{"id":11770,"date":"2023-09-22T16:06:08","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T16:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11770"},"modified":"2023-09-22T16:06:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T16:06:08","slug":"chris-rufos-dangerous-fictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11770","title":{"rendered":"Chris Rufo\u2019s dangerous fictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“This summer, Rufo published a book outlining the worldview behind his crusade. The book, titled America\u2019s Cultural Revolution<\/em><\/a>, argues that America has been quietly taken over by the ideological heirs of 1960s radicals. Ideas formulated by Marxist revolutionaries and Black nationalists, disguised in benign-sounding language like \u201cdiversity, equity, and inclusion\u201d (DEI), have completed a \u201clong march\u201d through America\u2019s major institutions \u2014 starting from universities and emanating outward to government and corporate life. The book\u2019s subtitle, \u201cHow the Radical Left Conquered Everything,\u201d illustrates the sheer scope of the argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the more I examined Rufo\u2019s work, the weaker it started to look. His worldview is built on a foundation of exaggerations and misrepresentations \u2014 distortions that make it difficult to trust even his basic factual assertions, let alone his big-picture analysis of American society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rufo claims that the American system as we know it has been overthrown, subtly and quietly replaced by \u201ca new ideological regime that is inspired by … critical theories and administered through the capture of the bureaucracy.\u201d Rufo\u2019s \u201ccounterrevolution\u201d is aimed at reversing this process; taking America back, starting with Florida\u2019s universities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“His documentation of the far left\u2019s follies and violent excesses can be damning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many of his assertions, like the claim of secret regime change in America, are far less defensible. When pressed in an interview to defend some of his most extreme positions, Rufo ultimately claimed to be writing in \u201ca kind of artful and kind of narrative manner\u201d that does not always admit of literal interpretation. The retreat was necessary given the glaring lack of real-world policy evidence for what he had written and said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seemingly credible evidence Rufo presents of radical influence \u2014 the mainstreaming of once-radical concepts like \u201cstructural racism,\u201d for example \u2014 thus ends up undermining his case. When radical language goes mainstream without accompanying radical shifts in policy, that\u2019s not actually evidence of a radical takeover. If anything, it looks like a win for the liberal mainstream, which seemingly has coopted radical ideas and redirected them toward more moderate ends.”  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It follows, then, that Rufo\u2019s \u201ccounterrevolution\u201d is not countering much of anything. His war on American institutions is not a defensive action against an ascendant post-Marxist left; it is instead an act of aggression against the liberal ideals he occasionally claims to be defending.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s certainly true that once-radical notions, like seeing racism as a core part of American national identity, have become more popular on the left in recent years. But this does not mean American democracy has been quietly overthrown and replaced with rule by DEI departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rufo cites, as evidence of the influence of \u201ccritical theory\u201d across America, diversity trainings at Lockheed Martin and Raytheon that used the term \u201cwhite privilege\u201d and similar concepts in their documents. This, he argues, is proof that \u201ceven federal defense contractors have submitted to the new ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the notion that American arms manufacturers have been taken over by radicals is ridiculous. Lockheed Martin builds weapons to maintain the American war machine. It is not owned or controlled in any way by sincere believers in the Third Worldist anti-imperialism of the 1960s radicals; it is using the now-popular terms those radicals once embraced to burnish its own image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rufo is getting the direction of influence backward. Radicals are not taking over Lockheed Martin; Lockheed Martin is co-opting radicalism.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“the main pieces of data<\/a> once used as evidence of the ascent of far-left radicalism \u2014 things like cancellations of conservative speeches on college campuses \u2014 show a decline from previous highs. These numbers, which were quite low even at their peak<\/a>, simply do not support the idea that the country\u2019s major institutions are succumbing to Herbert Marcuse thought (even in an attenuated form).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are counterexamples: Rufo makes much of the \u201cdefund the police\u201d movement, as well as 2020-era policy victories by radicals in cities like Seattle and Portland. But Joe Biden<\/a>, a man who wrote the 1994 Crime Bill and campaigned in the 2022 midterms<\/a> using \u201cfund the police\u201d as a slogan, is president. The most common criminal justice reforms<\/a> after George Floyd\u2019s murder weren\u2019t police abolition, but rather chokehold bans and personnel reforms. Even in West Coast cities, mayors and city councilors are backing away from police defunding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberalism, in short, has made \u201cstructural racism\u201d safe for Lockheed Martin. Whether you like that depends on your politics. But it is not evidence of a radical regime change in America.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“n a series of 2021 tweets<\/a>, for example, Rufo framed his writing about \u201ccritical race theory\u201d as a form of political marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have successfully frozen their brand \u2014 \u2018critical race theory\u2019 \u2014 into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think \u2018critical race theory.\u2019 We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What he\u2019s describing isn\u2019t a journalistic approach to \u201ccritical race theory.\u201d It\u2019s the mindset of a dishonest political attack dog, one that seemed to validate criticisms that he had played fast and loose with evidence<\/a>. Rufo\u2019s involvement with Trump and DeSantis further suggested he was less of a serious interlocutor than an operative.”  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Exaggerations weren\u2019t just a problem with the book\u2019s big-picture premise. The more I fact-checked what he said, the clearer the pattern of exaggeration and factual missteps became.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rufo has practiced what he preached at the New College of Florida, where he has used his appointment to the board<\/a> to fire the university president, eliminate the DEI office, and abolish gender studies<\/a>. Now over one-third of allfaculty positions are vacant, <\/a>decimating the university\u2019s course offerings in the fall semester<\/a>. While enrollment is up, an investigation by the USA Today Network<\/a> found that average SAT scores, ACT scores, and GPAs were all down. Some students were told to live at an airport hotel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I asked Rufo about the chaos, he compared his approach to remodeling a kitchen: \u201cYou do the demo and then you do the build.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a metaphor that only makes sense if you believe that the existing university is so broken that it can\u2019t be saved in its current form.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Both Rufo\u2019s operation in Florida and his broader \u201ccounter-revolution\u201d can only be defended if the system is so captured by the radical left that the only solution is to burn the entire thing to the ground and start over. Otherwise, you\u2019re attacking the same American institutions you claim to be defending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, ultimately, is why Rufo must exaggerate the influence of the radical left. The only way to reconcile the yawning gap between his restorationist rhetoric and burn-it-all-down activism is to claim that America faces an unprecedented threat \u2014 a \u201ccultural revolution\u201d organized by the intellectual heirs of literal Maoists.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/23811277\/christopher-rufo-culture-wars-ron-desantis-florida-critical-race-theory-anti-wokeness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This summer, Rufo published a book outlining the worldview behind his crusade. The book, titled America\u2019s Cultural Revolution, argues that America has been quietly taken over by the ideological heirs of 1960s radicals. Ideas formulated by Marxist revolutionaries and Black nationalists, disguised in benign-sounding language like \u201cdiversity, equity, and inclusion\u201d (DEI), have completed a \u201clong march\u201d through America\u2019s major institutions \u2014 starting from universities and emanating outward to government and corporate life. The book\u2019s subtitle, \u201cHow the Radical Left Conquered Everything,\u201d illustrates the sheer scope of the argument.
\nBut the more I examined Rufo\u2019s work, the weaker it started to look. His worldview is built on a foundation of exaggerations and misrepresentations \u2014 distortions that make it difficult to trust even his basic factual assertions, let alone his big-picture analysis of American society.<\/p>\n

Rufo claims that the American system as we know it has been overthrown, subtly and quietly replaced by \u201ca new ideological regime that is inspired by … critical theories and administered through the capture of the bureaucracy.\u201d Rufo\u2019s \u201ccounterrevolution\u201d is aimed at reversing this process; taking America back, starting with Florida\u2019s universities.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“His documentation of the far left\u2019s follies and violent excesses can be damning.<\/p>\n

But many of his assertions, like the claim of secret regime change in America, are far less defensible. When pressed in an interview to defend some of his most extreme positions, Rufo ultimately claimed to be writing in \u201ca kind of artful and kind of narrative manner\u201d that does not always admit of literal interpretation. The retreat was necessary given the glaring lack of real-world policy evidence for what he had written and said.<\/p>\n

The seemingly credible evidence Rufo presents of radical influence \u2014 the mainstreaming of once-radical concepts like \u201cstructural racism,\u201d for example \u2014 thus ends up undermining his case. When radical language goes mainstream without accompanying radical shifts in policy, that\u2019s not actually evidence of a radical takeover. If anything, it looks like a win for the liberal mainstream, which seemingly has coopted radical ideas and redirected them toward more moderate ends.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“It follows, then, that Rufo\u2019s \u201ccounterrevolution\u201d is not countering much of anything. His war on American institutions is not a defensive action against an ascendant post-Marxist left; it is instead an act of aggression against the liberal ideals he occasionally claims to be defending.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s certainly true that once-radical notions, like seeing racism as a core part of American national identity, have become more popular on the left in recent years. But this does not mean American democracy has been quietly overthrown and replaced with rule by DEI departments.<\/p>\n

Rufo cites, as evidence of the influence of \u201ccritical theory\u201d across America, diversity trainings at Lockheed Martin and Raytheon that used the term \u201cwhite privilege\u201d and similar concepts in their documents. This, he argues, is proof that \u201ceven federal defense contractors have submitted to the new ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the notion that American arms manufacturers have been taken over by radicals is ridiculous. Lockheed Martin builds weapons to maintain the American war machine. It is not owned or controlled in any way by sincere believers in the Third Worldist anti-imperialism of the 1960s radicals; it is using the now-popular terms those radicals once embraced to burnish its own image.<\/p>\n

Rufo is getting the direction of influence backward. Radicals are not taking over Lockheed Martin; Lockheed Martin is co-opting radicalism.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“the main pieces of data once used as evidence of the ascent of far-left radicalism \u2014 things like cancellations of conservative speeches on college campuses \u2014 show a decline from previous highs. These numbers, which were quite low even at their peak, simply do not support the idea that the country\u2019s major institutions are succumbing to Herbert Marcuse thought (even in an attenuated form).<\/p>\n

There are counterexamples: Rufo makes much of the \u201cdefund the police\u201d movement, as well as 2020-era policy victories by radicals in cities like Seattle and Portland. But Joe Biden, a man who wrote the 1994 Crime Bill and campaigned in the 2022 midterms using \u201cfund the police\u201d as a slogan, is president. The most common criminal justice reforms after George Floyd\u2019s murder weren\u2019t police abolition, but rather chokehold bans and personnel reforms. Even in West Coast cities, mayors and city councilors are backing away from police defunding.<\/p>\n

Liberalism, in short, has made \u201cstructural racism\u201d safe for Lockheed Martin. Whether you like that depends on your politics. But it is not evidence of a radical regime change in America.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“n a series of 2021 tweets, for example, Rufo framed his writing about \u201ccritical race theory\u201d as a form of political marketing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have successfully frozen their brand \u2014 \u2018critical race theory\u2019 \u2014 into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions. We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think \u2018critical race theory.\u2019 We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he\u2019s describing isn\u2019t a journalistic approach to \u201ccritical race theory.\u201d It\u2019s the mindset of a dishonest political attack dog, one that seemed to validate criticisms that he had played fast and loose with evidence. Rufo\u2019s involvement with Trump and DeSantis further suggested he was less of a serious interlocutor than an operative.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Exaggerations weren\u2019t just a problem with the book\u2019s big-picture premise. The more I fact-checked what he said, the clearer the pattern of exaggeration and factual missteps became.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Rufo has practiced what he preached at the New College of Florida, where he has used his appointment to the board to fire the university president, eliminate the DEI office, and abolish gender studies. Now over one-third of all faculty positions are vacant, decimating the university\u2019s course offerings in the fall semester. While enrollment is up, an investigation by the USA Today Network found that average SAT scores, ACT scores, and GPAs were all down. Some students were told to live at an airport hotel.<\/p>\n

When I asked Rufo about the chaos, he compared his approach to remodeling a kitchen: \u201cYou do the demo and then you do the build.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a metaphor that only makes sense if you believe that the existing university is so broken that it can\u2019t be saved in its current form.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Both Rufo\u2019s operation in Florida and his broader \u201ccounter-revolution\u201d can only be defended if the system is so captured by the radical left that the only solution is to burn the entire thing to the ground and start over. Otherwise, you\u2019re attacking the same American institutions you claim to be defending.<\/p>\n

This, ultimately, is why Rufo must exaggerate the influence of the radical left. The only way to reconcile the yawning gap between his restorationist rhetoric and burn-it-all-down activism is to claim that America faces an unprecedented threat \u2014 a \u201ccultural revolution\u201d organized by the intellectual heirs of literal Maoists.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/23811277\/christopher-rufo-culture-wars-ron-desantis-florida-critical-race-theory-anti-wokeness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1943,481,1763,1280],"class_list":["post-11770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-chris-rufo","tag-ideological","tag-left-wing","tag-woke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11771,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11770\/revisions\/11771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}