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The Miseducation of America’s Elites
- marsrover 6y agoVote with your wallet and leave. If you can afford a school like that, you can afford to leave. I don’t know why anyone cares to be labeled a racist anymore considering the term has lost almost all meaning.
- askin4it 6y agoThe price of four or five kids could easily cover the pay of a private teacher/tutor. It seems like the ideal learning environment. I'm probably missing the point of going there in the first place.
- Jaxkr 6y agoSocialization with a particular community is the primary value private schools provide.
- seibelj 6y ago> Parents say that it is a school where giving more gets you more. Big donors get invitations to special dinners, and, most importantly, time and attention from the people in charge. Meantime, their children are taught radical-chic politics, which, of course, do not involve anything actually substantively radical, like redistributing the endowment. This is the most hilarious part of all to me. This ideology is being pushed by the richest, most elite elements of left-wing society but they have substituted actual reform (i.e. redistributing their wealth and social prestige) with absurdist speech codes and manners that the middle and lower classes don't bother learning (because it's fucking stupid and they don't have the time). It's a way of preventing non-insiders from becoming public figures and rising up, because the moment anyone says anything publicly they can be brought down for violating some bizarre -ism rule. I think the core group that actually believes this nonsense is pretty small, although some are using it tactically to destroy superiors and rise quickly. There is definitely an element of self-sorting going on where the woke-est people get eliminated from groups (social and business) because they are insufferable and exhausting to deal with.
- tw_hn_3_9_2021 6y agoI've encountered this sort of ideology before in education. My plan is to send my children to Chinese public schools in Shanghai. They will live with relatives. They will obtain a better education, better peers, with none of this article's indoctrination at a cheaper cost. I will not risk my (white) children believing they are inferior to anyone else in academics. I do not trust the American education system to bring them up. I have seen my (white) relatives learn they are inferior to their (asian) peers in the American system. I have seen my (white) relatives either buy into the American education system's ideology and also I've seen them reject it in its entirety. This must be avoided at all costs.
- spicymaki 6y agoThis sounds really odd. You are going to send your white children to Shanghai so they can learn not to feel inferior to Chinese children? Why would being a minority in a authoritarian communist society make your children feel more secure?
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- tw_hn_3_9_2021 6y agoI am not sending my children to Shanghai so they can learn to not feel inferior to Chinese children. Your question is loaded. I went to high school in the US. I've seen too many of my (white) friends claim they are inferior to my (asian) friends in mathematics. No race is naturally better at any race at anything. I consider their capitulation a byproduct of the US educational system that fails to teach its domestic students mathematics to-par with their international peers. I had to fight my mathematics teachers and counselors for further mathematics education in high school. The US system is completely unacceptable. That is why I plan on sending my children to a Chinese public school and to be cared for by my relatives. >Why would being a minority in a authoritarian communist society make your children feel more secure? This is besides the point. US citizens can securely raise children in China. Some Chinese minorities can securely raise their children, like Manchus and Mongols. Other Chinese minorities cannot, like Uighurs. edit: I read through your previous comments and I see you have made previous disparaging comments about conservatives in the US. I am far more suspicious of your comment now.
- redis_mlc 6y agoFor those not up-to-date, the article covers "cultural Marxism" and "intersectionalism" in schools today. It's not exaggerating about anything. LA is one of the worst areas because getting cancelled means certain loss of your job and any friends, both inside and outside your industry.
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- BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 6y agoWhat the parents are really paying for is their children making contacts with other children of the future nomenklatura. If you truly want a good education for your kids, move to Finland.
- EdwardDiego 6y agoSweet. Unsourced claims in a magazine published by the Manhattan Institute. Well I'm convinced. https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Manhattan_Institute_for_Policy_Research https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Manhattan_Instit...
- seibelj 6y agoAre you saying that, if what was reported is true, you would find it disturbing? Or are you saying, the source itself is suspect, so you can't believe it? Because I know for a fact this ideology is being pushed hard right now, as ridiculous as it is.
- harimau777 6y agoThe problem is that the core argument that the article is making isn't whether or not a particular ideology is being taught. Instead it's saying that the ideology is being taught specifically in an exceedingly over the top manner, that the slightest disagreement carries the threat of life altering punishment, and that the situation is characteristic of elite education. Without some sort of verifiable information it is difficult to determine if those arguments are valid. However, as the saying goes "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".
- AuryGlenz 6y agoIs that really an extraordinary claim? Public figures are “cancelled” all the time. I see no reason why that couldn’t happen on a local level.
- elipsey 6y ago>> I know for a fact this ideology is being pushed hard right now And yet you have ironically failed to furnish evidence. OP rightly observes that the article is riddled with anonymous hearsay, and published by a tax exempt lobbying group. For those who choose to read comments first, here's a taste of what you have to look forward to in the article: "says one of the fathers(...)'What he has a problem with is a movement that tells his children that America is a bad country and that they bear collective racial guilt. They are making my son feel like a racist because of the pigmentation of his skin' one mother says."
- barbacoa 6y agoRacist becoming to the woke crowd what counter-revolutionary was to the cultural revolution in Mao's china.
- vineyardmike 6y ago> Fluency in woke is an effective class marker and key for these princelings to retain status in university and beyond. While i have heard people issue the sentiment of this article, its hard to take anyone seriously when they use the term "woke". The word is only ever used in a derogatory manner, which is a give-away that the author has clear bias and agenda (as opposed to reporting on the parents and opinions themselves). Not that it matters to anyone here, but "woke" is def not a class-marker.
- malandrew 6y agoYour comment is illustrative of the issue in the article. No matter what term is adopted here, people like you will use it against them ex-communicate them from the in-group. If "woke" is verboten, please suggest an alternate word for this groupthink phenomena which is aping all the worst aspects of Catholicism (catechisms, original sin, inquisitions, etc.)?
- harimau777 6y agoI think that the problem is that Republicans tend to use the terms as bogeymen and catch all straw men to attack the other side (e.g. Antifa, woke, social justice warrior). That creates a situation where, even if the term still could be useful for describing an ideology, it becomes associated with bad faith arguments. If Republicans argued more in good faith then I don't think we would see this phenomena as much.
- vineyardmike 6y ago> people like you will use it against them ex-communicate them from the in-group I have no will to ex-communicate anyone. But this article, and many similar ones, use "woke" as a straw-man argument against "leftist" ideas. Proof is in your description of the word: > If "woke" is verboten, please suggest an alternate word for this groupthink phenomena which is aping all the worst aspects of Catholicism (catechisms, original sin, inquisitions, etc.)? This request is for a word meant to describe a perceived wrong. Woke is the correct word for what you're asking to define because only people with this agenda would use it, esp like that and thats what you want it for. As a more in-group word, try just describing your issue when a situation comes up, instead of grokking a word that carries aggressive culture-war baggage. Eg. try saying what you think, without making it a whole culture war group-think argument (because maybe life is actually more nuanced). Maybe you're right though. Maybe my in-group knowledge is what allows me to say this. I roll my eyes at this word like when someone old asks a kid if they "tweeted on their face-gram" or someone who doesn't watch sports says "scored a homerun at their hockeyfoot game" but maybe people genuinely make good-faith assumptions that a homerun is a hockey-foot term because all sports are a single concept.
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- TerminalSystem3 6y agoThe reaction to this article kind of says it all for me. Right leaning readers seem to accept the claims, although anonymous, because they have experience on the ground that would make them believe such claims. Left leaning readers refuse to accept the claims because they are anonymous and could easily be made up. It's confirmation bias all the way down. I personally tend to lean more on the right here because I went to an "elite" institution and saw firsthand, plenty of times, the same kind of totalitarian ideological bullying and groupthink that the article describes. I do think that the reaction to this article, and the many other articles like it, are a harbinger of the near-future breakup of the United States. There is simply no possible way this country can survive when the value systems are so opposed to each other.
- jariel 6y agoThe flaw in this line of thinking is that it's unreasonable to suggest this story is 'made up' or 'propaganda'. It's more like: if this is just the experience of a tiny handful of people, well then it's a perspective but it's not important. If it's commonplace, then it's an issue. There were major divisions in the nation in the past - remember that so many rejected desegregation in the 1960's. I think many progressives will think that we are now re-living those kinds of divisions, i.e. it's their turn to 'fight'. The thing is, it's quite different this time. I don't believe that any movement here has history on their side. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King Jr. This statement is no longer progressive, in fact, it's the hallmark of many social conservatives i.e. 'I don't see race' or 'I judge on the basis of character'. It's the woke/intersectional progressive crowd who want to re-initiate racial awareness using the logic that 'people's racial experiences matter', which while I think has some merit, is also going to be deeply divisive. MLK won. All the way from 1960 to even now, racial disparities have been shrinking (mostly). The vast, vast majority of Americans agree with MLK's statement, and consider it a virtue. The 'New Progressive Radicals' may have a point to make, but the inherent divisiveness of the ideal, and the focus on race/gender above character etc. leads to a pop culture civil war, amplified by social media, it plays into our worst impulses including racism. I don't think history is going to favour this movement outright.
- mc32 6y agoWhat's most concerning in the article is that people fear for their livelihoods, family, friendship and education if they even /question/ the curriculum and whether it's helping or not. Parents and pupils are AFRAID to be labeled CAPITALISTS? That's nuts. What are they supposed to ID with, Cuba, Venezuela? I cannot find any other comparison more apt than the cultural revolution. The received doctrine was right and any question was counterrevolutionary and deserving of punishment in the harshest terms.
- harimau777 6y agoI agree with you that it is wrong for people to fear retribution for their political beliefs. However a couple of things to consider: How is fearing to be labeled a capitalist different than fearing to be labeled a socialist or communist? I don't think it's fair to imply that the only alternative to being a capitalist is identifying with Cuba or Venezuela. McCarthyism or, until recently, being labeled LGBTQ seem like apt comparisons. My point being that the right engages in the same sort of behavior when given the chance.
- mc32 6y agoThe irony is that is a capitalist institution attended by relatively wealthy people. It’s like Communists going to indoctrination camp not wanting to be labeled communists themselves. Or lgbt being ashamed of being lgbt. Hence my Cuba reference. If they are ashamed of our economic system does that mean they want a socialist economy like VZ? Note Denmark is capitalist and not socialist. Also although what mr McCarthy did was akin to today’s cancel culture (mere accusation can lead to job loss) he wasn’t completely wrong in that quite a few of his subjects were communists who wanted sovietism in the USA.
- harimau777 6y agoI don't think that you can necessarily say that someone who operates in a capitalist system is a capitalist. In many cases people do not have a choice what system they live in and they may be actively advocating for a change to a different system. Quibbling about what economic system Venezuela and Denmark have is playing semantics. The fact is, what mainstream leftists are advocating for is something more like Denmark than Venezuela. Saying that they want America to become the next Venezuela is a straw man.
- sjg007 6y agoI don’t believe any of this.
- harimau777 6y agoIt seems to me that a lot of the problem is that there is currently no conservative position on social justice to counterbalance progressive positions. So when people rightly see problems with inequality in America their only option is the progressive position; not matter how radical.
- zozbot234 6y ago> It seems to me that a lot of the problem is that there is currently no conservative position on social justice to counterbalance progressive positions. On the contrary, the conservative position on actual social justice is the mainstream view of social justice. The very notion of it ultimately comes from conservative (namely catholic) social thought. The fake ideology of Woke so-called "Social Justice(tm)" is about something entirely different, that ultimately doesn't stand up to even the most casual intellectual scrutiny.
- harimau777 6y agoI'm not sure what you mean. Republicans don't have a platform for addressing issues such as inequality, racism, criminal justice reform, gerrymandering, global warming, etc. They either deny that the problems exist or advocate the same policies that they have for decades.
- zozbot234 6y agoRepublicans have been playing a leading role on criminal justice reform, actually. Some of the earliest voices pushing for it were conservative ones, well before there even was such a thing as a BLM movement. The fact that Dems and progressives more generally will never acknowledge this suggests that their commitment to genuine social justice is rather shallow. Biden and Harris were both known as proponents of failing "tough on crime" policies until very recently, when they basically flip-flopped on the issue with zero explanation or public self-criticism of their previous stances. Riding the BLM bandwagon, nothing more than that.
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- yew 6y agoMeh. Child indoctrination has always been the price of entry into the elite. And of course sometimes it'll be uncomfortable - cultural imperialism doesn't work without some kind of force behind it. But how else can you ensure one common enlightened culture? (Count yourself lucky they're not going to Istanbul for the levy, and move on.)