It is an open question who is the bigger ass, Maher or Rufo. It’s a close run but Rufo does win.
I find it interesting that Rufo has found a place at Manhattan Institute. Weren’t these guys Libertarians and free market fundamentalists? It’s hard to square that with the worship of Orban.
It’s hard for me to see Rufo as an intellectual. He is a promoter of scattershot ideas that don’t cohere any meaningful way. In other times, he would have disappeared long ago. Unfortunately, today he spouts white man’s rage which along with lying is the coin of the land.
What? Stuttering for words? This person exists? This Rufo person. They perceive power way beyond their intellect. And clearly have sub-par emotional intelligence.
Challenge this person to a light and airy debate at a .... Washington, D.C. event. Then ask, is what you write (tweets are not writing but he seems to think they are,) "Do you believe what you say has or has not had an impact. And if so, define your impact." His answer would be telling.
Also, I need to read Cathy Young's article- 3 times- to understand what I have not been paying attention to.
He laid an egg on Bill Maher. Despite being given an opportunity to speak, he was inarticulate and callow, but Hell hath no fury like a former Liberal. Great piece!
I didn't watch it, but I'm assuming since he was on Bill Maher he was treated like a regular right of center good faith person, and not the far right freak that he is.
OTOH Doreen St. Felix will never see this but Shari Rabin dug up for "The Jewish South" a writer for a Charleston paper that said that Jews should support Seymour against Grant not just because Grant gave the order to expel the Jews during the Civil War but essentially because Jews are the natural allies of the Caucasian race from "Abraham to Victoria". If nothing else the Nazis stopped that kind of thing from being said in the open.
(The kind of thing Musa el-Gharbi identified where members of a group with no real connection to the most oppressed members of the group claim to stand in for them is something that probably every group does)
I am here for dunking on Chris Rufo all day though especially after David Brooks got the information that he admitted that he was really not for conserving anything but only for smashing things.
Meghan Daum did not so much criticize Rufo going after those old tweets as saying that just firing St. Felix will not change what the New Yorker is now.
Is it just me, or does the roster of Manhattan Institute co-signers read like a who's who of self-annointed prophets in their own time living in inflamed resentment from not being hailed by all as supreme oracles of truth? I guess the ultimate revenge is having authoritarian power to force-feed it to us.
I think that every pundit or politician that suggests Trump won’t run in 2028 should be asked “If he does, will you vote for him? And if so, what will be your excuse for supporting such a blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional act?”. Get them on the record.
He's always given people like that platforms. He's usually pretty good about getting them to humiliate themselves, too. The fact that we don't remember many of them is evidence of Maher's talent– he (and others) shame them, and then they go away.
Remember Jonah Goldberg? Victor Davis Hanson (whose name I hadn't heard in years until reading this article)? He's really good at undermining these people.
The advent of unregulated, unaccountable, poorly moderated mass media has been fun to watch. Shockwaves travel through the medium left to right then right to left… The need for more attention phenomenon like cancel culture creates has got to help rake in the advertising revenue.
Great piece about someone who's been doing real damage for years while remaining under the radar for the wider public. His influence is analogous to that of the 12 or so people to whom the majority of anti-vax disinformation on the web was found to trace back. PS I think you mean "when . . . St. Felix was 22-23 years old" (not Sweeney).
The Cracker Barrel controversy is just mystifying to me. These people get so worked up, or at least perform that way, over something so inconsequential. That's part of their edge, I guess. Emotions spur action more than reason, and they can get very emotional about very stupid and piddling things.
Rufo's hypocrisy is not too mysterious, because there are no principles involved here other than acquisition of power. Orbanism looks bad, and seems pretty undesirable as a way to run a society, but Orbanism is pretty great when you're an Orbanist and stay in the ruler's good graces.
With Rufo, there's a Leninism of a guy who felt snubbed, thinking the world owed him more than he got from it. And as a result, he wants to burn it all down (lots of prominent conservatives have this attitude today, for some reason).
Also, there's a racism that's thinly veiled. Too intellectual to come out and say, "N*g*er." But always finding himself defending the more overt racists of the day.
I agree with the claim about Leninism, but I don’t see much evidence for racism. Rufo is married to an Asian woman and seems devoted to her and the kids. I was a fan of his 2020 exposes of the Sandia labs antiracist training sessions. If you’ve got evidence in his writings of clear anti-black bias, by all means post links. I’ve read a fair number of his articles and haven’t seen it. (The St. Felix slam was a response—intemperate, yes—to her flagrant, if decade old, white bashing.)
I mean, Strom Thurmond had a black daughter. For my money, "I have a brown wife" isn't that far from "I have a black friend". For Rufo, consider the following questions:
1. At bottom, which people are harmed most by his antics?
2. Of all the fights to pick, why critical race theory? In other words, why a term developed by people like Derrick Bell to describe a manner in which ostensibly race neutral policies and laws have the impact of harming blacks the most? Why is this the term that he chose to pick out, and redefine and vilify as the menace threatening white communities? (It is quite ironic that he's chosen critical race theory as the term he's using to employ his own critical race theory schematic).
3. For all of its diversity, Rufo lives in one of the whitest enclaves of Seattle. His raison d'être has been the fact that minorities got funding for their film projects over him, and that too much tax money in Seattle was going to the homeless (read: brown). He also seems to be opposed to DEI in public schools.
I mean, he's not going around saying the n-word. But the shoe fits.
Bill Maher still has a “show”? Shocking !
Rufo has always been this way. It worked forconservatives to allu with him to go after the most ridiculous examples of progressive overreach.
It is an open question who is the bigger ass, Maher or Rufo. It’s a close run but Rufo does win.
I find it interesting that Rufo has found a place at Manhattan Institute. Weren’t these guys Libertarians and free market fundamentalists? It’s hard to square that with the worship of Orban.
It’s hard for me to see Rufo as an intellectual. He is a promoter of scattershot ideas that don’t cohere any meaningful way. In other times, he would have disappeared long ago. Unfortunately, today he spouts white man’s rage which along with lying is the coin of the land.
What? Stuttering for words? This person exists? This Rufo person. They perceive power way beyond their intellect. And clearly have sub-par emotional intelligence.
Challenge this person to a light and airy debate at a .... Washington, D.C. event. Then ask, is what you write (tweets are not writing but he seems to think they are,) "Do you believe what you say has or has not had an impact. And if so, define your impact." His answer would be telling.
Also, I need to read Cathy Young's article- 3 times- to understand what I have not been paying attention to.
He laid an egg on Bill Maher. Despite being given an opportunity to speak, he was inarticulate and callow, but Hell hath no fury like a former Liberal. Great piece!
I didn't watch it, but I'm assuming since he was on Bill Maher he was treated like a regular right of center good faith person, and not the far right freak that he is.
He was treated as such but Bill Maher laughed at him and challenged Rufo; viewers on Overtime on YouTube afterward saw how freaky and extreme he was.
All MAGAs believe the move into cities is strictly about crime. If they pick up migrants, that’s a side benefit.
OTOH Doreen St. Felix will never see this but Shari Rabin dug up for "The Jewish South" a writer for a Charleston paper that said that Jews should support Seymour against Grant not just because Grant gave the order to expel the Jews during the Civil War but essentially because Jews are the natural allies of the Caucasian race from "Abraham to Victoria". If nothing else the Nazis stopped that kind of thing from being said in the open.
(The kind of thing Musa el-Gharbi identified where members of a group with no real connection to the most oppressed members of the group claim to stand in for them is something that probably every group does)
I am here for dunking on Chris Rufo all day though especially after David Brooks got the information that he admitted that he was really not for conserving anything but only for smashing things.
Meghan Daum did not so much criticize Rufo going after those old tweets as saying that just firing St. Felix will not change what the New Yorker is now.
Is it just me, or does the roster of Manhattan Institute co-signers read like a who's who of self-annointed prophets in their own time living in inflamed resentment from not being hailed by all as supreme oracles of truth? I guess the ultimate revenge is having authoritarian power to force-feed it to us.
I think that every pundit or politician that suggests Trump won’t run in 2028 should be asked “If he does, will you vote for him? And if so, what will be your excuse for supporting such a blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional act?”. Get them on the record.
I stopped watching Bill Maher when he started giving a platform to people like Christopher Rufo.
He's always given people like that platforms. He's usually pretty good about getting them to humiliate themselves, too. The fact that we don't remember many of them is evidence of Maher's talent– he (and others) shame them, and then they go away.
Remember Jonah Goldberg? Victor Davis Hanson (whose name I hadn't heard in years until reading this article)? He's really good at undermining these people.
The advent of unregulated, unaccountable, poorly moderated mass media has been fun to watch. Shockwaves travel through the medium left to right then right to left… The need for more attention phenomenon like cancel culture creates has got to help rake in the advertising revenue.
Great piece about someone who's been doing real damage for years while remaining under the radar for the wider public. His influence is analogous to that of the 12 or so people to whom the majority of anti-vax disinformation on the web was found to trace back. PS I think you mean "when . . . St. Felix was 22-23 years old" (not Sweeney).
It doesn’t take many to spread disinformation.
Rufo really is the embodiment of Wilhoit’s Law. At the very least, he’s the “intellectual” excuse for it.
The Cracker Barrel controversy is just mystifying to me. These people get so worked up, or at least perform that way, over something so inconsequential. That's part of their edge, I guess. Emotions spur action more than reason, and they can get very emotional about very stupid and piddling things.
Rufo's hypocrisy is not too mysterious, because there are no principles involved here other than acquisition of power. Orbanism looks bad, and seems pretty undesirable as a way to run a society, but Orbanism is pretty great when you're an Orbanist and stay in the ruler's good graces.
With Rufo, there's a Leninism of a guy who felt snubbed, thinking the world owed him more than he got from it. And as a result, he wants to burn it all down (lots of prominent conservatives have this attitude today, for some reason).
Also, there's a racism that's thinly veiled. Too intellectual to come out and say, "N*g*er." But always finding himself defending the more overt racists of the day.
I agree with the claim about Leninism, but I don’t see much evidence for racism. Rufo is married to an Asian woman and seems devoted to her and the kids. I was a fan of his 2020 exposes of the Sandia labs antiracist training sessions. If you’ve got evidence in his writings of clear anti-black bias, by all means post links. I’ve read a fair number of his articles and haven’t seen it. (The St. Felix slam was a response—intemperate, yes—to her flagrant, if decade old, white bashing.)
He married a woman who entted the country illegally. He's her meal ticket, and he can tout her as a "good (read conservative" illegal.
I mean, Strom Thurmond had a black daughter. For my money, "I have a brown wife" isn't that far from "I have a black friend". For Rufo, consider the following questions:
1. At bottom, which people are harmed most by his antics?
2. Of all the fights to pick, why critical race theory? In other words, why a term developed by people like Derrick Bell to describe a manner in which ostensibly race neutral policies and laws have the impact of harming blacks the most? Why is this the term that he chose to pick out, and redefine and vilify as the menace threatening white communities? (It is quite ironic that he's chosen critical race theory as the term he's using to employ his own critical race theory schematic).
3. For all of its diversity, Rufo lives in one of the whitest enclaves of Seattle. His raison d'être has been the fact that minorities got funding for their film projects over him, and that too much tax money in Seattle was going to the homeless (read: brown). He also seems to be opposed to DEI in public schools.
I mean, he's not going around saying the n-word. But the shoe fits.
Yep. I think Bannon has literally referred to himself as a Leninist.