UNDERMINE THEM WITH MOCKERY.

One of the Smithsonian museums posted a silly graphic purporting to identify the elements of "White culture."  They got hammered for it, and they've taken it down.  The image exists in lots of other places, should you want to find it.  As far as I know, nobody broke any windows, tore down any statues, or called for any curators to be fired.  "We have listened to public sentiment and have removed a chart that does not contribute to the productive discussion we had intended."

As far as that "dialogue and discussion" the curators would like to encourage, perhaps they will be receptive to a few reasoned arguments.  Some of the notions the now removed graphic push about identifying features of "whiteness" have long standing among the identity politics vanguardists; there's a passage in Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education where he's asking students to identify elements of "white culture" and when somebody suggests something resembling awareness of consequences he responds "not in my experience."  More to the point though is Mitch "Shot in the Dark" Berg's observation,

These are traits of Western Civilization – which sprouted in the West, which happens to have been almost entirely white until a few hundred years ago, but could hypothetically have happened anywhere the ideals of individual worth and the value of the individual’s work have caught on. For all the left’s yapping about “historical accidents” and “lotteries of history”, this was the ultimate one, in human terms.

It's like every other evolutionary process: there's mutation, selection, and adaptation, and people who figured out how to balance deferring gratification with not starving, and looking for cause and effect, secured evolutionary advantages over those who did not.  (That's not always easy.)  We've seen enough of the wokesters' strong men in the past couple of months that I'd just as soon not be subjected to their rule.

Likewise, Rush Limbaugh demonstrated once again that simply saying what people in his audience intuited to be true was why his show has been on the air for thirty years.

As I say, these are not white values. They are normal human values. They are the values of Western civilization. They are the values of time-honored decades and millennia of human behavior, the result of the attempt to find a way to live harmoniously, productively, successfully, and happily. That’s what these values are. They are not exclusive to any race. They are exclusive to Western civilization and anti-communism. They are exclusive to societies who wish to be free.

And I am so sick of this stuff being demonized. So let me just start with the list. Some aspects and assumptions of white culture in the U.S. that you are to oppose and be wary of: Rugged individualism, self-reliance. In white America, individual is the primary unit. Independence and autonomy are highly valued and rewarded. Individuals are assumed to be in control of their environment, which leads to you get what you deserve.

Those four things under the topic rugged individualism are opposed by Marxists, communists, and Democrats, and they are considered a threat. Another aspect of white culture and behavior is competition. And if there is anything the left despises, it’s competition, ’cause competition leads to losers. Competition leads to sadness. Competition leads to disappointment. Competition leads to winners. Competition leads to differences. Competition leads to all kinds of sadness and disappointment.

In white culture in the United States, you are to be number one. You are to win at all costs. You are to master and control nature. You must always do something about a situation. You can’t just sit there and do nothing. You have to do something. This is a threat. Decision-making. You are told to make decisions. This is threatening. This is something that’s exclusive to white culture, is decision-making?

Yes, there's a lot of Rush being Rush in there, and yet, he gets to the political economy lesson eventually.

This is the result of human beings living in freedom for a long time and deciding what values and behavioral norms lead to the most productive, the most happy, the most content, the most worthwhile life. The best way to raise kids. These are not things that some single person decided and forced on everybody. This is what society and culture discovered itself living in freedom.

Emergence is messier than that, and yet, his argument is not wrong in the large.

It's enough to make Rod Dreher angry.

I can’t get over this. If you assume that everything these curators say below is true, then you can explain a great deal of the chronic problems within black America. What kind of neighborhood would you expect to have if most of the people in it devalued hard work, rejected the idea that they needed to be on time, refused to defer gratification, did not respect authority, sought out conflict, laughed at politeness, rejected the traditional family model, and so forth? You’d have communities that were beset by crime and generational poverty, without the cultural tools to overcome the chaos. There are plenty of white people in this country who live by similar rules — and they’re chronically poor too.

You can claim the institutions are social constructions, but social construction ought be purposeful, and ineffective constructions ought fall down.  Is that too adult a concept for the people at the Smithsonian?