Standing Athwart the Bait, Yelling ‘Stop’

What the fight over critical race theory says about the state of our politics.

By
551

Hello,

Here’s some pop culture math for you: Mad Max > Admiral Ackbar > Col. Nicholson > the entire cast of The Cabin in the Woods.

Let me translate. Mad Max—the Fury Road incarnation—recognizes bait before he’s suckered by it.

Ackbar—in Return of the Jedi—recognizes the trap after it’s been sprung, but while there’s time to escape.

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
551
By
Comments (551)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Angie

    Thanks Jonah....

    Collapse
  2. Pedro Reyes

    Thanks for the thoughtful and thought provoking columns. Although I don’t agree with everything you write I certainly enjoy it

    Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Vlad M.

    1. Debating your opponents and the free exchange of ideas are important. That's how things should be. Instead, Universities - and, increasingly, schools - are being turned into indoctrination centers which promote a leftist worldview. How does debate and free exchange of ideas work out over there?
    2. Critical Race Theory is evil. It is a form of Nazism, a basically racialized worldview, in which there can be no disagreement. How do you debate an evil which rejects debate and seeks the cancelling out of all its perceived enemies?

    Collapse
  4. Maddmac

    I think the most important question is, when did Bianca Jagger get involved with this whole thing?

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Angie

      HA

      Collapse
  5. James Bussey

    "Giving yourself permission to be a dick because you think your opponents are dicks is a surrender of any notion of good character." Zinger

    Collapse
  6. Photo of Jonah Goldbergcircle-angle-nib
    Jonah Goldberg vertical-nib Author

    Hey guys. Please try to be a bit more civil towards each other. Obviously this is aimed at those it applies to.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Will Bates

      A few bad apples spoiling the whole barrel, Mr. Goldberg. It might be time to enforce the ground rules. Us Dispatchers want the civil discourse we have come to expect & appreciate.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Jason Gibson

        i guess people took the bait :(

        Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    Dusty

    I’ve done a fairly good job of disengaging a bit from all the political drama. The Dispatch is really the only online source that I still keep up with (I switched my National Review subscription to paper).

    But I’m not perfect. Sometimes I relapse and go down the rabbit hole. And I must say, it’s alarming how many times I find myself becoming outraged and some element that someone is reporting. Due to my unplugging campaign I am more able to realize when I am becoming outraged, as opposed to just always being in a perpetual state of it.

    And the number of times I’ve caught myself and said “Wait, I actually disagree with this” or, far more commonly, “Wait, I really don’t care about this” is eye opening.

    We are conditioned to be alarmed and outraged.

    Collapse
  8. Robert Bailey

    Jonah, true (non Trumpy) conservatives are appalled at the January 6th riot too.

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Sgrantsm

    Jonah, 2 comments:

    1. The solution to teachers indoctrinating, either on the left or the right, is not setting laws on what they can and can't say. It is this: All instruction in Gr 6-12 social studies, which includes history, should be inquiry-based. See https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons and https://c3teachers.org/.

    When I was last at LAUSD a few years ago, they were about to implement Stanford's Reading Like a Historian curriculum for grades 9-12. So it's happening, even at big, bureaucratic and hide-bound institutions like the nation's second largest school district.

    Also, the California State Dept of Ed adopted a revised History-Social Science Framework in 2016.
    "Instead of only focusing on memorizing historical narrative, the framework features ways to guide students through an INVESTIGATION of the discipline, using the lenses of economists, geographers, historians, and political scientists . . . In addition to providing history-social science content, teachers must emphasize disciplinary and literacy practices – investigation, close reading, analysis of evidence, and argumentative writing" (https://www.sdcoe.net/lls/ccr/Pages/California-History-Social-Science-Framework.aspx).

    So, it's happening. I sure wish there were more focus on this than fighting over what can and can't be said.

    2. Re the AFT defense of teachers: As David has written a number of times, K-12 teachers have very limited rights under the 1st Amendment, so I wonder what the basis for their defense would be. Perhaps it is just performative politics?

    Collapse
  10. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    This is so great. Thanks!

    Collapse
Load More