Weekly Roundup
Weekly Roundup
Reading, watching, & listening list
Why You Should Rewatch the Olympics
For FAIR’s Substack, Jefferson Shupe writes about the fragility of unity and why you should rewatch the Olympics.
Unity is fragile, and at many levels, we feel it slipping. Divided nations fall, and fragmented regions war. An important byproduct of this periodic celebration of sport and contestants is the repair of our cohesion, reminding us of some authentic underlying desire we all have for harmony. Our trend is to spend exponentially more attention and energy on what divides rather than what’s in common, which isn’t healthy.
My Resignation Letter
For her Substack BROADVIEW, FAIR Advisor Lisa Selin Davis writes about her choice to register as an independent voter.
I erupt. I’ve been a loyal Democrat through this whole ordeal. I’ve written to politicians, I’ve tortured my speech into something fake-reasonable, trying to talk to our own people, trying to make liberals liberal again, trying to destigmatize the truth, trying to get us to recalibrate and handle this issue ourselves so the extreme Right doesn’t handle it for us. I wanted us to reclaim the American flag, to embrace patriotism, to value free speech again, to see that, no matter how we deride our own country as racist and transphobic, millions and millions of people try to bust their way in every year, because there is still something beautiful beneath all the fighting—the first amendment, for instance: a crown jewel.
Why Black Lives Matter Is A False Civil Rights Movement
Political scientist and FAIR Advisor Wilfred Reilly explains how Black Lives Matter has reshaped mainstream discourse on race, using the narrative of systemic racism to gain massive influence and funding. Contemporary activists have convinced a generation of the obviously false claim that not only has racial justice not improved in America since the Civil Rights Movement, but that the situation has actually gotten worse. Wilfred outlines how this narrative has been wielded with high efficacy to silence opposing views and radically change public policy.
How the Gay-Rights Movement Lost Its Way
For The Atlantic, James Kirchick writes about what activist groups should do after they fulfill their goals.
The corruption of GLAAD and other LGBTQ groups should force a reckoning for the gay community, which has no shortage of underfunded grassroots organizations working to address real problems. Among them are Outright International, which supports gay-rights movements abroad, and SAGE, which helps LGBTQ seniors. The community has genuine needs—which do not include helping nonprofit executives enrich themselves and hobnob with celebrities. If there’s a silver lining to the ethical collapse of GLAAD, it’s to shine a bright light on the massive waste of resources spent on organizations that have no reason for being and, in some cases, cause more harm than good.
Equality Is Good, Actually
For Persuasion, Jeffery Tyler Syck makes the case for equality and liberalism.
Liberalism does more than just advocate rights, however: It turns previous notions of society on their heads by insisting that all people are worthy of governing because all people—regardless of background—have worth. To this end, liberalism not only does exactly what its opponents accuse it of—leveling human society—but it does so on purpose. What its critics miss is that this commitment to equality does not erase nobility but reconstitutes it. The nobility of a liberal age is not that which our forefathers may have died for—but it is noble nonetheless.
Inside the Campaign to Blacklist ‘Zionist’ Therapists
For The Free Press, psychiatrist Sally Satel reports on an alarming new trend.
The central preoccupation of critical social justice therapy is that the patient is not a unique individual, but rather an avatar of race, gender, or ethnicity. The therapist will therefore diagnose each patient’s issues and determine a treatment plan based on whether they belong to an oppressed or oppressor group.
Thus, a black patient will be guided to view any difficulty as caused by systemic racism. A white patient will be exhorted to accept their complicity in perpetuating systems of oppression. Currently, Jewish patients (deemed to be members of a privileged group) are finding themselves subject to attempts by activist-therapists to morally reeducate them; no support of Israel can be condoned as it is declared a “settler-colonial” state.
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