Here’s my thread responding to @HPluckrose’s responses to my review. I engaged with some of her responses already, especially on their reading of Fricker. She hasn’t replied to the most recent tweet, linked here.
The next point of contention concerns their treatment of Kristie Dotson—specifically, whether they attribute to Dotson any beliefs about the epistemic value of witchcraft. See our interaction on this issue here:
Helen’s next tweet notes that they distinguish postmodernists from “applied postmodernists” and “reified postmodernists.” I acknowledge this in my review. “Nevertheless,” she claims, “all the ones we cited use the principles & themes we set out.”
That’s precisely the problem. Charles Mills, whom they call a “Theorist” in their chapter on reified postmodernism, does NOT believe in the “postmodern knowledge principle” or the theme of cultural relativism. Thanks to @jasonintrator for this:
Finally, the questions about Applebaum and Bailey. For anyone interested in reading the relevant works by them, please DM me and I can get you a pdf. I've read them only for the purposes of writing an accurate review of their treatment in the book.
Pluckrose suggests we read p102-105 of Applebaum where Applebaum “defends the rule that students will not disagree with the premises.” I’ve attached screenshots of those pages. I can’t find such a defense.
Note that Pluckrose does not actually respond to my criticism of their interpretation of Applebaum, which I attach in full here: [8/n]
Finally: the Bailey article. Here’s what Helen says, and here’s a clip of her giving an erroneous explanation of Bailey’s article in an interview. (Yes, I do my research.)
But what counts as a shadow text depends on context. Bailey’s distinction between disagreement and privilege-preserving epistemic pushback is explained in the screenshots attached to this tweet:
I think that’s everything. Let me know if I missed something and I’ll address it. Your move, @HPluckrose. And maybe @ConceptualJames can participate, if he can figure out how to stop acting like a child on this website. [fin]
Just accidentally liked and then instinctively unliked this, but decided to re-like it. Because integrity is important, and I like this thread.
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This is a thread on the 2022 right-wing documentary UNCLE TOM II, a film based entirely on the worldview and source material of the John Birch Society.
It has been promoted by Charlie Kirk & Jack Posobiec as proof that MLK & the civil rights movement were secretly Communist. 🧵
1. Leading up to MLK Day this year, Kirk & Posobiec decided they were going to abandon the standard Republican ritual (quoting King out of context, depicting the civil rights hero as a colorblind conservative).
Instead, they wanted to vilify MLK and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
2. On the eve of MLK Day, Posobiec was promoting UNCLE TOM II and its narrator Chad O. Jackson as authoritative sources on King's connections to "Communists."
Kirk had already promoted UNCLE TOM II on Real America's Voice in 2022 after the film was released.
Because everyone is talking about Ibram Kendi: it is so deeply upsetting to me that when reading groups and book lists were popping up after George Floyd was murdered it was always the work of people like Kendi & DiAngelo. Imagine if everybody read Charles Mills instead 🥲
Robin DiAngelo made a shit ton of money telling other white people that white people are basically incurably racist and Ibram Kendi made a shit ton of money basically claiming to be the sole arbiter of what racism truly is and refused to acknowledge any critiques of his views
I get a bit more detailed with my critiques here, but I ultimately do have a lot more to say, been wanting to write something about this and maybe I will soon (if any media sites/mags are interested, DM me!)
Chris Rufo took a break from suing college students for "political violence" (read: getting spit on his shoes) to argue that conservatives should turn to Nixon "as our guide" in mobilizing a "counterrevolution" against things like CRT and DEI.
A quick thread on Nixon & Rufo 🧵
It is interesting that Rufo venerates Nixon, because Rufo likes to talk about how he is deeply opposed to racism, often pointing to the fact that he is in an interracial marriage and has biracial children.
Nixon was deeply racist. Ex 1: Nixon & Reagan discuss African diplomats
Being charitable, you might think that the Reagan phone call is not enough to call Nixon racist.
Ex 2: Nixon explains that, while he is against abortion in some cases, he thinks it is necessary to prevent the birth of interracial ("a black and a white") children.
The YouTube channel for Larry Elder’s documentary films uploaded the John Birch Society propaganda film ANARCHY USA, which claims the civil rights movement “is simply part of a worldwide movement, organized and directed by Communists, to enslave all mankind”
A thread, w/ clips🧵
ANARCHY USA was written & directed in 1966 by JBS member G. Edward Griffin, a prolific propagandist & first-rate quack. Griffin believes that HIV “doesn’t even exist” & that cancer is a dietary deficiency that can be cured with “an essential food compound” mediamatters.org/glenn-beck/who…
This upload of ANARCHY USA has become one of the most popular videos on the Uncle Tom YouTube channel. It has been viewed over 200k times in just eight months, whereas the film has been viewed fewer than 40k times in seven years on the official John Birch Society YouTube channel.
"Cultural Marxism" has entered mainstream political discourse, appearing in recent speeches by DeSantis and Hawley, Fox News broadcasts, and right-wing media from Breitbart to Ben Shapiro.
This is a thread, with clips, on the 25-year history of "Cultural Marxism" on the Right 🧵
1. We begin with the arch-conservative activist and TV host, Bill Lind.
He began his 1998 talk "The Origins of Political Correctness" by saying college campuses have become so authoritarian that he'd be put "literally on trial" for joking about women and shopping carts
2. Lind says political correctness is seen as something to laugh at, but in fact "it's deadly serious. It is the great disease of our century, the disease that has left tens of millions of people dead... the disease of ideology."