Christopher Rufo is on the dead bird app bragging that he took down the president of Harvard and announcing that he's going to start "plagiarism hunting," which sounds so much better than "going after liberal Black academics."
You have hit the nail on the head. I’ve tried to understand how Rufo has gained such relevance for those on the far right and you have described the perfect rationale. He has zero credentials yet is perceived as some kind of cultural, historical expert. He is full of it! And you know what I mean by that.
What I’m wondering is why the “Upstanders”let him get away with it. First Followers are critical to his success but all it takes is an equal and opposite response by Upstanders to stop his BS. When are the Upstanders going to get tired of letting the bully win ?
Sadly, and like so many commentators, you miss the forest for the trees. Rufo has perfected a strategy that uses tactics shown successful. But the tactics you mention miss the larger goal - challenging the perceived progressive/left domination of higher education. Other, and more legitimate commentators like Bret Stephens and John McWhorter, both conservative NYT columnists and well respected, address the broader perils of the social justice agenda that "equity" hires/promotions like Dr. Gay exemplify. They lament that the very purpose of university has been weakened drastically and not to the advantage of the individuals like Gay who have been carried by the ubiquitous DEI agenda and its plethora of adminstrative advocates. A little dose of reality about what the more important issue really is, methinks.
I saw a succinct description of what we need from the NYT, WaPo, and other media:
"Not the odds, but the stakes."
But the odds are like an olde fashioned cliff hanger, where the audience tunes in to see what happens next.
You have hit the nail on the head. I’ve tried to understand how Rufo has gained such relevance for those on the far right and you have described the perfect rationale. He has zero credentials yet is perceived as some kind of cultural, historical expert. He is full of it! And you know what I mean by that.
What I’m wondering is why the “Upstanders”let him get away with it. First Followers are critical to his success but all it takes is an equal and opposite response by Upstanders to stop his BS. When are the Upstanders going to get tired of letting the bully win ?
Sadly, and like so many commentators, you miss the forest for the trees. Rufo has perfected a strategy that uses tactics shown successful. But the tactics you mention miss the larger goal - challenging the perceived progressive/left domination of higher education. Other, and more legitimate commentators like Bret Stephens and John McWhorter, both conservative NYT columnists and well respected, address the broader perils of the social justice agenda that "equity" hires/promotions like Dr. Gay exemplify. They lament that the very purpose of university has been weakened drastically and not to the advantage of the individuals like Gay who have been carried by the ubiquitous DEI agenda and its plethora of adminstrative advocates. A little dose of reality about what the more important issue really is, methinks.