One of the greatest books I’ve read in my adult life is “America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything,” by Christopher F. Rufo. It was published just this year, in hardcover.
The book is a magnificent explanation of what we now call “wokeness.” It delves deeply into the intellectual foundations (if such they can be described) of wokeness, tracing its development since the 1960s right up to the present day, when it has infected every corporation, every school, every government agency, every university in the nation. Rufo did massive research and obviously knows his stuff. At the same time, the book doesn’t feel academic or heavy going. Rufo is not only a trained historian, he’s a great writer. Nearly every page contains a sentence or phrase I wanted to write down because it’s so obviously true.
If you want to really understand the phenomena that have given us Pamela Price, Cat Brooks, Carroll Fife, Nikki Bas, Sheng Thao and so many others, you have got to read “America’s Cultural Revolution.”
If I have a criticism of the book—and I do—it’s that, while Rufo artfully points out the historic danger that wokeness poses to our nation and our Constitution, he has nothing at all to say about the equivalent of wokeness of the political right. The MAGA movement, driven by radical “Christians” who wish to impose a theocracy on America, is in my opinion even more dangerous than wokeness. Yet Rufo is entirely silent on that issue, making it sound as though radical Democrats are solely responsible for the various threats America confronts.
Still, and despite that, “America’s Cultural Revolution” is an important and historic book. I urge everyone to track down a copy. It’s a real page turner.
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I wrote the other day about the violent leftists who tried to shut Atlanta’s “Cop City” down. Dozens of them were arrested for domestic terrorism, as it became evident to a Grand Jury that these protesters are little more than ignorant twerps who get their jollies from hating on cops and having temper tantrums in public. Well, Cat Brooks—the leftwing version of Donald Trump—is still defending the Cop City rioters on her Twitter, err, I mean “X” feed. She has posted videos of some of the protesters, who even yesterday chained themselves to the construction site. Then she retweeted this incendiary statement: “We have to stand up and take our own future into our own hands through direct actions like this. We need as many as people as possible to join in this fight... The more of us that are willing to... put their bodies on the line... then we will win."
Actually, No, you won’t win, Ms. Cat. You never will. Go ahead and put your bodies wherever you want; it doesn’t matter. I don’t understand how much more evidence you need that you and your dumb anarchistic, racist “movement” have been soundly rejected by all Americans: Republicans, Democrats and Independents. We understand fully the hatred and unreasoning rage that fuels everything you say and do. Your little woke movement has never solved a single problem in Oakland, or anywhere else. All you do is divide people by race. Your obsession with how unfairly Black people are treated is getting boring. Nobody really cares. You’ve run that horse into the ground. You are perceived, correctly, as a narcissistic, self-hating mongerer who can only make money by stoking anger and fear. What a legacy! You’re fast reaching the point where you’re a punchline.
Which brings up the latest Trending topic on “X”: #StayWoke. Someone tweeted this: “Some people use the word ‘Woke’ as if it’s supposed to be an insult. But mostly they use it because they can’t spell ‘empathetic,’ ‘educated’ or “enlightened.’”
Calling someone “woke” is an insult, for the very good reason that they’re trying to destroy our country and its Constitution and transfer hard-earned wealth away from White (and Asian) people to the Black community, which did nothing to earn it. You know that the wokesters are running scared when they try to convince us that being woke means being “empathetic, educated or enlightened.” It means nothing of the sort. Do you think Carroll Fife is “empathetic”? She is towards Black criminals, but when it comes to Whites and Asians, not so much. Same for Cat Brooks and Madame D.A. Make no mistake, these individuals wish to make a revolution that would equate “whiteness” with “evil.” If that’s not insane, then what is?
I feel change in the air. Price is getting recalled; everybody who knows anything understands that, including Price herself. Expect her to become increasingly irrational and desperate as she fights to keep her job. Maybe after we recall her, U.C. Berkeley can hire her for some kind of cushy affirmative-action position, with an office next to Chesa Boudin’s. Boudin, you’ll remember, is the new head of UCB’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, a fancy-sounding bureaucracy that seeks (according to its website) to “eliminate cash bail, establish a unit to reevaluate wrongful convictions, increase police accountability, and lower sentences for nonviolent offenses.” Doesn’t that sound like the kind of kleptocratic Hell you want to live in? Oakland is already pretty much there, as are San Francisco and so many other U.S. cities captured by the woke left. Boudin’s new Center is promoting policies that would make it nearly impossible to sanction unruly, violent students who, for example, bring weapons into school. Using the phrase “educator discretion,” Boudin and his colleagues, safely ensconced in their university bubble, argue that “willful disturbance” by students in the classroom can no longer be subject to criminal penalties. Instead, the poor little darlings who bring AKs and knives to school and threaten teachers, staff and fellow students, will no longer have the police called on them. This is all part of the left’s efforts to end “white supremacy” and empower children of color. It’s racism-in-reverse. Think about it: we’re now going to let public school students run amok in the classroom, and we can’t do anything about it because if we do, we’re racists. With Pamela Price bringing the same mentality to law enforcement, all I can say is, fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Steve Heimoff