The other was the only class I was ever subjected to that was basically sensitivity training. The trainer was shocked to learn that several of us would level harsh criticism at a specimen of flabby, muddy writing even though the author was black. We felt it would be an intolerable insult to do otherwise.

My take on 1619 is that if it were submitted as a college term paper in, in the days when grades had to be earned and if the grader were unaware of her race, Hannah-Jones would have gotten a C+ to B- for 1619. I was going to say, “how can the NYT let such sloppy writing get into print?” but I have seen other disasters published in the NYT.

The other was the only class I was ever subjected to that was basically sensitivity training. The trainer was shocked to learn that several of us would level harsh criticism at a specimen of flabby, muddy writing even though the author was black. We felt it would be an intolerable insult to do otherwise. What should the message be, this is gobbledegook, but we’re not going to say so because it’s the best we could expect from someone who belongs to a societal splinter we expect not to measure up? You don’t deserve to be judged by the same standards we apply to our august selves?

Children: (eye roll).

Another tactic. Not communist though.

[eyeroll]

Quayle wasn’t an idiot, though. Idiots do not pass the Indiana bar exam on their first attempt. (John Kennedy Jr required three attempts to pass the New York bar exam). He didn’t have any obtrusive character defects. So, the media set about a full-court information op to denigrate him which extended to attacks on his wife. If our appellate courts hadn’t granted a warm little gift to the media by gutting defamation law, some outlets would have been liable. The articles about his military service record were repulsive as were the Doonesbury cartoons retailing the fictions of one Brett Kimberlein.

You’re not going to find courses in basket weaving outside of odd redoubts like the School of American Crafts at RIT. J-schools and teachers colleges may be sinkholes of studpidity; the former have been around for three generations and the latter for five generations.

Again, what you’re not noticing is that a far larger segment of the young adult population is traipsing through these institutions than was the case 50 years ago.