Political Correctness

Method In Their Madness: Review of Michael Rectenwald’s Springtime for Snowflakes

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Springtime for Snowflakes: Social Justice and its Postmodern Parentage
Michael Rectenwald
Nashville, Tenn.: New English Review Press, 2018

The takeover of academia by the far Left during the last several decades has been well documented. What sets Michael Rectenwald’s (MR) Springtime for Snowflakes apart is a rare insider’s critical appraisal of the ideologies and machinations of critical theory, postmodernism, social justice, and transgender theory. The book is in part an academic’s memoir and in part an ideological analysis of the various socially destructive beliefs and theories ensconced within the ivy-covered halls. “Snowflakes is a first-person embodiment of the postmodern perspective, the result of a deep and extended immersion” (xiii). Rectenwald is an apostate from the radical Left. “I had identified as a left or libertarian communist. . . . I became a well-respected Marxist thinker and essayist. I had flirted with a Trotskyist sect” (28).

At first glance MR seems an unlikely recruit for the far-Left. He is a product of a large working-/lower- middle-class German Catholic family from Pittsburgh. He attended Catholic secondary schools. Rectenwald recounts one incident that contributed to his embrace of the Left. As an eighth grader he and his father went to interview at Shadyside Academy. The headmaster informed the senior Rectenwald that although his son could do well there academically, socially he was not a good fit. “This experience and others like it increased the chances that if ever exposed to it, I would seriously entertain Marxism” (34).

The author notes that class resentment still fuels the Left, but what about ethnic resentment? Was Ted Kennedy motivated to pass the 1965 immigration act, in part, because his grandfather was snubbed by some Boston Brahmin?  Does Chris Cuomo support Antifa because his grandfather was called a Guinea on the streets of New York? The contemporary Left has been moving away from class issues into racial and sexual politics. MR grapples with both race and gender, though he is more comfortable analyzing the latter. Read more

The University of Chicago’s Hypocrisy on Free Speech

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We at TOO are cooperating with a new ad agency, Free Press Promotions, to attempt to get ads for TOO and TOQ into college newspapers. We thought the University of Chicago would be a good place to start given that they have loudly proclaimed themselves opposed to safe spaces and trigger warnings. Two possible ads were submitted (shown above and below here), and both were rejected by the newspaper with the simple statement, “unfortunately, our editors did not approve them.” Free Press Promotions emailed the president and the dean to get their reactions, but so far no response.

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The University as Hotbed of Anti-White Propaganda: A Student’s Perspective

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The following is a general summation of the attitudes disseminated by my liberal professors in the History and English departments this past semester:

US and European history is negative and evil, but every other culture on the planet should be celebrated. Women are treated like children, and are without agency, free will, or much ability. Men are villains, barely able to conceal their “toxic” true selves. Biological differences between the sexes are socially constructed, and yet every transgender person must take hormones and have countless surgeries because they were “born” the opposite sex. Every culture is equal, but we must change everything about ours while other cultures are perfect as they are. Majority White nations must be made multicultural through unfettered immigration, without consent from their White majorities, but other nations have the right to preserve their identity, autonomy, and culture.

As a White male, I had the privilege (how dare I, let the public flagellation commence!) of taking a course at an American university this past semester, taught by a self-professed Marxist and feminist. The course was a “capstone course” in the history department, which implies that it was meant to be the culmination of all my prior collegiate education. The course was worth four credits, as opposed to the standard three, and an additional hour per week was allotted. However, the last few weeks of the course we rarely even met as a class, with the purported reason given, “so students could devote time to their projects.”

The course dealt with the history of alcohol in the United States. I was initially very excited for the potential course material. Between early settlers, Prohibition, wars, amazing literature, and civil rights, I anticipated an immense wealth of subject matter, to be addressed from a more alcohol-centric approach.

I should have known better. Read more

The Paranoid German Mind: Counting Down to the Next War

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Having lost, during and after World War II, over 9 million of its soldiers and civilians, Germany has had to wallow in expiation and self-abnegation.  Its present grotesque multicultural policy of Willkomenskultur (“welcoming culture” toward non-European migrants), openly heralded by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government, is the direct result of the lost war. Germany’s role of an exemplary host country for millions of non-European migrants has been a major linchpin of its legal system over the last 70 years —  and by default for present day Central European countries subject today to floods of non-European migrants. The countries that were most loyal to National Socialist Germany in World War II, the contemporary Hungary, Croatia and to some extent Slovakia and Baltic countries further north, have similar self-denying dilemmas — due, on one  hand, to their historically friendly pro-German ties, and on the other, due to the obligatory rituals of antifascist mea culpas, as demanded by Brussels and Washington bureaucrats.  I have put together for TOO some excerpts from the chapter “Brainwashing the Germans” from my book Homo americanus: Child of the Postmodern Age, 2007 (foreword by Kevin MacDonald) (The second edition of this book is to be published by Washington  Summit Publishers). I guess some of those lines below might shed some light into extremely serious political developments in Europe today.

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In the aftermath of World War II, the role of Frankfurt School “scholars,” many of whom were of Jewish extraction, was decisive in shaping the new European cultural scene.  Scores of American left-leaning psychoanalysts — under the auspices of the Truman government — swarmed over Germany in an attempt to rectify not just the German mind but also to change the brains of all Europeans.  But there were also a considerable number of WASP Puritan-minded scholars and military men active in post-war Germany, such as Major General Robert A. McClure, the poet Archibald MacLeish, the political scientist Harold Laswell, the jurist Robert Jackson and the philosopher John Dewey, who had envisaged copying the American way of democracy into the European public scene. Read more

Lawmakers attack The Political Cesspool at House Judiciary Committee hearing

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I had the distinct honor of being denounced by multiple lawmakers at last week’s House Judicary Committee hearing on the “Adequacy and Enforcement of Our Nation’s Immigration Laws,” where our old friend Sherrif Paul Babeu was one of the witnesses called to testify. From the Arizona Daily Star:

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s opinion of the state of the border and the administration’s policies was in high demand Tuesday as he testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary.The Arizona sheriff, known for his hardline stance on border security and illegal immigration, was one of four witnesses to testify during a hearing titled “Examining the adequacy and enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws.”

Pinal County is about 85 miles north of the border, but Babeu says a lot of the smuggling funnels through his county.

As proof, he said his office led a multiagency investigation that led to a $3 billion cartel drug bust and netted 76 arrests and 108 weapons seized.

“This is on American soil,” he said. “As sheriffs, where our primary job is answering 911 calls, how on earth did we get to this place?”

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The Rotherham Pathology

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The horrifying scandal in Rotherham (previous versions covered copiously for TOO by Tobias Langdon) continues to unfold. A report commissioned by the city council stated that at least 1400 children were sexually abused over 16 years.

It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated. There were examples of children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone. Girls as young as 11 were raped by large numbers of male perpetrators. This abuse is not confined to the past but continues to this day. … One young person told us that ‘gang rape’ was a usual part of growing up in the area of Rotherham in which she lived. …

Within social care, the scale and seriousness of the problem was underplayed by senior managers. At an operational level, the Police gave no priority to CSE, regarding many child victims with contempt and failing to act on their abuse as a crime. Further stark evidence came in 2002, 2003 and 2006 with three reports known to the Police and the Council, which could not have been clearer in their description of the situation in Rotherham. The first of these reports was effectively suppressed because some senior officers disbelieved the data it contained. This had led to suggestions of cover- up. The other two reports set out the links between child sexual exploitation and drugs, guns and criminality in the Borough. These reports were ignored and no action was taken to deal with the issues that were identified in them.

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Anthony Cumia joins James Edwards on The Political Cesspool Radio Program

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It was very much our pleasure to welcome Anthony Cumia as our featured guest last night. Mr. Cumia, star of the massively popular Opie & Anthony Show, was famously dismissed by Sirius / XM Satellite Radio last month for not having enjoyed the multicultural experience of allegedly being attacked by a black woman in New York City. The incident spawned national news coverage.

Here’s an hour by hour breakdown of the August 2 broadcast:

Radio Show Hour 1

Host James Edwards opens one of the most memorable shows in program history. Topics addressed this hour: Still enjoying the work, celebrate family, and popular children’s television series Thomas and Friends is accused of “racism”.

Also: Scoop Stanton calls in with a report from his visit to Capitol Hill with a TPC fan!

Radio Show Hour 2

Topics addressed include: Free beer for Latino heritage, Cleveland Indians offend Indians, woman’s father and husband become women, and another example of special privileges for minorities.

Radio Show Hour 3

Guest: Anthony Cumia – The radio legend discusses with us the next phase of his career and his plan to talk openly and honestly about racial issues. This is what a REAL conversation about race sounds like, Mr. Holder.

Here is a video of the interview.

The entire interview can be accessed by clicking here to access our most recent program podcasts; or click here to access the complete broadcast archive dating back to 2004. tpc-logo-for-posts

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