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Dinesh D’Souza Teaches Amherst Progressive a Vivid Lesson
If Ricochet followed the standard Internet headline format, I would have titled this post “Watch Dinesh Destroy SJW Hypocrite!” Instead, I respectfully ask you to enjoy this cathartic video from Amherst College. It’s most likely the best lesson this student will receive in his four-year program of study.
Published in Education
But if the kid identifies as African-American …
Thanks, Jon.
First, I appreciate the point about hyperbole. Hard to sift through the screaming clickbait these days.
This young man was certainly articulate and while I disagree with his perspective and the peanut gallery chuffing at the bit behind him, it was good to see a clear and concise millennial.
D’Souza’s reference to hypocrisy is right on, but I also think he missed an opportunity to go beyond it. The audience either accepted that one point or not, but there were deeper points regarding privilege which I would have loved to have heard Dinesh refer to:
It would have been interesting to hear this students response to both.
Thanks Jon.
Denesh D’Souza is a wonderful person, isn’t he? He’s fighting the good fight. I deeply admire him.
Logic, critical thinking, examination of one’s own assumptions, sacrifice. These are clearly concepts this young man isn’t familiar with. Had there been more time, Dinesh could (and undoubtedly would) have pointed out that the search for victims & “restorative justice” causes all manner of war & strife (the Palestinians, to name just one). At some point, you just have to stop and say “we’re going to do it right from now going forward, and leave the past in the past”. If you don’t, you never get out of the past and you never grow. Social justice should be about taking people where they are and making them bigger people, not infantilizing them forever by satiating their desire for “justice” by taking other people’s stuff.
Regarding your first point, I think they might have just finished watching his film, “America.” The film makes your point perfectly and, if you haven’t seen the film, you need to see it. You will love it.
And…
3. Any system of compensation for past injustices would have a set of incentives that could be gamed something fierce, and would be rife with astounding levels of fraud, corruption, and bribery.
D’Souza is a treasure but the severity of his beat down of the kid is exaggerated. If he focused more on the impossibility of settling all old wrongs, of the impossibility of the calculus involved, he would have sobered the kid up.
The student operates in a fantasy world and someone needs to explain this to him.
And…
4. Those who are masters of fraud, corruption, and bribery are actively exploiting the passions of folks like yourself with the very noblest of intentions.
Did someone say global warming?
Wow. That’s amazing.
The student learned zero lesson. He walked away from the encounter knowing – KNOWING – that conservatives will just never “get it”.
Great post, Jon, Dinesh D’Souza is so well-spoken!
“I’m not trying to indict everyone of hypocrisy, only you.”
Beautiful!
I didn’t see clear and concise (failure to recognize “clear” could possibly be my own failing, but he was nearly the opposite of concise). I’m not always D’Souza’s biggest fan, but I think he did well to seize upon the nut of the complaint (“You say that we’re hypocrites, but this is a problem of collective historical guilt that requires a collective solution”) and responded to it in the most direct way–by pointing out that he wasn’t willing to make the personal sacrifices that a solution to the stated problem entails.
I appreciate the higher-level arguments about what kind of society we’re building based on the kind of discourse we engage in, but I bet that student has more to think about now than if D’Souza had tried to meet him on that level.
That was superb! Dinesh is magnificent.
Kudos to Amherst for inviting D D to speak. Good to see that at least some places in academia still allow some diversity of ideas on campus.
His comments about immigrants to this country are spot-on. I love this country, I’m here by choice, not by birth, and I chose not to live anywhere else but here. It amazes me that so many Americans think of the U.S. as the worst place on Earth: How they can think that, I’ll never know.
Amherst? . . . a college audience actually listening to debated points? Wow. Did not know that was still possible at elite colleges. Makes me happy to hear actual engagement. I think perhaps this will not be the end of thinking about these issues for that young man.
I’m having a different view on Social justice. I’m seeing it, for whites at least, as the management of Christian-like guilt in a post-Christian secular world, where the person himself, to deal with his own guilt — or alternatively, to mouth the appropriate expressions that society expects — to atone for their own guilt of benefitting from being born in the very fortunate society we live in. In this way, the person makes himself a bigger person, without having to sacrifice any of their own benefits. The expressions and actions become a kind of prayer and way of life in a secular world.
I think these people have absorbed the lessons of Christ better than they would ever choose to consciously admit.
The student operates in a world where management of guilt — both self-perceived and projected — is essential for his own survival as a person.
The lessons of Social justice have to do with emphasizing humility. Success without proper perspective gained from keeping one’s place with the Almighty is bad. The lessons from the history of the Jewish people have taught me that.
My favorite part is watching a privileged white male lecturing a minority on racism. And never recognizing that he is engaged in one of the vilest sins to Social Justice Warriors: Whitesplaning.
I enjoyed watching D’Souza engage with that college student. I also noticed an older lady behind him encouraging him on, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she were faculty and even one of his mentors.
But I also give those students credit. On too many campuses, D’Souza and others with similar views are shouted down, if they’re even allowed to speak on campus at all.
Aaarrghh… the SJW rhetoric would be maddening enough, but that these young men have been completely emasculated and turned into such sanctimonious prigs is just unbearable. And then watching that boomer radical witch egg him on in his foolishness…
Sorry, nothing D’souza says can alleviate the sense of despair I have watching this generation of pantywaists in action. We’re doomed. Have a nice day.
Question: Is it true African-Americans were systematically excluded from GI Bill programs? Anyone have specifics on this?
Yay for open and honest pursuit of truth!
Ding dong, the witch ain’t dead.
Dinesh’s point reminds me of a student I knew some years ago. There was a “Constitution Day Debate” that I participated in with four other faculty and a couple of students. I was the only conservative on the panel.
One of the topics was the government’s role in education. I argued that by funding our very own state university with taxes the government is robbing working class families to subsidize the education of the children of middle and upper class families.
One student on the panel was so affected by this discussion that at the end of the semester he wrote a column in the student newspaper describing his conversion to conservatism, and informing us that he was transferring to a private college, because he no longer believed that it was right for him to benefit from the taxes of people less fortunate than himself.
Here was one student of whom, more than most, I can say with certainty is an honorable man today.
I would put money on that kid being a debater. Unfortunately.
Thanks for sharing this. In our current state of politics, it’s hard to believe this kind of thing could ever happen so this is a story that must be told.
Yes, isn’t it pathetic to watch a faculty member act that way? What a poor example she is for those students. She should be teaching people how to think not what to think but we are a long way from that ideal.
Wow! It’s one at a time, isn’t it? What a wonderful gift you gave that young man.
Oh, I’ve tried this sort of thing before with absolutely no success. Perhaps it was because my interlocutors were older boomer types, I don’t know. But, I pointed out that the people least likely to collect on Social Security benefits were black men, due to significantly shorter lifespans for them.
I think the SJWs took it as an argument in favor of reparations. There is simply no way to overcome such intractable, monumental moral vanity.