Fisking the Establishment's Latest Thinkpiece

There's this guy who has taken to Facebook with me on several occasions in an attempt to spew crybully rhetoric over issues like "microagressions" and "safe spaces."  Being that I am a devotee of Ken White and Scott Greenfield, I take the occasion to engage with him on reason and facts, and when that fails, sometimes pure ridicule.  

He's recently stopped with the personal attacks and decided to vaguely point people in different directions with think pieces and blog posts that support his echo chamber worldview.  Sometimes I will respond, and sometimes the comment I want to make is too long to prompt a response on Facebook itself. 

Today's latest post is a blog whine from a site called "The Establishment," where you can read such enlightening material like "Yes, Your Dating Preferences Are Probably Racist" and "The Politics of Period Sex."  The article in question today is called "Why Do Conservatives Think Spewing Racism Is Braver Than Protesting It?"  Unless you're interested in a liberal dose of brain bleach for the holiday season, I'll spare you a read by summarizing here: conservatives who decry Syrian refugees coming into our country and ask for the closing of our borders are racist, and them mocking the protests sprouting up all over our nation's campuses is intellectually disingenuous because those protests are actually "brave."  

Because I can see both sides of an argument (which seems to be a rare trend these days), I will concede one point: the cries for Syrian refugees to be barred from our country and the borders locked down is probably racist.  I wouldn’t call it that necessarily; I think the terms “racist” and “racism” get thrown around more than they should.  But assuming arguendo, let’s start by saying that yes, this attitude from Conservatives mocking and belittling the protests across campuses nationwide is probably racist. 

Where the op-ed turns a sharp left into crazy town is when they start calling the protests “brave” or the actions of the protesters “brave.”  Starting with Jonathan Butler at Missouri and his “hunger strike” is a terrible start.  His life was never in danger, as the think piece’s author Noah Berlatsky tends to suggest.  The moment his life was truly in danger, Mommy and Daddy would have air-dropped Benihana to Butler’s location.  That’s what making more money than my family will ever see in a lifetime buys you—the ability to whine without consequence, and a complete loss of credibility for those of us who actually have to work. 

The same goes for the Mizzou football team “standing in solidarity” with Butler.  In case Berlatsky isn’t familiar with the way things work in the SEC, the football team would never have faced one day of “adverse consequences or disciplinary actions.”  In the SEC, college football is its own unique brand of religion and the players on each school’s team are the prophets.  Mizzou’s players didn’t face one damn problem for what they did and everyone on campus knew it. 
 

Where I find things laughable about Berlatsky’s lauding of the protesters comes from the following paragraph which outlines one Princeton “request.”  Since I’m a nice guy, I’ll snip the paragraph for your enjoyment.  

Leftist college students are also accused of rejecting difference, because they don’t want to listen to certain speakers, or because they want trigger warnings about certain books, or because they want name changes to certain buildings. But again I think the claim that students are afraid of speech obscures the actual issues. What students are asking for is for universities to recognize, and welcome, a broader range of students with a broader range of experiences. Naming a building after Woodrow Wilson is a message that a campus was built by and for racists, and racists still hold sway. Students who protest that are saying that the experiences and lives of black people on campus matter. Our campus should be a place where they are welcome. (emphasis added) 

I bolded that statement because they’re not asking.  They’re demanding.  A group called the Black Liberation Collective, the new de facto heads of this “movement,” have started compiling a list of the demands each protest group makes on a website called “The Demands.” It’s a pain to look at, but the site is a collection of the demands each protest group is making at each college and will continue to be updated.  But “demanding” something and “asking” for something is completely different.  One makes a statement that compliance will be needed or repercussions will happen, the other simply makes a request something happen. 

And the demands themselves?  They’re absolutely ludicrous on numerous fronts.  First, the Princeton demand that President Woodrow Wilson’s name be removed from a building at an institution he contributed to is not only crazypants, it is yet another attempt to erase someone from history because of something they said that someone disagreed with.  The same goes for MTSU’s demands to have Forrest hall removed as the building’s name because the “Forrest” in question is Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate general and founder of the KKK.  Erasing history doesn’t make people any less prone to emotional harm. 

Walter Olson decided to slog through the site and get a few of the more bizarre demands recorded for posterity.  Such demands include as follows: 

*an increase in tenure-stream faculty whose research specializes in ...Black Queer Studies, Hip-Hop Studies,...Decolonial Theory.

*White professors must be discouraged from leading and teaching departments" studying colonized/enslaved people/societies [UNC Chapel Hill]

*We DEMAND that campus police participate in the University-wide political education....Policing as an institution must be abolished." [UNC]

*An anonymous student reporting system for cases of bias, including microaggressions, perpetrated by faculty and staff" [@wesleyan_u]

Enjoy that line of thinking.  Degrees that will land no one jobs, stop professors from teaching on certain subjects, no police on campus, and the revival of the fucking star chamber for those who offend a student’s feelz. 

These are not protests against racism.  These are not acts of bravery. 
 

These are the stamping of feet and the whining of coddled children who have never been told they are wrong about a damn thing. 

It’s time the madness stops. 
 

Rogero and the Order of the Anonymous Hood

It should be noted at the outset that this article is not to accuse Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero of being involved with the Ku Klux Klan.  Nor is the purpose of this article to suggest otherwise and defend her membership if she is in fact a part of the Klan.  The following is solely a documentation of the events as they have happened as of this writing.  

Monday morning, a series of documents leaked to Paste bin allegedly from the hacktivist group Anonymous.  This set of documents contained emails and phone numbers of members associated with the Ku Klux Klan, which Anon had set out to "unhood" via an action called "OperationKKK."  The two groups had been at war with one another since the death of Michael Brown and the protests/riots in Ferguson, and Anonymous had promised to "out" the members of what the referred to as a "terrorist organization."  

Another Paste bin document listed a number of political figures affiliated with the Klan.  One of those names was Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, stating that she was "affiliated" with a group called the Church of the Ku Klos Klan, an organization with a national office in Church Hill, Tennessee.  

Anonymous distanced themselves from this post initially through their OperationKKK account, saying that they didn't post "unverified" information.  However, that tweet was deleted quickly.  

Mayor Rogero caught wind of the story quickly and posted the following to Facebook: 

 

“I’m not even sure this is worth responding to, but for the record: There is a list circulating online purporting to “out” elected officials as members of the KKK. For reasons unfathomable to me or anyone who knows me, my name is on the list. Given my background, my interracial family, my public record and my personal beliefs, this would be hilarious except that it is probably being seen by a lot of people who have no idea who I am.

So, just to be clear, for anyone who doesn’t know me: Don’t be ridiculous. I began my political career working for the rights of farm workers with Cesar Chavez. I have spent decades working for causes of social justice and equality. As Mayor, I have pushed for diversity in our workforce and outreach to and inclusion of people of all backgrounds in our community. In concert with President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper program, I began the Save Our Sons initiative to increase opportunities and reduce violence-related deaths among boys and young men of color. I have advocated publicly for LGBT civil rights, and I was the only mayor in Tennessee to sign onto the mayors’ amicus brief for the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court’s marriage equality case. In short, I don’t think the KKK would want anything to do with me.

I strongly request that anyone associated with the creation and dissemination of this false and defamatory accusation retract it immediately. It is irresponsible and slanderous. (Although, on a positive note, I do appreciate that they are using a picture of me from 12 years ago. Very flattering!”

More will continue to come forward as the story develops, and I will continue to update here.  
But for now, there's a few interesting points to be made.  

First, Anonymous isn't exactly known for being loose with their information.  They have screwed up in the past and will probably continue to screw up on things, but the steps they go through to get this info are pretty dangerous and rigorous to find.  They know they're publishing information that will be used to get at people later on and ruin lives.  It stands to reason there's some legs to that.  

Second, the application on the organization's web site requires quite personal data for someone to become a member.  They don't even do email addresses; you have to print the application off, include a color copy of your driver license, and send ten dollars to the "National Office" in Church Hill.  If this were a hoax, then someone would have to take elaborate steps to put this together.  

Third, and in the interests of fairness, there's no verification on Paste bin of Rogero's actual status.  It's merely a listing and a designation of affiliation.  That's a pretty fast and loose comment to make without providing the actual documentation showing Mayor Rogero is part of the Klan.  

Fourth, if this information is true then it does run counter to everything Mayor Rogero has done in the past with her political and professional career.  I don't see how someone who's taken the positions she has in the past would be able to square her positions with being a part of the Klan.  Her family structure also doesn't exactly scream "white power" or "white separatist" unless the Klan has decided to expand its membership to Hispanic groups.  

We will see how this story develops.  As of now, I don't think it's shut down, but there's a nagging sense of doubt to this info.