Actor James Woods, who mastered the art of playing slimy yet somehow charming villains and assholes before Jon Voight gave him solid competition for seven years on Showtime’s “Ray Donovan,” has been more or less blacklisted in Hollywood for his non-conforming conservative perspective and his lack of shyness about expressing them. He appears to tweet all day now, and “X” has become his podium. The exchange above doesn’t exactly qualify Woods for Ethics Hero status, but it was refreshing and deft nonetheless.
1. Speaking of the national scourge of DEI that has inflicted Claudine Gay, inept White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, incompetent DOT Secretary Pete Buttigeig, lying DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Vice-President Kamala Harris and so, so many more unqualified officials in important jobs on the nation, the New York Times readers gave the fading “Grey Lady” a jolt by reacting to “‘America Is Under Attack’: Inside the Anti-D.E.I. Crusade” by Nicholas Confessore with a mass Bronx cheer. The first five comments rated most highly:
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“The New York Times presents this piece as some kind of Pentagon Papers-esque exposé. But I guarantee you that a majority of Americans – including probably most Democrats — believe that DEI/Anti Racism went too far post George Floyd and we need to get back to aiming for a color blind society.”
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“I don’t agree on much with Elise Stefanik, but she is right about DEI. When a movement requires zealous adherence, will abide no decent, and actively persecuted dissenters, then that movement is an enemy of free speech and the active exchange of ideas, whether it comes from the right or the left.”
- “This article makes the same assumption that the DEI movement does: opposing any aspect of the DEI program is an opposition to diversity and thus is racist itself. Why cant it be okay to think that the DEI program is the wrong approach to achieving diversity?”
- “Getting rid of these DEI programs would be good for the US. We should get back to trying to be a meritocracy. Choose the best candidates, not the most diverse ones.”
- “This article attempts to discredit the view that DEI has gone too far by linking this view to politicians most readers will find distasteful. Yet the article avoids any discussion, analysis or statistics about the underlying question. It is undeniable that higher education is staffed by teachers and administrators that are far more progressive than the U.S. as a whole, that college courses are heavily tilted toward the progressive narrative, that administrators (including ‘the college presidents’) selectively protect free speech depending on the message, and that applicants’ race has been the determining factor for many students at elite universities. Many Americans think this progressive bias is wrong. The fact some unsavory characters may agree doesn’t negate the point.”
There is hope! (Pointer: Ann Althouse)
Ethics Alarms 