Christopher Rufo

And what I figured out was that producing documentary films was a good way to actually get out and see the world. So I did that for about 10 years with the idea of really just kind of testing my own ideas and my own questions against reality. And so I decided to make a film about three of America's forgotten cities, Youngstown, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, and Stockton, California.

And what I figured out was that producing documentary films was a good way to actually get out and see the world. So I did that for about 10 years with the idea of really just kind of testing my own ideas and my own questions against reality. And so I decided to make a film about three of America's forgotten cities, Youngstown, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, and Stockton, California.

really three of the poorest, most violent, most destitute, and most forgotten places in America. And this is now about 10 years ago. And having actually spent three years in the field, in jails and prisons, in public housing projects, in abandoned steel mills, meeting people, understanding how the government operated in those communities.

really three of the poorest, most violent, most destitute, and most forgotten places in America. And this is now about 10 years ago. And having actually spent three years in the field, in jails and prisons, in public housing projects, in abandoned steel mills, meeting people, understanding how the government operated in those communities.

That's when I really had my total crisis of confidence in not just this kind of revolutionary cause play on campus, but actually the fundamental principles of the great society itself. And at that point, I thought that the idea of the post-war left was could not withstand any scrutiny.

That's when I really had my total crisis of confidence in not just this kind of revolutionary cause play on campus, but actually the fundamental principles of the great society itself. And at that point, I thought that the idea of the post-war left was could not withstand any scrutiny.

And I think the reason that you get people retreating to campus is because their policies can only survive in that hothouse environment. And if you actually escape that hothouse and you get into the actual real places that were supposed to be helped, you find that those policies can't be defended.

And I think the reason that you get people retreating to campus is because their policies can only survive in that hothouse environment. And if you actually escape that hothouse and you get into the actual real places that were supposed to be helped, you find that those policies can't be defended.

Yeah, rotten, you know, absolutely corrupted. The entire project

Yeah, rotten, you know, absolutely corrupted. The entire project

project of the American government since the mid-1960s has been very self-consciously an attempt to recruit the so-called best and brightest from the Ivy League universities and to have them cook up policy ideas that will then be imposed on the rest of the country in the name of equality, in the name of justice, in the name of all of these kind of high values. But

project of the American government since the mid-1960s has been very self-consciously an attempt to recruit the so-called best and brightest from the Ivy League universities and to have them cook up policy ideas that will then be imposed on the rest of the country in the name of equality, in the name of justice, in the name of all of these kind of high values. But

What I learned through my experience in higher education and then my experience spending a number of years in American communities, especially poor American communities, is that that project has failed.

What I learned through my experience in higher education and then my experience spending a number of years in American communities, especially poor American communities, is that that project has failed.

Yeah, I think those are really good snapshot statistics. And conservative academics have been talking about some of these broader trends for many decades. The long march through the institutions, the capture of the humanities, the extreme left-wing bias of university departments. What I think happened that was a decisive change was really in 2020, following the death of George Floyd. And

Yeah, I think those are really good snapshot statistics. And conservative academics have been talking about some of these broader trends for many decades. The long march through the institutions, the capture of the humanities, the extreme left-wing bias of university departments. What I think happened that was a decisive change was really in 2020, following the death of George Floyd. And

All of a sudden, those ideas and that structure, that language, those symbols, those narratives, those arguments, they escaped the laboratory of academia and were then imposed throughout society via all of the surrounding institutions. And so it was in your kids' school curriculum. It was in your work's HR training. It was in your television news program.

All of a sudden, those ideas and that structure, that language, those symbols, those narratives, those arguments, they escaped the laboratory of academia and were then imposed throughout society via all of the surrounding institutions. And so it was in your kids' school curriculum. It was in your work's HR training. It was in your television news program.

And you have this sudden coherence of a replacement narrative about America, about our history, about our people, about our culture, about our politics. And so when you have this kind of ideology that had been, again, cooking in the universities for a long time, Americans could kind of ignore it. Say, well, that's just the faculty at X, Y, and Z university.

And you have this sudden coherence of a replacement narrative about America, about our history, about our people, about our culture, about our politics. And so when you have this kind of ideology that had been, again, cooking in the universities for a long time, Americans could kind of ignore it. Say, well, that's just the faculty at X, Y, and Z university.