It's true in the following instances: Guam The Phillipines Puerto Rico That said, it obviously wasn't true of Iraq, and I'm sure that there were other shady invasions as well.
Calling America "white supremacist" and a "patriarchy" is silly, but the "imperialist" part is spot-on, even if our form of imperialism doesn't precisely mirror those of past empires. Read John Perkins' _Confessions of an Economic Hit Man_ for a first-hand account of how imperialism is performed by our country.
LOL, no. You're completely wrong about that. There is no oil in Afghanistan. The US wanted to give the USSR "their own Vietnam". "funded the Mujahedin and their Shia Law" Are you really this ignorant? The Mujahideen which the US backed were SUNNIS, not Shia. "created Al-Qaeda by funding Bin Laden during the Cold-war." Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Al Qaeda was created with Bin Laden's OWN money, when the Soviets were already retreating from Afghanistan.
I think she is debating whether or not the US acts imperialistic, as compared to empires of the past, as opposed to debating whether or not America could be considered an empire. I disagree with her though, "spreading democracy" comes dangerously close to "installing puppets" 9/10 times.
Despite her reputation, Rome did only defensive wars, Yes, some of them where not really, , but most where actually to defend its existing land. That is a big reason as to why it remained for over a millenia. (Byzantium is Romans, historians just call the differently because they where Christian)
The US has created a warfare state which breeds continued resentment abroad, increasing terrorism and violence. It's also a huge revenue source for wealthy and well-connected warmongers. Their war projects funnel money to corporations, who then lobby the government in favour of the warfare state.
@@carolynscott9007 yes, he warned us about it. I do think that the military industrial complex has way too much influence in our foreign policy, it worries me when politicians seem to want to escalate tensions with places like Iran. How many citizens really want to go war with Iran or stay involved in the Middle East? Have to catch myself before I go off on a rant...
We witnessed increase in use of racist imagery and rhetoric against Arab people by politicians, the media, and everyday people in the US since 2001, and you still think racism isn't wielded for the purpose of justifying imperialism???? The impact of those policies on the minds of people living within the imperialist countries??
GIVE ME DA BOOTY!!! Hey, we could run her as the first female president and get all the Hillary voters with that and most of the sane Trump voters for her politics (I'm not going to deny that not all Trump voters were sane)
The ironic thing is that, while the US government is not imperialistic, our military interventions overseas is often used to advance corporate, rather than state, power. That's ironic because diversity, inclusion, and multiculturalism is _corporate_ policy as much as it is social justice policy. Identity politics _is_ imperialism.
I love her statement of how tolerant a society they are (except if you are poor, colored, female). The USA can't be that good of a fighting nation when you consider just how long they have been combating their internal imperfections. She does have a great spin on the facts, though. I think it is referred to as "toeing the corporate line."
She is knowledgable but most importantly honest and I think that's why she is liked even among people who don't associate themselves with modern 3rd wave feminist movements.
This was the first time I've heard Christina make an argument that wasn't based on logic or evidence. Her argument against the idea that America is an imperialist power is so terrible it's making me think I need to go back and re-listen to her other videos, which I liked very much. Denying that America is an imperialist power and that this has had devastating effects throughout the world is motivated by patriotism, not logic or evidence. There is nothing 'factual' about it.
Would you like to live in Russia then or any of the 50 odd countries that Russia has succeeded in pushing their totalitarian agenda from Eastern Europe to the Far East over the past 100 years ! America has never killed over 300 million people in an attempt to promote democracy. Wake up and smell the roses 🥀
I think there are factual arguments to be made on both sides of the idea of America being strictly imperialist, one of those arguments against being that the wars it wages are frequently incredibly costly in people and resources. But there's also no denying that the united states will often overthrow democratically elected leaders and support rebel groups who defend the interests of the united states in another country, and you'd have to be naive to the the U.S. only ever does this to spread freedom and not for economic or political gain. I'm not sure why she didn't make it more clear in this video that there are strong arguments for the existence of u.s. imperialism, but I think she also stated a very good counter-argument.
I went to a college graduation last week where a speaker proudly announced that 65% of the graduates were female, the room filled with applause, but I couldn't clap. A quit bit of math told me that only 35% of graduates were male. So, apparently the largest state university in my state graduating 2 females for every 1 male is a cause for applause, I'd have thought the goal for our largest university would have been more balanced than twice as many females graduating than males.
Feminism and the changes it brings are not now, nor have ever been, about equality between the sexes. They have always been about some women claiming (with no effort) the advantages that men have created, through men's hard work. You can claim that there is a patriarchy, because those who have the gold, make the rules. Men have made the rules because men have gone out and done the work. War, construction, invention and innovation through hard work. The question will be (hopefully in the short term future) "What have women ever really done, against the achievements of men throughout history"? Precious little, upon scrutiny.
She seems very rational in her reasoning, but the moment she called the US a democracy and denied how imperialist it was, she came off as a lot less credible.
This is the only episode I've seen in this series (so far) that I haven't agreed with... and I'm just now getting caught by binging on dozens of them. To argue that we're not imperialist or white (Christian) supremacist betrays ignorance of our sociopolitical past and foreign policy. For white supremacy, they should have not just looked at Jim Crow laws in the south, but racial redlining in the liberal north and the broad adoption of white Christian nationalism in the years leading up to WWII. Eugenics was widely embraced in the U.S. leading up to the rise of Nazi Germany, and both liberals and conservatives embraced it enthusiastically. Even 1st-wave feminism was blatantly racist by mistreating and silencing black women. In regard to imperialism, our long record in Latin America, Africa, and South East Asia tells a very different story. In Latin America, Smedley Butler and others like him undermined liberal democracies for U.S. corporate interests during the early 20th century and earlier. In Chile, the CIA worked with former Nazi's and trained Pinochet's supporters to torture leftists for identical reasons. During the Congo Crisis, Belgium and the CIA facilitated the assassination of a democratically elected leader and helped a secessionist in Katanga destabilize the region for their mining interests. (Belgium and the CIA also assassinated the UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, by shooting down his plane during the crisis.) And the list could go on and on... As for praising capitalism, that's misleading, too. Once again, our foreign policy has had a role, not just in our "success," but also in the failure of other governments. Generally speaking, if the U.S. (and Europe) don't like it, we sabotage it and slap sanctions on it. And then we wash our hands by launching propaganda wars. As for the situation back home, capitalism has given us inhumane levels of inequality. And as for the argument that "we have it better than anyone else" ... that's because we're pillaging the rest of the world to sustain our low prices and high standards of living. If our country and its businesses + consumers paid for what goods and labor are worth, we'd be a poor country, too. I only agree with the part about patriarchy, though it should be noted that the U.S. was a patriarchy up until about 60 to 70 years ago. Was it woman-hating and violently oppressive to women before then? No. Women were generally protected and sheltered under our laws, allowed to live quiet lives raising families without the fear of being dragged off to war or having to work dangerous jobs. (And most jobs back then were dangerous.) In the numerous instances when that was not that case, it was due to poverty, not gender, so the disadvantage would have been felt by their husbands, too.
I have finally come across a video where I disagree with you. Yes, at least for us in the "Third World" without doubt the US is both imperialist and capitalist, if we are to take the Leninist definition of imperialism as outlined in "Imperialism - the Highest Stage of Capitalism". Lenin was saying that imperialism is capitalism on steroids. This shouldn't be confused with colonialism, although the terms are often used interchangeably. Lenin describes imperialism as a system in which finance capital and the imperialist state become dominant over industrial capital and they control the world economy, dividing the world into economic spheres of influence which they control. They hold back the economies of developing countries and keep them poor inorder to maintain a monopoly on the international markets. Good examples of this is the Structural Adjustment programs imposed on many countries by the US government, the IMF and World Bank. The Petrodollar is another tool the US uses to maintain a monopoly on the oil markets. The claim that the US uses its power as a great benefactor to the world is a CIA/State Department talking point and baseless propaganda. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny. MLK stated that the US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. It is even more true today than it was during his time. The US supports some of the most vicious dictatorships if they fall in line with its imperialist agenda eg Saudi Arabia. By this definition of imperialism Russia and China are not imperialist countries though they can be called colonialist.
Dear Ms. Sommers, I am so happy I found you! You are a breath of fresh air to the debate. Whenever I need sane insight on the topic of Feminism, I make you my first stop. Your insight on US imperialism is unfortunately less impressive, pretty much disastrous if you don't mind me saying. When you tried to explain it away with Nial Fergusson, the first thing that came to mind was "tragically misinformed or delusional". If it's the former, may I suggest that you read more, MUCH more before you touch that one again?
hey now, they have a bi-partisan network for that reason, bouncing between 2 extremes is like having scalping hot water, then ice water, repeat and never get it right, they never have a confluence of ideas, they train people to think that a person is unreliable if they change their minds, even if singing the same da,m song 10yrs, 29yrs, 30yrs later..... one thing that's retarded is saying "first female american president.: yea, ok, there's 4 of them right now, with Grenada's being a Commissioner General, same role as a head of state,. USA = not america... Mexico + Brazil = already over the US population... and me, i;m half native, and have a birth mother you dpont want to get me started on that... but...Unless of course not forget help the North American’s Fight against what is still being perpetuated against them their deaths are not even reported.. Truck took a benefits for Native Americans that did things like take allotments of firewood from elderly people that use that would to stay warm during the cold months because central air and heating?? Yea right, go on the reservation and you'll see that the Notions that the Native Americans are living it up with Casino money is just a bunch of b******* running around and have less than children in Tijuana You don't even get actual regular benefits if you need financial aid you get TANF, and jack shit.. all of the European varieties of snakes have triangular house they came in not identified as Americans we should have spot them in as Vipers, the they Are calling themselves Americans kinda like how a coral snake does not have a triangular head they put up there trying to put a coral snake also does not have the heat sensing capability and just like the modern-day US citizen does not have the ability to love.. They already don't think enough or feel enough but they'll go drink poison themselves to think less and feel less about their problems.
Each argument made is conveniently simplistic in its understanding of each term, and devoid of historical context. As nearly always, understanding and truth are better found in shades of gray
Sorry but we do colonize other countries and we still colonize the indigenous people on this continent!!!!.. Your perspective is that of a sheltered, privileged white person and sadly it's hard for you to see the ways in which we harm other nations and the way we harm our own people by not recognizing the diversity and autonomy of our people. It's sad that people who have more power socially do not always have the awareness to be able to see beyond their own stations in life. . America still uses oppression in the form of implicit bias, and many other ways to oppress people systemically. It's sad when people who have limited viewpoints get to share them publicly as if they actually have any type of knowledge or authority.
I think Dr. Sommers may be confusing Imperialism with Colonialism early in the video. Not directly administrating/managing another geopolitical entity doesn't mean you're not engaging in Imperialism; it means that you're not necessarily colonizing them.
I genuinely like Hoff Sommers' work on boys' failing education achievements, but when it comes to stuff like this she's awful. Her argument against the claims above follow a certain blueprint 1. Bell Hooks call America X (fill in imperialist, white-supremacist, etc) 2. (Implicit) America can either be completely X or not X at all 3. Compared to this other place, America is less X 4. Therefore America is not X at all If we're being sympathetic to Bell Hooks and the left generally, the purpose of their analyses is to show that certain patterns of inequality and domination exist and can be pointed out. To call America a "patriarchy" isn't to stupidly claim that every single woman is oppressed by some man, but rather that statistically and symbolically a certain group is being treated unfairly. We don't have to agree with this claim, and since it's typically a complex claim about all sorts of different aspects (eg: domestic violence, income inequality, reproductive rights, etc), we can even disagree with some and accept some. We can provide alternative statistics, or give competing explanations for some of the claimed oppressive phenomena. But what we really shouldn't do is superficial engagement like in the video and pretend like some substantive refutation has taken place. Are there dumb arguments on the left? Sure! But destroying those hardly means the left is wrong. And if nothing substantive can be done in a small video, then don't do a video at all. And just some specific issues with other details -Why would the fact that America claiming to be for democracy mean they can't be imperialistic? Have we forgotten Iraq fought over "democratic values" based on false information? - Hillary might have won the popular vote, but until there has been 1 non-white president and no female president yet. Maybe, maybe racism and sexism hasn't completely been vanquished and still crops up from time to time, and theorists are using terms like "white-supremacist" and "sexist" to indicate this. - Asians who go to the US tend to be highly-educated immigrants, so its not surprising they skew the stats. It's far more instructive to look at long-residing populations like whites, blacks, and native Americans and the differences are huge. Of course, even here, there's are variations based on class and urban/rural, and Hoff Sommers is right to point out (as she does elsewhere) that men pool in the bottom of the economic hierarchy as well. But again, that means actual engagement, instead of the ridiculous "analysis" in this video.
The imperialist adjective is true. The soviets also said that they invaded for defensive purposes. What about the attempted invasion of Cuba: "Bahia de cochinos", the invasion of Hawai, in which the US took power with a coup d'etat. The invasion of Puerto Rico... This woman is either purposely misleading or senile.
Exactly, the idea that a country can be excused of the title of "imperialist" because they claim their intentions are good, no matter how much carnage they cause is the line of every empire that ever existed, including the ones she sees as barbaric now.
After stumbling across you from your work with Milo I have to say I have become one of your biggest fans. I saw the name previously but I have to say the "Feminist" part of your channel name scared me off. But no, you are absolutely on point with just about everything you say. You put in the work, you come to accurate conclusions, and your previous work for womens rights invalidates the claim that you are in any way working for patriarchy or any of the other crazy claims they like to make. I am an absolutely huge fan of your work and all I can say is thank you. As a female scientist I have seen first hand the advantages we gain in the STEM world, I can understand the papers written and any flaws contained, and I stand as someone doing science rather than a gender studies graduate complaining that women are underrepresented in subjects whilst being too lazy to take them. I don't have the patience to explain the errors to SJWs, nor the effort to properly look into every single claim I see and thats where I find your work brilliant. I simply can't say it enough, thank you in so many ways.
"am i missing something here," asks the white lady born in a city which has an above average median income yeah, maybe bell hooks, a black woman who was born in a working class family from a city with below average median income who went to a segregated school would have a different perspective from you. you have a phd, lady. youre qualified to think these things through
You're exactly what all feminists should be like... strong, successful, logical and reasonable (and, can I flirt a second... you're very Beautiful); all without blaming life's obstacles on others. If feminists were all like you, maybe we, as a society, could focus on actual problems facing the REAL world (like poverty, the crappy educational system and human rights... here and in other countries)... not living in "safe spaces" and seeing everything through narrow windows, smeared, blood red, with Man-Hating, Regression, Reverse Discrimination, Marxism and Anarchy.
I would actually like to see AEI do more content on Capitalist vs Socialist vs Communist economies and their strengths and weaknesses and why they all might or have eventually failed.
Really liked the video, but 2 claim what we did with Germany, Japan, Iraq, Vietnam, etc was outof the kindess of our collective hearts is not accurate. We had no need 2 plunder these countries because we loaded them down in US denominated debt for the rebuild of their country. I am NOT saying this is the only reason we did what we did but to act like it did not play a part is disingenuous.
I vaguely recall a statement from an Englishman (I want to say Churchill, but that's probably because he's just the default guy for statements like these). "Americans are the worst imperialists. English soldiers fight for England! American soldiers fight to go home!" Back in the days of preparing for the Iraq War, one of the things that really spurred me on was the idea of liberating the Iraqi people from a dictator. "We will be welcomed as liberators". I thought to myself that even if there weren't weapons of mass destruction, then that alone would have been a worthy cause. Of course, it turned out to be a huge failure. No weapons, and post Saddam Iraq isn't really all that better. But what kind of lousy imperialists rile it's citizens up by saying "We're going to free these people, and let them run their own society!" Sure, we'd get some benefits back by having a close ally in the middle east if that worked out, but that's no more imperialistic than when we went into Europe during WW2. I think it says something about American 'imperialism' that we have basically never done it, at least not once we settled the land. Our ancestors treatment of native americans was bad, but after we conquered our own territory, we've shown no real desire of expansion. We've had plenty of opportunities, but to my knowledge, we never gained any territory from any war in the 20th century. Not to mention our massive army if fully capable of building us an empire if we so wished it, but we don't really use it for that. We could have built an empire after victorious wars in the past, and yet we haven't. We could do so now with our massive military, but we don't. Americans really are the worst imperialists. And that's a good thing.
Thank God! Finally an intelligent, educated Woman who is not afraid to call out and refute so many of the lies and whines of this new group of babies! I'm to am a strong, intelligent woman and mother to two more. They are both college age and the CRAP that they are fed by these sad excuse for feminists is almost overpowering! Fortunately, their father and I have always instilled in them the ideal that they can achieve their goals, not because they've been given an easier time because they're female and they deserve to be given preference for their gender, but because they're intelligent and if they're willing to do the hard work they'll be given the same opportunities as anyone else.
Matrox_the_56th our pledge of allegiance clearly states that America is a republic. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United states of America and to the republic for which it stands."
its coming down to semantics. democratic republic. i think your idea of democracy is more specifically a direct democracy. which none of significance exist to my knowledge.
Not a Direct Democracy but for sure a Representative Democracy (Representative Republic), but who cares what we call ourselves. It's more important on how we act as a country.
I just wanna say that in countries of Latin America the situation is really different and ,obviously, the perspective about what feminism should fight for are different to. For example: currently Argentina and Chile came together to fight against femicide (which are misnamed as "crimenes pasionales", translated as passionate crimes, this means that femicide are just seen like a homicide of jealousy ) and sexual harassment in the streets. Most of the feminism women of this two countries blame the patriarchy and capitalism of the standards of beauty and suppression. One of the things I must agree is the way you as a citizen of the United States see the history, in my country the United States are seen as a Imperialist country and I'm sure if you ask to any person between de ages of 17 to maybe 60 with enough knowledge of politics and history will say the same thing.
Brava Ms. Sommers. I have found more often than not, that while we may differ in problem solving approaches, most reasonable, intelligent people Left & Right, agree more often than not about ideas & principles, as long as we're willing to get past labels & discuss them openly & honestly. I have been a Tea Party activist for the last 8 years and Prof. Sommers a life long Liberal activist & advocate, yet we agree on this and many of the other topics she discusses. We shouldn't be so rigid our ideologies that we can't be open to new ideas if the facts lead us in new directions. Politicians get elected by pitting us against one another - and they're very good at it - which is why we see so much division & hatred in our society today. Don't fall for it
She's a legit old-school feminist. They (mostly) used logic and debate to achieve their goals. Unlike today's whiny-shaming-blaming-entitled-victim complex "feminists".
Third wave feminists, and similar, criticise the US and other Western countries because they not only have the freedom to do so without censure but can in fact make a lucrative career doing so.
You are so on the mark there mate. You don't see Western third wave feminists protesting genital mutilation of women in Africa. Does Gamergate ring a bell?
Imperialism is not just invading countries, it is about oppressing other countries financially, the invading part is just to ensure that a country is safe for capital expansion. But even if you just consider imperialism by being about invading or interfering in other countries, the US has done so much more interventions to destroy governments that opose US imperialism than the interventions by the Soviet Union (in fact you could count them and they would only be a little fraction of US interventions), and it wasn't to protect "democracy". This video is a lot of intersectional imperialism bs
This is a pretty awful rebuttal. There's a systematic problem here where the speaker is coming from a position where she wants to counter some of these claims out of hand, rather than analyze them. Yes, American is an imperialist power. The country was built on the principle of Manifest Destiny, that it was our divine right to expand across the continent. This came with wars in Mexico, modern Texas, and Hawaii, and of course, all at the expense of Native Americans. After that point, the US waged a short war and seized control of Puerto Rico and the Philippines from the Spanish. We still have Puerto Rico, along with many Pacific Island territories. The late 20th century saw the US engage in combat (or otherwise passively involved ourselves) in foreign nations in order secure favorable governments. South Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, among others. That is a form of imperialism, and it continues to this day with American interventionism in Iraq (for oil) and elsewhere. Saying that the US is NOT a white-supremacist nation because of a long tradition of protest against that white supremacy is absurd. This is like saying that a house does not have a mouse-infestation because all the mouse traps clearly have clearly successfully caught mice. The argument she SHOULD have made is one that examines what the goals of White Supremacy are. White Supremacy is the domination of white people at the expense and exclusion of other races. Here, you can make a critical argument and say that, while it is a fact that minorities face a wide array of issues that are built into the very fabric of American society, success is not necessarily excluded to minorities. President Obama is an example of this. While he had to be a better politician and campaigner in order to achieve success, he could, and did, end up winning the most important and influential governmental position in the country. The problem here, specifically, is supremacy. The speaker's willingness to embrace capitalism clearly ignores the fact that it is being used as a criticism in the phrase. Capitalism has, indeed, done some good. However, it is also a system that allows for the concentration of wealth with very few, leading to increasing issues of inequality. That same inequality is the source of a number of major issues in this country. Housing affordability, overwhelmed institutional support systems for the aging, political gridlock and legislative unresponsiveness, and even racism all stem, at least in part, to Capitalism. The line "are things perfect for women? No, but they are not perfect for men, either" is not a valid response to a charge of being a patriarchy. Just because men aren't super well off, doesn't mean that men don't have power and control over women. In terms of government and large business control, men clearly dominate, with the US FAR down the list in terms of female representation in Congress. However, she made a very good argument in pointing out education. Women do see more advancement in terms of education. Women are going to and completing college at a higher rate than men. Women are going to professional and graduate programs at a higher rate than men. And women are getting prestigious jobs in fields like medicine at a higher rate then men. A better argument would have highlighted these issues and pointed out that, while there are problems, most women see only a slightly lower rate of income and other obvious economic problems. Women in the working class may actually have better economic opportunities than men due to preferences and gender roles.
Adnan Ilyas Only thing I'd add to this great reply is that the american economy was built strong based on decades of slavery - practiced by white men who took black men from africa against their will.
clepirelli How is racism a capitalist issue? I'm going to very thorough, so bear with me. Ok, well capitalism is about maximizing profits for the benefit of the companies shareholders. When you sell something, there's two parts that go into calculating profits. There's the amount of money used to buy the good or service, and then there are the costs. Costs include the costs for workers. One way to reduce costs is to exploit workers. Make them work in worse conditions for lower pay, etc. Simple exploitation. A person who is purely rational and 100% capitalist will exploit their workers in order to make more money. This isn't necessarily going to be along racial lines. However, if you have a group of people who are systematically discriminated by society, you have an easy group to target for exploitation. So, companies hire people and, because of their race, exploit them. Where people get treated unfairly or worse than the dominant group, you have racism. Take for example how Latinos seem to dominate certain working-class jobs in the US, like construction workers and farm hands. That is because employers know that they can pay Latinos less to do the same work. That's an obvious example, but studies show that Blacks, Latinos, and even Asians are paid less than similarly skilled and educated white workers.
Reasonable as always. I think you're right on the US not being a white supremacist, racist, patriarchy. Where I'd disagree with you is on the US being imperialistic. The only US territory that wasn't conquered is the Louisiana purchase and Alaska. We insist on maintaining a strong military presence around the globe at all times to assert our dominance over every region we can. We regularly topple democratically elected governments in favor of dictatorships that better serve our own cooperatocracy. Every war we've been in since the Korean war has basically been imperialistic acts of aggression, with maybe the exception of Afghanistan. In the 20th and 21st centuries, we've abstained from directly claiming territory in favor of control via installing puppet states but we are definitely an empire.
I may not think highly of America but these claims are absurd. Using capitalist as a derogatory term is in line with the right wing using word socialist as one. It just indicates their extremely strong political bias, nothing more.
Sorry to say I only recently discovered Ms. Sommers online. But I watched the entire Joe Rogan podcast featuring her, and she came across as candid, classy, and incredibly rational--just like in this video. Wish there were more people like her in the public eye...
no one has ever been able to explain to me why the Electoral College is useful. I think you're down playing sexism and racism in this country. I understand though that this video is indeed about looking at the positive so things aren't all gloom and doom. you've opened my eyes to a lot of situations to see that yeah actually if you compare our country too places such as yes North Korea, there is a lot of good in America that is drowned out by the negative and we should still appreciate and be grateful for what we do have here. I just get a bit comfortable if I think people are making light of the things that are wrong, but so many people do just focus on the negative that we get into a hole thinking that there is no way out and that we are all oppressed constantly. I'll definitely be watching more of your videos, they make me think.
Truth and reason, it's like a breath of fresh air. It's like listening to the moral and intellectual clarity of Sam Harris. On a side note, her son in law has a philosophy podcast called "Very Bad Wizards." Check it out.
You are one of the only feminist that I respect to the upmost specially with third wave feminism being completely insane litigating double standards and hatred everywhere they go. And being the least tolerant of people I've never seen so much hatred from the group and stand up and say they are on the best side of humanity
Ms. Sommers, please forgive my simple and perhaps even crude statement, but I feel I simply must say... I sit in awe, with jaw agape, every time you open your mouth and truth pours out of it.
Just because one group out-performs another group it does not mean that the successful group oppressed the other group to get there. There are many explanations for why some groups out-perform other groups on certain metrics. The development of technology is one explanation to explain the economic divergence between Europe and other non-Western countries. It is known for example that the industrial revolution in Europe was driven by technology such as the steam engine.
This is a great video. I moved to United States from China in 2011. I have not seen a single person that is racist. I still hear people say racism is one of the biggest problem of the United States. Why people so concern about 0.00001% percent of people that are racist but ignore the rest 99.99999% percent that aren't.
Thank you for being a level headed and rational feminist, interested in the rights and values of genders and ethnic groups equally. Your use of facts and empirical evidence is great to see :)
Next questions: Who did capitalism liberate exactly? How? Where? When? How do those people's lives look like today? What are they living on? What race are they, gender, nationality? Where can I read about that? I'm genuinely interested. Intriguing, but very one-sided insight on money/capitalism/petrol dollar is provided by the book "Why The Rich Are Getting Richer". His first book was "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" (haven't read that one yet, but is supposed to be informative).
In the days of old, the electoral college made a lot of sense, just elect a couple people to go to DC to elect your president on your behalf. It does indeed create an error margin regarding the popular vote, and the actual results. However, when practically instantaneous communication throughout the country was not a thing, it was a very feasible way to still have elections. Nowadays, we have practically instantaneous communication around the world, and elections can be held easily. So I would say the error margin caused by the electoral college is not longer acceptable.
I'm a proud liberal. I also very much appreciate Ms. Sommers' non-partisan and sober assessments. We need far more thoughtful, respectful, and scholarly dialogue of the sort that she offers. While I've learned a great deal from her Factual Feminist critiques of modern feminism, I'd also really love to see her discuss what she sees as the important issues that feminists in the US might still productively focus on.
Good Stuff Dr. Sommers. If anything, I am a bit more critical of our overseas military policies than you! And I am a proud USN veteran, with service in a combat zone. Really liked what you said about academic historians way back in "Who Stole Feminism." This from a man who does traditional political/diplomatic/military history. Yours, Historian Dr. CHS (Same initials as you!)
I think that's something people have forgotten. The US is a land of opportunity. People that believe themselves to be oppressed will then ask "Where are my opportunities?" failing to realize that in order to find opportunity, one must go searching for it.
America is an empire, but the way in which it organizes itself is different. Empires are no longer politically-correct is the issue and therefore any empire has to be more subtle. This means having a secret government that monopolizes the critical power structures. Control a country's military, intelligence agencies, and its businesses, then you don't need to pick its de jure rulers. Yet, even so America still picks rulers from behind the scenes. Coups are just one of the more open ways of taking power. Democracies are very useful in this sense as all you need is a lot of money and media influence to put the people in power that you want in power. This is how America does it all over the world. Only when its usual method of subverting democracies fails does it opt for more messy options such as coups or invasions.
I disagree with her on America not being imperialists. We SAY we are spreading democracy and 'paving the way for the rule of law', but actually most of our wars have not been defensive, nor have they spread democracy--they have sowed the seeds of chaos.
Today in Australia. Melbourne and in fact the whole state of Victoria is set to get new pedestrian signals to reduce unconscious bias. The new lights look like Mary Poppins. Chief executive Martine Letts said that, "having only green or red silhouettes of men discriminates against women." "These symbols", she continues, "are a practical and meaningful way to demonstrate that in fact 50% of our population is female and should therefore be represented at traffic lights. They are ways that women are excluded from public space." Now I am not sure how many traffic lights there are in the state of Victoria but the plan is to replace 1/2 of them. At the cost of AU$8,400 for 6 (that's $1400 a piece) I would think there would be more meaningful and significant uses for that money that in fact do help to promote gender equality. This is just going to breed resentment of feminism I fear. Also, tomorrow, International Women's Day, the ABC (Australia's national broadcaster) will only have women on the air for both TV and radio. The reason - to promote gender equality. Hmmmm...
We are definitely imperialist, as the neoconservative/liberal rationale of trying to “make the world safe for democracy” has always been little more than a smokescreen to cover up our actual motivations that have been the same as every other empire throughout history. The rest of it, however…no. Not at all. We aren’t even truly capitalist: we are a mixed economy that incorporates many elements of socialism, which are currently bankrupting us and turning us into a third world nation. And unfortunately, neither of our two major political parties has any interest in reforming that.
One of those episodes where I remember KH Sommers is attached to the American Enterprise Institute. Oh well, I'll probably like the next episode again.
There was a study a few years ago from Princeton stating the USA was an oligarchy, which I'd go along with. Those families who are already wealthy have much greater advantages than those on median or below savings and income. Social mobility in the US, despite the rhetoric you hear about the American Dream, is relatively static compared to many other countries, including Scandinavian countries where there is a lot of state intervention to produce more equal life chances
Christina Hoff Summers you are rocking my socks once again with your factual but respectful take down of SJW claims. Please do continue to kick arse (that's british for ass)
So around about 1:15-1:18 She says "usually at great expense to us!" but the Subtitles say "Usually at great expense to the motherland!" if you pay attention it cuts to a picture and the audio rhythm is strange like they cut out Motherland and edited in "us". Pretty strange editorial decision.
If the DNC and leftists return to planet Earth, Ms. CH Sommers could really be a political force. A pro-America, classic liberal, mild mannered, morally centered, natural communicator, intelligent, non-rape apologist, etc, etc.. Every single woman in America would vote for her. Who knows what will happen between now and 2024, but her appeal is undeniable.
I disagree with most of the the arguments in this video and believe she is giving simplistic arguments to try to paint the image that she wants to believe.
I was just thinking about how you hadn't posted a video in awhile. It's nice to see, and your new set-up looks great. This is a great video, though. It is a starting point to open and honest discussion on these topics.
Mrs. Sommers you are a goddess of logic. You represent the kind of feminism that is needed. Not the blue haired shrieking harpies that the term has grown to represent today. Thank you for your work.
I think a really BIG problem with the white supremacist section is the inclusion of Abe Lincoln as an example for the abolishing of slavery. It didn't free all the slaves, and though Abe was against it, he still didn't think blacks should have the same rights as whites. He's a bad example. www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-lincoln-slavery-and-emancipation
I have to agree with the Sommers on white-supremacy and patriarchy because the majority of Americans are not white-supremacist and sexists morons and women in the US do hold power in politics and corporations. But the fact is the current US president empowers white-supremacists from his speeches, and extremely sexist does paint that picture for the US on the world stage even though the majority of Americans don't share those ideologies. However the US does have a bad reputation of overthrowing oppressive and non oppressive governments and paving the way for brutal dictatorships or imposing there own dictators, the best example of that I can think off is Cuba. So yes the US does come across as imperialistic to a lot of countries. Capitalism works when you have a stable economy, no working poor and public services that benefit the majority of people. However when things go wrong in the economy it takes a long time to correct as well as gives to much power to the wealthy. The US political system is damaged because of the money in politics. The two major parties in the US chooses candidates not just on similar ideologies but on how much money they bring into the party. But the major issues that the US has today is in infrastructure, healthcare, and poverty and militarizing law enforcement agencies.
Hah, I had to stop watching after: We had to invade for defensive reasons.
It's true in the following instances:
Guam
The Phillipines
Puerto Rico
That said, it obviously wasn't true of Iraq, and I'm sure that there were other shady invasions as well.
Same, and I've seen her speak on feminism and found her fascinating. I suppose no one calls everything right.
Are you justifying the Spanish American war and the colonialism after? GTFO.
Calling America "white supremacist" and a "patriarchy" is silly, but the "imperialist" part is spot-on, even if our form of imperialism doesn't precisely mirror those of past empires. Read John Perkins' _Confessions of an Economic Hit Man_ for a first-hand account of how imperialism is performed by our country.
QBG, can you elaborate?
well compared to historical imperialism, the US is very soft...
Really?
Most of the victims in the Middle East (not "murder", but collateral damage), are mostly because of terrorists and tyrants.
LOL, no. You're completely wrong about that. There is no oil in Afghanistan. The US wanted to give the USSR "their own Vietnam".
"funded the Mujahedin and their Shia Law"
Are you really this ignorant? The Mujahideen which the US backed were SUNNIS, not Shia.
"created Al-Qaeda by funding Bin Laden during the Cold-war."
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Al Qaeda was created with Bin Laden's OWN money, when the Soviets were already retreating from Afghanistan.
I think she is debating whether or not the US acts imperialistic, as compared to empires of the past, as opposed to debating whether or not America could be considered an empire.
I disagree with her though, "spreading democracy" comes dangerously close to "installing puppets" 9/10 times.
"When We invade.... it's defensive."
NATO is a bad idea now. Gotta go
Despite her reputation,
Rome did only defensive wars,
Yes, some of them where not really, , but most where actually to defend its existing land.
That is a big reason as to why it remained for over a millenia.
(Byzantium is Romans, historians just call the differently because they where Christian)
After the US Invaded… Did they colonize?
Colonizer is a pretty popular term.. I don’t remember many US Citizens moving after a “conquest”.
@@jocelynnowen3078Yes, Putin and Xi DEFINITELY agree..🙄
The only part she mess up on was about imperialism
moneymaker2dx
No, my apologies, not messed up. The United States has fought fewer wars of aggression than any similar superpower in history.
The US has created a warfare state which breeds continued resentment abroad, increasing terrorism and violence. It's also a huge revenue source for wealthy and well-connected warmongers. Their war projects funnel money to corporations, who then lobby the government in favour of the warfare state.
@@James-rv3yh Didn't Eisenhower call it the military industrial complex?
@@carolynscott9007 yes, he warned us about it. I do think that the military industrial complex has way too much influence in our foreign policy, it worries me when politicians seem to want to escalate tensions with places like Iran. How many citizens really want to go war with Iran or stay involved in the Middle East? Have to catch myself before I go off on a rant...
We witnessed increase in use of racist imagery and rhetoric against Arab people by politicians, the media, and everyday people in the US since 2001, and you still think racism isn't wielded for the purpose of justifying imperialism???? The impact of those policies on the minds of people living within the imperialist countries??
CHIRSTINA HOFF SOMMERS FOR PRESIDENT 2020!!!!
GIVE ME DA BOOTY!!! Hey, we could run her as the first female president and get all the Hillary voters with that and most of the sane Trump voters for her politics (I'm not going to deny that not all Trump voters were sane)
GIVE ME DA BOOTY!!! - Amen to that!!!
First female president indeed
For 2024 - Trump for 2020
Yes please! She has my vote :)
The ironic thing is that, while the US government is not imperialistic, our military interventions overseas is often used to advance corporate, rather than state, power.
That's ironic because diversity, inclusion, and multiculturalism is _corporate_ policy as much as it is social justice policy. Identity politics _is_ imperialism.
I love her statement of how tolerant a society they are (except if you are poor, colored, female). The USA can't be that good of a fighting nation when you consider just how long they have been combating their internal imperfections. She does have a great spin on the facts, though. I think it is referred to as "toeing the corporate line."
She is one of the best feminist I am aware of.
I also really like Camille Paglia. She's wacko but she's so real, a great thinker and plain honest.
Sweet Pee Escense I'm not too aware of her but I'll check her out. Thank you for helping me to expand my resources.
3maneqwerty1 This breed of feminism is going extinct sadly
She is knowledgable but most importantly honest and I think that's why she is liked even among people who don't associate themselves with modern 3rd wave feminist movements.
Neoliberal propaganda feminism?
Capitalist patriarchy? No. White-supremacist?..No. Imperialist?...Hell fucking yes.
This was the first time I've heard Christina make an argument that wasn't based on logic or evidence. Her argument against the idea that America is an imperialist power is so terrible it's making me think I need to go back and re-listen to her other videos, which I liked very much. Denying that America is an imperialist power and that this has had devastating effects throughout the world is motivated by patriotism, not logic or evidence. There is nothing 'factual' about it.
Thank you
Bingo....
Would you like to live in Russia then or any of the 50 odd countries that Russia has succeeded in pushing their totalitarian agenda from Eastern Europe to the Far East over the past 100 years ! America has never killed over 300 million people in an attempt to promote democracy. Wake up and smell the roses 🥀
No, she’s absolutely right. Spreading democracy is not a “devastating effect.”
I think there are factual arguments to be made on both sides of the idea of America being strictly imperialist, one of those arguments against being that the wars it wages are frequently incredibly costly in people and resources. But there's also no denying that the united states will often overthrow democratically elected leaders and support rebel groups who defend the interests of the united states in another country, and you'd have to be naive to the the U.S. only ever does this to spread freedom and not for economic or political gain. I'm not sure why she didn't make it more clear in this video that there are strong arguments for the existence of u.s. imperialism, but I think she also stated a very good counter-argument.
I went to a college graduation last week where a speaker proudly announced that 65% of the graduates were female, the room filled with applause, but I couldn't clap. A quit bit of math told me that only 35% of graduates were male. So, apparently the largest state university in my state graduating 2 females for every 1 male is a cause for applause, I'd have thought the goal for our largest university would have been more balanced than twice as many females graduating than males.
Feminism and the changes it brings are not now, nor have ever been, about equality between the sexes. They have always been about some women claiming (with no effort) the advantages that men have created, through men's hard work. You can claim that there is a patriarchy, because those who have the gold, make the rules. Men have made the rules because men have gone out and done the work. War, construction, invention and innovation through hard work. The question will be (hopefully in the short term future) "What have women ever really done, against the achievements of men throughout history"? Precious little, upon scrutiny.
She seems very rational in her reasoning, but the moment she called the US a democracy and denied how imperialist it was, she came off as a lot less credible.
This is the only episode I've seen in this series (so far) that I haven't agreed with... and I'm just now getting caught by binging on dozens of them. To argue that we're not imperialist or white (Christian) supremacist betrays ignorance of our sociopolitical past and foreign policy.
For white supremacy, they should have not just looked at Jim Crow laws in the south, but racial redlining in the liberal north and the broad adoption of white Christian nationalism in the years leading up to WWII. Eugenics was widely embraced in the U.S. leading up to the rise of Nazi Germany, and both liberals and conservatives embraced it enthusiastically. Even 1st-wave feminism was blatantly racist by mistreating and silencing black women.
In regard to imperialism, our long record in Latin America, Africa, and South East Asia tells a very different story. In Latin America, Smedley Butler and others like him undermined liberal democracies for U.S. corporate interests during the early 20th century and earlier. In Chile, the CIA worked with former Nazi's and trained Pinochet's supporters to torture leftists for identical reasons. During the Congo Crisis, Belgium and the CIA facilitated the assassination of a democratically elected leader and helped a secessionist in Katanga destabilize the region for their mining interests. (Belgium and the CIA also assassinated the UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, by shooting down his plane during the crisis.) And the list could go on and on...
As for praising capitalism, that's misleading, too. Once again, our foreign policy has had a role, not just in our "success," but also in the failure of other governments. Generally speaking, if the U.S. (and Europe) don't like it, we sabotage it and slap sanctions on it. And then we wash our hands by launching propaganda wars. As for the situation back home, capitalism has given us inhumane levels of inequality. And as for the argument that "we have it better than anyone else" ... that's because we're pillaging the rest of the world to sustain our low prices and high standards of living. If our country and its businesses + consumers paid for what goods and labor are worth, we'd be a poor country, too.
I only agree with the part about patriarchy, though it should be noted that the U.S. was a patriarchy up until about 60 to 70 years ago. Was it woman-hating and violently oppressive to women before then? No. Women were generally protected and sheltered under our laws, allowed to live quiet lives raising families without the fear of being dragged off to war or having to work dangerous jobs. (And most jobs back then were dangerous.) In the numerous instances when that was not that case, it was due to poverty, not gender, so the disadvantage would have been felt by their husbands, too.
Oh noooooooooo the ignorance is strong with this one
I have finally come across a video where I disagree with you. Yes, at least for us in the "Third World" without doubt the US is both imperialist and capitalist, if we are to take the Leninist definition of imperialism as outlined in "Imperialism - the Highest Stage of Capitalism". Lenin was saying that imperialism is capitalism on steroids. This shouldn't be confused with colonialism, although the terms are often used interchangeably. Lenin describes imperialism as a system in which finance capital and the imperialist state become dominant over industrial capital and they control the world economy, dividing the world into economic spheres of influence which they control. They hold back the economies of developing countries and keep them poor inorder to maintain a monopoly on the international markets. Good examples of this is the Structural Adjustment programs imposed on many countries by the US government, the IMF and World Bank. The Petrodollar is another tool the US uses to maintain a monopoly on the oil markets.
The claim that the US uses its power as a great benefactor to the world is a CIA/State Department talking point and baseless propaganda. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny. MLK stated that the US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. It is even more true today than it was during his time. The US supports some of the most vicious dictatorships if they fall in line with its imperialist agenda eg Saudi Arabia.
By this definition of imperialism Russia and China are not imperialist countries though they can be called colonialist.
I do like it when mum makes a new video!
Yes, and Latin America you screwed up for greater democracy too. Such a dilusional bitch
Based Mom is the ma’am!
Dear Ms. Sommers, I am so happy I found you! You are a breath of fresh air to the debate. Whenever I need sane insight on the topic of Feminism, I make you my first stop. Your insight on US imperialism is unfortunately less impressive, pretty much disastrous if you don't mind me saying. When you tried to explain it away with Nial Fergusson, the first thing that came to mind was "tragically misinformed or delusional". If it's the former, may I suggest that you read more, MUCH more before you touch that one again?
This woman is a living legend
yeah and well on the path to losing credibility if she keeps asserting that the U.S. isn't imperialist
hey now, they have a bi-partisan network for that reason, bouncing between 2 extremes is like having scalping hot water, then ice water, repeat and never get it right, they never have a confluence of ideas, they train people to think that a person is unreliable if they change their minds, even if singing the same da,m song 10yrs, 29yrs, 30yrs later..... one thing that's retarded is saying "first female american president.: yea, ok, there's 4 of them right now, with Grenada's being a Commissioner General, same role as a head of state,.
USA = not america...
Mexico + Brazil = already over the US population... and me, i;m half native, and have a birth mother you dpont want to get me started on that... but...Unless of course not forget help the North American’s Fight against what is still being perpetuated against them their deaths are not even reported.. Truck took a benefits for Native Americans that did things like take allotments of firewood from elderly people that use that would to stay warm during the cold months because central air and heating?? Yea right, go on the reservation and you'll see that the Notions that the Native Americans are living it up with Casino money is just a bunch of b******* running around and have less than children in Tijuana You don't even get actual regular benefits if you need financial aid you get TANF, and jack shit..
all of the European varieties of snakes have triangular house they came in not identified as Americans we should have spot them in as Vipers, the they Are calling themselves Americans kinda like how a coral snake does not have a triangular head they put up there trying to put a coral snake also does not have the heat sensing capability and just like the modern-day US citizen does not have the ability to love.. They already don't think enough or feel enough but they'll go drink poison themselves to think less and feel less about their problems.
I agree Joshua Cox.
Hopefully not for long
Each argument made is conveniently simplistic in its understanding of each term, and devoid of historical context. As nearly always, understanding and truth are better found in shades of gray
Crony Capitalism and Corporatism actually.
Bigdawgphilleep It shares many characteistics with Capitalism yes.
You can't lump all capitalism together as the same thing.
Corporatism has nothing to do with crony Capitalism
mitz avor HIV has nothing to do with AIDS
Um, Corporatism IS Crony Capitalism...
can I subscribe to the Factual Feminist playlist without getting notifications for all the other AEI videos ?
Yes for capitalist and maybe for imperialist (depending how you define imperialism). No for everything else.
Sorry but we do colonize other countries and we still colonize the indigenous people on this continent!!!!.. Your perspective is that of a sheltered, privileged white person and sadly it's hard for you to see the ways in which we harm other nations and the way we harm our own people by not recognizing the diversity and autonomy of our people.
It's sad that people who have more power socially do not always have the awareness to be able to see beyond their own stations in life. .
America still uses oppression in the form of implicit bias, and many other ways to oppress people systemically. It's sad when people who have limited viewpoints get to share them publicly as if they actually have any type of knowledge or authority.
I think Dr. Sommers may be confusing Imperialism with Colonialism early in the video. Not directly administrating/managing another geopolitical entity doesn't mean you're not engaging in Imperialism; it means that you're not necessarily colonizing them.
I genuinely like Hoff Sommers' work on boys' failing education achievements, but when it comes to stuff like this she's awful.
Her argument against the claims above follow a certain blueprint
1. Bell Hooks call America X (fill in imperialist, white-supremacist, etc)
2. (Implicit) America can either be completely X or not X at all
3. Compared to this other place, America is less X
4. Therefore America is not X at all
If we're being sympathetic to Bell Hooks and the left generally, the purpose of their analyses is to show that certain patterns of inequality and domination exist and can be pointed out. To call America a "patriarchy" isn't to stupidly claim that every single woman is oppressed by some man, but rather that statistically and symbolically a certain group is being treated unfairly.
We don't have to agree with this claim, and since it's typically a complex claim about all sorts of different aspects (eg: domestic violence, income inequality, reproductive rights, etc), we can even disagree with some and accept some. We can provide alternative statistics, or give competing explanations for some of the claimed oppressive phenomena. But what we really shouldn't do is superficial engagement like in the video and pretend like some substantive refutation has taken place. Are there dumb arguments on the left? Sure! But destroying those hardly means the left is wrong. And if nothing substantive can be done in a small video, then don't do a video at all.
And just some specific issues with other details
-Why would the fact that America claiming to be for democracy mean they can't be imperialistic? Have we forgotten Iraq fought over "democratic values" based on false information?
- Hillary might have won the popular vote, but until there has been 1 non-white president and no female president yet. Maybe, maybe racism and sexism hasn't completely been vanquished and still crops up from time to time, and theorists are using terms like "white-supremacist" and "sexist" to indicate this.
- Asians who go to the US tend to be highly-educated immigrants, so its not surprising they skew the stats. It's far more instructive to look at long-residing populations like whites, blacks, and native Americans and the differences are huge. Of course, even here, there's are variations based on class and urban/rural, and Hoff Sommers is right to point out (as she does elsewhere) that men pool in the bottom of the economic hierarchy as well. But again, that means actual engagement, instead of the ridiculous "analysis" in this video.
The imperialist adjective is true. The soviets also said that they invaded for defensive purposes. What about the attempted invasion of Cuba: "Bahia de cochinos", the invasion of Hawai, in which the US took power with a coup d'etat. The invasion of Puerto Rico...
This woman is either purposely misleading or senile.
History isn't wasn't her best study.
She is spot on feminism though!
David Espinoza there's a difference between building an empire, and intervening.
Exactly, the idea that a country can be excused of the title of "imperialist" because they claim their intentions are good, no matter how much carnage they cause is the line of every empire that ever existed, including the ones she sees as barbaric now.
She said that it isn't spotless...
After stumbling across you from your work with Milo I have to say I have become one of your biggest fans. I saw the name previously but I have to say the "Feminist" part of your channel name scared me off. But no, you are absolutely on point with just about everything you say. You put in the work, you come to accurate conclusions, and your previous work for womens rights invalidates the claim that you are in any way working for patriarchy or any of the other crazy claims they like to make. I am an absolutely huge fan of your work and all I can say is thank you.
As a female scientist I have seen first hand the advantages we gain in the STEM world, I can understand the papers written and any flaws contained, and I stand as someone doing science rather than a gender studies graduate complaining that women are underrepresented in subjects whilst being too lazy to take them. I don't have the patience to explain the errors to SJWs, nor the effort to properly look into every single claim I see and thats where I find your work brilliant. I simply can't say it enough, thank you in so many ways.
happy inauguration day CHSommers
Had to turn on the alarm. For reason I've not seen a new video from you on my feed for nearly 4 months. Great to see them again!
So basically women have all their rights... thought so
andrea a that's what she's saying, so...
"am i missing something here," asks the white lady born in a city which has an above average median income
yeah, maybe bell hooks, a black woman who was born in a working class family from a city with below average median income who went to a segregated school would have a different perspective from you.
you have a phd, lady. youre qualified to think these things through
Happy Nobama Day!
You're exactly what all feminists should be like... strong, successful, logical and reasonable (and, can I flirt a second... you're very Beautiful); all without blaming life's obstacles on others. If feminists were all like you, maybe we, as a society, could focus on actual problems facing the REAL world (like poverty, the crappy educational system and human rights... here and in other countries)... not living in "safe spaces" and seeing everything through narrow windows, smeared, blood red, with Man-Hating, Regression, Reverse Discrimination, Marxism and Anarchy.
I would actually like to see AEI do more content on Capitalist vs Socialist vs Communist economies and their strengths and weaknesses and why they all might or have eventually failed.
"Matrix of Oppression".
That's why we have Red Pills in the MRM.
This woman has my respect! Thank you for debunking these liberal made myths.
Really liked the video, but 2 claim what we did with Germany, Japan, Iraq, Vietnam, etc was outof the kindess of our collective hearts is not accurate. We had no need 2 plunder these countries because we loaded them down in US denominated debt for the rebuild of their country. I am NOT saying this is the only reason we did what we did but to act like it did not play a part is disingenuous.
I vaguely recall a statement from an Englishman (I want to say Churchill, but that's probably because he's just the default guy for statements like these).
"Americans are the worst imperialists. English soldiers fight for England! American soldiers fight to go home!"
Back in the days of preparing for the Iraq War, one of the things that really spurred me on was the idea of liberating the Iraqi people from a dictator. "We will be welcomed as liberators". I thought to myself that even if there weren't weapons of mass destruction, then that alone would have been a worthy cause.
Of course, it turned out to be a huge failure. No weapons, and post Saddam Iraq isn't really all that better. But what kind of lousy imperialists rile it's citizens up by saying "We're going to free these people, and let them run their own society!" Sure, we'd get some benefits back by having a close ally in the middle east if that worked out, but that's no more imperialistic than when we went into Europe during WW2.
I think it says something about American 'imperialism' that we have basically never done it, at least not once we settled the land. Our ancestors treatment of native americans was bad, but after we conquered our own territory, we've shown no real desire of expansion. We've had plenty of opportunities, but to my knowledge, we never gained any territory from any war in the 20th century. Not to mention our massive army if fully capable of building us an empire if we so wished it, but we don't really use it for that.
We could have built an empire after victorious wars in the past, and yet we haven't. We could do so now with our massive military, but we don't. Americans really are the worst imperialists. And that's a good thing.
How are these professors allowed to teach?
No. It's because leftists do the hiring.
Because people are stupid and don't know how evil social justice is.
Thank God! Finally an intelligent, educated Woman who is not afraid to call out and refute so many of the lies and whines of this new group of babies! I'm to am a strong, intelligent woman and mother to two more. They are both college age and the CRAP that they are fed by these sad excuse for feminists is almost overpowering! Fortunately, their father and I have always instilled in them the ideal that they can achieve their goals, not because they've been given an easier time because they're female and they deserve to be given preference for their gender, but because they're intelligent and if they're willing to do the hard work they'll be given the same opportunities as anyone else.
Dammit stop calling us a Democracy. We are no such thing. Good video over all though.
DeusWulf wait what how is america not a democracy? you lost me. I mean the lizard people want what best for us, and we vote for them.
Matrox_the_56th our pledge of allegiance clearly states that America is a republic. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United states of America and to the republic for which it stands."
We're a representative republic, not a democracy. They just like the word democracy better than what we actually are.
its coming down to semantics. democratic republic. i think your idea of democracy is more specifically a direct democracy. which none of significance exist to my knowledge.
Not a Direct Democracy but for sure a Representative Democracy (Representative Republic), but who cares what we call ourselves. It's more important on how we act as a country.
I just wanna say that in countries of Latin America the situation is really different and ,obviously, the perspective about what feminism should fight for are different to. For example: currently Argentina and Chile came together to fight against femicide (which are misnamed as "crimenes pasionales", translated as passionate crimes, this means that femicide are just seen like a homicide of jealousy ) and sexual harassment in the streets. Most of the feminism women of this two countries blame the patriarchy and capitalism of the standards of beauty and suppression.
One of the things I must agree is the way you as a citizen of the United States see the history, in my country the United States are seen as a Imperialist country and I'm sure if you ask to any person between de ages of 17 to maybe 60 with enough knowledge of politics and history will say the same thing.
you need your own channel,great video
Was the Vietnam War a defensive war?
Brilliantly spoken, #BasedMom
Brava Ms. Sommers. I have found more often than not, that while we may differ in problem solving approaches, most reasonable, intelligent people Left & Right, agree more often than not about ideas & principles, as long as we're willing to get past labels & discuss them openly & honestly. I have been a Tea Party activist for the last 8 years and Prof. Sommers a life long Liberal activist & advocate, yet we agree on this and many of the other topics she discusses. We shouldn't be so rigid our ideologies that we can't be open to new ideas if the facts lead us in new directions. Politicians get elected by pitting us against one another - and they're very good at it - which is why we see so much division & hatred in our society today. Don't fall for it
A voice of reason among feminism?? I'm pleasantly surprised.
She's a legit old-school feminist. They (mostly) used logic and debate to achieve their goals. Unlike today's whiny-shaming-blaming-entitled-victim complex "feminists".
Third wave feminists, and similar, criticise the US and other Western countries because they not only have the freedom to do so without censure but can in fact make a lucrative career doing so.
You are so on the mark there mate. You don't see Western third wave feminists protesting genital mutilation of women in Africa. Does Gamergate ring a bell?
Dear god this is refreshing!
Imperialism is not just invading countries, it is about oppressing other countries financially, the invading part is just to ensure that a country is safe for capital expansion. But even if you just consider imperialism by being about invading or interfering in other countries, the US has done so much more interventions to destroy governments that opose US imperialism than the interventions by the Soviet Union (in fact you could count them and they would only be a little fraction of US interventions), and it wasn't to protect "democracy".
This video is a lot of intersectional imperialism bs
This is a pretty awful rebuttal. There's a systematic problem here where the speaker is coming from a position where she wants to counter some of these claims out of hand, rather than analyze them.
Yes, American is an imperialist power. The country was built on the principle of Manifest Destiny, that it was our divine right to expand across the continent. This came with wars in Mexico, modern Texas, and Hawaii, and of course, all at the expense of Native Americans. After that point, the US waged a short war and seized control of Puerto Rico and the Philippines from the Spanish. We still have Puerto Rico, along with many Pacific Island territories. The late 20th century saw the US engage in combat (or otherwise passively involved ourselves) in foreign nations in order secure favorable governments. South Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, among others. That is a form of imperialism, and it continues to this day with American interventionism in Iraq (for oil) and elsewhere.
Saying that the US is NOT a white-supremacist nation because of a long tradition of protest against that white supremacy is absurd. This is like saying that a house does not have a mouse-infestation because all the mouse traps clearly have clearly successfully caught mice. The argument she SHOULD have made is one that examines what the goals of White Supremacy are. White Supremacy is the domination of white people at the expense and exclusion of other races. Here, you can make a critical argument and say that, while it is a fact that minorities face a wide array of issues that are built into the very fabric of American society, success is not necessarily excluded to minorities. President Obama is an example of this. While he had to be a better politician and campaigner in order to achieve success, he could, and did, end up winning the most important and influential governmental position in the country. The problem here, specifically, is supremacy.
The speaker's willingness to embrace capitalism clearly ignores the fact that it is being used as a criticism in the phrase. Capitalism has, indeed, done some good. However, it is also a system that allows for the concentration of wealth with very few, leading to increasing issues of inequality. That same inequality is the source of a number of major issues in this country. Housing affordability, overwhelmed institutional support systems for the aging, political gridlock and legislative unresponsiveness, and even racism all stem, at least in part, to Capitalism.
The line "are things perfect for women? No, but they are not perfect for men, either" is not a valid response to a charge of being a patriarchy. Just because men aren't super well off, doesn't mean that men don't have power and control over women. In terms of government and large business control, men clearly dominate, with the US FAR down the list in terms of female representation in Congress. However, she made a very good argument in pointing out education. Women do see more advancement in terms of education. Women are going to and completing college at a higher rate than men. Women are going to professional and graduate programs at a higher rate than men. And women are getting prestigious jobs in fields like medicine at a higher rate then men. A better argument would have highlighted these issues and pointed out that, while there are problems, most women see only a slightly lower rate of income and other obvious economic problems. Women in the working class may actually have better economic opportunities than men due to preferences and gender roles.
Adnan Ilyas Only thing I'd add to this great reply is that the american economy was built strong based on decades of slavery - practiced by white men who took black men from africa against their will.
Santiago Fernandez go check your facts as to who took the slaves - and how many likely died before they ever saw a white face
How is racism a capitalist issue?
Familyhelpdesk helpdesk lots arrived and served white faces; and gave a big economical thrust to a very very young republic
clepirelli
How is racism a capitalist issue?
I'm going to very thorough, so bear with me.
Ok, well capitalism is about maximizing profits for the benefit of the companies shareholders. When you sell something, there's two parts that go into calculating profits. There's the amount of money used to buy the good or service, and then there are the costs. Costs include the costs for workers. One way to reduce costs is to exploit workers. Make them work in worse conditions for lower pay, etc. Simple exploitation. A person who is purely rational and 100% capitalist will exploit their workers in order to make more money. This isn't necessarily going to be along racial lines. However, if you have a group of people who are systematically discriminated by society, you have an easy group to target for exploitation. So, companies hire people and, because of their race, exploit them. Where people get treated unfairly or worse than the dominant group, you have racism.
Take for example how Latinos seem to dominate certain working-class jobs in the US, like construction workers and farm hands. That is because employers know that they can pay Latinos less to do the same work. That's an obvious example, but studies show that Blacks, Latinos, and even Asians are paid less than similarly skilled and educated white workers.
Reasonable as always. I think you're right on the US not being a white supremacist, racist, patriarchy.
Where I'd disagree with you is on the US being imperialistic. The only US territory that wasn't conquered is the Louisiana purchase and Alaska. We insist on maintaining a strong military presence around the globe at all times to assert our dominance over every region we can. We regularly topple democratically elected governments in favor of dictatorships that better serve our own cooperatocracy. Every war we've been in since the Korean war has basically been imperialistic acts of aggression, with maybe the exception of Afghanistan. In the 20th and 21st centuries, we've abstained from directly claiming territory in favor of control via installing puppet states but we are definitely an empire.
I may not think highly of America but these claims are absurd. Using capitalist as a derogatory term is in line with the right wing using word socialist as one. It just indicates their extremely strong political bias, nothing more.
Sorry to say I only recently discovered Ms. Sommers online. But I watched the entire Joe Rogan podcast featuring her, and she came across as candid, classy, and incredibly rational--just like in this video. Wish there were more people like her in the public eye...
I love this women. She's been defecating on these contemporary feminists with frank conversations and facts.
Yeah Gimpy - You're the man! Defecating on feminists - that's what real men do. Lucky we don't have a patriarchy
no one has ever been able to explain to me why the Electoral College is useful. I think you're down playing sexism and racism in this country. I understand though that this video is indeed about looking at the positive so things aren't all gloom and doom. you've opened my eyes to a lot of situations to see that yeah actually if you compare our country too places such as yes North Korea, there is a lot of good in America that is drowned out by the negative and we should still appreciate and be grateful for what we do have here. I just get a bit comfortable if I think people are making light of the things that are wrong, but so many people do just focus on the negative that we get into a hole thinking that there is no way out and that we are all oppressed constantly. I'll definitely be watching more of your videos, they make me think.
bell hooks
Why are intersectional feminists opposed to capitalizing words?
I have never enjoyed listening to a feminist more than I have Mrs. Sommers! Glad to see a new video up.
Truth and reason, it's like a breath of fresh air. It's like listening to the moral and intellectual clarity of Sam Harris. On a side note, her son in law has a philosophy podcast called "Very Bad Wizards." Check it out.
Please take this woman's advice (although she obviously never did herself before making this video) and check your facts.
Sam Harris is plain wrong about morality.
found your vids today(2017) and your factual feminist series is why I subbed
I like Cristina more and more each video
This has not aged well.
You are one of the only feminist that I respect to the upmost specially with third wave feminism being completely insane litigating double standards and hatred everywhere they go. And being the least tolerant of people I've never seen so much hatred from the group and stand up and say they are on the best side of humanity
Ms. Sommers, please forgive my simple and perhaps even crude statement, but I feel I simply must say...
I sit in awe, with jaw agape, every time you open your mouth and truth pours out of it.
Two words:
BASED MOM
Just because one group out-performs another group it does not mean that the successful group oppressed the other group to get there. There are many explanations for why some groups out-perform other groups on certain metrics. The development of technology is one explanation to explain the economic divergence between Europe and other non-Western countries. It is known for example that the industrial revolution in Europe was driven by technology such as the steam engine.
oh, Christina, your superficial summary of American imperialism is cringeworthy. being based is a responsibility, not a title.
Thanks Timothy, glad I'm not the only one to think this.
This is a great video. I moved to United States from China in 2011. I have not seen a single person that is racist. I still hear people say racism is one of the biggest problem of the United States. Why people so concern about 0.00001% percent of people that are racist but ignore the rest 99.99999% percent that aren't.
if everyone on Earth lived like the average American, we would need over four Earths.
Always a relief to see a new upload!
We need to make millions of copies of this woman. She is the Mother of Reason I swear.
the only feminist I don't have a problem with
Thank you for being a level headed and rational feminist, interested in the rights and values of genders and ethnic groups equally.
Your use of facts and empirical evidence is great to see :)
Next questions: Who did capitalism liberate exactly? How? Where? When? How do those people's lives look like today? What are they living on? What race are they, gender, nationality? Where can I read about that? I'm genuinely interested.
Intriguing, but very one-sided insight on money/capitalism/petrol dollar is provided by the book "Why The Rich Are Getting Richer". His first book was "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" (haven't read that one yet, but is supposed to be informative).
1wildturk1 What country are you talking about? What era?
Christina Hoff Summers. One of the few self proclaimed feminists I actually like.
In the days of old, the electoral college made a lot of sense, just elect a couple people to go to DC to elect your president on your behalf. It does indeed create an error margin regarding the popular vote, and the actual results. However, when practically instantaneous communication throughout the country was not a thing, it was a very feasible way to still have elections. Nowadays, we have practically instantaneous communication around the world, and elections can be held easily. So I would say the error margin caused by the electoral college is not longer acceptable.
Who is this beautiful enlightened woman? I am glad there is a woman who is using actual numbers instead of false narratives.
You are so wrong it hurts.
Acknowledging men's issues? She should be called the Factual Humanist.
I like that.
I'm a proud liberal. I also very much appreciate Ms. Sommers' non-partisan and sober assessments. We need far more thoughtful, respectful, and scholarly dialogue of the sort that she offers. While I've learned a great deal from her Factual Feminist critiques of modern feminism, I'd also really love to see her discuss what she sees as the important issues that feminists in the US might still productively focus on.
Good Stuff Dr. Sommers. If anything, I am a bit more critical of our overseas military policies than you! And I am a proud USN veteran, with service in a combat zone.
Really liked what you said about academic historians way back in "Who Stole Feminism." This from a man who does traditional political/diplomatic/military history.
Yours, Historian Dr. CHS (Same initials as you!)
America is the greatest country on Earth because of its Judeo Christian "patriarchal" backdrop
I think that's something people have forgotten. The US is a land of opportunity. People that believe themselves to be oppressed will then ask "Where are my opportunities?" failing to realize that in order to find opportunity, one must go searching for it.
America is an empire, but the way in which it organizes itself is different. Empires are no longer politically-correct is the issue and therefore any empire has to be more subtle. This means having a secret government that monopolizes the critical power structures. Control a country's military, intelligence agencies, and its businesses, then you don't need to pick its de jure rulers. Yet, even so America still picks rulers from behind the scenes. Coups are just one of the more open ways of taking power. Democracies are very useful in this sense as all you need is a lot of money and media influence to put the people in power that you want in power. This is how America does it all over the world. Only when its usual method of subverting democracies fails does it opt for more messy options such as coups or invasions.
I disagree with her on America not being imperialists. We SAY we are spreading democracy and 'paving the way for the rule of law', but actually most of our wars have not been defensive, nor have they spread democracy--they have sowed the seeds of chaos.
Are you going to have a special edition report on the Women's March?
Incredibly hypocritcal, ignorant and pure propoganda.
Today in Australia. Melbourne and in fact the whole state of Victoria is set to get new pedestrian signals to reduce unconscious bias. The new lights look like Mary Poppins.
Chief executive Martine Letts said that, "having only green or red silhouettes of men discriminates against women." "These symbols", she continues, "are a practical and meaningful way to demonstrate that in fact 50% of our population is female and should therefore be represented at traffic lights. They are ways that women are excluded from public space."
Now I am not sure how many traffic lights there are in the state of Victoria but the plan is to replace 1/2 of them. At the cost of AU$8,400 for 6 (that's $1400 a piece) I would think there would be more meaningful and significant uses for that money that in fact do help to promote gender equality. This is just going to breed resentment of feminism I fear.
Also, tomorrow, International Women's Day, the ABC (Australia's national broadcaster) will only have women on the air for both TV and radio. The reason - to promote gender equality. Hmmmm...
We are definitely imperialist, as the neoconservative/liberal rationale of trying to “make the world safe for democracy” has always been little more than a smokescreen to cover up our actual motivations that have been the same as every other empire throughout history. The rest of it, however…no. Not at all.
We aren’t even truly capitalist: we are a mixed economy that incorporates many elements of socialism, which are currently bankrupting us and turning us into a third world nation. And unfortunately, neither of our two major political parties has any interest in reforming that.
One of those episodes where I remember KH Sommers is attached to the American Enterprise Institute. Oh well, I'll probably like the next episode again.
Good that she pointed out how silly it is to call the US a patriarchy or a white supremacy.
There was a study a few years ago from Princeton stating the USA was an oligarchy, which I'd go along with. Those families who are already wealthy have much greater advantages than those on median or below savings and income. Social mobility in the US, despite the rhetoric you hear about the American Dream, is relatively static compared to many other countries, including Scandinavian countries where there is a lot of state intervention to produce more equal life chances
Came here for ridiculous leftist conspiracy theories. Stayed because this woman is actually spot on.
Christina Hoff Summers you are rocking my socks once again with your factual but respectful take down of SJW claims. Please do continue to kick arse (that's british for ass)
So around about 1:15-1:18 She says "usually at great expense to us!" but the Subtitles say "Usually at great expense to the motherland!" if you pay attention it cuts to a picture and the audio rhythm is strange like they cut out Motherland and edited in "us". Pretty strange editorial decision.
If the DNC and leftists return to planet Earth, Ms. CH Sommers could really be a political force. A pro-America, classic liberal, mild mannered, morally centered, natural communicator, intelligent, non-rape apologist, etc, etc.. Every single woman in America would vote for her. Who knows what will happen between now and 2024, but her appeal is undeniable.
I disagree with most of the the arguments in this video and believe she is giving simplistic arguments to try to paint the image that she wants to believe.
I was just thinking about how you hadn't posted a video in awhile. It's nice to see, and your new set-up looks great.
This is a great video, though. It is a starting point to open and honest discussion on these topics.
Mrs. Sommers you are a goddess of logic. You represent the kind of feminism that is needed. Not the blue haired shrieking harpies that the term has grown to represent today. Thank you for your work.
I think a really BIG problem with the white supremacist section is the inclusion of Abe Lincoln as an example for the abolishing of slavery. It didn't free all the slaves, and though Abe was against it, he still didn't think blacks should have the same rights as whites. He's a bad example. www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-lincoln-slavery-and-emancipation
I have to agree with the Sommers on white-supremacy and patriarchy because the majority of Americans are not white-supremacist and sexists morons and women in the US do hold power in politics and corporations. But the fact is the current US president empowers white-supremacists from his speeches, and extremely sexist does paint that picture for the US on the world stage even though the majority of Americans don't share those ideologies. However the US does have a bad reputation of overthrowing oppressive and non oppressive governments and paving the way for brutal dictatorships or imposing there own dictators, the best example of that I can think off is Cuba. So yes the US does come across as imperialistic to a lot of countries. Capitalism works when you have a stable economy, no working poor and public services that benefit the majority of people. However when things go wrong in the economy it takes a long time to correct as well as gives to much power to the wealthy.
The US political system is damaged because of the money in politics. The two major parties in the US chooses candidates not just on similar ideologies but on how much money they bring into the party. But the major issues that the US has today is in infrastructure, healthcare, and poverty and militarizing law enforcement agencies.