Florida’s “Stop Woke Act” is an example of how not to counter wokeism. Designed to neutralize woke indoctrination, this legislation burdens speech by banning mandatory workplace training regarding sex or race that could cause “anguish” or “guilt.”
It’s one thing for the government to limit its own expression — say, by removing critical race theory from public grade-school curricula or restricting state-agency implicit bias instruction — but the Stop Woke Act binds private employers and voluntary membership associations. The illiberalism and censorship codified by the Stop Woke Act mirror the illiberalism and censorship championed by woke ideologues.
… The 84,000-member professional [American College of Surgeon’s] society’s sole focus should be improving the standard of surgical care, but in recent years the college has made a priority of promoting critical race theory and so-called antiracism. Like many radicalized organizations, the college has taken to punishing members who raise concerns over its new agenda.
The college’s elevation of ideology—and demotion of surgery—was swift. I saw the first signs in 2019, when the college invited Joan Y. Reede to deliver its prestigious annual lecture. Dr. Reede is dean for diversity and community partnership at Harvard Medical School. The topic of her speech was “a path toward diversity, inclusion, and excellence.”
As the son of a Brazilian mother and American father, I welcomed her praise of diversity, but Dr. Reede’s speech made no meaningful mention of “excellence.” Surgery is a discipline that demands excellence in all its stages, from training to practice. Should diversity supplant quality in surgeon performance, patient care would suffer. Remarkably, Dr. Reede’s vision was met with rapturous acceptance by the college’s leadership, and the unqualified push for diversity became a lodestar for the group.
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These are the actions of ideologues intent on radicalizing the surgical field instead of improving care. Surgeons can’t let that happen. The only way to reverse it is for surgeons to speak out against the corruption of our profession. The ACS must choose between surgery and ideology. Whatever the choice may be, my colleagues and I will fight for the good of our patients.
The family [of Anne Frank, whose father was Otto] moved to Amsterdam, but Otto’s eyes were on the U.S. Yet America, they soon discovered, was not willing to open its doors to them—and that is the essential, haunting point of this three-part documentary awash in the forever-raw pain of certain facts. Among them, not least, that in the years when escape from the Nazis’ designs for mass murder of the Jews was still possible, the U.S. government, moved by its own prejudices, especially in the State Department—and what that government guessed was the will of the people—was unwilling to accept more than a modest number of the desperate refugees. This, despite the persistent efforts of Americans who felt deeply about the issue, as Eleanor Roosevelt did, though the first lady was in no position to wield power in Congress or to do anything to enlarge the immigration quota.
Shortly after taking over as the new U.K. prime minister, Liz Truss announced plans to fight inflation by capping household energy prices over the next two years. Blimey! Billed as the most free-market prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, Truss’s first major move is a counterproductive scheme that will prolong the United Kindom’s energy woes and increase its budget deficit. What could go wrong?
“Extraordinary challenges call for extraordinary measures, ensuring that the United Kingdom is never in this situation again,” Truss declared. When you hear phrases like this, beware of bad policies on the way. Starting in October, the government will limit the energy prices charged to households for two years and businesses for six months. It will make up the difference to utility companies with subsidies paid for with borrowed funds. The cost of this boondoggle is forecasted to be over $120 billion.
GMU Econ alum Caleb Fuller shares the greatest hits of price controls.
Colin Grabow continues to document the damage done to the American economy by the cronyist Jones Act.
Emma Camp reports yet more evidence of the Biden administration’s contempt for the rule of law.
