The Wrong Path to Justice

For John, BLUF:  The idea that Caucasian success in America was built solely on slavery (the 1619 thesis) will result in a very bad outcome for everyone.  We all need to learn about hard work and sharing the wealth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Math Professor:  The '2+2=4 Trope ... Reeks of White Supremacist Patriarchy'

From Pajama Media, by Mr Tyler O'Neil, 13 August 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

In the name of social justice, many Marxists push a kind of absurd brainwashing that denies basic rationality.  This month, a math professor denounced the “MYTH” that math is objective.  She said the “math is neutral because 2 + 2 = 4” trope “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy.”  Ironically, associating mathematics and basic knowledge with white men actually undermines Marxists’ ostensible goal of empowering women and people of color.

Laurie Rubel, a mathematics education professor at New York’s Brooklyn College, tweeted, “the idea that math (or data) is culturally neutral or in any way objective is a MYTH.”

Rubel added, “along with the ‘of course math is neutral because 2 + 2 = 4’ trope are the related (and creepy) ‘math is pure’ and ‘protect math.'”  She claimed this kind of statement “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy.”

“i’d [sic] rather think on nurturing people & protecting the planet (with math in service of them goals),” the professor added.

The people pontificating about systemic racism seem to be be clueless about actually fixing it.  Some police departments have problems.  Hoever, below that is education.  In Massachusetts the MCAS scores tell the story.  A lot of kids go out into the real high stakes test, life, and with low MCAS scores.  But, more fundamental is the damage we have done to the nuclear family, and in particular by our welfare system.  I want to fix the problem, but there are a lot of unserious people who just wish to rant.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

It Doesn't Happen, Yet It Does

For John, BLUF:  I keep hearing rumors of this, but you don't think it really happens, do you?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

New Jersey attorney general charges local politicians in mail-in voter fraud case

Here is the sub-headline:

A city councilman, a councilman-elect and two others have been charged

From Just the News, by Writer Daniel Payne, 26 June 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Four New Jersey residents have been charged in a recent mail-in voter fraud case, with state's attorney general accusing them of multiple crimes including voting fraud, tampering with public records and unauthorized possession of multiple vote-by-mail ballots.

Fraud allegations have plagued the recent Patterson City Council special election in New Jersey, with three losing candidates last month demanding a recount after thousands of ballots were voided in the largely mail-in race.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Thursday that four people, one of them a Paterson city councilman and another a councilman-elect, have been charged with committing fraud during that election.

Grewal said the state would "not allow a small number of criminals to undermine the public’s confidence in our democratic process."

All the best people assure me this never happens.

So, avert your eyes.

And pray.

Regards  —  Cliff

Distorted History

For John, BLUF:  Maybe it is the fact that the United States aimed so high is why every wrinkle is seen as such a failure.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

1619, Mao, & 9-11:  History According to the NYT—Plus, a Remarkable Issue of National Geographic Reveals the Leftists' "Blame America First" Approach to History

From the Blog ¡No pasarán!, by Monsieur Erik Svane, 15 November 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Over the past few months, the New York Times has opined three times on historical questions, both ancient and recent.

How valid, how pretty (sic), have the results been?

First, the 1619 Project, which is designed to call America's entire history a scam, for which Americans deserve to be shamed and punished.  (I forgot where I read it, but this is hardly unrelated to the fact it appears that the Democrats' 2020 candidates want less to govern Americans than to punish Americans.)

(The present post is mainly about the 1619 take, and la pièce de résistance is a remarkable document by the left-leaning National Geographic's attempt to share in and to contribute to the leftist message — below, in the third part of this post.  After a presentation of the Times's, i.e., the leftists', twisted view of history (part 1 of this post) and a discussion thereof (part 2) — not least Europe's contribution to the demonization of the United States (for almost two centuries, if not more!) — the final, 3rd, part, will feature an in-depth examination of a fully left-leaning article that actually manages to utterly debunk the leftists' (and the Europeans') entire (self-serving) premise.)

A long read, worth it.

Regards  —  Cliff

Evolution or Creation?

For John, BLUF:  The New York Times Series "1619" makes the argument that America's success is based on the economic benefits flowing from slavery, and all evil flows from that.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

Conceived in Liberty; Born in Revolution

From According to Hoyt, by Science Fiction Writer Sarah A Hoyt, 4 September 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Forget the NYT — pretty much always, really.  They’ve become purveyors of bad, bad fiction — and their project to prove America is the most racist nation evah!

That kind of idiocy will only convince the feeble minded.  (Of course none of us knows how many are feeble minded.  After all the data is vitiated all the way down by people repeating nonsense to virtue-signal and vote fraud… never mind.)

Sure, there was slavery in America in the seventeenth century.  Bad news guys. There was slavery everywhere in the seventeenth century, pretty much.  And it is a failure of the American education system that most people assume that all slaves were black.  First of all, it depended where the slavery was.  Also, if you think slavery in the US was the worst thing ever, (which btw, is the new modified, limited hangout when you call them on their idiocy) you probably are ignorant of conditions in the rest of the world at that time, period.  Hell, it might have been better to be a slave in America at the time than to be a serf in France.  Alma mentions what we can infer about conditions for slaves in the rest of the world.

And no, guys, no.  Slavery in Africa wasn’t kinder and gentler just because everyone was the same color.  To begin with, the chances are really high that people didn’t consider themselves the same race, no matter what the similarities in coloring or even facial structure.  In tribal societies, small differences become really exaggerated.  But beyond that, if you study that time period in Africa well…  The Dahomey liked sacrificing slaves over the tombs of their kinds.  The ones they sold to the west were the lucky ones.

Maybe the founding sin was to believe in the concept of individual freedom and building on that belief.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Another Spin on the 1619 Project

For John, BLUF:  Should The New York Times be shamed into dropping its masthead motto, "All the news that's fit to print"?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

The New York Times admits 'it wants to get Trump'

Here is the sub-headline:

Leaked transcripts from a New York Times crisis town-hall meeting shows some within its senior leadership are determined "to get" Donald Trump out of office, according to Sky News host James Morrow

Dateline 24 August 2019.

It is a 5:32 video.

I guess it is an editorial position.  One that influences me.  To not shell out money.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff