Yale_protest

Earth to liberal colleges: The World Ain’t Fair

Reprinted from the Press and Journal

Things sure have changed since the late Bill Buckley wrote his classic “God and Man at Yale.” Back when the National Review founder’s jeremiad against academia’s entrenched liberalism first hit the scene, the enemy was godless collectivism.

As a young graduate, Buckley penned his scathing work to reveal the leftist ideology taught at America’s third-oldest university. His goal was to awaken Yale alumni to the fact that their proud alma mater no longer taught the principles of Christianity and moral law.

Nearly a half-century later, Buckley has failed in his crusade. Yale is still a hotbed for Keynesian economics and secular humanism. But the Ivy League University has gone further than instilling students with a love of big government. It has reached the end point of liberalism, becoming a coddle factory for overly sensitive undergrads.

This past Halloween, the country was forced to witness an Ivy League-level temper tantrum in New Haven, CT. Yale students, upon being told to not be so uptight about offensive costumes, went into a frenzy that would make a pampered preschooler blush.

(more…)

Conservative boogeymen and the progressives who love them

I have an article over at The Daily Caller concerning the recent bouts of hysteria that have hit academia and the media.

This stuff is way, way bigger than college students being fragile babies, but Alexander correctly notes that, not for the lack of material, the media can’t seem to find an angle on it.

But it’s interesting to see the polemical contortions my favorite blogger had to tie himself into to save his article for polite society. He starts the blog post off with a caveat about how he started criticizing social justice back in 2010, saying that back then, only “wingnutty lesbianism-causes-witchcraft” circles bothered criticizing it.

He’s gesturing toward a quote made by Pat Robertson back in 1993, which has gotten lot of mileage since then as an example of a conservative being stupid.

“The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women,” the televangelist said. “It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

It’s important to note that that happened once, decades ago. And before we even know what he’s talking about, Alexander has to reassure readers that he isn’t right-wing bigfoot, like he needs to do that to get dispensation to have an opinion on people who are at the intersection of crazy and fashionable.

The fact that it’s expected to have these caveats isn’t the fault of Alexander or any other particular writer. But it speaks to nature of our cultural assumptions and of the parameters that define these debates. We live in a culture that uncritically believes in right-wing boogeymen.

We saw it at Yale with the boogeymen that wanted to legitimate the oppression of students by refusing to crack down on Halloween costumes. Mizzou had a supposed shit-smearing Nazi boogeyman that led to someone acting like an injured soccer player and going on a multi-day hunger strike. And then we had to have otherwise reasonable people reassure us that might be looking at these instances of boogeyman hysteria with the wrong kind of critical eye.

Go check it out.

In the Republican debate Marco Rubio implied he would shoot down Russian jets over Syria

Last night during the Republican debate Marco Rubio and several other Republican candidates argued for a no fly zone over Syria. Part of the context of the no fly zone was standing up to Putin. Imagine this conversation between President Rubio (or Hillary or any of the candidates supporting a no fly zone) and Putin.

Rubio: Hi Putin, we’re going to establish a no fly zone in Syria

Putin: OK…?

Rubio: Please remove any air support you have been giving the Syrian Army. From now on, coordinate with American forces if you want to bomb ISIS

Putin: We will continue flying our planes

What does Rubio do? Does he threaten to shoot them down? Does he actually shoot down Russian planes? Does he back down? Rubio is leading in the prediction markets for the Republican nod. Hillary is leading for the Democratic nod. The people most likely to be president next year are saying they would enforce a no fly zone in Syria, implying they would shoot down Russian planes to do so. This should scare you.

Reclaiming the metaphysical battlefield

Dismayed by the Left’s continual series of cultural victories over the Right? Wondering what options are left to fight back, besides leaving the country?

I propose a battle strategy in my Taki’s Mag piece today. An excerpt:

As the U.S. succumbs to gender madness at home, unapologetic masculinity is taking off abroad. Russia’s strongman president Vladimir Putin openly trashes the moral relativism of the West while standing up for traditional values. China just eliminated its one-child-per-family policy in order to assuage its growing population of unmarried men. The Middle East is being overrun with an Islamic caliphate that practices Sharia law and encourages patriarchal family structure.

Our adversaries are proudly aligning themselves with patriarchy. Perhaps it’s time for the country that whipped the Nazis and put Soviet communism in the grave to rediscover its spine and get back to traditional gender roles.

So how do we begin to reverse the damage done by the left’s deranged view of biological reality?

The answer is easy: start being men and women again. Okay, you might say, but what does that mean, exactly?

Read the rest here. And make sure to read the comments. Some snarky interlocutors say I have no business giving manly advice when I resemble a metrosexual beta male – not an inaccurate observation!

Also check out my Taki’s piece from last week on why the government hates conservatives and wants them to drop dead. It’s a real pick-me-up!

Crony Capitalism with a Human Face

hillaryclinton

Left-wing academics always blame capitalism as the root of all problems of the world today from poverty to war, from racism to patriarchy. They had use capitalism as a synonym of free markets and property rights. Left-libertarians tend to oppose that but I don’t think much people is listening to that. There had historically attempts to reform capitalism some even talk about capitalism with a human face to referring to a form of capitalism that is not global corporate structure of profit but few on the left had defended these models. When Hillary Clinton in the last debate defended capitalism against Bernie Sanders she mentions the capitalism of small business but this isn’t the kind of capitalism that her husband defended. In the 90s the Clintons embraced supposed third way that was neither capitalism neither socialist but I think took the worst elements of both and lastly never took the form of social democracy but it was a form of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is maybe the essence of crony capitalism meaning the marriage between big government and big business with a cut of social services. For the primaries she try to portray herself as a progressive but there are a lot of doubts about the convictions of her statements.

But is Bernie Sanders really different, yes he says he is socialist but a model like the New Deal was born to save capitalism and wants a New New Deal. He is in favor of massive military industrial complex. I recognized that Sanders is one of the few politicians that had the courage to call himself a socialist in United States and contrary to Hillary, Sanders positions with the exception of foreign policy are the same as when he was a young radical. But there is not a real thought about thinking beyond capitalism even the Green Party which in its platform said they to abolish corporate capitalism, they also support another of New Deal called the Green New Deal.

What about the GOP? Libertarians blame the GOP for giving a bad name to capitalism. I once found on Green Party page a comment like that “If the GOP were smart, they would nominate Hillary. She agrees with most of their wretched policies but also is electable”. I suppose that despite the rhetoric the GOP and Democratic Party stand for more or less the same kind of corporatism. After all are neocons really defenders of free markets, I think no one in their right mind could say that. Maybe Hillary Clinton is crony capitalism with a human face.

Refugee cities

I wrote a piece for Medium arguing that refugee cities could help solve the European refugee crisis. Long story short, more immigration would be best, but is politically impossible. Next best solution, build new cities on uninhabited Greek island. There is already funding. All Greece needs to do is get out of the way. Here’s a sample.

With that in mind, innovative solutions are required. Accepting more refugees is appealing on humanitarian grounds but objectionable to traditionalists in many countries throughout Europe, and to workers who have seen no wage growth and few new employment opportunities since the financial crisis of 2008. One pioneering solution, which several groups and individuals are advocating, is to create a semi-autonomous city in the Mediterranean for refugees. Importantly, the refugees would be allowed to work and own property and businesses, producing value and thus ensuring the city did not become a giant refugee camp. At the same time, refugees would be prevented from entering the rest of Europe, making the city politically acceptable.