This segment consists of a four-page set of excerpts introducing the series plus a book listing and this syllabus. I chose to call this segment Traditionalism versus Critical Theories of Social Justiceas that is the way I think about this debate. This is counter to Ben Shapiro (the author of some of the excerpts used in the segment) who refers to traditionalism as unionism and disintegrationism. Why? Because from my perspective that is a bit pejorative. However, to preserve the integrity of the excerpts I will have to continue to use his terms. The four pages will introduce the three debates featured in the series: American Philosophy, American Culture and American History, each constituting its own section of the series.
Much of the challenge to American tradition, values and beliefs emanates from the Critical Race Theory movement. This segment is to provide some understanding of Critical Race Theory via excerpts from four different books: Critical Race Theory, How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps, Cynical Theories, and The Madness of Crowds. As the book titles suggest there are differences of opinion on the intent of the theory and the consequences of the theory, albeit their opinions are relatively similar on what the theory actually is.
Segment 3 begins the section 1 of the series on American History, specifically illustrations and reasoning behind revisionists attempts to rewrite it. Most of the revisions deal with the history of human rights in the country.
The People’s History of the United States is the title of a book that has sold over 2.6 million copies and is used as the basis for curricula in many schools in the country today. The author of the book is Howard Zinn, probably the most popular and successful revisionist history author in the history of the country. Debate is provided by Mary Graber who penned Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History that Turned a Generation Against America. Both books are lengthy (Zinn’s book being 729 pages and Garber’s 327 pages). I narrowed the debate to 15 pages in part by just focusing on the Slavery & Civil War plus the World War II passages with brief reference to Christopher Columbus and his treatment of the American Indians.
Undoubtedly the most noted revisionist effort in recent years was Project 1619 – a set of ten essays published in the New York Times Magazine in December 2018. Editor and coordinator of the effort Nikole Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for her introductory essay, “The Fight for a True Democracy.” So much criticism ensued that New York Times Magazine pulled it from print by the fall of 2020. This segment contains a full transcript of the Project 1619 podcast plus excerpts from a book titled, The 1619 Project Critique.
All of the excerpts in this segment come from The War on History by Jerrett Stepman published in 2019. The book details efforts to rewrite the histories of Christopher Columbus, Thanksgiving, the Founders of America, Andrew Jackson, the Civil War, America Patriotism, and America’s 20th century.
This is a second set of excerpts detailing a revision of history, the first being Project 1619. This revision is from Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her critically acclaimed book The Warmth of Other Suns. In Caste she contends that slavery in America established a caste system comparable to the caste systems of India and the Nazi Third Reich. The book not only is a New York Times bestseller but was highly promoted by Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club and has a remarkable 20,560 reviews on Amazon with an overall 5-star rating. Also included in the segment are excerpts of research I did on India’s caste system from BBC News, the “Human Rights Watch” publications, and the book Castes in India, to assist you in drawing your own conclusions on the Wilkerson’s claims.
The central focus of these two segments is to attain the perspective of three noted 19th century black leaders, all of whom wrote about their perspectives on slavery: Fredrick Douglas (1818 – 1895) a former slave in his book The Life of Fredrick Douglas published in 1845, Booker T. Washington (1856 -1915) a former slave in his book Up From Slavery published in 1901, and W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) in his book The Souls of Black Folk published in 1903. To supplement their perspectives are excepts from 1619 Jamestown which details the beginnings of both black and Indian slavery in the U.S., excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation from the journals of William Bradford, Governor of the Plymouth Colony of Massachusetts intermittently between the year of 1621 and 1657 published in 1646, and Blackout by Candace Owens who provides an interesting history on slavery in North America prior to 1619.
Segment 10 initiates the second section of the three sections in the series, The American Philosophy. These excerpts introduce the debate aspects currently occurring in the country over what America’s philosophy is and what many people think it should move to. This follows on from Segment 2, Critical Race Theory.
This segment describes the “social justice movement” which is concerned with addressing and redressing social inequalities, particularly issues of class, race, gender, sex, and sexuality. Much of the thought supporting the movement is derived from Critical Race Theory and the follow-on critical theories which sprung from it. The intent of the segment is to provide background for the various social justice efforts which are in this section.
The history section of the series coupled with Critical Race Theory in segment 2 provided some insight on the race debate in the country. This section begins the specific look at the sex and sexuality debate in the country. The major research sources for this segment are The End of Gender and The Madness of Crowds plus a piece from Cynical Theories on Queer Theory. Much of the excerpts focuses on three issues; is biological sex a spectrum, is gender a social construct, and are sexual orientation and gender identity related. From that understanding springs issues for the LGMTQ community.
Segment 13 begins with a summary of the first and second waves of feminism. Then it enters the current debate promoted by the National Organization of Women (NOW) particularly with reference to their relatively new statement of purpose, “We envision a world where patriarchal culture and male dominance no longer oppress us or our earth.” Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles NOW from 1990 to 1996 and openly gay weighs in on the debate in her book The Death of Right and Wrong.
Since I had very little understanding about Transgender Identity, I began my research by reading Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Trans. The first two chapters are titled Trans 101 and Trans 201 and then it goes into other subjects including Dating and Sex, Science, Law, and Politics. Excerpts from each of those chapters are included. That is followed by some counterviews by two gay writers Tammy Bruce and Dave Rubin. It concludes with some information on Gender confirmation surgery.
“There is a phenomenon sweeping teenage girls. It originates not in traditional gender dysphoria but in videos on the internet. It represents mimicry, inspired by internet gurus, a pledge taken with girlfriends. For these girls, trans identification offers freedom from anxiety’s relentless pursuit, it satisfies the deepest need for acceptance, the thrill of transgression, the seductive lilt of belonging. Some small proportion of the population will always be transgender. But perhaps the current craze will not always lure troubled young girls with no history of gender dysphoria, enlisting them in a lifetime of hormone dependency and disfiguring surgeries. It this is a social contagion, society – perhaps—can arrest it.” Source: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters by Abigail Shrier. This statement frames one side of the debate.
This segment is devoted to analyzing how the “Social Justice Movement” is impacting our society. The excerpts are drawn from three sources: Cynical Theories, The Madness of Crowds, and Don’t Burn This Book.
What culture must prevail in order for our rights to remain robust? Or to unite us? This segment will present a debate surrounding these two questions and set the stage for section 3 of the series.
“The official quasi-religion of Western universities is Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DIE for short).” DIE promotes equality of outcomes supported by Critical Theory thinking whereas traditionalists promote equality of opportunity. This segment will look at both sides of the debate. The excerpts will primarily come from The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad a Canadian professor who immigrated to Canada from Lebanon.
“One dictionary recently selected “cancel culture” as “the word of the year” because, “it has become for better or worse, a powerful force.” This is particularly true of freedom of speech and due process. This is explored in this segment with excerpts from Cancel Culture by Alan Dershowitz, The Parasitic Mind, and Critical Race Theory. It also contains a short piece on “Gaslighting.”
According to the book with this title, this is not a debatable issue as it is an accomplished fact. Here is a short excerpt from the book, “It’s now clear that we failed to stop the slide, because the political radicals on campus never had any interest in what we had to say. Their purposes were not ours. We were interested in the quality of higher education, but what they cared about was getting control of the campuses so that they could use them to promote their political ideology. We got to this point not because they didn’t foresee the grim results of what they were doing – the virtual destruction of higher education as we have knowns it – but because they did. And so, there is no point in yet another book that diagnoses a growing problem that warns of its consequences. It’s too late for warnings about what may happen because it has already happened: the corruption of the campuses by radical politics is now well advanced.” The book goes on to explain how it happened, the current state of affairs, and what can be done to restore higher education. The debate is about should it be restored?
The excerpts in this segment are from the book Why You Should be a Socialist by Nathan J. Robinson. He presents the case for America to become a socialist country.
Three sources are used to present a counterargument to Segment 21: The Woke Supremacy: An Anti-Socialist Manifest, Countdown to Socialism, and Blackout. Then you be the judge, if you have not already done so.
This segment presents the research I conducted on what is behind many of the riots that occurred throughout the country over the last one to two years. The excerpts come from four sources in the following lineup. Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, The Making of Black Lives Matter, and Black Lives Matter: Marxist Hate Dressed Up as Racial Justice.
The postscript analyses six different concepts presented in the series to determine whether they were formulated from a Marxist subculture ideology. The concepts analyzed include: Critical Race Theory, revisionist history (1619 Project and America’s Caste System), Social Justice, Transgender Children, American Universities, and protests and riots. All of the analysis comes from Mark R. Levin’s New York Times Best Seller book American Marxism.
The excerpts for this epilogue all come from Newt Gingrich’s book Beyond Biden. It begins with an extensive survey of what values Americans favor, then to understanding that America has been in a political polarized condition similar to today before, followed by what is necessary to achieve a better future from today. This includes understanding and defeating wokeness and achieving domestic stability.
Twenty-four prominent Black Americans wrote a series of essays dissenting from contemporary groupthink and rhetoric about race, class and American history contending it defames our national heritage, divides our people and instills helplessness. They refer to themselves as “1776 Unites” and published the essays in a book titled Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers. They term the book is an indispensable corrective to the falsified version of black history presented by the 1619 Project, radical activists, and money-hungry “diversity consultants.”
The author of Woke, Inc., Vivek Ramaswamy contends that “Wokeness” is a religion in every sense of the word. “Wokeness is a system of beliefs that stands as one indivisible unit and touches on all aspects on one’s existence. Like Christianity or Islam, wokeness purports to provide a system of beliefs that explains everything. Further, you are not allowed to consider the evidence and pick and choose which part of wokeness you like. Wokeness givers commands, not suggestions, and it disciples are expected to obey all commands.” It is the Church of Diversity.
Recessional examines how politics and cultural attitudes about rebellion have shifted the United States in the last generation. By screaming down freedom of thought and expression, the author Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet explains, we kill invention and democracy – the foundations of security and growth. Further, if we don’t confront the cultural thuggery now, the Land of the Free will be transformed into the dictatorship – the aim of the Woke.
“America is racist” is a popular theme in the wokeness movement. The War on the West describes the essence of the movement, its consequences on our society and provides an interesting answer to the question “What do you like about being white?” Further the author, Douglas Murray posits that the embers of bigotry remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging inferno in the Middle East and Asia that calls for much more protest than that in the West.