Last week Charles Murray went to the Middlebury College to give a talk about his latest book and other subjects. For those unfamiliar with Middlebury College, it is a very preppy private college in New England. It is one of the “Little Ivies” and ranked in the top-10 of national liberal arts colleges. For those unfamiliar with Charles Murray, he is most famous for The Bell Curve, a controversial book 20 years ago that described the mountain of data on IQ and its relevance to social outcomes. He’s also a fixture at the think tank AEI.
I’ve never met Charles Murray or been in the audience for one of his lectures. I’ve seen him on television a few times and he seems like a nice person, but for all I know he could be a monster. I do know he was cravenly dishonest about the last election. Like the rest of the NeverTrump loons, he refused to acknowledge that the election was a choice between two options, not a choice between Trump and the model of perfection. He believed that gave him a free pass to work on behalf of Hillary Clinton, by working against Trump.
Anyway, Murray went off to Middleburry to give his speech and the campus lunatics shut down the event. They even managed to assault one of the professors, who sponsored the thing. Murray wrote up his reflections on the event, as if it was a seminal moment in the history of the republic. Normies have been getting the business from the lunatics for a long time, but no one cares about them. When Ann Coulter gets screamed at on campus, guys like Murray just shrug, because after all, Coulter deserves it. She’s a bad thinker.
That’s the thing with these guys. They don’t care about free speech or the open exchange of ideas. They care about their free speech and their access to the marketplace of ideas, which means staying in good with the Left. When a John Derbyshire is shut down by the campus lunatics, Conservative Inc is silent. To defend Derb or anyone else the Left has ruled out of bounds would risk their standing and that can never happen. The only core principle of these so-called conservatives is to remain on the good side of the Left.
This is not supposed to happen to good thinkers like Charles Murray, so it is a big deal to the people who pretend to be on our side. It also offers another opportunity for Conservative Inc. to pretend they are on the front lines fighting the Left. As I pointed out the other day, these guys are looking for a way to insert themselves at the front of the movement they claim to lead, at least until things get serious. You just know that one of them will be declaring himself the “respectable” version of the Dissident Right.
The incident is a good reminder of Official Right’s worthlessness. Murray’s piece reads like an apology. That’s because it is an apology. The boys and girls of Conservative Inc have always worked to position themselves at the edge of what the Left considers the respectable Right. Twenty years ago, the Bell Curve was right at the edge. Now, the Left considers it heresy and Murray knows it. It’s why he invested so much effort into advertising his opposition to Trump. It’s part of the long apology for his past heresy.
Murray is fond of the label Establishmentarians to describe his peers. While it is true that they are forever defending the establishment, they have no say in what is and what is not the “establishment.” That’s decided by the Left. Since that is always changing, most of these guys spend their days trying to justify the latest movement of the Overtone Window as conservative. It’s why a Jonah Goldberg was out declaring homosexuality a core conservative principle It’s why a National Review is pro-tranny.
It’s also why the most important project of the Dissident Right is discrediting those palace guards of the Progressive establishment. Guys like Charles Murray are useful opponents for the Left and not just because they are always willing to take a dive. Like the tomato cans that fill up the fight card for a weak champion, Conservative Inc insulates the Establishment from a real challenge. Instead of having to face off against people who are willing to punch back, the Left likes these journeyman who are just happy for the payday.
Yeah, its a shame Charles Murray got heckled in preppy-ville, but it is important to keep in mind that these guys never do anything about it, other than complain. If Murray, or any of the others, gets an invite to speak at Middleburry tomorrow, they are volunteering to jog there if that’s what it takes. It’s why they deserve no sympathy and no support. I have more respect for Based Stick Man than any of the cowards of Conservative Inc. That guy is willing to fight back. That’s a guy who deserves support, not Charles Murray.
I am ashamed to admit that I wasted years of loyalty and treasure to support shitheads like Murray. I think the more the left physically attacks people like him the better off we will be. Maybe they’ll see the error of their ways. But I doubt it. Guys like that are too smart to learn anything.
You are right about Based Stickman. We need to go to the wall for folks like him.
Well, the first people put up against the wall are the supporters of the Revolution.
Woops, sorry, I meant the likes of Murray and Goldberg, firing squads, etc, ah geez
If they aren’t calling you names, you aren’t trying hard enough!
They have made the labels of “hitler” and “racist” a badge of honor for those who would oppose the neo-marxsit left.
You absolutely are right. People such as the AEI parasites will mutter denunciations of Trump or Coulter or whoever just before the axe hits their skull. It’s nice to have read them out of the movement and time to get armed, serious and focused.
Cuckservative: “Richard Spencer was sucker punched! Ha ha ha Nazi!”
Cuckservative “Charles Murray’s sponsor assaulted?!? Outrage! But we should really try to understand the marginalization students feel.”
I contributed this morning. The rest of you can do so too. It felt good.
The Based Stick Man incident should be proof positive that law enforcement entities like metro police forces are NOT on our side. I don’t care how many of them claim to be pro 2A, church going conservatives. If it comes down to protecting either the tax payers or their pensions, well, you and I getting the baton up the backside. The Democratic Machine has bought the armies of law enforcement with unionization, inflated benefits, and unsustainable pensions. It’s only different, by a matter of degree, from how Caesar paid for his armies’ loyalty by letting them pillage and rape every… Read more »
You’ve got that right. The motto “To Serve and Protect” did not and was never meant to be protection of people, citizens. What it was always about was protecting businesses, property, inventory … the expensive stuff. So when metro police let the riots burn down some pizza joints, etc. well, those are not really capital intensive, or wealthy properties or located in the “nice” neighborhoods where protection is purchased by donations to the proper political channels.
Disagree. Based Stick Man clearly assaulted that man when he quite rightly popped him over the head with his pine dowel. He deserved to be arrested and charged with assault. He got arrested because he made the error of acting alone in an easily identifiable costume and then sticking around long enough to get picked up by the police. Dumb. Based Stick Man needs to adopt the tactics of Antifa. Work in small groups. Conceal your identity with a mask (he got that one right). Everyone in the group adopts the same dress, with different clothes underneath. Select a target.… Read more »
These are the same tactics of urban blacks who practice the knockout game.
I know which side I am on and it is the side which features Based Stickman, Kyle Chapman. WeSearchr bailed Kyle out of the Berkley city lock-up where he is facing 6 felonies. WeSearchr has established a legal defense fund and has about $46,000 in donations to fight this miscarriage of justice. If you would like to donate, as I have, go to http://www.wesearchr.com. Zman, I apologize for using your fine blog for this solicitation, but I am compelled to defend this man who was defending us.
I’m with you ..that kid is a hero. Think he’s from Texas as he wore a hoodie with a Texas flag on it which does not surprise me.. Now has 69k in his legal defense fund…Bravo young man
Rest assured that “Conservative inc.” is trying to get out in front of this (whatever it is) movement. The republicans wrecked the tea party. Every Tea Party org across the nation has at least one party functionary operative hack at it’s core running the show. Modern American conservatism has conserved exactly zero things. (Unless you count the leftist run status quo as a thing it has conserved.) The left is beginning to arm itself. Y’all need to get trained and armed now. The patriots are not coming to save you, nobody is coming to save you. You must be ready.… Read more »
Conserving the Left’s status quo, exactly so.
Finally a proper definition of Conservative Inc. The Buckley Right was another CIA psyop; so were the campus and social movement radicals- mostly created by the ‘Weisner’s Wurlitzer’ program.
It was a matter of creating a market, a ‘demand’ for ‘services’.
I promise you, had Hillary Clinton won the election, the people at Conservatism Inc. like Jonah Goldberg would be lecturing us — lecturing us on the “inevitability” of some “accommodations” regarding the Second Amendment.
It’s tragic Goldberg and Co. ever had an audience. Lone voices cried for year that those types were utter frauds, and that dissent now has been vindicated.
Got it! Here is a tip for those who still put their head in the sand about the coming trouble …
http://www.internationalman.com/articles/the-social-tipping-point
This is good. Some of the steps seem to be moving at us in parallel simultaneously.
Interesting account. That kind of thing happens regularly in parts of Central America where the police are regarded as useless.
Among the creative sanctions that crowds dispense to thieves and other miscreants are public horse whippings and burnings (after first dousing the accused in gasoline).
The local tabloid reports the whole thing, sometimes with photos. When the punishments are mild enough that the accused survives, the crowd often deposit what remains of him on the steps of the police station.
The small towns where this is known to occur are otherwise extremely peaceful and crime free.
I’m tired of people who are only interested in “their brands”, and have convinced themselves that we deplorables don’t ascertain their motives. The alt-right perform for free….because it’s righteous, and we care about principles over dollars. We lack “fuck you” money, which forces us to remain anonymous, but so be it. Murray, Williamson, Cooke and any other “conservative” goyim who cucked and countersignaled Trump to keep the shekels flowing are dead to me.
“It’s why a Jonah Goldberg was out declaring homosexuality a core conservative principle It’s why a National Review is pro-tranny.” I can’t recall the precise date, however I distinctly remember reading something telling from Goldberg over at the Corner, prior to Obama’s presidency. He wrote something more or less like “Let’s just admit we lost on gay marriage, and isn’t it a relief to get it behind us?” Again, I remind you this was before 2009. Goldberg’s screed after Trump’s joint session speech was basically “Well, he didn’t suck that bad only because no one expected him to do anything… Read more »
When you say trailing edge progressive no one knows who or what you are talking about. Cuckservative gets right to the heart of the matter.
“Twenty years ago, the Bell Curve was right at the edge. Now, the Left considers it heresy and Murray knows it. It’s why he invested so much effort into advertising his opposition to Trump. It’s part of the long apology for his past heresy.” Charles Murray has never recanted a word of The Bell Curve. He defended Jason Richwine vigorously and has said good things about Derbyshire. He stands by every word of what he wrote then. Murry is an odd bird. Here is in September of 2016 coming out in favor of an immigration moratorium. http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/27/charles-murray-comes-out-in-favor-of-an-immigration-moratorium/ Then why on… Read more »
Now is the time for all good men (OK and women) to come to the aid of the country. Trumps inauguration didn’t end it, it should now be perfectly clear that was the gate opening for the last race of the day. We have four years (or less) to get education back on the right track, to destroy the corrupt media and lastly; fight and win a war against vote fraud, against the fixed voting machines, the handout of ballots to illegals and ringers, impose harsh penalties that are actually carried out against anyone caught vote stealing. If they want… Read more »
Movement conservatism is a bunch of guys who believe they are really principled, but amazingly enough this never extends to the principle of loyalty to friends. In fact they readily prove their steadfast adherence to principles by disavowing any loyalty whatsoever, in the name of being principled. The object lesson here is Kadaffi. It never occurred to the MC’s (who mostly all supported the anti-Kaddaffi radical Islamic movement at the time) that our country was betraying a friend. In fact you always hear the Libya debacle criticized for the bad result, but never for the base treachery demonstrated by our… Read more »
Ben; It’s worse than that. It used to be that there was a sort of ‘live and let live’ understanding between our Cloud Folk and the numerous and varied tyrants* around the world: As in, “You don’t p**s in our cornflakes and we don’t do regime change.” I.e. there were unstated but understood rules about the tyrant’s making himself a direct threat to US interest or security (without having some great power patron whom we would look to for restraining influence). With the reign of the Malignant Mulatto we introduced grave and dangerous uncertainty. It was never clear what the… Read more »
Yep. At that point in the war (Libya) we were on ISIS’ side.
Holy smokes, Al, what the greedy, malevolent fool has done to the old order is much worse than we assumed. The Bush mafia kept their attacks within the ‘family’- Noriega, Saddam, bin Laden- but the new guys dumped Chirac and Berlusconi so they could go a-viking. The West won’t stay bought, now.
I am sure that since this is so late, no one will catch this, but I had to agree most profoundly!! In another instance, there is the case of Egypt’s Mubarak. I happened to be in London when he was forced out. The desk clerk was an Egyptian immigrantm who asked me what I thought. I replied that I wasn’t familiar with Egyptian politics, but I though Mubarak had always been a supporter of the US. The desk clerk looked at me sadly and said, “Who will ever believe the United States any more?” I was so ashamed I could… Read more »
Murray is projecting here: ” A campus where a majority of students are fearful to speak openly because they know a minority will jump on them is no longer an intellectually free campus in any meaningful sense.” That’s pure projection. This is exactly what Murray and the other members of True Conservatism, Inc., did for years. To maintain their status in Deep Blue enclaves they remained mute when their words would have mattered, They only criticized those who were on the Right and had such Bad Thought it threatened their standing among their liberal/left-wing neighbors, for whom they served as… Read more »
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/middlebury-free-speech-violence/518667/#article-comments From The Atlantic: “something has gone badly wrong on the campus left” Probably the understatement of the year. What’s funny about this is while The Atlantic feels the need to say this is somehow wrong, they just cannot resist their instinct to call his views, and those like him, abhorrent. Ideas that are loathed. etc. etc. Towards the end, the author writes, “I hope they are punished”. Well. That’ll cover it. No, the people who assaulted the speakers should be prosecuted and jailed. The people who organized the assaults – it’s not a protest, and The Atlantic and the… Read more »
Equally nauseating is the reply from the female prof who was assaulted. She starts out in her post in a sane manner then in the last paragraph virtue signals that she knows where the real blame resides: Trump. Goes to show that you cannot win with anyone who wants to appear reasonable or compassionate. Only people who don’t give a damn about how they are perceived can be trusted. Here is her response to being assaulted: Allison Stanger March 5 at 12:18am · Middlebury, VT, United States I apologize for the impersonal and lengthy nature of this communication, but I… Read more »
Typical blowhard prof …long winded…
But as we find a way to move forward, we should also hold fast to the wisdom of James Baldwin, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Obligatory minority wisdom to virtue signal. U
I think that the key takeaway from this incident is that a Leftist thug brazenly attacked a defenseless women in pubic place causing her serious injury. This type of criminality is only going to escalate because of the publicity it garners and the absence of a significant judicial consequence for the perpetrator. There is no rational basis to assume that police or the judiciary will step in to mitigate this growing threat to public safety. Each of us now has a solemn duty to augment our own capability for self-defense. The problem will not stop getting worse until we the… Read more »
I took away the following key points from Murray’s recap: 1. Bill Burger, VP of Communications for Middlebury, while locked in his car with Murray and Professor Stanger and surrounded by the thugs who had just assaulted them and were jumping and pounding on his car, was too much of a cuck to do anything other than inch forward, for fear he might hurt one of the thugs. This eunuch deserved to be ejected from the car and tossed to the thugs for his cowardice. 2. Murray sent his own daughter to Middlebury. WTF? Look, I get that if your… Read more »
For the Acela Corridor types, Middlebury is a big deal. It’s the sort of place where parents say, “Gretchen was going to go to Harvard, but she wanted a different experience from her brothers.” Not a lot of guys with a precious metal in their name, if you get my drift.
My (((cousin))) attended Middlebury in the early 70s. I don’t know the demographics then or now. He’s a die-hard lib, of course.
Two years ago Charles Murray spoke at a small UC sponsored event two blocks from the Milo riot. It transpires without incident.
Murray’s own daughter attends Middlebury?
¯|_(ツ)_/¯
Irony is an ourobouros. Anyway, I believe Murray came out in favor of pretend (gay) marriage at the time of Obergefell. Shocker, eh?
I only heard of Middlebury b/c it’s most famous alum is Snake from The Simpsons: http://snakejailbird.tumblr.com/post/52460083429/snake-gifs-17-22-short-films-about-springfield
Until the college moves to expel those involved and press criminal charges, I won’t believe the administration at Middlebury cares one bit about academic freedom or free expression.
Join the discussionThe police often are complicit. For example, when this swine blocks public roadways, law enforcement isn’t concerned about that crime, only that someone may not slow down and stop. Increasingly, although the media doesn’t want to show it, these parasites are hit with vehicles. Some states are legalizing the practice, and should.
Just so. Where is this all going? Most likely into national breakup and collapse. Societies without freedom of speech (and therefore thought) don’t have a future.
This is great writing, ZMan. So many quotable lines.
Quite a few people and the media are eating this stuff up. The violence and confrontation is invigorating and exciting for them, better than the Super Bowl or the elections themselves. They get to root for the “good guys” and smite evil. These are people who must be living otherwise empty lives, how else can they cheer for this stuff? This morning Lileks commented about a brawl in the Minneapolis art museum. Near as I can tell, some pro-illegal-immigrant protesters, part of a mob assembled outside the museum doors, followed some guys into the place and jumped them. I assume… Read more »
I visited Middlebury in 1983 and decided against applying because they struck me as crazy smug liberals completely detached from reality. I couldn’t image being trapped in the middle of nowhere with those people for 4 years.
I had a similar experience with Amherst. My baseball coach wanted me to look at Amherst because he went there. He was a great guy, but the people I dealt with were condescending assholes. Just horrible people.
Yes sir ree! I met one of them critters. Once. Upon meeting he derided me for mispronouncing “Amhearst”, and he as a black man to boot! As if I gave a crap.
It is doubtful that our opinions and actions matter much, at least as I see it. As pessimistic as that sounds it becomes fact when you find first hand knowledge that the constitution created by our founding fathers is useless. Standing up in court for the right or the left is only defined by who has the gold. Trump is now in charge and the future will be focused on reducing the economic deficit by reducing regulation. It may work because we’ve found that regulation doesn’t work; I would support that statement by giving example of the death rate rises… Read more »
Examples like the Derb or Mark Steyn abound, but we never really noticed that they were shunned by the official Right.
It was right in front of our faces all this time, accepted without much thought because that’s just the way things wuz.
So obvious, yet it had to be pointed out.
Maybe I should shrug and say Go Cruz!
Or Dubya was defending our Freedom!
…or something.
A fave: HW Bush was Protecting the World’s Oil Supply!
And poor Mark Steyn has been screwed over again by so-called right wing media. CRTV’s sugar daddy Cary Katz — interesting name, eh? — breached his contract with Mark. Now he’s left holding the bag for several hundred thousand dollars of unreimbursed expenses on his show.
It’s never right versus left in the end with these people; it’s always cloud versus dirt.
I subscribed to CRTV, despite the persistent presence of the rumpswab Levin there, solely to support Steyn, and his show was truly a delight. Upon learning of his unceremonious dumping by CRTV, I called and demanded a full refund of my annual subscription. The guy on the other end of the phone, who was clearly beleaguered handling similarly irate soon-to-be non-customers, asked if I would accept a reduced rate subscription to entice me to stay. I responded with “I wouldn’t take that cuck-shit in my home even if you paid me” and told him to process my refund or I’d… Read more »
What side am I on? Free speech. This is supposed to be a University. He was invited to speak. People are free to attend or not. They should not be allowed to resort to public disruption, etc. to shut up someone they may not agree with. And especially not allow violence on anyone. If they do, then the game changes and anyone has the right to defend themselves. I’m sure the injured professor knows who her assailant was and that individual should be prosecuted. Otherwise, our move to restore the order of law is being resisted in another “safe space,”… Read more »
Charles Murray is a Quaker for f#ck’s sake. He is/was pro gay marriage. Look at him for God’s sake he’s like the love child of Capt Kangaroo and Opie Taylor for crissakes. I hope he “wakes up” and joins the resistance i.e. the Alt Right the real right, the hard right, the righteous right. All Murray said was that IQ and outcomes are related or “smart people do better than dumb people”
A Quaker? How did you find this out? If that’s so, there’s is no way in hell that he will “wake up.” I’m surprised that he even wrote that book. Sigh.
“This is not supposed to happen to good thinkers like Charles Murray” Murray was never a “good thinker”. He was pilloried from the moment The Bell Curve was released. Anyone that believes there is a fundamental genetic difference in IQ between races is anathema to the left and the MSM. If he is pulling a George W. Bush to try and rehabilitate his rep then he is not on our side. But, he will have to come out with a study that shows he was mistaken on his views before the left will accept him as anything other than an… Read more »
I laugh when I hear lefties are starting to arm themselves. Hey that 2nd Amendment sounds pretty good now, huh?
Maybe in a year or so a few of them will actually learn to shoot worth a damn. They got a long way to go to catch up with the redneck conservatives around here, who all own collections of rifles and pistols and have been shooting with them since before they could ride a bicycle.
Hear, Hear.
Conceal your identity with a mask (he got that one right). Everyone in the group adopts the same dress, with different clothes underneath. Select a target. Attack. Disperse into the crowd and change clothes so the police can’t easily locate, identify.
You have a fine blog. You do admirable work. However, your attack on Charles Murray is a mistake. Charles Murray is one of us. Unlike Murray, I love and support Donald Trump, but Trump is indeed a crypto-fascist and a bit of a cretin. Murray makes Trump out to be a fascist and a cretin. Murray’s assessment of Trump is overstated, perhaps, but his assessment is essentially correct. Murray is an American gentleman of an earlier generation. He cannot get to where Trump is, but you and I should never forget that, unlike you and me, Murray courageously published his… Read more »
Excuse me if I don’t believe you are a Trump supporter.