I am finding it absolutely fascinating that so many intellectuals and academics of integrity are coming out at last. I have always felt myself to be an independent intellectual working on whatever I want without the need to make money from it. In recent years, as you might imagine, my opinions of academia have plummeted as I have watched erstwhile intelligent people throw all standards of reason and logic under the proverbial bus. And I have become increasingly incredulous that I have to take certain positions or claims seriously that otherwise I would ridicule or ignore.
It is as if intellectual life has been taken over by children who want to work everything out for themselves and refuse to learn from those of us who have gone before, who are as far as they are concerned, the big problem - our “cishetero” attitudes are what is standing in the way of their truth. But they have erected nodebate as the pinnacle of intellectual integrity, so nobody learns anything.
But of course we all know the situation to be much more insidious than this. The aforementioned young people are being guided by zealots and ideologues whose agenda is becoming increasingly scrutinised by mainstream common sense and which will surely crumble soon. Surely? Please!!
I am now, I suppose, what would be conservative even though I think of myself as left leaning progressive, simply because I do not believe in rubber stamping ideas that are popularly considered to be the "most progressive," which they are not. They are knee-jerk reactions to the far right conservatives because that's what our political discourse (using the term quite loosely), has become. The most frightening thing to me is that the country may never return to reasonable, thoughtful, critical thinking around any issue but especially the transgender ideology and lobby. In Michigan, what we are seeing is the worst example of policy being undermined by our divided politics where the extreme right is saying all the seeming "right" things (to me) about grooming children and sex based sport but using it as a weapon of their agenda to bludgeon the far left and to rile their religious base and undermine women's rights. And the left has decided that they must retort and speak and act in direct opposition to the right instead of urging intelligent conversation about the spectrum of issues that encompasses transgenderism and go through the complex examination of it to discern what is the best course of action in policy to protect civil rights and human rights for everyone, not just the trans community. They are all pretending that it's a black and white problem which helps no one involved, least of all women and girls whose rights are being chipped away at incrementally.
Here in Scotland, the government (such as it is) and most of the instruments of state have been captured by Stonewall - an organisation that once stood up for the interests of gay and bisexual people but with is interested now only in pushing the TQI+ agenda, which is intellectually bereft to the point of being laughable self parody.
It is easy for me to say these things because I do not have a position or job to look after in one of aforementioned institutions. I am free to think stuff through for myself; what I witness in others is often an alarming unwillingness inability or refusal to think stuff through but instead the repetition of banal indefensible tropes combined with a passive agressiviteit quite out of place from common courtesy, civilised discourse and intellectual life.
More should free themselves from the woowoo and think it through for themselves. Or they should come out about this and stop lying!
Eliza, let me know if you want a copy of my book, What It Will Take: Rejecting Dead-ends and False Friends in the Fight for the Earth. Happy to send you one. (Part tales of an environmental/farm worker advocate, part fact-filled resource on how NGOs end up fighting against the public interest and how we're losing as a result; Part analysis on what we need to do differently in the fight for the Earth.) I wrote it after decades in the NonProfit Industrial Complex. I thought I could help save the world there, but figured out it is mainly part of the problem. One thing environmental NGOs do is create a mirage of progress, even as we slide further and further backwards. Things have gotten so much worse in the last 5 years or so, with the Gender Cult infiltration of most environmental, socialist and other "left" entities. But gradually those who are clear-thinking and principled are finding each other.
Indeed. Your tale and that of Eliza reminds me of a 1972 classic novel by Arthur Koestler, The Call-Girls:
"... its plot tells the story of a group of academic scientists struggling to understand the human tendency towards self-destruction, while the group members gradually become more suspicious and aggressive towards each other."
Been years since I've read it - highly recommended if a bit depressing - but seems to be an accusation that those "academic scientists" are no better than call-girls for prostituting their arts to rather less than commendable ends. Reminds me of Michael Robillard's substack article which quoted Upton Sinclair:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Far too much tail wagging too small a dog. But quite a hard-hitting essay of his, particularly noteworthy is his quote of Delingpole: "Universities are madrassas for woke stupidity":
Should close every last department there that has anything at all to do with "diversity", "gender", or "Women Studies":
"The authors [of Professing Feminism] wrote of the isolationist attitude that dominates many of the programs, along with a virulent anti-science, anti-intellectual sentiment driving many of the professors, staff and students."
This is very intetesting, Eliza. I hope that you will write more about your experiences in the non-profit sector. Or if you already have, could you please point me to where? Thanks!
What do you think it is that stops thought and discussion amongst people in a society? I realize there's influence that comes from the powerful but that doesn't necessarily dictate how it will take root in the American public. I wonder if the seeds that have been sown are seeds of apathy that cause people to just not care. And if that's the case, how do we get people to care again?
isn't it mostly the foundation of capitalism beneath our democracy that has devalued human life in favor of money grubbing power dynamics? Of creating a class hierarchy so that the greatest percentage of our citizenry has been made so powerless that we cannot be distracted by our own personal issues of health, income, food poverty, divisive politics, inequality, that we feel our lives are so precarious that we fear fighting back? I know, how do you begin to fix that after 50 - 70 years of political shenanigans morphing our country into what we have today? This result was actually the intended plan of the far right, religious, gop. It is not new.
Our nation (I'm speaking as an American) has been capitalist for its entire history, not just the last 50-70 years, but the corporations are much larger now and are increasingly political/ideological. We were once a nation of small farmers and independent business owners, which is no longer the case. The Republican party has become the party of the remaining small business owners, while the Democrats dominate in the big business and government sectors. What I'm trying to say is the the dynamic is far more complex than just "dehumanizing" or power-hungry capitalism. When you accuse capitalism of being this, are you thinking only of large corporations?
Also, capitalism has not remained stagnant. It also has morphed into something larger and more destructive than its naïve beginnings. Especially with the madison avenue philosophy of the 1960s and the technology of today. It is almost anti-human except that they need humans to buy their shit so they simply learned to gaslight on a very large scale.
I disagree. The current republican gop is the party of corporatocracy, kleptocracy, oligarchy. It is misogynistic, xenophobic, racist. It is only participating at all in government and politics in order to gain power and money. It pretends to be the friend of small business but then acts against small business interests. The 50-70 year span is when this gop actually started making obvious headway in this direction because of the reagan administration. My understanding is that it has been going on since FDR at the least and, if you read historian Heather Cox Richardson, it is clear that this political thinking has been around since the civil war and before because they have always wanted to control women and poc. The problem with the Democrats is that they are afraid of losing what power they have by being "too progressive" when in reality they would be cheered for leaning into progress, not centering themselves so strongly. But until McConnell dies and all his ilk, I fear there is no getting around the obstruction of the gop. Progressives need to come through as much as possible in the midterms.
Extraordinary, - over here in the UK I think we all became aware of less and less money available to the NGO section - especially for women’s organisations. We worry over here about the shrinking of civil society space and that perhaps is the same as expressed by you, Eliza.
Lind’s article is a jaw dropping read. I knew that much of the big news media had sold it’s integrity to capture one audience or another, but I was unaware of the BIG NGO stranglehold on “thought”. Thanks for the illumination. The good news is that some humans can sense when something is OFF. Then, IF they have integrity, they leave, or strategize for change, or make a stand somehow. (as did you)
What happened to the competitive search for truth? Or is that not what “we” look for anymore?
I am finding it absolutely fascinating that so many intellectuals and academics of integrity are coming out at last. I have always felt myself to be an independent intellectual working on whatever I want without the need to make money from it. In recent years, as you might imagine, my opinions of academia have plummeted as I have watched erstwhile intelligent people throw all standards of reason and logic under the proverbial bus. And I have become increasingly incredulous that I have to take certain positions or claims seriously that otherwise I would ridicule or ignore.
It is as if intellectual life has been taken over by children who want to work everything out for themselves and refuse to learn from those of us who have gone before, who are as far as they are concerned, the big problem - our “cishetero” attitudes are what is standing in the way of their truth. But they have erected nodebate as the pinnacle of intellectual integrity, so nobody learns anything.
But of course we all know the situation to be much more insidious than this. The aforementioned young people are being guided by zealots and ideologues whose agenda is becoming increasingly scrutinised by mainstream common sense and which will surely crumble soon. Surely? Please!!
Yes! Also, money and power must be maintained at any cost of human lives and rights. That's the amoral foundation to our democracy: capitalism.
I am now, I suppose, what would be conservative even though I think of myself as left leaning progressive, simply because I do not believe in rubber stamping ideas that are popularly considered to be the "most progressive," which they are not. They are knee-jerk reactions to the far right conservatives because that's what our political discourse (using the term quite loosely), has become. The most frightening thing to me is that the country may never return to reasonable, thoughtful, critical thinking around any issue but especially the transgender ideology and lobby. In Michigan, what we are seeing is the worst example of policy being undermined by our divided politics where the extreme right is saying all the seeming "right" things (to me) about grooming children and sex based sport but using it as a weapon of their agenda to bludgeon the far left and to rile their religious base and undermine women's rights. And the left has decided that they must retort and speak and act in direct opposition to the right instead of urging intelligent conversation about the spectrum of issues that encompasses transgenderism and go through the complex examination of it to discern what is the best course of action in policy to protect civil rights and human rights for everyone, not just the trans community. They are all pretending that it's a black and white problem which helps no one involved, least of all women and girls whose rights are being chipped away at incrementally.
Sounds ghastly.
Here in Scotland, the government (such as it is) and most of the instruments of state have been captured by Stonewall - an organisation that once stood up for the interests of gay and bisexual people but with is interested now only in pushing the TQI+ agenda, which is intellectually bereft to the point of being laughable self parody.
It is easy for me to say these things because I do not have a position or job to look after in one of aforementioned institutions. I am free to think stuff through for myself; what I witness in others is often an alarming unwillingness inability or refusal to think stuff through but instead the repetition of banal indefensible tropes combined with a passive agressiviteit quite out of place from common courtesy, civilised discourse and intellectual life.
More should free themselves from the woowoo and think it through for themselves. Or they should come out about this and stop lying!
Eliza, let me know if you want a copy of my book, What It Will Take: Rejecting Dead-ends and False Friends in the Fight for the Earth. Happy to send you one. (Part tales of an environmental/farm worker advocate, part fact-filled resource on how NGOs end up fighting against the public interest and how we're losing as a result; Part analysis on what we need to do differently in the fight for the Earth.) I wrote it after decades in the NonProfit Industrial Complex. I thought I could help save the world there, but figured out it is mainly part of the problem. One thing environmental NGOs do is create a mirage of progress, even as we slide further and further backwards. Things have gotten so much worse in the last 5 years or so, with the Gender Cult infiltration of most environmental, socialist and other "left" entities. But gradually those who are clear-thinking and principled are finding each other.
"create a mirage of progress".
Indeed. Your tale and that of Eliza reminds me of a 1972 classic novel by Arthur Koestler, The Call-Girls:
"... its plot tells the story of a group of academic scientists struggling to understand the human tendency towards self-destruction, while the group members gradually become more suspicious and aggressive towards each other."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Call-Girls
Been years since I've read it - highly recommended if a bit depressing - but seems to be an accusation that those "academic scientists" are no better than call-girls for prostituting their arts to rather less than commendable ends. Reminds me of Michael Robillard's substack article which quoted Upton Sinclair:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Far too much tail wagging too small a dog. But quite a hard-hitting essay of his, particularly noteworthy is his quote of Delingpole: "Universities are madrassas for woke stupidity":
https://michaelrobillard.substack.com/p/how-i-left-academia-or-how-academia?s=r
Should close every last department there that has anything at all to do with "diversity", "gender", or "Women Studies":
"The authors [of Professing Feminism] wrote of the isolationist attitude that dominates many of the programs, along with a virulent anti-science, anti-intellectual sentiment driving many of the professors, staff and students."
https://www.feministcritics.org/blog/2009/07/27/professing-feminism-noh/
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Quite so.
This is very intetesting, Eliza. I hope that you will write more about your experiences in the non-profit sector. Or if you already have, could you please point me to where? Thanks!
What do you think it is that stops thought and discussion amongst people in a society? I realize there's influence that comes from the powerful but that doesn't necessarily dictate how it will take root in the American public. I wonder if the seeds that have been sown are seeds of apathy that cause people to just not care. And if that's the case, how do we get people to care again?
isn't it mostly the foundation of capitalism beneath our democracy that has devalued human life in favor of money grubbing power dynamics? Of creating a class hierarchy so that the greatest percentage of our citizenry has been made so powerless that we cannot be distracted by our own personal issues of health, income, food poverty, divisive politics, inequality, that we feel our lives are so precarious that we fear fighting back? I know, how do you begin to fix that after 50 - 70 years of political shenanigans morphing our country into what we have today? This result was actually the intended plan of the far right, religious, gop. It is not new.
Our nation (I'm speaking as an American) has been capitalist for its entire history, not just the last 50-70 years, but the corporations are much larger now and are increasingly political/ideological. We were once a nation of small farmers and independent business owners, which is no longer the case. The Republican party has become the party of the remaining small business owners, while the Democrats dominate in the big business and government sectors. What I'm trying to say is the the dynamic is far more complex than just "dehumanizing" or power-hungry capitalism. When you accuse capitalism of being this, are you thinking only of large corporations?
Also, capitalism has not remained stagnant. It also has morphed into something larger and more destructive than its naïve beginnings. Especially with the madison avenue philosophy of the 1960s and the technology of today. It is almost anti-human except that they need humans to buy their shit so they simply learned to gaslight on a very large scale.
I disagree. The current republican gop is the party of corporatocracy, kleptocracy, oligarchy. It is misogynistic, xenophobic, racist. It is only participating at all in government and politics in order to gain power and money. It pretends to be the friend of small business but then acts against small business interests. The 50-70 year span is when this gop actually started making obvious headway in this direction because of the reagan administration. My understanding is that it has been going on since FDR at the least and, if you read historian Heather Cox Richardson, it is clear that this political thinking has been around since the civil war and before because they have always wanted to control women and poc. The problem with the Democrats is that they are afraid of losing what power they have by being "too progressive" when in reality they would be cheered for leaning into progress, not centering themselves so strongly. But until McConnell dies and all his ilk, I fear there is no getting around the obstruction of the gop. Progressives need to come through as much as possible in the midterms.
I agree that capitalism has devalued human life and that powerlessness and distraction play in to the fear of fighting back.
Extraordinary, - over here in the UK I think we all became aware of less and less money available to the NGO section - especially for women’s organisations. We worry over here about the shrinking of civil society space and that perhaps is the same as expressed by you, Eliza.
Lind’s article is a jaw dropping read. I knew that much of the big news media had sold it’s integrity to capture one audience or another, but I was unaware of the BIG NGO stranglehold on “thought”. Thanks for the illumination. The good news is that some humans can sense when something is OFF. Then, IF they have integrity, they leave, or strategize for change, or make a stand somehow. (as did you)
What happened to the competitive search for truth? Or is that not what “we” look for anymore?