Author: James A. Bacon
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Daily Mail Picks up Bettinger Story
The Morgan Bettinger case is gaining national notoriety. After Reason magazine detailed the travesty of the University of Virginia student who was punished for using the words “speed bumps” in a way that militant leftist protesters construed as threatening, the Daily Mail has picked up the story. The Daily Mail does not add much new…
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“DEI Is Dead” at VMI
by James A. Bacon The Youngkin administration has just unloaded a HIMARS rocket attack on Virginia Military Institute’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program. Speaking Friday in a session of mandatory “inclusive excellence training,” Martin D. Brown, Youngkin’s chief of Diversity, Opportunity & Inclusion, left steaming rubble where VMI’s DEI program had been standing. “Let’s take…
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How the Digital Rumor Mill Fed Incoherent Social-Justice Hysteria
by James A. Bacon When Emma Camp was a student at the University of Virginia in 2020, she heard the tale of Morgan Bettinger, another UVa student, who was said to have approached left-wing protesters in downtown Charlottesville and threatened to make “speed bumps” of them. The story, says Camp, was repeatedly endlessly on social…
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Conservative Snowflakes
by James A. Bacon Delicate snowflakes aren’t found only on college campuses. Some conservatives in Virginia, it seems, are just as prone to melting down and suppressing images and ideas they don’t like. It appears that “multiple parents” have approached Patrick County Supervisor Denise Stirewalt with concerns about reading materials their children are being exposed…
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New York Times “DEI” Article Prompts Questions About Ryan’s Views
by James A. Bacon Kudos to Stephanie Saul for her front-page article in The New York Times this morning. She quotes Bert Ellis and me accurately and in context in an impressively even-handed account of the brewing controversy over Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the University of Virginia. Followers of Bacon’s Rebellion will find that…
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Restoring Trust in Institutions
by Matt Hurt Over the last several years, it has become widely accepted that trust in our institutions has declined. Ultra-tribalism has infected almost every aspect of public discourse, which has certainly enriched the war chests of our politicians on both sides of the aisle. On April 20, 2023, the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE)…
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Apologies Run One Way in Woke World
by James A. Bacon The woke witch trials of the 21st century don’t burn their victims at the stake, but they still do immense harm. We previously told the story of how Morgan Bettinger, a 4th-year student who ran afoul of the University of Virginia’s social-justice warriors, was vilified on social media, investigated by university…
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Hmm. I think I’ll Stick with Google for Now
Supposedly, Microsoft is integrating ChatGPT artificial intelligence technology into its search results. I’m not sure how far along the tech giant is in this process, but what I’m seeing so far is not impressive. Just for yuks, I posed the following query to Microsoft’s Bing search engine: “What is causing the breakdown in discipline in…
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Ezekiel Statute to Move from Arlington to New Market?
As controversy rages over the fate of the Moses Ezekiel statue at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, The Cadet student newspaper at Virginia Military Institute quotes anonymous sources that the statue might be moved to the Virginia Museum of the Civil War at the New Market battlefield site. — JAB