Critical Race Theory, like a lot of social justice/victimhood identity politics creeds, clothes horrible, racist ideas in the confounding camouflage of postmodern academic jargon. That’s one reason conservatives have had a hard time fighting it. Scott Adams says that labeling “Marxist” or “anti-white” isn’t getting the job done persuasion-wise. He suggests boiling down the poison of Critical Race Theory into something far more readily understandable: losers and assholes:
Being accurate matters for science and for budgeting. Accuracy often requires details and nuance and context and all that stuff. But persuasion craves simplicity. Every detail you add to a clean message gives someone a reason to not accept it.
We see this problem for the critics of Critical Race Theory. They try to argue it is a Marxist worldview, and 95% of the country isn’t quite sure that is true, and isn’t quite sure why that matters, exactly. Sounds bad, but perhaps not so bad for left-leaning people. And that’s who the right needs to persuade.
Calling CRT “anti-white” might be close to the truth, but that doesn’t matter to persuasion. The “anti-white” critique sounds exactly like a Fox News talking point, and not something moderates would take se …
That’s why I am A-B testing some new persuasion approaches. In this tweet I reframe CRT as sorting children into two classes: Losers and Assholes.
The “losers” would be any non-white kids born into this oppressive racist system. The assholes are the white kids who allegedly benefit from the system and perhaps are not keen to change what works for them.
That framing might well get the job done, though just asking parents “So, is your kid a loser or an asshole?” might bring sub-optimal results…
(I have a lot of links on fighting Critical Race Theory building up in the virtual hopper, though there are other topic posts I need to finish first.)
Tags: Critical Race Theory, Democrats, education, Persuasion, postmodernism, Scott Adams, Social Justice Warriors
“boiling down the poison of Critical Race Theory into something far more readily understandable:”
it’s tribal warfare. to the ones behind all this, THEY themselves are truth and morality and all the rest of you are nothing except what they deign to make you. they hate you. because you are not them. and you’ve allowed them to dictate to you what morality is, what truth is, what will be discussed and what will not be discussed.
to them, civil rights means they have rights and you are irrelevant. to them, justice means them owning and controlling everything and you doing what they tell you to do. to them, equity means you handing over everything to them and bowing in submission to them. it’s their religion.
Seems simpler and more effective to just go Full Metal Alinksy and make the enemy live up to its own rules. Just call the left racists. Not “anti-white.” Just racists. Say it over and over and over again, just like they do. Logic doesn’t have to enter into it at all.
“just go Full Metal Alinksy and make the enemy live up to its own rules”
wont’ work. see, the real alin”sky” rule is “we’re human, you’re not. we’re the owners, you’re the serfs. we win, you lose’. it’s their religion. they don’t communicate with you, they manipulate you like the resource they think you are. when they’re saying something to you over and over again, they’re not talking to you, they’re herding you. “think this! think this! think this! go here! go here! go here! do that! do that! do that!” when you repeat this back at them all they hear is dogs barking and cattle lowing – it means nothing whatsoever to them at all.
Just call it what it really is: Crazy Racist Theory.
My suggestions for a more proper term for CRT & the media’s propagandizing of it are either “Hate Factory” or “Hate Machine”, simply because they use slightly more widely acceptable grammar & so are more readily usable/spreadable.
“Losers and Assholes” works well in most venues though, and it’s not like the left has any respect for anyone’s sensibilities or proprietry.
I call them neo-segregationists. If I thought they could understand it, I’d also call them modern-day Philistines.
“wont’ work. see, the real alin”sky” rule is “we’re human, you’re not.”
But you’re never going to convince the Alinskyites, you’re trying to convince the fellow travelers and the duped. I think assholes and losers may be too harsh to be effective, but maybe not. I do think pointing out that CRT is by definition racist and asking people who buy into it why they are racist and why they are promoting racism. At the first level, CRT is anti-white, but deeper down, and most insidiously, it is anti-black. It is racism all the way down.
Why not A-holes and victims?
Because the left thrives on victimhood. “Losers” emphasizes both the patronizing condescension and negative psychological impact CRT has on those it pretends to help.
Adams is not always on point. He doesn’t understand the history behind CRT. But is is good at finding the right words that work with ordinary folks. The commenters above all have good points, but they don’t win arguements, because they have to be explained.
Losers versus assholes is short, sweet, accurate, and everyone gets it right away. What’s more, it instantly puts the CRT folks on the defensive, and now the argument proceeds on your terms.
“I’d also call them modern-day Philistines”
except they’re not.
“I call them neo-segregationists”
yes and no. they reserve the right to segregate themselves and everything they do from you. but reject anything similar for you. think of it like a rancher and his cattle – he can enter their stalls at any time, but they are banned from his house. same attitude.
I prefer calling them GongFei, the Mandarin Chinese word for Chinese bandit (in context it’s more like asshole).
“Because the left thrives on victimhood”
when the world is about oneself then everything is about oneself and any problem is someone else’s fault. they’re not thriving on victimhood (real victimhood would wake them up) but indulging their self-centeredness and self-righteousness.
“Crazy Racist Theory”
communist racist theory.
“At the first level, CRT is anti-white, but deeper down, and most insidiously, it is anti-black. It is racism all the way down.”
it is. it is their own racism, projected onto others. against europeans, africans, and asians.
so. who are these people?
“you’re never going to convince the Alinskyites, you’re trying to convince the fellow travelers and the duped”
absolutely. the target audience is not them – they define themselves as The Humans and nothing they hear from anyone else means anything to them – but rather the people listening in.
THIS HAS BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL FOR ME:
I use “Nazi propaganda.”
Why would we listen to your Nazi views dividing everyone by race, and teach that to our kids?
Do you fly a swastika also?
How does CRT differ from Nazi-ism?
Put THEM on the defensive, while placing the giant seed of doubt in the mind of everyone who listens. It works.
“But you’re never going to convince the Alinskyites”
absolutely. the target audience is those who are listening in. the “alinskyites” see and hear and accept nothing other than what they want and how to get it, and reject everything else.
Pipsqueak verbalizers from common-scold Karens to Congress’ suitably low-albedo, tinctured WOC-a-baby quota-hires love nothing better than warbling mindless drivel, wagging their ample derrieres.
Unless and until good-bourgeois constituencies take trogbrain Marxisants’ hate-filled, racist rantings seriously, nothing anyone does or says will make the slightest difference. For the nonce, we’ll follow-the-money: When Rats’ squamous, Twitface Molochs sense falling market-share, they’ll beat another drum.
‘Til then, we suggest an extended relocation to St. Bart’s, the Azores or Canaries, Uruquay.
CRT is the moral equivalent of syphilis. You get it by paying good money for a bad f—.
Predestination, that’s what Critical Race Theory (CRT) is.