Category Archives: wokeness

Liberals explain why liberals tired of wokeness shouldn’t vote for Trump

October 28, 2020 – 12:00 pm

The other day I criticized James Lindsay—who’s done excellent work against the Illiberal Left and also coauthored the essential book Cynical Theories with Helen Pluckrose—for deciding to vote for Trump. His decision was, as far as I understand, a reaction to fulminating Wokeness, perhaps a considered response, but an ill-considered and maladaptive one. Others have […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Comments (10)

More ludicrous erasure: students at Brown demand removal of two Roman statues, while students at UW Madison vote to remove Lincoln statue

October 28, 2020 – 10:15 am

At Brown University there are two bronze copies of statues of Roman emperors. One is of Marcus Aurelius: . . . and the other is of Caesar Augustus (sources of both photos, and a discussion of the statues’ history, are here) Well, all statues these days are subject to intense scrutiny, and a group of […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in censorship, college students behaving badly, history | Comments (25)

Yes, wokeness drove people to Trump. But will it decrease under Biden?

October 27, 2020 – 1:15 pm

I was deeply disturbed to read that James Lindsay, who styled himself a liberal, was so incensed at wokeness that he declared he was voting for Trump. I called this “cutting off his nose to spite his face.” But according to this new Atlantic article by Yascha Mounk, Lindsay’s not the only one who did […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in elections, politics, Trumpiana | Comments (79)

Are “mononyms” in classical music racist and sexist?

October 25, 2020 – 1:00 pm

Although all liberal media sites are getting woke, sites like Salon and HuffPost have gone beyond the pale, while Slate always seemed to retain more sanity. After all, that was where Hitchens often wrote—though I’m not sure he’d be welcome there now were he still alive.  At any rate, there’s a new Slate piece that […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in music, racism, sexism | Comments (162)

A frenzy of school renaming in store for San Francisco

October 25, 2020 – 9:30 am

Forty-four public schools in San Francisco have been advised that their names are polluted by association with slavery, colonization, oppression, genocide, abuse, or homophobia, and are likely to have their names changed late this year. This, of course, is part of the nationwide frenzy of renaming anything named after someone who offends the Woke. Now […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in schools behaving badly | Comments (53)

Self flagellation in Canada

October 16, 2020 – 11:30 am

This link, from Canada’s National Post via the news agency The Canadian Press, was sent to me by reader Rich Harkness, who noted, “As they say about the influx of critical race theory/intersectionality:   We are all on campus now!” Well, we’re both on campus and also in a procession of penitentes from the Church […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in "privilege", O Canada!, race, racism | Comments (68)

Useless virtue-flaunting action of the month

October 15, 2020 – 12:00 pm

Clearly the humanities are more Woke than the sciences; I know that from seeing which professors and grad students sign various demands and petitions.  But among the humanities, English departments seem to take pride of place for Wokeness, as ours does (see here for a local example). I’m not sure why this is, but of […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Colleges acting badly, colleges and universities | Comments (41)

The New York Times describes Hitler’s Nazis as “anti-Zionists”

October 11, 2020 – 9:00 am

I’m sure some readers will feel that the New York Times‘s description of Nazis—and of the rabid anti-Semite Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini—as mere “anti-Zionists”, is an innocuous description.  But I don’t think so. I think it’s an attempt to rewrite history and, at the same time, defuse some criticisms of Palestine made by a Saudi […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in anti-semitism, journalists behaving badly | Comments (22)

New reply from Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Sarah Haider

October 9, 2020 – 2:00 pm

Sarah Haider and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are discussing the topic “Is the culture war lost?” on the Letter site. (The “war” is between traditional liberals and the extremist wing of the Left known as Wokeism.) When Sarah wrote her first email, arguing that yes, the culture war has already been lost to the Woke, I […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Cancel Culture | Comments (17)

Sainsbury’s tries segregation

October 4, 2020 – 11:15 am

A long time ago, I used to think that the Brits could never possibly be as woke as Americans. After all, Brits are supposed to be more sensible. But that was quickly dispelled by the actions of British universities in the last few years: banning speakers, issuing ridiculous statements (the London School of Economics, for […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in race, racism | Comments (26)