saying Biden Has ‘Slotted Serpent’s Eyes,’ Which Is a "Sign of Demonic Possession"
Lauren Boebert suggesting her election was ordained by God.
Scott Lively claiming that support for transgender rights is designed “to destroy binary male/female human identity in preparation for transhumanism.”
... right?"

Yes, they actually said these things:
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-round-up-bakkers-costly-cure/
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-bonus-tracks-sliding-backwards/
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/prophet-robin-bullock-says-biden-has-slotted-serpents-eyes-which-is-a-sign-of-demonic-possession/
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-round-up-worst-bing-crosby-bob-hope-movie-ever/
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-bonus-tracks-thou-shall-kill/

(I'm thinking of making this a regular thing, who would like that?)

Critical Race Theory

June 23, 2021

Florida -- Those students are going to be your future teachers, lawyers, and doctors.

For anyone out there who might be complaining about "liberal indoctrination", and if you think the cure to "liberal indoctrination" means equal time for pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, factually incorrect history, outlandish things about people of differing races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, things which have no basis in medicine, sociology, psychology, and more...

That's not a "liberal" problem...

That's a *you* problem.

Critical Race Theory

June 23, 2021

Top 10 things nobody concerned about Critical Race Theory will ever say

10. "I noticed you talk about 'black thugs' and 'Islamic terrorists' a lot, but you seem to mentally check out when the subject is white people who shoot up malls, movie theaters, and churches. Why is that?"
9. "Race is a social construct, right? And that means what constitutes a race and who is in that race can change over time and has different meanings to different people, yes?"
8. "They REALLY do need to get over the fact they lost the Civil War."
7. "He shouldn't have called it kung-flu. Viruses don't have nationalities."
6. "Bamboo in the ballots? A little crazy for me."
5. "Donald Trump Jr. comparing Syrian refugees to skittles was nakedly dehumanizing and racist."
4. "I'm sorry, but throwing a hissy fit because the electronic voice on the phone told you to press 1 for English seems a little silly."
3. "Why do I have to put down my race and ethnicity on this form? On the Trump Administration-written census?"
2. "Hey, you said "All Lives Matter", so here are some refugees for you to help out!"

And...

1. *Someone else says "I'm not racist, but..."* "But you're gonna power through it?"

Critical Race Theory

June 23, 2021

So, we shouldn't use the 2020 census for redistrictring congressional districts, at all

You see, all this talk about "critical race theory" and it being racially divisive and what-have-you, and yet, these questions, 6 and 7, remain.

And this Talking-About-Race-At-ALL TAINTED census is going to be used to redistrict congressional districts?

No. I do not think that's right.

I think there's too much talk about race going on with the census to have it be used for congressional redistricting.

I think we need to wait until 2030 and have a census that omits all questions about race and ethnicity - to stave off racial division.

Critical Race Theory

June 22, 2021

The simple act of naming/labeling something is powerful, take "cancel culture" for example...

All those people who are outraged about it today, who think it is some sort of defining culture war battleground, but yet I remember an era not too long ago where...

Gay people were fired for being gay, transgender people were fired for being transgender, people could be fired for not looking correct (Including too attractive), tattoos were a big, BIG, no-no, don't have long hair if you're a man either, watch what your friends do on Facebook, etc...

Could probably fill a book with the nonsense that people had to go through in our recent memory, but this collective behavior didn't have a name, and it gives me an idea, you see something stupid happening in our society, something that shouldn't be happening, give it a name, a new label if you can coin it.

Take Medical Trauma for example. I made it right now.

Medical Trauma - The collective pain caused by the Sackler clan and medical debt wracking our country, including being the #1 cause for bankruptcy.

Critical Race Theory

June 10, 2021

Do we not like to talk about our atrocities because WE were on the receiving end sometimes?

How much abuse have we put up with because we'll "be billionaires someday"? Because we don't want to be seen as liberals, socialists, or communists or sympathizing with them? How much hostility have we taken because as long as "the other guy gets it worse" then it's all good? To protect profit margins or the "world's greatest healthcare system"?

I was curious to what exactly "atrocity" meant here, it led me to articles about "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity".

Examples of crimes against humanity include war crimes, murder, massacres, dehumanization, genocide, ethnic cleansing, deportations, unethical human experimentation, extrajudicial punishments including summary executions, use of weapons of mass destruction, state terrorism or state sponsoring of terrorism, death squads, kidnappings and forced disappearances, use of child soldiers, unjust imprisonment, enslavement, torture, rape, political repression, racial discrimination, religious persecution, and other human rights abuses.

I want to focus on that one particular thing... unethical human experimentation. Which our government has done... to its own citizens. Sidney Gottlieb, MKUltra, eugenics which continued into the 1970s, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, and something that hits a little close to home. My own family was on the receiving end of this.

I had an uncle, when he was in the Navy, he was unknowingly and purposefully dosed with high amounts of radiation; he got multiple cancers that ravaged his body about 20 years later, and the cancers killed him pretty quickly. Nobody else in my family has ever died from cancer or got anything besides precancer besides my grandfather who worked enriching uranium. It doesn't take an oncologist to link the two things.

I'm not going to compare what happened to my family to slavery, to Jim Crow, to Manifest Destiny, to the Trail of Tears, to the Iraq War, or funding the Contras, it's not, but at the same time, I think I can say it's not acceptable that it happened, to my family, or to anyone's family. It's also not acceptable that the government has ever acknowledged that this was wrong or that it even happened.

I'm a little curious that if we all knew what "atrocity" truly meant, the full scale of what an atrocity is, how much of us can look back and find something that was taken from us, maybe in our own lives or the lives of our parents, and why? Was there even a reason?

I think at some point, we'll try something other than the standard solution - pretend it didn't happen.

Critical Race Theory

June 5, 2021

America is great BECAUSE a potus can lose reelection (And did)

It's funny, they say "critical race theory" teaches that America is a horrible place but yet they turn around and act like Trump's LOSS was abnormal, or did not happen.

That's why they push these conspiracy theories, these fraudits, claims that Trump will be 'reinstated' at some point, etc.

Trump's loss was not abnormal, his loss was well-earned. Buffoonery, passing the buck, "owning the libs" as an ideology, and general incompetence - of course he was going to lose.

Despite serious flaws in the system as seen through how race is handled or the electoral college as examples, the system ALSO works, and it showed can be a very well-oiled and efficient machine when Trump was given the boot by the people.

No president is entitled to reelection. That's something that works great! And it's sad, frustrating, that this was the first time for a lot of young Americans that this had to come with all of this hate and conspiracy-mongering. Instead of celebrating a part of our system that works just fine, we are all deluged with these conspiracy theories to save face for this incompetent man-child.

It should also be telling that Putin and the Kremlin are also chiming in, Putin is counting on and exploiting the same ignorance of this fact, that no president is entitled to reelection, and this is why authoritarian dystopia states like Putin's Russia are not great - the United Russia party doesn't have a mandate from voters, people are terrified of Putin and very real "deep state", they don't want to be the next Ryazan or Alexander Litvinenko.

Just remember, this applies to us too, no president is entitled to reelection, don't let complacency drag us down!

Critical Race Theory