"We Have Never Been Woke: Social Justice Discourse, Inequality and the Rise of a New Elite"

0bleak

Well-known member
I know that the length will deter some people from watching this, but I thought this was great.
He also illustrates the ineffectiveness of DEI programs.
You could just watch halfway before the point when he starts taking questions. I still think that it's definitely worth sitting through all of it, but the difference in audio levels is admittedly annoying as he tends to stray too far from the microphone when he starts pacing around.

 

sufi

lala
from algharbi's website:

The rise of the ‘knowledge economy’ has empowered a new constellation of elites tied to fields like law, consulting, media, entertainment, finance, education, administration, science and technology. They traffic primarily in data, ideas, rhetoric and images instead of physical goods or services. Drawing from Bourdieu, we can refer to them as ‘symbolic capitalists.’

I’m a symbolic capitalist. There’s a good chance you are too.

One defining trait of symbolic capitalists is our commitment to social justice. We are the Americans most likely to self-identify as feminists, antiracists or allies to LGBTQ people. Politically, we’re overwhelmingly aligned with America’s primary ‘left’ party.

Nonetheless, inequalities in the U.S. have grown increasingly pronounced as symbolic capitalists have risen in affluence and influence. Symbolic capitalists are, themselves, among the primary beneficiaries of these inequalities and social justice discourse is increasingly mobilized to justify them. The ‘losers’ in the knowledge economy are portrayed as deserving their lot because they think, feel or say the ‘wrong’ things about race, gender and sexuality. Elites’ bids for more power and status, meanwhile, are increasingly bound up with their egalitarian bona fides.

Understanding this state of affairs requires a deep and unflinching look into the history and political economy of symbolic capitalists. Our professions have, from the outset, defined themselves as altruistic in nature — oriented towards higher principles or the greater good. In truth, however, we have never been woke.
 
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0bleak

Well-known member
"What is the professional-managerial class and how is it standing in the way of economic redistribution? Catherine Liu explains how this group of elite workers has come to serve capitalism while insisting on their own virtue. Catherine Liu is professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class"

 

version

Well-known member
This is the kind of thing Adolph Reed's been saying for a while:

That is to say, as is ever clearer and ever more important to note, race politics is not an alternative to class politics; it is a class politics, the politics of the left-wing of neoliberalism. It is the expression and active agency of a political order and moral economy in which capitalist market forces are treated as unassailable nature. An integral element of that moral economy is displacement of the critique of the invidious outcomes produced by capitalist class power onto equally naturalized categories of ascriptive identity that sort us into groups supposedly defined by what we essentially are rather than what we do. As I have argued, following Walter Michaels and others, within that moral economy a society in which 1% of the population controlled 90% of the resources could be just, provided that roughly 12% of the 1% were black, 12% were Latino, 50% were women, and whatever the appropriate proportions were LGBT people. It would be tough to imagine a normative ideal that expresses more unambiguously the social position of people who consider themselves candidates for inclusion in, or at least significant staff positions in service to, the ruling class.
 

sus

Moderator
It's all true we were in the same place at the same time, everything works the way he says it works
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Bear in mind Harvard were pioneers in academic anti-semitism, introducing the very concept of university interviews in order to cut drastically the influx of Jewish freshmen at the time.
 

ghost

Well-known member
I saw an interesting usage yesterday—a brunch place I love (great food, four course brunch) has been review-bombed for refusing to sell to anyone with a visible weapon—something that in this city is only legal if you're a police officer in uniform.

This made the police union very mad, and they tweeted frankly despicable things about how their officers wouldn't be able to help if someone were to commit a violent crime there (hint, hint)

The positive review:
"this has low reviews on google / yelp because of a political issue. they were attacked with 1 star reviews from the woke mob. [emphasis added] I think it's a really cool and yum spot. a bit pricey but super cute vibes and unique dishes."
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
I saw an interesting usage yesterday—a brunch place I love (great food, four course brunch) has been review-bombed for refusing to sell to anyone with a visible weapon—something that in this city is only legal if you're a police officer in uniform.

This made the police union very mad, and they tweeted frankly despicable things about how their officers wouldn't be able to help if someone were to commit a violent crime there (hint, hint)

The positive review:
"this has low reviews on google / yelp because of a political issue. they were attacked with 1 star reviews from the woke mob. [emphasis added] I think it's a really cool and yum spot. a bit pricey but super cute vibes and unique dishes."
Yes, it's actually very clever: the police aren't needed as the rule also precludes a gun-toting perp from being served the contents of the cash register.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I saw an interesting usage yesterday—a brunch place I love (great food, four course brunch) has been review-bombed for refusing to sell to anyone with a visible weapon—something that in this city is only legal if you're a police officer in uniform.

This made the police union very mad, and they tweeted frankly despicable things about how their officers wouldn't be able to help if someone were to commit a violent crime there (hint, hint)

The positive review:
"this has low reviews on google / yelp because of a political issue. they were attacked with 1 star reviews from the woke mob. [emphasis added] I think it's a really cool and yum spot. a bit pricey but super cute vibes and unique dishes."
It sounds weird because we're used to hearing 'woke' to mean 'progressive' (whether in a positive or a pejorative sense), but I suppose a dogmatic adherence to the cult of gun ownership and demonstrative support for police forces could both be considered forms of right-wing 'political correctness'.
 
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