John C. Wright's Journal

There are people who are willing to tolerate progressive beliefs in others, provided those beliefs are kept within limits, for example, limited to the political realm, not shoved down the throats of customers seeking to play a game or read a story.

Such people do exist. They are naive.

Progressivism is a gnostic form of religion, that is, a transgressive parasite. It can only thrive by inverting the normal worldview, and transgressing the barriers and boundaries established by that worldview.

In other words, by its very nature, progressivism must transgress all norms. This includes the norm of not shoving your belief down my throat when not wanted.

They will never stop corrupting stories and games, because they will never stop overstepping any boundaries or limits or rules of logic.

The whole point of their philosophy, its heart and core, is a deep hypocrisy devoted to rebellion against reality itself.

To them, a chain of logic is a chain to be broken.

All bounds of morality to them are walls to tear down. Do you think the bounds of courtesy, of social convention, or of consumer goodwill with halt their rage and strange hunger? Not a chance.

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From time to time, the mask slips.

Here is the dialog between Washington Post reporter Philip Bump and host Noah Dworman, a comedy club owner.

Mr. Bump repeatedly asserts that there is “no evidence” that Joe Biden got money from Hunter’s business dealing with foreign nationals. That led to this exchange:

NOAH DWORMAN, HOST, OWNER, COMEDY CELLAR: What do you take from his text to his adult daughter — Hunter texted her I had to give 50% of my income to Pop.

PHILIP BUMP, WASHINGTON POST: I have no idea what that means. I don’t. I have no idea what that means.

DWORMAN: It’s —

BUMP: It’s circumstantial evidence and you prefer that to direct evidence.

DWORMAN: No. What could it be?

BUMP: I have no idea. I appreciate your ambition.

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In a recent discussion in this space, I was listing Donald Trump’s accomplishments for president, but there are items I forgot or failed to emphasize. This is only what he did particularly to help blacks, and I mention this list only to emphasize that if he is indeed a racist, he is the most ineffective racist of all time:

• Opportunity zones in urban areas,
• Massive funding for HBCUs,
• The First Step Act (to give ex-cons opportunities to apply for employment or home loans without their record getting hindering this),
• Abolished the 1994 crime bill that was written by Joe Biden and supported by Bill Clinton and nearly caused the incarceration of 490,000 black men (long prison terms for minor drug possession offenses, &c.)

Let it not be forgotten that Trump NEVER took a paycheck for his service as President. Instead, this paycheck was donated to HBCUs,  to urban development charities, and other black charities as well.

In the alternative, let us list whom the Democrats have mainly benefitted. When taking into account their age, and the number of years they have been in DC, the number values are startling:

1. Mitch McConnell: 81 years
Time in Washington: 39 years
Net worth: $35,000,000

2. Nancy Pelosi: 83 years
Time in Washington: 36 years
Net worth: $115,000,000

3. Dianne Feinstein: 90 years
Time in Washington: 31 years
Net worth: $80,000,000

4. Chuck Grassley: 89 years
Time in Washington: 48 years
Net worth: $8,000,000

5. Joe Biden: 80 years
Time in Washington: 51 years
Net worth: $15,000,000?? — amount undeclared from Ukrainian money laundering cannot be estimated at this time.

A post by U.S. President Donald Trump of his police booking mugshot. 

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Exit only left a comment in my comments box on another thread where, in my judgment, with all due respect, I conclude it does not belong. But I do not with the conversation to be erased, so I have taken the liberty of moving it to this space.

The exchange was as follows, and may continue in the comments below:

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Exit Only …(One comment)

That encounter Jesus had with the Canaanite woman? (Warning: rant ahead) I bet he got that from watching The Chosen, an entertainment heresy that dares to calls itself a series on the ministry of Christ. I’ve checked out a few scenes of the series posted on YT, and boy oh boy, do they play fast and loose with the scriptures to add soap opera drama. The episode where Jesus encounters the Canaanite woman, He is tasked by the woman for asking for water, and get this, Jesus meekly apologizes to the woman for being rude! The Son of God, apologizing for an apparent faux pas?! The Canaanite woman remains offended and huffy, even though she has slept around with multiple men, and her current beau is not her husband. Even by Samaritan apostate standards, I don’t think her own society would think much of her.

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I recently had occasion to take the “White Privilege Test” endorsed by the black Lives Matter movement, and was thunderstruck, but not surprised, to find that none of the questions, not a single one, had anything to do with anything that could honestly be called a privilege.

This leads to a serious conundrum. What is White Privilege?

An even more serious question is this: How can anyone take such a silly question seriously?

Let us explore the answer below. It will lead to a larger answer explaining not merely Critical Race Theory, but also Critical Gender Ideology, Critical Intersectional Feminism, Critical Colonialism and the other Cultural Marxist theories all springing from Hegelian Hermeticism. The same perverse spirit animates all these theoretical frameworks.

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The White Privilege Test as updated by our own Eloris. The words below are his. 

1. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its
policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

As many have mentioned, this one will look just fine the other way around.

2. I can loudly complain that characters on TV shows do not share my skin color without being thought racist.

3. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, I will be able to find doctors or lawyers who have pledged to treat me preferentially because of my skin color.

4. Honestly this one is too dumb to even revise.

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I have seen gloating and wailing over the fact that, when asked by Tucker Carlson about his concern for sending tanks to Ukraine versus his concern for ill besetting his own nation, candidate Mike Pence answered “That is not my concern…”

Many a pundit decreed this the end of his career. However, heard in context, it was clear that Mr. Pence meant Ukraine was not his concern, and that America was.  The statement is being taken the other way around.

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Some day I will discover the source of my obsession with this topic, and need impose no longer on weary readers who have heard me hold out my opinions before.

Each time I think I have a clear answer to the question, something happens to provoke me to puzzlement again.

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My wife went to see the film SOUND OF FREEDOM, and I did not, because the subject matter is too disturbing to me. So, obviously, I can write no review on a film I have not seen. But that does not mean I cannot write a recommendation.

For I have seen the reactions from other reviewers, and they are ghastly.

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At first, I was as aghast as any man at the spectacle of Russia conquering territory in Europe, first Georgia under Bush, then Crimea under Obama, and now Ukraine, under Jill Biden.

Naturally, like most Americans, I thought it the duty of the Western Powers to unify and support Ukraine, as the attacked party.

But how much support? And for what gain?

What American interest is involved?

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A reader with the cervine yet dogged name of Rudolph Harrier observes that Affirmative Action makes racial discrimination rational. It creates more of the very disease it seeks to cure.

His argument runs as follows.

Suppose that you have two doctors you can go to. They both went to the same school. Beyond that all you can tell is that one is an Asian man, the other is a black man. But you know that the school that gave them their degrees was willing to accept dramatically lower MCAT scores from black applicants, and presumably they also were more lenient on black students after application.

Now it’s possible that the black doctor didn’t need those accommodations and is actually much smarter and a much better doctor than the Asian doctor. But the only information you have tells you that it is also possible that the black doctor is underqualified, while this is not possible for the Asian doctor. So the rational decision is to choose the Asian doctor.

He argues that, by game theory logic based on available information, affirmative action creates a disincentive to patronize Negro doctors, and to patronize Oriental ones.

Because the Affirmative Action committees select race as the basis for falsifying the reward-system, race becomes a legitimate and rational basis for making judgments in situations of limited information, that is, bias. In this case, it becomes a rational and justified bias.

My comment:

Elevating anyone above his merits, as when the Gold Medal is bestowed to one who only performed at the level of Bronze, is getting something for nothing. All affirmative action, in other words, is theft.

This is not returning stolen property to the dispossessed. This is dispossessing him of whatever lesser worth he might have had.

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