Modern woke liberals have one defining superpower: the ability to defend the indefensible while remaining smug. That quality poses an obstacle to communication, for they invariably presume the worst of us and the best of themselves.
Of course, that type existed long before anyone called it “woke.”
Recall, for instance, an uncomfortably familiar scene from the 1976 movie “The Enforcer,” part of the “Dirty Harry” film series, in which the title character, “Dirty” Harry Callahan, an old-school police inspector played by legendary actor Clint Eastwood, delivered a brutal takedown of what modern Americans now recognize as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies.
The scene in question involved an oral examination for police officers seeking promotion to the rank of inspector. Callahan reluctantly functioned as one of the three examiners.
The first hint of modern relevance and resonance came when Callahan learned to his apparent dismay that eight of the 50 soon-to-be interviewed candidates would receive promotion: five men and three women.
Then, the second hint came with the appearance at the interview table of a female bureaucrat from the mayor’s office. One of Callahan’s colleagues introduced her as “Ms. Gray.” Smugness oozed from Ms. Gray’s pores as she eyed the old-school Callahan with disapproval and suspicion.
“It is the mayor’s intention,” the bureaucrat declared, “that this department be brought more into line with the mainstream of 20th-century thought.”
“Just how does he figure to do that, Mrs. Gray?” Callahan asked, no doubt tweaking “Ms.” Gray with that address.
“Well, for one thing,” she replied, taking note of the “Mrs. Gray” remark, “his honor intends to broaden the areas of participation for women in the police force.”
Do we need more Dirty Harrys and fewer liberal bureaucrats in today’s police departments?
“Well, that sounds very stylish,” Callahan sneered.
“I think,” the bureaucrat added, removing her glasses for effect, “he also said something about winnowing the Neanderthals out of the department.”
After that uncomfortable exchange, the three interviewers got on with the business of examining candidates.
The first to appear was young Officer Kate Moore, played by actress Tyne Daly of “Cagney & Lacey” fame. It turned out that Moore had served on the force for nine years, albeit in the personnel and records department.
Callahan lowered his head as if he wanted to jam his pencil through it in frustration.
When his colleagues asked him if he had any questions for the applicant, the disgusted Callahan inquired about supremely practical considerations such as her foot speed and the number of arrests she had made. Obviously, working in personnel and records, she had no arrests to her credit.
In a significant-yet-oft-overlooked detail, Officer Moore even lowered her head as if ashamed when forced to respond that she had never even made a misdemeanor arrest.
In other words, even DEI’s beneficiaries often feel unworthy of their identity-based gains.
Meanwhile, Callahan had risen from his seat in rather dramatic fashion, poised to pounce on the unqualified candidate.
“Then what the hell gives you the right to become an inspector when there’s men that have been out on the street for ten or 15 years?” he asked in a tone of indignation as he approached Moore directly.
“The woman’s place is in the home; is that what you’re trying to say?” the bureaucrat interjected.
Of course, Callahan had said no such thing.
“What do you think this is, some kind of encounter group?” Callahan snarled at the bureaucrat. “I want to know what Officer Moore is gonna do when somebody points a gun at her and says ‘Hit the deck, you son-of-a-b****!’”
“You’re just deliberately trying to fail this candidate, aren’t you, Callahan?” the smug bureaucrat insisted.
“Well, if she fails out there,” the veteran inspector replied, “she gets her a** blown off.”
“It’s my a**,” Moore responded.
“Except that out there you’re gonna have a partner,” Callahan continued. “And if you get blown away, he gets blown away with you. And that’s a helluva price to pay for being stylish.”
WARNING: The following video contains mild vulgar language that some may find offensive.
After watching this nearly half-century-old movie scene, one depressing thought stands out above all others.
In short, how long have we had to endure this painful inability to communicate with self-righteous liberals?
Of course, Officer Moore deserved a shot. No decent person would relegate her to desk work forever simply because of her sex. If she could do a different job, then she should have a chance to do it.
The problem begins when liberals insist that she deserves the job because of her sex. Then, when you inquire about her actual qualifications, they immediately and without evidence assign you nefarious motives.
“A woman belongs in the home, right?”
“No. I never said that.”
“But you meant that, didn’t you, you Neanderthal?”
Legendary Christian author C.S. Lewis called this annoying and subtly tyrannical phenomenon “Bulverism.”
“Some day,” Lewis wrote in 1941, “I am going the write the biography of its imaginary inventor, Ezekiel Bulver, whose destiny was determined at the age of five when he heard his mother say to his father — who had been maintaining that two sides of a triangle were together greater than the third — ‘Oh, you say that because you are a man.’”
Alas, as “Dirty Harry” demonstrated, the Bulverism at the core of wokeness has plagued us for decades.
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