I would expect no better from Bethany Mandel, who I last recall ranting and raving about having to wear a mask at her kid’s pediatric appointment (the horror! But it’s always useful to be reminded that these people would dissolve into a blubbering heap if they ever faced a real hardship).
However, Chait has really been working overtime to carve a niche out for himself as “the reasonable liberal.” First he promoted that ridiculous alleged expose on trans kids. Now he suggests we’re supposed to argue “ideas” with conservatives who have no actual ideas beyond the fascistic goal they are striving toward but trying to disguise through murky semantic games.
"Reasonable liberal" my ass. More like well-paid and self-important useful idiot.
Mar 16, 2023·edited Mar 16, 2023Liked by Roy Edroso
Christ, what a bunch of assholes.
As for Chait's defense of Mandel:
She was talking for awhile before she froze; and
Proper prep for going on an interview to plug the book would include amongst the priorities having a definition of woke on hand. So you can add that failing along with that rightly viral clip.
BTW: Mandel, in her tweet, misused the word radical. Something's very, very wrong calling well-documented revisionist history as radical.
I should add that there's no real argument against "woke". That is, by definition it's involving factual truths. Which to say, as a generalization, there is no substantive arguments against it. As such, any argument against it is by definition bullshit.
John McWhorter, I started reading him in an attempt to understand Black conservative thought and because I like learning about linguistics. It was like eating kale without the health benefits but with kale, I came to enjoy it but with McWhorter, well, he never had “comments” but he did have an email address to contact him. I used it several times to point out - politely, this is no Edroso we’re talking about - why it’s wrong to say a conservative policy can’t be racist if some Blacks, like John McWhorter, agree with it and similar intellectual rebuttals but he never responded. Am I taking more credit than I deserve when I note that email link is now gone? Maybe, but consider me in the “McWhorter is another conservative snowflake” camp.
re domenich, hell, re all right wing pundits: one pig in the slop grunts, and the others grunt approvingly. none of their supposed wisdom has to have meaning or in fact any connection to logic-based reality. all it has to do is trigger a vague feeling of resentment and bitterness toward---dare I say it---the actual woke community of human beings, a group they will never have membership in, so one they must denigrate.
Terminal stage Leftism (and, yes, it's capitalized, you dolt). We're definitely in the absolute last stages of Leftism as it shrinks and becomes completely vestigial. All that's left of Leftism is its complete domination of arts and entertainment, science, academia, healthcare, sports, corporate culture, banking, Wall Street, government, and fashion. Other than those few well-ignored areas of life, Leftism has all but disappeared.
Say, this "definition" stuff is so useful. Here's one:
NatCon, a portmanteau of National Conservative, is a radical white supremacist belief system demanding that our institutions be dominated culturally, demographically, numerically, and politically by white males, basically holding the position that our country would be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites, with the exception of Jews who out-compete non-Jews for resources (i.e., precious bodily fluids). It seeks a radical redefinition of society in which this extreme white dominance is the endpoint, enforced by an angry mob.
Now we can call everything NatCon and fearlessly go on TV to define it without stammering.
Okay, I can get the tortured academospeak rhetoric ("Niemanian Leftism? All I can think of is Leroy Nieman) but WTF is up with "kale foam"? I consulted Google, and all I can figure is it's yet another vaguely trendy plant item (c.f. arugula) Jonah heard about somewhere, probably being served at an expensive Manhattan restaurant, and immediately became The End Of Manly Food wherein stormtroopers confiscate your steaks and sandwiches and we're all eating bugs and kale foam and our precious bodily essences are tainted. (And we all know how conservatives love their Big Sandwiches!)
It's worth noting the lengths these people will go to in order to propagate "woke" as opprobrium, specifically by using variants such as "wokeism" and (my personal favorite) "wokester." Fuck them. I have no problem embracing "woke," having proudly been slurred as "progressive" and, before that, "liberal."
Good piece. I gather that Woke as a phenomenon is a species of misinformation, much as with, to name a few, CRT, Hilary’s emails, hunter’s laptop, “politically correct” etc. I assume these don’t fall out of the sky and take time and money to create and launch. I thought that PC used derogatorily has been successful for decades in casting aspersions (I recall it in the 80’s) and rallying right wingers. But “woke” appears to have degraded in mere months, as shown by a recent poll that found it a basically positive term. More generally, perhaps the people who fund these efforts realize that the entire Frank Luntz w Fox News megaphone bullshit shop is in decline. What then?
I assume that panel discussion would have been just as useful, just as enlightening, if the panel had been composed entirely of white people? Because making an organization (or a discussion) more diverse can't possible have any benefits, right? Like questions being asked that might not have been asked otherwise?
I *knew* that name was familiar! I remember your takedown in the Oughts, and her *writing* sounded like her *speech* even then
I would expect no better from Bethany Mandel, who I last recall ranting and raving about having to wear a mask at her kid’s pediatric appointment (the horror! But it’s always useful to be reminded that these people would dissolve into a blubbering heap if they ever faced a real hardship).
However, Chait has really been working overtime to carve a niche out for himself as “the reasonable liberal.” First he promoted that ridiculous alleged expose on trans kids. Now he suggests we’re supposed to argue “ideas” with conservatives who have no actual ideas beyond the fascistic goal they are striving toward but trying to disguise through murky semantic games.
"Reasonable liberal" my ass. More like well-paid and self-important useful idiot.
Christ, what a bunch of assholes.
As for Chait's defense of Mandel:
She was talking for awhile before she froze; and
Proper prep for going on an interview to plug the book would include amongst the priorities having a definition of woke on hand. So you can add that failing along with that rightly viral clip.
BTW: Mandel, in her tweet, misused the word radical. Something's very, very wrong calling well-documented revisionist history as radical.
I should add that there's no real argument against "woke". That is, by definition it's involving factual truths. Which to say, as a generalization, there is no substantive arguments against it. As such, any argument against it is by definition bullshit.
John McWhorter, I started reading him in an attempt to understand Black conservative thought and because I like learning about linguistics. It was like eating kale without the health benefits but with kale, I came to enjoy it but with McWhorter, well, he never had “comments” but he did have an email address to contact him. I used it several times to point out - politely, this is no Edroso we’re talking about - why it’s wrong to say a conservative policy can’t be racist if some Blacks, like John McWhorter, agree with it and similar intellectual rebuttals but he never responded. Am I taking more credit than I deserve when I note that email link is now gone? Maybe, but consider me in the “McWhorter is another conservative snowflake” camp.
Honestly, I'd rather listen to the rabid, screaming schoolboard Karen's than put up with that pissy sneer you get from
Old school conservative assholes like Jonah and Domenich.
re domenich, hell, re all right wing pundits: one pig in the slop grunts, and the others grunt approvingly. none of their supposed wisdom has to have meaning or in fact any connection to logic-based reality. all it has to do is trigger a vague feeling of resentment and bitterness toward---dare I say it---the actual woke community of human beings, a group they will never have membership in, so one they must denigrate.
Stage one: Corrupt the meaning of a virtue beyond comprehension. Stage two: turn it into a vice.
". . . the identitarian, decadent, terminal stage leftism . . . "
Terminal stage Leftism (and, yes, it's capitalized, you dolt). We're definitely in the absolute last stages of Leftism as it shrinks and becomes completely vestigial. All that's left of Leftism is its complete domination of arts and entertainment, science, academia, healthcare, sports, corporate culture, banking, Wall Street, government, and fashion. Other than those few well-ignored areas of life, Leftism has all but disappeared.
I don't get how they settled on "Woke" .
Isn't "asleep" the opposite of "woke?"
Seems like the "Wake up Sheeple" crowd would be proud to be all "woke."
Say, this "definition" stuff is so useful. Here's one:
NatCon, a portmanteau of National Conservative, is a radical white supremacist belief system demanding that our institutions be dominated culturally, demographically, numerically, and politically by white males, basically holding the position that our country would be better off with more whites and fewer nonwhites, with the exception of Jews who out-compete non-Jews for resources (i.e., precious bodily fluids). It seeks a radical redefinition of society in which this extreme white dominance is the endpoint, enforced by an angry mob.
Now we can call everything NatCon and fearlessly go on TV to define it without stammering.
Dunno, Chait seems awfully proud of her definition, which reads as if generated by ChapGPT. "Equality of group result," you say?
"Where only the cutest & fuzziest puppies will be seized & placed in kennels, enforced by an angry mob."
Okay, I can get the tortured academospeak rhetoric ("Niemanian Leftism? All I can think of is Leroy Nieman) but WTF is up with "kale foam"? I consulted Google, and all I can figure is it's yet another vaguely trendy plant item (c.f. arugula) Jonah heard about somewhere, probably being served at an expensive Manhattan restaurant, and immediately became The End Of Manly Food wherein stormtroopers confiscate your steaks and sandwiches and we're all eating bugs and kale foam and our precious bodily essences are tainted. (And we all know how conservatives love their Big Sandwiches!)
Terrific as always, Roy. I quite enjoyed Amanda Marcotte's take as well: https://www.salon.com/2023/03/16/why-the-is-obsessed-with-woke--but-cant-define-it/
It's worth noting the lengths these people will go to in order to propagate "woke" as opprobrium, specifically by using variants such as "wokeism" and (my personal favorite) "wokester." Fuck them. I have no problem embracing "woke," having proudly been slurred as "progressive" and, before that, "liberal."
Good piece. I gather that Woke as a phenomenon is a species of misinformation, much as with, to name a few, CRT, Hilary’s emails, hunter’s laptop, “politically correct” etc. I assume these don’t fall out of the sky and take time and money to create and launch. I thought that PC used derogatorily has been successful for decades in casting aspersions (I recall it in the 80’s) and rallying right wingers. But “woke” appears to have degraded in mere months, as shown by a recent poll that found it a basically positive term. More generally, perhaps the people who fund these efforts realize that the entire Frank Luntz w Fox News megaphone bullshit shop is in decline. What then?
I assume that panel discussion would have been just as useful, just as enlightening, if the panel had been composed entirely of white people? Because making an organization (or a discussion) more diverse can't possible have any benefits, right? Like questions being asked that might not have been asked otherwise?