The New Neo

There are some things that should have long been obvious to anyone who has taken a close and thoughtful look at them. One is the leftist takeover of almost every university; with concomitant moral relativism, double standards on free speech depending on who’s doing the speech, coddling of leftist-designated victim identity groups, and Jew-hatred disguised as Israel-hatred and concern for Muslims. Another is the evidence that Derek Chauvin did not murder George Floyd.

I’ve been writing about both for years. Most bloggers on the right have covered them as well, as have many pundits on the right. The facts on which my opinions have been based are neither obscure nor hard to come by. And yet … and yet …

We have this [emphasis mine]:

A few days ago, the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and UPenn testified on Capitol Hill in a House hearing on antisemitism in higher education. The thing that is significant about this hearing is that the entire country finally got a crystal clear window into the woke, doublespeak that has permeated academia since the turn of the century, when none of the leaders of three of the most prestigious universities in the world could simply condemn antisemitism on their campuses.

I guess the author is correct that the hearing seems to have opened some eyes. But why did so many eyes need opening? How had so many remained oblivious to what has been obvious for decades?

I don’t have a good answer to the question except to say, as I’ve said before, that most people are busy living their lives. Also, institutions tend to ride on their previous reputations and perhaps a lot of people give them the benefit of too much doubt. But I still find it amazing that the rot in academia (that’s been going on for even longer than that writer indicates) has previously been unnoticed by most people.

The same for the death of George Floyd. That ignorance is probably a bit easier to understand, considering how devoted the propaganda machines of the MSM, the left, the legal system in Minneapolis, and sanctimonious groups such as Black Live Matter have been to making sure people think Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in cold blood.

The reason I’m writing about this now is a video I watched last night, with Glenn Loury and John McWhorter, on the subject of Floyd revisited. Loury and McWhorter are two black professors who have a popular podcast where they discuss issues of the day with a particular focus on race but not limited to that topic. I watch them quite regularly and enjoy their talks. Although McWhorter is too liberal for my tastes, I especially like Loury. Both are smart and – what’s more rare – open-minded. That’s why I was shocked at how late they’ve come to doubting the narrative of Chauvin’s guilt, although I respect them for changing their minds (we all know how difficult it can be to change a firm opinion).

But how and why can the facts be news to them? They discuss things about the case that I knew about and wrote about just a few weeks after Floyd’s death occurred, facts easily available to anyone exercising due diligence – such as the provenance of the hold Chauvin employed to restrain Floyd, and the bodycam footage or transcript of the bodycam footage. Some of these early posts of mine can be found here, here, here, and here.

At any rate, please watch (I suggest going to “settings” and upping the speed to 1.5 or so, if you’re impatient like me):

Why? Why? Why did they miss all this before? I suppose it was because of confirmation bias – and perhaps lack of curiosity to dig deeper, beyond the MSM headlines. At least now that they’ve seen the documentary they are willing to jettison their previous assumptions. But for most people, the propaganda will almost certainly hold forever. And Chauvin – if he lives – will remain in prison for a long long time.