In the right corner wearing the red trunks we have Q’Anon Theory. Enjoying 12 wins and 38 losses, Q’Anon is trying to make a comeback. In the left corner, wearing the black trunks, we have the opponent, the much misunderstood and maligned challenger Critical Race Theory. Critical Race 
Theory (CRT) comes into this match sporting a record of 25 wins and 25 losses. Both opponents have lost matches to Trickle Down Theory and the Birther Theory. The winner of this match will face the reigning champion, The Theory of the Big Steal.
This match will be judged by a panel of three judges. One from the right, one from the left and one dead center. They will use the “Rules of Scientific Procedures” to judge the match. The match will be scored on six criteria. The contestants will receive one point for a victory on each criteria. In the event of a tie, there will be a sudden death criteria to determine the winner.
The six criteria are:
The testability of the theory’s major tenets- The predictive power of the theory’s major hypothesis
- The theory is empirically based
- The theory is concise, coherent, systematic, and broadly applicable
- The theory has the ability to explain the aspects of a specific area of inquiry
- The theory has the ability to describe the causes of a particular phenomenon
- Testability of Theory Tenets:
A theory may propose various tenets. That is the theory will assert specific things that belong with the theory. For instance Q’Anon Theory proposes that a group of Democratic politicians who are pedophiles meet regularly in the basement of a pizza parlor in D.C. to plot nefarious schemes for taking over the world. One of the major tenets of CRT is the notion that racism is ordinary and not aberrational. To measure the Q’Anon Theory all we would have to do is find a pizza parlor in D.C. where a number of pedophiliac Democratic politicians meet. This would be an easy tenet to test since the number of good pizza parlors in D.C. can be counted on one hand.
The tenet from CRT that racism is ordinary and not aberrational seems to me to be more difficult to prove. Indeed since most White people would say that they are not racist, I do not know how you could prove this tenet.
The judges score it 2-1 for Q’Anon Theory.
That makes it 1-0 for Q’Anon Theory.
- The Predictive Power of the Major Hypothesis:
A key prediction of Q’Anon Theory is that Donald Trump would institute a series of mass arrests to break up the group of pedophiles and send them all to prison before they could destroy the world. This prediction has not come true yet, but it still remains a powerful possibility given his favored son status among many in America. No doubt if Trump gets reelected we are going to see a purge of his opponents that makes Stalin look like Mother Teresa.
A key prediction of CRT is that by confronting the beliefs and practices that enable racism to persist while simultaneously challenging these practices we will be able to eliminate systemic racism.
My opinion is that Trump will have a good possibility of getting reelected and I am certain that if he does, heads will roll, and it will be the end of democracy as we know it in the USA. They will continue to call it a democracy but with Trump knighted as President for life and most of his opponents in jail, it will not be the democracy that many people now believe in. As for the CRT hypothesis, I don’t think that we will ever eliminate personal racism and as long as we have personal racism, we will have systemic racism.
The judges again score it 2-1 for Q’Anon Theory.
That makes it 2-0 for Q’Anon Theory versus CRT.
3. The Theory is Empirically Based:
A theory that is empirically based is one that is based on facts and data rather than opinions and emotions. There is a lot of emotions on both sides here. Everyone knows how emotional the right-wing faction of white supremacists are. This side is full of hate loathing and hostility towards all things not white. Equally emotional have been the Black Lives Matter protestors who have engaged in numerous protest marches over the deaths of numerous Black males by police officers. I think the judges will find it hard to give either side a point on this criteria.
Unbelievable, the judges give both sides a point on this one.
That makes the score 3-1 for Q’Anon Theory.
- The Theory is Concise, Coherent, Systematic, and Broadly Applicable:
No contest here I am afraid. CRT theory is anything but concise, coherent, or systematic. As for broadly applicable, it does apply to most white people, but the world is also full of non-white people. To illustrate what I am talking about, here is an excerpt from one of the leading textbooks on CRT.
“Our social world, with its rules, practices, and assignments of prestige and power, is not fixed; rather, we construct with it words, stories and silence. But we need not acquiesce in arrangements that are unfair and one-sided. By writing and speaking against them, we may hope to contribute to a better, fairer world” — Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic “Introduction to Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. 3rd Edition, 2013”
I read the above several times before I could decipher what they are trying to say. This is a big problem for the Left since they are too intellectual and academic. No one can understand what they are talking about. Now you take the right-wing supporters of Q’Anon, and you have a group that is not hard to understand. Here are some writings from Q’Anon theorists.
Eliminate all communists- Eliminate all socialists
- Eliminate all democrats
- Eliminate all liberals
- Eliminate all immigrants
- Eliminate all non-whites
- Eliminate all gays
- Get all women back in the kitchen
What could be easier to understand? Nothing circuitous or incoherent about these statements. I am going to have to say that Q’Anon theory has my vote here. It looks like the judges all agree.
It is unanimous, the judges give Q’Anon a point on this one.
That makes the score 4-1 for Q’Anon Theory.
Well, that’s it folks. Even if CRT took the next two points, it would still be Q’Anon Theory 4 and CRT 3. The winner is Q’Anon Theory.
Stay tuned for our next match when we will have Senator Rand Paul face off against Dr. Fauci to decide who should get any more Covid shots and if the new Omicron Variant is real or just fake.
I look out and see lawyers with Magna and Summa Cum Laude degrees from Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Brown, and other Ivy League Universities who can fashion legal arguments designed to circumvent and pervert any sane person’s idea of justice. They have corrupted our Criminal Justice System into a Criminal Injustice System. The winner in a court room is the one with the most money who can hire the best and brightest lawyers. An argument by one defense attorney claims that a self-styled vigilante shooting three unarmed people is a tragic case of self-defense. Another defense lawyer for three murdering racists suggests that the victim in the case was shot because he had come to Satilla Shores “in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails.”
I look out and see corporate executives who will ignore the danger posed to the environment and climate because they can make more money today than by creating a sustainable system. I see too many people willing to “shop till they drop.” A materialistic mentality that supports the greed endemic in Corporate America. A focus on short-term thinking that drains the earth of the resources it needs for sustainability in order to reap mega-profits today. The “hell with the future” is the motto of Corporate America.
Is there any meaning to what I am seeing? Am I just getting too old? Is my brain incapable of understanding things anymore? Journalists are murdered because they report the truth. Innocent people are slaughtered while they watch a Christmas parade. A pregnant woman is shot eleven times on her doorstep. Fifty or more people rob a series of stores in what the news calls “mass grab fests.” A six-year-old child is killed in a car seat by some maniac with road rage. There is no bottom to the bizarre. No one can imagine what the next day will bring. All attempts to discover what is causing these problems or how they can be stopped seem futile. They are meaningless crimes without rhyme or reason in a world that George Orwell would never have imagined possible. Up is down, right is wrong, facts and truth do not exist, everything is fake. There is no sanity.
This morning while doing a 4-mile run in the Casa Grande Mountains, I thought a lot about his advice. I realize that much of what I have said above could be considered a rant. I would like to think it was somewhat of a catharsis. Another friend told me yesterday that I sounded like a man in despair. I resonated with the word despair. I regard optimism as ideologically unsound given our present world. Many people have advised me to stay hopeful. There is a fine line between hopeful and optimism. I am not sure I can manage the divide. Despair on the other hand fits my mood just fine. Despair is defined as: “The complete loss or absence of hope.”
We have elected people that will support an insurrection against free and fair elections. The most important element of Democracy. People that prefer to ignore that on January 6th, we almost had a coup against democracy in America. On November 17th, we had these same people vote to ignore the censuring of one of their comrades who parodied the killing of an opposition opponent.
I look out my window and see a public school system that is being dismantled by racists, bigots, elitists, and sexists who do not want the schools to actually teach anything that might be construed as controversial. Two thousand five hundred years ago, Socrates was executed for trying to teach the children of the Athenian elite to think for themselves. Schools and educators are still being attacked for trying to teach children to think. How can our future generations create a better world when they are besieged with information that keeps them in a past that never existed and feeds them myths about the way the world works?
Will the USA survive? All great empires have eventually declined. It took 300 years for the Roman Empire to fall after it began its decline. We are witnessing the decline of the American Empire. How long will it take to fall is well beyond my ability to foresee. If history is any indication, it will take many years and the decline will be gradual but punctuated by episodes of tragedy and elation. The tragedies will far outnumber the elations. Study any system in decline and you can see the gradual disintegration that accompanies all declines. It is already clear that our Public Education, Political Systems and Legal Systems are in decline. Trying to stop the declines is futile. You cannot stop the decline of an old bridge or an old building. You must rebuild from the ground up. Sadly, I see neither the drive nor the desire to do the work that needs to be done to help restore democracy in America.
Aging Capriciously 