NY Expat: Rush-Limbaugh is exactly what the Woke brigade -- bad as they are -- are not like. Never mind the personal differences -- Limbaugh was a near-total ignoramus and uninhibited liar and smear merchant, while the cancellation crowd at least sometimes aimed -- by the wrong means, I agree -- to cancel the right people; and while they…
NY Expat: Rush-Limbaugh is exactly what the Woke brigade -- bad as they are -- are not like. Never mind the personal differences -- Limbaugh was a near-total ignoramus and uninhibited liar and smear merchant, while the cancellation crowd at least sometimes aimed -- by the wrong means, I agree -- to cancel the right people; and while they often exaggerated or distorted, did not, like Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Breitbart, etc outright lie, constantly.
But never mind that. The wokesters made academic humanities and social sciences inaccessible or uncomfortable for conservatives, which they had no right to do. Butn Limbaugh and his fellow right-wing talk radio and podcast blowhards, plus the evangelical Right, which did its share of cancellation, bamboozled tens of millions of people into hating their liberal fellow citizens enough to shoot themselves in the foot: that is, to vote for a party that has fleeced them (did you know that since Reagan, the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution would have received an additional $50 trillion if not for Republican tax policies, destruction of labor unions, votes against increasing minimum wage and unemployment benefits, etc.), poisoned their environment, deprived them of health insurance, tried to privatize their Social Security, and screw them in myriad other ways. And they've only just begun. In my book, there's no comparison between the harm done by the woke and by the right-wing propaganda machine.
I certainly agree that the woke left should be isolated and ignored, and that they are in part to blame for the social democratic left's unpopularity. They were a minor menace, vastly amplified by the right-wing noise machine. But they made it possible for the right to change the subject, away from their horrific agenda, and for that I don't forgive them. On the other hand, if every woke word disappeared from America tomorrow, the Republicans would devise another dishonest gambit to disguise their unflagging support for plutocracy. Best, I think, to confront them on the main issue and ignore the woke.
NY Expat: Rush-Limbaugh is exactly what the Woke brigade -- bad as they are -- are not like. Never mind the personal differences -- Limbaugh was a near-total ignoramus and uninhibited liar and smear merchant, while the cancellation crowd at least sometimes aimed -- by the wrong means, I agree -- to cancel the right people; and while they often exaggerated or distorted, did not, like Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Breitbart, etc outright lie, constantly.
But never mind that. The wokesters made academic humanities and social sciences inaccessible or uncomfortable for conservatives, which they had no right to do. Butn Limbaugh and his fellow right-wing talk radio and podcast blowhards, plus the evangelical Right, which did its share of cancellation, bamboozled tens of millions of people into hating their liberal fellow citizens enough to shoot themselves in the foot: that is, to vote for a party that has fleeced them (did you know that since Reagan, the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution would have received an additional $50 trillion if not for Republican tax policies, destruction of labor unions, votes against increasing minimum wage and unemployment benefits, etc.), poisoned their environment, deprived them of health insurance, tried to privatize their Social Security, and screw them in myriad other ways. And they've only just begun. In my book, there's no comparison between the harm done by the woke and by the right-wing propaganda machine.
I certainly agree that the woke left should be isolated and ignored, and that they are in part to blame for the social democratic left's unpopularity. They were a minor menace, vastly amplified by the right-wing noise machine. But they made it possible for the right to change the subject, away from their horrific agenda, and for that I don't forgive them. On the other hand, if every woke word disappeared from America tomorrow, the Republicans would devise another dishonest gambit to disguise their unflagging support for plutocracy. Best, I think, to confront them on the main issue and ignore the woke.