Category: Culture Matters
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Jerking Toward Social Collapse
Thanks to 'progressives,' our 'progress' toward social and cultural collapse seems not be proceeding at a constant speed, but to be accelerating. But perhaps a better metaphor from the lexicon of physics is jerking. After all, our 'progress' is jerkwad-driven. No need to name names. You know who they are. From your college physics you…
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Is C. P. the Cure for P.C.?
No, not capital punishment or corporal punishment, but Camille Paglia. From a recent interview: Do you believe that politics and in particular social justice (i.e., anti-racism and feminism) are becoming cults or pseudo-religions? Is politics filling the void left by the receding influence of organized religion? Paglia: This has certainly been my view for many years…
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Sunday Night at the Oldies: “We Didn’t Start the Fire” Cultural Literacy Test
Karl White recommends Billy Joel, We Didn't Start the Fire. The lyrics make for a good cultural literacy test. Can you identify all of the people, places, things, events, etc.? Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie RaySouth Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggioJoe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, TelevisionNorth Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe Rosenbergs, H-Bomb,…
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It’s a War: The Democrats’ Behavior Proves It
Let's begin with a very simple distinction between the behavior one would rightly demand of a judge who was adjudicating a dispute between two parties, and the behavior of a citizen defending himself against very serious but groundless accusations. From a judge one expects and demands impartiality. The demand is reasonable and can be met…
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Obama Won
Victor Davis Hanson: By traditional metrics, Barack Obama’s presidency was mostly a failure. [. . .] Yet in terms of culture, Obama clearly won. “White Privilege” Goes Mainstream He institutionalized radical cultural shifts by creating entirely new rubrics of privileging race and gender. The old idea of due process and the rule of law were…
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What the Fight is About
Robert W. Merry understands that the fight is not primarily over Trump but over the soul of America and her future. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump opened up a series of fresh fault lines in American politics by advocating new directions for the country that no other politician would discuss. They included a clamp-down…
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The Culture War’s Battle Lines
Matthew Schmitz at First Things: These are the culture war’s true battle lines. On one side are well-scrubbed members of the managerial class who believe that any constraint on the free movement of labor, goods, and capital is a violation of “global values.” They are fully committed to the central project of neoliberalism: the insulation…
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No Day Without Cultural Appropriation
Andrew Klavan: Cultural appropriation is not a glitch of American life. It's a feature. It's part of what makes the country great. We take your culture, we get rid of the oppression, the mass murder, the slavery, the intransigent poverty and the endless internecine wars. We keep the pasta and the funny hats, and occasionally…
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Camouflaged Elities
Fine observations on class, status, and wealth by Victor Davis Hanson. Concluding paragraphs: Take the case of Nancy Pelosi. She goes by her first name among constituents to stress her bond to common men and women, and yet her net worth is $100 million and she owns a palatial Napa villa. Though she acts ordinary…
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David P. Goldman on Condoleeza Rice
Here: Should we assume that every people in every land is equally capable of shaping its own destiny? The notion that largely tribal Muslim societies can march to democracy on the same path as Americans who elected their own pastors and collected their own taxes has caused endless mischief. Time and again, Rice’s prescription comes…