Woke the Faith

[anthony]

https://d2lhsb04.na1.hubspotlinks.com/Btc/I7+113/d2lhSb04/MW_2M4xDlG2W1n1Ml37Tg5YKV5XFwB4zrD0rMfRflf3q90pV1-WJV7CgTGFW1dxlvp2gHk8tW9b4vMm9hf9J4W1b5DgT2DNtvCVnT0Bw9bDzg8W1_CG9z9gSHrQW7vd7733rF-tzW2pLqGh1Y3NH3W1RJ7Lq1kRb-sW5tb0271tGXXmW2HvjcL8p5cJNW60KMFf6Q4fYmVPKXRP9jpkcDVd86zT7nDv1sW1qfq_T2stLZLW9gPQNf3lgZqPVSw5x83dY9jtW7shVlr44cK61W2RVgY63y-H77W6ZrYSW5Mjr84W12vcc27cbGtjW2zyN562Xq09tW4byZqd2KJNkmN6W30_f3DshsN5YJyKxkkCbQW2rMFfm4DNWqlW5l8NfL8_rwM52181

A good review by Elan Journo

[Peter]

I am not sure why but my security system said this review was "risky."

[ThatGuy]

The New Religion of 'Woke'

NEWIDEAL.AYNRAND.ORG

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In his new book John McWhorter argues forcefully that the “woke” phenomenon is essentially religious and reinforces racism rather than...

Here's a better linkage:

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Meh...

Part of this review is an essay into the obvious years and years too late.

In fact, we've been taking this stuff apart here on OL for years. Where the hell have these ARI people been?

In short, the big topic takeaway from the review is that racism is bad.

Duh.. No shit, Sherlock.

 

Another part of this essay is focused on debunking the obvious.

The theme of this part is that blacks can be racists just like whites can be.

(Big honking yawn so far.)

 

Now comes the boneheaded part, which is more insinuated than stated outright, but it is all throughout the review.

Wokeness and Critical Race Theory are derived from Christianity.

Er...

Say what?

It doesn't sound right spoken out loud, does it? 

That's because it's not right.

Journo uses the term "religion," but his framing is all about Christianity. You will not find any incursions into religions like Buddhism as part of what he means, nor even religion-ideologies like communism.

 

You have to blank out a hell of a lot to completely miss the Marxism and collectivism involved in Wokeness and Critical Race Theory. How on earth did he miss that the Marxists said they were going to indoctrinate a generation of kids, then proceeded to do just that? And everybody opposing it know this and talk about it these days?

Or how about the leaders of BLM saying Marxism was their inspiration? Or that in the mainstream press, Critical Race Theory is openly identified as having Marxist roots? And on and on and on? How the hell did this ARI dude miss this?

 

What's worse, there was an election the other day in Virginia--a total sweep against Wokeness and CRT--where the goddam theme was to get Marxism (collectivism) out of the schools. How in hell did the ARI dude miss that when it's on the level of a friggin' conceptual referent? Doesn't he have eyes? Doesn't he have ears? Doesn't he have a mind?

 

There are some good suggestions near the end of the review like end the war on drugs, etc., but in that context, they don't mean much--at least not to me.

 

Let's get to you, the reader. If you want someone to explain that milk is liquid and the sky is blue as if these are new things, Journo is you man. Except he will then tell you that liquid is somehow about Christian repression, not the sense of touch, and blue is all about Christian repression, not about sight.

I think my biggest objection to this review is the insinuation that Wokeness and CRT can be something other than a religion. That is, in the sense that communism is a religion. Reason is not involved in Wokeness and CRT. It's all about faith and power and, epistemologically, that's all it's ever been about. Duh... 

Where does Journo get off saying that religion has no place in the classroom while missing the fact that religion is all one gets in the classroom these days? Where the hell has he been? On a friggin' crusade against Christianity, that's where.

 

I don't mind he doesn't like Christianity. That's his right. But by missing the Marxist and collectivist nature of the issue when it's saturated throughout the mainstream is like those dudes on the Titanic debating the rules and strategies of chess right before ship collided with the iceberg. What a massive example of the blank-out.

 

And what a horrible piece of writing this thing is.

I actually feel more stupid from reading it.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Let me add to that.

Given ARI's history, it's quite something to see an ARI dude try to teach others that excommunication is a sure sign of religion.

 

You can't make this crap up...

(btw - No criticism of Tony implied in my comments.)

Michael

[anthony]

MSK, Certainly it can be said and I have on another forum that ARI have been fast asleep at the wheel about CRT and Wokeness, an evasion or blindness to the biggest cultural problems today to prompt anyone's irritation, but here, in fairness that's nearly all McWhorter's ideas and observations which Journo directly quotes and lays out in his critique. Little of his own thoughts. ARI might have belatedly come awake on Woke. Although indirectly and unoriginally by way of an outside author.

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

7 minutes ago, anthony said:

Little of his own thoughts.

Tony,

You can say that again.

But I wonder if that is accurate. We communicate by what we say and what we leave out.

I know you are trying to give a soft landing to Journo, but using that argument and standard for reviewing a book, I wonder what Journo's review of Mein Kampf or The Communist Manifesto would be like.

Workers of the world, unite!

Would Journo just leave that dangling?

   

Michael

[anthony]

9 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I know you are trying to give a soft landing to Journo,

 

Michael

To an ARI writer, most unusual for me to do so! You may have noticed I'm livid about their recent deviousness (that one can infer from many articles back to 5 years ago).

I thought for a change to give a little credit to his piece for its subject matter. As a conversation starter.

McWhorter brings up the familiar to us idea that religiosity and faith and irrationality isn't confined to the formal religions, secularists have their versions of faith and sacraments, High Priests and church and True Believer congregants too. And are as prone as early Christians to cast out or burn the back-sliders after extracting their contrition.. . Mystics of muscle, etc. While I haven;t read it, it does not seem (from Journo) that McWhorter writes that Woke originated from Christianity, he must know the Marxist background - only that it has the characteristics of a religion. When general readers recognize the religious element to Woke it could make sense of, for one, the fanaticism and canceling attacks on Christians who in many ways I think are the main opposition against Wokeism and CRT. Some well reasoned intellectual articles by Conservatives have shown their awareness of the threats, especially, race-divisiveness. A clue to, again, why ARI has been so long silent. They have been on their own anti- conservative crusade (as if there's not any other ideology to worry about more).

[Peter]

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is watching out for the next generation. Good for him.

From Bing . . . . Last week, the department said some of the rejected textbooks — 54 of 132 — were not aligned with Florida’s content standards, called the “Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking,” or BEST, while others were rejected for the subject matter. “Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,” it said.

The department came under criticism for not releasing any examples, so on Thursday, it did. Four of them. One of the examples involves a graph that shows results of a test that measures levels of racial prejudice. Another shows a social-emotional learning objective that says: “Students build proficiency with social awareness as they practice with empathizing with classmates.” . . . .