The Rise of the Second-string Left

If a recent Scientific American opinion piece purporting to explain how growing opposition to critical race theory damages public education reveals anything, it is that the real problem with today’s left goes much deeper than its progressive ideology. The co-authors assert that resistance to CRT is based on white supremacy, a refusal to acknowledge history, a rebirth of ‘50s-style anti-communism, and the conservative desire to harden racial divisions. These stunning inaccuracies raise questions not just about the validity of their argument but the competence of the supposed experts making it.

While American news outlets — as well as universities, museums, non-profits, federal government agencies, and most other cultural institutions — have often leaned left, there was a time when the views they advanced were at least well-documented and even thought-provoking. It wasn’t that long ago when readers across the political spectrum looked forward to the latest articles by John Kenneth Galbraith, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and Norman Mailer.

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