Thread by @deonteleologist

If you've seen Chris Rufo on your timeline over the past 24 hours, odds are you witnessed him proclaim a triumphant victory over the Washington Post, which he and several fellow anti-woke propagandists denounced as dishonest.

Buckle up folks, this is going to be a long one. 🧵

Many joined in on the dunk session. And note the tone here: these aren't quasi-neutral accusations of simple mistakes -- not even close. They're "major errors" or LIES from journalists who HATE Rufo.

Today, both Federalist & Post Millennial championed Rufo's heroic "exposé"

Here is how Rufo starts his debunking. Note the very serious-sounding, empty, bureaucratic diction: "the fabrication of a timeline" and "multiple smears that are easily proven by documentary evidence."

Those who have followed my previous investigations of Rufo know exactly what he's up to: inflating his charges before citing evidence -- evidence which doesn't need to support the charges; his reader doesn't care enough to check. See my breakdown here: conceptualdisinformation.substack.com/p/chris-rufo-p…

What's all the hype about?

Rufo reduces the WaPo def. of CRT: CRT believes in systemic racism.

ACKSHUALLY, Rufo says, CRT is a neo-Marxist ideology committed to abolishing the white race and decolonizing America. Evidence: his "briefing book" (see my pinned tweet for a review)

For "Lie #2" (previously "the fabrication of a timeline") Rufo bitches and moans about the most insignificant details one could possibly have included in the article. Compare the WaPo original to his fact-check, then the latter to the WaPo correction.

"Lie #3" -- Pure he-said-she-said. Rufo insists he did not describe his mask-off plan as "so obvious," and suggests that the claim that he did -- which would make him look better, if anything -- is "a deliberate falsification--and a flagrant violation of journalistic ethics."

Rufo attempts something so idiotic I can only assume he's testing the waters, seeing how far his fans' dogmatic acceptance of his assertions goes.

According to Rufo, "DiAngelo says 'virtually all White people contribute to racism'" = "All white people are racist."

Finally, we get to "Lie #5." Upon first read, I thought to myself, "Oh, look, Rufo actually got them on something!"

But of course that was bullshit as well. According to Rufo's own presentation of the WaPo claim, the authors state clearly that the lesson took place.

Let's look closer at Rufo's presentation of the Cupertino story. First pic here is from the WaPo piece. Then the graphic for Rufo's article, then an excerpt. Several times he states third-grade students were "forced to deconstruct" and "rank" their "racial and sexual identities"

We also see numerous references to the idea that kids are being split into binary categories of oppressor and oppressed. I attach Rufo's "whistleblower documents" in full here:

Do I think this is what third graders should be doing in class? No, I don't. But let's take stock:

- No evidence of "sexual identities"
- No evidence that kids did "ranking" of any kind
- No evidence of kids being labeled "oppressors"

Now that we have addressed Cupertino, let's go back through the other three cases of Rufo flagrantly spewing horseshit on Tucker Carlson's show, as exposed in the WaPo article. First, here is the lie about the Treasury and DiAngelo, and my summary from the Substack piece upthread

Second: Rufo's lies about Sandia Labs, including his claim that they forced all White male executives to attend a "three-day re-education camp." The WaPo authors reached out to the Energy Dept and learned that employees got to choose which retreat to attend from a list of options

And third, Rufo parroting the Shapiro-PragerU version of intersectionality and pinning it on the FBI.

Nowhere in any of Rufo's commentary on the WaPo piece does he come remotely close to acknowledging the authors @laurameckler & @jdawsey1's exposition of what are unequivocally his LIES -- lies that served as the foundation of Trump's anti-CRT Executive Order.

All offense, no D.

The authors issued two corrections -- one to soothe Rufo's aneurysm over a "timeline" and one to placate Rufo's misreading of their account of the Cupertino story.

The professional bullshit artist's army of trolls showed up 5000 deep to raid the article's comment section.

Rufo declares victory like Charlie Sheen on heroin.

Let's take a closer look. Rufo says WaPo

- "admits that they fabricated the timeline" -- nah, that's not what "fabricated" means. Nice try.
- reversed their reporting of Cupertino -- nope, reread
- don't have a recording of two benign words
- have superior reading comprehension

Well, well, well. What have we learned?

First, when dealing with Rufo's shameless dishonesty, the last section from the aforementioned Substack post will always apply. One must know what one is up against, and take nothing on faith.

More importantly, however, we have been shown that the echo chamber Rufo has successfully cultivated is basically impenetrable at this point. It's not just Rufo who has abandoned all commitments to telling the truth; it's his entire epistemological network.

As fun as it is to shit on Rufo for being a human garbage can, I think it's high time we take a page from his book: in the culture war, the best defense is a good offense. Let's make as much noise about the GOP's spineless desecration of democracy as they make about "wokeness."