The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (No. 13)

June 26, 2021

The Good

Just when you thought America was going to hell in a hand basket along comes this good news:

In the months ahead, I will be publishing several essays laying out my views on K-12 education and government schooling. I can’t promise that you’ll agree with my views, but at least you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

To quote myself from the last GBU: “Mothers of the World, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your children.” I’m dedicating much of this week’s section on “the Good” to America’s mothers, who are fast developing what could only be described as a revolutionary consciousness. We await America’s dads to catch up.

A leader of the People’s Revolutionary Front says:

Another leader of the People’s Revolutionary Front says:

All-American mother drops a neutron bomb on her local school board. Watch at the link: “Mother EXPLODES at School for Teaching 5-Year Olds How to Masturbate, Perform Anal Sex.”

I will confess to you that some of these American moms scare the bejesus out of me. Seriously, I would not mess with them. Truth be told, I would vote to have this mother replace General Mark Milley (see below at “the Ugly”) to command America’s military forces. We might even actually, ya know, win a war. Watch at the link: “Mother Leaves School Board Speechless”

America’s mothers laying down the law:

And just when you thought America’s dads were MIA, they are back! Did you really think they would sit by silently and let America’s moms do all the heavy lifting. Wait no more! This guy kills it:

“How Deregulation Could Make Supersonic Air Travel Great Again.” Yes, deregulating supersonic air travel is a good thing, but imagine if we deregulated the entire economy.

The Bad

To my Boomer audience: How many of you remember Professor Charles Kingsfield from the 1973 film, The Paper Chase? If you do, you will no doubt remember Professor Kingsfield (played brilliantly by John Houseman) as the Old School Harvard Law professor who uses his superior knowledge and rapier logic to disembowel his first-year law students. As a public service announcement to my Gen X—Gen Z—Millennial audience, take a look at Old School Harvard logic via the great opening scene from the film.

Sadly, Harvard Law School is not what it once was. Adrian “The Vizier” Vermeule, very much a new-style Harvard Law Professor, whose monarcho-Papist views I disemboweled in my recent essay “Obey the Grand Inquisitor,” has recently displayed the new Harvard logic with this infantile Twitter outburst:

Yeah, because having the government run American education has been such a great thing for the country! How’d that work out for ya? Declining test scores in virtually every subject for over 50 years, not to mention the propaganda.

Surely this is a competitor for the single stupidest thing ever said by a Harvard professor, including those from the English department. Let’s consider the logic of Vermeule’s Tweet, sentence by sentence:

First sentence: True.

Second sentence: True.

Third sentence: True.

Fourth sentence: Laughably false non sequitur.

On the fundamental question of government schooling, I see no difference between Vermeule’s position and that of Angela Davis.

Old School Harvard Law Professors were so much better than New School Harvard Law Professors:

While we’re on the subject of comparing the present with the past, let’s compare how Boomers viewed space exploration back in the day with how we do today. Captain James T. Kirk spoke for Boomers when he famously said: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

And now in 2021, the space cadets at NASA have a very different view of why we’re going to space. 

Speaking of space, for $78,002 per year (x 4 = $312,008) your son or daughter can learn that the concept “black hole” is actually racist if they attend Cornell University. (See here.) 

America’s founding fathers really weren’t that impressive intellectually, at least not compared to the rocket scientists we have today who are running the country: “Biden HHS Secretary REFUSES to Say "Mother" Instead of "Birthing People" in Hearing.”

Clearly the country is in the very best of hands. Seriously, is this what the United States of America has come to? Is the Ruling Class really this bad? “New Jersey school board removes holiday names off school calendar to prevent ‘hurt feelings’.” (Update: under pressure from parents, the school board has rescinded its decision. Count that as a victory for the little people.)

America’s government school teachers channel the Beastie Boys. You gotta FIGHT, for the RIGHT, to Propa . . . gan . . . DIZE! “Left-wing educators hold rallies to protest bans on teaching critical race theory in schools.”

And then the woke SJWs came for volleyball, too—and volleyball is not even a real sport! “LAWSUIT: U of Oklahoma volleyball player shut out of program due to rejection of 'social justice’.”

Of course it did: “Top-ranked law school to mandate critical race theory course for graduation.”

Jonah Goldberg asks a reasonable but not quite the right question: “In a Welfare State, How Much Is ‘Enough’?” The Right question is: Is welfare moral? The question answers itself.

Buffalo, New York has a Death Wish. Pro tip: If you are a Buffalonian, it’s time to leave—and fast (and bring the chicken wings with you). “India Walton Poised To Become Buffalo’s First Socialist Mayor.”

Incompetence does not adequately describe America’s Ruling Class. There is something else at work here: “Chinese Covid-19 Gene Data That Could Have Aided Pandemic Research Removed From NIH Database.”

The Ugly

American higher education would be considered a clown show were its effects not so harmful. “‘Even North Korea is not this nuts’: Defector slams ‘woke’ US schools.”

The country is in the very best of hands (edition #2,586). Gee, I dunno, maybe America’s top military brass (and the cadets at West Point) should be reading Thucydides, von Clausewitz, or Sun Tzu instead of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelis because, ya know, the purpose of a military is to defend the nation against foreign threats. Apparently, that’s no longer the case. The greatest existential threat to the safety of the United States is not, according to America’s top military commander, Iran, China, Russia, ISIS, Al-Qaeda etc. Instead, in 2021, the greatest threat to the security of the United States is a domestic, race-specific, psychological disorder that afflicts tens of millions of Americans, something called “white rage,” which, if we’re to believe General Mark Milley (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) was the root cause of the riot that took place at the Capitol on 1-6. I’m sorry, but this is Vermeule-level logic.

I’m pretty sure that Milley’s counterpart is China can’t stop laughing:

. . . and the Beautiful

The beauty of nature:

The beauty of art:

(Albert Bierstadt, “Looking Down Yosemite Valley,” 1864.)

Thank you for spending time with The Redneck Intellectual.

Don’t forget to submit your aesthetic recommendations to: redneckaesthetic@gmail.com. Please always use as your subject line: “The Beautiful.”

Have great week!