If you have having difficulty keeping up with all of the things purported to be racist in recent times, "Radical Intersectionalist Poet" Titania McGrath offers this scorecard (click the charcoal rectangle on the right).
Cognitive linguist Steven Pinker has had an illustrious career as a teacher and prolific author. His politics have often leaned to the left. None of this immunizes him from baseless attacks by hundreds of people who apparently don't see any value in Pinker's willingness to contribute his expertise to national conversations on critically relevant issues. They are unwilling to give fair readings to Pinker's statements. They also appear to be threatened by Pinker's use of germane statistics in order to shed light on complex claims involving police behavior and racism.
Here is the opening paragraph of a recent letter signed by almost 500 people, many of them grad students and undergrads, then sent to the Linguistic Society of America:
In reaction to this letter, Jerry Coyne, eminent Professor of Professor of Ecology & Evolution, concludes as follows at his website: "I’m really steamed when a group of misguided zealots tries to damage someone’s career, and does so dishonestly."
Linguist John McWhorter has also indicated his enthusiastic support of Steven Pinker:
Here is Jerry Coyne's full blog post, setting forth the numerous false accusations against Pinker coupled with the evidence clearly demonstrating that these accusations are false. Coyne's post is titled "The Purity Posse pursues Pinker."
I invite you to read both sides of this dispute. I suspect you will be outraged at the way Pinker is being treated. You might also wonder how it is that hundreds of people who claim to be highly knowledgeable in linguistics are such inept readers. The phrase "social conflagration" might come to mind as you review the evidence. The name Robespierre might periodically pop into your thought process.
We've all seen the photo of Mike Pence failing to wear a mask at the Mayo Clinic in the middle of the pandemic. I can't shake this image of America's "Point Man" for the Coronavirus Pandemic. He claims that he supposedly did not know that a mask was required inside of the Mayo Clinic, even while surrounded by a sea of people wearing masks.
Of course he knew that he was supposed to be wearing a mask for the safety of those around him.
We have officially arrived. Maybe we arrived many months ago, but now for sure.
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” ― George Orwell, 1984
With this single question, Elizabeth Warren has precisely voiced the deep concerns of every honest and proficient trial lawyer in the United States:
At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution?
Barack Obama had to be delegitimized. In the brawl over the last eight years, perhaps they succeeded on a level not intended. They did not, I think, manage to delegitimize President Obama. Rather, they fulfilled one of Ronald Reagan’s rhetorical dictums and managed to delegitimize the idea of governance.