Tea at Trianon: DEI is DEAD

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, August 10, 2025

DEI is DEAD

From Overton:

In Hanson’s view, DEI is nothing more than legalized discrimination, where skin color [not ability] determines who gets hired, promoted, or tenured.
And opposition to it isn’t only coming from one group.
“When you look at the polls, it’s not just that 60% of so-called White people who often feel they’re victimized by DEI oppose it, but Hispanics and Blacks also poll that they are against it and that’s baffled people.”
It’s not baffling at all, he said, when you think about it.
Many minorities don’t want the stigma of being labeled a “DEI hire” when they’ve earned a job through merit and hard work.
Hanson then went on to masterfully break down the three reasons he believes DEI is IMPLODING...and why Trump will emerge victorious in the fight to abolish it.
The first reason, he said, is historical distance.
DEI grew out of affirmative action in 1965, which was meant to address the Jim Crow South and the legacy of slavery.
At the time, America was about 89% white and 11% Black, and African Americans, on average, were far poorer than whites.
The thinking was to boost opportunities based on skin color, even if that meant implementing quota-like systems.
But, Hanson as pointed out, that was three generations ago.
“First of all, from 1965—if you think about it, we're 35 years in the 20th century and 25 in the 21st. We're 60 years behind that.”
“We’ve had three generations who grew up without Jim Crow and no knowledge of systemic racism, essentially.”
Today, he said, young Americans haven’t lived through the era DEI was meant to address. (Read more.)