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Jan. 8, 2024 - Conspirituality
05:19
Bonus Sample: Chris Rufo Wants America to Return to 1776

Rightwing activist Chris Rufo recently led the charge in helping oust Claudine Gay from the Harvard presidency. While the charge is plagiarism—a charge Gay herself acknowledged—the reason for Rufo’s intense focus on her has little to do with academic pedigree. Rufo, a former vegetarian yogi, is leading the right-wing charge against DEI trainings, LGBTQ+ rights, and any mention of critical race theory. Rolling off his "victory" of Gay's resignation, he's published a blog post that he hopes will become the guiding manifesto for the "New Right." As Derek breaks down, this means returning America back to 1776 in many ways. Show Notes  The New Right Activism How We Squeezed Harvard to Push Claudine Gay Out Claudine Gay: my part in her downfall Bill Ackman’s wife is accused of plagiarizing part of her dissertation Contracts Between Hungarian Nonprofit and Christopher Rufo, Others, Raise Foreign Agent Concerns The Plagiarism War Has Begun A lesson in persuasion — Loretta Ross Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Right-wing activist Chris Ruffo recently led the charge in helping oust Claudine Gay from the Harvard presidency.
While the charge is plagiarism, a charge Gay herself acknowledged, the reason for Ruffo's intense focus on her has little to do with academic pedigree.
I'm not going to touch the charge of plagiarism in this episode, but I will link to an excellent article in The Atlantic by Game Desire Ian Bogost, who replicated the fact-checking process that Rufo and his cohorts likely used on his own academic publications, and showed the many problems that occurred in the process.
Now this isn't to excuse Gay, and the problem goes far beyond her.
I recently took a course on science writing via Stanford University, and the professor found that roughly 20% of published scientific studies exhibited plagiarism.
Now a few days after revelations about gays surfaced, it was discovered that Neri Oxman, who is the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, plagiarized part of her dissertation as well.
Now Oxman admitted her errors on Twitter, while her husband jumped out and said they were going after her because he had threatened to withhold donations to Harvard.
Okay, a lot going on here.
Rufo shared Ackman's praise of Rufo's own book the very same day and completely avoided any talk about Ackman's plagiarism.
He completely brushed them aside.
To make matters worse, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Rufo admitted that financial pressure via Ackman, along with political pressure from New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, were part of the reasons for Gaye's resignation, which was all in his playbook which he was admitting in real time.
And I'm not being hyperbolic.
So rolling off this successful ousting of Gay, Rufo published what he describes as a manifesto for the counter-revolution on the blog, which is actually titled I Am 1776.
Titled The New Right Activism, this blog post is going to be my focus today.
I'm Derek Barris and you're listening to a bonus episode of the Conspiratuality Podcast.
Now, let's dive into this piece of propaganda because it is quite something.
Let's begin with a little background.
Chris Rufo, if you haven't heard of him, well, congratulations, but we need to focus on this figure.
He actually fits perfectly into our demographic.
He is a well-known, at this point, right-wing activist.
He is responsible for bringing the charge against DEI trainings and critical race theory.
He regularly gives lectures on anti-LGBTQ propaganda.
But, according to a recent tweet, he also practiced yoga in India, was a vegetarian for 28 years, and directed films for PBS.
So, by his own telling, he was a leftist for a long time, or at least a liberal.
Now, he pegs himself as a disaffected liberal, and his more recent biography reflects his rightward pivot.
He's been a fellow at the Discovery Institute, which is a conservative think tank that preaches intelligent design.
You know, the Earth is 6,000 years old, that's them.
The Claremont Institute, which is another conservative organization whose members supported Trump's election fraud theory.
The Heritage Foundation, which we covered extensively on Thursday regarding their Project 2025 initiative, and I would say that Rufo and Heritage dovetail very Conveniently.
You also have the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, which sounds good, but this organization was formed in 2021 for the sole purpose of demonstrating against DEI programs and critical race theory.
Rufo's not shy about this topic.
Even overseas!
Last year, he was hired by a Hungarian government-funded conservative think tank to give two lectures on critical race theory and LGBTQ+, propaganda.
Now Hungry, that bastion of liberal democracy, used Rufo and a few other conservative activists to promote pro-family values in that extremely white nation.
And yes, I realize this area has produced my last name and my family lineage.
Now, of course, where you come from doesn't have to reflect where you're going, which is effectively the stance I'm taking today and in my lifetime.
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