CZ Sorry for a longer thread, but thought Twitter might find this interesting.

NDU's college application process requires you write a small number of essays from a much larger list of topics. One such topic is from the Law School, which discusses the impact BLM has.../1

CZ ...on society. Why would the Law School mention BLM at all? Actually, because BLM *originated* in American law schools starting in the 1970s. Ready for this? /2

CZ Immanuel Kant wrote the Critique of Pure Reason, which (rightly) suggested (among other things) that if you want to really analyze something, you need to identify any dogmas that might bias you're thinking: something isn't "true" just because someone else says it is. /3

CZ Kant suggested that sometimes you need to dig deep and prove to yourself, free of any influences, that you agree with it. Karl Marx thought this was awesome, because he used this as intellectual shorthand to defend his goofball theories. /4

CZ "If you think Marxism is unjust, maybe it's because that's your religious upbringing saying so." Marx used this abuse of Kant's ideas to shoot at capitalism, society, and religion./5

CZ In the 1930s, the Frankfurt School extended this further, as Max Horkheimer realized you could rip *anything* apart by putting this form of criticism against any ideology. In fact, you can tear apart on common belief system only to find you've also torn apart.../6

CZ ...two or three others. He called this Critical Theory.

Some of you are already jumping ahead.

But Critical Theory was used to attack long-standing schools of thought, showing how one ideology inherently oppresses or suppresses others. /7

CZ Paulo Freire applied this to education, Noam Chomsky to language, Jürgen Habermas to the humanities (he's the guy you can blame for our college shittery), Jacques Lacan to psychoanalysis, and so on. /8

CZ Basically, anything and everything began to be revealed as a way to promote Marxism's ability to transcend ideology. This went throughout the 1940s-1960s. Incredibly, American legal studies was largely exempt until about 1970.../9

CZ ...when Harvard Law prof Derrick Bell started to study Race, Racism, and American Law (indeed, his 1973 textbook had that title). It was a popular/interesting class. When Bell resigned to become Dean at University of Oregon, Harvard Law students awaited his replacement. /10

CZ They didn't get one. Harvard dropped the class in 1980, which started a boycott. One of the main Harvard students behind it was Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. She began to synthesize and promote Critical Race Theory, which applied Critical Theory to law./11

CZ By 1987, Critical Race Theory held its first annual conference, which (almost year-by-year) added a new topic to itself: white privilege in 1988, intersectionality in 1989, etc. ALL of these were first promoted or published in LEGAL journals, not sociological or.../12

CZ ...psychological publications. BLM is a synthesis of these different CRT facets into an organized movement. So, with that in mind, yes--BLM is founded on Marxist ideology (which they openly admit), but so is CRT. And, to my point, CRT is a product of American law schools./13

CZ So it makes sense to me that NDU's law school would ask a question about BLM, since CRT is American law schools' most famous Frankenstein monster. Hope this was educational to you. /14 and end