What Happened To You? - Andrew Sullivan

[Geee]

Substack

“What happened to you?”

It’s a question I get a lot on Twitter. “When did you become so far right?” “Why have you become a white supremacist, transphobic, misogynistic eugenicist?” Or, of course: “See! I told you who he really was! Just take the hood off, Sully!” It’s trolling, mainly. And it’s a weapon for some in the elite to wield against others in the kind of emotional blackmail spiral that was first pioneered on elite college campuses. But it’s worth answering, a year after I was booted from New York Magazine for my unacceptable politics. Because it seems to me that the dynamic should really be the other way round.

The real question is: what happened to you?

The CRT debate is just the latest squall in a tempest brewing and building for five years or so. And, yes, some of the liberal critiques of a Fox News hyped campaign are well taken. Is this a wedge issue for the GOP? Of course it is. Are they using the term “critical race theory” as a cynical, marketing boogeyman? Of course they are. Are some dog whistles involved? A few. Are crude bans on public servants’ speech dangerous? Absolutely. Do many of the alarmists know who Derrick Bell was? Of course not. 

But does that mean there isn’t a real issue here? Of course it doesn’t.

Take a big step back. Observe what has happened in our discourse since around 2015. Forget CRT for a moment and ask yourself: is nothing going on here but Republican propaganda and guile? Can you not see that the Republicans may be acting, but they are also reacting — reacting against something that is right in front of our noses?

What is it? It is, I’d argue, the sudden, rapid, stunning shift in the belief system of the American elites. It has sent the whole society into a profound cultural dislocation. It is, in essence, an ongoing moral panic against the specter of “white supremacy,” which is now bizarrely regarded as an accurate description of the largest, freest, most successful multiracial democracy in human history.

[Geee]

The Founding Elite vs. The Current Elite

In an insightful Independence Day Twitter thread, Emily Zanotti expressed her partiality for this provision of the Declaration of Independence:

[T]his is my favorite part: ‘And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.’ Can you imagine writing that? Signing your name to that? Acknowledging that this document means you will come out of this broke, dead, and remembered as a traitor if you do not win. Signing your own death warrant. Man, that took balls . . . 

In recognizing and celebrating the signatories’ fortitude, Zanotti illuminated the stark contrast between the visions of America’s founding elite and its current elite.

 

Without a doubt, the founding generation’s leading figures were from the colonies’ elite. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and their fellow preeminent revolutionaries were wealthy and celebrated in their time. These were not hardscrabble peasants yearning to commit regicide and confiscate wealth.

As the Declaration makes clear, they already had their fortunes and honors. They could have ridden out the troubles with the English crown in comfort, occasionally petitioning the king for parliamentary representation or the repeal of offending acts. Thus, their stand for independence and liberty was as incongruous as it is inspiring.

The founding elite rebelled to expand the freedom of their fellow human beings. Patently, the expansion the founding generation sought wasn’t completed in their time. And while many of them tried mightily, they ultimately failed to abolish slavery and grant, without qualification, the franchise to all men and women. But to denounce the seminal victory for human freedom by comparing it to the current blessings it has borne is, at best, preposterous. It is injurious, at worst, because it masks the venality, mendacity, and cynicism of America’s current elite.

While the founding elite’s goal was the expansion of human freedom, the current elite’s aim is the curtailment of human freedom. Proselytizing its mantra of “diversity, inclusivity, and equity,” (DIE) the current elite, through Trojan horse maneuvers, seeks to coerce the citizenry into the DIE cult. Once there, this racist, Manichean ideology subsumes and subordinates the individual to the collective, which determines the status of all people based upon a subjective ranking of physical characteristics (“intersectionality”), rather than the content of their respective characters. Inevitably, this trajectory of events results in the erosion of rights and, finally, loss of freedom for the individual. 

[Valin]

30 minutes ago, Geee said:

Substack

“What happened to you?”

It’s a question I get a lot on Twitter. “When did you become so far right?” “Why have you become a white supremacist, transphobic, misogynistic eugenicist?” Or, of course: “See! I told you who he really was! Just take the hood off, Sully!” It’s trolling, mainly. And it’s a weapon for some in the elite to wield against others in the kind of emotional blackmail spiral that was first pioneered on elite college campuses. But it’s worth answering, a year after I was booted from New York Magazine for my unacceptable politics. Because it seems to me that the dynamic should really be the other way round.

The real question is: what happened to you?

The CRT debate is just the latest squall in a tempest brewing and building for five years or so. And, yes, some of the liberal critiques of a Fox News hyped campaign are well taken. Is this a wedge issue for the GOP? Of course it is. Are they using the term “critical race theory” as a cynical, marketing boogeyman? Of course they are. Are some dog whistles involved? A few. Are crude bans on public servants’ speech dangerous? Absolutely. Do many of the alarmists know who Derrick Bell was? Of course not. 

But does that mean there isn’t a real issue here? Of course it doesn’t.

Take a big step back. Observe what has happened in our discourse since around 2015. Forget CRT for a moment and ask yourself: is nothing going on here but Republican propaganda and guile? Can you not see that the Republicans may be acting, but they are also reacting — reacting against something that is right in front of our noses?

What is it? It is, I’d argue, the sudden, rapid, stunning shift in the belief system of the American elites. It has sent the whole society into a profound cultural dislocation. It is, in essence, an ongoing moral panic against the specter of “white supremacy,” which is now bizarrely regarded as an accurate description of the largest, freest, most successful multiracial democracy in human history.

 

@Geee

 

Question: When was the last time you agreed  with Andrew Sullivan about anything?

Its a strange world today, when (married homosexual agnostic) Dave Rubin can go to Liberty University and get a good reception, But can't get on CNN/MSNBC.