GMU's "Just Societies" + March Events: Nashua, Boston, and AMA
By the power of X, I may have managed to delay George Mason University’s “Just Societies” course requirement. The James G. Martin Center has just published my first-hand account of this ongoing story, along with a detailed critique of the Orwellian injustice of the proposed curriculum change. Highlight:
Contrary to woke dogma, racism does not mean “prejudice plus power.” Yet the phrase still nicely captures what normal, apolitical people detest about DEI promoters. Namely: DEI promoters are exemplars of powerful, prejudiced people. After all, they get paid to make baseless accusations of moral failing against their co-workers—day in, day out. If you work in DEI and want to see people who need to learn about the just treatment of others, spare us another self-righteous lecture and look in the mirror.
And here’s a list of upcoming Bet On It events:
Premium Subscriber Ask Me Anything. Saturday, March 2, 10:30 PM ET. Premium subscribers will get the zoom link shortly. Want to be part of my shadowy cabal? You know what to do.
The Liberty Forum Experience. Nashua, New Hampshire. March 15-17. I’m doing the keynote talk on Friday evening on “Build, Baby, Build.” Then on Saturday morning, I follow up with a panel on “Is Localism Actually Good?” versus the famed William Fischel. Fischel has spent his career defending the rough efficiency of existing land-use regulation (Zoning Rules!) and local government (The Homevoter Hypothesis), so this will be a fun face-off.
Boston Meet-Up. Saturday, March 16, 9:30 PM ET. In the lobby of the Omni Boston Hotel at Seaport lobby. All are welcome, hope you can make it! Please RSVP in the comments.
The more amusing response is to take the claim that racism means prejudice plus power seriously and start pointing out that it means all those KKK members out there howling in the dark aren't racist. And that it makes it almost definitionally impossible to fire anyone for being racist since the firing itself undermines the claim they were wielding power.
What really bothers me about a "Just Societies" requirement is that it's such blatant rent-seeking. By incorporating this into the official academic standards, it automatically produces a huge pool of mandatory paying customers and a guaranteed revenue stream for any department that offers courses for this program. My suspicion is that if such courses were not required then the actual demand might be small. Let the market decide!