Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Leftism and Political Correctness

  • Another Liberal Witch Hunt

    Jonathan Haidt is always worth reading: the blasphemy case against Brett Weinstein.

  • Islam and the West: What is my Preferred Prophylaxis?

    I wrote this last year. Its reposting, slightly redacted, is appropriate in the wake of Manchester. I explain the main thing that must be done if the West is to survive as the West.  ……………………… Things are coming to a head.  We cannot tolerate as a 'new normal' another Islamist slaughter of innocents every six…

  • Of Snowflakes, Library Fines, and Wood Paneling

    I cite yet another example of liberal erosion of standards.  But that's to put it too mildly. Contemporary liberals have lost their minds. Harvard libraries will no longer charge 50 cent per day fees on overdue books. [. . .] “We have witnessed firsthand the stress that overdue fines can cause for students,” [Steven] Beardsley…

  • The Rise of Political Correctness

    Angelo M. Codevilla's essay is essential reading.  Restraining myself, I will quote only the opening paragraph: “Comrade, your statement is factually incorrect.”“Yes, it is. But it is politically correct.” he notion of political correctness came into use among Communists in the 1930s as a semi-humorous reminder that the Party’s interest is to be treated as…

  • Trump Brings Out the Left’s True Colors

    You can add this to the list of Trump's accomplishments: he has provoked the Left to expose themselves in all their ugliness.  Wittingly?  Some say yes: he is playing them like a fiddle.  I don't know whether his provocations are witting or unwitting. The fact remains:  So far all the political violence associated with the…

  • A Glimpse into the Mind of a Leftist Activist

    In an entry bearing the charming title WTF? Robert Paul Wolff expresses astonishment at his commenters' discussion of anti-natalism: I have to confess that blogging is weird.  It has its pleasures, but from time to time the conversation here takes a genuinely strange turn.  Anti-natalism?  Seriously?  With all the challenges that face us, with the…

  • Coded Speech and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion

    To understand the Left you have to understand that central to their worldview is the hermeneutics of suspicion which is essentially a diluted amalgam of themes from Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. Thus nothing has the plain meaning that it has; every meaning must be deconstructed so as to lay bare its 'real meaning.' Nothing is…

  • Virtue and its Exhortation

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 72: Virtue is not hateful. But speeches on virtue are. Without a doubt, no mouth in the world, much less mine, can utter them. Likewise, every time somebody interjects to speak of my honesty . . . there is someone who quivers…

  • The Main Internal Threat: The Left

    If radical Islam is the main external threat to the republic, the main internal threat is the contemporary Left. Excerpts from Ben Stein: The nation’s universities have become no-go zones for people who do not hew to the one-party, anti-American, anti-police, anti-business attitudes of the violent brownshirts. Quiet, scholarly geniuses like Charles Murray and Heather…

  • What Ever Happened to Mario Savio? From Free Speech to No Speech

    Well, he died at age 53 in 1996.  Some of us are old enough to remember Mario Savio and the 1964 Free Speech Movement. Unfortunately, the young radicals of those days, many of whom had a legitimate point or two against the Establishment, began the "long march through the institutions" and are now the Establishment, still…

  • Nothing So Stupid a Liberal Won’t Embrace It

    Another example. (HT: Karl White)  My correspondent, an Irishman living in London, really ought to change his 'racist' surname. And while he's at it, he should ditch his 'Nazi' Christian name or have the decency to change the spelling to 'Carl.'  His very name is a two-termed 'micro-aggression'! Related articles Rachel Dolezal, the Black White…

  • Do You Speak English?

    Then you are guilty of 'cultural appropriation' unless you are English. Addendum 4/12: A philosophy professor comments: The claim in your post today, strikes me as clearly false.   Just because someone speaks a language (even as a primary language) doesn't mean they are cultural appropriators guilty of something.  Imagine the English colonize your land…

  • What is the Alt-Left?

    Victor Davis Hanson nails down some important points.  I add a bit of commentary in blue. But first a question. Do we really need the designator 'Alt-Left'? Isn't the referent of this term pretty much indistinguishable from the contemporary Left?  Granted, we need to distinguish between the contemporary Left and old-time liberalism. There is not…

  • The Southern Poverty Law Center Scam

    Washington Times editorial. Charles Murray corrects the record.  It took the Middlebury mishigas to motivate a response from the mild-mannered Murray.

  • Progressivism and Religion Again

    Malcolm Pollack writes, Saw your post today. I really do think that modern Leftism is best understood as a religion. I realize also that understanding something as if it were a religion is different from saying it is a religion, and so I've just written a response to your post, in which I try to make…