Nearly 2/3rds of Americans believe the nation’s on course for civil war, and 1/3rd now support political violence. The Civil War’s death toll won’t be beaten, but the second will be unequalled for its nation-destroying potential. (Originally published on RT.com, October 5, 2020.)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed on Sept. 18. Ginsburg, a feminist and role model for some women across America, is being lauded as a “legal giant” and “trailblazer,” accolades being doled out across political boundaries. Ginsburg was dedicated to jurisprudence tasks, even pouring over legal briefs from her hospital bed. But what did Ginsburg trailblaze, and in what sense was she a legal giant? (Originally published in The Epoch Times. September 20, 2021.)
Not long after 9/11, academics began to weigh in on its cultural and political meanings (or lack thereof). Ward Churchill’s scandalous reference to the victims of 9/11 as “little Eichmanns” provided fodder for political talk-show outrage. On the other hand, Jean Baudrillard contributed the quintessential postmodern response, which went largely unremarked upon outside of academia. In Simulations (1983), Baudrillard had described the postmodern world as a series of simulacra, a spectacle of simulations without originals. Suburban neighborhoods, amusement parks, jungle dioramas in shopping malls, and even the political left and right – these were all simulations without originals, imitations without prototypes. Baudrillard enraged both left and right when he remarked that the first Gulf War “wasn’t real.” He meant that the real had been displaced by images and history by the serial reproduction of imagery…
Rather than “an inside job,” Baudrillard suggested that 9/11 represented a suicide, self-destruction committed by everyone within the global system. The self-immolation hadn’t been planned so much as wished for – by everyone, including its victims. According to Baudrillard, everyone who witnessed “the event” openly or secretly rejoiced at the exposure of weakness at the epicenter of power. “The moral condemnation and the holy alliance against terrorism are on the same scale as the prodigious jubilation at seeing this global superpower destroyed – better, at seeing it, in a sense, destroying itself, committing suicide.” Even those who enjoyed its advantages held a death wish for the global system’s uncontested power. Even its victims had been “complicit” in the system’s symbolic demise. The West acted the part of “accomplice in its own destruction.”
“A Postmodern Suicide.” Excerpt from Springtime for Snowflakes.
Reading the news, one might come to believe that US higher education has devolved into nothing more than a “social justice” indoctrination camp and that any deviation from the orthodoxy is impermissible. And one would be right. (Originally published on RT.com. September 10, 2020.)
After scholars decried English as ‘anti-black linguistic racism’, the nation’s leading academic language association acceded to the demand that black students no longer have to think about proper English, let alone use it. (Originally published on RT.com. September 3, 2020.)
What if the politics of the left actually serve the interests of the would-be corporate monopolists and that is why these corporations embrace leftism? That would mean that woke capitalism is actually the expression of corporate interests. (Originally published on GlennBeck.com. August 18, 2020.)
The First is an intervention into the present-day free speech controversies that begs for our attention. Unfortunately, Fish’s new book does little to clarify the issues and in fact only compounds them by introducing a parade of specious homologies and straw man arguments. With his characteristic slipperiness, Fish is a sophisticated postmodern leftist who contrives convoluted arguments for proscribing expression that he doesn’t like. Academic Questions. July 24, 2020.
Some major corporations now intervene in social and political issues and controversies, partaking in a new corporate activism. The newly “woke” corporations support activist groups and social movements, while adding their voices to political debates. Woke capitalism has endorsed Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo Movement, contemporary feminism, LGBTQ rights, and immigration activism, among other leftist causes…The Ludwig von Mises Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Yousif Almoayyed. Recorded at the Mises Institute on March 22, 2019. Includes an introduction by Joseph T. Salerno.
In response to the killing of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin and accomplices, woke culture has intensified cringy prostration and humiliation rituals that can be traced to the Maoist Cultural Revolution. (Originally published on RT.com. June 8, 2020. Re-published by the Ron Paul Institute.)
As part of the Baugh Center Free Enterprise Forum, guest speaker Michael Rectenwald spoke on “Woke Capitalism.” Baylor University. Delivered on 14 February 2020. (Posted February 21, 2020.) Click here or on title.
The big news from Iowa’s caucuses is the abysmal finish for ex-VP Joe Biden. His 4th place is a sign that allegations of corruption, erratic campaigning, and disturbing glad-handing are doing real damage to his presidential bid. (Originally published on RT.com. February 4, 2020.)
As the celebrity attorney to porn star Stormy Daniels, he once fancied himself Trump’s most fearsome presidential opponent. Now he sits in the cell that held El Chapo. Michael Avenatti’s fall was swift and inevitable. Originally published on RT.com. January 22, 2020.)
Whitney Houston, Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers, and The Notorious B.I.G. are among this year's Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame inductees. A worthy list, but here are the deserving names that are still missing. (Originally published on RT.com. January 16, 2020.)
Video of a Bernie Sanders field organizer ranting about burning cities and imprisoning dissidents has emerged. But should anyone take a Bernie Bro’s bravura seriously, other than his boss? (Originally published on RT.com. January 16, 2020.)
When Vince Vaughn uttered a few sentences then shook Trump’s hand at a championship college football game, a woke member of the crowd recorded the transgression and tried to cancel the Wedding Crasher’s career with a tweet. (Originally published on RT.com. January 14, 2020.)
Michael Bloomberg plans to do whatever it takes “to get rid of Trump.” As president, he’d push for a “regressive tax” to save us from ourselves. His candidacy is toxic to the Democratic Party, and will be rejected by Americans. (Originally published on RT.com. January 14, 2020.)
Donald Trump’s response to the Iranian missile attack on US military bases in Iraq is defying the expectations (and perhaps the hopes) of both Democratic and Republican neocon hawks. (Originally published on RT.com. January 9, 2020.)
Chelsea Clinton’s charmed life (surely not based on nepotism & name recognition alone!) continues without impediment, in full view of an American public that just doesn’t seem bothered. (Originally published on RT.com. January 8, 2020.)
