The defining characteristic of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was the rtual of self-criticism.  There was a process in which the individual, while prescriptively condemning himself in public, would theoretically achieve some measure of rehabilitation because he had humbled himself before his peers and showed "rehabilitated" modes of thinking. The self-criticism is alive and well on the left.  Yesterday was National Geographic's turn.  National Geographic, it seems, just discovered that it used to be racist and wants everyone to know that. National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent. I don't know about the intelligence claim.  But calling naked people who live in the jungle unsophisticated?  That sounds...(Read Full Post)