Middlebury College students turn their backs to Charles Murray during his lecture on March 2, 2017. Photo: Lisa Rathke/AP
Heres the latest in the assault on liberal democracy. It happened more than a week ago, but I cannot get it out of my consciousness. A group of conservative students at Middlebury College in Vermont invited the highly controversial author Charles Murray to speak on campus about his latest book, Coming Apart. His talk was shut down by organized chanting in its original venue, and disrupted when it was shifted to a nearby room and livestreamed. When Murray and his faculty interlocutor, Allison Stanger, then left to go to their car, they were surrounded by a mob, which tried to stop them leaving the campus. Someone in the melee grabbed Stanger by the hair and twisted her neck so badly she had to go to the emergency room (she is still suffering from a concussion). After they escaped, their dinner at a local restaurant was crashed by the same mob, and they had to go out of town to eat.
None of this is very surprising, given the current atmosphere on most American campuses. And protests against Murray are completely legitimate. The book he co-authored with Harvard professor Richard Herrnstein more than 20 years ago, The Bell Curve, included a chapter on empirical data showing variations in the largely overlapping bell curves of IQ scores between racial groups. Their provocation was to assign these differences to both the environment and genetics. The genetic aspect could be and was exploited by racists and bigots.
I dont think that chapter was necessary for the books arguments, but I do believe in the right of good-faith scholars to publish data as well as the right of others to object, critique, and debunk. If the protesters at Middlebury had protested and disrupted the event for a period of time, and then let it continue, Id be highly sympathetic, even though race and IQ were not the subject of Murrays talk. If theyd challenged the data or the arguments of the book, Id be delighted. But this, alas, is not what they did. (I should add up-front that I am friends with both Murray and Stanger having edited a symposium on The Bell Curve in The New Republic over two decades ago, and having known Allison since we were both grad students in government at Harvard.)
But what grabbed me was the deeply disturbing 40-minute video of the event, posted on YouTube. It brings the incident to life in a way words cannot. At around the 19-minute mark, the students explained why they shut down the talk, and it helped clarify for me what exactly the meaning of intersectionality is.
Intersectionality is the latest academic craze sweeping the American academy. On the surface, its a recent neo-Marxist theory that argues that social oppression does not simply apply to single categories of identity such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class, etc. but to all of them in an interlocking system of hierarchy and power. At least, thats my best attempt to define it briefly. But watching that video helps show how an otherwise challenging social theory can often operate in practice.
It is operating, in Orwells words, as a smelly little orthodoxy, and it manifests itself, it seems to me, almost as a religion. It posits a classic orthodoxy through which all of human experience is explained and through which all speech must be filtered. Its version of original sin is the power of some identity groups over others. To overcome this sin, you need first to confess, i.e., check your privilege, and subsequently live your life and order your thoughts in a way that keeps this sin at bay. The sin goes so deep into your psyche, especially if you are white or male or straight, that a profound conversion is required.
Like the Puritanism once familiar in New England, intersectionality controls language and the very terms of discourse. It enforces manners. It has an idea of virtue and is obsessed with upholding it. The saints are the most oppressed who nonetheless resist. The sinners are categorized in various ascending categories of demographic damnation, like something out of Dante. The only thing this religion lacks, of course, is salvation. Life is simply an interlocking drama of oppression and power and resistance, ending only in death. Its Marx without the final total liberation.
It operates as a religion in one other critical dimension: If you happen to see the world in a different way, if youre a liberal or libertarian or even, gasp, a conservative, if you believe that a university is a place where any idea, however loathsome, can be debated and refuted, you are not just wrong, you are immoral. If you think that arguments and ideas can have a life independent of white supremacy, you are complicit in evil. And you are not just complicit, your heresy is a direct threat to others, and therefore needs to be extinguished. You cant reason with heresy. You have to ban it. It will contaminate others souls, and wound them irreparably.
And what I saw on the video struck me most as a form of religious ritual a secular exorcism, if you will that reaches a frenzied, disturbing catharsis. When Murray starts to speak, the students stand and ritually turn their backs on him in silence. The heretic must not be looked at, let alone engaged. Then they recite a common liturgy in unison from sheets of paper. Heres how they begin: This is not respectful discourse, or a debate about free speech. These are not ideas that can be fairly debated, it is not representative of the other side to give a platform to such dangerous ideologies. There is not a potential for an equal exchange of ideas. They never specify which of Murrays ideas they are referring to. Nor do they explain why a lecture on a recent book about social inequality cannot be a respectful discourse. The speaker is open to questions and there is a faculty member onstage to engage him afterward. She came prepared with tough questions forwarded from specialists in the field. And yet: We cannot engage fully with Charles Murray, while he is known for readily quoting himself. Because of that, we see this talk as hate speech. They know this before a single word of the speech has been spoken.
Then this: Science has always been used to legitimize racism, sexism, classism, transphobia, ableism, and homophobia, all veiled as rational and fact, and supported by the government and state. In this world today, there is little that is true fact. This, it seems to me, gets to the heart of the question not that the students shut down a speech, but why they did. I do not doubt their good intentions. But, in a strange echo of the Trumpian right, they are insisting on the superiority of their orthodoxy to facts. They are hostile, like all fundamentalists, to science, because it might counter doctrine. And they shut down the event because intersectionality rejects the entire idea of free debate, science, or truth independent of white male power. At the end of this part of the ceremony, an individual therefore shouts: Who is the enemy? And the congregation responds: White supremacy!
They then expel the heretic in a unified chant: Hey hey, ho ho! Charles Murray has got to go. Then: Racist, Sexist, Anti-gay. Charles Murray, Go away! Murrays old work on IQ demonstrates no meaningful difference between men and women, and Murray has long supported marriage equality. He passionately opposes eugenics. Hes a libertarian. But none of that matters. Intersectionality, remember? If youre deemed a sinner on one count, you are a sinner on them all. If you think that race may be both a social construction and related to genetics, your claim to science is just another form of oppression. It is indeed hate speech. At a later moment, the students start clapping in unison, and you can feel the hysteria rising, as the chants grow louder. Your message is hatred. We will not tolerate it! The final climactic chant is Shut it down! Shut it down! It feels like something out of The Crucible. Most of the students have never read a word of Murrays and many professors who supported the shutdown admitted as much. But the intersectional zeal is so great he must be banished even to the point of physical violence.
This matters, it seems to me, because reason and empirical debate are essential to the functioning of a liberal democracy. We need a common discourse to deliberate. We need facts independent of anyones ideology or political side, if we are to survive as a free and democratic society. Trump has surely shown us this. And if a university cannot allow these facts and arguments to be freely engaged, then nowhere is safe. Universities are the sanctuary cities of reason. If reason must be subordinate to ideology even there, our experiment in self-government is over.
Liberal democracy is suffering from a concussion as surely as Allison is.
Meanwhile, of course, President Trump continues his assault on the very same independent truth in this case, significantly more frightening given his position as the most powerful individual on the planet. He too has a contempt for any facts that do not fit his own ideology or self-image. Thats why the lies he repeats are not just moments of self-interested dishonesty. They are designed to erode the very notion of an empirical reality, independent of his own ideology and power. They are an attack on reason itself. A fact-driven media has to be discredited as fake news if it challenges Trumps agenda. Equally, a bureaucracy designed impartially to implement legislation has to be delegitimized, if its fact-based neutrality challenges Trumps worldview. And so the administrative state, in Steve Bannons words, has to be deconstructed.
Likewise, a health-care bill must be passed through committee before an independent CBO can empirically score it. The overwhelming conclusion of climate scientists that carbon is warming the Earth irreversibly is simply denied by the new head of the EPA. The judiciary can have no legitimate, independent stance if it too counters the presidents interests. A judge who opposes Trump is a so-called judge. Equally, intelligence-gathering can have no validity if it undermines Trumps interests. It suddenly becomes intelligence. It can be ignored. Worse, the intelligence agencies are maligned as inherently political, rather than empirical. Last week, Trump went even further, claiming, with no evidence, that the Justice Department colluded in a criminal wiretap with the previous president to target Trumps candidacy in the last election. Maybe this was designed merely as a distraction from the accumulating lies of his campaign surrogates about their contacts with Russian officials. Maybe it was another temper tantrum from a man with no ability to constrain his emotions by reason. But I tend to think Peter Beinarts take is closer to the mark. Trump was delegitimizing the Justice Department so that he can reject the conclusion of any investigation of his campaigns ties to Russia as politically rigged:
They are all corrupt. They are all agents of the opposition, part of the massive conspiracy to deny Trump his rightful triumph. And thus, the independent standards by which they judge his actions are a sham. There are no independent standards. There is only the truth that comes from Trump himself.
This is the vortex we are being led into by the most reckless, feckless, and malevolent president in this countrys history. It is a vortex where reality itself must subordinate itself to one political side; where facts are always instruments of power and nothing else; where our entire Constitution, designed to balance power against power to give truth and reason a chance, is being deliberately corroded from within. Its been seven weeks. And the damage done to our way of life is already deep, and deepening.
Watch Paul Ryans Adams Apple When Hes Asked Why His Health Plan Cuts Taxes for the Rich
Allison Williams and Samuel L. Jackson on Getting Excited While Filming Sex Scenes: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Dont
Julia Louis-Dreyfus Goes on a Real Face Journey Watching Her Sons Basketball Game
Thats the year it was meant to explode, because Obama wont be here, the president explained to the House GOP leadership.
Then-president-elect Donald Trump had asked the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to stay on in November.
GOP Representative Justin Amash of Michigan tweeted an apology to his constituents.
Steve Bannons old site (correctly) notes that the House GOPs Obamacare replacement would hurt Trumps base and endanger his party in 2018.
And then force you to mitigate your genetic liabilities, or else accept higher premiums on your health insurance.
As GOP leaders try to whip the AHCA through the House unchanged, Trump is negotiating with conservatives in a way that could destroy Senate support.
Executive-branch employees are supposed to keep quiet on jobs numbers for an hour after their release.
Trump claims he didnt know that Flynn had lobbied for Turkey when he hired him. But his transition team was informed of that before Inauguration Day.
The action star is said to be keen on a Senate run so he can needle Trump, but hell first have to win back Californians.
Another report that hints at the the marginalization of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
A simple question explains the logic of the GOPs hatred for universal health insurance.
Which is to say, pretty much in line with what was happening under Obama.
Its pretty clear the economy was not Clintons problem.
Its the latest academic craze, and in practice it veers far from principles of liberal democracy.
Hes avoided questions from reporters, and wont take any members of the press on his trip to Asia.
Its still unclear what the barrier will look like, and even Republicans are questioning how it will be paid for.
Her ouster following a corruption scandal could have a major impact on how Asia and the U.S. handle North Korea.
Tom Cotton tells CNN that Paul Ryans bill would not solve the problems of our health-care system and would make things probably worse.
View post:
Liberal Democracy Is Suffering From a Concussion - New York Magazine
- Liberal | Define Liberal at Dictionary.com [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2016]
- Liberal | Define Liberal at Dictionary.com [Last Updated On: June 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 12th, 2016]
- Neoliberalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- Liberal Conspiracy [Last Updated On: June 16th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 16th, 2016]
- Urban Dictionary: liberal [Last Updated On: June 19th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 19th, 2016]
- Liberal - RationalWiki [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- What Is a Liberal - What Is Liberal Bias [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- Liberal, Kansas - City-Data.com [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- Liberal Synonyms, Liberal Antonyms - Merriam-Webster [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- Conservative vs Liberal - Difference and Comparison | Diffen [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2016]
- What's a Conservative Ideology and What's a Liberal Ideology? [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2016]
- Our MPs | Liberal Party of Canada [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2016]
- Liberal Party of Canada [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2016]
- What's a Conservative Ideology and What's a Liberal Ideology? [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2016]
- Our MPs | Liberal Party of Canada [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2016]
- liberal - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com [Last Updated On: June 28th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 28th, 2016]
- Real Change - Liberal Party of Canada [Last Updated On: June 28th, 2016] [Originally Added On: June 28th, 2016]
- Liberal, Kansas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: July 3rd, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 3rd, 2016]
- Delaware Liberal [Last Updated On: July 14th, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 14th, 2016]
- Liberal Democrat Voice [Last Updated On: July 14th, 2016] [Originally Added On: July 14th, 2016]
- liberal - Wiktionary [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2016] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2016]
- Liberal Party of Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2016]
- Liberal Party of Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2016]
- Paul Krugman - The New York Times [Last Updated On: October 4th, 2016] [Originally Added On: October 4th, 2016]
- liberal - definition of liberal in English | Oxford Dictionaries [Last Updated On: October 15th, 2016] [Originally Added On: October 15th, 2016]
- What does Liberal mean? - Definitions.net [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2016] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2016]
- Liberal Warren throws down gauntlet to President-elect ... [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2016]
- Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal [Last Updated On: November 27th, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 27th, 2016]
- Main Street Liberal [Last Updated On: November 27th, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 27th, 2016]
- Liberal Studies - Interdisciplinary Studies - Clayton ... [Last Updated On: November 30th, 2016] [Originally Added On: November 30th, 2016]
- Quotes About Liberal (122 quotes) [Last Updated On: December 29th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 29th, 2016]
- Neoliberalism - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: January 31st, 2017] [Originally Added On: January 31st, 2017]
- Liberal Party of Australia - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: February 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 2nd, 2017]
- Mona Fortier wins Liberal nomination for Ottawa-Vanier byelection - Ottawa Sun [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Pro-DeVos ads air, saying 'liberal' critics are full of 'rage and hate,' as anti-DeVos protests are held - Washington Post [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Goodbye to the liberal era - New Statesman [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- The 7 Most Outrageously Liberal Super Bowl Ad Campaigns of 2017 - NewsBusters (blog) [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Liberal Orthodox rabbis oppose OU ban on female religious leadership - Jerusalem Post Israel News [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- I'm A Liberal, And I Want Milo Yiannopoulos On My Campus - Huffington Post [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Cory Bernardi to quit Liberals to form own conservative party - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Fake news for liberals: misinformation starts to lean left under Trump - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Liberal Judicial Activism Borders On Insurrection - Daily Caller [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- House Science Chairman Sees Liberal Cover-Up on Warming Pause - Scientific American [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2017]
- Conservatives reject liberal humor in Trump era: Dave Berg - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Cory Bernardi says he resents being used in Liberal party 'proxy war' - The Guardian [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- All liberals are hypocrites. I know because I am one - Quartz [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Scholars: 'Liberal' Reputation of 9th Circuit Overblown - ABC News [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Dear Readers: Letter From an Anonymous Liberal Pastor in Trump Country - Religion Dispatches [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- LePage uses State of State to rip 'liberal' attack on Maine way of life - Bangor Daily News [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- 'What took you so long to man up?': Cory Bernardi unable to explain why he's quit the Liberals - The Sydney Morning Herald [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Liberal Hashtag #NotMySuperBowlChamps Protests Patriots' Support of Trump - Fox News Insider [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Supreme Court Nominee Gorsuch Reportedly Goes To a Very Liberal Church - Mediaite [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Liberal Men Lash Out Against 'Unqualified' Woman Betsy DeVos - Daily Caller [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- How 'liberal' reputation of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is overblown, scholars say - The Mercury News [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- NDP wants Liberal government to apologize for dropping electoral reform - CBC.ca [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Strategies for Saving the Liberal Arts - Inside Higher Ed (blog) [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- 'Angry Malcolm' channels John Howard to impress the Liberal tribes - The Sydney Morning Herald [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Liberal groups file lawsuit to block Trump's deregulation order - Washington Examiner [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Liberal land - Richfield Reaper [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Is Gorsuch a secret liberal? Trump, GOP have reason to wonder. - The Hill (blog) [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Wisconsin governor Scott Walker proposes surprisingly liberal budget - Chicago Tribune [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- 10 Most Liberal Companies In The US - Insider Monkey [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Tim Scott reads racist tweets by 'liberal left' over support for Jeff Sessions - Washington Times [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- BC Liberal staffer hired by government, but still did work for party - Vancouver Sun [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Trevor Bauer Takes Issue With 'Liberal-Slanted' Anti-Donald Trump Articles - NESN.com [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Why the liberal world order is worth saving - Irish Times [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2017]
- Trevor Bauer goes on long rant defending tweet about liberal bias - Yahoo Sports [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Networks Swoon Over GOP 'Feeling the Wrath' of Liberal Town Hall Protesters - NewsBusters (blog) [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Liberal Tolerance: Sen. Tim Scott Reads His Hate Mail On Senate Floor For Supporting Sessions As AG - Townhall [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- The Claws Out For Ivanka Trump Show Liberal Love For Women Is A Sham - The Federalist [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Trump Takes a Running Whack at the Liberal Interventionists - The Nation. [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Indians swept by Liberal in WAC action - Hays Daily News [Last Updated On: February 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 11th, 2017]
- Electoral reform 'not dead,' Liberal MP says at St. John's rally - CBC.ca [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- This liberal Brooklynite is on the hunt for conservative friends - New York Post [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Here's why we report on liberals - Newnan Times-Herald [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- The Paranoid Style of Anti-Trump Politics - National Review [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Liberal president Kent Johns blasts Ross Cameron as 'nothing more than a circus act' - The Sydney Morning Herald [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Finley: Left bites Ivanka's liberal hand - The Detroit News [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- What the Liberal-One Nation preference deal could mean at the ballot box - ABC Online [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- A new, liberal tea party is forming. Can it last without turning against Democrats? - Washington Post [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]