Sasha Ivanov.How To Defeat Woke: Rufo vs Hanania

https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/how-to-defeat-woke-rufo-vs-hanania?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

This year saw the publication of two very important books, which are bound to shape intellectual discourse and (hopefully) public policy in coming years. Richard Hanania’s The Origins of Woke and Chris Rufo’s America’s Cultural Revolution are the Tech Right’s response to the woke onslaught of the past decade. The two authors made their name on Twitter/X by capitalizing on anti-woke sentiment, and each ended up influencing the American right-wing despite having no previous affiliation with the Republican party.

Both books are excellent, and should be read by anyone who wants to understand the culture war. Both authors – especially Rufo, but also Hanania through CSPI – are activists and not mere writers. They deserve credit for taking the fight to the Left and being viciously attacked while doing so.

This review will compare and contrast the two books, providing a critical appraisal of their main points – while keeping in mind that both are fundamentally on the right track. I will not describe the contents of the books in detail – for that, you can read Eric Kaufmann’s excellent review.

Culture or politics?

Juxtaposing the two books helps to answer a fundamental question: how do we change society – through political or institutional/cultural capture? Obviously, both approaches are needed; after all, the left took both approaches. But at this moment of leftist hegemony, where should the right focus its efforts? In science there is a distinction between ultimate and proximate causes; if politics is downstream of culture, as the late Andrew Breitbart used to say, then efforts should be concentrated on the ultimate cause, culture. But if civil rights law is the ultimate cause of woke culture, then just changing legislation will be enough.

My own position can be summarized as follows: Rufo beats Hanania. Politics is downstream of culture, and not the other way round. Of course, the two books are more complementary than they are antagonistic, and  neither claims that wokeness is singularly caused by politics or culture. However, Rufo clearly emphasizes the causal role of culture on politics, while Hanania clearly states that political decisions ultimately shape culture.

The west’s monster within Liberal society contains the seeds of its own destruction Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/the-wests-monster-within?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Many in Britain and the west have been looking aghast at a monster within that has reared up and bared its fangs. They have suddenly realised that they are staring at a civilisational crisis.

After the October 7 Hamas pogrom, with the barbaric slaughter of 1,400 men, women and children in southern Israel and the kidnapping into Gaza of more than 220 souls, decent people in the west have been horrified by the massive displays of jubilant bloodlust on the streets of London, New York, Sydney and elsewhere.

They have suddenly realised that there are thousands of their citizens who support Hamas and who call genocide against the Jews “resistance”.

Every day has brought fresh signs of an anti-Jewish psychopathy within their own societies. Countless thousands don’t appear to recognise that Jewish victims of genocidal attack are entitled to human sympathy.

In Britain and America, young people have been tearing down posters bearing pictures of  some of the kidnapped Israeli children.

Over the tannoy on a London Tube train, a driver led a chant of “Free Palestine” among cheering passengers on their way to demonstrate against an Israel that is being targeted by genocidal attack.

At George Washington University in Washington, D.C., messages including “Glory to Our Martyrs,” “Divestment from Zionist Genocide Now” and “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea” were projected for two hours on to the side of a library building.

Police and other authorities have been struggling to protect Jews from the rampant antisemitism that is now brazen, open and ubiquitous.

At Cooper Union College in New York, security officers had to lock Jewish students in the school library against threats from pro-Hamas students, eventually using tunnels to smuggle them out.

In Australia, where a mob chanted “Gas the Jews” in front of the Sydney Opera House, the police advised the Jewish community to “stay home” for their own safety.

In Germany, there have been mass arrests of pro-Hamas demonstrators. In France, President Emanuel Macron is threatening to deport Muslim demonstrators with dual nationality.

Those who are shocked and appalled by this savage support for Hamas observe that it is mainly coming from Muslim fellow-citizens but is also echoed by western “liberals”.

Even though Hamas is committing war crimes by using Gazan civilians as human shields, western “progressives” are accusing Israel of war crimes. Even though Israel has been warning Gazan civilians to flee for their own safety as required by international law, Israel is being accused of breaking international law.

Joe Biden is fighting the Fed.  Liz Peek

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4279277-joe-biden-fights-the-fed/

That’s the takeaway from the most recent report on the economy, showing that the third quarter grew more rapidly than expected in spite of rising interest rates. One reason is obvious: the president and his Democrat allies continue to pump up government spending, boosting growth, even as the Federal Reserve says a slowdown may be necessary to tame inflation “sustainably.”    

Investors are not happy. Stocks are nearing correction territory, down roughly 10 percent from the highs of the summer. There are concerns that interest rate cuts, which might propel another earnings surge and another market rally, are not likely any time soon. 

Simply put, soaring government spending has put the economy on a sugar high.  

In the third quarter, total real GDP grew 2.9 percent year-over-year; federal outlays accelerated, growing 5.5 percent over the year-earlier quarter. It was the largest jump since the height of the pandemic, when Congress and the Trump administration threw everything possible into the economy to stave off a deep recession. It worked; the U.S. experienced a very sharp downdraft when the government decreed that businesses had to shut down, but then it bounced back quickly, thanks to enormous government stimulus spending.  

What has gone so very wrong under President Biden is that federal and local government spending is still growing dramatically, even though the crisis has passed. Some of the increase in the most recent quarter stemmed from national defense spending, reflecting the war in Ukraine, which climbed 4.9 percent year-to-year in real terms. But more consequential was a 6.3 percent boost in nondefense spending. State and local government spending expanded 3.9 percent.  

None of this is surprising. Joe Biden has a singular approach to every issue: spend more money, even as inflation eats away at real incomes.  

What irony! The deranged defence of Hamas on campuses across the West is fuelling a counter-revolution that could finally loosen the stranglehold of wokeism Niall Ferguson

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12681617/What-irony-deranged-defence-Hamas-campuses-West-fuelling-counter-revolution-finally-loosen-stranglehold-wokeism.html

Has wokeism jumped the shark? In other words, have the radical Leftists who for years have exercised increasing power in our universities finally gone too far?

I dare to hope so. The recent disgraceful responses to the attacks on Israel that we have seen — from American university campuses to the streets of London and Sydney — have dramatically increased awareness that something is rotten in the state of higher education in the English-speaking world.

Some of us have been battling against the ideological takeover of academia for close to a decade. Each year, we have been getting better organised. But we have struggled to convince people in the real world just how bad things are.

The past three weeks may finally have changed that.

The expression ‘jump the shark’ was coined in 1977 when the scriptwriters of long-running comedy series Happy Days — into their fifth series and getting short of ideas — tried to pep up the storyline by having the main character, Fonzie, preposterously jump over a shark while on water-skis.

‘It is only now people outside academia are noticing – The campus Left’s response to the attacks of October 7 was equally far-fetched and over-the-top — but immeasurably more offensive’

The campus Left’s response to the attacks of October 7 was equally far-fetched and over-the-top — but immeasurably more offensive.

Let’s remind ourselves what happened three weeks ago. Two Gaza-based terrorist groups inspired by Islamist ideology, committed to the destruction of the state of Israel and backed by at least one government, staged a trailer for a second Holocaust. In their savagery, they exceeded even the horrors perpetrated by the Russian butchers of Bucha in Ukraine.

Europe Facing Civil War? by Drieu Godefridi

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20103/europe-facing-civil-war

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained in an interview recently that Europe had made a serious mistake by creating within itself, through mass immigration, populations that reject all its norms, values and a “constitutional basis”.

Finally, Europeans will have to do the unthinkable: actually apply their laws. If anyone — Muslim or non-Muslim — wants to celebrate the jihadist pogroms against the Jews, well, they can go and rejoice in Iran or Qatar. Not in Europe.

Every “Death to the Jews” or “Death to Israel” uttered in Europe… is an insult not only to Jews, but to us, what we are, our laws, our democracies and the will of the people.

In Vienna, London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and dozens of other European cities, demonstrations “in support of Palestine” were organised even before the Israelis responded the jihadist pogrom perpetrated by Iran-backed Hamas on October 7, while the corpses of more than 1,400 Israeli victims — tortured, raped, murdered and mutilated, babies decapitated or burned alive — were still warm. According to a JNS report:

“[T]he IDF on Monday [Oct 23] published two segments from the interrogation of Hamas terrorists who participated in the massacre..

“‘The purpose of entering Israeli territory… was to kidnap civilians; they want as many hostages as possible,’ one of the terrorists revealed. He added, ‘They [Hamas] promised us that whoever brings a kidnapped person will receive an apartment and $10,000.'”

All the same, each and every one of these demonstrations in Europe was the scene of hate-filled slogans against Israel and Jews.

In Brussels, those slogans were shouted, and the atmosphere of violence and blood-lust was everywhere. Around me, surrounded by about 2,000 hate-filled demonstrators, a group of a dozen young Arabs were shouting “Death to the Jews” and “Death to Israel”, all the while exchanging knowing smiles and a few jokes. One of them ordered me to stop filming. I did.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained in an interview recently that Europe had made a serious mistake by creating within itself, through mass immigration, populations that reject all its norms, values and a “constitutional basis”. He deplored the fact that in Berlin in 2023, 80 years after the Holocaust, people, with complete impunity, are shouting “Death to the Jews” in the streets.

In the hours following the revelation of the butchery committed by Hamas, a wave of racist violence and attacks began in Europe, especially in France. Against Arabs or Muslims? Not at all. Against Jews, of course. In Europe, Jews are still the victims of hatred and violence. Apparently it is a way for our local pro-Hamas Europeans to celebrate the jihad pogrom of October 7.

Rewarding hostage-taking and terrorism only brings more of the same As cruel as this may sound, we must stop negotiating with terrorists and simply step aside to let the Israelis do what they and we need for them to do: eviscerate Hamas. Eric Levine

https://www.jns.org/rewarding-hostage-taking-and-terrorism-only-brings-more-of-the-same/

All caring and loving people are delighted that 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper have been released by their Hamas captures. Their grandchildren, in particular, must be thrilled to see their grandmothers again. Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s negotiations to release American hostages, no matter how well-intentioned, only makes it more likely that Yocheved’s and Nurit’s grandchildren will be either murdered or taken hostage in the future.

Hamas, in close consultation with their paymasters Iran, is not releasing the elderly hostages for nothing. They are getting something in return. We are not yet certain what the quid pro quo is. But we do know that Israel’s ground invasion has not yet begun. We also know that the United States is not pressuring Qatar to turnover Hamas leaders like Ismail Haniyeh who are living in five-star hotels in Doha. To the contrary, Qatar is being publicly thanked by the White House for its role in facilitating the negotiations.

We can expect the slow drip of one or two American hostages being released every week or so. We should expect that most, if not all, will be the elderly or infirm. This puts Israel in a difficult position. If Jerusalem attacks while the negotiations are ongoing, it runs the risk of being blamed for the deaths of Americans if Hamas murders them, as they surely will. “If only Israel showed restraint,” her critics will say.

Megadonors Should Fund New Universities By Robert Weissberg

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/megadonors_should_fund_new_universities.html

The size and vitriol of the anti-Israel/pro-Hamas rallies on campus has been a game changer. Yes, everyone knew that college students tend to be ill-informed politically, but the seething hatred of Jews and the misinformation — labeling Israel an apartheid society — was beyond belief. Obviously, something is terribly wrong with American higher education.

What can be done? Though many prominent donors threaten to close their checkbooks, and top school administrators offer lukewarm apologies, the answer is, sadly: not much. The only solution is to create educational alternatives, a long-term strategy where today’s elite schools fade into obscurity and join the ranks of Transylvania University, a once prestigious university that still exists but is now more closely associated with Dracula than higher education,

The good news is that this mission can be accomplished and all the ingredients — mainly brains, organizational skill, and money — exist in abundance. This strategy will not produce overnight change, but it is the only alternative.

The necessary reform is impossible. The hatred of Western Civilization that encourages woke kids to champion homophobic, misogynist militant Islam has entered American higher education’s DNA. And this is in addition to all the nonsense about gender fluidity and Critical Race Theory. No school can screen applicants for gullibility nor impose a litmus test for prospective faculty. Nor would champions of Western Civilization demand schools to return to an era when universities were church-run sanctuaries for doctrinal orthodoxy. Yes, these donations from angry billionaires are large, but funding is also fungible so Middle East billionaires or radical foundations can easily replace the likes of Leslie Wexner or Ron Lauder.

Hope starts by recognizing that many contemporary elite schools began as educational nonentities. The world-famous California Institute of Technology was founded  in 1891 as an Throop College, an obscure vocational school, and did not began its march to excellence until later. Throop College shed its name in 1910 and became Cal-Tech in 1920 thanks to the efforts of leading scientists on the faculty, notably Robert A. Millikan and George E. Hale. Only in 1934 it officially joined the ranks of other major American universities.

Biden and Islamophobia By Eileen F. Toplansky

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/biden_and_islamophobia.html

I was hoping against hope that Joe Biden would totally and irrevocably expose the evil of radical Islam in speaking of the dastardly Hamas attacks.

But once he asserted that “we must also, without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia” in bis October 2020 speech to the nation, it was patently clear that he had fallen into the clutches of those who would demand utter capitulation to Islamists and thus destroy free speech, and independent thinking.

Islamists would assert that “Islamophobia is “an allegedly irrational fear of losing life or liberty to Islamic rule merely because the laws, sacred texts, and traditional practices of Islam demand the submission of culture, politics, religion and social expression. But, in the real world, it is a product of rational observation.”

After all “[a]n ideology that has as its stated goal to put the entire world under its eternal rule, by force if necessary, and to kill those who stand in its way, criticize it or leave it, is genuinely dangerous. Having some healthy doses of fear and skepticism of such a force is perfectly rational.”

As thereligionofpeace.com explains that:

To obscure the fact that the same problems and reactions follow Islam into every country, no matter how tolerant, a word has been invented to suppress any assessment or criticism of Islam. 

Consider that Hinduism is different in almost every way from every other major world religion, but no one is accused of having Hinduphobia. 

In fact, Islam is the only religion that requires a pretend word to protect against critical inquiry.  The sole purpose of ‘Islamophobia’ is to conflate ideological truth with anti-Muslim bigotry.  The irony is that of all religions, the tenets of Islam are the least tolerant and most hostile toward the others.

MY SAY: ON THE HAMAS YOUTH MOVEMENT

Who are the parents of Hamas-supporting students? By Ruth King

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/10/who_are_the_parents_of_hamassupporting_students.html

After the anti-Vietnam War turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Midge Decter wrote an outstanding book called Liberal Parents, Radical Children detailing a generation gap between young militants demanding an end to the Vietnam War  with a quasi-Utopian challenge to the “establishment” and their standard-issue liberal, mostly Democrat parents who did not call American troops “war criminals” nor did they blame America first for every ill in the universe.

When the war and the draft ended, the protests subsided and even stalwarts of the protests like Senator Eugene McCarthy and David Horowitz, editor of the radical magazine Ramparts and now editor of the conservative FrontPage, announced their support for Ronald Reagan.

Other protesters then turned their sights on community organizations and councils, the academy, and the media, but nothing has prepared parents and the general public for the present outpouring of support for Hamas terrorists and hatred for Israel among students.

As Victor Davis Hanson has stated: 

The sheer madness that has gripped many elite universities since October 7 and the butchery, rape, torture, and mutilation of some 1,000 Israeli civilians by Hamas murderers have shocked the public at large.  Campus craziness is, of course, nothing new. But quite novel for campuses was the sudden jettisoning of prior campus pretenses. Universities have brazenly dropped their careful two-faced gymnastics to reveal at last — unapologetic, proudly, and defiantly — the moral decay that now characterizes American higher education.

Noah Rothman adds: 

Younger Americans, aged 18 to 24, disagree with their elders. This demographic is split almost down the middle when asked if the slaughter of senior citizens, the rape of young women, the murder of children, and the immolation of whole families in their homes was justified. Indeed, a slight majority of respondents in this age group said the butchery could be “justified by the grievance of Palestinians.” What’s more, only a bare majority of this demographic backs Israel in this conflict. Forty-eight percent said they side not with Palestinians but explicitly with “Hamas” in this war.

But why blame only the media and the academies? Who are the parents?

That’s a rhetorical question. I know the parents. They are smug hypocrites who vociferously defend affirmative action but pay expensive tutors to give their own kids a leg up. They parrot trendy views on gender, cancel culture, trigger words, pronouns, and perceived offenses. They favor open borders, defunding police, bail reform across the board, and sanction the violence and arson occasioned by the death of George Floyd. They’ve ignored the drumbeat of rising anti-Semitism and support overtly racist organizations like Black Lives Matter. They ignore the turpitude of those who pervert truth and history by denying American exceptionalism and vie with their offspring on all liberal cant and demand for “flexible” history, science, and biology.

The Jews among them are called self-hating but that does not fit. They are self-loving with their preening. They see themselves as an aggrieved minority which rises above others with their empathy for both sides of every conflict and every issue. They curb all debate and dissent in their loathing of Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu while ignoring racist genocides throughout the world. They are mildly troubled by anti-Semitic leftist legislators and commentators because they “know where they are coming from.”  But now that the rising tide of global antisemitism is lapping at their toes, they are alarmed but blaming conservatives. Zero insight.

Anti-Semitic Academia Finally Getting Punched in the Wallet By Stephen Kruiser

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2023/10/26/anti-semitic-academia-finally-getting-punched-in-the-wallet-n1737961

Ever since the terrorist murderers in Hamas attacked Israel almost three weeks ago, we’ve been witnessing the disgusting spectacle of American college students very vocally condemning Israel, some of which the esteemed VodkaPundit recently chronicled.

For being attacked.

Yes, parents, this is what a small fortune gets you when you send your kids off to have their minds polluted by the leftist filth that controls Academia.

These kids didn’t come out of the womb being virulently anti-Semitic, they had to be conditioned. To be sure, the American public education indoctrination mill helped get them there, but it’s the lunatics in Academia’s ivory towers who are responsible for the finished product. As I said in a recent podcast, the students are only working with the facts that their professors presented to them.

A handful of college presidents and boards of regents have issued statements condemning anti-Semitism and Hamas, but that can all be filed under “Too Little, Too Late.” The damage to young minds has already been done.

Wholesale changes in American public education and academia are long past overdue, but it’s been considered sacrilege — mostly by the left — to disparage the sainted teachers or institutions of higher learning. Eyes are being opened now, however. The corrupt agenda of the teachers’ unions that run K-12 public schools was revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic and got parents involved in curricula decisions in great numbers.

The behavior of the rabidly pro-Palestinian/Hamas students at many elite universities has shocked a lot of people who aren’t online and consuming news for most of their waking hours.

There is, of course, BIG money in academia. It takes a lot to keep the hegemonic brain-washing apparatus humming. Obviously, the best way to fight it is to hit them where it hurts the most — in the bank accounts.