Quote of the day—Philip Giraldi

Many schools in the United States have ceased issuing grades that have any meaning, or they have dropped grading altogether, which means there is no way to judge progress or achievement. National test scores for evaluating possible college entry are on the way out almost everywhere as they are increasingly being condemned as “racist” in terms of how they assess learning based solely on the fact that blacks do less well on them than Asians and whites. This has all been part of an agenda that is being pushed that will search for and eliminate any taint of racism in the public space. It has also meant the destruction or removal of numerous historic monuments and an avoidance of any honest discussion of American history. San Francisco schools are, for example, notoriously spending more than $1 million to change the names of 44 schools that honor individuals who have been examined under the “racism and oppression” microscope and found wanting. They include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Paul Revere.

Philip Giraldi
February 18, 2021
The Decline of the West: American Education Surrenders to ‘Equity’
[It is easy to conclude our technological progress is being impeded by these people. There might even be sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis we are about to enter, or at least are at risk of entering, a new dark age. This could even be an existential threat to technological human society.

One of the ways I see this problem is that some people, perhaps with malice aforethought, confuse and/or conflate equality of outcome with equality of opportunity. And furthermore the “equality of opportunity” is, again perhaps with malice aforethought, confused and/or conflated with “equality under the law”.

I think at least part of the solution to this problem is to push back HARD when someone plays this confusion/conflation con game.

Just because there exists a difference in earnings and/or life expectance, and/or criminal convictions, and/or representation in some professions, etc. does not necessarily mean there was discrimination and/or racism. People of Asian decent account for only 5.9% of the U.S. population. While Black or African American people account for 13.4% of the U.S. population. Yet as of 2019 in the U.S.:

  • All households combined had a median income of $65,712/year.
  • Asians had a median income of $93,759/year.
  • Blacks had a median income of $43,862/year.
  • Whites had a median income of $69,823/year.

So, if someone claims racism against minorities is to blame for income inequality demand they explain how Asians, with less than half the representation in the U.S population of blacks have over twice the household income.

Furthermore demand they explain, if they claim the differences in outcomes are racist, why the differences begin to show up at the start of school rather than in graduation rates, college admittance, or starting wages.

The next point which I think needs addressing is that the whole concept of “inequality is bad” must be struck down. I’ve adequately addressed that issue before.

Put as succinctly as I know how, we must celebrate success and extraordinary achievement instead of rewarding victimhood.

One last thing. I do not claim to know the reason why people with different skin colors have different success rates in our society. I only know that it is extremely unlikely it is because of white supremacy and or racism.—Joe]

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16 thoughts on “Quote of the day—Philip Giraldi

  1. Thomas Sowell spent the majority of his life addressing these issues and gathering irrefutable evidence that the welfare state and related government policies caused this and that disparities in general are a function of culture and incentives. The response from Academia, the Media and the Left in general has been to ignore him completely. The Leftist’s view of the world is much more attractive than reality because people want to believe in magic. Thomas Sowell was a Marxist himself until he discovered these facts while working for the Bureau of Labor and Statistics as an intern.

    • Yes; listen to Sowell speak on this issue for fifteen minutes and you’ll have it all straight.

  2. They just need a way to give their kids the best jobs despite them being too incompetent for the job. This gets rid of the pesky test scores that were holding back connected but stupid offspring.

    • If a group was infiltrating with stealth, and subverting our merit-based systems to make sur their own progeny would get into the “best schools” and be promoted because ‘they had teh right degrees” and people did not expect the smartest and most able people to get promoted because of “equity,” would that takeover of our institutions look any different than what we see now?

      “Equity” is nothing more than government-run apply theft because of envy + lack of ability or motivation, to ensure the “correct” outcome. The backlash could be brutal when normies figure that out.

  3. I too fear for our future. Equity is the new standard. For most of us, it was “be the best that you can” along with “best and brightest”. I also remember being told at freshman engineering orientation that half of us would not last the year. And it was indeed, sink or swim, and as promised half of us did not survive. What would be the message today? Something like?

    “You have valuable contributions to make [even if you suck at English, math, and programming, and are an idiot]. We are here to ensure that you will get your degree and a nice job while living a first-class life. Next up, you will get a tour of your luxury accommodations and facilities. We do hope that you enjoy our new Equity bar and grill. Be sure to take note of our Equity gaming center [where everyone wins]. And remember our entire campus is a safe and winning space. You will make the world proud!.”

    • Equity bar and grill? Is that where you get the Bill Gates burger. You know, the really expensive, fake meat one? Come with a side of vaccines.
      Or the AOC meal deal. You pay first, then get nothing?
      Or the Bernie Sanders, Where you just get robbed by your friends?

  4. Teachers be like. We don’t do grading any more. Or teaching for that matter. We can send you an interpretive dance video of how we feel about it, If you like?
    Is it criminal negligence, or criminal intent to destroy America and the west? Same penalty for either.
    The brutal truth is that we are allowing the destruction of whole generations. In order to give communist China a fighting chance to survive. They won’t. Just like Joe’s well reasoned arguments. Their not even able to entertain the thought patterns necessary to understand how to argue back. So they just dismiss them.
    That’s why the first part of 5GW is to brainwash the cadre. Then unrestricted war can move forward. To it own brainwashed destruction. And the murder of millions again.
    Welcome to the new dark ages.

  5. Succulent != Succinct

    I’m sure autocorrect had something to do with that.

    Sorry, couldn’t help myself…

    Kurt

  6. “This has all been part of an agenda that is being pushed that will search for and eliminate any taint of racism in the public space.”

    In other words; a conspiracy, i.e. two or more people working together toward some nefarious goal.

    “Put as succinctly as I know how, we must celebrate success and extraordinary achievement instead of rewarding victimhood.”

    But that would ruin everything! It would undercut the entire world order. And so you need to specify which “We” you’re talking about. You’re right, of course, but those of that other “We” will see you as plainly insane.

    To the Romish mind, and to satan, the only success and the only extraordinary achievement which can be recognized is that of the Prince of The World, or the Pontiff. In the purportedly secular world, it is the state which achieves all achievement, is wise to all wisdom, knows all knowledge, teaches all teachings, provides all provisions, and so on;
    “You didn’t build that! Somebody else made that happen!” — President Barack Hussein Obama.

    So for you to claim any personal advantage for, or ownership of, what you think of as your achievements or your property, says the mindset of evil, is not only arrogant, and not only inconsiderate of those who paved the way for you and keep the way open, but even rises to the level of grand larceny! All resources, even manufactured goods, says the pope in his latest encyclicals, belong to all (meaning the church) and are for collection distribution according to his dictates.

    In the starkest possible contrast, the Tenth Commandment says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

    And so, in the mind of the Romish left, your statement advocating for a sort of meritocracy is in itself proof positive that you’re a heretic (they banned the Bible, remember, and you agree with God’s tenth commandment at least). In the mind of the Romish left’s secular wing you’re a “white supremacist”. Either way you’re a plague on the earth. So it’s not just such a simple matter as your not deserving to breathe. Rather it is imperative, for all that is good and holy, that you and your heretic culture or anything resembling it be eliminated post haste!

    The fascinating thing about all of this, and I think Thomas Sowell pointed this out as well, is that while we libertarians and Christians know that all races will do best when treated as equals under the law, with all the same protections and all the same responsibilities in a free market, the left on the other hand actually believes that black people can’t make it without the help of whites! For you to advocate for egalitarian meritocracy then is to specifically target and threaten black people!

    But it is worse than that. I submit that the left, that old Confederacy of the civil war era and before, is racist in the worst ways, in the Eugenics sense, and that they’ve been trying very hard to keep black people down through the use of the welfare state and the promotion of the victimhood mentality.

    So there is always that duality in the left. It is their exoteric verses their esoteric face, message, meaning and purpose (that’s also a characteristic of every Greek fraternity ever, by the way).

    And as Saul Alinsky, one of the darlings and chief strategists of the left, acknowledges; satan (the perpetrator-in-chief claiming victimhood) at least got his own kingdom out of the deal. For now.

    But you don’t know the rest of the story because it’s been so horribly misrepresented. This is a legal process, but of the highest order. The rest of the story is that satan, and all of his people, get wiped out, and they’re gone forever. There’s no eternal rule over some dark or fiery underworld, or any such nonsense. There’s no glorious, almost god-like spacefaring progressive world of Star Trek either, rising above the stars and even above the throne of God. That mindset and culture gets totally eliminated.

    That much is certain. The left, its secular and religious wings coming together in ecumenical unity, will rise to the level of total world dominance in that New Dark Age we’ve been discussing. It will then be utterly and permanently eradicated (but not by the hand of Man). All you need concern yourself with is that you’re not eliminated along with it– “The way, the truth, and the life”, and all that.

      • I’m starting to think that Equity rhymes with decadence and throwing caution to the wind. Weimar Germany comes to mind and the comparisons with today are quite eery.

        Now I’m wondering what is the core reason why decadence and anything-goes-mentally seem to be so disruptive to societies.

        I suspect it has something to do with belief’ systems being field-tested with the wisdom of the ages. With anything-goes-mentally, what’s right or wrong is fuzzy and mistakes are much more likely.

        As a result, tossing out norms and rules is fraught with untended consequences. It all boils down to the answer to the proverbial question what is 2 + 2? If you don’t know the answer, then how can you even communicate and function in our society.

  7. I foresee some areas having a lot of buildings and bridges fall down. Possibly before they are finished. Raciss!

    • Stalin’s Russia gave us a preview of that, which makes sense since he adopted similar policies for similar purposes.

  8. Now break down blacks into African-Americans, African immigrants and their descendants and West Indian immigrants and their descendants. The latter two groups had the advantage of good education systems and intact families.

  9. A long time ago, Harvard invented the SAT as a way of identifying brilliant students who lacked connections to get them through the admission screening. For nearly a century, Harvard and the other exclusive colleges ran two parallel admissions systems: one based primarily on SAT scores and other evidence of brains and preparedness for higher education, and one to let “the right people” in based on connections.

    Now they want to throw out the SATs. What is left? Hand-picking “the right people”, and excluding “the deplorables”. And once “the right people” have their Ivy League degrees, no matter how poor their grades or how much of their work was done by so-called “tutors”, they will have the credentials for the good jobs.

    Remember 2000, when GHW Bush’s not-so-bright, drunken, and drugging son ran for President against Senator Al Gore Sr’s moronic and very odd son? Expect much more of this in the future, because such are “the right people”. But in the future, they will be diverse – only in color, and definitely not in opinions.

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