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Liberal almost achieves enlightenment about oppressive political correctness


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2019 Sep 17, 9:23pm   825 views  8 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/10/when-the-culture-war-comes-for-the-kids/596668/

Who was driving the new progressivism? Young people, influencers on social media, leaders of cultural organizations, artists, journalists, educators, and, more and more, elected Democrats. You could almost believe they spoke for a majority—but you would be wrong. An extensive survey of American political opinion published last year by a nonprofit called More in Common found that a large majority of every group, including black Americans, thought “political correctness” was a problem. The only exception was a group identified as “progressive activists”—just 8 percent of the population, and likely to be white, well educated, and wealthy. Other polls found that white progressives were readier to embrace diversity and immigration, and to blame racism for the problems of minority groups, than black Americans were. The new progressivism was a limited, mainly elite phenomenon.

Politics becomes most real not in the media but in your nervous system, where everything matters more and it’s harder to repress your true feelings because of guilt or social pressure. It was as a father, at our son’s school, that I first understood the meaning of the new progressivism, and what I disliked about it. ...

At times the new progressivism, for all its up-to-the-minuteness, carries a whiff of the 17th century, with heresy hunts and denunciations of sin and displays of self-mortification. The atmosphere of mental constriction in progressive milieus, the self-censorship and fear of public shaming, the intolerance of dissent—these are qualities of an illiberal politics.

I asked myself if I was moving to the wrong side of a great moral cause because its tone was too loud, because it shook loose what I didn’t want to give up. It took me a long time to see that the new progressivism didn’t just carry my own politics further than I liked. It was actually hostile to principles without which I don’t believe democracy can survive. Liberals are always slow to realize that there can be friendly, idealistic people who have little use for liberal values. ...

Our daughter wasn’t immune to the heavy mood—she came home from school one day and expressed a wish not to be white so that she wouldn’t have slavery on her conscience. It did not seem like a moral victory for our children to grow up hating their species and themselves. ...

Instead of hope pendants around the necks of teachers, in one middle-school hallway a picture was posted of a card that said, “Uh-oh! Your privilege is showing. You’ve received this card because your privilege just allowed you to make a comment that others cannot agree or relate to. Check your privilege.” The card had boxes to be marked, like a scorecard, next to “White,” “Christian,” “Heterosexual,” “Able-bodied,” “Citizen.” ...

Two years ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a new initiative to integrate New York City’s schools. Our district, where there are enough white families for integration to be meaningful, was chosen as a test case. Last year a committee of teachers, parents, and activists in the district announced a proposal: Remove the meritocratic hurdle that stands in the way of equality. The proposal would get rid of competitive admissions for middle school—grades, tests, attendance, behavior—which largely accounted for the racial makeup at our son’s new school. In the new system, students would still rank their choices, but the algorithm would be adjusted to produce middle schools that reflect the demography of our district, giving disadvantaged students a priority for 52 percent of the seats. In this way, the district’s middle schools would be racially and economically integrated. De Blasio’s initiative was given the slogan “Equity and Excellence for All.” It tried to satisfy democracy and meritocracy in a single phrase. ...

Late in the summer of 2018, a public meeting was called in our district to discuss the integration plan. It was the height of vacation season, but several hundred parents, including me, showed up. Many had just heard about the new plan, which buried the results of an internal poll showing that a majority of parents wanted to keep the old system. We were presented with a slideshow that included a photo of white adults snarling at black schoolchildren in the South in the 1960s—as if only vicious racism could motivate parents to oppose eliminating an admissions system that met superior work with a more challenging placement. Even if the placement was the fruit of a large historical injustice, parents are compromised; a policy that tells them to set aside their children’s needs until that injustice has been remedied is asking for failure. Just in case the implication of racism wasn’t enough to intimidate dissenters, when the presentation ended, and dozens of hands shot up, one of the speakers, a progressive city-council member, announced that he would take no questions. He waved off the uproar that ensued. It was just like the opt-out “education session” my wife had attended: The deal was done. There was only one truth. ...

calling out racism and getting rid of objective standards won’t create real equality or close the achievement gap, and might have the perverse effect of making it worse by driving out families of all races who cling to an idea of education based on real merit. ...

(Our son) and his friends heard the official language of moral instruction so often that it became a source of irony and teasing: “Hey, dude, you really need to check your privilege.” When his teacher assigned students to write about how they felt about their identity, letting the class know that whiteness was a source of guilt for her, our son told her that he couldn’t do it. The assignment was too personal, and it didn’t leave enough space for him to describe all that made him who he was.


It's a pretty good story, but the author fails to understand that his own experiences multiplied by millions are exactly how Trump got elected, and that the election was a very good thing for America.

Comments 1 - 8 of 8        Search these comments

1   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Sep 17, 10:01pm  

Thanks for sharing. I think liberals have no room being near education, they are just destroying everything they touch. They've pushed mandatory lgbt and gender identity classes, they are teaching about all sorts of racial discrimination while trying to make being white a crime. They insult people in dignity and pretend they are on high moral ground. The fact that we don't have a civil war yet is a surprise.

I literally have to go almost into white supremacy territory to teach kids just to even out the mandatory school curriculum that wants to remove white people from earth.
2   Hircus   2019 Sep 17, 10:10pm  

I'm glad to hear at least some of the kids tease each other about checking their privilege, which proves they see it as crap. But, there's bound to be other kids that get fully indoctrinated by crap like "check your privilege cards", and they will be adults one day. Very scary adults...
3   Heraclitusstudent   2019 Sep 17, 10:34pm  

Trump is exactly why progressive are turning into fascists.
4   ignoreme   2019 Sep 18, 5:43am  

Remember when the blacks and gays just wanted equal rights? Now you’re a racist homophobe if you don’t actively hate your white cis gendered self.

You know, if you take all the white privilege theory and apply it to today except realizing that white straight people are the new minority being oppressed the 72 gender pronouns makes a lot of sense. If you’re a white kid going to school in one of these liberal schools where they tell you are a piece of crap every day and are forced to write papers about it; making up a crazy gender for yourself is basically a defense mechanism. Because now you are special and no longer “privileged”. It’s the skin bleaching of the 21st century.

As to this guy that wrote the article, I have 0 sympathy. This is the natural and predicted outcome of stuff I saw coming 10 years ago when he was sneering at the Christians who didn’t want to make a cake. If they can force someone to make a cake or lose their business for the sake of equality, they can certainly force your kid to go to a crappy school for the same reason. Moron.
5   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Sep 18, 10:24am  

Took them a while to understand that left wants control, and once they get it they'll fuck everyone with it. but dumb asses just tried to "play nice" and "be accepting". Next dictator will be a liberal and he'll be burning straight white people and christians in the ovens.

At least some people get it, but they are a minority these days in CA.
https://californiafamily.org/2017/new-law-being-used-to-spread-lgbt-gender-identity-ideology-into-ca-public-schools/
6   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Sep 18, 10:30am  

Heraclitusstudent says
Trump is exactly why progressive are turning into fascists.


No, this stuff began to emerge from Academia in the early 90s, when even the NYT mocked it. Then it slowly became more and more common. Around 2010 it exploded everywhere and we now have CEOs regularly opining about guns, diversity, systemic racism, White Supremacy, and events like "Decolonizing Astronomy"

Also, it's not liberal. Liberal is Alan Dershowitz. This is Radical Leftism.
7   Heraclitusstudent   2019 Sep 18, 11:17am  

CornPoptheOriginalGangster says
No, this stuff began to emerge from Academia in the early 90s, when even the NYT mocked it. Then it slowly became more and more common. Around 2010 it exploded everywhere and we now have CEOs regularly opining about guns, diversity, systemic racism, White Supremacy, and events like "Decolonizing Astronomy"


The NYT used to mock it. Until Trump, now they are the mob.
Trump and these guys 69 each other to outrage climax.
8   Bd6r   2019 Sep 18, 12:27pm  

Patrick says
author fails to understand that his own experiences

Author finally understood that policies of left are idiotic only because these idiotic policies hit him where it hurts - in his child's education. Without that, he would continue being a leftist asshole.

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