Now that Bari Weiss has left the New York Times (“scorching” resignation letter here), the Times will almost assuredly be both woker and broker—not “broker” in the sense of financially poorer, but intellectually so. The Times is almost guaranteed to be more predictably “correct” in its coverage of the passing scene and—okay, this is going to be a bit scorching as well—less Jewish.
The coverage of Weiss’s time at the Times has generally suggested that both she and fellow anti-Trumper Wall Street Journal alumnus Bret Stephens were brought in following the 2016 election because the Times decided that its failure to predict even the possibility of a Trump win indicated that their coverage of “conservatism” needed shoring up. As I’ve already opined, the real reason was to establish a stronger liaison with anti-Trump Jewish neocons, and Bari and Bret fit the bill. I’m sure a lot of people at the Times thought they should have gotten one of those cushy editorial page jobs instead of a couple of outsiders, particularly a thirty-something like Bari.
Bari had particular “hand”, so to speak, for another reason that you won’t read about much—gender fluidity.1 A hip, young, right-wing lesbian Jew who gets the job I should have gotten? That’s going to irritate a lot of people. Bari didn’t help matters by going off in a contrarian manner, exposing the lazy acceptance by many liberals of left-wing nonsense—anti-Semitic nonsense in particular, of course—when peddled by the politically unimpeachable—“passionate” blacks/feminists/lesbians/“persons of color”.
So Bari’s gone, and even though I didn’t care for much of her rap, she made a lot of good points that a lot of people didn’t like to hear. The current wave of political correctness—the product, largely, of affirmative developments—the #MeToo movement and the new awareness of the extent of oppressive, racist policing tactics as a matter of routine—seems to be spawning an obsession with “groupthink” among the cool kids—the graduates of elite universities in their twenties and thirties. They think alike and talk alike, and want to make sure that you do too. If they institute a mandatory unisex dress code, I won’t be surprised. It’s all very Red Guardy, and, obviously, I’m not a fan.
Afterwords
I’ve already bitched, a lot, about the Times PC fever. Read the first 10 postings listed here if you don’t believe me. Over at Reason, Matt Welch gives a nice (nice as in deeply depressing) overview of the current cancel culture’s ever-growing excesses. Many years ago I reviewed a group of documentaries dealing with China for the Bright Lights Film Journal. I’ll quote in full my discussion of The Gentleman of Shanghai, giving a preview of what I’m sure won’t happen here.
The Gentleman from Shanghai is the third documentary on the From Mao to Mozart DVD. Directed by Heather Greer, the film tells the story of a quiet hero, Tan Shuzhen. Tan was born in 1907 to Christianized parents. He studied the violin from a German teacher and became the first Chinese to play in the Shanghai orchestra (obviously, the city had a large foreign contingent). Tan also became a teacher at the Shanghai Conservatory. To overcome a shortage of violins, he worked with local craftsmen to learn how to make violins himself and to establish a violin-manufacturing industry in China.
In 1937, the Japanese expanded their area of control in mainland China to include Shanghai. Tan resigned from the Shanghai orchestra rather than play for the conquerors, returning to the orchestra when the Japanese left. After the communist takeover in 1949, the Shanghai Conservatory maintained a precarious existence, despite an increasing official suspicion of decadent, Western sounds.
The Cultural Revolution struck in full in 1966. Tan was denounced by one of his students. To educate their decadent elder, Tan’s students ransacked his living quarters, destroying “Western” objects and stealing his wristwatch and his wife’s wedding ring. Tan was confined to a windowless, unlighted, unventilated storage room for 14 months. Afterwards, he was put to work cleaning the conservatory’s 122 toilets, a task that not only taught him humility but allowed the students more time to think up ways to torment their elders. In all, 17 of the teachers at the conservatory committed suicide rather than endure the continued humiliations and beatings they received from the Red Guard. Tan attributes his endurance to his Christian faith.
The Cultural Revolution ended in 1978. At age 92, Tan continues to make and play violins and teach the music for which he almost died.
Back in 1999, there was a nice story about Tan Shuzhen in, yes, the New York Times
1. According to Wikipedia, Weiss was married for a few years but is now divorced, but as student at Columbia she “dated” Saturday Night Live star and famous lesbian person Kate McKinnon—enough, I guess, to make any Manhattanite wild with jealousy.
