Category Archives: Reason

The Quality Of ‘Argument’ On Leftist Campus

Argument, Education, Intelligence, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Pseudo-intellectualism, Reason

The quality of argument one can expect from the Left, which dominates campuses, is as follows: When confronted about the fact that 99 percent of colleges faculty are left-liberals, the reply from the Left is that to get into college you need to be smart and libertarians, classical liberals, conservatives and independents are simply not as smart as the Left. The argument is distilled by King’s College Politics Professor David Corbin as, “You’re stupid because you’re not like me.”

These are the folks that are shaping your kinds’ minds. More about the Zombie Nation in “Continuum Of Propaganda: Yale, Mizzou & Your Child’s School.”

Why Does Paul Ryan Conflate Bill Of Rights With Refugee Bill Of Goods?!

Constitution, Homeland Security, IMMIGRATION, Law, Reason, Republicans, UN

Paul Ryan is no Ted Cruz. Ryan’s illogical statements already grate. On Fox News, the other day, Paul Ryan disavowed a religious test in accepting refugees. We believe in religious freedom, he said, hence a preference for Christians over Muslims is “not who we are.” (I dissect the “not who we are” cudgel in tomorrow’s WND column.)

Wait a sec, Mr. Ryan, the so-called right to immigrate here irrespective of religion is not the same thing as the right of religious freedom. From the fact that Americans have a constitutional right to religious freedom, it doesn’t flow that refugees from all faiths must be welcome.

Don’t panic. As it is, the US privileges Muslims: “2,098 Syrian Muslim refugees were allowed into America, but only 53 Christians.”

As reported by Breitbart.com, demographic change in the US is entirely the product of legal admissions–”it is a formal policy of the federal government adopted by Congress.” Thus,

Another major source of Middle Eastern immigration into the United States is done through our nation’s refugee program. Every year the United Stated admits 70,000 asylees and refugees. Arabic is the most common language spoken by refugees, and 91.4 percent of refugees from the Middle East are on food stamps.

In the same Fox News exchange, it transpired that Ryan loves our refugee laws—they are important legislation, he said on that occasion. But why? Like most positive law, US refugee law is written by and for special interests, starting with one of the most corrupt UN agencies, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Besides who approved these refugee laws? Likely fewer than 535 law makers legislating on behalf of 323 million people who have to live with the law’s consequences.

UPDATE V (4/8/016): Continuum Of Propaganda: Yale, Mizzou & Your Child’s School

Education, Family, Founding Fathers, Free Speech, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Political Correctness, Propaganda, Race, Racism, Reason

“Continuum Of Propaganda: Yale, Mizzou & Your Child’s School” is the current, weekly column, now on WND. An excerpt:

… On the University of Missouri campus, atavistic youth have joined against hurtful words, symbols and unsettling, unorthodox ideas, and for “safe spaces,” where these brave hearts can hideout from “racial microaggression.” Examples of “microaggression” are asking a black student for lessons in twerking, complimenting her weave, or simply being white.

But mostly, these minorities and their propagandized white patsies are campaigning for the unanimous acceptance of the following destructive, dangerous, often deadly, dictum:

“White racism is everywhere. White racism is permanent. White racism explains everything.”

The “systemic racism” meme you hear repeated by media, across the American campus, and preached from the White House is a function of “Critical Race Theory,” the sub-intelligent, purely theoretical, and logically fallacious construct, now creeping into American schools at every level.

As detailed in WND colleague Colin Flaherty’s “Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry,” America’s children, black, white and brown, are being taught, starting at a tender age, about “racial hostility and resentment.”

This racial hostility is said to be endemic and always and everywhere a white on black affair.

Ask your state representative and your school board about Glenn Singleton and his Pacific Educational Group’s curriculum, deceptively titled “Courageous Conversations.” The PEG poisonous program has been adopted by “hundreds of school districts across the US,” and foisted on millions of pupils, very possibly your child.

Beware; propaganda is process oriented, and an insidious one at that.

ITEM: Your cherub’s project receives an A. His work the teacher praises before the classroom. Yet, oddly, the child’s identity she will studiously conceal. This is in furtherance of the egalitarian idea, implemented, whereby no individual student is to be identified as having produced superior work to that of the collective.

“[U]nder the Singleton influence,” explains Flaherty, “the Seattle schools [have] defined individualism as a form of cultural racism and said that only whites can be racist.” Moreover, “emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology is a form of racism,” too.

The progressive educational project carries its anti-white bias into teaching about the Orient (East) versus the Occident (West).

ITEM: A Christian boy, placed in an academically advanced study program, is tasked with submitting a project about one of three ancient civilizations: Egypt, India and Rome.

Ancient Egypt, a big hit apparently, is spoken for. The teacher, generally “white, female, liberal,” advises the boy: “Choose India. Rome is … BORING.”

What is it that this colossal ignoramus has conveyed to her student with the words “Rome is boring”? Let us unpack the meta-message (with reference to History.org): …

… Read the rest. “Continuum Of Propaganda: Yale, Mizzou & Your Child’s School” is the current column, now on WND.

UPDATE I: “Campuses across country updating ‘insensitive’ mascots, mottos…”

UPDATE II (11/20): At The Unz Review David says:

November 20, 2015 at 12:14 pm GMT

Did anyone beside the author say, “Choose India. Rome is … BORING?” It appears she made it up so she could get really worked up about it, like the Ask-a-Mexican guy.

ilana mercer says:
@David

Both ITEMS in the essay are true. “Kid” in question is like family to this writer. Enough said. The article was prompted, in part, by this “close encounter.” Saying Rome is boring is so weird; too peculiar to make up. Even more peculiar is suggesting someone unknown to you is a liar. Nice.

UPDATE III (11/21): The manner of subversion is so subtle, a busy parent can’t hope to stay on top the propaganda underway in schools. If you are able to detect the programming, deprogram daily using Socratic questioning. So talk to the brats (unpleasant notion, I know). When my daughter used to return from school, and declare something preposterous, I would begin the deprogramming through questioning. Having a child in the public school system comes with the added responsibility to know your child is being programmed—not to doubt it or defend against it—and to be prepared to deprogram or access resources to so do. (Examples of resources are the Homeschool Courses of historian Tom Woods and Ron Paul, or this writer’s columns on economics and the Constitution (and all others focusing on proper reasoning), to be found in the Articles Archive (http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_search.php?Search+by+Category=Search+by+Category). A list of books is a good idea (a short one is here: http://barelyablog.com/classical-liberalism/. Literature is here: http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=796). Send your suggestions. Kids can begin with Ayn Rand. We all do. Please post resources parents can access, under this thread.

UPDATE IV (11/22): In reply to David Davis’ heroic efforts (thread at the Libertarian Alliance):

Inculcating proper reasoning in a child is vital in the deprogramming effort. My columns are anchored in argument and reason (as best I can). For example, and in context of David’s comment, my “Reincarnation of the Reds” brings up the concept of “the theory that can’t be falsified.” (This is not to say one can’t be, as I am, a private property conservationist.)

David Gordon, Ph.D, is magnificent on the reasoning front; he has written a kid compatible “Introduction to Economic Reasoning.”

UPDATE V (4/8/016):

Blind, Self-Absorbed Media Lose Out In The NYC Marathon

Human Accomplishment, Pop-Culture, Reason, Sport, The Zeitgeist

In the context of the 2015 TCS New York City Marathon, whose “story” ought to be more compelling to a rational individual?

The story of Kenyans Stanley Biwott and Mary Keitany who won the race, or the quirky story of some blind Frenchman, who resides in the US, seems to have access to all the resources in the world, and decided on a whim to recruit friends to assist him in running a marathon (the result of which would be guaranteed face-time on the American mass media, which is forever searching out freaky stories, or ways to shape their viewers’ notion of heroism).

The correct answer—yes, I’d argue there is such a thing—is the two Kenyans. You can be sure that the two gifted, heroic runners acquired their endurance and speed by running barefoot to school and back, each day. Barefoot not because it’s the latest (Western) trend in running, but by necessity.

Wow! Can you believe that the barefoot line was written above before I looked up the story, “What Makes Kenya’s Marathon Runners The World’s Best”?

In addition, most kids usually run to school barefoot, which I think has some effect because it means they grow up being excellent runners …

In fact, the “ran to school every day” thought was first floated on Barely a Blog in 2012, on 07.26.12 @ 3:01 pm, to be precise.

In any event, our heroes are: Anyone who runs a marathon, in general. And the incredible Kenyan champions who run against all odds.

In sum, sentimentality clouds judgment and leads to misplaced sympathy and, consequently, to the blind self-absorption and solipsism on display in the blind man Fox News segment.