At its core, the Woke are building a movement that subverts the left and renders it powerless against its very real theocratic and fascist enemies. It pits men against women, straight and cisgender people against gay people, black people against white people, and the working class against the intelligentsia. It degrades science with various offshoots of the meaningless pseudo-science known as “critical theory”—a field so rigorous that one of its leading journals published a (fabricated) article that purported to chronicle the endemic culture of rape…in a dog park.(1) But most importantly, the Woke teach idealistic young students that they should seek refuge in “safe places” rather than learning to overcome their fears…and their enemies.
It’s almost as if our enemies invented this thing.
(1) Lindsay, James, Peter Boghassian, and Helen Pluckrose. “Studies in Academic Grievance and Academic Corruption.” AreoFebruary 10, 2018.
This is from Jonathan Lipow, Public policies for progressives2023.
Jonathan is a professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School. He works in a different department of the university than I did, but we have had exchanges as colleagues for many years.
Jonathan is a progressive and he wants to talk to other progressives who he thinks need to hear his economic message. Jonathan and I don’t agree on everything, of course. Remember, he’s a progressive. But we do agree on a number of things.
Over the next week I will be posting a few more articles about the contents of his book.
Here’s another excerpt, with my brief commentary, for now:
Yet, as we shall see, logic and evidence strongly suggest that some policies currently popular among American leftists are indeed literally ridiculous, such as opposition to charter schools and nuclear power. At the same time, other policies widely advocated by progressives—such as a $15 minimum wage—are not stupid, but there is ample evidence to suggest that they are ineffective and essentially a waste of time. (HR note: I wish they were just a waste of time rather than a policy that makes it harder for young, unskilled workers to get on the bottom rung of the economic ladder.) On the other hand, readers may be pleased to learn that progressives’ instinctive support for universal health care (HR note: hmmm) and liberal immigration policies (HR note: yes) is well supported by both logic and evidence.
More soon.
Post Scriptum:Here is a job I did this in 2016 about a previous book by Jonathan in which he said nice things about me: he did it to argue that my libertarian views wouldn’t work in the world as well as I thought they would.
