Week In Review

I love your commentaries. They are presented much like a lawyer. I love your angel vs the devil. I love the pros and cons. I have several topics for your future writings: Moral hazard, Risk vs reward, delayed gratification, the value of meritocracy, BLM vs Adam Smith, dangers of canceling, China’s gain from Covid, defunding police hurts blacks worst of all, only 14% of black children are learning in school, left considers algebra to be part of white culture, blacks are the losers in illegal immigration, and wealthy parents send their children to elite private schools.

Victor, Thank you for all that you do to present common sense insight into our Nation’s problems. I’m sorry to hear that your “colleagues “ have chosen to disrespect you and others at the Hoover Institute. Even though it probably wasn’t a big surprise, it still is disappointing. I agree that we must vigorously confront these false allegations with their implicit desire to intimidate. Their continued attempts at projection is becoming tedious. I read as much of your work as I can. I take comfort in your approach to exposing liberal/marxist strategies. Your underlying love for America is obvious in your books especially those that deal with WWII and the patriots in your family that participated and sacrificed for you and I. Looking forward to reading your new book this Fall. Trying to find a source other than Amazon. Please, stay well! Craig

Thank you for your voice at this time in our nation's history. I am a former professional counselor of some thirty years, operating out of a Christian Cognitive-Behavioral paradigm. For the past twenty years I have been an independent historian, specializing in the French and Indian War period. I am hoping to finish in the near future two volumes on the neglected young George Washington's first mission in 1753-54. What I am writing you about today illustrates the lack of insight that often characterizes those who address the issues surrounding the claims of racism in America (you are an exception, that is why I am writing to you). In particular those who perpetrate critical race theory seem to lack all insight into themselves in terms of their own racism. As you likely know, the unconscious defense mechanism known as "projection" attributes to others the motives or intentions, thoughts, feelings that are in fact part of their own self-perceptions but cannot be acknowledged because they cause anxiety and conflict with their own idea-self-image. Projection functions to protect such persons from that inner conflict between the racist (or reverse-racist) they are and the ideal self they deceive themselves to be. By externalizing their racism and projecting it onto others, they deal with it as a problem from which they exclude themselves (e.g., because of slavery, blacks cannot be guilty of racism). Ironically, critical race theory seems to presuppose a curious form of "psychic determinism." As you well know, Freud adapted the concept of causality to claim that all phenomena and events have antecedent causes that operate on an unconscious level, beyond the control of the person involved. Critical race theory proponents seem to assume the role of psychic determinism to maintain their theory of systemic and institutional racism among whites in the history of America. Yet, contradictory as it is, our government, educational, and corporate programs require brain-washing sessions designed to erase what psychic determinism denies is possible. It appears to me to be an exercise in futility, since it doesn't address racism at the heart of the individual person. But as usual, the "woke" progressives will find satisfaction in knowing that they tried, even if in the end, the whole endeavor will fail. In the cognitive approach to addressing human struggles, one premise remains true: "labelling" (actually mislabelling) people is a form of expressing superiority to others and a effort to control them. Labelling is one among many of the cognitive distortion processes that skews perception, just like jumping to conclusions, overgeneralizing, magnifying or minimizing, personalization, etc. One wearies of hearing democrat politicians and BLM proponents endlessly distorting reality by accusing people of racism because they simply have cultural differences and a different understanding of some facts about slavery and racism! Here too they distort reality by their polarizing dichotomies ("all or northing" thinking). You know better than I that numerous non-black countries on the African continent resent blacks' insistence that they are superior Africans to others such as Algerians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Tunisians, Sudanese, etc.Is it possible that in calling themselves "African Americans," blacks think of themselves as superior to whites in the U.S.? Is there not a black female who is a candidate for a position in the Biden administration who has maintained for some years that physically, mentally, and spiritually, blacks are superior to whites? Although comprising only 13 per cent of the US population, some blacks act and speak as if their goal is to dominate America. I would be interested in your response to any or all of my thoughts. I assure you I have black friends and 6 black or mulatto grandchildren who were adopted by my daughter and her husband. I do not write or speak as a racist, but as a historians who is committed to establishing the facts of reality - past and present.