Not too long ago, in the midst of widespread campus activism in opposition to Israel's actions in Gaza, allegations of pervasive antisemitism spread. Congress had big hearings on it and everything. University presidents were called on the carpet about the supposed problem, and at least one fell on her sword. BY COMPLETE COINCIDENCE Harvard President Claudine Gay, who seemed likely to keep her job. Pushed by entirely disinterested observers like Bill Ackman, what looked like plagiarism turned up in her past. As a result Harvard has a new president now.
At the time of her resignation Gay got space in the New York Times to tell her side. Her editorial sounded big but didn't really say anything, proving that she's an academic after all. Others were less helpful than that. Ibram X. Kendi, for one, blamed the ouster on "racist mobs." There are two problems with that. One is that Kendi and others have just gone to that well too many times, and it's dry. The other is that the mob that went after Gay was all about de facto censorship and chilling effects. Race was a peripheral matter, if that.
When companies and institutions both public and private have diversified, they've tended to do it in a sneaky way. The candidates often have little substance, just shopworn jargon. Which means that when some billionaire asshole comes for their jobs they have no way to defend themselves. What seems like a victory quickly turns to defeat.
There's also a problem with progressives refusing to defend free speech on its own terms because it's become associated with people they hate. And also, of course, because they like to keep control over who gets canceled. What they haven't yet started to deal with is that not only can two play that game, but in some cases the other team plays it better.
2 comments:
I heartily agree a facepalm emoji would be the most appropriate reaction to the subject of those Congessional hearings. Sometimes it appears that Capital Hill hearings are more about convincing us to not to take any of them seriously so we'll ignore the ones that actually are of consequence, ie, Hunter Biden's influence peddling antics.
How is it I wonder that Ibram X. Kendi is taken seriously by anyone at this point now that he's been seriously outed as a failed/false academic ever since that Boston Globe article last September? The man has been described as the complete grifter so when he came out with the statement: 'She wouldn't have faced same plagiarism probe if she was white' one can only shake one's head. If she'd been a white woman or a while man she'd never have been considered for the position in the first place with such an easily proved plagiarism case in her academic history.
The DEI thing has just become crazier as time has gone by (a short time at that). We never heard about BLM until the brouhaha about Geo. Floyd, then the universities started graduating DEI specialists (whatever that is), and shortly after companies and institutions felt the need to get with the program and gave a number of woke graduates jobs. The tide appears to be turning now that those businesses have come to see the diversity crowd's major interest role is to promote division and critical social justice.
As Jer said regarding that White Hot Harlots piece, 'Free speech is such a dangerous concept that we need it to be carefully managed by experts like them.' and maybe not even like them but literally them since how could any of them trust anyone not them?
Hunter Biden's influence peddling won't have any consequences because his father is in the White House and they've kept a decisive portion of Washington onside when it comes to not prosecuting him. Which goes to show he's an effective influence peddler, despite all the drugs and other stuff. Inspiring, really.
Kendi can easily slot the Gay affair into his preexisting ideological framework. That's because there's almost nothing to it but racial grievance mongering and circular logic. If he's one of your main defenders your case is more dire than you could have guessed. It's a shame, in a way, because again, Gay's plagiarism wasn't what actually got her in trouble. That was just cover for people on an ideological witch hunt. But she was too vapid to really have anything to say about it.
What's strange about BLM is that so many pledge allegiance to them and uphold them as a great movement when a bunch of their leaders have shown themselves to be self-dealing at best, embezzling at worst. It really does seem that the name just freezes people like deer in the headlights. DEI is a similar scam. There is practically no reason for a company or office to have DEI protocols except that they're expected to have them. You're infinitely better off leaving your employees alone and trusting them.
They don't trust us and we don't trust them. That's fine, lots of people throughout history have distrusted other people. But they want power to enforce their way over those who never consented to be led by them. They should be ignored whenever possible.
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