Smart Talk #15
We’ll begin this edition with a description of ever-irritating wokism, as practiced especially by those who prefer to deny the significance of Columbus’ arrival, and perhaps even those who feel foolishly compelled to remove statues of our Founders, as stated by the ever-brilliant font of wisdom, Thomas Sowell. Mr. Sowell has written: “Any group whose past has not provided them with as many heroes, cultural contributions, or other glories as some other group’s past, now has a grievance against those who write history. Apparently, a past to your liking has become an entitlement.”
Well known liberal, Bill Maher, expressed some thoughts on this related woke concept of ‘presentism.’ “Liberals,” he said, “are accusing conservatives of wanting to whitewash the past. And sometimes that’s true, sometimes they do. But plenty of liberals also want to abuse history to control the present. It is stupid to think that people from centuries or millennia ago really should have known better,” regarding their beliefs and actions. He cited slavery as one example. Maher continued: “But in today’s world, when truth conflicts with narrative, it’s truth that has to apologize. Being woke is like a magic moral time machine where you judge everybody against what you imagine you would have done in 1066. And you always win.”
Along with the woke theology of “presentism,” which worships today’s attitudes and actions versus (and at the expense of) historic fact, purposefully ignoring the then-reality, of past practices, conditions, and circumstances, which ignites leftist pressure to remove not only Founder’s statues, but also Confederate ones, such as in the current case of the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. In this regard wrote, John Daniel Davidson, has noted that: “Biden’s White House (recently) convened a summit (misleadingly named ‘United We Stand’) to advance the false narrative that America’s number one threat is domestic terrorism fueled by white supremacy. The stunt is designed, like so much else the president says and does, to ferment division and hatred among Americans, to sort us into warring factions. So, too, with the push to dismantle the Confederate monument at Arlington, which is almost a perfect inversion of its original purpose. There is only one reason to remove the monument now, in 2022, and it has nothing to do with the past or racial reconciliation, and everything to do with wielding political power in the present.”
And for a suggested definition of wokism, itself, there is this succinct one from Wilfred Reilly: “The belief that (1) all of society is currently and intentionally structured to oppress, (2) all gaps in performance between large groups illustrate this, and (3) the solution is ‘equity’ – proportional representation without regard to performance.” So then, to be clear, it is equality that strives for equal opportunity, (regardless of gender or race). While, at the other end of the performance spectrum, equity envisions equal results, which all too often, to the detriment of the legitimate achievers, are sometimes to be accomplished by reducing standards and expectations.
And here’s a ‘good’ example of that ‘woke’ thinking among the too-often intellectually led-astray college-age types, reported by the New York Post. It seems that students (all but one!) in an Education Department class at the University of South Maine were protesting an assertion made in class by their female professor that there are “only two sexes.” Yes, that’s correct, folks, this teacher actually said that there are only two, as in biological men and women. Easy to be aghast at that alleged incorrect thinking in the minds of some new-age young folk. Despite the fact, however, that the teacher is absolutely correct!!
Anyway, the students in her class (again, all but one) then staged a walk-out in protest, demanded a ‘restorative justice meeting’ with the Dean of the Education School, and actually urged the teacher’s firing! So far, the U. of South Maine has supported the teacher, but yet, apparently bowing to the vocal, but sadly confused, young students, has unbelievably offered to “create another class for those who felt unsafe” with that professor. Unsafe? How, by ‘threatening’ their incorrect beliefs on one thought! It’s now become incredible for most of us to see just how far, and how deeply, this whole ‘woke’ thing has gone. It may well take a generation or more, but somehow this type of intellectual insanity needs to pass from our midst and memory.
On another, and perhaps related, topic, assessments in recent years have shown that “just 15% of eighth graders are ‘proficient’ in U.S. history.” In an article by Joy Pullman, dealing with improved K-12 history curricula, she concludes: “The people and institution who have for decades failed to educate their fellow citizens to assume the rights and duties of American citizenship have disqualified themselves from having any say in what children should learn. It’s time to replace their failures with instruction that has as a track record of success, and ends the use of public education as a political weapon against constitutional self-government.” A sad reflection of what seems to be going on right now, in far too many of our public schools, as factual history gives way to preferred history, in this distorted ‘woke’ and preferred critical race theory-infused era, impacting not only American history instruction, but apparently many other subjects, as well.
Switching to some Smart Talk about inflation, the downward plunge in our economy, and the reason behind it, former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasure, Monica Crowley, asserts the following explanation for the, in her view, purposeful weakness of America’s economic health. Said she: “Democrats (in D.C.) are manufacturing an economic catastrophe as a pretext for the further centralization of power and control in the hands of government and aligned industries. Again, it’s all intentional, because they need that period of time of really bad economic collapse in order to slam through their socialist agenda. This includes the open border. It’s about changing America’s demographics and imploding the country.”
As deceitful as this projected Democrat-engineered “imploding” of our nation is, we’ve long suspected or known that the open southern border, for instance, was being allowed, on purpose, in order to pump up the supply of totally-dependent, future Democrat voters. But the notion that current leadership, strictly adhering to behind-the-curtain direction, is knowingly seeking the ultimate “economic collapse” of our nation, has likely not been on the radar of most regular, work-a-day Americans. Both of those efforts reflect nothing less than historic anti-America evil. All the more reason, if loyal, as if rational Americans would need any more convincing, to Vote Out Congressional Democrats in the upcoming national election!
Moving on to the subject of energy production, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth recently shared the following thoughts. The Progressives ‘green’ push against fossil fuels, said he in a recent interview, “illustrates the risk in moving from a system that keeps the world functioning today, aggressively, to another (unreliable) system, and (then) shutting down nuclear, shutting down coal, (and) discouraging oil and gas. The conversation (about energy) in the developed world, for sure, has skewed towards climate, taking affordability and security for granted. The reality is (fossil fuel) is what runs the world today. It’s going to run the world tomorrow and five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now,” said Wirth.
Also, speaking about American fossil fuels and energy independence, Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said: “The (recent) OPEC+ announcement confirms why the United States must be energy independent and energy secure, so we cannot be intimidated by foreign adversaries. We have been blessed with an abundance of domestic energy resources, which we can produce cleaner than elsewhere in the world, and with that we have the ability to ensure energy independence and security for ourselves and our allies.” In other words, we need to increase drilling and oil & natural gas production, now, despite the fossil fuel “death wish” of the very likely globally-directed Progressives currently controlling the White House.
Concluding with some to-the-point and very candid comments on the subject of “criminal mayhem devouring America’s cities,” Black American conservative commentator, Deroy Murdock, suggests what needs to be done in this next election: “Democrats cannot be trusted on crime. Period. They are too wedded to political correctness and ‘equity’ to inconvenience lawbreakers. The solution is to pry Democrats from office. Republicans can fight crimes, without getting their boxers and panties into knots over evil-doers’ ethnicity.”
Crime reduction and control is just one of the many benefits for Americans that will result from retaking majority control of Congress by Voting Republican in November. And by so doing, changing the deeply negative economic and social trajectory of our nation back to one of safety, security, equality, productivity, and prosperity.
(Thomas Sowell quote via powerlineblog.com, Steven Hayward, 10-12-22; Confederate Memorial removal via the federalist.com, John Daniel Davidson, 9-16-22; Maher quotes via foxnews.com, Charles Creitz, 9-17-22; Reilly’s definition of wokism via powerlineblog.com, Steven Hayward, 10-13-22; Only two sexes assertion via nypost.com, Jon Levine, 10-8-22; U.S. history distortion in K-12 via the federalist.com, Joy Pullman, 9-20-22; Monica Crowley quote via breitbart.com, Robert Kraychik, 10-12-22; Chevron’s Mike Worth quote via zerohedge.com, Tyler Durden, 10-13-22; Manchin quote via foxbusiness.com, Tyler Olson, 10-5-22; Murdock quote via dailycaller.com, Deroy Murdock, 10-2-22).