Right, and part of the way we got here was people like Rufo who spent years laying this language trap for academics to fall into. Make them so afraid of their own words so they won't be able to defend themselves. Intead of defending their ideas and words proudly and calling Rufo the fascist he is.

Rufo didn’t make the language and insist other people use it. He exploited their resentment. And i have been on here hollowing fascism for months now. But it doesn’t work w regular people.

Also this idea that it was a GOP language trap. We had a solid 10 years of progressive academic speak usage with increasing stridentness. They DID use the language and tried to defend it. "Defund the Police *actually* means..."

I checked out when I got dog piled for saying "melting pot"...because progressives felt it was insensitive to "marginalized people" and was adjacent to "cultural appropriation or colonialism" So saying in America we should all give and take and be one people was now...akin to racism. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

it does feel a bit gaslight-ish. I heard these terms hundreds and hundreds of times, including in secondary ed.

IMHO progressives just felt they owned the cultural direction. Hollywood was uber liberal. Colleges were more and more uber liberal. Companies were DEI everything. "Demographic destiny" where whites finally became a minority was going to ensure a progressive forever.

But underneath it all, in the group chats of the richest dudes, in the comedy space, with the bros, in the counter culture in general...a backlash was brewing. ...and idiot Donald Trump was lucky enough to stumble right into it...

If everyone else doesn't accept your (rather weak) definition of "melting pot," you're going to acquiesce that the fascists have a point?

Education is inoculation against hucksters like Rufo. People like him rely on everyone else to dumb things down because that's his language game he wants to play. Something right wing operatives understand is that being unpopular now can be temporary and is not a barrier to slim majority power.

Tom here clearly has his own resentments about higher education learning, but is he as bad as Rufo? No, because his education in higher concepts and the "woke" words he's railing against here actually help him combat those reactionary impulses. Everyone should be so lucky to be inoculated the same

That's not the reason Tom stood up to Trump.

education is not a magical superpower that makes you immune to authoritarian appeals.

It does help a lot though when you know what the word means and its history. So that when it pops up in your country you're like hey I read that somewhere...

Worrrrrd. The GOP is ate up with fascists with impressive sheepskin collections.