Category Archives: Conservatism

Rufo’s Rule Will, One Day, Legitimize The Return Of Critical Race Theory To The Curricula

Argument, Classical Liberalism, Conservatism, Critical Race Theory, Critique, Democracy, Education, Race, Racism

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It gives me no joy to rip apart Chris Rufo’s case for a fairer education system, made on the Rumble podcast of the talented Glenn Greenwald.

Education, Rufo says approximately 22 minutes into the June 29, 2022 broadcast, should reflect broadly the values of “the public, the voters, the parents,” as opposed to the mythical ideal of classical-liberal neutrality. At once, Rufo is revealed to be a crass, lower-case democrat. More crucially, a reductio ad absurdum of Rufo’s thinking is this:

When America becomes a majority-minority country—blacks and browns all indubitably piling on honky—this anti-white majority will, by Rufo’s reasoning, have a right to have its preferred values reflected in education.

Doesn’t that risk bringing it full-circle back to Critical Race Theory? I’m afraid so. The reductio ad absurdum of Rufo’s majoritarianism is that, when anti-white interests come to dominate, and they will, Rufo’s Rule will legitimize the placing of antiwhite interests in the dominant controlling position, locally and nationally.

It is Rufo’s majoritarianism that’ll be detrimental to freedom, not this writer’s traditional, conservative idea of canon and curriculum. The latter is what American schools followed in decades past.

Taking Rufo’s Rule even further than we have—one can reasonably deduce that what Mr. Rufo is keen to avoid in the course of battling CRT is an assertion of the immutable superiority of Western canon and curriculum, no matter who controls the locality. That’s why he tinkers, pussyfoots, on the margins.

NEW COLUMN: Conservation IS Conservative: BLM? Black-And-Yellow Lives Matter

Argument, Conservatism, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Reason

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NEW COLUMN: “Conservation IS Conservative: BLM? Black-And-Yellow Lives Matter.” It’s a feature on WND.COM, The Unz Review and The New American.

Excerpt:

… For the Left, love of the environment amounts to an anti-intellectual, atavistic ritual, the kind performed by Homo species, say, when lightning struck. Primitive man would have looked to the heavens, and promised a sacrifice, to appease the particular god in control. In our times, the pagan pantheon has been replaced with the Almighty God of Climate Change.

What about conservatives? Conservation is conservative. At least it ought to be.  But are conservatives better custodians of nature than progressives?

Everywhere you look conservatives are rejoicing that the world population count broke 8 billion this month. Population explosion is to be celebrated! You can never have too many people, for people, in conservative thinking, are only ever a positive sum; never zero sum. Resources are endless—or, so conservatives seem to assume.

Animal life and habitat? Who cares? Kill the good-for-nothing critters. Deforestation? Bring it on. Forests are overrated. Ditto oxygen. Besides, we are on our way to being an anaerobic species. Ask Mr. AI (Artificial Intelligence). He was on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” so he knows. (By the way, it’s beyond silly to believe in the autonomy of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is nothing more than meta-programing by mega-programmers.)

And, of course, the most populated places on earth are also heaven on earth. Oh, for the glories of Calcutta, Cairo and Gaza, already upon your little American hamlet.

The conservative overpopulation enthusiast could easily borrow the utilitarian arguments advanced by the open-border crowd, when touting the advantages of high-population density. …

… READ THE REST. “Conservation IS Conservative: BLM? Black-And-Yellow Lives Matter” is a feature on WND.COM, The Unz Review and The New American.

 

 

 

UPDATE II (7/24/022): NEW COLUMN: Crappy Conservative Thinking: Protecting Power, Not Freedom (On ‘Manners, Solid Values & A Soul’)

China, Conservatism, Kids, Pop-Culture, Republicans, Sex

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NEW COLUMN is “Crappy Conservative Thinking: Protecting Power, Not Freedom.” It’s a feature on WND.COM, The Unz Review, and on The New American, Friday.

Excerpt:

DID YOU notice the theme on the Tucker Carlson Tonight, July 18? Tucker Carlson got into TikTok mode, blaming China for pervasive American decadence, decades in the making.

The host petulantly saddled China and its algorithms for, among other things, America’s gutter culture, as acted out on TikTok.

If we are to believe Mr. Carlson, the Chinese made those Americans hos disrobe and simulate all manner of sex on TikTok. The Chinese made American TikTokers gesticulate and grunt and generally privilege Ebonics over English. And the Chinese made the same pornographic performers worship hip-hop and rap and energetically deploy their lower bodies to signal mating behavior that jibes with that of primates.

A non sequitur is when your argument’s conclusion does not follow from its premise. Milking illogic to incriminate China for cultural trends that pervade mainstream America culture—why, Laura Ingraham herself professed her love for the rap hump-a-long genre—Tucker offered up his proof for the blame-China thesis:

Chinese TikTokers are seen practicing piano, manners and magic cube mental skills, whereas Americans can be observed doing what they do on … TV, in the movies, on reality shows, on campuses from kindergarten to college and on political panels.

Say no more. Point proven (mine). QED. Doing dumb and degenerate has become the Alpha and Omega of American life. TikTok reflects not Chinese machinations, but the broader American culture.

China’s culture until Communism was Confucian, which is high-minded and genteel. And, contra ConOink (my variation on ConInc), China is reactionary, returning not to Communism, but to Confucianism.

America’s youth, enabled by indulgent and permissive parents and pedagogues, have become increasingly licentious, lippy and libertine. Most are ignorant and lousy at writing, reasoning, and conversing coherently about anything other than raaaaaacism and, “Like my sexuality.” The kids have also become un-moored from their finest traditions, which are being embraced by …the Chinese: They are returning to things classical, traditional and eternally and universally beautiful.

You don’t see many of China’s youth act out in estrus, because they can’t. China has banned corrupt hip-hop culture, and has a new export: Western classical music.

“Once, classical music generally traveled from the West to the rest,” marveled the Economist. “Now China is reversing the exchange, not merely performing Western classical music in China, but exporting it. …”

In China, they’re inclined to consider a youth-obsessed society such as ours a silly society. The standard inquiry, among Taiwanese engineers, I am told, about their American counterparts in hardware engineering is, “How many grey hairs and no-hairs are in the group?” Unlike their youth-worshiping American colleagues, these wise instinctual Confucians reason that the presence of “grey hairs and no-hairs” in the collaborating high-tech team bodes better for the project.

On the other hand, “in America,” as Oscar Wilde had observed, “the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.” And adults are always on-hand to facilitate their folly.

From Fox News we move to LinkedIn for a snapshot of the Zeitgeist…

… READ THE REST. NEW COLUMN is “Crappy Conservative Thinking: Protecting Power, Not Freedom,” now on IlanaMercer.com

* My “I might be a Chinese spy” look is suitable for this subversive material.

UPDATED (7/22/022): My batting average. Every week, over 22 years, the likes of these come in:

Hi Ilana,

This is excellent: https://www.wnd.com/2022/07/crappy-conservative-thinking-protecting-power-not-freedom/   One of Wnd’s best over the past few months. Way to go!

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
President
National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI)
Editor-in-Chief
Home School Researcher (peer-reviewed journal)

UPDATE II (7/24/022):  On “manners, solid values and a soul”: Some men like to break a warrior down. Others take the time to do their part in propping her up. Chivalry among men is on life support, but is not entirely dead. I don’t get the reader’s French, but appreciate his kindness. 

—–Original Message—–
From: es
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2022 5:51 AM
To: ilana mercer <ilana@ilanamercer.com>
Subject: the chinese spy look

Love it!

You should run for something. Good looks n’est-pas la seule chose, c’est toute chose, d’accord?

Wait, I take that back. You have brains, manners, solid values and soul.

You’d lose in a landslide.

ES

UPDATED (7/30/022): The Pall Of Humanity’s Blanketing God’s Green Earth, And Conservatives Are Loving it

Canada, Conservatism, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Individual Rights, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Republicans

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Despite the fact that conservatism conserves nothing—CONSERVATION IS CONSERVATIVE. It ought to be our cause

©2022 ILANA MERCER

There goes the conservative idiocracy. Everywhere you look conservatives are rejoicing that world population count hit 8 billion. Population explosion is to be celebrated! More, more, more people. It’s only good; never zero sum, for resources are endless. Animal life and habitat? Who cares? Kill ’em. Good for nothing. Deforestation? Bring it on. Forests are overrated. And, after all, the most populated places on earth are also heaven on earth. Oh, for the glories of Calcutta, Cairo and Gaza, coming to your little hamlet.

From their vantage point, cultivated usually from the serenity of their stately homes, advocates for over-population could use the utilitarian arguments of the open-border crowd, who tout the advantages of high-population density. Apparently, Mumbai and Manila are models for the specialization that comes with an increased division of labor. However, if American history (circa 1894) is anything to go by, the scarcity and high cost of labor helped propel this country into its position as the world’s leading industrial power. These factors, historian Paul Johnson has observed, “[G]ave the strongest possible motive not only to invent but to buy and install labor-saving machinery, the essence of high productivity, and so mass production.”

This conservative celebration of the 8 billion is obscene. It conjures one of the more profound—but contradictory—pieces by Tucker Carlson, discussing the concept of “community”. Millions-upon-millions of people can never form community, said he, wisely. Too much. Too big. All the more so when they do not cohere and do not instantiate those Burkean little platoons.

For gigantism is the opposite of community. Only small is community. Small is beautiful. And here Mr. Carlson contradicted himself and his achingly beautiful sentiment: He loves population explosion. Every baby born is a gem. Contradictions, contradictions.

By the numbers, and so you know: In celebrating overpopulation—conservatives are calling for the Third World to be fruitful and to multiply. Own it!!!

“For Wildlife and White Men the end maybe nigh” by Hannes Wessels:

… “With Europeans on the ropes the future for wildlife and the natural environment in Africa has probably never looked so bleak. As far as the continent is concerned we live in a world that has allowed the human population to multiply without control and all other forms of life simply suffer the consequences…..population growth is logarithmic and unsustainable ..”

No mention any longer is made by progressives of ‘planned parenthood’ or ‘family planning’ for the 3rd world because that might be considered ‘racist’, aimed at reducing the number of Africans and other peoples in in the Third World. … Conservatives are no different.

HOWEVER—and despite the fact that conservatism conserves nothing—CONSERVATION IS CONSERVATIVE. It ought to be our cause.

If you are celebrating population explosion please spare us the pretense at spirituality and love of nature and the outdoors. For your actions are phony. Rudderless. They amount to a performative contradiction.

And, if you visit this space expecting rote conservative positions, or textbook libertarianism; you won’t find these. You will find the truth. I suspect that new-generation conservatives are not necessarily on board with the old school’s fill-the-oceans-with-plastics and kill-everything-that-moves gang. UPDATED (7/30/022): Yes, since conservatives always tinker at the margins, they are picking on Il Duce Trudeau not for trashing the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but for not wanting to trash the environment with plastic cutlery. To coincide with the ocean currents, every one of our oceans has gyres of garbage (much of it plastic), as big as Texas. Much of the plastic is single-use plastic, the stuff for which conservatives reserve the “best” of philosophical defenses.

Suggested election campaign slogan: GOP for growing the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre.