The Complete Evergreen Story ep 8: 'Stop demanding that everybody use logic and reason and white forms of knowledge'

I feel like these episodes are getting better and better. Episode 7 was probably my favorite so far but I think episode 8 tops it. This one wraps up the struggle session as we get to the point where Bret Weinstein, having not been allowed to speak in his own defense, leaves the library. Moments later, he began a discussion with several students who still want to know why he won’t declare himself a racist and resign.

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There’s no video for this conversation, just audio, but Boyce does a very nice job putting the subtitles in various colors so you can keep track of who is talking. But the conversation itself is sort of the ultimate clash of worldviews. On the one hand, you have far-left progressives who are pushing Weinstein to confess guilt and apologize based on the fact that other people feel hurt and then you have Weinstein himself defending classical liberalism, i.e. we all benefit from everyone’s right to speak, even people we disagree with.

Early on in this conversation Weinstein tells one of the students, “I would point out that a key feature of this dynamic is that there can be no visible diversity of thinking, which means that anybody who expresses another opinion whether it be right or wrong, has to be stigmatized sufficiently powerfully that everybody else knows to shut up.”

The student he’s speaking with immediately disagrees, “No I don’t think that it—that’s the—there’s not that silencing aspect.”

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Weinstein asks the student to imagine himself in his shoes, but another student chimes in and claims, “you laughed the whole time” through the library meeting. Weinstein tries to say that she was mistaken but she cuts him off: “Oh dude. You’re going to use your rational bulls**t. F**k you, dude.” Remember there’s no “silencing aspect.”

Moments later, Weinstein is engaging with another student saying, “Right and wrong are a matter of reason and logic and nobody has a claim on [those].” The student replies, “That’s legit, but we are on a liberal arts campus…What you’re saying, does it harm people?” That’s the old standards versus the new ones. ‘Is it true?’ colliding with ‘Was someone offended?’

“Keep your words away! Then stop with the words!” a female student interjects. Another student adds, “Your intent, if it affects people, you just shouldn’t say anything at all.”

The male student asks, “Why can’t you?  Why didn’t you not just shut the f**k up?” But remember, there’s no “silencing aspect” to this mob.

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Stick through all of that and you’ll get to the student shouting, “You need to stop demanding that everybody use logic and reasons and white forms of knowledge to f**king prove yourself to the world.”

I’m certain that this argument is not winning over a world full of black engineers and scientists, but I worry that this nonsense is winning over a lot of college students who don’t yet know enough to realize how silly it sounds.

Here’s episode eight:

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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