Chris Rufo

[Gulliver Foyle]

Is there no limit to the things you are wrong about?

There's no limit to the things you'll lie aboutsaying what I'm wrong about. A significant distinction that.

 

[Brainster]

There is, however, in modern discourse, there is no limit to the lengths folks will go to defend folks nominally on their side because the other side is so much worse. I happen to believe in the US, the GOP is clearly worse than the Dems. On the other hand, the dems are bad none-the-less. Much like, Rufo is ****** and also Claudine Gay is clearly a plagiarist and remarkably hypocritical when it comes to political expression on campass.

Rufo's right about CRT; it's poison being promoted as a cure.

 

[ahhell]

Rufo's right about CRT; it's poison being promoted as a cure.

I don't disagree but Rufo's answer is to label everything he doesn't like CRT which make's the discourse toxic. The way McCarthy discredited anti-communism.

 

[Donal]

Welp, there's 2 people who don't know what CRT is. Rufo will be glad to accept your money.

I think this sort of concern is more "I prefer my bigotry covert".

 

[Brainster]

Welp, there's 2 people who don't know what CRT is. Rufo will be glad to accept your money.

I think this sort of concern is more "I prefer my bigotry covert".

Where the pro-CRT crowd likes to say "I proudly wear my anti-Semitism on my sleeve."

 

[Thermal]

Still don't know who Chris Rufo is, and based on comments here, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

 

[Trausti]

I don't disagree but Rufo's answer is to label everything he doesn't like CRT which make's the discourse toxic. The way McCarthy discredited anti-communism.

He's been unabashedly open that he's using the left's playbook.

 

[bruto]

He's been unabashedly open that he's using the left's playbook.

But what does what he says "unabashedly" have to do with the comparison to McCarthyism?

 

[gabeygoat]

haven't listened to the episode yet, but Rufo is the topic of The Dollop's latest episode (a podcast with humor based takes on history, I guess including modern history). Probably worth a listen

 

[jt512]

I don't disagree but Rufo's answer is to label everything he doesn't like CRT which make's the discourse toxic.

Can you provide a couple of examples of Rufo labeling something he doesn't like as CRT that is not actually CRT?

 

[angrysoba]

Can you provide a couple of examples of Rufo labeling something he doesn't like as CRT that is not actually CRT?

He literally says it is his modus operandi.

The thing is that Rufo is completely upfront about what he is up to.

He literally tweets it out.

He and James Lindsay (who used to be an atheist apparently), literally discussed what they were doing on Twitter here:

The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think "critical race theory." We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.

 

[Roboramma]

There is, however, in modern discourse, there is no limit to the lengths folks will go to defend folks nominally on their side because the other side is so much worse. I happen to believe in the US, the GOP is clearly worse than the Dems. On the other hand, the dems are bad none-the-less. Much like, Rufo is ****** and also Claudine Gay is clearly a plagiarist and remarkably hypocritical when it comes to political expression on campass.

This is the part that actually bothers me. I'm much less concerned about her plagiarism, and even to some extent agree with Scott Alexander here:
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/seems-like-targeting

But it’s the sort of thing that you can imagine having chilling effects. Imagine if, every time someone let their students/employees/whatever criticize Israel, journalists searched really hard for unrelated dirt on them. Assuming that many important people have skeletons in their closets (or can be believably accused of such in ways hard for them to disprove), that creates chilling effects against letting anyone criticize Israel. If you know investigative journalism is a weapon pointed against people who do X, that scares people out of doing X.

 

[jt512]

He literally says it is his modus operandi.

Three-year-old post notwithstanding, do you have an example of Rufo actually calling something CRT that isn't?

 

[Donal]

Where the pro-CRT crowd likes to say "I proudly wear my anti-Semitism on my sleeve."

You're not even good at conspiracy theories. CRT is a "cultural Marxist" plot. At least keep your nonsense straight.

 

[angrysoba]

Three-year-old post notwithstanding, do you have an example of Rufo actually calling something CRT that isn't?

Okay, I think I see a misunderstanding. ahhell says Rufo labels non-CRT things CRT. I don't think that's quite what Rufo is doing. What he was doing was encouraging people to see things they didn't like as CRT and that is what Rufo was pointing out in the tweet. An example that apparently came up was Toni Morrison's novel The Beloved. CRT was a major issue in the election campaign of Glenn Youngkin, and Rufo was happy for people to mix up any moral panic with CRT.

You say "three-year-old post" as though that were ancient history or that Rufo had somehow repudiated his stance since then, but he has not. As I pointed out, this is his MO. He is not really that concerned with the nuances of what CRT is and is not, the point, for him, is to win campaigns and the strategy is to get people upset with what they assume is CRT.

What's somewhat interesting is that three years ago, CRT was all the rage, and people defending, say, teaching slavery in schools, were on the back foot trying to explain how it is different from CRT. But notice that people don't talk about CRT anymore. Could it be because such discussion has served its purpose and now the flavour of the month is DEI?

Whenever he has had people debate him on the topics, he has poured scorn on the idea of being nuanced or fair as being a position for losers.

 

[Donal]

Didn't Rufo brag about moving on to the next white panic topic?

 

[Donal]

Three-year-old post notwithstanding, do you have an example of Rufo actually calling something CRT that isn't?

Did he call it anything but a postgraduate field of study about how racism has affected the American justice system throughout history?

 

[jt512]

But notice that people don't talk about CRT anymore. Could it be because such discussion has served its purpose and now the flavour of the month is DEI?

DEI is CRT, or more precisely Critical Social Justice, an umbrella term for CRT and similar so-called critical theories.

See, for instance, DEI: a Trojan Horse for Critical Social Justice in Science.

 

[Donal]

Don't you mean (((CRT)))?

 

[angrysoba]

DEI is CRT, or more precisely Critical Social Justice, an umbrella term for CRT and similar so-called critical theories.

See, for instance, DEI: a Trojan Horse for Critical Social Justice in Science.

I don't think that is true. My understanding is that DEI is more of a liberal integrationist approachsimilar to affirmative action from the Civil Rights era, but also co-opted by consultants and corporations partly as a way of preventing government intervention and regulation. DEI inclusivity of course involves or is inclusive of such things as disability which has nothing to do with race.

My understanding of CRT is that in many ways it is a repudiation of liberal integrationism. Some of the founders of CRT such as Derrick Bell had initially gone down the Civil Rights path of championing liberalism and desegregation, but that he later considered it a mistake and thus CRT was a way to deal with an inherently racist system. Obviously the R in CRT is to do with race. But further than that, some of the CRT proponents were against liberal affirmative action which was designed to level the playing field caused by historic injustices such as slavery, and instead argued that it allowed some groups such as black women to continue to be discriminated against because affirmative action would see black men and white women accepted into the workforce, but black women not ticking the box.

I could be wrong and maybe they are the same thing, or it could be that Rufo has succeeded in his aim of making people assume they are the same.