Kudos to reporter Matthew Cunningham-Cook for highlighting how the guy leading the attacks, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo, is not just an outspoken racist and homophobic hate monger but a front man in a very, very well-funded war on tolerance and decency.

The situation illustrates how corporate interests are quietly using their wealth to stoke hate and divide America over culture-war issues in order to divert people’s attention from more pressing matters — namely, the country’s grotesque wealth inequality and the near-total control Wall Street now exerts over everyone’s economic lives.

While the Manhattan Institute’s donors remain secret, its board members are a who’s who of elitists who made huge profits from the 2008 financial crisis with much to gain from maintaining the massive wealth inequality in the U.S. and “plundered massive wealth from communities of color.”

What better way to keep the money coming in than to demonize already marginalized people and suggest they are the true oppressors?

Cunningham-Cook notes that the Manhattan Institute has already “ played a critical role in dismantling the social safety net and criminalizing the poor under the guise of promoting “welfare reform” and “broken windows” policing.”

Here are a few examples from from Cunningham-Cook’s list of Manhattan Institute “board of profiteers” who could do something to rein in Rufo’s hideousness but choose not to:

The current chairman of Manhattan Institute’s board is hedge fund manager Paul Singer. The Toronto Financial Post reported that his firm was “profiting handsomely” during the 2008 financial crisis “from credit default swaps that bet leveraged companies would run aground.” Singer’s family foundation donated $1.1 million to the think tank in 2020, out of $17.9 million in total contributions the organization received that year. Singer is also known for buying sovereign debt of countries like Argentina, Peru, and the Republic of the Congo for pennies on the dollar, then using strong-arm tactics like seizing ships and planes to win full payment.

Also:

• Kathy Crow, a real estate investor whose family owns Crow Holdings, a major real estate private equity firm that receives significant public support, including from teachers’ pension funds.
• Hedge fund manager Ravenel Curry III, who also manages public pension and union funds.
• Harvey Golub, Chairman of investment bank Miller Buckfire, which charged an impoverished and bankrupt Detroit $20 million in fees.

Of course, Rufo also gets major assists from white supremacist Tucker Carlson, a self-admitted “extraordinarily loaded” trust fund baby, and Fox News. Fox, in turn, is bankrolled by the uber-wealthy father-and-son team of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch.