"In times of internal strife and quandary, it’s seldom a good idea to turn to the precepts of dead white men."
This is from The Paris Review, a journal founded by white men who are now all dead. To extend the logic of the writer [who, if judged by his photo, seems to be a barely alive white man], our regard for historical wisdom ends when the sagacious realize their mortality and/or they are not members of this week's preferred socio-ethnic group. That, along with a tone that indicates his statement is settled and beyond debate, makes this a classic in pseudo-intellectual observation.