Taking the Right Seriously
12th September 2009
This month the University of California at Berkeley opened a Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements. The center is housed in the Institute for the Study of Social Change, which the university advertises online as an institution placing “issues of race, gender, and class at the center of the agenda,” conducting “research with a conscience,” and capitalizing on “Berkeley’s history as the birthplace of transformative social movements.” Needless to say, the center is not promoting conservatism. This is, as the university reminds us, Berkeley.
Ponder the fact that nobody anywhere is establishing a Center for the Comparative Study of Left Wing Movements.
Ponder further the undoubted truth that the establishment of any such Center would trigger a firestorm of condemnation, with “McCarthyism” being the mildest of the epithets employed.
Ponder further the existence of institutions such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, which allegedly tracks “hate groups” (not something you could figure out from its name), all of whom are — what a coincidence! — “right wing”.
Ponder finally that this is being done at the expense of the taxpayers of California, whom (judging from the news) one would think had better things to do with the money.
Feel free to weep for America.