Cancel Culture (Examples)

[rgray222]

The cancel culture has moved into high gear. Hardly a day goes by when a person or corporation isn't targeted. Some of it is certainly justified when a celebrity, politician, or notable person makes an undeniably racist or sexist comment.  Without a doubt, it is now being used to silence people or damage companies when they say objectionable words or take social stances that others find unacceptable. 

Most of the cancel culture gets its start on social media but the real power comes from the mainstream media. Some of it is maddening, much of it is humorous but all of it has an impact (better or worse) on our world. 

In a few short years, it is probably going to be hard for people to believe that some of this actually went on so I thought we might document some of the cancel culture activities.

Bari Weiss quits New York Times after bullying by colleagues over views: 'They have called me a Nazi and a racist'
 
New York Times opinion columnist and editor Bari Weiss announced Tuesday she is leaving the New York Times, saying she was bullied by colleagues in an "illiberal environment," weeks after declaring there was a “civil war” inside the paper. 

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/07/1862/1048/Bari-Weiss-NYT-Getty-Images.jpg?ve=1&tl=1


"The lessons that ought to have followed the [2016] election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned,” Weiss wrote. “Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.” 
Source:  https://www.foxnews.com/media/bari-weiss-quits-new-york-times-bullying

[Mike]

Postmodernism cancels common sense, reason, logic, and science.

Marxism cancels success, morality, hard work, and competence.

Social Justice, which is sort of a hodge-podge of both, cancels all those things plus language and history

When you marry the three, you have a real disaster on your hands..and that's what we're seeing today.

The National Museum For African American History And Culture has recently linked rationality, hard work, self sufficiency, and decision making with the plague of "whiteness", suggesting of course that those are things to be avoided.

Seriously.

I highly doubt that 99.9% of African Americans believe that crap for even a moment. It's an absolute load of sh!t.

As I've tried to emphasize many times here: I think the current goings on in this country actually have little to do with a race war, and much more to do with a war on common sense and sanity. The war manifests itself in our most sensitive areas (race, gender etc), making it difficult to discuss reasonably for all sorts of reasons

Everything is backwards, or inverted. Therefore, the most sane, reasonable voices are being silenced while the most unhinged and hysterical are loudest.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

JK Rowling was recently vilified, and then cancelled by left-wing extremists, for daring to criticize the phrase: "people who menstruate", instead of "women".

To explain this phenomena, nothing else need be said than,

https://h20ho.com/papers/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/quote-the-further-a-society-drifts-from-truth-the-more-it-will-hate-those-who-speak-it-george-orwell-49-88-64.jpg

[Mike]

Even 12 year olds are getting cancelled. This kid was actually arrested...for a tweet. They were unpleasant, racist tweets, and he needs a good scolding and punishment for them for sure..from his parents....not from big brother.

This is astounding:
https://sports.yahoo.com/12-yearold-arrested-for-sending-racist-messages-to-crystal-palaces-wilfried-zaha-175343769.html

[silvanelf]

Postmodernism cancels common sense, reason, logic, and science.

Your ignorance about postmodernism speaks for itself.
Let me guess: you are either parroting Jordan Peterson or Stephens Hicks.

[Ernie Nemeth]

That is the craziest oxymoron: postmodernism. What a crock

[Mike]

Postmodernism cancels common sense, reason, logic, and science.

Your ignorance about postmodernism speaks for itself.
Let me guess: you are either parroting Jordan Peterson or Stephens Hicks.


My knowledge about postmodernism is informed mostly by Jordan Peterson, James Lindsay, Steven Pinker, Jonathan Haidt and a few others. Videos and online articles mostly. But i've never read Jaques Derrida, admittedly.

Start a thread about it maybe. Show me where I've gone wrong.

[onawah]

$2,000 A Day Fine For Obstructing Coronavirus Contact Tracing
Jul 7, 2020
Shahar Ziv
(WRITES FOR FORBES--MAKES ME WANT TO :mad2::rant::boom:)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2020/07/07/2000-a-day-fine-for-obstructing-coronavirus-contact-tracing/#2266c599402b

https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5efe13d48be95f0007e2a086/960x0.jpg?fit=scale

"Officials in New York’s Rockland County recently got aggressive about contact tracing, issuing subpoenas to eight party-goers who refused to cooperate with tracking efforts. If the eight had failed to comply, they would have been subject to fines of $2,000 per day; however, within 24 hours, all eight acquiesced, signaling that the threat of a monetary fine may be an effective health policy tool to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.

100 Person Gathering In Rockland County:
As reported by The New York Times NYT +2.1%, a party in Rockland County, NY in mid-June attracted a crowd of 100 people, in violation of a state ordinance that capped gathers at 10 people. After the party’s host and eight guests tested positive, Rockland officials launched a vigorous contact tracing effort to identify others who may have been exposed. They quickly hit a road-bump as several of the party-goers obstructed the efforts.

“My staff has been told that a person does not wish to, or have to, speak to my disease investigators,” Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, the county’s health commissioner, was quoted in the Times. Of the individuals her team tried to contact, Dr. Schnabel said, “they hang up. They deny being at the party even though we have their names from another party attendee.”

Instead of tolerating the party-goers selfish refusal to cooperate, Rockland County upped the ante, issuing subpoenas. “Those who did not comply and share what they knew by [the following day] would face fines of $2,000 a day,” according to Rockland officials.

The subpoena and financial warning worked as all eight individuals who had received a subpoena started cooperating with the county Health Department. “I will not allow the health of our county to be compromised because of ignorance, stupidity or obstinance, or anything else,” Ed Day, a Rockland County executive, said.


MORE FROM FORBES
Would You Voluntarily Self-Quarantine For A $700 Payment?
By Shahar Ziv
Contact Tracing Is Essential:
Contact tracing is one of the few tools that public health officials have in their arsenal to fight coronavirus outbreaks until a vaccine is safely developed.

“A role of government is to protect individuals and their families as well as health care workers and other essential workers,” wrote Dr. Tom Frieden, who headed up the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Obama administration and oversaw responses to H1N1, Ebola, and Zika, and Dr. Kelly Henning, the director of public health at Bloomberg Philanthropies and a former professor of infectious disease at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “The hard, skilled work of contact tracing is akin to hurricane warnings: People are alerted so they can protect themselves and their families. . .we need to play the hand we’ve been dealt as well as we possibly can to save lives, reduce spread and help restore our economy.”

Sadly, New York City and other places that have embraced contact tracing, have struggled with its execution. In New York, less than half of city residents who had tested positive or were presumed positive provided information to contact tracers. In Massachusetts, only 60 percent were responding and in Louisiana, fewer than 50 percent were answering.

“What we lived through. . . is [the] equivalent of a forest fire,” Andy Slavitt told PBS Newshour host, Judy Woodruff. “What we have to do is to prevent forest fires from breaking out, so we can catch things when they're little campfires. And in order to do that, we have to have the ability to surround the outbreak as it happens, so it doesn't spread into community again.”

Adopt Rockland County’s Approach:
The rest of the country should adopt Rockland County’s model. Contact tracing is so crucial to containing outbreaks, that it shouldn’t be left up to the whims of individuals. The Covid-19 pandemic proves how health and wealth are tightly integrated. Economic recovery depends on being able to control the outbreak of Covid-19 and currently, the U.S is failing miserably. “The virus drives the economics,” said Betsey Stevenson, who served on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and is now a professor at the University of Michigan. If Covid-cases keep rising, “we’re not going to have people going back to work,” she added.

Up until now, most coronavirus prevention efforts, including quarantines and contact tracing, have only been loosely enforced. When you have imbeciles in Alabama throwing Covid parties to see who can get infected first and selfish vacationers in the Ozarks crowding pools without masks, we need to wake up to the fact that voluntary efforts are inadequate.

Individual rights have limits. Just like one cannot yell fire in a crowded movie theater and one’s right to throw a punch ends where another’s nose begins, we need to rethink the balance of individual rights and community obligation. If individuals aren’t willing to take rational and basic steps to mitigate the spread, the government must mandate action and ramp up enforcement.

Conclusion:
Rockland County’s subpoena and threat of a $2,000 fine worked well. The rest of the country should adopt equal measures. American lives depend on it."

[rgray222]

Harper's Letter condemning 'cancel culture' draws debate on social media

One hundred and fifty college professors, liberal activists, and celebrities cry uncle under the weight of the cancel culture have posted a letter in Harper's Magazine. While they took the opportunity to deride Trump they also condemned the general culture of intolerance, public shaming, and ostracism which is at the heart of their complaint and it is picking off their colleagues on a daily basis.

"Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study, and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes," said the letter.

Had they published this letter individually they most certainly would have been subjected to intense hatred and ostracism but the group effort offers some form of protection.

https://wrhaystack.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/SOS-1-800x452.png

Harpers: https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/
Source: https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/506458-what-the-harpers-letter-says-about-cancel-culture

[Bill Ryan]

Start a thread about it [postmodernism] maybe. Show me where I've gone wrong.

Mod note from Bill:

Yes, that's a good positive suggestion. I'd prefer this important thread (about "Cancel Culture") stays on topic, as it's quite an important issue for us all.

Always remember: whatever our disagreements may seem to be here on the forum, our actual enemies (and/or threats to our sovereignty, freedom or rights of every kind) are all exterior to our community, and they're very real, too.

:focus:

[Mike]

Here's sort of a consolidated list of some people who have been cancelled recently:


https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrities-whove-fired-racist-comments-150558398.html

[Mike]

Lesbians are being cancelled, at least on reddit they are anyway. Benjamin Boyce hosts (forgot her name), a former moderator on a reddit forum called True Lesbians, which was a forum exclusively for biological women who are into other biological women. They were accused of being an intolerant hate group by some subgroup of the lgbqt etc, and subsequently shut down. I've only skimmed the video, but apparently since the group was not interested in men who identify as women and still have dicks (trans women), they were being discriminatory and bigoted and therefore had to go.

I've been saying for a long time now that it was just a matter of time before the lgbqt etc community began eating itself. If you're playing victim olympics among groups of allegedly oppressed people who keep endlessly dividing themselves into further oppressed subgroups, those subgroups will eventually view the groups before them as their "oppressors". So, the more groups you create, the more division you sew.

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[Catsquotl]

On the question of what to do and where to go in these crazy times. I realized that for the time being I will identify as a human being. No further subdivision or engrandizement necessary. Humans come in all shapes and sizes, and can experience heavens and hells right here. I will embrace all of it.

[silvanelf]

Here you can see the hypocrisy of the Right.


That the original letter and its signers can not be taken seriously was emphatically proven with this:

Jeremy Repanich @racefortheprize - 23:14 UTC · Jul 17, 2020

LOL. Thomas Chatterton Williams, who wrote the Harper's letter, admitted today that Glenn Greenwald was kept off the letter b/c other signees didn't like his views.

The signers of the letter against the 'cancel culture' had cancelled Glenn Greenwald from signing it.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/07/signees-of-letter-against-the-cancel-culture-exposed-as-frauds.html

Glenn Greenwald about "Elites are Distorting the Cancel Culture Crisis":


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXDPPkuRimQ

[rgray222]

A Texas realtor group announced on June 25 that it would stop using the word “master” to describe bedrooms and bathrooms due to connotations of slavery.
The Houston Association of Realtors said it would replace “master” with the word “primary.” source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/us/master-houston-association-of-realtors-trnd/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_content=2020-06-26T04%3A55%3A05&utm_source=twCNN&utm_term=link

The makers of the game Dungeons & Dragons have announced they will eliminate the concept of “evil” races and implement other changes to make the game more sensitive to diversity issues. One of those changes includes “incorporating sensitivity readers into our creative process, and we will continue to reach out to experts in various fields to help us identify our blind spots.” Source: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/diversity-and-dnd

A giant cross dedicated to Junipero Serra on Mount Rubidoux in Riverside, Calif., was vandalized on the night of June 28. Serra founded missions at San Francisco and San Diego that were the first European settlements at those sites. The Spanish priest has been a target of Native American groups and historians who claim Serra sanctioned the oppression of Native Americans. Graffiti on the cross in Riverside read “Serra was a pedophile,” “Murderer,” and “N8V Land.” Source: https://www.foxla.com/news/giant-cross-named-after-junipero-serra-vandalized-in-riverside

The producers of The Simpsons have decided to use only non-white actors to voice non-white characters. The white actor who voices African American character Cleveland in Family Guy also announced he would step down from the role. Actresses Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell have also announced they will stop voicing biracial characters on two animated TV shows. Slate voiced character Missy on Netflix’s Bigmouth, while Bell voiced Molly Tillerman on the Apple TV+ series Central Park. Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/25/883622069/jenny-slate-and-kristen-bell-will-stop-playing-biracial-cartoon-characters

Emory & Henry College in Virginia has announced that the school will consider changing its wasp mascot, because it is indicative of the acronym WASP, which might foster an exclusive and discriminatory environment for students who are not White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. The WASP mascot has been deemed offensive. Source: https://www.yaf.org/news/virginia-college-to-re-examine-offensive-wasp-mascot/

[Matthew]

Here you can see the hypocrisy of the Right.
...

Left and right are overplayed constructs imo. This so called 'Right' is simply anyone who speaks out against things like BLM the organisation, trans women's rights, or challenges other extreme ideological positions. Take Zuby for example in this reddit article about how he got in trouble with twitter (link) (https://www.reddit.com/r/TumblrInAction/comments/fav8tj/twitter_suspends_uk_rapper_zuby_for_saying_ok/). He's the right now apparently ?lolwut. That type of labeling is lazy or naive or both

Project Veritas published this on 25th June 2020 showing the internal workings of Facebook, recording a series of meetings and showing their bias. It speaks for itself; it's pretty damming for Facebook
9O8p4zK8ywY

But why moan and mope about. They're entitled to ban who they want, when they want. People have alternatives and are free to choose. Free market economy sorts it out as people vote with their wallets.

One exception here is the BBC, who have a guaranteed licence fee income that UK people must pay. They need to work much harder to lose their funding. This hasn't stopped them trying, and credit to the BBC: they have pissed so many people off that, right now, there's a strong movement to decriminalise the not paying the BBC license fee. Then the BBC would have to fund themselves on the strength of their own content. This is the BBC's worst nightmare, they wouldn't know where to start.

But that's the BBC. Other companies aren't so insulated from free market economy; basically people vote with their wallet. The Guardian newspaper is in financial trouble for example.

And then take Patron. Patreon could be in serious legal trouble with their prior round of cancellations a year or two ago. That's the problem cancelling someone just because you don't like their opinion.


Patreon is in Serious Legal Trouble
Akkad Daily
qswMkYBGgmY

And a bit more commentary from Akkad Daily on this subject in this YouTube video here (https://youtu.be/uF5NUXxxCRI)

[rgray222]

California Curator Resigns After Saying Museum Would Continue Collecting White Artists

https://www.westernjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Gary-Garrels.jpg

Prominent art curator Gary Garrels has resigned from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in response to backlash to comments he's made against what he described as "reverse discrimination" and "profiling" in curation decisions involving white artists.

In a July 7 staff meeting held over Zoom, an employee confronted Garrels regarding comments made at a January all-staff meeting and shared by an anonymous contributor to an Instagram account "pressuring US museums to move beyond lip service proclamations of anti-racism by amplifying tales of unchecked racism."

"Don't worry, we will definitely still continue to collect white artists," Garrels was alleged to have said at the end of a presentation about the acquisition of works by artists of color, Artnet reported.

SFMOMA's senior curator of painting and sculpture, who worked for the museum for a combined 19 years since 1993, Garrels is considered one of the most prominent museum curators in the country.

Asked about the comments on July 7, Garrels said "To say that we will not collect another white artist I absolutely do not agree with," according to the art publication Hyperallergic, which cited a recording of the meeting.

Garrels further characterized such a move as amounting to "reverse discrimination," a description that was immediately met by an unidentified employee interjecting to say, "He did not just say that!"

Reverse discrimination is the favoring of a minority or disadvantaged group over the dominant majority group. In the context of social and political discourse, the concept is often evoked to criticize or attack affirmative action programs, or otherwise frame measures meant to redress historic and ongoing racial inequalities as amounting to anti-white racism. While thinly evidenced, typically premised in anecdotes and countered by empirical research into racial discrimination, belief in reverse racism is widespread among white people in the United States.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/sfmoma-curator-gary-garrels-san-francisco-museum-modern-art-reverse-discrimination-racism-1517984

[rgray222]

As soon "Saturday Night Live," announced their newest caste member all eyes were on Shane Gillis. The same afternoon of the announcement, though, news broke that Gillis had a history of making defamatory comments about Chinese Americans, LGBTQ people and women during episodes of his podcast with fellow comedian Matt McCusker called "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast." "SNL" decided to fire him before the season began, saying: "We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/16/entertainment/snl-shane-gillis/index.html

Legendary hockey coach and sports broadcaster Don Cherry stepped down from Canada's No. 1 sports network, Sportsnet, after referring to immigrants as "you people." Sportsnet said in a statement on Twitter that Cherry's comments were "divisive" and "do not represent our values or what we stand for." Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/11/entertainment/don-cherry-immigrant-rant-ctv-trnd/index.html

Comedian Sarah Silverman has said she was fired from a movie after producers found a sketch from 2007 in which she wore blackface make-up. Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/12/entertainment/sarah-silverman-blackface-scli-intl/index.html

Scarlett Johansson received major backlash in July after discussing actors playing characters of other races, genders and sexual orientations. She said she should be allowed to play "any person, or any tree, or any animal." Her comments sparked criticism on social media about privilege and appropriation. Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/14/entertainment/scarlett-johansson-interview-trnd/index.html

[rgray222]

One less reality TV show is probably a good thing but it does show that the cancel culture is alive and well and affecting every corner of society.

A&E Has Lost Half Its Viewers Since Dropping 'Live PD'

Cable television ratings for A&E Network have plummeted since it canceled the hit police reality show, “Live PD” on June 10, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Following the death of George Floyd and riots led by “Black Lives Matter” across the country, A&E Network capitulated to demands to cancel the law enforcement show saying in a statement:


“This is a critical time in our nation’s history and we have made the decision to cease production on Live PD. Going forward, we will determine if there is a clear pathway to tell the stories of both the community and the police officers whose role it is to serve them. And with that, we will be meeting with community and civil rights leaders as well as police departments.”

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-e-has-lost-half-its-viewers-since-dropping-live-pd-11595588402

[Savannah]

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/484916-federal-appeals-court-rules-tech-platforms-are-free-to-censor-content

Cancelling IMO is just old fashion Censoring. The technocracy moved the population to media platforms promoted as their new form of human connection and social interaction and source of news. They allowed it to be relatively free in order for people to buy in. They later covertly control and then outwardly control what they want heard and followed. No one is immune even those who were once elevated to victim-hood will be torn down, because they can, because its not about truth its about control. For now they want you think its about equality and difference of opinion. They must be really laughing about how easily the sheep are herded and incapable of seeing the simplest of fallacies. Soon with no debate, no rationalization, no humane just or racial cause, you will just be cancelled-eliminated because they ( CFR ) say so. They want us to get used to this new normal because tomorrow you will one of the disappeared rather than cancelled.

[Ewan]

A Texas realtor group announced on June 25 that it would stop using the word “master” to describe bedrooms and bathrooms due to connotations of slavery.
The Houston Association of Realtors said it would replace “master” with the word “primary.” source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/us/master-houston-association-of-realtors-trnd/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_content=2020-06-26T04%3A55%3A05&utm_source=twCNN&utm_term=link

The makers of the game Dungeons & Dragons have announced they will eliminate the concept of “evil” races and implement other changes to make the game more sensitive to diversity issues. One of those changes includes “incorporating sensitivity readers into our creative process, and we will continue to reach out to experts in various fields to help us identify our blind spots.” Source: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/diversity-and-dnd

A giant cross dedicated to Junipero Serra on Mount Rubidoux in Riverside, Calif., was vandalized on the night of June 28. Serra founded missions at San Francisco and San Diego that were the first European settlements at those sites. The Spanish priest has been a target of Native American groups and historians who claim Serra sanctioned the oppression of Native Americans. Graffiti on the cross in Riverside read “Serra was a pedophile,” “Murderer,” and “N8V Land.” Source: https://www.foxla.com/news/giant-cross-named-after-junipero-serra-vandalized-in-riverside

The producers of The Simpsons have decided to use only non-white actors to voice non-white characters. The white actor who voices African American character Cleveland in Family Guy also announced he would step down from the role. Actresses Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell have also announced they will stop voicing biracial characters on two animated TV shows. Slate voiced character Missy on Netflix’s Bigmouth, while Bell voiced Molly Tillerman on the Apple TV+ series Central Park. Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/25/883622069/jenny-slate-and-kristen-bell-will-stop-playing-biracial-cartoon-characters

Emory & Henry College in Virginia has announced that the school will consider changing its wasp mascot, because it is indicative of the acronym WASP, which might foster an exclusive and discriminatory environment for students who are not White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. The WASP mascot has been deemed offensive. Source: https://www.yaf.org/news/virginia-college-to-re-examine-offensive-wasp-mascot/

I'd just like to suddenly blurt out - "Mother of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".
With a ridiculous amount of exclamation marks as they felt warranted as the blurt erupted.

I know in the past I have mentioned the writings of Doris Lessing, even recommending to Bill that he reads them again, as with each reading more and more wisdom is revealed. Lessing spoke of all these thing in her title here. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentimental_Agents_in_the_Volyen_Empire) It was to prepare an operative for descending into the hell of a "1984" environment and being able to maintain their focus and operate for the good of a higher purpose (healing).

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

These cancelled people and brands and organizations etc, just cannot be okay with this, they just can't. In the back of their minds they have to be saying "NO, this is not racist so I'm NOT getting rid of it, NOT changing it, and no I WON'T step down, it's BULLSH!T, so go _bleep_ yourself ok?"

Why aren't they saying it with their mouths?

Fear. Has to be. But it only takes one, one big name, one big example of strong, fearless resistance, and surely the floodgates will open and cancel culture will be cancelled. Until that happens, this will go on and on and probably only get worse.

[Ewan]

These cancelled people and brands and organizations etc, just cannot be okay with this, they just can't. In the back of their minds they have to be saying "NO, this is not racist so I'm NOT getting rid of it, NOT changing it, and no I WON'T step down, it's BULLSH!T, so go _bleep_ yourself ok?"

Why aren't they saying it with their mouths?

Fear. Has to be. But it only takes one, one big name, one big example of strong, fearless resistance, and surely the floodgates will open and cancel culture will be cancelled. Until that happens, this will go on and on and probably only get worse.

Bingo! The conditioning controls the response. It takes a dedicated rebel to ignore the consequenses, even if those are just a sudden flurry of vitriolic tweets. (Ultimately meaningless soundbytes, that is all they are, but they have taken on a power in this digital age).
The world we live in now has changed very markedly from a mere 50 years ago, I 'fear' for what comes next.

[Matthew]

These cancelled people and brands and organizations etc, just cannot be okay with this, they just can't. In the back of their minds they have to be saying "NO, this is not racist so I'm NOT getting rid of it, NOT changing it, and no I WON'T step down, it's BULLSH!T, so go _bleep_ yourself ok?"

Why aren't they saying it with their mouths?

Fear. Has to be. But it only takes one, one big name, one big example of strong, fearless resistance, and surely the floodgates will open and cancel culture will be cancelled. Until that happens, this will go on and on and probably only get worse.

Fear :lol: yes it polices itself. To a point, while people go silent. But it doesn't stop people thinking... I would guess all this time the silent majority has gotten bigger as they become aware of things they can no longer say or talk about.

Play a part with your subscription money or your attention. Starve some, feed others. Free market economy made these social media companies, it will make others too. There are alternatives to twitter, YouTube, facebook, etc. The alternatives have been around for a while, but are starting to get noticed because of the political cancellings. Most are as bad if not worst than their rivals in terms of their self-warranted moral arbitration; twitch, for example, is more proud and explicitly Woke than YouTube.

But then there are some that go directly against cancel culture. Parler, for example, has a policy of free speech in that you can report someone else's post only if it's illegal in the hosting country. Otherwise you can't report it. But you can respond to it directly, with your own words. It's an 'anti-twitter' stance, and Parler corp criticizes the cancel culture of twitter as a sort of key selling point of their platform.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

When the silent are silent no more, that's when big change happens. We can only hope!

Here's a good talk on these very issues, came out yesterday.

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[Ernie Nemeth]

The idea of the cancel culture is akin to the Nazi cleansing of the mid-1930s, or the Proletariat movement in Russia before the formation of the USSR, disappearing dissidents by the thousands. There are many other examples throughout the world of the use of this tactic.

Remove those voices that would or will oppose your views before the juggernaut political thrust. That way the people will find the popular view is the instigating party's, since its opponents were silenced before the movement became political.

It is happening now primarily in the USA, but the globalists are using this tactic in many other countries as well.

Question is: What is this culling of the intelligentsia and the silencing of counter views leading to?

[Matthew]

...

Question is: What is this culling of the intelligentsia and the silencing of counter views leading to?

YouTube has been de-monitising for years. It's not as directly violent as a 1930's 'night of the long knives', where swaths people were slaughtered overnight, but does effect peoples ability to pay rent. Remember the 'YouTube shooter' Nasim Aghdam? She*1 had just gotten de-monitised by YouTube.

Here's what I can find about her experience of censorship. (source: https://mediakix.com/blog/nasim-aghdam-youtube-shooter-demonetization/)

https://mediakix.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/New-York-Times-YouTube-Shooting-Nasim-Aghdam-vegan.png

She had strong opinions as a vegan and member of PETA. Here's one of her song/videos: it contains disturbing images of animals being slaughtered/experimented on (YouTube link (https://youtu.be/4uoTizSNMSQ)). I don't like the video, but it's a great pop song imho.

It's easy to miss the steady stream of (seemingly random and unjustified) cancellations. It's not like they all make headline news. But the unaccountable shadow-banning by these platforms has ruined lives... YouTube, Patron, PayPal

[Ernie Nemeth]

I have boycotted Facebook since they de-platformed Alex Jones.

[rgray222]

The idea of the cancel culture is akin to the Nazi cleansing of the mid-1930s. There are many other examples throughout the world of the use of this tactic.


In my wildest dreams I never thought that I would see a book burning in my lifetime but apparently I was wrong. "Your Bookshelf May Be Part of the Problem" or "Decolonize Your Bookshelf" is a kinder, gentler version of burning books but no less a book-burning exercise. When I pick up a book race and gender of the author are the furthest things from my mind. They play no role whatsoever as to why I choose a book to read.

Books are not forced upon me, I read because I have an occasional curiosity about certain subjects at various times in my life. The idea that a news source would ask/tell me to self-censor or remove any reading material fom my bookshelf is appalling.

It is amazing that this story first turned up on NPR, National Public Radio which is partially publically-funded.

Your Bookshelf Maybe Part of the Problem.

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/06/05/76379146_8153fb49ff_o_wide-a8c6840d0ce965431f7cf288d798ff5331df9e86-s800-c85.jpg

If you are white, take a moment to examine your bookshelf.
Have you considered that, if you identify as white and read only the work of white authors, you are in some ways listening to an extension of your own voice on repeat? While the details and depth of experience may differ, white voices have dominated what has been considered canon for eons. That means non-white readers have had to process stories and historical events through a white author's lens.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/06/870910728/your-bookshelf-may-be-part-of-the-problem?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews

[Gemma13]

The idea of the cancel culture is akin to the Nazi cleansing of the mid-1930s. There are many other examples throughout the world of the use of this tactic.


In my wildest dreams I never thought that I would see a book burning in my lifetime but apparently I was wrong. "Your Bookshelf May Be Part of the Problem" or "Decolonize Your Bookshelf" is a kinder, gentler version of burning books but no less a book-burning exercise. When I pick up a book race and gender of the author are the furthest things from my mind. They play no role whatsoever as to why I choose a book to read.

Books are not forced upon me, I read because I have an occasional curiosity about certain subjects at various times in my life. The idea that a news source would ask/tell me to self-censor or remove any reading material fom my bookshelf is appalling.

It is amazing that this story first turned up on NPR, National Public Radio which is partially publically-funded.

Your Bookshelf Maybe Part of the Problem.

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/06/05/76379146_8153fb49ff_o_wide-a8c6840d0ce965431f7cf288d798ff5331df9e86-s800-c85.jpg

If you are white, take a moment to examine your bookshelf.
Have you considered that, if you identify as white and read only the work of white authors, you are in some ways listening to an extension of your own voice on repeat? While the details and depth of experience may differ, white voices have dominated what has been considered canon for eons. That means non-white readers have had to process stories and historical events through a white author's lens.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/06/870910728/your-bookshelf-may-be-part-of-the-problem?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews


Books are not forced upon me, I read because I have an occasional curiosity about certain subjects at various times in my life. The idea that a news source would ask/tell me to self-censor or remove any reading material fom my bookshelf is appalling.

Me too.

From the article linked:


If you are white, take a moment to examine your bookshelf. What do you see? What books and authors have you allowed to influence your worldview, and how you process the issues of racism and prejudice toward the disenfranchised? Have you considered that, if you identify as white and read only the work of white authors, you are in some ways listening to an extension of your own voice on repeat? While the details and depth of experience may differ, white voices have dominated what has been considered canon for eons. That means non-white readers have had to process stories and historical events through a white author's lens. The problem goes deeper than that, anyway, considering that even now 76% of publishing professionals — the people you might call the gatekeepers — are white.


I cannot rationalize this logic when, if stats are correct, the population ratio of whites and black in the U.S. is approx. 76% white.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

I want to know who's writing this bilge. Media talking-points are a broken record at the moment, and it's getting more and more illogical with every passing day.

There is not one jot of common sense here, and I refuse to believe the whole world has suddenly lost all it's common sense. I've no doubt whatsoever it's being coordinated somehow, with people being paid, threatened, and silenced to advocate and popularize these new 'woke' ways of thinking. The why is clear: to insert a new program into the pliable minds of the masses -- a new way of (not) thinking. When people cannot even think, decide, and rationalize anything for themselves, they become the ultimate tool, the perfect slave.

Cancel-culture also demotivates independent thought and expression. People become too scared to speak up and speak out for fear of reprisal and cancellation. And that's exactly where we are, Orwell's nightmare.

[Ewan]

I've got several books on my shelves by non-white authors, I'm alright. :waving:

[rgray222]

I want to know who's writing this bilge.
There is not one jot of common sense here, and I refuse to believe the whole world has suddenly lost all it's common sense. I've no doubt whatsoever it's being coordinated somehow, with people being paid, threatened, and silenced to advocate and popularize these new 'woke' ways of thinking. The why is clear: to insert a new program into the pliable minds of the masses -- a new way of (not) thinking. When people cannot even think, decide, and rationalize anything for themselves, they become the ultimate tool, the perfect slave.

Cancel-culture also demotivates independent thought and expression. People become too scared to speak up and speak out for fear of reprisal and cancellation. And that's exactly where we are, Orwell's nightmare.

Your questions are certainly valid, who is doing this and for what purpose, why?

There are only two ways to accelerate change in society, even change that people don't want, fear and anger. Racism is a double-edged sword people are both afraid of racism and they are deeply angered by it. Whether it is real or perceived it makes no difference whatsoever as long as people believe that racism exists in society people will acquiesce to allow for change.

That is why this new term came into being, systemic racism. Once you have people believing that the system is structurally racist then it is no longer to be discussed or debated. If you attempt to question it then you must be part of the problem, you are quickly tagged as a racist. The cancel culture may start on social media but it gets its real power from mainstream media, they are fully onboard. Anyone that has indiscretions in their past has intentionally been targeted as an example. Anyone who offers any form of resistance will be targeted, the more prominent the individual the better.

So what changes are these people wanting to make?

A move away from capitalism to socialism
The removal of Donald Trump
Political power
Financial power
Open borders on a worldwide basis to destroy culture and defeat nationalism
Larger government
Global governance

The who is a much more difficult question, in the United States it is the party that is out of power and wants it back. The democrats.

Around the world, it is easy to identify these people on a broad basis but more difficult when you start getting into specifics. It is certainly globalists that populate the European Union and the United Nations. Also in today's world China has the most to gain if we move much further towards a global government

To achieve their one-world government goal it is imperative that the United States must fail. That is why we are living through the perfect storm a pandemic, race riots, and at the same time talk of abolishing the police. People are in fear of losing their health, jobs, incomes, and their personal security that they are willing to accept whatever change is on offer.

[Ewan]

There is a bit of chicken/egg situation in the media to my mind. I know there are agendas and potentially editors in bed/controlled by alphabet agencies but do the majority of reporters/journalists drive the agendas or just jump on current topics in order to seem relevant. I'm sure a lot are too short sighted to see past anything wider than pleasing their chief and getting likes and re-tweets.

[Matthew]

I want to know who's writing this bilge. Media talking-points are a broken record at the moment, and it's getting more and more illogical with every passing day.
...

Gamer-gate was happening earlier in the decade. Since gamer-gate it's been getting, as you put it: more and more illogical. Gamer-gate is the first I can see of the woke-push. But it's not slowed down and over the last few years its invaded our entertainment and news.

Having started earlier, the world of games is ahead of everything else. With games, only recently, we had The Last of Us Part II fiasco, which deserves it's own thread. Long story short~: they made a sequel to a popular game, but twisted the alpha-male hero character, and pushed a new lesbian character who early on kills the much loved alpha-male. Needless to say, free market economy works and the consumers rejected the non-stop illogical nonsense being pushed onto them, invading their favorite game. Invading and insulting the players in the process

In the world of games we have Twitch, which is a video sharing site for gamers; you record yourself playing games and upload it so others can watch.

But because the gamer scene has had more years of woke being pushed on it, Twitch had started earlier with its illogicalness, before twitter or YouTube. Here's how far gone Twitch had gotten on 16 May 2020 for example: (Twitch Gets Woke YouTube video by Sargon of Akkad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpvZy0bXBt4)). <-- that little gem of a video shows how Twitch positioned themselves and took things up a notch

So is it a surprise when Twitch are accused of banning someone for giving The Last of Us Part II bad reviews? Ban one and the rest will fall in line because of fear right? Twitch's 'Safety Adversary Council' in action. If you insult the The Last of Us Part II then you are insulting their whole ideology. And that's. just. it. We are having an ideology pushed onto us. Woke Mafia


Cancel Culture
DRjNyLSCeOo

Here is Sargon talking about gamer gate back in 2015 when it was almost old news: #Gamergate's Sargon of Akkad Graces LwC | Louder With Crowder (https://youtu.be/vSMzYCPsNcY) (YouTube link).

I don't think it's happening because of lack of common sense, or an accident. There's too much parity between gamer gate in 2014 and what's going on generally now. It's the push of an ideology

[silvanelf]

Here you can see the hypocrisy of the Right.
...

Left and right are overplayed constructs imo. This so called 'Right' is simply anyone who speaks out against things like BLM the organisation, trans women's rights, or challenges other extreme ideological positions. Take Zuby for example in this reddit article about how he got in trouble with twitter (link) (https://www.reddit.com/r/TumblrInAction/comments/fav8tj/twitter_suspends_uk_rapper_zuby_for_saying_ok/). He's the right now apparently ?lolwut. That type of labeling is lazy or naive or both

You are right -- no pun intended. I fell into the trap of thinking along the scheme of "Left vs Right."

I assumed that all the signees of Harper's letter belong to the Right ... but that's not true.


Thomas Chatterton Williams, who wrote the Harper's letter, admitted today that Glenn Greenwald was kept off the letter b/c other signees didn't like his views.
The signers of the letter against the 'cancel culture' had cancelled Glenn Greenwald from signing it.

[Matthew]

Here you can see the hypocrisy of the Right.
...

...


I've absolutely no doubt those on the right are hypocrites. The way you said it though, it's as if the left is exonerated or something?... Left, center, right - hypocrisy is as rife as humans are

[Ernie Nemeth]

But we do know why they are doing it. 'They' are the globalists, the deep state, the financiers, the bankers, the industrialists, the tech gurus, the blue-bloods, the royals, the Vatican, the United Nations and the new golden child...China.

'They' want a world with no borders that has race proportions in line with global percentages - and whites are only a little more than 10% of that number. So in the west, where the majority is white, the proportions are wrong and do not reflect the race proportions in rest of the world. Since the globalists are moving their headquarters to China, a more representative attitude toward race must be inculcated into the minds of the whites in the western world.

We are being put in our place. Our enclaves, the nations of the west, are under ideological siege. Whites are being marginalized to make room for minorities under the guise of normalizing minority representation in all areas of civil life.

The end game, for this century, is the rise of the east and the domination of Asian culture, values, and attitudes. To be precise, it is an ideological move towards communism, a dictatorial mode of governance far more malign than our present culture.

[Constance]

2222222222222222

408878140070558/

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

It's the push of an ideology

What's astonishing to me is how many are just rolling over and accepting it when it flies so utterly against the face of basic logic. To ban voice chat in gaming because it's a disadvantage to those who don't have mics is like saying 'ban all cars because it's unfair to those who don't drive.' We've now entered upside down, back to front twilight zone world.

As for the tattooed trans-person in that video, with multi-coloured hair and antlers. If I called her a man in a wig, is that more offensive than her saying it's a fact that "most gamers are white-supremacist"? Frankly, I thought the central gist of 'wokeness' was that assuming stereotypes and calling people toxic names was wrong.

...This is why social justice warrior ideologues should never be given a position of influence, over anything, ever, because it's never about fairness, or facts, or logic, just agenda and ideology.

[rgray222]

The heads of the Poetry Foundation (a big deal in the literary world) stepped down after issuing a statement denouncing "systemic racism" because it was deemed too vague. When you read the open letter (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4u5Ns8Blz0gutuanOHF6I026Xi0dE9lT36HQtg5pDKeT5uQ/viewform) they make it abundantly clear that the real reason is that the leadership is "overwhelmingly white". This may or may not be warranted, I don't know all the facts but it does appear that the cancel culture is steamrolling right through society.

Poetry Foundation Leaders Resign After Criticism Of Their Response To Protests

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/06/10/ap_19162435247759_wide-a863a1a5536f967495653e3d73953ec56f93d23a-s800-c85.jpg

The Poetry Foundation announced today that two of its leaders have stepped down — president Henry Bienen, and Board chair Willard Bunn III. This comes days after an open letter written by 30 poets, and signed by over a thousand more, criticized the foundation's response to the police killing of George Floyd, calling it "worse than the bare minimum."


On June 3, 2020, the Poetry Foundation released a vague statement that you "stand in solidarity with the Black community, and denounce injustice and systemic racism." This non-substantive, four-sentence statement — which contained no details, action plans, or concrete commitments — was the Foundation's sole response to the ongoing state-sanctioned murders of Black people by police and the current wave of violent state repression of those protesting these killings.

The Poetry Foundation is a heavy hitter in the literary world. It's a non-profit worth over $250 million, and it works to promote poetry while publishing the influential Poetry Magazine.

"We demand that the staff of the Foundation more adequately reflect the demographics of the city of Chicago," the letter reads. "We believe that as long as the Foundation's staff and leadership remain overwhelmingly White, it fundamentally limits the Foundation's ability to ever be an organization rooted in anti-racist practice."

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/10/874324678/poetry-foundation-leaders-resign-after-criticism-of-their-response-to-protests

[silvanelf]

Here you can see the hypocrisy of the Right.
...

...


I've absolutely no doubt those on the right are hypocrites. The way you said it though, it's as if the left is exonerated or something?... Left, center, right - hypocrisy is as rife as humans are

You can interpret my statement in this way, but my mind was on something else: in my opinion there is a subtle difference between the "hypocrisy of the Right" and the "hypocrisy of the Left."

[Gracy]

But it only takes one, one big name, one big example of strong, fearless resistance, and surely the floodgates will open and cancel culture will be cancelled. Until that happens, this will go on and on and probably only get worse.

It's time in the sun will surely have it's sunset, whether it happens with a big stand as you describe, or more and more people just stop paying attention to it as they come to recognize the ridiculous hollowness of it all.

I don't recall how the McCarthy era drew to a close, but it did, and as an aside I find it interesting how these movements seem to bubble up out of nowhere.

Or do they?

[Gemma13]

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/28/acting-could-soon-be-a-hate-crime/

Acting could soon be a hate crime

Performers in Scotland could be punished for playing ‘offensive’ roles under a new hate-crime law.

Scotland’s new hate-crime bill could result in actors being punished for portraying offensive characters. The SNP’s disdain for free speech is not even limited to real people.

The bill is intended to prevent harm to potential victims of hate crime. But it would criminalise anything deemed likely to ‘stir up hatred’ against people on the basis of their age, religion, gender identity or other protected characteristics – even if it is an actor pretending to be racist, transphobic or bigoted for the purposes of a play.

1260241425184296960

It is not clear who gets to decide what is likely to stir up hatred, or how that hatred is defined. This ambiguity has led the Law Society of Scotland to express its concern that ‘even an actor’s performance, which might well be deemed insulting or offensive, could result in a criminal conviction under the terms of the bill’.

We can all think of plays which feature racist or homophobic characters, often presented in a negative light. If such performances are made a legal issue, just imagine how much material could be censored – and how many actors could potentially face criminal charges.

It is hard to believe it is necessary to defend the freedom of actors and writers to produce offensive content. Absurdly, this bill would undermine the entire point of acting – to convincingly portray someone other than yourself. If actors’ performances are seen to be reflections of their own views, it will kill the performing arts.

This is a new low for censorship in Britain.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Sick of saying 'unbelievable, you can't make this up'. Well woke Scotland can start by extraditing Mel Gibson to stand trial for hate speech against the English (William Wallace). Hmm, No, you say?

We're back to the question they never answer and never even address: what precisely is 'hate speech', and who precisely defines it?

This comment sums it up:

Hugh Jasse
@andrewdoyle_com
Blasphemy Laws! Yay! I always wondered what life must have been like in the Medieval Era, now we all get to find out.

[rgray222]

Bill Maher Calls Cancel Culture Social Murder, If We Can't Have Conversations With People Then Violence Is the Only Way To Solve Problems

https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-20-at-9.52.18-AM-580x357.png

Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss likened cancel culture to "social murder" on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday night, arguing it isn't about criticism but "punishment."


Cancel culture ... is about punishment. It is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job

"We're used to criticism. Criticism is kosher in the work that we do," said Weiss, who resigned from The New York Times last month in a public letter to publisher A.G. Sulzberger.

"Criticism is great. What cancel culture is about is not criticism. It is about punishment. It is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job," Weiss told Maher. "The writer Jonathan Rauch [of The Atlantic] called it social murder. And I think that's right."


If conversation with people that we disagree with becomes impossible, what is the way that we solve conflict?... It's violence.
"It's not just about punishing the sinner. It's not just about punishing the person for being insufficiently pure. It's about this sort of secondary boycott of people who would deign to speak to that person or appear on a platform with that person," she added. "And we see just very obviously where that kind of politics gets us.


If conversation with people that we disagree with becomes impossible, than how do we solve conflict? It's violence.

[Mike]

It's a hypothetical, but still a pretty interesting discussion:

YRq6zz9GVtU

[Mike]

The yahoo comments section has been cancelled. Poof. Gone...

It's been replaced by a survey asking if you'll continue to read the articles without an opportunity to comment.

This is a pretty big deal, in my view. There was always some stupid, obnoxious comments, but there were also many many thoughtful and smart ones. Funny ones too. And the majority of them almost always disagreed with the mainstream talking points.

It was mostly an army of sane people calling bullsh!t on what's being spoon-fed us. So I'm not too surprised to see it go

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

1984:"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. History has stopped."

******

Illinois lawmaker proposes ban on history classes: They ‘lead to a racist society’

A black Democratic state representative from Illinois wants to ban the teaching of history in the state because it “leads to white privilege and a racist society.”

As reported by NBC Chicago, Rep. LaShawn Ford gave out a news release before a Sunday gathering of politicians and educators which asked the Illinois Board of Education and school districts to “immediately remove history curriculum and books that ‘unfairly communicate’ history ‘until a suitable alternative is developed.'”

In place of history, Ford suggests more focus on civics and “ensuring students understand democratic processes.”

Ford also is sponsoring a bill which would mandate elementary schools teach about the civil rights movement.

From Ford’s news release:

“When it comes to teaching history in Illinois, we need to end the miseducation of Illinoisans,” Ford said. “I’m calling on the Illinois State Board of Education and local school districts to take immediate action by removing current history books and curriculum practices that unfairly communicate our history. Until a suitable alternative is developed, we should instead devote greater attention toward civics and ensuring students understand our democratic processes and how they can be involved. I’m also alarmed that people continue to display symbols of hate, such as the recent display of the Confederate flag in Evanston.” …

“The miseducation of our children must stop,” said Meleika Gardner of We Will. “It is urgent that it comes to an end as we witness our current climate become more hostile. Miseducation has fed and continues to feed systemic racism for generations. If Black History continues to be devalued and taught incorrectly, then it will call for further action.”

Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty notes “As Mayor, I am not comfortable speaking on education, curriculum, and whether history lessons should be suspended. This is not my area. Personally, I support House Bill 4954 because I am interested in learning more and believe the history of Black people should be taught to all children and include all groups, Women, LatinX, and Native Indians who helped to build America.”

According to his legislative bio, Ford is a former history teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. Since first being elected to the state legislature in 2006 he’s never faced a re-election opponent. In 2019 he ran for Chicago mayor garnering a little over one percent of the vote.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/illinois-lawmaker-proposes-ban-on-history-classes-because-they-lead-to-a-racist-society/

----------

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/ab/67/f0/ab67f015ff370bb1fd5caf1cff40238f--george-orwell--quotes--orwell.jpg

[rgray222]

I often wonder if investigating the etymology of every single phrase or word for racist overtones is an effort of white people to shed some of their guilt. It certainly does not seem to be an effort to create a more equal society.

Anyone who has seen my posts will often see the phrase "words matter" but I honestly think these words are intentional misdirection away from the real issues facing the black community. Wasting ink and everyone's time on the word "grandfathered" does nothing for black progress. The issues are better schools, better jobs, better pay, better housing and more fathers involved in raising children. Not obscure words that only white people care about.


Massachusetts Appeals Court: The phrase ‘grandfather clause,’ racist in origin, will no longer be used

The state Appeals Court used a zoning feud between Gloucester neighbors as an opportunity to jettison the term “grandfathering” from its lexicon Monday, citing its origin in post-Civil War laws that prevented Blacks from exercising their right to vote.

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/10/21/3b29638r_wide-7fe04dfc32c3595c8dd15814e680e26f26fb6212.jpg?s=1400

A three-judge panel declared its objection to the word, which has been used by lawyers, judges, and local governments to explain why new zoning rules, for example, do not apply to existing buildings or home lots.

“Providing such protection commonly is known — in the case law and otherwise — as ‘grandfathering.’ We decline to use that term, however, because we acknowledge that it has racist origins,’’ Judge James R. Milkey wrote in a footnote for the state’s second-highest court.

Read the full story: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/03/metro/mass-appeals-court-grandfather-clause-term-will-no-longer-be-used-due-racist-origin/

[onawah]

URGENT: The Second Amendment is Under Attack
From the email update 8/6/2020
James O'Keefe <info@projectveritas.com

"Project Veritas released a video earlier today where I was featured being denied my right to bear arm

The FBI has placed me on their NICS list, banning me from purchasing firearms by alleging I am a convicted felon.

I have never been convicted of a felony, ever.

As a result of this, I have decided to sue the FBI so that my Second Amendment rights are fully restored.

This story is so shocking that it has made headlines even at The New York Daily News:
https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/-z3XqpN-PFBK908CxE0h4bovd9qglQ46L-JvUwKz1YAN3MwClUefEV0h2bFsOKhLrqfZ484UNIeNYuAOL4W8u6TkanrhcqkFJwUqLj5Y_0fhgEvSK7Hz7GNLLUxm6jBHXxX4a5 fwPgBQSM0T=s0-d-e1-ft#http://i1.cmail20.com/ei/j/05/020/C87/064408/csfinal/1DailyNewsimage-9900000000079e3c.png.

I will not stop fighting until this injustice is overturned. Every law-abiding American deserves to have the right to protect themselves.

Stay tuned, more developments on this coming soon.

Be Brave,

James O’Keefe"
J548bKOSRHk

[Delight]

H_OO-OOYqw8


THE CANCEL GOD
by Peter Limberg & Lubomir Arsov (https://highexistence.com/cancel-god/)

Darkness hovers above us.

You can feel it but cannot see it. You feel it in your office, your classroom, your social media feed; you even feel it in your body, which shudders with fear at the thought of speaking what you believe to be true. It feels like the world has been turned upside-down. People are acting like they have no God but this is not true, because a God has been summoned: the Cancel God.

The Cancel God wants to cancel you. It wants to cancel everyone you know. It wants to cancel humanity itself. That is its nihilistic goal. It demands you serve or submit. If you do, it promises you will suffer less when everyone dies. You sense this is an ignoble lie, but you are too afraid to question it because you deem the consequences of being cancelled far too high.

So be a good boy. Be a good girl. Say the right things, at the right time, in the right way. Be very careful not to offend, because you are now inherently offensive. Delete your old comments, your old threads, your old self. Get on your knees, and start to apologize, and apologize, and apologize, and apologize …

[Mike]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8651119/News-anchor-fired-referring-Kamala-Harris-colored-vice-presidential-candidate.html

Cleveland radio host gets fired for referring to Kamala Harris as "colored".

[Bill Ryan]

A video by Paul Joseph Watson draws attention to a 2 July, 2020 paper (https://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Ok-et-al.-2020.pdf) published by the American Psychological Association saying psychopaths are likely to engage in fabricated “victimhood” and “virtue signaling”.

This is the paper (https://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Ok-et-al.-2020.pdf)'s title:

Signaling Virtuous Victimhood as Indicators of Dark Triad Personalities

Enjoy. :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jQ9x9gFY7A

[rgray222]

The purpose of this post is not to highlight Trump or Biden it is simply to point out how prevalent and important the cancel culture has become. When the President of the USA actually makes it a platform in his effort to get reelected you know something different and unusual is happening.

Reject the ‘cancel culture.’ Reelect Donald Trump as president

URBANA, Ohio -- You don’t have free speech when only one side is allowed to talk. You don’t have freedom when one side can be “canceled” for disagreeing with the other. In today’s world, opposing views aren’t challenged or debated, they’re censored by the left – the left that controls Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and virtually all of the Democrats in Congress. And every day, this same “cancel-culture” left is looking for someone new to target.

It was this “cancel culture” that Bari Weiss cited as the reason for her resignation as a New York Times editor. She used the term “digital thunderdome” to describe the brave new world that the left has created. The world where your thoughts and opinions have to be in sync with the mob. If they’re not, you’ll be viciously attacked on social media. Your employer will be harassed. And your family is not off-limits, either.

Just look at the world of sports. In June, NFL quarterback Drew Brees was forced to apologize after he stated that he would stand for the national anthem. A few weeks later, the left tried to cancel Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy simply because he wore the “wrong” T-shirt fishing with his family. Not long after, NBA player James Harden wore a mask supporting the police. He, too, was forced to address his “wrong” support for law enforcement. The left doesn’t care who you are or what you do. No one is safe from the mob.

To read the rest of the story: https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2020/08/reject-the-cancel-culture-reelect-donald-trump-as-president-jim-jordan.html

[Mike]

NHL Hockey announcer Mike Milbury is cancelled for daring to suggest that sports "bubbles" keep players more focused on their sports because they don't have to give as much time and energy to their spouses. The nerve of this man.


https://nypost.com/2020/08/27/nhl-analyst-mike-milbury-is-latest-victim-of-selective-justice/

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Sports and sports coverage has now become out and out political activism. I tune into Sky Sports daily, just for sports news. The actual sports-related stories are playing second fiddle to social justice talking points. In every single sport report, racism, sexism, and homophobia are the dominating headlines. We in the UK are under siege from it. We get all the NBA and NHL black lives matter and associated social justice stuff, every single story repeated ad nauseam - and here in a country where hardly anyone (no one I know) even follows or knows a single thing (or cares a single whit) about basketball or ice hockey. They are about as popular in the UK as cricket is in the US. Meaning, not at all. But because these 'existential threats to our society' narratives are all part of the mass media programming agenda, they are forced down our throats and we are forced to watch. Well, no more.

If sports casters are to become suddenly political bullhorns, they should be helping to bring understanding, and healing, and awareness to these social issues. Prejudice certainly exists in sport, but coverage of them has become so saturated of late they have made a circus of it. I've spoken to several friends like me, sports fans, and from what I hear, people are turning off and turning away. They're sick of being shamed, embarrassed, and preached to 24 hours a day. I think a number of major sporting bodies may soon face the same wrath of the consumer that hollywood has experienced. Get woke, go broke.

[Mike]

John Muir, the "father of the national parks" is canceled for things he may or may not have said as a younger man.

https://news.yahoo.com/john-muir-canceled-next-225200288.html

[Eva2]

J. P. Sears on "How People Cancel Each Other".


https://youtu.be/D5-z-P4Agik

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

What is next I wonder. Will they cancel Father Time? Because that's sooo sexist! Ah, but if we do that then we must cancel Mother Nature too... Ha!

Actually I'm waiting for God to be cancelled.

https://i.gifer.com/9p8d.gif

The Christian "God" concept is typically portrayed as a 'white male', and a cis white male, which is the worst of the worst. Literal scum. So I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some virtue signalling moron hasn't already written or tweeted as such. If it hasn't happened yet, it will probably happen.

[Bill Ryan]

What is next I wonder. Will they cancel Father Time? Because that's sooo sexist! Ah, but if we do that then we must cancel Mother Nature too... Ha!

Some possible contenders for future cancellation:


Double Dutch
Dutch Courage
Indian Summer
German Measles
Spanish Flu
It's all Greek to me
The Italian Job
The French Connection
French Kiss
Russian Roulette
Mexican Wave
Mexican Standoff
Arabian Nights
Chinese Whispers
A Black Day
Black Box
Black Friday
Little Black Book
A Black Look
Black Market
Blacklisted
Black Sheep of the Family
And (courtesy of Led Zeppelin) Black Dog.

Any more...? :)

[Gracy]

Any more...? :)

Poor white trash. :lol:

[Mike]

Any more...? :)

Poor white trash. :lol:


I'm offended by that Gracy:) I hereby declare you cancelled.

Straight lines maybe? Exclusionary towards the gay community?

I think "lines that don't bend" is more appropriate.:)

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Any more...? :)

I can think of a good few unfortunately

Black Hat
Black Ball
Black Comedy
Black Humour
Black Mark
The Black Death
Chinese Burn
Chinese Whispers
Great Wall of China

White Christmas
White Wash
White Hat
Whiter than white
White Elephant
White Knight
White Wedding

Woman's Lib
Woman's Institute
Womanhood
Womankind
Womanly
Womenfolk
Girlfriend
Girlish
Girly
Girl Guide
Girl Band
Girl Power

Schoolgirl
Schoolboy
Boyfriend
Boyish
Boy Scout
Boy Band
Ball Boy
Boys will be Boys
Boys and Girls

Old Lady
Young Lady
First Lady
Lady Friend
Lady's Room
Ladylike
Ladybird
Ladies and Gentlemen

Motherhood
Motherly
Mother's Union
Mother Tongue
Mother Superior
Mother Mary
Mother Hen
Mother Goose
Mother Duck
Mother Nature
Mother Earth
Mother of Pearl
Mother's Day

Father Christmas
Father Figure
Father Time
Fatherhood
Fatherly
Father's Day

Englishman
Scotsman
Welshman
Irishman
Frenchman
Dutchman

Any Man
One Man team
One Man Band
One Man One Vote
Agree to a Man
I'm Your Man
A Family Man
A Man's Man
Man up
Be Man Enough
Be a Man
Make a Man out of Him
Manhood
Mankind
Manful
Manfully
Man-eater
Manhandle
Manhole
Man-made
Manpower
Mansized
Old Man
Young Man
New Man
Man of the World
To a Man
Man to Man
Man
Men
Men's Room

And on and on and on...

:(

[araucaria]

Chinese whispers
Russian roulette
Luck of the Irish
English understatement
American dream
French fries
Yorkshire pudding
Lancashire hotpot
Scotch egg
Maryland chicken
Spaghetti Bolognese
Camembert cheese
Champagne, Spanish sauternes



Stop eating and drinking folks!


Gallic shrug

[rgray222]

After reading some of these all I could think about was;

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxbusiness.com/foxbusiness.com/content/uploads/2020/06/0/0/EskimoPie.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

We may joke and quibble about the little things, because they are little things, but little things lead to slightly larger things, and then big things. That's how this works. That's how THEY do it, with steadily increasing gradations.

This is REAL Cancel Culture.

And who knows, maybe it'll be coming to a western democracy near you!

And real soon...

Chinese Communists Remove over 900 Crosses from Christian Churches
29 Aug 2020

Officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forcibly removed more than 900 crosses from Christian churches in the eastern province of Anhui during the first half of 2020, Bitter Winter reported Friday.

In June, it was reported that authorities had already removed crosses from over 250 state-controlled Three-Self churches in the Anhui province during the first four months of the year. Updated information reveals that officials eliminated crosses from an additional 656 Christian churches in the province over the first half of this year, bringing the total to over 900.

https://media.breitbart.com/media/2015/07/China-removes-church-crosses-AP-Photo-640x480.jpg

Anhui has the second-largest Christian population in China, and local authorities there have zealously sought to implement Beijing’s order to eliminate crosses from church buildings, threatening sanctions to those who fail to comply.

“If a church refuses to remove its cross, congregation members may lose their social benefits, like pensions and poverty-alleviation subsidies, and possibilities for their children’s future employment will be affected,” explained one member of a Three-Self church in the Yingdong district of Fuyang.

The cross-removal campaign is part of secretary Xi Jinping’s broader Sinicization program aimed at ridding China of western symbols and values, including those of Christianity.

“United Front Work Department officials said that all crosses taller than government buildings must be demolished because they overshadow state institutions,” said a member of the Hancheng Church in Hanshan county. “Only churches that look like enterprises are considered legal. To ‘sinicize’ Christianity, Xi Jinping does not allow churches to have Western crosses.”

Government officials have warned that “protesting cross demolitions means protesting against the government,” Bitter Winter noted, citing a local Christian. “Even though it is a symbol of our faith, who dares to disobey the central government order?”

Officials often carry out the demolition of crosses in the middle of the night to minimize resistance from the faithful. On certain occasions, demolition teams have been accompanied by hundreds of police officers to quell protests.

As part of its ongoing Sinicization program, CCP authorities have threatened poor Christian villagers with the loss of their welfare benefits unless they remove Christian images from their homes and replace them with portraits of Chairman Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping.

In so doing, the CCP has sought to channel religious fervor in the country toward the Party rather than God.

Last May, an official in the eastern province of Shandong raided the home of a local Christian and hung pictures of Mao and Xi Jinping on the wall in place of Christian images.

“These are the greatest gods. If you want to worship somebody, they are the ones,” the official told them.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/08/29/chinese-communists-remove-over-900-crosses-from-christian-churches/

[Constance]

[/FONT]

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/08/29/chinese-communists-remove-over-900-crosses-from-christian-churches/

Wow. Thanks for that Star.

Myron Fagon exposes why it has been important to do away with Christianity. This was recorded in 1967.

However, this is not just an expose on how there has been a plot to destroy Christianity, it also covers a whole range of topics, including the origins of BLM.



fl9sKK6QGfk

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Here's my speculative (and probably later added-to) list of politically incorrect words and phrases, with their "woke" corrections and/or alternative meanings - all ripe for cancellation.

(based on lists online, but changed some, removed some, and made some more up) :)

What it was........................what it is now

1. Disabled....................Differently-abled
2. Homeless..................Displaced homeowner
3. Insane......................Perceptually challenged
4. Perverted..................Sexually unrepressed
5. Prostitute..................Sex care provider
6. Stupid.......................Intellectually impaired
7. Dishonest..................Ethically disorientated
8. Plastic surgery............Cosmetic enhancement
9. Insult........................Emotional rape
10. Policeman/woman......Law Enforcement Officer
11. Poor..........................Economically marginalised
12. Immigrant.................Settler from overseas
13. Illegal immigrant........Undocumented settler from overseas
14. Right wing protest......Riot
15. Left wing riot.............Protest
16. Alcoholic...................Substance abuser
17. Terrorist....................Freedom fighter
18. Hot weather...............Climate change
19. Job losses.................Job restructuring
20. Criminal....................Behaviourally challenged
21. Broken Home............Dysfunctional domestic unit
22. Caretaker..................Site engineer
23. Fat...........................Metabolic overachiever
24. Success....................Privilege
25. Foreign food..............Ethnic cuisine
26. Housewife.................Domestic engineer
27. Jungle......................Rain forest
28. Natural disaster..........Global warming
29. Sex change...............Gender reassignment
30. Graffiti......................Urban art
31. Old...........................Chronologically Senior
32. Preferential Treatment..Affirmative action
33. Liberal........................Conservative
34. Conservative...............Nazi
35. Nazi...........................Someone who disagrees with far-left
36. Husband.....................Partner
37. Wife...........................Partner
38. Alternative View...........Conspiracy theorist
39. Conspiracy Theorist......Crackpot
40. Disagreeable View........Hate speech
41. Rogue Nation...............Government that refuses to obey UK government
42. Evil............................Morally impaired
43. Robbery......................Wealth redistribution
44. Blind..........................Optically unreceptive
45. Lying..........................Economical with the truth
46. Wanted Criminal...........Person of Interest
47. Promiscuous................Sexually liberated
48. Drug Addict.................Chemically dependent person
49. Fireman......................Firefighter
50. Merry Christmas..........Season's Greetings
51. Historical Fact..............Historical Interpretation
52. Paedophile..................Minor Attracted Person
53. Bribe..........................Public Service Bonus
54. Christmas...................Winter Festival
55. Lies ...........................Alternative facts
56. Printing Money.............Quantitative Easing
57. Patriot.........................Nationalist
58. Tone Deaf....................Musically delayed
59. Male/Female................Cis-gendered person
60. Black Sheep.................Outcast
61. Gay.............................LGBTQQIP2SAA+
62. Postman......................Mail Carrier
63. Manhole......................Utility Duct
64. Blacklisted...................Banned
65. Adultery.......................Extra-Marital Relationship
66. Not in agreement with....* Phobic
67. Uneducated..................Lacking formal education
68. Abortion......................Planned Parenthood
69. Free Thinker.................Conspiracy Theorist
70. Trash Collector..............Sanitation engineer
71. Ghetto.........................Economically deprived area
72. Police Interrogation.......Helping the police with their enquiries
73. Idiot............................Ineffectual person
74. Ugly.............................Aesthetically less pleasing
75. Lazy.............................Motivationally lacking
76. Unemployed..................Between occupations
77. Smelly..........................Hygienically challenged
78. Identity Crisis................Gender Fluid
79. Man in the street............The average person
80. Waitress........................Server
81. Failure..........................Non-success
82. Forefathers....................Ancestors
83. Man-made.....................Artificial
84. Manpower......................Human resources
85. Mankind........................Humanity
86. War-Monger...................Nobel Prize-winning Peacekeeper
87. Christian name...............Forename
88. Sportsmanship...............Fairness
89. Tax man........................Tax officer
90. Workmanlike..................Efficient
91. Stewardess....................Flight attendant
92. Deaf..............................Hearing impaired
93. Disease.........................Disorder
94. Businessman..................Business person
95. Actress..........................Actor
96. Manageress....................Manager
97. Spinster.........................Bachelorette
98. White lie........................Lie
99. Gang.............................Youth Group
100. Tomboy..........................Gender fluid
101. Loser............................Second Place
102. Ignorant.......................Factually unacquainted
103. Incompetence................Inefficiency
104. Cowardly.......................Challenge Challenged

[rgray222]

Aunt Jemima cancellation poses a particular dilemma for me. On the one hand, there seems to be merit in cancelling all racial stereotypes. On the other hand, the Aunt Jemima logo represented a real person. By most accounts, the women that represented Aunt Jemima were paid well for their efforts.

Nancy Green (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Green), the first Aunt Jemima was an outgoing, gregarious woman that was a caretaker, storyteller, activist, great cook, an advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for all people. She was born into slavery in 1834 and was the first of several African-American women models hired to promote a corporate trademark as Aunt Jemima, she became the advertising world's first living trademark.

Nancy Green secured the job on merit. Several obituaries, including one found in the Sunday Morning Star, claim it was Green who originally came up with the pancake recipe that would go on to be sold as the Aunt Jemima mix. According to the obit, Green made pancakes for the Walker brothers, who then spread the word of Green's legendary pancakes among their friends. Eventually, word reached executives at the Aunt Jemima Manufacturing Company, who ultimately hired Green with a lifetime contract to make pancakes and portray Aunt Jemima at the 1893 World's Fair. Even Nancy Greens living family members (https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/relatives-aunt-jemima-actresses-express-concern-history-will-be-erased-n1231769?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&fbclid=IwAR3hG7NAPD5b1rY_Qhga97e31lrwSRrb8CVzDit-zmRGfyhCdjFTQj9ejOU) have been described as outraged by the removal of the Aunt Jemima Logo.

The dilemma is that Hollywood has created a thug stereotype of the young back man over the last several decades and nobody seems willing to address this issue. On the other hand, the Aunt Jemima stereotype is based on a real person with a kind, motherly, gregarious outlook on life and yet it was cancelled in the name of racial injustice.

If I have the wrong take on this please feel free to speak up and tell me why you think I am wrong.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/118762665_10217754459759619_4244322838383868929_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=110474&_nc_ohc=wPdXBT-Pj7cAX9sxvdJ&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=d3bee55aea0589a550a56338735e0d94&oe=5F739D19

This is the video that is responsible for getting the momentum going to have the Aunt Jemima logo removed.

https://twitter.com/singkirbysing/status/1272599621932429312?s=20

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Sort of relevant, but chiefly of interest to UK posters. I didn't know where else to put it, but an interesting development with the BBC or >> Bollocks Broadcasting Corporation << as it is essentially known (along with other applicable variants).

Could this be the first step towards uncancellation...?

BBC’s New Chief Says Broadcaster Must Represent All of UK, Not Just Liberal London

The BBC’s new director-general is set to “reform” the broadcaster “with urgency” and commission more right-wing comedy, after years of programming pandered to the left-liberal metropolitan elites in London.

Tim Davie, who took over from Lord Hall on Tuesday, set the tone of his tenure by telling BBC staff that they must reflect the diverse opinions of the whole of the United Kingdom. He made a point of his commitment to representing every part of the country by spending his first day on the job at BBC Scotland in Glasgow on Tuesday, before heading to the Welsh offices in Cardiff on Wednesday.

In a short memo sent to staff and seen by The Guardian, Mr Davie said: “Overall, my guiding principle is that we are a universal public service – a BBC for all, that serves and represents every part of this country.

“Our focus must be to ensure that we deliver outstanding and unique value to all audiences – those who pay for us and are in effect our customers – in return for their licence fee.

“To do this, we will need to keep reforming the BBC with urgency so that we are trusted, relevant, and indispensable in this digital age.”

A source told The Times on Wednesday that the new boss wants a “greater diversity of voices” in comedy, including right-wing comedians and seek a spectrum of targets for satire, rather than basing humour at the expense of conservatives, Brexit voters, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

On the day the UK officially left the EU, the BBC children’s network broadcast a skit of Nish Kumar that scorned British history and claimed that “British things” do not exist. During after the 2019 European Parliament elections, BBC Radio 4 aired a programme where comedienne Jo Brand ‘joked’ about throwing battery acid at Nigel Farage.

Plans for News Network to Rival ‘Woke’ MSM, as MPs Slam BBC for Proms Scandal https://t.co/l2pQuG2IOk

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 31, 2020

One BBC insider claimed that they do not hire right-wingers because they are not funny, telling The Guardian there is a “shortage of right-wing comics”. Tory MP Ben Bradley had said that many conservative comedians had been “effectively blacklisted for their views” by the BBC.

Senior sources had also told The Telegraph on Monday that in the longer term, some left-wing comedies — those considered the worst offenders of extreme political bias — may be axed.

Mr Davie came into the role as the BBC is facing the recent controversy of the planned Last Night of the Proms, which was set to feature the patriotic “Rule, Britannia!” and “Land of Hope and Glory”, without the lyrics, reportedly over claims that the words were in some manner offensive. One senior editor had compared singing the lyrics of “Rule, Britannia!” to neo-Nazis singing about gas chambers. However, after public pressure, BBC Proms announced on Wednesday that a choir would be performing both pieces.

The Proms controversy was the last straw for a group of MPs, who wrote to the new director-general warning him that in its current state the broadcaster was failing in its pledge of impartiality, suggesting that the licence fee — the television tax which sustains the BBC — was at stake.

The BBC is already facing a crisis of declining viewership, particularly the younger generation, which is switching off and moving to streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix.

The broadcaster’s news network — as well as the liberal-progressive NBC-owned Sky News — are also set to face competition from reportedly two new channels offering right-wing opinions.

Rupert Murdoch’s News UK is believed to be working on a news channel that may be aired through streaming services, while Ofcom has given GB News UK a licence to broadcast on Freeview, which will reportedly “be a truly impartial source of news, unlike the woke, wet BBC. It will deliver the facts, not opinion dressed up as news.”

Just Five Per Cent of Britons Support BBC Cancelling Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory, Poll Finds https://t.co/bZqfgaMcSF

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/09/02/bbcs-new-chief-tells-staff-they-must-represent-every-part-uk-liberal-bias-controversy/

[Constance]

GWU Professor Comes Clean, Admits She Lied About Being Black: ‘I cancel myself’ (https://zonenews-24.com/2020/09/03/gwu-professor-comes-clean-admits-she-lied-about-being-black-i-cancel-myself/)




George Washington University associate professor Jessica Krug just shocked the nation and admitted today that she is actually white. That she was pretending to be black.

In a medium post she came clean and canceled herself: “For the better part of my adult life, every move I’ve made, every relationship I’ve formed, has been rooted in the napalm toxic soil of lies,” Krug wrote.

“To an escalating degree over my adult life, I have eschewed my lived experience as a white Jewish child in suburban Kansas City under various assumed identities within a Blackness that I had no right to claim: first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness.”

“I have not only claimed these identities as my own when I had absolutely no right to do so — when doing so is the very epitome of violence, of thievery and appropriation, of the myriad ways in which non-Black people continue to use and abuse Black identities and cultures — but I have formed intimate relationships with loving, compassionate people who have trusted and cared for me when I have deserved neither trust nor caring. People have fought together with me and have fought for me, and my continued appropriation of a Black Caribbean identity is not only, in the starkest terms, wrong — unethical, immoral, anti-Black, colonial — but it means that every step I’ve taken has gaslighted those whom I love.

Intention never matters more than impact. To say that I clearly have been battling some unaddressed mental health demons for my entire life, as both an adult and child, is obvious.

Mental health issues likely explain why I assumed a false identity initially, as a youth, and why I continued and developed it for so long; the mental health professionals from whom I have been so belatedly seeking help assure me that this is a common response to some of the severe trauma that marked my early childhood and teen years.

But mental health issues can never, will never, neither explain nor justify, neither condone nor excuse, that, in spite of knowing and regularly critiquing any and every non-Black person who appropriates from Black people, my false identity was crafted entirely from the fabric of Black lives. That I claimed belonging with living people and ancestors to whom and for whom my being is always a threat at best and a death sentence at worst.

I am not a culture vulture. I am a culture leech.

I have thought about ending these lies many times over many years, but my cowardice was always more powerful than my ethics. I know right from wrong. I know history. I know power.

I am a coward.

There is no ignorance, no innocence, nothing to claim, nothing to defend. I have moved wrong in every way for years.

I believe in restorative justice, where possible, even when and where I don’t know what that means or how it could work. I believe in accountability. And I believe in cancel culture as a necessary and righteous tool for those with less structural power to wield against those with more power.

I should absolutely be cancelled. No. I don’t write in passive voice, ever, because I believe we must name power. So. You should absolutely cancel me, and I absolutely cancel myself.

What does that mean?

I don’t know.

Accountability works only when you are in community with people. How can I be in any type of meaningful community with those whom I have so harmfully and horrifically deceived for so long?

I don’t believe that any anti-Black life has inherent value. I don’t know what to build from here. I don’t know that it is possible to repair a single relationship I have with another person, living or dead, and I don’t believe I deserve the grace or kindness to do so.

My politics are as they have ever been, and those politics condemn me in the loudest and most unyielding terms.”

Read the full post here.
(https://medium.com/@jessakrug/the-truth-and-the-anti-black-violence-of-my-lies-9a9621401f85)

[rgray222]

George Washington University associate professor Jessica Krug just shocked the nation and admitted today that she is actually white. That she was pretending to be black.

In a medium post she came clean and canceled herself: “For the better part of my adult life, every move I’ve made, every relationship I’ve formed, has been rooted in the napalm toxic soil of lies,” Krug wrote.

Read the full post here.
(https://medium.com/@jessakrug/the-truth-and-the-anti-black-violence-of-my-lies-9a9621401f85)

Constance
A bit more information has come out since you made this post. Some humans decide to abandon their moral compass at some point in their lives, it never ever works out well in the end.

Professor Jessica Krug only admitted she lied about being black after getting caught, pal says

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/jessica-krug.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1

The white George Washington University professor who on Thursday admitted she lied about being black for years only did so after being found out, a friend claimed.

Hari Ziyad, a black author and screenwriter, posted a series of tweets calling Jessica Krug “a friend up until this morning” when Krug apparently called Ziyad to confess the falsehoods she detailed in a Medium post titled “The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies.”

“She didn’t do it out of benevolence,” Ziyad wrote. “She did it because she had been found out.”

NYPOST: https://nypost.com/2020/09/03/jessica-krug-admitted-she-lied-about-being-black-after-being-caught/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

[Constance]

George Washington University associate professor Jessica Krug just shocked the nation and admitted today that she is actually white. That she was pretending to be black.

In a medium post she came clean and canceled herself: “For the better part of my adult life, every move I’ve made, every relationship I’ve formed, has been rooted in the napalm toxic soil of lies,” Krug wrote.

Read the full post here.
(https://medium.com/@jessakrug/the-truth-and-the-anti-black-violence-of-my-lies-9a9621401f85)

Constance
A bit more information has come out since you made this post. Some humans decide to abandon their moral compass at some point in their lives, it never ever works out well in the end.

Professor Jessica Krug only admitted she lied about being black after getting caught, pal says

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/jessica-krug.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1

The white George Washington University professor who on Thursday admitted she lied about being black for years only did so after being found out, a friend claimed.

Hari Ziyad, a black author and screenwriter, posted a series of tweets calling Jessica Krug “a friend up until this morning” when Krug apparently called Ziyad to confess the falsehoods she detailed in a Medium post titled “The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies.”

“She didn’t do it out of benevolence,” Ziyad wrote. “She did it because she had been found out.”

NYPOST: https://nypost.com/2020/09/03/jessica-krug-admitted-she-lied-about-being-black-after-being-caught/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

Thanks for sharing that. :flower:

[rgray222]

George Washington University associate professor Jessica Krug just shocked the nation and admitted today that she is actually white. That she was pretending to be black.

In a medium post she came clean and canceled herself: “For the better part of my adult life, every move I’ve made, every relationship I’ve formed, has been rooted in the napalm toxic soil of lies,” Krug wrote.

Read the full post here.
(https://medium.com/@jessakrug/the-truth-and-the-anti-black-violence-of-my-lies-9a9621401f85)

Constance
A bit more information has come out since you made this post. Some humans decide to abandon their moral compass at some point in their lives, it never ever works out well in the end.

Professor Jessica Krug only admitted she lied about being black after getting caught, pal says

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/jessica-krug.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1

The white George Washington University professor who on Thursday admitted she lied about being black for years only did so after being found out, a friend claimed.

Hari Ziyad, a black author and screenwriter, posted a series of tweets calling Jessica Krug “a friend up until this morning” when Krug apparently called Ziyad to confess the falsehoods she detailed in a Medium post titled “The Truth, and the Anti-Black Violence of My Lies.”

“She didn’t do it out of benevolence,” Ziyad wrote. “She did it because she had been found out.”

NYPOST: https://nypost.com/2020/09/03/jessica-krug-admitted-she-lied-about-being-black-after-being-caught/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

Thanks for sharing that. :flower:

While it may not be the end of this story, the college professor that cancelled herself and had no idea what it actually meant has found out the hard way.

Jessica Krug won’t teach at George Washington University this semester

The disgraced African history professor who lied about being black will not teach this semester at George Washington University, school officials announced Friday — as her fellow faculty members urged she leave for good.

Source: https://nypost.com/2020/09/04/jessica-krug-wont-teach-at-george-washington-university-this-semester/

[Mike]

Walt Whitman might be next on the chopping block. A petition has been started to take down his statue at Rutgers Univeristy. The article doesn't even say why other than to point out that the statue is "racist" and the students would "feel more comfortable" if it was taken down.


https://www.tapinto.net/towns/camden/sections/education/articles/petition-asks-for-removal-of-walt-whitman-statue-from-rutgers-camden-another-to-uncover-mosaic

[Mike]

This one takes the cake and likely deserves a thread of its own.

This USC communications professor has been placed on leave after several of his black students complained that a Chinese word he was using sounded like a racial slur. It's caused them "emotional exhaustion" and "trauma", apparently.

And this is what happens over time when university professors and admin continually infantilize the students: you create emotional infants.


https://news.yahoo.com/usc-professor-placed-leave-black-214134519.html

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

That's insane, bloody snowflakes they're making from this generation!

Will they cancel 'black' in spanish next (negro), or 'deny' (negar)?

So many words have the potential to be offensive in other languages. An endless maze of madness awaits you if you go down that path.

[Mike]

That's insane, bloody snowflakes they're making from this generation!

Will they cancel 'black' in spanish next (negro), or 'deny' (negar)?

So many words have the potential to be offensive in other languages. An endless maze of madness awaits you if you go down that path.



Even more insanity: Math is now being canceled in Seattle. Sorry, "western math". California may not be far behind. And then who the hell knows what other states will follow.
https://www.hoover.org/research/seattle-schools-propose-teach-math-education-racist-will-california-be-far-behindseattle

Even the basic equation 2 + 2 = 4 is being challenged: https://newdiscourses.com/2020/08/2-plus-2-never-equals-5/

[Bill Ryan]

That's insane, bloody snowflakes they're making from this generation!

Will they cancel 'black' in spanish next (negro), or 'deny' (negar)?

So many words have the potential to be offensive in other languages. An endless maze of madness awaits you if you go down that path.

Even more insanity: Math is now being canceled in Seattle. Sorry, "western math". California may not be far behind. And then who the hell knows what other states will follow.
https://www.hoover.org/research/seattle-schools-propose-teach-math-education-racist-will-california-be-far-behindseattle
Wow... do read the article. :facepalm:

This again shows such a deep ignorance of real history. The pioneering early arithmeticians, after the Ancient Greek geometers and while Europe was still deep in the Dark Ages, were a whole bunch of Arab and Indian geniuses.

Every mathematician knows this. (But apparently not Seattle's schoolteachers)

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Only in Seattle. That should be a new aphorism.


Western Math critics worry about more nuanced issues, such as why we teach kids Western counting and not, for example, how the Aborigines count.

The way we count, the decimal numeral system, actually came from the Arabs. Let those 'Western Maths Critics' swivel on that! Morons..

Although I don't believe there are any 'Western Maths Critics'. No such dumbass thing exists. Only dissidents and cultural saboteurs exist - whoever they are. Revisionist cancel culture is just one strand in a very dense conspiratorial rope that is attempting to string up Western Civilization by the neck, to hang until it is dead. I've never been more convinced of that than I am right now.

[Mike]

James Lindsay talks about it in a little more in detail in this video:

FFhZa6guU40

[Bill Ryan]

This is hilarious. (And worryingly insane)


https://wnd.com/2020/08/blm-rioters-tear-statue-dinosaur-name-social-justice

~~~

BLM rioters tear down statue of dinosaur in name of social justice

Unclear as to why mob decided to take its rage out on prehistoric figure

[Constance]

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

[Mike]

This is hilarious. (And worryingly insane)


https://wnd.com/2020/08/blm-rioters-tear-statue-dinosaur-name-social-justice

~~~

BLM rioters tear down statue of dinosaur in name of social justice

Unclear as to why mob decided to take its rage out on prehistoric figure


It was bigger and stronger than the other reptiles, therefore it had dino-privilege. Deny it all you want, but that's just your dino-fragility talking:)

[atman]

Beyond the flagrant examples put forth so far, Cancel Culture also manifests itself in a preemptive manner...

For example: within Big Tech's contracts with us, that elicit self-censorship and that threaten one of grave consequences for any failure to adhere to the rules (some of which are as vague as they are "woke").

A couple of years ago, I was shocked to read the details of some of the clauses in the Microsoft Service Agreement (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/servicesagreement/upcoming.aspx) (you know, that long-winded many-pages long document that almost nobody reads before agreeing to sell their soul to the devil).

Here is a section of the agreement, in which I have highlighted (in red and in bold) some clauses or parts thereof:




3. Code of Conduct.


a. By agreeing to these Terms, you’re agreeing that, when using the Services, you will follow these rules:



i. Don’t do anything illegal.
ii. Don’t engage in any activity that exploits, harms, or threatens to harm children.
iii. Don’t send spam or engage in phishing. Spam is unwanted or unsolicited bulk email, postings, contact requests, SMS (text messages), instant messages, or similar electronic communications. Phishing is sending emails or other electronic communications to fraudulently or unlawfully induce recipients to reveal personal or sensitive information, such as passwords, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, passport numbers, credit card information, financial information, or other sensitive information, or to gain access to accounts or records, exfiltration of documents or other sensitive information, payment and/or financial benefit.
iv. Don’t publicly display or use the Services to share inappropriate content or material (involving, for example, nudity, bestiality, pornography, offensive language, graphic violence, or criminal activity).
v. Don’t engage in activity that is fraudulent, false or misleading (e.g., asking for money under false pretenses, impersonating someone else, manipulating the Services to increase play count, or affect rankings, ratings, or comments).
vi. Don’t circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Services.
vii. Don’t engage in activity that is harmful to you, the Services or others (e.g., transmitting viruses, stalking, posting terrorist or violent extremist content, communicating hate speech, or advocating violence against others).
viii. Don’t infringe upon the rights of others (e.g., unauthorized sharing of copyrighted music or other copyrighted material, resale or other distribution of Bing maps, or photographs).
ix. Don’t engage in activity that violates the privacy of others.
x. Don’t help others break these rules.



b. Enforcement. If you violate these Terms, we may stop providing Services to you or we may close your Microsoft account. We may also block delivery of a communication (like email, file sharing or instant message) to or from the Services in an effort to enforce these Terms or we may remove or refuse to publish Your Content for any reason. When investigating alleged violations of these Terms, Microsoft reserves the right to review Your Content in order to resolve the issue. However, we cannot monitor the entire Services and make no attempt to do so.




"We may remove or refuse to publish Your Content for any reason."

"For any reason."

Well, folks (is that term OK to use? :o ), that is another manifestation of Cancel Culture on steroids!

[atman]

Let's now hear it from Canada's super woke Prime Minister and self-proclaimed proud feminist, Justin Trudeau, during a town hall meeting, some two and a half years ago:



WOMAN: ...because maternal love is the love that's going to change the future of mankind, so we'd like you to-

TRUDEAU: Uh we, we like to say "peoplekind", not necessarily "mankind". It's just more inclusive.

WOMAN: There we go, exactly! Yes, thank you!

TRUDEAU: We can all learn from each other!

ItsGW1Nlm3c

[Eva2]

http://projectavalon.net/Jill_images/white_brainwashing.jpg

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

It's full Orwell when they start cancelling history. This was from 'mostly not true' CNN, so not surprising.

https://twitter.com/JosephWulfsohn/status/1303476261331832839

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

The point of the above post, if any were wondering, was not to complain about the Washington Redskins being cancelled. It was the move to erase it from the historical record. I don't believe anyone is seriously going to be offended by seeing a picture of Biden – taken in 1984 – in which a controversial logo is visible.

The worry is the precedent this sets. Again, it's these autocrats deciding what is offence for everyone else. I'm not offended, for instance, by a swastika. I do know what it is, and I do know what it means historically. But how soon before war-movies from years ago have Nazi flags retroactively airbrushed out because they're deemed "offensive"?

To experiment with the concept. Say they cancel all pictures, all images at all that depict anything, because images (in and of themselves) are offensive to blind people...

A ludicrous notion. But it shows that when you take a concept and project it to its far extreme, and it shows up as being ludicrous, it surely means that your initial starting point is flawed. A bit like if you set off to an agreed destination along a perfectly straight line at 1 meter per second. If that line is off by a fraction of a degree, it won't be long before you find yourself miles off course.

It's an analogy of what could happen. Because we all know how societal trends are predisposed to gross amplification over time. The setting of this trend is foolish and illogical. I fear it could spiral out of control all too soon and become something ludicrous.

[Gracy]

The setting of this trend is foolish and illogical. I fear it could spiral out of control all too soon and become something ludicrous.

Foolish and illogical, absolutely, to the very middle of its rotten core. Its sister the "Me Too" movement was in the process of going off the rails into full on societal destructive mode, and then it was gone.

It's taking a bit longer for this one but, I do predict the same eventual ending. So far thing thing is pretty much confined to media, universities, big corporations and big tech.; it will be DOA as it tries to worm its way into Main Street, the average person is just not going to put up with that s##t.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

If you want to know what cancel culture really is, watch what it cancels, and watch what it doesn't.

What isn't being cancelled is "Cuties", more on it here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?103615-Hollyweird-GreatAwakening&p=1373552#post1373552), and here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?103615-Hollyweird-GreatAwakening&p=1377319&viewfull=1#post1377319). This film involves scantily clad 11 year old girls posing sexually, while cavorting and writhing and twerking to hip-hop music. "Thoughtful, fresh, poignant", the critics remark (rave). This film also displays partial nudity, including bared chests and backsides. This is nothing but soft core child porn dressed up as a 'coming-of-age' drama.

So where is the woke mob now? Where is cancel-culture?

44291

See how they frame it. "Right wing".

Since when is a call for decency a right-wing position? It makes no difference what party you support, it's our moral obligation, and surely our most pressing aim, especially if you're a parent, to protect children.

But at what point do you become so woke, that you become blind to basic morality?

Is that what's happened here? Or are those involved...involved in an agenda?

Remember, part of the agenda is to normalize paedophilia, to have it decriminalized [not a joke (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?103615-Hollyweird-GreatAwakening&p=1375980&viewfull=1#post1375980)] and recognized as a sexual orientation. They really do want LGBTP.

I'm convinced they're attempting to shift the Overton Window (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window). They're doing it quietly though, inch by quiet inch. Cuties would never stand twenty years ago. The window has shifted since then. I say that if you accept this now, they win another inch. And after this they'll push for another inch, and another. And then in twenty more years, where shall we be???

[Ernie Nemeth]

So that would now make them the LGBTQ2+P, not much left to add, eh?

[rgray222]

If you don't think small minds toil in the back rooms of the Atlantic magazine with great amounts of unearned hubris then you haven't read the Atlantic magazine lately. Their arrogance is only 'Trumped" by their stupidity. To think that they are calling for the permanent end of the Nobel Peace Prize simply because they don't like (read hate) one of the nominees is brazenly moronic.

The Atlantic calls to 'end the Nobel Peace Prize' following Trump nominations

The Atlantic magazine raised eyebrows on Friday when it published a piece calling for the abolition of the Nobel Peace Prize after President Trump was nominated for the prestigious honor.

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/DANUQE4zUnae1zhgnN-J6G8ruRM=/74x0:1842x994/720x405/filters:format(png)/media/img/mt/2020/09/Atlantic_peace_v3/original.png

The nominations, however, apparently didn't sit well with the magazine, which declared Friday that "peace had its chance, and blew it."

"This is silly. Trump does something worthy of it, so the entire system must be burned down?" tweeted Erielle Davidson, a senior policy analyst at the Institute for National Security of America.

"I thought people were just trolling the Atlantic when they were saying they’re calling for the end of the Nobel Peace Prize in response to Trump being nominated for 2, but alas, nope: it is real," Daily Wire contributor Harry Khachatrian said.

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/end-nobel-peace-prize/616300/
Source:https://www.foxnews.com/media/the-atlantic-end-nobel-peace-prize-trump

[rgray222]

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/104764171_3104472139614359_1160525983928314979_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=6oFe4FRYYmgAX91JF5Q&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=6af145512ff856551ae47982a9e5bac4&oe=5F81E6B2
https://patriot.imgix.net/d8d2bae3faa8e6903425ff414aa7fe4e4e0033c9274ca33d9c6c9d73e94f5728.jpg?w=720&auto=format
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/103787072_3070139923047581_1063174827864290103_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=O0y_fzN4G0oAX_TpYBX&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=934af631b6c4be2f28a4c6a6b980338d&oe=5F83CBDE

[Gracy]

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/104764171_3104472139614359_1160525983928314979_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=6oFe4FRYYmgAX91JF5Q&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=6af145512ff856551ae47982a9e5bac4&oe=5F81E6B2
https://patriot.imgix.net/d8d2bae3faa8e6903425ff414aa7fe4e4e0033c9274ca33d9c6c9d73e94f5728.jpg?w=720&auto=format
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/103787072_3070139923047581_1063174827864290103_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=O0y_fzN4G0oAX_TpYBX&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=934af631b6c4be2f28a4c6a6b980338d&oe=5F83CBDE

Looks like one party rule under the r's should do the trick then.

[atman]

Looks like one party rule under the r's should do the trick then.

Being myself a middle way kind of guy, as well as living in a different country, I’m not sure to have understood the intent or the meaning of that warning or one-liner, Gracy… And so it is perhaps foolish of me to comment upon it.

In any case, sensing that it may have been an expression of the extreme political divide that exists within the U.S. right now, it made made me think of John Adams, who famously said :




“In politics the middle way is none at all.”


Furthermore, he also also said the following (emphasis in bold being my own):




“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation.”

[atman]

Not really an example of "Cancel Culture", but since my previous post was perhaps off-topic or could even be construed as "trolling" in nature, I'm throwing this here to sort of make amends:


https://westernnews.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2020/06/17/240437_t715.jpg?529764a1de2bdd0f74a9fb4f856b01a9d617b3e9

[atman]

While refraining from using profanity (as I'm apparently supposed to), let me suggest another possible contender for future cancellation, when social justice warriors and members of the far-left intelligentsia start looking for more examples of cultural appropriation or cultural vilification to cancel:



Pardon my French!


Hum, I wonder why this feels so close to home...

Anyway, because this new possible contender triggered some memories of mine, allow me to share some funny personal anecdotes (only meant as a parenthesis, while still oddly pertinent, so you may wish to skip what follows in smaller characters):




While I was living in California, some 40 years ago, as a freshly arrived Quebecer whose spoken English would have justly been described as some kind of alien language, I was constantly amazed to hear some of the words or idioms of the English language that were used by Americans to express feelings of a very positive nature, while the primary meaning of said words was antithetical or non sequitur to what was meant. For example, after some well accomplished work or good deed, I was often told:


"You killed it, man!"

"Wow, you absolutely destroyed it!"

"Great work! You're a real bad mother f*cker!"

But that was not all. Not five minutes would go by without me hearing f*cking this or that, f*cking great, f*cking terrible, f*cking not okay and on and on. And so I kept thinking: Americans are really obsessed with sex, aren't they?

There is also that one time when, while we were both admiring an extraordinarily beautiful painting, a lovely lady told me: "This is hot sh*t, man!"

I thought, hmm okay... And so, in an attempt to demonstrate that I had finally caught on with one important aspect of American culture, I proudly stated, while pointing at an even more impressive painting: "And this one is hot diarrhea!"

To which my friend replied: "Oh, you're gross!"

You see? My sincere contribution to American idioms was disrespectfully and illogically cancelled, and I have stayed traumatized ever since...

______________________________________________


But back to more serious discourse.

Here are some valuable insights, taken from an article that I read recently:




Here are 12 points of cancel culture that pose a danger to our freedom of speech and free thinking.

1. Insistence on political correctness: Claims of being enlightened.

2. Inability to think critically: Incapable of allowing other viewpoints.

3. Ignorance of history: An imbalanced approach to interpretation.

4. Lack of empathy for others: Willingness to destroy relationships and reputations.

5. Sense of entitlement: Inability to filter remarks or behavior.

6. Violence and destruction: Willingness to do physical harm or damage the property of those with opposing beliefs.

7. Refusal to accept responsibility: Deflecting or justifying impropriety.

8. Lack of manners: A lack of decorum and self-control in private or in public.

9. Attention seeking: Exhibits a need for attention and sensational behavior, escaping consequences.

10. Intolerance and an inability to discuss issues: Lack of respect for other opinions.

11. Need to control and dominate others and their thoughts: Willingness to spread falsities.

12. Ultra-sensitivity: Over-reaction to comments not meant to be offensive.


Cancel culture is not a product of a lack of intelligence or education.

Instead, it's highlighted by members of a certain intelligentsia that has lost touch with the concept that others have a right to their opinions.

This group cannot compete in our current society, so they revert to anti-social and fanatical behavior. There's a sense of "My way or the highway," and they believe that they possess the superior perspective.

The reality is that this group is participating in Nihilism; they have no clear agenda for improvement to cure the ills of society. As a result, anarchists and other extreme groups with subversive plans are hijacking this movement without their knowledge.

The disguise of wanting social justice is in full display by groups wanting to destroy modern society.

They don't acknowledge the concept of hypocrisy in this philosophy, because they believe the rules for their behavior are different from those who oppose them or the innocent people they trample.


Source: How Cancel Culture Affects Free Thinking And Speech, by John Cappello (https://www.yourtango.com/experts/john-cappello/how-cancel-culture-affects-free-thinking-and-speech)






https://static8.depositphotos.com/1170398/860/i/450/depositphotos_8603235-stock-photo-street-road-sign-my-way.jpg

[rgray222]

Looks like one-party rule under the r's should do the trick then.

I usually enjoy your cryptic short little IED's that you leave along the roadside in many of your comments but I am not quite sure what you mean here, please explain.

Gracy, I am laughing when I write this so please don't take it the wrong way.

[Gracy]

Looks like one-party rule under the r's should do the trick then.

I usually enjoy your cryptic short little IED's that you leave along the roadside in many of your comments but I am not quite sure what you mean here, please explain.

Gracy, I am laughing when I write this so please don't take it the wrong way.

Right, I'm supposed to chuckle along side of you in comparing my posts to roadside bombs. Tee Hee Tee Hee :)

Here's your meme post in question:

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/104764171_3104472139614359_1160525983928314979_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=6oFe4FRYYmgAX91JF5Q&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=6af145512ff856551ae47982a9e5bac4&oe=5F81E6B2
https://patriot.imgix.net/d8d2bae3faa8e6903425ff414aa7fe4e4e0033c9274ca33d9c6c9d73e94f5728.jpg?w=720&auto=format
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/103787072_3070139923047581_1063174827864290103_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=O0y_fzN4G0oAX_TpYBX&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=934af631b6c4be2f28a4c6a6b980338d&oe=5F83CBDE

And then my roadside bomb meant to maim and kill said Enemy of the State:


Looks like one party rule under the r's should do the trick then.

When carefully examined, that meme is very indicative of a certain very popular point of view that no longer holds the system at large accountable for multiple misdeeds, and instead places that accountability squarely onto the shoulders of the democratic party.

Once eliminated, things will be okay once again is the next obvious leap of faith as no alternatives are ever presented.

How would it not be one party rule in the US was my point, if the democratic party is "cancelled"?

And there is your latest IED... :whistle:

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

When carefully examined, that meme is very indicative of a certain very popular point of view that no longer holds the system at large accountable for multiple misdeeds, and instead places that accountability squarely onto the shoulders of the democratic party.

Agreed. On the face of it that seems to be the case. Many are placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the democrats. They may be in for a rude awakening. That said, the Dems are thoroughly comped. They are self-destructing at this time and therefore cancelling themselves. But people need to pan out and see the bigger picture. Under whose watch did 9/11 occur? It wasn't the Dems.

There is no doubt that at their cores, both political bodies, in your country and mine, have been twisted and mutilated by greed, corruption, cronyism, et al. There have been traitorous acts, born of self-interest, of that I have no doubt, and on both sides. They are working for (or from), the MIC, or secret societies, or whatever it is. It hardly matters anymore! What they are not doing is working for us. At least they haven't been for a long time. Is the worm turning with Trump?? I have thoughts, impressions on that, as do we all, but I do think we're close to finding out for certain.

Bottom line, Rs and Ds, Left and Right, that's mostly a game, a PT Barnum charade to keep us entertained, to keep us looking here and not there. These are two parties that surely have more in common than in difference, yet they arouse such polarity and opposition in the public mindset. It isn't due to policies though. Most couldn't even name what those policies are! It's pure tribalism - which 'they' forever exploit and inflame. They keep us blinded with it. It has to end.

I don't see right policies versus left policies now. What I see more is a battle of truth versus deception, integrity versus villainy, light versus dark - a return to balance, with transparency and accountability, not as a condition but an absolute imperative.

[rgray222]

Looks like one-party rule under the r's should do the trick then.

I usually enjoy your cryptic short little IED's that you leave along the roadside in many of your comments but I am not quite sure what you mean here, please explain.

Gracy, I am laughing when I write this so please don't take it the wrong way.

Right, I'm supposed to chuckle along side of you in comparing my posts to roadside bombs. Tee Hee Tee Hee :)

Here's your meme post in question:

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/104764171_3104472139614359_1160525983928314979_n.j pg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=6oFe4FRYYmgAX91JF5Q&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=6af145512ff856551ae47982a9e5bac4&oe=5F81E6B2
https://patriot.imgix.net/d8d2bae3faa8e6903425ff414aa7fe4e4e0033c9274ca33d9c 6c9d73e94f5728.jpg?w=720&auto=format
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/103787072_3070139923047581_1063174827864290103_n.j pg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=O0y_fzN4G0oAX_TpYBX&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=934af631b6c4be2f28a4c6a6b980338d&oe=5F83CBDE

And then my roadside bomb meant to maim and kill said Enemy of the State:


Looks like one party rule under the r's should do the trick then.

When carefully examined, that meme is very indicative of a certain very popular point of view that no longer holds the system at large accountable for multiple misdeeds, and instead places that accountability squarely onto the shoulders of the democratic party.

Once eliminated, things will be okay once again is the next obvious leap of faith as no alternatives are ever presented.

How would it not be one party rule in the US was my point, if the democratic party is "cancelled"?

And there is your latest IED... :whistle:

Gracy,
sorry when I look back and read my comment I can see how it could easily be taken the wrong way. What I was attempting to say was you often leave short comments or phrases that have an explosive way to get to the truth and/or uncover additional information from the poster that makes the story more complete. In hindsight, the IED comment was unfortunate and not meant to be offensive it was meant to be complimentary. My apologies
R 

To the point about one party as it pertains to the cancel culture

The cancel culture has been attributed to a hashtag that originated with black twitter users in 2014 but that is a misnomer, these twitter users simply gave a name to something that has been around for decades.  I believe the first time the cancel culture was brought to the publics attention was during the Supreme Court hearing for the nomination of Clarence Thomas in 1991. When the hearing was all but over (much like the Kavanaugh hearing) and Thomas's nomination was assured the Democrats trooped out sexual allegation charges. Clarence Thomas went on offense and made an impassioned statement during the nationally televised Senate hearing which not only stemmed the negative tide but also garnered him support from the American public and secured him a spot on the Supreme Court.  This cancel culture has been used on blacks and almost all woman (https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/377008-the-media-would-rather-pretend-conservative-women-dont-exist) conservatives for decades. These two demographics represent a voting block that the Democrat party has no intention of losing so if they wander off the reservation with an original thought or conservative values they will be viciously attacked by mainstream media and the Democrats (one and the same).   If you haven't had a chance to watch the documentary Bill posted, Uncle Tom (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?112066-UNCLE-TOM----The-Documentary&p=1377731&viewfull=1#post1377731), you see many examples of black conservatives being cancelled for the past 30 years. 


This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree........................Clarence Thomas


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egTyaIAaqz8
The more modern-day use of the term cancel culture also originated on the left to cancel anyone who made a racist or sexist comment. It the early stages this seem to be a valid way to root our racism and sexism but it has snowballed into so much more.  The  “cancel culture” has morphed into erasing of history, encouraging lawlessness, muting citizens, and violating free exchange of ideas, thoughts, and speech.” The cancel culture went from being a tool of social justice into a new form of merciless mob intimidation. Of course, the mob on the right eventually caught on and started to cancel people, companies and products that they deemed too offensive to their values. The most recent example that comes to mind is Trump saying he would switch out all the "Goodyear" tires on government cars.

My point here is that cancel culture has not been an organic uprising, it had its origins politics, more specifically politics of the left. Even during the 2020 Democrat National Convention, the Democrat Leadership made no effort whatsoever to condemn looting, arson and the riots, no effort to condemn ANTIFA and no effort to reign-in the tearing down of statues. Taking down statues of Lincoln, Washington and even abolitionist along with rewriting history (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.htm) all has its origins on the left and they should be accountable. These memes represent pushback, an effort to say enough, it must stop. 

I don't think this is an effort to cancel or remove either party, it is normal to and fro of politics but at a fairly high pitch. Each party acts as a check and balance on the other. If only one party was left standing the United States would be on the brink of total destruction. 

[Bill Ryan]

Indigenous people in Colombia have brought down a statue of 16th-century Spanish conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebasti%C3%A1n_de_Belalc%C3%A1zar)

https://media.farsnews.ir/media/Uploaded/Files/Images/1399/06/28/13990628000195_Test_PhotoI.jpg

(See this post (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?109333-Turmoil-in-Colombia&p=1379409#post1379409) on the Turmoil in Colombia thread. I have to say, I do have a great deal of sympathy for this.)

[rgray222]

White Grits to Get A Name Change

Geechie Boy Mill, a family-owned operation in South Carolina that makes locally-grown and milled white grits, is also planning a name change. Geechie is a dialect spoken mainly by the descendants of African-American slaves who settled on the Ogeechee river in Georgia, according to Merriam-Webster.com.

“We are in the process of changing our name and have developed a whole new brand. We look forward to sharing it with the public,” said Greg Johnsman, owner of Geechie Boy Mill.

https://geechieboymill.com/wp-content/uploads/white-grits-one-half-lb.png

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/23/uncle-bens-rice-get-new-name-mars-inc/3501382001/

Costco removes popular cheese after Black Lives Matter controversy

Costco has stopped carrying products from a pimento cheese brand owned by a South Carolina mayor who called the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements “terror organizations.”

https://twitter.com/palmettocheese/status/1295366497473265665

When reached for comment, a Costco representative declined to comment on the Palmetto Cheese brand.

The Georgetown Times published a photo of a sign in the Myrtle Beach Costco store stating that the products were “discontinued and will not be re-ordered by Costco,” adding that the products were being removed from more than 120 Costco locations.

Palmetto faced calls for a boycott from some consumers following Henry’s controversial Facebook post, in which he tied the protest movements to the unrelated fatal shooting of a father and daughter following an auto crash. The victims were white, while the accused killer is Black.

The Georgetown chapter of the NAACP called Henry’s post “racist” and called for him to resign.

Source:https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/costco-cheese-black-lives-matter

Uncle Ben’s rice brand will get a new name, Ben's Original

NEW YORK (AP) — Uncle Ben’s rice brand is getting a new name: Ben’s Original.

https://imagez.tmz.com/image/b8/4by3/2020/09/23/b8d43a7f7a584d84bab275b8af7a0f29_md.jpg

Parent firm Mars Inc. unveiled the change Wednesday for the 70-year-old brand, the latest company to drop a logo criticized as a racial stereotype. Packaging with the new name will hit stores next year.

“We listened to our associates and our customers and the time is right to make meaningful changes across society,” said Fiona Dawson, global president for Mars Food, multisales and global customers. “When you are making these changes, you are not going to please everyone. But it’s about doing the right thing, not the easy thing.”

Several companies have retired racial imagery from their branding in recent months, a ripple effect from the Black Lives Matters protests over the police killing of George Floyd and other African Americans.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/23/uncle-bens-rice-get-new-name-mars-inc/3501382001/

[rgray222]

The cancel culture is really reaching new lows when athletes that adhere to insane training schedules for years can be removed by posting one word on their social media accounts. This is akin Stalin's Russia or or current day standards in China. This is why Marxism/Communism will never work, those that have absolute power will absolutely use that power.

American cyclist suspended from team over so-called 'divisive' tweet supporting Trump

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/10/1862/1048/Quinn-Simmons.jpg?ve=1&tl=1
Quinn Simmons celebrates winning the men's junior event, at the road cycling World Championships (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The one-word tweet was apparently enough to get him sidelined

An American professional cyclist was suspended from his team Thursday after showing support for President Trump in a seemingly benign social media tiff.

Trek-Segafredo suspended Quinn Simmons for what the team called “divisive” comments on his personal Twitter account.

Simmons, 19, reacted to a tweet from Dutch journalist Jose Been in which she said she hoped for her American friends that “this horrible presidency ends for you,” adding “if you follow me and support Trump, you can go.”

Simmons replied to Been, saying “Bye” with a dark-skinned hand emoji waving. Her tweet was later deleted.

https://twitter.com/QuinnSimmons9/status/1311225957492183041
A separate Twitter user wrote that Simmons was “Apparently a Trumper.” He wrote back: “That’s right” with an American flag emoji.

https://twitter.com/compassionsix/status/1311283497626226690
He also responded to a separate tweet, which screen-shotted Simmons' reaction with Been.

Trek-Segafredo then put out a statement suspending Simmons "until further notice."

“Regrettably, team rider Quinn Simmons made statements online that we feel are divisive, incendiary, and detrimental to the team, professional cycling, its fans, and the positive future we hope to help create for the sport,” the team wrote. “(He) will not be racing for Trek-Segafredo until further notice.”

https://twitter.com/Pflax1/status/1311329086573166594

In response to the suspension, Been wrote that she felt “horrible” about it and that she wouldn’t have wanted Simmons to be suspended.

Simmons was in his first season with the Trek-Segafredo.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/sports/american-cyclist-suspended-tweet-supporting-trump

[rgray222]

https://i.redd.it/xnbyzhcvxfq51.jpg

[rgray222]

Yelp to Label Businesses Accused of Racism

I honestly believe that this is a case of good intentions that have very severe unintended consequences. Millions of people use YELP especially for restaurant reviews, YELP has set themselves up as the jury, the judge and the executioner.

https://twitter.com/Yelp/status/1314197512333529088

[Bill Ryan]

Now, when a business gains attention for reports of racist conduct, Yelp will place a new Business Accused of Racist Behavior Alert on their Yelp page to inform users, along with a link to a news article where they can learn more. Here it is:

http://projectavalon.net/Yelp_racist_business_warning.gif

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Monty Python Legend Warns 'Hate Speech' Laws Disastrous to the Creative Process

British comedy titan John Cleese has warned that even more restrictive hate speech laws, such as those proposed by the SNP administration in Scotland, will be “disastrous to the creative process”.

Appearing in an online debate hosted by Dr Simon Knight of the Academy of Ideas, the Monty Python legend was asked about such iconic moments in his career as the (in)famous “don’t mention the war” episode of Fawlty Towers — temporarily memory holed by the BBC-controlled UKTV streaming service earlier this year for “outdated language” — and whether they could be recreated today in a culture in which some judges have ruled that “context is irrelevant” in determining whether or not something constitutes “hate speech”.

“What kind of fetter would that place on the creative juices, the creative process if you had to start thinking everything through three or four times before you say them?” he was asked.

“Well, it’s disastrous to the creative process because the creative process above anything else is a matter of spontaneity,” Cleese said.

“I mean, if you’re going to come out with something really interesting artistically it’s going to come out of your unconscious, and if you’re having to edit everything you say before you say it then nothing it going to happen creatively — and also things that are rather lovely and funny in ordinary conversation, they’re not going to happen either, because everybody’s thinking ‘Ooh, somebody might [be offended]’,” he explained.

Cleese added that he had himself recently been in trouble for referring to someone as “jolly”, being told: “No, no, you can’t say ‘jolly’ now because that means fat.”

“So I looked it up in the dictionary, of course it doesn’t mean fat at all — but to a small number of people it means fat, and therefore they’re trying to control the way I speak because they have a little private rule themselves that it has a completely different meaning from the one I’ve grown up with,” he said.

“This is a sort of oversensitivity, and I think some of it is because of people are trying to feel that they’re very good people; [they] almost sit around waiting to be offended, so that they can [say] Oh, I’ve been offended! Sorry everyone but that’s it, I’ve been offended, and this person who offended me is a very bad person.’ I mean, it’s actually very silly.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/10/11/monty-python-legend-warns-hate-speech-laws-disastrous-creative-process/

---------------------

Classic "Don't Mention the War" scene (Fawlty Towers, episode 'The Germans' 1975), cancelled Due To *outdated language*

7xnNhzgcWTk

[Gemma13]

TEACHING OUR STUDENTS TO CANCEL

https://www.theepochtimes.com/teaching-our-students-to-cancel_3533386.html?utm_source=morningbriefnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2020-10-12

You’ll hear that “cancel culture” isn’t real. You’ll hear that the phrase is just a way for powerful people to complain when they are criticized. You’ll hear that it’s just a way of “calling out” people who have done stupid or evil things.

Don’t believe a word of it. There genuinely exists a “cancel culture,” and the frightening element in it isn’t so much the “cancel” as the “culture.” Although a great deal of the phenomenon takes place—and gains its megaphone power—from social media, the real home of the culture is American academia: our colleges and universities.

And that should make us all tremble, because from there, it filters down to the grade schools and high schools. And it leaks out into industry, business, and government, as the inculturated students move out into the workforce.

It’s true that we are bringing up a generation of young people who don’t believe in free speech, but that’s just one side of the critique in which they are being trained. They think that they shouldn’t have to hear views they don’t like and that those who hold such views shouldn’t be allowed to express them.

But they also believe the next step: that those with bad opinions should be fired, even if they don’t express those opinions. Cancel culture demands, first the non-expression of “evil” ideas, and then the non-existence of those who hold “evil” ideas.

Dozens of examples exist—many of them absurd, many of them silly, and all of them vile. The National Association of Scholars has been keeping a list, and you can peruse it if you have a strong-enough stomach and a strong-enough sense of irony about the madness of the world.

[Link to lIST below article]

Fire Her!

But here’s a new example—not as bad as some, but worth thinking about. Diana J. Schaub is a professor of government at Loyola University in Maryland, a profound student of political theory, the best reader of Montesquieu in captivity, and a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. (She’s also a treasured friend, which probably adds some accelerant to the bonfire of my anger about her treatment.)

She was invited this fall to be a visiting professor at Harvard—and here’s the response this week from the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper: “what Harvard must do now is simple. Fire … Schaub, and any other faculty member with similar unacceptable views. Then, establish a proper vetting system that prevents the hiring of others like them.”

That probably should have used the adverb “similarly” rather than the adjective, but, well, you know, they’re just undergraduates. We can’t expect them to be polished writers.

For that matter, Harvard University itself will simply nod understandingly toward their complaint, condescendingly agree, “It is a problem, isn’t it? My goodness,” and make no moves to fire Schaub in the remaining months of her visitorship. These are undergraduates, after all, and we can’t expect them not to make loud self-righteous denunciations of the university.

Of course, the school also will hesitate ever to offer again the prestigious visiting position to someone with the least possibility of prompting such student editorials. And that is the damage done by this kind of public declaration of a demand for canceling.

The Culturing

But I said that the greatest threat in cancel culture isn’t the canceling but the culturing. And think what’s revealed about the author by his Harvard Crimson editorial. His education at Harvard has taught him that those with wrong views shouldn’t be allowed to express them, and it has taught him the next step: Those who hold wrong views shouldn’t be employed.

We can regret here the hurt his education has suffered by teaching him that he needs to be sheltered from evil—and that future generations need never to hear evil words. But that’s the culture in which he hatched from high schooler to adult. He and his fellow students will walk out the gates of Harvard Square into premier jobs, careers, and power.

You may not think that Harvard shouldn’t be the entrance to an elite life. You might even consider Harvard a net loss to our society. But the fact remains: A Harvard degree allows its holders to start several feet above others on the slippery climbing post of social advancement.

And those with that degree now believe—deep in their hearts, at the seat of their moral self-esteem—that people who hold wrong views shouldn’t be allowed to speak in public or even exist in public. And their culture is spreading.

As for Diana Schaub, the Harvard Crimson column cites, for example, a beautiful essay she wrote about baseball—bemoaning the low number of African Americans who play the sport and worrying, as she has elsewhere, that the declining role of fatherhood is injuring America in ways great and small.

The complaint about this? A tendentious and willful assertion that her writing is “if not outright bigoted, ignorant and deeply concerning.” The irony here feels thick enough to suffocate. One of the finest scholars of our time, denounced as ignorant. Her views might not actually be bigoted, the Harvard student admits, so what’s wrong with them? It’s that they don’t align perfectly with the received opinions held by the right-thinking.

Schaub is no utilitarian, but John Stuart Mill must be rising from his grave in outrage on her behalf.

[I]Joseph Bottum, Ph.D., is director of the Classics Institute at Dakota State University. His most recent book is “The Decline of the Novel.”


LINK TO LIST WHICH IS PERIODICALLY UPDATED

TRACKING "CANCEL CULTURE" IN HIGHER EDUCATION
https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/tracking-cancel-culture-in-higher-education

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Orwellian revisionism at work:

https://twitter.com/SteveKrak/status/1316223349719216128

[rgray222]

This is a different twist on the cancel culture. A guy lies to his employer, the President, the American people and the Debate Commission and the cancel culture gets blamed. I suspect he thought his employer and his fellow journalist would cover from him.

Scaramucci decries 'cancel culture' after Steve Scully suspension

https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/10/09/USAT/89f7ce77-35cd-40e7-96ca-cd18d4afcdbb-GettyImages-86875201.jpg?crop=1650,1239,x1850,y478&width=660&height=496&format=pjpg&auto=webp

One-time White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci decried “cancel culture” after C-SPAN journalist Steve Scully was indefinitely suspended over a lie about being hacked on Twitter.

“Brutal outcome for a silly non political tweet. Nothing objectionable. Cancel culture going too far,” Scaramucci said of a controversial tweet Scully sent to him.

Scully said he sent the tweet that said "@Scaramucci, should I respond to trump” after being subjected to “relentless criticism” in conservative media before the second presidential debate, which he was set to moderate. He said Trump went on national television twice on Oct. 8 "and falsely attack[ed] me by name. Out of frustration, I sent a brief tweet addressed to Anthony Scaramucci.”

Scaramucci later tweeted he understood Scully was suspended for lying “but the punishing cancel culture is over the top.”

https://twitter.com/Scaramucci/status/1316840780103909377

In his statement, Scully said, “These actions have let down a lot of people, including my colleagues at C-SPAN, where I have worked for the past 30 years, professional colleagues in the media, and the team at the Commission on Presidential Debates. I ask for their forgiveness as I try to move forward in a moment of reflection and disappointment in myself."

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/scaramucci-decries-cancel-culture-after-steve-scully-suspended-for-lying-about-twitter-hack?fbclid=IwAR30vxP2hugHO2TRCO9fJAeO80aoEQ4xQZJpJ8NxaZmggTIM4Xqj5H2gPto

[Bill Ryan]

This was fun. :)


https://activistmommy.com/cancel-culture-goes-after-racist-chess-because-white-moves-first-this-chess-expert-shut-them-down

Cancel Culture Goes After “Racist” Chess Because White Moves First. This Chess Expert Shut Them Down

1 July, 2020

Is chess racist?

That’s the question that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reportedly wished to explore last week when, according to Yahoo Sports (https://au.sports.yahoo.com/chess-centre-stunning-racism-debate-which-piece-moves-first-012917664.html), the ABC sought John Adams, an economist who represented the Australian Chess Federation in 2015, to participate in a radio discussion on the matter.

Rather than entertain the ridiculous question, Adams declined the interview request and took to Twitter to explain why he had no plans to discuss the “irrelevant” topic with ABC.

“I just received a phone call from an ABC Sydney based producer seeking a comment about the game of chess! The ABC have taken the view that chess is RACIST given that white always go first! They are seeking comment from a chess official as to whether the rules of chess need to be altered!” he tweeted.

“Trust the taxpayer funded national broadcaster to apply ideological Marxist frameworks to anything & everything in Australia! With all the drama resulting from COVID-19, I am amazed that the ABC is broadcasting on irrelevant topics!”

1275281388900544512
Source: https://twitter.com/adamseconomics/status/1275281388900544512

Adams retweeted a statement by former star player Garry Kasparov in which he said that those triggered by the white player moving first in chess can instead take up Go, a game where black moves first.

1275577385773961216
Source: https://twitter.com/adamseconomics/status/1275577385773961216

Yahoo reports that ABC Radio Sydney host James Valentine later said the idea was to have a discussion, not to brand chess as racist.

Kevin Bonham, a member of the Australian Chess Federation committee who was tapped after Adams declined, explained that the concept of having white move first was developed in the 19th century as a way of standardizing the game.

“In the 19th century the player who had the right to go first could choose which color they went first with, but analysts for some time had been publishing games as if white moved first whether this was actually true or not,” Bonham wrote on an internet chess forum, according to Yahoo.

“There are benefits to standardizing it, in terms of things like publishing diagrams of the chessboard, because when you … play with black moving first, it effectively mirror-images which way round you have your pieces,” he said on the show. “The pieces themselves don’t represent racial teams, they just represent the sort of combatants in a battle wearing different colored uniforms if you want.”

In fact, Bonham noted, casual chess players may elect to have black move first if they wish.

[Bill Ryan]

This isn't even cancel culture. It's cancel mathematical logic. :)


https://campusreform.org/?ID=15409

Math education prof: 2+2 = 4 'trope' "reeks of white supremacy patriarchy"

9 August, 2020


Math professors and academics at top universities, including Harvard and the University of Illinois, discussed the “Eurocentric” roots of American mathematics on Twitter.
They asserted that the statement “2 plus 2 equals 4” is rooted in Western definitions of mathematics.

Math professors and educators at leading American universities have taken to Twitter in order to debate whether math is racist.

Some asserted that objective mathematics is rooted in “white supremacist patriarchy” and white social constructs.

The debate itself was rooted in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, in which citizens of a fictional totalitarian state believe that 2 plus 2 equals 5 as a result of government propaganda.

Laurie Rubel (http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/faculty/faculty_profile.jsp?faculty=441), who teaches math education at Brooklyn College, says that the idea of math being culturally neutral is a "myth," and that asking whether 2 plus 2 equals 4 "reeks of white supremacist patriarchy."

(...the ridiculous article continues (https://campusreform.org/?ID=15409) :) )

[TargeT]

A great article on how "cancle culture" is a symptom of wide spread efforts to "shift culture" to a desired outcome .


How Decades Of Media And Faculty Bias Have Pushed America To The Left
It’s been clear for decades that national news organizations such as CNN and the New York Times tend to be biased in favor of social democracy (i.e., “progressivism”) and what we would generally call a “left-wing” ideology. Journalists, for instance, identify as Democrats in far higher numbers than any other partisan group. And political donations by members of the media overwhelmingly go to Democratic candidates.



This is why even as far back as the 1940s, libertarian and conservative groups felt the need to found their own news sources, publishing houses, and other outlets for the distribution of information.

Similarly, in recent decades, higher education faculty have been shown to be overwhelmingly in favor of the Democratic Party, both in affiliation and in donations.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/how-decades-media-and-faculty-bias-have-pushed-america-left

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Is chess racist?
That’s the question that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reportedly wished to explore last week



Math professors and educators at leading American universities have taken to Twitter in order to debate whether math is racist.

Compiling a written response to this would be an indignity to the English language (or any language). Words would be in vain anyway to these...pin-headed sh!t-wits.

Therefore, memes.


https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ExhaustedWeakBovine-size_restricted.gif

*

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/08/ff/dd/08ffdde57d5d7843a03922354116e17d.jpg

[Ewan]

If you want to know what cancel culture really is, watch what it cancels, and watch what it doesn't.

What isn't being cancelled is "Cuties", more on it here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?103615-Hollyweird-GreatAwakening&p=1373552#post1373552), and here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?103615-Hollyweird-GreatAwakening&p=1377319&viewfull=1#post1377319). This film involves scantily clad 11 year old girls posing sexually, while cavorting and writhing and twerking to hip-hop music. "Thoughtful, fresh, poignant", the critics remark (rave). This film also displays partial nudity, including bared chests and backsides. This is nothing but soft core child porn dressed up as a 'coming-of-age' drama.

So where is the woke mob now? Where is cancel-culture?

44291

See how they frame it. "Right wing".

Since when is a call for decency a right-wing position? It makes no difference what party you support, it's our moral obligation, and surely our most pressing aim, especially if you're a parent, to protect children.

But at what point do you become so woke, that you become blind to basic morality?

Is that what's happened here? Or are those involved...involved in an agenda?

Remember, part of the agenda is to normalize paedophilia, to have it decriminalized [not a joke (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?103615-Hollyweird-GreatAwakening&p=1375980&viewfull=1#post1375980)] and recognized as a sexual orientation. They really do want LGBTP.

I'm convinced they're attempting to shift the Overton Window (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window). They're doing it quietly though, inch by quiet inch. Cuties would never stand twenty years ago. The window has shifted since then. I say that if you accept this now, they win another inch. And after this they'll push for another inch, and another. And then in twenty more years, where shall we be???

I just saw this film browsing Netflix and came into Avalon to search it. There was a whole page of results but in threads I rarely look at - except for this one. Last week I knew nothing about it, now I've watched it and have an actual opinion based on that.

It is set in France, presumably in the suburbs of Paris, and opens with a young Moslim African girl and her life. She sees some other young girls practicing dance moves and story unfolds watching her begin to reject all her old values in favour of what the viewer is probably meant to see as more freedom from her perspective. The film definitely takes a walk on the wild side as it progresses and I was tempted to switch it off more than once as it does seem overly sexualised. I persisted though and made it to the end, the Moslim girl ends up rejecting her new freedoms and runs back to her family, and I came away with a different take on it. (There was also some pretty good acting from the lead girl who is just 11 years old).

Now maybe I am taking an erroneous position, I have no idea what the writer/director (a woman by the way) intended. I felt the film was ultimately exposing what social media is doing to our children and in particular young females - though young males also have their own problems to deal with. If the majority of people are just going to reject this from a gut/emotional reaction I genuinely fear they are missing the bigger picture. Regardless of whether this film gets condemned/banned social media continues, young children are being exposed to material that will influence many to overtly sexual appearance/behaviour. Every young teen girl has seen pop videos of girls dancing provocatively, does anyone think they are not going to mimic them?

I've had this conversation with my 16 yr old son, told him I never saw a naked woman till I was 14 yrs old and it was a Playboy centrefold that was taken in profile. Most kids in my generation didn't have a clue other than the absolute basics with a lot of incorrect ideas/thinking. Today every Western and a hell of a lot of Eastern 14 or 15 year old has probably seen some hardcore videos. It can't bode well for the future and that is not me wishing to start a crusade or being a prude, it should be apparent and yet it continues.

----

Ok, just looked up the director to see if she had responded to criticisms. Turns out I was correct in my summation


“I thought the film would be accepted. It played to Sundance and was watched by American people there; I met the public there and they really saw that the film is about a universal issue,” said Doucouré. “It’s not about French society — the hyper-sexualization of children happens through social media and social media is everywhere. People [at Sundance] agreed with that.”

“We need to protect our children. What I want to is to open people’s eyes on this issue and try to fix it,” said the filmmaker, adding that it’s “important and necessary to create a debate and find solutions as filmmakers, politicians, and within the educational system.”

Interview with Maimouna Doucoure (https://variety.com/2020/film/news/cuties-netflix-backlash-director-maimouna-doucoure-1234769137/)

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Thanks for your take on this Ewan, much appreciated. I definitely acknowledge my own rush to judgement without even seeing the film, and the certain hypocrisy that that entails. However the main gist of the condemnation of this film is not the moral of the story, but how the content is treated. The analogy being: you don't make a film about the evils of animal cruelty by actually being cruel to animals.

I've read enough articles and seen enough clips to confirm the very inappropriate nature of some of the scenes. I continue to insist it would've been just as possible to tell this story without them.

[Constance]

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

[rgray222]

Music Publicist Says She Was Fired By Email For Attending Trump Rally

https://davidharrisjr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pop-1200x500.jpg

Danielle Reiss attended President Trump’s campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada. She never thought for a moment that she would lose her job over her choice for president. But, that is the way things work with today’s cancel culture. If you don’t toe their line, they will try to destroy you. She committed the heinous act of holding up a Trump poster.

The next thing she knew, she received a letter from her employer, Pop Off . That letter said that her support of Trump went against all the company stands for. The cancel culture should work both ways. If you do business with Pop Off, you should drop them like a bad habit. Pop Off brings together publicists with artists and in return the publicists pay them a fee.

The letter read:
https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TerminationEmail.jpg

[Gemma13]

Wow the hypocrisy in that letter is unbelievable. Fanatical cult mentality that is blinded to reason.


Music Publicist Says She Was Fired By Email For Attending Trump Rally

https://davidharrisjr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/pop-1200x500.jpg

Danielle Reiss attended President Trump’s campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada. She never thought for a moment that she would lose her job over her choice for president. But, that is the way things work with today’s cancel culture. If you don’t toe their line, they will try to destroy you. She committed the heinous act of holding up a Trump poster.

The next thing she knew, she received a letter from her employer, Pop Off . That letter said that her support of Trump went against all the company stands for. The cancel culture should work both ways. If you do business with Pop Off, you should drop them like a bad habit. Pop Off brings together publicists with artists and in return the publicists pay them a fee.

The letter read:
https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TerminationEmail.jpg

[thepainterdoug]

wow what a small little inchworm this guy is. the liberal dem side of things is far less tolerant than the war monger republican party of yesteryear was .
the poles have flipped.

[TargeT]

Wow the hypocrisy in that letter is unbelievable. Fanatical cult mentality that is blinded to reason.


Ahh, but how the tables turn right?

In the RECENT past the BERKLEY campus (1960's) fought for free speech to the point of riots....

In the late 1990's and early 2000's BERKLEY campus fought against free speech.... How is this ignored?

This is ONE POST where I feel like I do NOT have to provide links, if this is NOT KNOWN then there is a serious problem.... we have to realize how far we have allowed this situation to go......

Are you wearing a mask that you don't agree to? Hmmm.... what does that equate to historically??

soft agreement to tyranny is the goal... don't be apart of the problem...

[rgray222]

This is truly sad, the Girl Scouts were pressured into removing their first post which celebrated "all the women" that have been or currently are sitting on the Supreme Court. They put out a second post removing Amy Cony Barrett. This is not celebrating women this is celebrating divisive hate-filled politics. I am saddened by the Girl Scout response and the Democrat pressure that allowed this to happen.

https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/1321624189820899331

https://twitter.com/girlscouts/status/1111021344928514048

Source: https://www.dailywire.com/news/megyn-kelly-slams-girl-scouts-for-pathetic-walk-back-on-barrett-post

[onawah]

Dave Rubin: Cancel Culture Has Killed Humor
31,240 views•Premiered Nov 16, 2020
Crossroads with JOSHUA PHILIPP
462K subscribers

"In this episode of Crossroads, we've had the pleasure of sitting down with Dave Rubin for a discussion on cancel culture, the hypocrisy of social justice, the narcissism of small differences, and the current state of politics. Dave Rubin is a political commentator, former comedian, and host of The Rubin Report."
anoPzTREwYs

[Gemma13]

1326127215994613762

[palehorse]

The cancel culture has moved into high gear. Hardly a day goes by when a person or corporation isn't targeted. Some of it is certainly justified when a celebrity, politician, or notable person makes an undeniably racist or sexist comment.  Without a doubt, it is now being used to silence people or damage companies when they say objectionable words or take social stances that others find unacceptable. 

Most of the cancel culture gets its start on social media but the real power comes from the mainstream media. Some of it is maddening, much of it is humorous but all of it has an impact (better or worse) on our world. 

In a few short years, it is probably going to be hard for people to believe that some of this actually went on so I thought we might document some of the cancel culture activities.

Bari Weiss quits New York Times after bullying by colleagues over views: 'They have called me a Nazi and a racist'
 
New York Times opinion columnist and editor Bari Weiss announced Tuesday she is leaving the New York Times, saying she was bullied by colleagues in an "illiberal environment," weeks after declaring there was a “civil war” inside the paper. 

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/07/1862/1048/Bari-Weiss-NYT-Getty-Images.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

"Thethe lessons that ought to have followed the [2016] election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned,” Weiss wrote. “Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.” 

Source:  https://www.foxnews.com/media/bari-weiss-quits-new-york-times-bullying


As Terrence McKenna used to say "Culture is not your friend".

Here is one of his famous quotes regards culture

“We have to create culture, don’t watch TV, don’t read magazines, don’t even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you’re worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you’re giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y. This is ****-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told ‘no’, we’re unimportant, we’re peripheral. ‘Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.’ And then you’re a player, you don’t want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.”

— Terence McKenna

x68jH-S-LyQ

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Bari Weiss (above):


"truth isn’t a process of collective discovery [anymore], but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else."

Very insightful quote.

'They' are trying to undo a century plus of hard-won human breakthroughs, in freedom, liberty, awareness, creativity, invention, empiricism, intellectualism, cultural evolution, self-determination, and truth - they are trying to undo liberalism itself. In a nutshell, they want to straight-jacket the human soul [again], and return to the age of the Salem witch trials, or the Spanish Inquisition.

[Dorjezigzag]

Even babies are getting cancelled!

https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5fada3eaccbacd1e07c1a780/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/Baby%252520Yoda%252520eggs%2525202.png


The bigger they are, the harder they fall. That also turns out to be true of the tiny.

Baby Yoda, who one year ago today cozied into the hearts of Star Wars fans with his bottomless eyes, fuzzy head, and adorable cooing, has invoked genuine social media wrath for last week's episode of The Mandalorian, in which the mystical infant remorselessly snacked on the eggs of an endangered galactic species.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/11/baby-yoda-eggs

[TargeT]

White people are the most oppressed currently... prove me wrong...

BTW, here's proof as of 5 days ago...... hahaha I love how far we've come......

VLXXYlYjPwo

but then, a racial war is THE BEST and easiest (apparently) way to subjugate a population and bring in the "great reset"..... bizarro world indeed.

(btw, look at the like to dislike ratio... no one is falling for this **** except the brainwashed MSM watchers...)

we WILL pull through this, the tactics are stale and easily seen through.

[Mike]

if you guys don't mind, I'm just gonna call this one ahead of time: Black Friday...R.I.P.

i suspect this will be the last year we see that one. in fact i'm shocked it's even being allowed this year. the woke are slipping.

[Mike]

hey TargeT, honestly i thought that video started out pretty funny! the stuff about animals and white people is kinda accurate. i laughed at that. even as a white dude, i can't say i understand the animal obsession. i like animals and appreciate their presence when they're around, but i can't say ive ever been an "animal person".

but then the video got nasty pretty quick. caught me off guard and i was genuinely disappointed. not surprised tho. this is the spreading cancer we're dealing with now

[Ewan]

hey TargeT, honestly i thought that video started out pretty funny! the stuff about animals and white people is kinda accurate. i laughed at that. even as a white dude, i can't say i understand the animal obsession. i like animals and appreciate their presence when they're around, but i can't say ive ever been an "animal person".

but then the video got nasty pretty quick. caught me off guard and i was genuinely disappointed. not surprised tho. this is the spreading cancer we're dealing with now

I thought similar for a while but then tried to put myself in the shoes of a black person, they've probably heard this and worse for a large period of the last three plus centuries from people who didn't even think they were racist; it was just the way it was. The response is no surprise, as you say.

Who made the 'CUT' video though, and for what purpose?

--

Wandering off-topic.

The bigger picture isn't about race but manipulation of thought, did this rise organically out of a technologically modern world or is there a driving force behind it? (The latter imo). No-one should be allowed to leave school until they have completed a course in critical thinking yet parts of the curriculum seem to plant the seeds for this lack of balance to surface in the future*. I'm regularly having to de-programme my kids from 'muddy thinking'.

* Unfortunately struggling to come up with an example to present accurately, or perhaps even coherently; I tend to let things go once they've been dealt with.

Re: White people and animals. Of course many of us turned to animals for companionship and trust. We grew up largely among other white people. Don't you know what a nasty bunch of sh*ts they can be?

(Is there proportionally more white psychopaths I wonder).

[Eva2]

White people are the most oppressed currently... prove me wrong...

BTW, here's proof as of 5 days ago...... hahaha I love how far we've come......

VLXXYlYjPwo

but then, a racial war is THE BEST and easiest (apparently) way to subjugate a population and bring in the "great reset"..... bizarro world indeed.

(btw, look at the like to dislike ratio... no one is falling for this **** except the brainwashed MSM watchers...)

we WILL pull through this, the tactics are stale and easily seen through.

Jeez, I wonder if anyone on this video lost their jobs when these comments went public - so much mind blowing hypocrisy!

[palehorse]

White people are the most oppressed currently... prove me wrong...

BTW, here's proof as of 5 days ago...... hahaha I love how far we've come......

VLXXYlYjPwo

but then, a racial war is THE BEST and easiest (apparently) way to subjugate a population and bring in the "great reset"..... bizarro world indeed.

(btw, look at the like to dislike ratio... no one is falling for this **** except the brainwashed MSM watchers...)

we WILL pull through this, the tactics are stale and easily seen through.

Jeez, I wonder if anyone on this video lost their jobs when these comments went public - so much mind blowing hypocrisy!

It would be an offense to Bozo to call these people Bozos, they are more like aspiring clowns. LOL

[Mike]

Stephen Crowder breaks down TargeT's video. Pretty hilarious stuff:
lkD7aPrYwPU

[Franny]

Everything said in the video can be said of anyone, in any country and some it might even be true.

Saw this meme today and grabbed it. I might change the world fool with ignorant or socially engineered, however.

45213

How strange to have bias against others due to color, race and such things. I do sort of understand bias against weird colored cars, however. What's up with cars painted orange? Should that be acceptable?

[rgray222]

When I read, watch or listen to Jordan Peterson it becomes obvious that he is a guy who has given a lot of thought to many subjects. He challenges my beliefs and frequently sends me on a path to rethink some of the issues that I thought I had resolved. Sometimes he is a pure joy to read and others times he is hard and contentious to read but always lively.

Growing up our family literally sat around the kitchen table most nights to discuss the issues of the day. We grew up all over the world, the far east, Europe, California, Washington DC and many other places but these discussions were one of the bedrocks of our family life. They are some of my fondest memories I have of growing up. No topics were off-limits, we would talk about politics, marriage, race, abortion, war, sports and school to name just a few. It forced to me to start thinking about life at an early age. These talks/debates were always lively but never too contentious and certainly, no one left the table in anger or removed themselves from the discussion because they refused to hear someones view on a subject.

My point of bringing this up is because in today's world many people have no desire to listen to or discuss any viewpoint that opposes their beliefs. This is so foreign to my way of thinking that I simply find it incomprehensible.

How did this happen and where did this come from. It is my "belief" that colleges and universities are the genesis for this type of thinking and behavior. It probably started 15-20 years ago and now that they have graduated in sufficient numbers and are holding responsible jobs they have become an illiterate force to be reckoned with. This story about Jordan Peterson is exactly what I am talking about. People have a choice to read a book or not read it but at least they should have the choice. If these people had their way this book would never see the light of day.

Something must be done to instill tolerance back into society.


Penguin Random House staffers broke down in tears over release of Jordan Peterson book: report

A new report shows inner turmoil that is apparently taking place at Penguin Random House Canada over the publisher's release of a book written by Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson.


Peterson, a psychology professor from the University of Toronto and a popular podcast host who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, announced on Monday that he is releasing a new book titled "Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life," which is set to be released in March of next year.

However, Vice reported on Tuesday that Peterson's book has sparked an emotional outcry within the Canadian publishing giant with an effort by employees to pressure the company into canceling the book's release.

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2020/11/1862/1048/Jordan-Peterson-GETTY-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

According to the report, "several" employees confronted management of Penguin Random House Canada (PRHC), a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, at an internal town hall on Monday and "dozens more have filed anonymous complaints" about PRHC's plans to release the latest work from the politically and culturally outspoken professor.

“He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia and the fact that he’s an icon of white supremacy, regardless of the content of his book, I’m not proud to work for a company that publishes him,” one town hall attendee, who is also a member of the LGBTQ community, told Vice.

Another employee alleged that “people were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives” with one explaining that Peterson had "radicalized their father" and another insisting the publishing of Peterson's book will "negatively affect their non-binary friend."

“The company since June has been doing all these anti-racist and allyship things and then publishing Peterson’s book completely goes against this. It just makes all of their previous efforts seem completely performative,” the employee told Vice.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/penguin-random-house-staffers-reportedly-breaking-down-crying-over-publishers-release-of-jordan-peterson-book

Here is the original vice article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5bv3x/penguin-random-house-staff-confront-publisher-about-new-jordan-peterson-book

[Dorjezigzag]

Talk radia have been a valuable alternative perspective in this time of rapant propaganda. Of course you know what that means for them.... Youtube have cancelled them.

"TalkRadio is an Ofcom-licensed and regulated broadcaster, and has robust editorial controls in place, taking care to balance debate.

"We regularly interrogate government data and we have controls in place, use verifiable sources and give space to careful selection of voices and opinions."


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55544205

Update: Looks like they reversed the decision for now

[TargeT]

“He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia and the fact that he’s an icon of white supremacy, regardless of the content of his book, I’m not proud to work for a company that publishes him,” one town hall attendee, who is also a member of the LGBTQ community, told Vice.


that's the furthest from the truth possible?

how can people calling for censorship not see that THEY are the NAZI party, they are doing/going-a-long-with exactly what the nationalist socialist party did.

I don't even think white supremacy exists to a degree that it should even be mentioned; just more divisive language and fear porn

[Strat]

how can people calling for censorship not see that THEY are the NAZI party, they are doing/going-a-long-with exactly what the nationalist socialist party did.


I'm basically speechless when it comes to this, seriously, I keep deleting and retyping because it's hard to put into words how absurd of a situation it is. Joking aside, it's like we're living in Bizarro World.

[rgray222]

The ultimate aim of the cancel culture for the past few years was to cancel Donald Trump.

The second part of canceling Trump is to cover it up, this is exactly where we are now. I have chosen this video to show that the election fraud was planned, thought out, and carried out. These are impeccable data scientists talking about what happened in the state of GA. To my knowledge, they do not have an ax to grind with either political party they are simply analyzing the data used by the state of GA.

The third and final part of the cancel culture is for people to lose confidence in the institution of American elections. BLM and ANTIFA will continue to erode the foundations of America but destroying the election process was and is a critical step in moving the process forward.

If you are a Trump supporter this will infuriate you.
If you are a Biden supporter you will have to question the integrity and honesty of your party and its politics.
If you are an American, an advocate for free speech, if you aspire to a free and open society or if you desire transparency in politics this should give you sleepless nights.
For Global governance to succeed the United States must be brought to its knees.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKiyAy9vjrk

[Airelle77]

Spot on ! ...............................................

¤=[Post Update]=¤




“He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia and the fact that he’s an icon of white supremacy, regardless of the content of his book, I’m not proud to work for a company that publishes him,” one town hall attendee, who is also a member of the LGBTQ community, told Vice.


that's the furthest from the truth possible?

how can people calling for censorship not see that THEY are the NAZI party, they are doing/going-a-long-with exactly what the nationalist socialist party did.

I don't even think white supremacy exists to a degree that it should even be mentioned; just more divisive language and fear porn

TBH the same could be said about Atos, and Shane Gibbs.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

If you thought things couldn't possibly get any stupider, think again.

dQqbc-uPUNQ

[Sue (Ayt)]

nKgzWT4K_Lc

[onawah]

When Cancel Culture Cancels Everything
59,600 views•Jan 26, 2021
AwakenWithJP
1.69M subscribers
_sKX2Gk7eFY

[rgray222]

This would be extremely funny if it were not true.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9_bI789Gog

[rgray222]

When SNL starts making fun of the cancel culture you know that things have gone way too far. The question is can the cancel culture be reigned in or has the barn door been left open forever. As with all things in the world, there is a small amount of good coming from even the most destructive behaviors. The cancel culture has called out some people for being truly racist, sexist, and homophobic but these people are only a small fraction of the total number that have been caught in the cancel culture dragnet.

Once the cancel culture moved from attacking a few high profile racist and sexist individuals it clearly became an effort to cancel out Trump and his supporters. Then it quickly morphed into an effort to push the Democrat Party to the extreme far left. Many people and companies clearly understood that BLM followed and advocated a Marxist ideology. If organizations or individuals spoke out against BLM or even ANTIFA while cities burned and lives were destroyed they were quickly and publicly punished in the mainstream media. Once this happened the media left the rest up to their foot soldiers on social media to complete the annihilation.

Now the big tech giants are so enthralled with the cancel culture they have picked up where the mainstream media left off, canceling hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of posts on a daily basis. Twitter is so delighted with their cancelation policy that they have now instituted a Civic Integrity Policy (https://about.twitter.com/en/our-priorities/civic-integrity). They are now canceling people that are saying the lockdowns don't work (https://thehill.com/policy/technology/537693-twitter-permanently-suspends-gateway-pundit-founder). Just think about that for a moment. Facebook is now the arbiter of truth (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-shouldnt-be-the-arbiter-of-truth-zuckerberg-tells-fox-news-2020-05-27) in society, Zuckerberg, a billionaire that stole his company from two brothers in college is now the guy who decides what passes for truth and honesty in our society. Just think about that for another moment.

I note with some interest that the military is taking a "pause" for the next 30 days to root out extremism (https://time.com/5936355/u-s-military-extremists/). They plan on canceling people within their own ranks that do not have the desired ideology. One of the main ways they plan to accomplish this task is by reviewing all military personnel Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit accounts. We have seen these loyalty tests in the military in third world countries many times before. Saddam Hussien was famous for exactly the same thing, the only difference is he put to death those that he suspected of being disloyal.

Aligning our loyalties to a political party forces most people to accept government and corporate behavior that would normally be unacceptable in any society. Aligning our loyalties to embrace common sense along with a strong moral compass will enable people to disengage from politics and view the world in a much healthier and more realistic manner.

I am not sure where this is heading but I suspect the end result will be more division, more anger, more hate, and the creation of real extremists.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz6j8OEudZg

[Mike]

If I documented here every cancellation I see or read about lately, it would be a full time job.

But this one stands out. This professor, Jason Kilborn, who teaches at John Marshall Law School in Chicago, is under fire for an exam question. It's a civil law class - just for context - and the question on the test begins with a hypothetical scenario Kilborn has created that involves a woman who gets fired from her job and subsequently sues the company for racial and gender discrimination.

In this hypothetical scenario, it is written that she's accusing her former employer of calling her a "n______ and a b____. " And it's written on the test exactly as I've written it here in this post. The actual words weren't even used.

Well, this caused quite an uproar. Kilborn is suspended and on indefinite leave and the students are pressuring the admin to fire him.

The school has crumbled and so has Kilborn, both apologizing for their egregious errors in judgement.

We're talking about students that are actually training to be civil law attorneys here, WHO ARE EMOTIONALLY INCAPABLE OF VIEWING AN ABBREVIATED RACIAL OR GENDER SLUR ON AN EXAM, EVEN IF JUST FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.:) One student was apparently so distressed by this that she had heart palpitations.

As an aside: I've been working on some writing projects lately. Fiction stuff. One of them is about this cancel culture phenomena, and I'm finding that it's so absurd that - as a satirist - I don't even know where to go with it. There's no meat left on the bone at all. As my Brit friend Marcus recently said: "There's no room left for piss-taking mate. One can only stand back in horror. "

https://reason.com/volokh/2021/01/15/tenured-law-prof-apparently-suspended-for-racial-harassment-lawsuit-problem-on-a-civil-procedure-exam/?amp

[Gemma13]

As an aside: I've been working on some writing projects lately. Fiction stuff. One of them is about this cancel culture phenomena, and I'm finding that it's so absurd that - as a satirist - I don't even know where to go with it. There's no meat left on the bone at all. As my Brit friend Marcus recently said: "There's no room left for piss-taking mate. One can only stand back in horror. "

https://reason.com/volokh/2021/01/15/tenured-law-prof-apparently-suspended-for-racial-harassment-lawsuit-problem-on-a-civil-procedure-exam/?amp

Hi Mike. You might get some inspiration from this article, WHY CANCEL CULTURE CAN'T TAKE A JOKE, in particular:


https://www.afr.com/politics/why-cancel-culture-can-t-take-a-joke-20200707-p559pd

A meme has been doing the rounds of the internet – you can try it too. It goes like this: you Google “is insert random object here racist”. The more often you do it, the funnier it gets. You see, the internet is teeming with earnest articles about how various random things which have nothing to do with race are, when you really think about it, somehow racist. Smiling, dogs, knitting, fairy floss – all racist, ad absurdum.

I did the google suggestion by typing "is tomato racist?" and couldn't believe what came up.
This article titled "Is having to pay for tomato ketchup racist"

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/aug/28/having-to-pay-tomato-ketchup-racist

So I tried another - "is knitting racist" and to my utter surprise I got these for starters:

"The knitting community is reckoning with racism".
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/25/18234950/knitting-racism-instagram-stories

Knitting influencer gets in a tangle after mocking wokeness with yarn
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/feb/20/knitting-influencer-wokeness-maria-tusken

"Knitting websites war on Trump forces crafting community to confront racism". https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/25/knitting-is-political-how-trump-forced-the-craft-community-to-confront-racism

Surely I wouldn't score a hat trick. I tried again with "is sandwich racist". And yep hit a winner. Loads of links to the "Racist Sandwich Podcast".

Have fun :happythumbsup:

[Mike]

Gemma that's remarkable! But I'm not the least bit surprised, sadly.

Next they'll be saying air is racist! HA! Wouldn't that be a hoot? OMG, that would be nuts. But even the wokesters wouldn't go that far...Right? ... Right??

Wrong: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/air-pollution-racial-disparities/

[Mike]

Ive promised myself that i will at least try to approach these topics with humor moving forward, so i offer this. 7 mins of hilarity, Bill Burr, just killing it. I don't think he could get away with this bit now. No way. Enjoy it while it's still available:

xA1ZU8LDpVE

[Gemma13]

Gemma that's remarkable! But I'm not the least bit surprised, sadly.

Next they'll be saying air is racist! HA! Wouldn't that be a hoot? OMG, that would be nuts. But even the wokesters wouldn't go that far...Right? ... Right??

Wrong: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/air-pollution-racial-disparities/

Wow! Okay let's end this and take it off planet. "Is mars racist?" Hmm okay I get that one.

HOW CAN OUR FUTURE MARS COLONIES BE FREE OF RACISM AND SEXISM
https://www.google.com/search?client=tablet-android-telstra-au&source=android-browser&ei=5CcjYPScK__Bz7sPlvSVuAw&q=is+mars+racist%3F&oq=is+mars+racist%3F&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAM6BggAEAcQHlChZliqb2D7d2gAcAB4AIAB6QKIAYAKkgEFMi00LjGYAQCgAQHAA QE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

OK Let's go a bit further. "Is sun racist?"

Well blow me over with a feather.

SUNSHINE, FERTILITY AND RACIAL DISPARITIES
https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=tablet-android-telstra-au&source=android-browser&q=is+sun+racist%3F

[Mike]

Gemma that's remarkable! But I'm not the least bit surprised, sadly.

Next they'll be saying air is racist! HA! Wouldn't that be a hoot? OMG, that would be nuts. But even the wokesters wouldn't go that far...Right? ... Right??

Wrong: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/air-pollution-racial-disparities/

Wow! Okay let's end this and take it off planet. "Is mars racist?" Hmm okay I get that one.

HOW CAN OUR FUTURE MARS COLONIES BE FREE OF RACISM AND SEXISM
https://www.google.com/search?client=tablet-android-telstra-au&source=android-browser&ei=5CcjYPScK__Bz7sPlvSVuAw&q=is+mars+racist%3F&oq=is+mars+racist%3F&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAM6BggAEAcQHlChZliqb2D7d2gAcAB4AIAB6QKIAYAKkgEFMi00LjGYAQCgAQHAA QE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

OK Let's go a bit further. "Is sun racist?"

Well blow me over with a feather.

SUNSHINE, FERTILITY AND RACIAL DISPARITIES
https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=tablet-android-telstra-au&source=android-browser&q=is+sun+racist%3F



I quit. You win.

Oh no, is surrendering racist?

Wait, I think my quitting is acceptable if I let a person of color take my place. Pretty sure I got that right!

Hey have I avoided cancellation??:)


UPDATE: I have just been informed that I've been cancelled for positioning myself as a "good white". Drats!

[Franny]

Taking it to another extreme, we now find that those who love their dogs are racist. Most unfortunately, many people of the same sort will believe this psychopathic, anti-human, anti-Life crap and push it as far as they can.

AMAIRUKUHN EDGYKAYSHUN STRIKES AGAIN: KINDNESS TO DOGS IS RACIST

Rotten to the Core / By Joseph P. Farrell

It's been a very long time since I've had a rant about Amairikuhn edgykayshun, but this story, shared by V.S., vaulted right into the finals folder. When I read it, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or rant, and ended up doing all three. It seems that the latest lunacy to hit the Amairikuhn quackademy is the notion that being kind to animals - particularly dogs - is somehow a sign of white supremacy and patriarchy and... well, rather than me tell you, just read the article (if you can stomach it):

So here it is:


In her recent book The Lives and Deaths of Shelter Animals, Katja Guenther claims that dogs are being killed because of “capitalism, anthroparchy, white supremacy and patriarchy.” She argues that allowing dogs to sleep inside is a privilege reserved for the white and wealthy and that policies against keeping dogs chained up in backyards are intended to oppress people of color by imposing “middle-class norms of animal keeping in which companion animals are considered family and treated accordingly,” which ignore the fact that people of color “are themselves trapped in poverty, may have few options for legitimate income generation and possibly rely on their dogs for … status.

The first time I read this, I was angry, the second, I was sad, the third, I merely laughed. And what the heck is "anthroparchy"? And do I even care to know? (Probably not.) And most people I know that have dogs, whether inside or outside, have them because they like them. We'll get back to that. But wait, there's more:


She appears to be arguing that if a person of color can turn a profit or build a reputation through animal exploitation that excuses animal suffering—even in the case of sadistic animal abuse: “From a class perspective, wealthy people are believed to be too ‘civilized’ to engage in barbaric activities like dogfighting, and it’s no coincidence that the only affluent person who has been publicly shamed for dogfighting in the U.S., Michael Vick, is Black, newly wealthy after growing up in poverty.”

Dogfighting, however, is not considered barbaric because it violates the norms of wealthy people—who, after all, have historically had their own versions of animal cruelty masquerading as entertainment, such as fox hunting and pigeon shooting. Nor is dogfighting considered uncivilized because of the skin color of the organizers—many of whom are white—but because of what it does to dogs.

At Michael Vick’s property, investigators found decomposing dogs who died by “hanging, drowning, and being slammed to death.” As one of the rescuers involved wrote,

The details that got to me then and stay with me today involve the swimming pool that was used to kill some of the dogs. Jumper cables were clipped onto the ears of underperforming dogs, then, just like with a car, the cables were connected to the terminals of car batteries before lifting and tossing the shamed dogs into the water. Most of Vick’s dogs were small—40lbs or so—so tossing them in would’ve been fast and easy work for thick athlete arms. We don’t know how many suffered this premeditated murder, but the damage to the pool walls tells a story. It seems that while they were scrambling to escape, they scratched and clawed at the pool liner and bit at the dented aluminum sides …

...

That—and not his skin color—is why Vick was condemned publicly along with many others—many of them white people—who have been held accountable for harming animals.

While Guenther explains away mistreatment if the perpetrator happens to be a person of color, she has plenty of harsh words for those trying to save animals. Day in and day out, rescuers and volunteers show tremendous courage and compassion when they visit their local pounds. At many high kill shelters, they face hostile treatment from staff and endure heartbreak at seeing animals destined for lethal injection or gas chambers. And yet they go back, again and again.

Despite acknowledging these traumas, because most of the volunteers Guenther encountered were white, she accuses them of working to “reinscribe hierarchies of power and status within the shelter” against the non-white workers and thus “maintain existing social inequalities between humans even as they seek to help animals.” When a rescuer laments the condition of a dog “with sagging belly skin, elongated nipples, and enlarged genitalia” and expresses dismay that the former owners “confined their dog outdoors” and “used the pit bull primarily for income generation through breeding,” Guenther dismisses the criticism as “the animal practices of white rescuers.”

Now, all of this would be news to my two next door neighbors, one a black family, and the other, an elderly white lady, or my young Indian neighbors across the street with their two dogs and two cats (one cat a rescue), or the old curmudgeon across the street and his two little dogs. The black family occasionally has visits from the rest of their family, with little kids in tow, and when the kids see me outside walking Shiloh, they love to come over and pet her and ask questions about her. The elderly lady had to give up her own dog for adoption by the rest of her family, but always leaves a little treat for Shiloh when we bring her mail to her front door. Lesson: kindness, compassion, and love for animals is merely human; it's not black, not white, not old, not young, not male, not female. It's merely human. In fact, I would go so far as to say loving an animal or animals humanizes us in ways we do not really understand, and my little dog reacts to all of them in exactly the same way, an excited wagging tail, a little doggie "dance", and some doggie kisses. It's those who view animals simply as machines - or in Ms. Guenther's case, as mere articles in an ideological creed or as cogs in a silly multi-cultural machine of virtue signaling and "concern" - that give me pause, for such people seem empty and machine-like themselves. Perhaps such people are only a step away from the other type of people who view animals as mere chemical-biological automatons, and who feel free accordingly to torture, starve, and abuse them.

It's also a measure of just how inhuman, anti-human, and trivial, the Amairikuhn quackademy and culture has become if busybodies like Ms. Guenther not only have professorships but manage to get their drivel published and taken seriously. Recently, I read another article about a professor who was accusing minority supporters of President Trump of "multi-racial whiteness." (See https://www.npr.org/2021/01/24/960060957/understanding-multiracial-whiteness-and-trump-supporters). I don't particularly care what one thinks of Trump. My point here is I wonder what Ms. Guenther would make of my two next door neighbors and their friendliness toward my little dog? Would my elderly neighbor lady be accused of "trans-sexual patriarchy" and my other neighbors of "trans-racial whiteness" and "anthroparchy"?

My problem here is that my neighbors are simply showing human kindness, and that the end result of Ms. Guenther's meddling will be, as the article rightly sums up, a return to a kind of barbarism:


The most dangerous thing about Guenther’s book, however, is her view that human-animal relations are “a zero-sum political struggle involving identity markers like race.” In the early nineteenth century, cruelty to dogs was not recognized in law because they were considered property. Likewise, harming a homeless dog was not illegal because there was no property interest at stake. The animal did not matter. Guenther is once again suggesting a standard that excuses harm based on the interests of those causing it.

For all her professed concern about hierarchies of privilege, Guenther’s prescription for human-animal relations could not be more inequitable, uncharitable and unkind. Her premise that not all animals should have the same rights and that not all humans bear the same responsibilities to those animals threatens to popularize defeatist and counterproductive dogmas of the kind that kept shelters killing animals for decades until the current generation found common sense alternatives.

If such ideas gain traction, I fear the current moment will be remembered as a brief interlude between the ideological intransigence of two generations—both of which subordinate the rights of animals to the interests of those who harm them.
Perhaps Ms. Guenther needs to spend some time with animal rescue organizations, like Hope for Paws in Los Angeles, whose many rescue videos are on Youtube, whose rescue and veterinary crews are Hispanic, male, female, old, young, and you-name-it, and who respond to calls from all sorts of kind people - black, white, Latino, old, young, rich, poor, tattooed bikers, homeless people, professionals, rich, and poor - reporting some animal needing to be rescued. Perhaps she needs to learn to shed a tear of compassion for a suffering animal, or a tear of gratitude to those rescuing them, rather than wallowing in the fetid sewers of quackademia and her loony theories.

Yea, you can color me nauseated on this one. Shame on you Ms. Guenther.

See you on the flip side...

[Mike]

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gina-carano-fired-mandalorian-racist-101300636.html

Actress Gina Carano, the star of 'The Mandalorian', was fired for tweets that made too much sense.

[rgray222]

I never thought that it would be possible for the cancel culture to swing its broad sword at mathematics. It seems the cancel culture could not pass up the opportunity for a 2 for 1, dumbing down society while at the same time screaming systemic racism.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/racistmath.jpg

Oregon promotes teacher program that seeks to undo 'racism in mathematics'

The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) recently encouraged teachers to register for training that encourages "ethnomathematics" and argues, among other things, that White supremacy manifests itself in the focus on finding the right answer.

Part of the toolkit includes a list of ways "white supremacy culture" allegedly "infiltrates math classrooms." Those include "the focus is on getting the 'right' answer," students being "required to 'show their work,'" and other alleged manifestations.

"The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so," the document for the "Equitable Math" toolkit reads. "Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict."

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/oregon-education-math-white-supremacy

[Mike]

"Cancel Culture Is A Dress Rehearsal For Mass Murder" is the title of this short 5 minute video. A chilling and profound title. When I saw it I thought, wow, of course it is! And then I was sort of embarrassed that the same thought hadn't really occurred to me as I've watched all this crap take place.

This idea likely deserves a thread of it's own actually.


9L0dPKpfHRA

[Bill Ryan]

"Cancel Culture Is A Dress Rehearsal For Mass Murder" is the title of this short 5 minute video. A chilling and profound title. When I saw it I thought, wow, of course it is! And then I was sort of embarrassed that the same thought hadn't really occurred to me as I've watched all this crap take place.

This idea likely deserves a thread of it's own actually.


9L0dPKpfHRAWell, I'm downloading that immediately. The odds that'll stay online seem minuscule

:thumbsup:

[Matthew]

...9L0dPKpfHRA
...
Well, I'm downloading that immediately. The odds that'll stay online seem minuscule

:thumbsup:

Uh... the title of the video sounds ludicrous but I can't deny history is a string of such things happening, and each time the participants are almost always surprised. I'm sorry to say (and I can't believe I am going to this place) but at the moment I can't discount the terrible thought that this could happen.

Let me explain why: it's because using logic in reason doesn't work any more, and hasn't worked for a while. Rules and formal boundaries are ignored in favour of emotional and unfounded bias. "Alt-right" turns into "far right" and "conspiracy theorist" turns into "dangerous conspiracy theories". People who identified as centre-thinking are suddenly 'far-right'. Struggle all you want to get out of these labels, sadly logic in reason doesn't work any more. Also, good luck with nuances. If you literally kneel you can get out of it because strong emotional responses work against a strong emotional responses. It's all strong emotional response. So why won't it go to stronger emotional responses, like hating people to death?

This is why I looked twice at the title of the video, because the censorships recently have all the hallmarks of unfounded, negative and emotional bias, and this dominates over logic in reason.

All the time it's easy to ignore this censorship from our peripheral vision. "It will never happen to me, just people who deserve it", but this denial is using logic in it's reasoning... I'm not convinced it works any more

[Mike]

Well said Matthew. We are clearly now in a post-truth society. The narratives being created now around things like race and gender are largely emotionally driven and meant to acquire power, not unity. The woke see the world as nothing but power games, and language is only important so far as it garners power. Truth is irrelevant. They don't need to make sense because making sense is, according to the postmodern woke, a tool of colonial patriarchy. Or a tool of "whiteness", whatever that is. So is rationality, common sense, and objective reality.

Making sense has become a cancellable offense. In the not too distant future, it may just get you killed.

[rgray222]

because using logic in reason doesn't work any more, and hasn't worked for a while. Rules and formal boundaries are ignored in favour of emotional and unfounded bias. So why won't it go to stronger emotional responses, like hating people to death?


The narratives being created now around things like race and gender are largely emotionally driven and meant to acquire power, not unity.

Making sense has become a cancellable offense. In the not too distant future, it may just get you killed.

One of the most dangerous aspects of the cancel culture is that moderate Democrats are being targeted all the time (see post #9 (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?111532-Cancel-Culture--Examples-&p=1367296&viewfull=1#post1367296) or post #1 (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?111532-Cancel-Culture--Examples-&p=1367263&viewfull=1#post1367263)). These people are targets because they are fact-driven moderates. The purpose of canceling them is to move their position to the extreme emotional left where facts no longer matter.

When you think about war (where facts certainly don't matter) it is nothing more than the cancel culture taken to the extreme.

[Eva2]

'Coca-Cola Confirms Training Employees to ‘Be Less White’

'Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to "try to be less white."


https://beckernews.com/coca-cola-confirms-training-employees-to-be-less-white-36954/

[Gemma13]

'Coca-Cola Confirms Training Employees to ‘Be Less White’

'Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to "try to be less white."


https://beckernews.com/coca-cola-confirms-training-employees-to-be-less-white-36954/

I still shake my head in disbelief that the oppressors most powerful bullet today is to be stupid.  It seems to be the only slug that fits into the controlling oligarchs arsenal as they continue to bomb stupid around the globe.

How do you fight stupid?

[rgray222]

'Coca-Cola Confirms Training Employees to ‘Be Less White’

'Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to "try to be less white."


https://beckernews.com/coca-cola-confirms-training-employees-to-be-less-white-36954/

I still shake my head in disbelief that the oppressor's most powerful bullet today is to be stupid.  It seems to be the only slug that fits into the controlling oligarchs arsenal as they continue to bomb stupid around the globe.

How do you fight stupid?

Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to "try to be less white" is a blueprint for creating racist an extremist. This goes beyond stupid it almost seems intentional.

There is a famous prayer that seems applicable here.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference

[Mike]

'Coca-Cola Confirms Training Employees to ‘Be Less White’

'Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to "try to be less white."


https://beckernews.com/coca-cola-confirms-training-employees-to-be-less-white-36954/

I still shake my head in disbelief that the oppressors most powerful bullet today is to be stupid.  It seems to be the only slug that fits into the controlling oligarchs arsenal as they continue to bomb stupid around the globe.

How do you fight stupid?


By eradicating logic, their stupidity cannot be disproved. Especially when proving things thru reason and rationality no longer matters anyway:). The more you fight back with reason the bigger the hole you dig for yourself.

It's a vicious circle of insanity. Kind of brazenly ingenious actually..to give the devil his due.

It's as if someone read Orwell's 1984, confused the bad guys for the good guys, and set about diligently creating a world in that image

If there are aliens watching us right now, shaking their alien heads in exasperation, I just want them to know that if they're going to take some of us off world to begin a new, sane civilization at some point, I would really really like to join them.

[Matthew]

I don't have a telegraph subscription, or login, but I've gleamed a little from the free snippets


A 81-year-old widow was threatened by Facebook with a permanent ban from the site after her posts about knitted ‘white pigs’ fell foul of hate speech rules. ...

Rita Rich-Mulcahy, 81, has knitted 73 of the five-inch high woollen pigs

'Porcophile' Rita Rich-Mulcahy created had posts about her creatiosn (sic) deleted by the social media giant

Related Topics
Facebook, Social media, Pigs, Shropshire

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/23/facebook-threatens-widow-ban-posts-knitted-woollen-pigs-breach/


Twitchy cancel culture. Automated misjudgement I guess, else someone has to drink less caffeine.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

If there are aliens watching us right now, shaking their alien heads in exasperation, I just want them to know that if they're going to take some of us off world to begin a new, sane civilization at some point, I would really really like to join them.

I've had that whimsy myself for many many years. It's stayed with me, and is now more strong than ever. All I'd have to say is, 'where do I sign', and 'let's go.'

[Matthew]

Salesforce, the CRM provider, have chosen to be moral guardians and block customers who they judge as having "potential to incite politically motivated violence", which they say is motivated by the Jan 6th events.

https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1364613257726689286

[onawah]

Loomer: Is the Next Step For Cancel Culture To Drive Certain People From All Society?
Ben Swann
2/26/21
noreply@truthinmedia.com
https://ise.media/video/loomer-is-the-next-step-for-cancel-culture-to-drive-certain-people-from-all-society-85.html
Video at the link

[onawah]

These are good reasons I am glad to be in my 70s and on my way out of this very weathered body.
If we can just choose to go to a better world, I'm all for it, and I hope it's really that easy.
On the other hand, if weathering all this insanity means we get to enjoy a Golden Age on Earth, that's not a bad option.
As long as it doesn't take much longer to get there!!!
Meanwhile:"Never get into a wrestling match with a pig. You both get dirty - and the pig likes it."
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.7EHZhqq58LUwJpXfWYkPQAAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1




'Coca-Cola Confirms Training Employees to ‘Be Less White’

'Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to "try to be less white."


https://beckernews.com/coca-cola-confirms-training-employees-to-be-less-white-36954/

I still shake my head in disbelief that the oppressors most powerful bullet today is to be stupid.  It seems to be the only slug that fits into the controlling oligarchs arsenal as they continue to bomb stupid around the globe.

How do you fight stupid?


By eradicating logic, their stupidity cannot be disproved. Especially when proving things thru reason and rationality no longer matters anyway:). The more you fight back with reason the bigger the hole you dig for yourself.

It's a vicious circle of insanity. Kind of brazenly ingenious actually..to give the devil his due.

It's as if someone read Orwell's 1984, confused the bad guys for the good guys, and set about diligently creating a world in that image

If there are aliens watching us right now, shaking their alien heads in exasperation, I just want them to know that if they're going to take some of us off world to begin a new, sane civilization at some point, I would really really like to join them.

[rgray222]

I think it is important to document even the absurd so that people can look back and see how far they went down this slippery slope before they hit bottom with a resounding thud.

‘Cat in the Hat is racist?’: Dr. Seuss is being canceled for ‘anti blackness and white supremacy’

https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/designweek/prod/content/uploads/2019/12/04142443/resized-banner.jpg

A leftist educational group in Virginia called Learning for Justice has convinced the school system in that state to cancel Dr. Seuss’s books for children because they have “racial undertones.”

The national educators’ organization is advising schools that the beloved children’s stories suffer from “anti-blackness, and white supremacy.”

For over two decades, March 2 has been celebrated as “Read Across America Day” in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The day was ironically created in 1998 by the National Education Association. The theme this year is “Create and Celebrate Diversity.”

Seuss is an American writer and is arguably among the most popular children’s authors to ever have authored books. His fantastical stories have helped millions of children learn to read while having fun doing it. Dr. Seuss has become a cultural icon in America but now his stories have fallen out of political favor and are being canceled.

An affluent Virginia school district, Loudoun County Public Schools, has taken the demand to cancel Dr. Seuss to heart and has now ordered its schools to avoid “connecting ‘Read Across America Day’ with Dr. Seuss.” They will no longer recognize the gifted author on his own birthday.

The school district announced that Suess’s children’s books contain “racial undertones” which they consider not suitable for “culturally responsive” learning, the Daily Wire (https://www.dailywire.com/news/oh-the-places-the-woke-will-go-dr-seuss-canceled-for-racial-undertones?%3Futm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dwtwitter) reported.

Source: https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/02/27/cat-in-the-hat-is-racist-dr-seuss-is-being-canceled-for-anti-blackness-and-white-supremacy-1035908/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=cat-in-the-hat-is-racist-dr-seuss-is-being-canceled-for-anti-blackness-and-white-supremacy

[Eva2]

'Ivy League University Offers Rock Climbing Class — No White Students Allowed'
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/ivy-league-university-offers-rock-climbing-class-no-white-students-allowed/?utm_source=Gab&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons

[Matthew]

Ivor Cummins is suspended by LinkedIn

He's known for being very outspoken in criticism against mainstream c~~~d science


https://twitter.com/FatEmperor/status/1366457506055266314

Ivor Cummins
@FatEmperor
Just got suspended on Linkedin, nearly 4,000 business contacts there and I back them up every week - but wow.
I am particularly careful on the platform - appeal just gone in.
Can't wait to find out why censored...I'll fill everyone in on every platform when the details emerge Face with raised eyebrow

[Delight]

Doublegood doublespeak and when you think it cannot get better......


From The New York Times (Archive):
Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole

Critical thinking, as we’re taught to do it, isn’t helping in the fight against misinformation.

By Charlie Warzel

For an academic, Michael Caulfield has an odd request: Stop overthinking what you see online.

Mr. Caulfield, a digital literacy expert at Washington State University Vancouver, knows all too well that at this very moment, more people are fighting for the opportunity to lie to you than at perhaps any other point in human history.

Misinformation rides the greased algorithmic rails of powerful social media platforms and travels at velocities and in volumes that make it nearly impossible to stop. That alone makes information warfare an unfair fight for the average internet user. But Mr. Caulfield argues that the deck is stacked even further against us. That the way we’re taught from a young age to evaluate and think critically about information is fundamentally flawed and out of step with the chaos of the current internet.

Michael Caulfield teaches students to avoid critical thinking lest they “run the risk of misunderstanding something” or getting exposed to counter-narrative views
“We’re taught that, in order to protect ourselves from bad information, we need to deeply engage with the stuff that washes up in front of us,” Mr. Caulfield told me recently. He suggested that the dominant mode of media literacy (if kids get taught any at all) is that “you’ll get imperfect information and then use reasoning to fix that somehow. But in reality, that strategy can completely backfire.”

In other words: Resist the lure of rabbit holes, in part, by reimagining media literacy for the internet hellscape we occupy.

It’s often counterproductive to engage directly with content from an unknown source, and people can be led astray by false information. Influenced by the research of Sam Wineburg, a professor at Stanford, and Sarah McGrew, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Mr. Caulfield argued that the best way to learn about a source of information is to leave it and look elsewhere, a concept called lateral reading.

For instance, imagine you were to visit Stormfront, a white supremacist message board, to try to understand racist claims in order to debunk them. “Even if you see through the horrible rhetoric, at the end of the day you gave that place however many minutes of your time,” Mr. Caulfield said. “Even with good intentions, you run the risk of misunderstanding something, because Stormfront users are way better at propaganda than you. You won’t get less racist reading Stormfront critically, but you might be overloaded by information and overwhelmed.”



Sam Wineburg helped create the “SIFT” method which teaches students to avoid delving too deeply into topics on their own and to instead “stop” and let experts think for them
[…] In 2016, Mr. Caulfield met Mr. Wineburg, who suggested modeling the process after the way professional fact checkers assess information. Mr. Caulfield refined the practice into four simple principles:

1. Stop.

2. Investigate the source.

3. Find better coverage.

4. Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.

Otherwise known as SIFT.

Mr. Caulfield walked me through the process using an Instagram post from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent anti-vaccine activist, falsely alleging a link between the human papillomavirus vaccine and cancer. “If this is not a claim where I have a depth of understanding, then I want to stop for a second and, before going further, just investigate the source,” Mr. Caulfield said. He copied Mr. Kennedy’s name in the Instagram post and popped it into Google. “Look how fast this is,” he told me as he counted the seconds out loud. In 15 seconds, he navigated to Wikipedia and scrolled through the introductory section of the page, highlighting with his cursor the last sentence, which reads that Mr. Kennedy is an anti-vaccine activist and a conspiracy theorist.

“Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the best, unbiased source on information about a vaccine? I’d argue no. And that’s good enough to know we should probably just move on,” he said.

The old high school advice that Wikipedia shouldn’t be cited as a source is now passe.

If the Wikipedia editors say Rachel Levine is a woman and erase that “she” was born Richard Levine then Rachel was always a woman and it’s misinformation to say otherwise.

The SIFT method and the instructional teaching unit (about six hours of class work) that accompanies it has been picked up by dozens of universities across the country and in some Canadian high schools. What is potentially revolutionary about SIFT is that it focuses on making quick judgments. A SIFT fact check can and should take just 30, 60, 90 seconds to evaluate a piece of content.

The four steps are based on the premise that you often make a better decision with less information than you do with more. Also, spending 15 minutes to determine a single fact in order to decipher a tweet or a piece of news coming from a source you’ve never seen before will often leave you more confused than you were before. “The question we want students asking is: Is this a good source for this purpose, or could I find something better relatively quickly?” Mr. Caulfield said. “I’ve seen in the classroom where a student finds a great answer in three minutes but then keeps going and ends up won over by bad information.”

[…] “The students are confused when I tell them to try and trace something down with a quick Wikipedia search, because they’ve been told not to do it,” [Christina Ladam, an assistant political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno who teaches the SIFT method to students] said. “Not for research papers, but if you’re trying to find out if a site is legitimate or if somebody has a history as a conspiracy theorist and you show them how to follow the page’s citation, it’s quick and effective, which means it’s more likely to be used.”

As a journalist who can be a bit of a snob about research methods, it makes me anxious to type this advice. Use Wikipedia for quick guidance! Spend less time torturing yourself with complex primary sources! A part of my brain hears this and reflexively worries these methods could be exploited by conspiracy theorists. But listening to Ms. Ladam and Mr. Caulfield describe disinformation dynamics, it seems that snobs like me have it backward.

Perhaps Warzel is “anxious” because he knows he’s lying and anyone who isn’t dumb enough to use the “SIFT method” could easily find that out.

Read More @ InformationLiberation.com

[AutumnW]

Cancel Culture is the Q-anon of the left.

[rgray222]

Bill Maher on the cancel culture


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmXTUSP9a9M&ab_channel=RealTimewithBillMaher

[onawah]

Gov Funded Transgender Surgery for Kids?!
We Lie to You News
227,190 views•Mar 1, 2021
AwakenWithJP
1.73M subscribers

"Take a stand against censorship. Join my Awakened Warriors Email List - https://awakenwithjp.com/joinme​

Should the government be able to fund sexual reassignment surgery for transgender kids? Should they be able to provide them with puberty blockers, even without the parents consent? Find out the latest with Biden‘s assistant health secretary pack as well as a full lying to your face news update on what’s happening around the world this week."
FxudQgoG4-c

[Open Minded Dude]

"Hollywood is living in fear thanks to Lucasfilm's cooperate sponsored Cancel Culture. Recently Bill Burr has come out again. along with Bert Kreiscsher, and Joe DeRosa, to call out Gina Carano's firing from Disney Star Wars sort of. Prior to that Bill Maher called it out as well, without mentioning Disney or Lucasfilm by name."

9H9loyNW0zQ

[Mark]

I think it is important to document even the absurd so that people can look back and see how far they went down this slippery slope before they hit bottom with a resounding thud.

Dr. Seuss was actually quite nuanced and aware of the underlying racial tonalities of his day.

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=46232&d=1614717056

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=46233&d=1614717089

[Open Minded Dude]

They eat their own occasionally. Even the superwoke deplatform-triggerhappy Big Tech giant Amazon wasn't safe from the woke mob.

Not that I would give a :bs: if Amazon were somehow being 'cancelled'. :happythumbsup:

"From Dr. Seuss books to Amazon's logo, everything is getting pulled, banned or edited." (The "Amazon-Hitler" discussion starts at 12 minutes in).

7ieKTJoP5Ts
Also here's a more humorous take on the Gina Carano case by the 'Critical Drinker':

ha9gO_i8B-g

[Matthew]

YouTube suspends RSBN for broadcasting Trump's CPAC 2021 speech, censors Trump's speech

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-youtube-suspends-rsbn-for-broadcasting-trumps-cpac-2021-speech-censors-trumps-speech

“Our network provides very little in the way of commentary. We basically just turn a camera on and show you what’s happening- and let you decide. People can choose to watch it, not watch it, hate it or love it. That’s called freedom. If that’s no longer allowed then God help us,” wrote RSBN.

[Eva2]

Feeling sad - one of my favourite Looney Tune characters, Pepe le Pew, just got cancelled for adding to the rape culture :(

[Mike]

Feeling sad - one of my favourite Looney Tune characters, Pepe le Pew, just got cancelled for adding to the rape culture :(


Dang. Who did he rape? Speedy Gonzalez?

[Eva2]

Feeling sad - one of my favourite Looney Tune characters, Pepe le Pew, just got cancelled for adding to the rape culture :(


Dang. Who did he rape? Speedy Gonzalez?

Tweety is calling out Petunia the Pig

[Constance]

ddddddddddddddddddddddddd

[Mike]

So the way to teach math now is to do some tribal kumbaya thing while the students randomly shout out the wrong answers???

Welcome to "Critical Math" folks. I'm glad this is posted here because it's another great example of what I was trying to explain on Star Mariner's 'Does Society Have A Mental Illness' thread. Social Justice, or "wokeness", as it is often called, is rooted in these insane critical theories. It's infecting everything. Not just the humanities but also the sciences now as well.

And it's out in the world now - clearly! - running rampant like a hyper contagious virus. The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, Google, and Penguin are all recent examples of high profile business entities getting torn in half by wokeness. If anyone thought it was some harmless thing confined only to universities, it's time to wake up now. And anyone who thought it was just all about fairness and righting historical wrongs, it's time to wake up now. There's no excuse anymore to remain ignorant or willfully obtuse.

Wokeness is like an uber powerful solvent in that it destroys everything it touches, even as it professes it's desire to unify. It even destroys itself. That's it's nature. But not before it gets everything else first.

It's a tiresome, emotionally exhausting topic. The tendency is to ignore it and hope it goes away. That's what it wants you to do. It demoralizes people into denial and then submission. And any distance you, dear reader, may feel from it at the moment is mostly illusory. You are not safe. You have to fight it whatever way you can, or you'll be eaten too.

[Ernie Nemeth]

It is the perfect communist tactic.

Never forget, Mike, this is a wilful move by one of, if not the most, evil totalitarian regimes on the planet - the globalists. Aided by the CCP and Xi Jinping and abetted by their puppet masters at the UN. The sis gender, milk toast generation, cream puff, screaming Karens are their willing foot soldiers, along with their comrades in the BLM and Antifa organizations that are funded by NGOs run by billionaire extremists like Soros, Zuckerburg, Schwab, and Dorsey, among various others.

I like throw them under one umbrella name...the Despicables.

[AlaBil]

Here is a short film from 2012 that is totally right on target about what is happening in the "woke" teaching of math. In this short film you can clearly see the effect of wokeness with math. It is not as easy to see the downstream effect of wokeness in the remainder of education.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHAuGA7gqFU

[TomKat]

It is the perfect communist tactic.


Stewart Swerdlow, who came from a communist family, said the communist tactics are:

demoralize
destabilize
create a crisis
normalize

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

It is the perfect communist tactic.


Stewart Swerdlow, who came from a communist family, said the communist tactics are:

demoralize
destabilize
create a crisis
normalize

stay positive
stay resolute
stay calm
resist

[rgray222]

Another Victory For The Cancel Culture. After 75 years, Warner Brothers has terminated Pepé Le Pew, the cartoon French skunk. Warner Brothers and Disney both say they are now considering the cancellation of other cartoon characters from previous generations.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/158850848_3759151320850678_6219903319129524385_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=dsJKpykV4CEAX-MJWX6&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=7bc609e77b7e996fc20bdd7f4967da90&oe=606BE248

The Woke Warriors are not satisfied and now they are coming after Academy Award cartoon winner Speedy Gonzales, Road Runner, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yogi Bear and Wile E. Coyote.

Bugs Bunny is one of the few cartoon characters that now passes the litmus test.

AP notes "Disney has pulled several cartoons and iconic films because of their portrayal of stereotypes and other negative depictions." Pepé Le Pew, the skunk from “Looney Tunes” that a New York Times columnist recently said “normalized rape culture,” has been permanently canceled. Pepé's scene has been deleted from the LeBron James-led basketball Warner Brothers film, “Space Jam: A New Legacy” that is set to be released this summer. Pepé appeared in an earlier Space Jam film with Michael Jordan.

According to AP, "Le Pew's quest for love often features him lusting after the non-consenting Penelope the cat and other partners. He came under fire from Charles Blow of The New York Times who found the cartoons offensive. A scene filmed with Le Pew playing a bartender and kissing actress Greice Santo on the arm before she poured a drink on him and slapped the skunk has been removed from the film. Santo was not pleased and said Warner Brothers made with the wrong decision. Her spokesman said “Now the scene is cut, and she doesn’t have that power to influence the world through younger generations who’ll be watching ‘Space Jam 2,’ to let younger girls and younger boys know that Pepe’s behavior is unacceptable.”

The Hollywood Reporter says there are no plans to have the character appear in “Looney Toons,” “Bugs Bunny Builders”, “Tiny Toons Looniversary” or other future projects. Liana Kerzner responded by saying "There is nothing sinister in these cartoons. "Penelope the cat rejects Pepé not just for his 'pushy' advances, but BECAUSE he is a skunk and smells. "Pepé isn't looking for SEX, he's looking for LOVE, and his crime is that he loves a woman 'above his status'. "Pepé was bemoaning racial barriers in romance. When Penelope later thought Pepe was a cat, he was great.

It seems odd because no one truly believes young children are getting their views of masculinity from a cartoon French skunk. "

John Nolte noted: “Pepé Le Pew is the butt of all the jokes, who always, always, always loses in the end — usually violently at the hands of his so-called victim.”
Former Secretary of Senate Kelly Johnston writes "I don’t remember a cartoon where Pepe ever 'got the girl'.”

Apparently the sins committed by these guys
Road Runner was sending the wrong message about driving too fast.
Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam because they are hunters who carry guns.
Daffy Duck, who has a lisp
Porky Pig who stutters.
Yogi Bear who steals picnic baskets.

https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aGpZ1gK_700bwp.webp

[Mike]

I'm canceling Charles Blow right now for normalizing insufferable c#nt culture.

[Strat]

On one hand I want to see you at an open mic night but on the other hand I suspect it would turn into an angry dude screaming into a microphone, "And another thing!"

[Mike]

On one hand I want to see you at an open mic night but on the other hand I suspect it would turn into an angry dude screaming into a microphone, "And another thing!"


oh come on. that's bullsh!t. angry? who? what? me? i'm a pretty laid back guy...wait, where are you going? i'm still talking here. hey i'm not done yet!!

[Gemma13]

A small win that will hopefully have significant future impact and I do hope it disturbed "those" that didn't want their "comfort" disturbed.

Before anyone jumps to an assumption that I am being vindictive please consider the following.  Who in their right mind thinks this ridiculous war on words that demands thumb sucking areas at universities is going to help one iota when confronting a terrorist and their ideology.

"Ah Sir you are making me most uncomfortable.  I will not allow you to disturb my comfort zone.  Stop talking and put away your gun because I am cancelling you.  Talk to the hand!"

Yep, that'll work.  The rising global powerhouses are rolling on the floor with belly aching laughter over the successful infantilization of a good percentage of our younger generations.  Thanks to older generations who sold out for the coin, or are infantilized themselves.

Until it has no more crucifixion power there can never be too much coverage of this topic.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/supreme-court-sides-with-students-seeking-1-nominal-damages-in-campus-speech-case_3724927.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-03-08-5


Supreme Court Sides With Students Seeking $1 Nominal Damages in Campus Speech Case

BY GQ PAN March 8, 2021 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Georgia college should be held accountable for its now-rescinded policies that prevented two former students from speaking on campus about their Christian faith.

In an 8-1 opinion (pdf) in which Chief Justice John Roberts was the sole dissenter, the high court said just one dollar in compensation, sought by students who argue that the college’s speech code violated their First Amendment rights, is enough to keep the case alive.

The case stems from a 2016 incident in which Georgia Gwinnett College students Chike Uzuegbunam and Joseph Bradford, both evangelical Christians, were told that they could only speak about their religion in two designated “free speech expression areas.” But when Uzuegbunam tried to speak in one of the small free speech zones, a campus police officer again asked him to stop, citing a school policy that banned any expression that “disturbs the peace and/or comfort of person(s).”

In response to the First Amendment lawsuit, Georgia Gwinnett College ultimately chose to discontinue the challenged policies rather than to defend them, allowing speech in any outdoor area of campus. The policy change and Uzuegbunam’s graduation from the college led a federal district court to declare the case as moot, a ruling that was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court overturned the lower court decision, saying that the $1 nominal damages, previously deemed inadequate to save a case from mootness, were not purely symbolic.

“Nominal damages are not a consolation prize for the plaintiff who pleads, but fails to prove, compensatory damages,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority. “They are instead the damages awarded by default until the plaintiff establishes entitlement to some other form of damages, such as compensatory or statutory damages.”

“Because nominal damages were available at common law in analogous circumstances, we conclude that a request for nominal damages satisfies the redressability element of standing where a plaintiff’s claim is based on a completed violation of legal right,” Thomas wrote.

Roberts, however, wrote in his dissenting opinion that the redressing of a case is meant to alleviate the plaintiff’s injury, either by compensating for a past loss or by preventing an ongoing or future harm. In the free speech case of Uzuegbunam and Bradford, according to Roberts, the $1 nominal damages do not serve either of those purposes.

“They are not intended to approximate the value of tangible or intangible harms, or the deterrent effect required to prevent further misconduct,” Roberts wrote. “And they are not calculated with reference to either of these purposes.”

Roberts warned that Monday’s decision “risks a major expansion of the judicial role.”

“Going forward, the Judiciary will be required to perform this function whenever a plaintiff asks for a dollar,” Roberts argued. “For those who want to know if their rights have been violated, the least dangerous branch will become the least expensive source of legal advice.”

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative legal group representing the suing students, applauded the decision, saying they are pleased that the Supreme Court “weighed in on the side of justice for those victims.”

“Officials within our public institutions shouldn’t get a free pass for violating constitutional rights on campus or anywhere else,” Kristen Waggoner, a general counsel with ADF, said in a statement. “When such officials engage in misconduct but face no consequences, it leaves victims without recourse, undermines the nation’s commitment to protecting constitutional rights, and emboldens the government to engage in future violations.”

[Mike]

Newly hired Teen Vogue editor fired because of decade old tweets:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/teen-vogues-new-eic-alexi-mccammond-out-after-backlash-over-old-racist-tweets?source=articles&via=rss

[Constance]

ddddddddddddddddddddddddd

[ulli]

Newly hired Teen Vogue editor fired because of decade old tweets:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/teen-vogues-new-eic-alexi-mccammond-out-after-backlash-over-old-racist-tweets?source=articles&via=rss

When are they going to fire all the people who slap us oldies with the term “boomer”? So far no letting up.
The other day I made a derogatory remark about chicken nuggets and their nutritional value, or lack thereof, and got lynched, with “boomer” being their preferred ad hominem. Also was told to be careful, as my “privilege” was showing.

[Gemma13]

So when are the f#@king social justice warriors going to f#@king cancel President Joe Biden?

Biden is a racist equal to Hitler in comparison to hundreds of non-racists being cancelled daily with insane reasoning, e,g. attending a leavers party in their teens, or showing the N word in a university course describing the reality and horrors of historical racism, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.  And yet social justice warriors voted for him.

They are two faced cowards who want us to do as they say, not what they do!

#CANCELRACISTJOEBIDEN

[rgray222]

Also was told to be careful, as my “privilege” was showing.

Yes, I agree your privilege of being human is showing and you should proudly put it on display. I am proud of my privilege and proclaim it at every opportunity.

[Mark]

Biden is a racist equal to Hitler in comparison to hundreds of non-racists being cancelled daily with insane reasoning, e,g. attending a leavers party in their teens, or showing the N word in a university course describing the reality and horrors of historical racism, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.  And yet social justice warriors voted for him.

#CANCELRACISTJOEBIDEN

Biden sucks, of that there is no doubt. He is a puppet, just like Drumpf was a puppet, just like Obama was a puppet, just like they are all puppets.

SJWs, those of us who seek racial justice - as I think I've been called an SJW here on PA in my absence - voted for Biden because they/we had no other valid choice. It was more a vote against Drumpf and those on the farthest right (KKK, Nazis, etc.) than it was a vote for Biden. Most are fully aware of the problems that Biden has brought to the table that exacerbate long-standing issues like immigration and China and globalization. This issue is so multidimensional that I find it quite difficult to discuss it frankly because of the brainwashing that has occurred on every side of this, right, left and middle. To get beyond and through it, it seems it will be necessary to center elsewhere. Maybe up, rather than down or in, rather than out. Whatever the case may be, where we are right now is not going to work for anyone. Not even those who think they are the elite.

[Constance]

ddddddddddddddddddddddddd

[Mike]

hey Mark, when you say "KKK" and "Nazis", do you mean real honest-to-God KKK and Nazis, the ones who believe in the supremacy of the white race and who proudly declare it and exhibit overt acts of racism? Or are you talking about Ibram X Kendi variety "white supremacy", where basically anyone who disagrees with the baseline reality the woke radical left present are somehow broadly guilty of crimes which they did not commit?

I have to ask, because I've seen those terms used interchangeably and bandied about so much these days that I hardly know what they mean anymore. Words are being co-opted and redefined by the woke as we speak, so it's important to be precise.

If we're talking about real honest-to-God Nazis and KKK, then I'd have to say that - abhorrent as they are - they have very little power and influence relative to the woke radical left. If we rounded them all up right now they would fit comfortably in a McDonalds, with room to spare. The woke - who are growing exponentially - have become the Nazis in many ways in response to a mostly imaginary threat, which is an irony that seems completely lost on them. That's really what this thread is about.

All presidents are puppets to some degree, but Trump was far less a puppet than Biden or Obama. And he has no affiliation with either the KKK or Nazis. He denounced them both forcefully and often. If you think I'm wrong and can present evidence to the contrary, I'd be pleased to see it.

The KKK and Nazis aren't infiltrating our institutions. The radical woke left are, quickly and effortlessly. KKK and Nazi's aren't controlling our governments and grade schools and universities. They don't have representation in industry and big tech. They don't control social media. They're not suppressing free thought and free speech like the woke radical left. They're not involved in the wholesale harassment and cancelling of those who utter words they don't like. They don't, in fact, control anything.

That's why the Biden as better option argument always falls flat for me. Trump, at his worst, was a petulant child who liked you if you liked him and disliked you if you disliked him. It didn't matter who you were or what you looked like. He's an egotist, and if you stroked his ego, you were his buddy. Simple as that. But he never exhibited any fascist behavior. Yes, he liked to fire people and replace them with "yes" men, but name one politician who didn't. At his best he was willing to stand up to the woke mob and defund woke programs in government and education. His best was much better than Biden's, and his worst wasn't nearly as bad. I'm rooting for Biden. I want him to do well. But he hasn't given me a single reason for optimism.

[Mark]

You're right. Where we are now is not working for anyone and to get beyond it all (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/13119-you-never-change-things-by-fighting-the-existing-reality-to) we do have to put our efforts elsewhere.
Someone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6yN26rs3OQ&ab_channel=DnMTV) did the maths and there are enough of us who are awake. There is enough of us to start a conscious evolution.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes for the liberation of humanity, even if it means dying for it.

I hear that and it is one of the reasons why I returned to PA. Because if something like that is going to really happen, there are so many real changemakers here who are concerned about the state of the entire human race, that the conversation has to be held in an open forum with all of the diverse expressions of our shared reality present and accounted for.

It has to and can happen now.

[Mark]

hey Mark, when you say "KKK" and "Nazis", do you mean real honest-to-God KKK and Nazis, the ones who believe in the supremacy of the white race and who proudly declare it and exhibit overt acts of racism? Or are you talking about Ibram X Kendi variety "white supremacy", where basically anyone who disagrees with the baseline reality the woke radical left present are somehow broadly guilty of crimes which they did not commit?

"honest to god KKK and Nazis".

I don't know who Ibram X Kendi is. Nor am I coming from a radical Left viewpoint. I will say that I think there is a better way to discuss these issues than calling everybody racist just because they grew up in cultures where class and race issues were ubiquitous.

We do have to come up with a different way to discuss issues of representation and the past, in regards to society, without folks taking it as personal to them and their ways of being in the world.


If we're talking about real honest-to-God Nazis and KKK, then I'd have to say that - abhorrent as they are - they have very little power and influence relative to the woke radical left. If we rounded them all up right now they would fit comfortably in a McDonalds, with room to spare. The woke - who are growing exponentially - have become the Nazis in many ways in response to a mostly imaginary threat, which is an irony that seems completely lost on them. That's really what this thread is about.

Thanks, I was responding specifically to one question. I disagree with yours and most everybody else here's definition of the Woke. How it has been deployed as a weapon makes it just as bad as the term "Racist".

To me, its deployment is a right-wing response to the rise of voices that have been decentered over hundreds of years. It's how you 'own the Libs" and dismiss concerns that are really about and for everyone except the 1% and those who aspire to those heights.

A backlash against diversity.

In regards to them becoming Nazis, no. That is hyperbole.


All presidents are puppets to some degree, but Trump was far less a puppet than Biden or Obama. And he has no affiliation with either the KKK or Nazis. He denounced them both forcefully and often. If you think I'm wrong and can present evidence to the contrary, I'd be pleased to see it.

Not interested in arguing Drumpf. Thanks for offering me the opportunity. :)


The KKK and Nazis aren't infiltrating our institutions.

They have already done so over a long period of time. Please see my earlier post in this thread about Dr. Seuss.



The radical woke left are, quickly and effortlessly. KKK and Nazi's aren't controlling our governments and grade schools and universities. They don't have representation in industry and big tech. They don't control social media. They're not suppressing free thought and free speech like the woke radical left. They're not involved in the wholesale harassment and cancelling of those who utter words they don't like. They don't, in fact, control anything.

Not true. Those groups and their sympathizers have controlled everything for a long, long time. They and their sympathizers still hold the money bags in many areas.


That's why the Biden as better option argument always falls flat for me. Trump, at his worst, was a petulant child who liked you if you liked him and disliked you if you disliked him. It didn't matter who you were or what you looked like. He's an egotist, and if you stroked his ego, you were his buddy. Simple as that. But he never exhibited any fascist behavior. Yes, he liked to fire people and replace them with "yes" men, but name one politician who didn't. At his best he was willing to stand up to the woke mob and defund woke programs in government and education. His best was much better than Biden's, and his worst wasn't nearly as bad. I'm rooting for Biden. I want him to do well. But he hasn't given me a single reason for optimism.

It doesn't matter if it fell flat for you. The reality is, it did not fall flat for many. And those many do not have the same life experiences at you and so their, our, choices are now and may be in the future quite different from yours, unless we can find a way to move forward together beyond the issues that divide.

[Mike]

Mark, from what I've observed from the woke - or what I and most people consider woke - diversity more frequently represents ideological homogeneity than it does actual diversity. I know how it's defined in the dictionary, but the woke's version of diversity means something closer to exclusivity. That's where the backlash comes from I think. Most reasonable people have no issues with diversity whatsoever if it's honest and inclusive of all voices, not just the woke.

p.s. re Trump: if you don't wanna discuss him, why bring him up?:) And if you think he's an alt right Nazi sympathizer, and announce it, you're obliged to explain why if we're gonna have coherent dialogue here. Otherwise anyone can say anything about anyone, and the whole thing goes sideways pretty quickly. If you just think you can smell it on him, and it's in the air, and I don't get it because of my personal experiences etc ..ok, fine. But if you have an actual, legitimate reason for that accusation I'd sure like to hear it!

[Mark]

Mark, from what I've observed from the woke - or what I and most people consider woke - diversity more frequently represents ideological homogeneity than it does actual diversity.

Ok. First of all, that term, Woke, came from us. Came from the Alternative Community, the AltCom. It refers to being Awakened. The use of it as a derogatory slang term, out of tense, "Woke" rather than "Awakened", is in reference to how it used among those on the Left who have considered themselves to become aware of the issues which face all of us who are not the 1%. There is no difference. Remember the Occupy movement? Those folks were "Awakened" to the political and social realities, and also aware that it was about all of us, not just one side of the political spectrum.

Of course, it is, in essence, a spiritual term but it has come to represent waking to the political, social and cultural realities of our times. And who is to say that all of this isn't doing some good? A lot of things that used to be confined to our discussions are now mainstream and that is a wonderful thing. The ideological homogeneity that you mention is part and parcel of the the whole academic cooptation by the Western ideal of Communism, as you and I have discussed over in the racism thread (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?100738-Racism&highlight=racism) with a whole bunch of other cool folks here. We spent a lot of time on that and it remains an excellent resource for those interested, as it pertains to real people and real lives.

I actually agree with you that the ideological and academic side of it has nothing to do with real, diverse people. That's why I would rather focus on what is real, manifest in our world in our lives, than obtuse intellectual argumentation and devil's advocation. Right now, things have progressed to such a state that if we don't figure out how to bring more people who have been coopted by the media storm together, really soon it is going to be too late. And what are we all about, if it is not creating a society that works for everyone without the controls and negative externalities and internalities that are part and parcel of our current paradigm?


p.s. re Trump: if you don't wanna discuss him, why bring him up?:)

LOL I was mentioning all of our most recent past presidents man! :)



And if you think he's an alt right Nazi sympathizer, and announce it, you're obliged to explain why if we're gonna have coherent dialogue here. Otherwise anyone can say anything about anyone, and the whole thing goes sideways pretty quickly. If you just think you can smell it on him, and it's in the air, and I don't get it because of my personal experiences etc ..ok, fine. But if you have an actual, legitimate reason for that accusation I'd sure like to hear it!

I did not say he was an alt right Nazi sympathizer. I said:


It was more a vote against Drumpf and(my emphasis) those on the farthest right (KKK, Nazis, etc.)

I agree with probably most here that the direct accusations of racism by Trump fell flat and were stretches, before he became president the Hip Hop community absolutely LOVED him. I think direct accusations against most people are overblown and there should be some kind of differentiation made between subconscious biases and ignorance and direct, overt and truly racist and xenophobic beliefs and actions. Also, for the sake of the thread, I agree that Cancel Culture has gone crazy as well.

[Constance]

ddddddddddddddddddddddddd

[Mark]

Well, I've been sharing for a year now on the Draw Your Sword thread how we can go about liberating ourselves and maybe just a tiny handful of people on that thread have responded positively. And, I can count on one hand how many have responded to that call to action.

I have not checked out that thread. I will. I would urge you not to underestimate the number of visitors that we have here on PA on a daily basis who take what they learn here and apply it back into their lives in subtle ways that add up to that 100th monkey effect.

I'm always surprised by how much people are depressed and upset about the idea that those who oppress us planet-wide are going to win, in the end. It always seems as if they have the upper hand and that their control of the media and technology is just going to sweep us under and into their idea of what the new world will be, and we will have no say and no choice in any of it. To me, a good way to see it is how, despite everything that has happened in the politicization of race, afterwards and in many of the western nations, the Summer of Discontent/COVID 2020, resulted in many people deciding all across the political spectrum, all across the planet, that enough was enough and they all stood up.

They decided. We decided. Yes, even though in all of our countries, afterwards, we've gone in every direction, aligning with our tribes and equivocating and explaining and quarterbacking, but in that time, it was as if something shifted and we all decided that it was time to shift. Time to draw attention to it, time to become something different.

That is how it will happen every time. Even when it seems as if nothing much is happening, something is. Just like in the ocean, everything happening beneath the surface, the warming, invisible at the surface but happening nonetheless.

It is true that this is not necessarily "cancel culture" that we are discussing, but it is an ancillary topic, as the canceling is happening according to the overall thrust toward shifting the culture in a way that is very much related to political correctness, back in the day. The two are very closely related. Perhaps it could be said that liberating ourselves from cancel culture is liberating ourselves from the control apparatus that seeks to continue to divide and conquer us by making us believe that we are more different than alike, more fearful than loving.

And we are, as a planetary human body, very fearful right now, or so it seems to me. Thanks Mike, I hope we have not gone too far afield.

[Mike]

Mark I couldn't agree more about the media's role in keeping everyone at odds. I think there are a great many more of us that can agree on most stuff, or at least peacefully co-exist in areas where we don't. It's all presented in a very simplistic way in the media, where the radical elements of the left/right paradigm are shown as being dominant, both quantitatively and qualitatively. And it has a hypnotic effect on the population as a whole. I'm susceptible to this too. I think I've unfairly misjudged you in some areas as a result.

I'm not trying to present an aggrieved white man angle here, but all this media talk of white supremacy and white frailty and (fill in the blank) has me touchy and on the defensive. And I think it may work the same for black folks, but just the opposite. Perhaps it has them more on the offensive as the white-man-as-perpetual-evildoer narrative is told and retold daily. So now we're locked in this battle.

I think the woke movement had originally diagnosed some things correctly, and I was actually on board with some of it. I have a strong sense of fairness, and absolutely abhor injustice. So I've been looking on in horror as this movement has lost its way, acting as sort of a solvent destroying stuff instead of as an adhesive bringing us together. I'm mostly angry now, but for a while I was just very disappointed.

But I haven't lost hope. Hopefully calmer minds can prevail. Maybe it can even start here:handshake:

[Mark]

Mark I couldn't agree more about the media's role in keeping everyone at odds. I think there are a great many more of us that can agree on most stuff, or at least peacefully co-exist in areas where we don't. It's all presented in a very simplistic way in the media, where the radical elements of the left/right paradigm are shown as being dominant, both quantitatively and qualitatively. And it has a hypnotic effect on the population as a whole. I'm susceptible to this too. I think I've unfairly misjudged you in some areas as a result.

You and I are good. We get down into it and that is what it is all about. The media thrives off of conflict. I think a lot of it is really just human nature: I mean, how many of us can remember being kids on the playground and how everybody runs to see a fight? Gathers around and cheers on their favorite. The media, from Tavistock until the present, is particularly geared toward doing so along very specific lines of attack that have been tried and true, tested and proven to provide us with the utmost potentiality for separation possible. Divide and conquer is time-tested and oh so worn the heck out and tired af.

It is so hard to get out of that dichotomous format isn't it? Beyond Left and Right? We are programmed into it, and if even if you don't fit, sometimes, you have to use the language of the group that is closest to you or that shares some of your primary concerns, even just to express yourself! I'm interested in seeing black and brown folks, folks who have been systematically and culturally denied the possibility of doing better for generations, to actually do better in the world and in making it easier for for folks all across the ethnic/racial spectrum to live a life they love. I want to see everyone who holds common cause, which is everyone who is not currently part of the 1% (or 10%, if you believe that they are indeed the Gatekeepers for the 1% (https://www.forbes.com/sites/robrussell/2015/01/30/forget-the-1-you-may-be-the-10/)) It can happen, we can all get along, I've seen it. Growing up on American military bases, multiracial and relatively egalitarian compared to the outside world, we see examples of how it can work. There are many. Ever watch the show, My Name is Earl?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyAKsyDN_04

I love the show because it shows the reality that I've seen and lived, that people can and do get along when they're just living their lives.


I'm not trying to present an aggrieved white man angle here, but all this media talk of white supremacy and white frailty and (fill in the blank) has me touchy and on the defensive. And I think it may work the same for black folks, but just the opposite. Perhaps it has them more on the offensive as the white-man-as-perpetual-evildoer narrative is told and retold daily. So now we're locked in this battle.

Thank you so much for sharing your truth, Mike. It is important, at this juncture and moving forward, because we will continue to interact and discuss these issues of concern as we always have. It is a lot and too much for most. I can admit to you that in the past couple of years - since we began the conversation on racism and everything that happened out in the world while I was gone with Drumpf and BLM and now the cancel culture and the empowerment by way of corporations and government of voices and perspectives that have previously been unheard or purposefully muted - I've realized that I was indeed trained by my professors as a Social Justice Warrior and fully bought into the academic ideal of postmodernism and critical race theory in particular. Have never been interested in Communism, personally, never studied it directly or have been interested in seeing it here in America. How you and others saw me was actually how I was presented in my city, San Marcos, by the police no less, in my reelection campaign in the fall of 2020. As a SJW, trying to defund the police. Nothing was further from the truth, but that did not prevent about 500 of my fellow Texans from handing me an election loss after undergoing a 4 month long smear campaign based on race, fear and hate.

I Understand your positioning and concerns and know that there are millions more out there who feel the same way and who don't want to see the way of life that they've matriculated into and that represents their family history disappear or become subjugated to some form of multicultural "Woketopia" that, to them, represents some hell vision straight out of Dante's Inferno or the Fundamentalist Christian vision of The Apocalypse.

I don't think it's going to happen that way because I don't think Americans will stand for it. I don't think most nations will go for it, when it comes down to it. There are many people who are not down with what seems to be the Left's agenda or even the Right's agenda, both of which represent those extremes you were talking about. What will and must happen has to be somewhere in between or even beyond and that may take something, Mike, something that reveals to us all that if we do not shift by choice then we must shift by necessity.

America is now the world in microcosm. Everybody is here, this is the most diverse nation on the planet. I don't think we can change that. I don't believe we can go back to any other way of being, but instead, we have to find a way to make it work with us all and also make sure that we can do it according to our shared principles and ideals. Which means that we have to come together, those of us who choose the American way of life, which means we are down for true, representative democracy and are ready to make sure the elections aren't rigged and every voice is heard, as must occur in all other nations who choose this way of national expression.

All of the above stated as if we have time, which is actually questionable right now. COVID-life and the mutations might make a lot of this discussion moot, since continuing genocide may make this a discussion amongst those who will become the Remnant of this Age, rather than an 8 billion strong global human race on the cusp of inheriting the stars.


I think the woke movement had originally diagnosed some things correctly, and I was actually on board with some of it. I have a strong sense of fairness, and absolutely abhor injustice. So I've been looking on in horror as this movement has lost its way, acting as sort of a solvent destroying stuff instead of as an adhesive bringing us together. I'm mostly angry now, but for a while I was just very disappointed.

But I haven't lost hope. Hopefully calmer minds can prevail. Maybe it can even start here:handshake:

I've engaged you because I see your good heart, Mike. As long as we have time to hash things out, I believe that everything will work out toward the highest end for the human race as a whole. There is a lot of unfairness going on that is being masked as retribution and that doesn't work for anyone, really, because it keeps the karma going. Getting past the past is something difficult for humans, unless we are shocked and traumatized out of it. It looks like that might be where we are headed, now, and the extremes of cancel culture are just another symptom of a directed and malevolent cultural movement that will eventually end up consuming itself.

[Mike]

Absolutely awesome post Mark. Thanks for sharing all that.

For my part, I've spent the last month or so trying to decide which thoughts are really mine and which are from the many youtube videos I've been bombarding my brain with for the last year or so. Something profound happened to me after I saw that Evergreen documentary, and it's wasn't all good. I'm pleased to have discovered some things as a result, but as has been pointed out to me by friends (both here and in my daily life) I've grown bitter and lost my sense of humor as a result, to some degree at least. I felt an irresistible impulse to dive right into the culture wars at that point, but the reality was I hadn't leveled myself out mentally or emotionally enough to have coherent and reasonable conversations yet. So I was a little clumsy there for a while, particularly in the racism thread, and I spose that was me attempting to evolve out in the open a little. Maybe I should have evolved in private :)

I can't improve upon anything you said in your above post. You nailed everything. I'm glad you're back and we've reconnected here to continue the dialogue. I think I'm in a much better space this time around, and I feel good about that. Nice chattin with ya:cheers:

[Gemma13]

Oh how I love it when you two get together, (Mike and Mark) and hash it out.  Deep, intelligent, honest, respectful dialogue on deep, important, sensitive cultural topics that need introspection and awareness.

I would really love to see you both set up a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly podcast series where you discuss and track key cultural issues.

Inviting viewers to contribute by sending in their position, experience and questions would add another level of community to the discussions.  And a guest voice could join in from time to time.

You could keep your anonymity by just being "Mike and Mark".

I really do think that fundamental, coherent and compatible solutions could arise from this process in the space you create.  You are perfect voices for representing both sides of a divide that could bring a powerful demonstration, and shift, for bridging gaps.

Seeing two people "evolve together in public on meaningful topics" would beat any reality tv show in my book.

But I do understand that writers often prefer to write because it is the better medium for conveying what they want to say so perhaps a couple of Avalon threads could be considered dedicated for this purpose.  A closed "Mike and Mark" thread for the two-way conversation, and an open "Mike and Mark Comments" thread for comments, sharing of experiences and questions.  

My point is to create a council between two qualified representatives that can talk for as long as they like on topics, (rather than a few soundbite minutes in parliament), whilst including public contributions until satisfactory resolution evolves.

What say you? :rockon:

[Constance]

ddddddddddddddddddddddddd

[Matthew]

_PdPiOQI_Ks

Alex Belfield shares that he has been arrested four times, and two raids on his house (without warrant) taking thousands of pounds worth of equipment. He hopes it gets to go in front of a judge soon.

Alex explains that Nottingham Police and the BBC have acted underhandedly to destroy his life. He said it started after he tried to sue the BBC. It's quite an involved story, Alex reports news events daily but this is the first I've heard of these shenanigans.

Edit update: Alex has made a shorter video summary of this (4:42)
biw1lk74NPI

[Mark]

So I was a little clumsy there for a while, particularly in the racism thread, and I spose that was me attempting to evolve out in the open a little. Maybe I should have evolved in private :)

Beyond sitting on a mountaintop and contemplating one's navel for a while until you leave your body in absolute boredom, evolving in private isn't always the best path forward I believe, nor does it serve much of the purpose I understand us to incarnate to experience. Evolving together is so much more interesting and fun. At this point in my life, I have come to understand that the purpose of conflict in my experience is to clear me of what I hold that is not integral to my being and that those things are often remnants of some past life or something I learned and held onto in this life that needs to be let go of. So we serve each other in these instances and circumstances, and it is the highest gift we can give and the reason we interact in this lifetime and meet the folks we do. So I'm grateful, as we evolve together toward something inscrutable and amazing. :)


I'm glad you're back and we've reconnected here to continue the dialogue. I think I'm in a much better space this time around, and I feel good about that. Nice chattin with ya:cheers:

I expect we're about to reach next-level craziness in the near future, so there will be plenty to rail about! :clapping:

¤=[Post Update]=¤


Before I respond to what you have shared here, I'll wait until you have taken a look at the thread and checked out the latest video. :flower:

I have not looked at the most recent video yet, although I have looked at the thread. :)

[Mark]

Oh how I love it when you two get together, (Mike and Mark) and hash it out.  Deep, intelligent, honest, respectful dialogue on deep, important, sensitive cultural topics that need introspection and awareness.

I would really love to see you both set up a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly podcast series where you discuss and track key cultural issues.

Inviting viewers to contribute by sending in their position, experience and questions would add another level of community to the discussions.  And a guest voice could join in from time to time.

You could keep your anonymity by just being "Mike and Mark".

I really do think that fundamental, coherent and compatible solutions could arise from this process in the space you create.  You are perfect voices for representing both sides of a divide that could bring a powerful demonstration, and shift, for bridging gaps.

Seeing two people "evolve together in public on meaningful topics" would beat any reality tv show in my book.

But I do understand that writers often prefer to write because it is the better medium for conveying what they want to say so perhaps a couple of Avalon threads could be considered dedicated for this purpose.  A closed "Mike and Mark" thread for the two-way conversation, and an open "Mike and Mark Comments" thread for comments, sharing of experiences and questions.  

My point is to create a council between two qualified representatives that can talk for as long as they like on topics, (rather than a few soundbite minutes in parliament), whilst including public contributions until satisfactory resolution evolves.

What say you? :rockon:

I really like this idea, it sounds awesome and also like something that people can get behind! I think it would involve concentrating on the deeper issues, the things we share in common, as well as discussing the issues that divide in a contentious but friendly manner, closing the show with something that brings folks back together. Great stuff Gemma, thanks for thinking of it! :)

[Mike]

Oh how I love it when you two get together, (Mike and Mark) and hash it out.  Deep, intelligent, honest, respectful dialogue on deep, important, sensitive cultural topics that need introspection and awareness.

I would really love to see you both set up a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly podcast series where you discuss and track key cultural issues.

Inviting viewers to contribute by sending in their position, experience and questions would add another level of community to the discussions.  And a guest voice could join in from time to time.

You could keep your anonymity by just being "Mike and Mark".

I really do think that fundamental, coherent and compatible solutions could arise from this process in the space you create.  You are perfect voices for representing both sides of a divide that could bring a powerful demonstration, and shift, for bridging gaps.

Seeing two people "evolve together in public on meaningful topics" would beat any reality tv show in my book.

But I do understand that writers often prefer to write because it is the better medium for conveying what they want to say so perhaps a couple of Avalon threads could be considered dedicated for this purpose.  A closed "Mike and Mark" thread for the two-way conversation, and an open "Mike and Mark Comments" thread for comments, sharing of experiences and questions.  

My point is to create a council between two qualified representatives that can talk for as long as they like on topics, (rather than a few soundbite minutes in parliament), whilst including public contributions until satisfactory resolution evolves.

What say you? :rockon:

I really like this idea, it sounds awesome and also like something that people can get behind! I think it would involve concentrating on the deeper issues, the things we share in common, as well as discussing the issues that divide in a contentious but friendly manner, closing the show with something that brings folks back together. Great stuff Gemma, thanks for thinking of it! :)



I'll be on the internet sparingly for the next few weeks, but anytime after that I'm game for this kind of thing!

I don't know anything about podcasts - it's a miracle I can turn my computer on and off:) - but starting some kind of thread here sounds like it could be fun and productive. I'm open to any and all ideas. I had one idea maybe a couple months ago which would require members to steel man any position they disagreed with...to, in good faith, make the best possible argument for something you actually disagreed with. It would be so painful! LOL! But I think hugely eye opening.

It feels a little presumptuous starting a thread with my own name in it (Gemma, I'd rather see *you* and Mark discuss the issues!:flower:) But if the members are interested in watching Mark and I squabble like an old married couple, I'll do it:bigsmile: No, in all seriousness I think it could be great. Mark I like how you outlined the spirit of it above:thumbsup:. I think it would be fun to collaborate on a thread and do something resembling what Gemma suggested.

[Gemma13]

Oh how I love it when you two get together, (Mike and Mark) and hash it out.  Deep, intelligent, honest, respectful dialogue on deep, important, sensitive cultural topics that need introspection and awareness.

I would really love to see you both set up a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly podcast series where you discuss and track key cultural issues.

Inviting viewers to contribute by sending in their position, experience and questions would add another level of community to the discussions.  And a guest voice could join in from time to time.

You could keep your anonymity by just being "Mike and Mark".

I really do think that fundamental, coherent and compatible solutions could arise from this process in the space you create.  You are perfect voices for representing both sides of a divide that could bring a powerful demonstration, and shift, for bridging gaps.

Seeing two people "evolve together in public on meaningful topics" would beat any reality tv show in my book.

But I do understand that writers often prefer to write because it is the better medium for conveying what they want to say so perhaps a couple of Avalon threads could be considered dedicated for this purpose.  A closed "Mike and Mark" thread for the two-way conversation, and an open "Mike and Mark Comments" thread for comments, sharing of experiences and questions.  

My point is to create a council between two qualified representatives that can talk for as long as they like on topics, (rather than a few soundbite minutes in parliament), whilst including public contributions until satisfactory resolution evolves.

What say you? :rockon:

I really like this idea, it sounds awesome and also like something that people can get behind! I think it would involve concentrating on the deeper issues, the things we share in common, as well as discussing the issues that divide in a contentious but friendly manner, closing the show with something that brings folks back together. Great stuff Gemma, thanks for thinking of it! :)



I'll be on the internet sparingly for the next few weeks, but anytime after that I'm game for this kind of thing!

I don't know anything about podcasts - it's a miracle I can turn my computer on and off:) - but starting some kind of thread here sounds like it could be fun and productive. I'm open to any and all ideas. I had one idea maybe a couple months ago which would require members to steel man any position they disagreed with...to, in good faith, make the best possible argument for something you actually disagreed with. It would be so painful! LOL! But I think hugely eye opening.

It feels a little presumptuous starting a thread with my own name in it (Gemma, I'd rather see *you* and Mark discuss the issues!:flower:) But if the members are interested in watching Mark and I squabble like an old married couple, I'll do it:bigsmile: No, in all seriousness I think it could be great. Mark I like how you outlined the spirit of it above:thumbsup:. I think it would be fun to collaborate on a thread and do something resembling what Gemma suggested.

Wonderful :)  Thank you both so much for your affirmations. :clapping:

I'm ignorant on forum policy for how this could proceed so would like to FORMALLY REQUEST Bill and Moderators to take a look at the suggested format and advise on the following:

1.  Is it possible to set up the 2 Threads, (one closed, except for Mike and Mark, and one open for members contributions).

2.  If possible can Moderators vote yay or nay or does voting need to go out to members?

My vote is obviously Yay because:  If this space was created it could evolve into a "Here's How" prototype that demonstrates not only how to bridge gaps of division but creatively inspires workable solutions that could then be lobbied into political and social arenas; let alone providing a valuable resource for people to use, and refer people to, when encountering the division topics in family, friend and work situations.



[Mike - thanks for the vote of confidence but I wouldn't even come close to being able to respond with the ease and fluidity and clarity that you (and Mark) display.  I would support you both though by being a dedicated contributor on the discussion thread sharing experiences, research, analysis and questions.]  

[Gemma13]

In his latest podcast Richard Dolan (@1:21:00) made a comment that he learns more from his listeners who engage him with their comments and discourse than they learn from him.  I thought this was a great point in support of the recent proposal here to have two Avalon Members engage exclusively with each other on a closed thread that is hitched to a community thread for members to contribute.
In other words a written vs verbal podcast.

[Link to Dolans podcast. https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?114407-The-Window-is-Closing&p=1418247&viewfull=1#post1418247]

[rgray222]

Finally, someone has pushed back at the cancel culture and of all places a university. Every high school teacher, college professor, and administrators now have legal precedent and protection from punishment. I am sure this unanimous decision by the 6th Circuit Court has sent a shockwave through the entire educational system.

Professor who refused school order on transgender student’s pronouns wins in court

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/nicholas-meriwether-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1

An Ohio college professor who resisted his school’s orders to go along with transgender students’ preferred pronouns has won his First Amendment case before a federal appeals court.

In a unanimous ruling, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Shawnee State University violated Prof. Nicholas Meriwether’s rights of free speech and free exercise of religion by punishing him for resisting school rules that forced him to address students in the terms of their choosing.

Meriwether, a philosophy professor and devout Christian, sued Shawnee State, claiming that its mandate to use terms that conflict with biology infringed on his religious belief that gender is fixed from the moment of conception.

The court’s decision, written by a judge appointed to the bench by President Trump and issued Friday, upheld Meriwether’s argument.

“The First Amendment interests are especially strong here because Meriwether’s speech also relates to his core religious and philosophical beliefs,” Judge Amul Thapar wrote in a 32-page decision.

“If professors lacked free-speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity,” add Thapar — who was widely seen last year as a contender for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the US Supreme Court.

Meriwether, a 25-year member of the Shawnee State faculty, was reprimanded in 2016 after a transgender student complained that he used of “Mr.” instead of “Ms.” when responding to the student in class. The ruling clears the way for the professor to pursue a lawsuit seeking damages.

“Nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job,” said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who represented Meriwether in court.

Source: https://nypost.com/2021/03/27/prof-who-refused-transgender-students-pronouns-wins-in-court/

[Gemma13]

Finally, someone has pushed back at the cancel culture and of all places a university. Every high school teacher, college professor, and administrators now have legal precedent and protection from punishment. I am sure this unanimous decision by the 6th Circuit Court has sent a shockwave through the entire educational system.

Professor who refused school order on transgender student’s pronouns wins in court

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/nicholas-meriwether-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=618&h=410&crop=1

An Ohio college professor who resisted his school’s orders to go along with transgender students’ preferred pronouns has won his First Amendment case before a federal appeals court.

In a unanimous ruling, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Shawnee State University violated Prof. Nicholas Meriwether’s rights of free speech and free exercise of religion by punishing him for resisting school rules that forced him to address students in the terms of their choosing.

Meriwether, a philosophy professor and devout Christian, sued Shawnee State, claiming that its mandate to use terms that conflict with biology infringed on his religious belief that gender is fixed from the moment of conception.

The court’s decision, written by a judge appointed to the bench by President Trump and issued Friday, upheld Meriwether’s argument.

“The First Amendment interests are especially strong here because Meriwether’s speech also relates to his core religious and philosophical beliefs,” Judge Amul Thapar wrote in a 32-page decision.

“If professors lacked free-speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity,” add Thapar — who was widely seen last year as a contender for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the US Supreme Court.

Meriwether, a 25-year member of the Shawnee State faculty, was reprimanded in 2016 after a transgender student complained that he used of “Mr.” instead of “Ms.” when responding to the student in class. The ruling clears the way for the professor to pursue a lawsuit seeking damages.

“Nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job,” said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who represented Meriwether in court.

Source: https://nypost.com/2021/03/27/prof-who-refused-transgender-students-pronouns-wins-in-court/

Well that's some good news:thumbsup: Finally a positive turn for the better.

[Bill Ryan]

Oh how I love it when you two get together, (Mike and Mark) and hash it out. Deep, intelligent, honest, respectful dialogue on deep, important, sensitive cultural topics that need introspection and awareness.

I would really love to see you both set up a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly podcast series where you discuss and track key cultural issues.

Inviting viewers to contribute by sending in their position, experience and questions would add another level of community to the discussions. And a guest voice could join in from time to time.

You could keep your anonymity by just being "Mike and Mark".

I really do think that fundamental, coherent and compatible solutions could arise from this process in the space you create. You are perfect voices for representing both sides of a divide that could bring a powerful demonstration, and shift, for bridging gaps.

Seeing two people "evolve together in public on meaningful topics" would beat any reality tv show in my book.

But I do understand that writers often prefer to write because it is the better medium for conveying what they want to say so perhaps a couple of Avalon threads could be considered dedicated for this purpose. A closed "Mike and Mark" thread for the two-way conversation, and an open "Mike and Mark Comments" thread for comments, sharing of experiences and questions.

My point is to create a council between two qualified representatives that can talk for as long as they like on topics, (rather than a few soundbite minutes in parliament), whilst including public contributions until satisfactory resolution evolves.

What say you? :rockon:

I really like this idea, it sounds awesome and also like something that people can get behind! I think it would involve concentrating on the deeper issues, the things we share in common, as well as discussing the issues that divide in a contentious but friendly manner, closing the show with something that brings folks back together. Great stuff Gemma, thanks for thinking of it! :)

I'll be on the internet sparingly for the next few weeks, but anytime after that I'm game for this kind of thing!

I don't know anything about podcasts - it's a miracle I can turn my computer on and off:) - but starting some kind of thread here sounds like it could be fun and productive. I'm open to any and all ideas. I had one idea maybe a couple months ago which would require members to steel man any position they disagreed with...to, in good faith, make the best possible argument for something you actually disagreed with. It would be so painful! LOL! But I think hugely eye opening.

It feels a little presumptuous starting a thread with my own name in it (Gemma, I'd rather see *you* and Mark discuss the issues!:flower:) But if the members are interested in watching Mark and I squabble like an old married couple, I'll do it:bigsmile: No, in all seriousness I think it could be great. Mark I like how you outlined the spirit of it above:thumbsup:. I think it would be fun to collaborate on a thread and do something resembling what Gemma suggested.

Wonderful :) Thank you both so much for your affirmations. :clapping:

I'm ignorant on forum policy for how this could proceed so would like to FORMALLY REQUEST Bill and Moderators to take a look at the suggested format and advise on the following:

1. Is it possible to set up the 2 Threads, (one closed, except for Mike and Mark, and one open for members contributions).

2. If possible can Moderators vote yay or nay or does voting need to go out to members?

Mod response from Bill:


Yes, we know we can do that. We just have to remember how! :)
The mods are happy to okay this, for sure.
:thumbsup:

[Gemma13]

Oh how I love it when you two get together, (Mike and Mark) and hash it out. Deep, intelligent, honest, respectful dialogue on deep, important, sensitive cultural topics that need introspection and awareness.

I would really love to see you both set up a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly podcast series where you discuss and track key cultural issues.

Inviting viewers to contribute by sending in their position, experience and questions would add another level of community to the discussions. And a guest voice could join in from time to time.

You could keep your anonymity by just being "Mike and Mark".

I really do think that fundamental, coherent and compatible solutions could arise from this process in the space you create. You are perfect voices for representing both sides of a divide that could bring a powerful demonstration, and shift, for bridging gaps.

Seeing two people "evolve together in public on meaningful topics" would beat any reality tv show in my book.

But I do understand that writers often prefer to write because it is the better medium for conveying what they want to say so perhaps a couple of Avalon threads could be considered dedicated for this purpose. A closed "Mike and Mark" thread for the two-way conversation, and an open "Mike and Mark Comments" thread for comments, sharing of experiences and questions.

My point is to create a council between two qualified representatives that can talk for as long as they like on topics, (rather than a few soundbite minutes in parliament), whilst including public contributions until satisfactory resolution evolves.

What say you? :rockon:

I really like this idea, it sounds awesome and also like something that people can get behind! I think it would involve concentrating on the deeper issues, the things we share in common, as well as discussing the issues that divide in a contentious but friendly manner, closing the show with something that brings folks back together. Great stuff Gemma, thanks for thinking of it! :)

I'll be on the internet sparingly for the next few weeks, but anytime after that I'm game for this kind of thing!

I don't know anything about podcasts - it's a miracle I can turn my computer on and off:) - but starting some kind of thread here sounds like it could be fun and productive. I'm open to any and all ideas. I had one idea maybe a couple months ago which would require members to steel man any position they disagreed with...to, in good faith, make the best possible argument for something you actually disagreed with. It would be so painful! LOL! But I think hugely eye opening.

It feels a little presumptuous starting a thread with my own name in it (Gemma, I'd rather see *you* and Mark discuss the issues!:flower:) But if the members are interested in watching Mark and I squabble like an old married couple, I'll do it:bigsmile: No, in all seriousness I think it could be great. Mark I like how you outlined the spirit of it above:thumbsup:. I think it would be fun to collaborate on a thread and do something resembling what Gemma suggested.

Wonderful :) Thank you both so much for your affirmations. :clapping:

I'm ignorant on forum policy for how this could proceed so would like to FORMALLY REQUEST Bill and Moderators to take a look at the suggested format and advise on the following:

1. Is it possible to set up the 2 Threads, (one closed, except for Mike and Mark, and one open for members contributions).

2. If possible can Moderators vote yay or nay or does voting need to go out to members?

Mod response from Bill:


Yes, we know we can do that. We just have to remember how! :)
The mods are happy to okay this, for sure.
:thumbsup:


That's awesome. :clapping: Many thanks to you all and hope the logistics aren't creating too much hassle. Will be in touch soon.

[Bill Ryan]

This is quite a long and meandering post — with some entertainment. It's all about how the world of rock climbing might be hit by Cancel Culture.

It's not really happened yet. But it might. (Who knew this was possible?)

When rock climbers climb a new route — a way up a cliff that's never been climbed before — they name it. Tradition over nearly a century dictates that the first ascensionist gets to name their new climb.

And this has a very practical purpose, because you've got to name the thing to describe to others where it is, how to climb it, who else has repeated it, and so on.

Now, rock climbers (and yours truly was one in his day) are almost 100% always strong-headed mavericks with little respect for authority. Here's an iconic photo from 1975, showing three of the finest climbers in Yosemite Valley. (For the record, from left to right: Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell and John Long.)

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/18/obituaries/18bridwell-obit2/17bridwell-elcapitan-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

These guys were highly skilled, safe, responsible athletes, the best in the world. They'd think nothing of endangering themselves to help, or rescue, another climber. And — as you may guess from the photo — they had absolutely zero respect for authority of any kind.

An anecdote here, one of the very best. :sun: Back at that time, a Mexican drug plane crashed deep in Yosemite National Park, with no survivors. These guys (with a whole team of their buddies) immediately rappelled into the scene, days ahead of any police or park rangers. A little book containing names and addresses was dispatched to the high winds. And when the authorities did finally reach the plane, the drugs had mysteriously all gone.

So, back to climbing route names. Climbers (a) have a great sense of fun, and (b) are usually highly inventive. So route names are sometimes marvelous to behold.

A few examples:


Oedipus, Ring Your Mother
Tequila Mockingbird
A route (on a cliff called 'Hen Crag') called Poultry in Motion
Two new routes next to one another, one called Godliness and the other called Cleanliness
Kipling Groove (so called because it was "Ruddy 'Ard")
A whole bunch named after Carlos Castaneda: Separate Reality, Tales of Power, Journey to Ixtlan, and so on
(my favorite of all :) ) A strange climb that went up the back of a cave and then emerged through a hole in the top. It was called Subterranean Rabbit Launcher. (That still makes me laugh out loud.)

There are countless other wonderful names, all over the world. The Australians (of course!) were not to be outdone. Two climbs there are called


Nurse, Increase the Sedative
Tchaikovsky made my Dog Fart.

All this is part of climbing lore and legend. It's deeply ingrained in the maverick culture. I'm sure there are a few risqué names, but I never once encountered them in all my climbing career.

BUT NOW the American Alpine Club has launched a project (https://americanalpineclub.org/route-name-guidelines) to censor route names that may be offensive. Of course, climbers can say whatever they like to each other, but the censorship would apply when the names are formally cited in articles or guide books.

My guess: most climbers (maybe 99.99% of them) will laugh and totally ignore all this. So, we'll get to see what the pushback is. (But nevertheless, OMG :facepalm: )

[Gemma13]

This is quite a long and meandering post — with some entertainment. It's all about how the world of rock climbing might be hit by Cancel Culture.

It's not really happened yet. But it might. (Who knew this was possible?)

When rock climbers climb a new route — a way up a cliff that's never been climbed before — they name it. Tradition over nearly a century dictates that the first ascensionist gets to name their new climb.

And this has a very practical purpose, because you've got to name the thing to describe to others where it is, how to climb it, who else has repeated it, and so on.

Now, rock climbers (and yours truly was one in his day) are almost 100% always strong-headed mavericks with little respect for authority. Here's an iconic photo from 1975, showing three of the finest climbers in Yosemite Valley. (For the record, from left to right: Billy Westbay, Jim Bridwell and John Long.)

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/18/obituaries/18bridwell-obit2/17bridwell-elcapitan-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

These guys were highly skilled, safe, responsible athletes, the best in the world. They'd think nothing of endangering themselves to help, or rescue, another climber. And — as you may guess from the photo — they had absolutely zero respect for authority of any kind.

An anecdote here, one of the very best. :sun: Back at that time, a Mexican drug plane crashed deep in Yosemite National Park, with no survivors. These guys (with a whole team of their buddies) immediately rappelled into the scene, days ahead of any police or park rangers. A little book containing names and addresses was dispatched to the high winds. And when the authorities did finally reach the plane, the drugs had mysteriously all gone.

So, back to climbing route names. Climbers (a) have a great sense of fun, and (b) are usually highly inventive. So route names are sometimes marvelous to behold.

A few examples:


Oedipus, Ring Your Mother
Tequila Mockingbird
A route (on a cliff called 'Hen Crag') called Poultry in Motion
Two new routes next to one another, one called Godliness and the other called Cleanliness
Kipling Groove (so called because it was "Ruddy 'Ard")
A whole bunch named after Carlos Castaneda: Separate Reality, Tales of Power, Journey to Ixtlan, and so on
(my favorite of all :) ) A strange climb that went up the back of a cave and then emerged through a hole in the top. It was called Subterranean Rabbit Launcher. (That still makes me laugh out loud.)

There are countless other wonderful names, all over the world. The Australians (of course!) were not to be outdone. Two climbs there are called


Nurse, Increase the Sedative
Tchaikovsky made my Dog Fart.

All this is part of climbing lore and legend. It's deeply ingrained in the maverick culture. I'm sure there are a few risqué names, but I never once encountered them in all my climbing career.

BUT NOW the American Alpine Club has launched a project (https://americanalpineclub.org/route-name-guidelines) to censor route names that may be offensive. Of course, climbers can say whatever they like to each other, but the censorship would apply when the names are formally cited in articles or guide books.

My guess: most climbers (maybe 99.99% of them) will laugh and totally ignore all this. So, we'll get to see what the pushback is. (But nevertheless, OMG :facepalm: )

Couldn't help myself.  Googled "is rock climbing racist".  See this post for context:

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?111532-Cancel-Culture--Examples-&p=1409839&viewfull=1#post1409839

Turns out there are loads of articles.  Here are two with some surprising results.


https://www.thelily.com/climbing-routes-are-riddled-with-racist-and-misogynistic-names-meet-the-people-trying-to-change-it-all/

Climbing routes are riddled with racist and misogynistic names. Meet the people trying to change it all.In one survey, 91% of climbers said they have come across a route name they find offensive.

Amanda Loudin  Nov. 30, 2020

Melissa Utomo, a 29-year-old Asian American Web developer, is used to being the only woman and person of color when she rock-climbs.

A few years back, on a climbing trip to Wyoming, she was in just that position when her group arrived at a big section of Ten Sleep Canyon called the “Slavery Wall.” As the climbers challenged themselves on some of the wall’s routes, the troubling names mounted: “Happiness in Slavery.” “Welfare Crack.”

“I couldn’t really process or absorb the names at the time, because I was in this group of all White men,” Utomo said. “But when I returned home to Colorado, I started reading up on other violent, oppressive route names, and I realized I needed to do something.”

Utomo is part of a growing chorus of female and BIPOC climbers (climbers who are Black, Indigenous or people of color) working for change in the sport, particularly in the area of route names. Their task is a daunting one, sometimes placing them at odds with a climbing world dominated by White men.

But Utomo and others like her are beginning to make an impact. In June, amid mounting pushback and rising protests against racial injustice, local developers renamed the Slavery Wall and some of its similarly offense-raising routes. The wall region will now be known as the “Downpour Wall,” while some of the other re-brandings were even simpler: “Happiness in Slavery” — a route named after a Nine Inch Nails song that also inspired the “Slavery Wall” name — is now just “Happiness.”

The way that such routes are named in the first place is straightforward and done without much oversight. When you become the first climber to successfully map out a new route — a “first ascender” — you earn the privilege of naming it. Beyond the Slavery Wall, in some corners of North America that has led to monikers such as “Gold Digger,” “Kitty Porn,” “Clean Shaven Girls” and “Astride my Indian Queen.” In a Medium post in July, self-described “novice climber” Sena Crow recalled being appalled by Texas routes such as “Schizophrenia” and “Third Reich.”

Utomo said climbing has a system of gatekeeping baked into its culture that makes speaking up about offensive names intimidating. “We’ve normalized worshiping the first ascenders,” she said. “If you’re a new climber, it takes a lot of courage to speak up.”

Snews, an outdoor-industry magazine, and the 57hours app, which connects users with mountain guides, each recently surveyed outdoor adventurers to gauge their knowledge and opinions of route names. Asked whether they had ever encountered a route name that they considered racist, sexist, discriminatory or otherwise offensive, 91 percent of SNEWS readers and 65 percent of 57hours mountain guides said yes. Digging deeper, the 57hours survey inquired whether the prevalence of certain route names deterred women and BIPOC adventurers from participating in sports such as climbing and mountain biking. Forty-three percent of guides answered yes.

Ebony Roberts, managing editor at 57hours, said she wasn’t altogether surprised by the responses. “I was a little saddened, though,” she said, “to see some women express the sentiment that essentially, you just have to suck it up if you want to play.”

When 57Hours guides encounter a route with an offensive name, Roberts said, they don’t necessarily avoid it. “They just don’t tell the client the name of the route,” she said. “They shouldn’t have to lie or hide it. The names need to change — full stop.”

Like Utomo, climbing instructor and high school teacher Christina Smyth is working to bring about that change. Smyth, of British Columbia, says she took note of the route names in that area when she began climbing 11 years ago.

“With more free time this summer due to the pandemic, I decided I needed to make an effort for change,” Smyth said. “I started talking to other female climbers, and we began compiling a list of offensive route names. Then we decided which were most worth going after.” Topping the list were the flat-out racist or misogynistic names.

But forcing a change can be challenging, requiring one to get the first ascender’s buy-in and then persuading guidebook authors to make the revision as well. “There’s a good deal of tracking people down and reaching out to them to request the change,” Smyth said. “So far we’ve made some progress, but we’ve also had some pushback. I’m working with others to make this a collaborative effort so that many voices can outweigh those who resist change.”

For her part, Utomo has put her tech skills to use by developing a system that will allow climbers to flag problematic route names. She’s gained the support of affinity groups such as Brown Girls Climb, Women Crush Wednesdays and BelayAll.

“In July, along with Brown Girls Climb, I participated in Erased, a virtual discussion about route names and reimagining what the climbing culture can be,” she said. “We now have a team of 11 people and launched a fundraiser to begin a research phase into building a new climbing app that is accessible [and] will allow route-name flagging and new route names. We’re invested in a long-term goal.”

The efforts of Utomo and others have served to activate a joint effort with five outdoors organizations representing 150,000 members. The American Alpine Club, the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Colorado Mountain Club, Mazamas and the Mountaineers issued a joint statement this summer committing to creating a more respectful and inclusive community with an eye on abolishing offensive route names.

“It’s important that we all spend this time dealing with the systemic oppression that is rampant in the climbing culture,” said Sarah Bradham, acting executive director of Mazamas.

Taimur Ahmad said that as a person of color and a first ascender of several routes in the Sierras, he has been very conscious of the names he and his climbing partner — a woman — have selected together.

“I’ve done climbs where I felt uncomfortable saying the name to a friend and I’d shorten it or change it,” Ahmad said. “I’m optimistic that the majority of organizations in the sport are in agreement with the need to change.”

As with any cultural shift, effecting lasting change in the climbing culture will not happen overnight. But Utomo and others are emboldened to see it through.

“I’m very optimistic,” Utomo said. “There are a lot of voices coming into the discussion. People are hungry for change.”


https://www.dw.com/en/racism-sport-climbing/a-54090493

Black Lives Matter movement provokes thought about racism in sport climbing

The Black Lives Matter movement in the United States has also brought racism and a lack of diversity in sport climbing to the fore. The German climbing scene is no exception.

"I hope that one day, racism doesn't exist, but for now, it is still an issue, and it has been an issue," Black climber Meagan Martin told DW. Martin believes racism "for most people, it's something that they don't witness regularly, but just because you don't always see it, doesn't mean it's not there. As a Black climber, I've always been aware of the presence of racism, but I've chosen not to let it bring me down, and instead make me stronger."

Meagan Martin is a professional climber who has competed for the United States in World Cup competitions. She became famous for her agility in the obstacle course on the television show American Ninja Warrior. Martin has been actively involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. 

"I think that we are already seeing how the acknowledgment that racism exists is impacting the climbing community," Martin said. "Companies are taking a step back and looking inward to see areas where they've failed to be an ally to the Black community and how they can do better moving forward. Many athletes are also taking this time to reflect, take accountability, and educate themselves to be a better ally." 

People of Color are still underrepresented in sport climbing. A 2019 study in the United States showed that in national parks African-Americans made up just one percent of the visitors, despite accounting for around 13 percent of the entire population.

Black journalist and author James Edward Mills describes this phenomenon as an "adventure gap." 

"That lack of participation is the problem," Mills told National Geographic. "It's not a question of whether or not African-Americans can climb high mountains. What matters is as a group we tend not to. And for a variety of different social and cultural reasons the world of mountaineering has been relegated almost exclusively to white men."

Black climbers are not just the exception on climbing walls, but also on expeditions to the world's largest mountains.

One of the reasons for this is a "lack of Black role models in sport climbing," said Molly Thompson-Smith.

"I'm constantly aware of how I 'stick out'," said the 22-year-old, who is already one of biggest talents in British climbing and has reached the podium at a World Cup event. "For some people I think this could be a reason to avoid starting climbing, due to feeling uncomfortable or just a lack of connection to the sport. With a lack of Black role models to relate to within the sport, I'm not surprised people of color may not feel like they could see themselves being a part of the community." 

Not only that, but climbing "is a fairly expensive sport especially if you want to have nice gear, memberships at different walls, and travel for climbing on rock or in competitions. This will influence who can be a part of the community and become a barrier to those from less privileged backgrounds."

Meant as a joke but wide of the mark

Thompson-Smith said that she has only personally experienced racism a handful of times.

"When it has happened in a climbing gym it's been 'harmless' comments or jokes I've just shrugged off. I'm white and Black Caribbean with fairly light skin – it's my hair that is the 'giveaway.' Jokes from friends about my skin tone or people wanting to touch my hair in fascination were normal in my climbing childhood, and I never told people how it really felt to be the subject of those words/actions. It may have not meant to be offensive, but I wouldn't be so accepting of these comments nowadays."

Like Meagan Martin, Molly Thompson-Smith is also taking an active role in the Black Lives Matter movement. 

"I've found the last month very emotionally draining, but it's also made me quite hopeful," Thompson-Smith said. "I admit, I could have been – and should have been better when it came to racism. I could have educated people on how their 'jokes' or 'observations' about people of color were not appropriate. The situation has made me want to do more to encourage more diversity within the climbing community, and to make sure it feels like a safe and welcoming place for people of any background to be a part of."

'White, male dominated club' 

Last week the respected editor-in-chief and publisher of the US climbing magazine Rock and Ice, Duane Raleigh, resigned – under extraordinary circumstances.  

"We were young and could climb and enjoy risks because we had freedoms that non-white America does not have," he said. "We were part of a culture that I regret. White privilege let our 'fraternity' exist, and we could be inappropriate, and do just about anything without consequences. Broadly speaking, the white, male-dominated club still exists worldwide."

Raleigh also apologized for something he did when he was a young man – using the N-word to name a route that he had conquered. 

Fresh discussion

The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked a discussion about discriminatory names being used for climbing routes. In mountain climbing, whoever conquers a route for the first time has the right to name it. What may be an attempt at humor can be deeply insulting. 

US climbers, for example, have now spoken out in favor of boycotting the "N****** Wall" in the Owens River Gorge in Eastern California until the insulting name is replaced. The climbing portal mountainproject.com maintains a list of "bad names," route names that are perceived as racist, sexist or otherwise discriminatory. The list now includes more than 2,000 names.  

Discriminatory route names in Germany 

Germany is no exception when it comes to discriminatory names. Among them are "Der N**** mit dem Knackarsch" in the Franconian Jura, a popular climbing region in southern Germany. The climbing portal frankenjura.com lists two further route names that included the N-word ("N****kuss" and "Scharfer N****). 

A fourth route ("Indianer and Bambusn****") has since been renamed. 

"Even though the story behind it was a lot of fun, the name is no longer tenable in today's world," explained the first person to conquer that route.

This would also apply to "Bimboland," as part of a climbing region near Kochel am See in Bavaria has been named. It includes a term often used by right-wing extremists.  

No easy fix

The German Alpine Association (DAV) said in response to a DW query that it is important to "stand up for equality and diversity at all levels."

However, according to Steffen Reich, the DAV's head of nature conservation and cartography department, the scope for action is limited.

"Firstly, the route names are not assigned by us but by the first ascenders. And secondly, we do not keep a database and do not create climbing guides in which the discriminatory names are listed, so we can't simply change them," he said. 

According to Reich, the only practical way forward is to impress upon authors, publishers and climbing portals the need "to work towards changing or deleting the discriminatory names."  

Racism is now a topic of discussion in the sport-climbing community – not only in the United States and Germany.

"It is comforting to know that my climbing peers are taking a second to see the world through my lens and the differences that do exist," Meghan Martin said. "I was born this way, this is the life I've chosen to lead, and I am proud to be a black woman in the climbing community."

[Mike]

Rock climbing is a deadly serious business, but it's mostly a recreational activity. Anyone can climb. No one is stopping you.

When you become a new member of any community, you should be nervous to speak up. Maybe you shouldn't say anything at all for a while, out of respect. Newly arriving climbers offering their opinions on trail names is vastly more obnoxious than the most obnoxious trail name you can muster. You have to earn the right to offer an opinion, at least one that will be respected anyway.

These people that discover new routes risk their lives in the process. They should be able to call them whatever they damn please. Any newbie fool that arrives demanding changes should immediately be punched in the nose. It is an exclusive club, and appropriately so. It's based on merit, skill, courage, and bravery.

There are more men in climbing because men are better athletes. They're bigger, stronger, faster, and more likely to take risks than women. This is no mystery. It's nothing to do with misogyny.

The reason the climbers are mostly white likely has more to do with culture than racism. Black men would make fantastic climbers. No doubt. All it would take is one transcendent black climber to make the sport "cool" for the youth and they'd be off to the races. It just hasn't happened yet. There are alot of things that haven't happened yet, and the reasons aren't all sinister.

For the time being, so what if it's a white, male dominated club? What's wrong with that? American football is a black, male dominated club. The beauty industry is an Asian, female dominated club. No one is clamoring for more diversity in those areas.

The only trail name listed in the article that should be changed is the one involving the n-word. The rest are fine. Most are deeply ironic, not cruel.

[Bill Ryan]

I'm [largely!] going to sit on my hands with this one — the 100% non-issue of race discrimination in climbing.


The best female rock climber in the world is Japanese.
The best male rock climber in the world is Czech.
The best high-altitude climber in the world is Nepalese. (Closely followed by the Russians, the Poles and the Pakistanis.)

There's nothing to stop black Americans from climbing. You just buy the gear, find a companion, and do it.

That's what everyone else does. No-one has to watch, no-one has to know. You just do whatever you want to. That's how it's all supposed to work. Climbing is fundamentally all about freedom, and always has been.

The finest ever winter high-altitude climber was a Pole, who worked double shifts on building sites and smuggled things to and from Nepal to pay for the expensive climbing permits there. He had very little money, ever — but was driven by passion, determination, and a personality of unbreakable steel.

If you're a real mountaineer, of any kind at all, you're not supposed to complain. About anything at all. Period.

[Bill Ryan]

Traffic signals are now racist. (Yes, really. This article is serious.)


The Unintentional Racism Found in Traffic Signals
https://level.medium.com/the-unintentional-racism-found-in-traffic-signals-b2899c34fefb

https://projectavalon.net/racist_traffic_signals.jpg

In Ecuador, the little crossing man is green. (But maybe he's an alien)

[Constance]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Mike]

Will Knowland, formerly an English teacher at Eton College, was fired recently for refusing to remove a lecture from his youtube channel about gender roles. He argues that biology largely determines gender roles. And, well, that's all it took.

This video is an hour long but well worth it. Quite a few topics are discussed:
Q6yohTYJ8w0

[rgray222]

Worth the read from the Wall Street Journal

The Man They Couldn’t Cancel
Mobs have targeted Jordan Peterson, but he hasn’t lost his university job and his publishers have stuck by him. What’s his secret?

https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/ED-BA733_Winter_16U_20210429142640.jpg

The term “cancel culture,” like “political correctness” before it, is a comical expression for an ugly cultural pathology. To be canceled—an older, closely related term is “blacklisted”—is to have your public persona or influence assailed, typically by a sizable mob, for some real or perceived offense against progressive orthodoxy, whatever that orthodoxy may hold at the moment. For that to happen, you must possess some form of authority in the first place: an academic post, a political office, a role in the entertainment industry, employment with a “mainstream” media organization, a voice as an intellectual or imaginative writer.

But the targets of cancellation, having derived their legitimacy from consensus left-liberal culture, are typically not very good at defending themselves, or even understanding what happened to them. Often they apologize, despite having said or done nothing wrong, which only emboldens the cancelers. Or they fall back on pieties about free speech and the marketplace of ideas, as if their tormentors still believed in those principles.

One target of cancellation who is able to speak intelligently about it is Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto clinical psychologist, YouTube lecturer, and author of “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” (2018) and “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life,” published in March.

If you’re an ordinary curious person, Mr. Peterson won’t strike you as a likely target for moral outrage. He brings together a dizzying array of texts and traditions—Jungian psychoanalysis, the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, Frederick Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard and much else—to formulate basic lessons, or “rules,” about how humans might overcome their natural tendency to lassitude and savagery. His books, podcasts and lectures are impressively argued, frequently insightful and occasionally abrasive presentations of various principles of wise living.

I don’t share some of Mr. Peterson’s philosophical premises and find in his work points of disagreement, but there is much to appreciate and nothing sinister in them. Twenty years ago very few people would have considered him the intellectual subversive and moral monster many now claim him to be. A few rules from his latest book: “Do not do what you hate,” “Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens,” “Try to make one room in your home as beautiful as possible.

Why has the political left taken a severe dislike to him? “A lot of my popularity derives from YouTube,” he says in a phone interview, “and YouTube skewed hard male for a long time, and is still mostly male. My typical audience would probably be between 60/40 and 70/30 men to women. There’s nothing conspiratorial about that, and it wasn’t because I was talking specifically to young men. It might be that they’re more desperate for what I’m saying.”

The stereotypical Peterson fan, it’s probably fair to say, is a young white male whose life lacked structure and discipline but heard Mr. Peterson’s lectures and began to reorder his life. Mr. Peterson insists, though, that his critics caricature his audience for their own ends. “There’s this hypothetical group that I’m helping,” he says: “angry, alienated, disenfranchised white-supremacist young males. First of all, that’s a lie. Second, even if it is disenfranchised young males who are primarily responding to what I’m saying, is there really something wrong with me talking to them? Are they so beneath contempt that they don’t deserve anyone’s attention?”

Those who despise Mr. Peterson think of him as a member of “the right” or even “the far right.” I wouldn’t describe him as a conservative—his interest lies in individual rather than societal order, and he says little about public policy. But it’s true that he not infrequently winds up holding conservative viewpoints on cultural matters. In “Beyond Order,” for example, he makes the case for marriage over cohabitation and readily acknowledges that children do better in two-parent families than in single-parent ones. He also writes and speaks frequently on the differences between masculinity and femininity.

But what put Mr. Peterson in the crosshairs of North America’s cultural arbiters was his vocal opposition to identity politics, and specifically the totalitarian methods of militant transgenderism. In 2016 he ran afoul of Bill C-16, legislation in the Canadian Parliament (later enacted) that added “gender identity or expression” to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination. In the course of that controversy Mr. Peterson remarked that he would refuse to use contrived pronouns in his classes. “I regard these made-up pronouns, all of them, as neologisms of a radical PC authoritarianism,” he said in 2016. “I’m not going to be a mouthpiece for language I detest.”

Since then he has been denounced as racist, misogynist, fascist and transphobic. Occasionally violent protests against him have taken place on the University of Toronto campus, and he is regularly shouted down at speaking events. When Penguin Random House Canada announced that it would publish “Beyond Order,” its staff “confronted management,” according to media reports, in a tearful town-hall meeting.

Contempt for the “working class” by North America’s “liberal educated elite,” is a major reason for his popularity, he says. “There aren’t very many people with an encouraging voice,” Mr. Peterson says. “Most of the things you read by intellectuals—not all, but it’s a failing of intellectuals—most of it is criticism. Look what you’re doing to the planet. What a detestable bunch of wretches you are, with your rapacious structures and your endless appetite and your desire for power. . . . Look at what your ambition has done to the planet. How dare you!”

Mr. Peterson doesn’t directly challenge the substance of these dreary criticisms. Rather he protests that they’re unnatural and unhealthy. “The proper attitude toward young people is encouragement,” he says—“their ambitions, their strivings, their desire to be competent, their deep wish for a trustworthy guiding hand. I think our culture is so cynical that it’s impossible, especially for the established intellectual chattering critics, to even imagine that encouragement is possible.”

When I ask what he thinks is driving the effort to destroy him and others who hold heterodox views, he diagnoses his persecutors as though they’re exactly the sort of young people who wander into his lectures or buy his books looking for structure and purpose. His admirers and his fiercest detractors are, in his mind, not so different from each other.

Part of what drives these young moralistic firebrands, he thinks, is the despairing outlook of the contemporary left. “Whenever you see that level of contempt manifest itself, that desire to flog and destroy, you have to ask yourself: How deep is that? The idea that we’re a cancer on the planet—well, what do you do with cancer? You eradicate it. I’ve heard environmentally sensitive types say that, and it’s horrifying. They’re completely blind to what they’re saying. If they weren’t blind to it, they’d be traumatized by it.”

The mention of environmentalism brings to mind the cultish side of modern progressivism. Is this desire to flog and destroy, as he puts it, a sign of some twisted spiritual longing? “I think so,” Mr. Peterson says. “The people who caricature Western society as a patriarchy, and then describe it as evil, they’re possessed by a religious idea.” He thinks the problem with modern enlightenment intellectuals—he names the American philosopher Sam Harris, the British conservative writer Matt Ridley and the British broadcaster and writer Stephen Fry, all atheists—is that they offer no mythology, no “adventure.”

“They leave this nihilistic nothingness in their wake, and what happens?” he says. “These kids turn to radical political correctness.” Messrs. Harris, Ridley, Fry, et al. aren’t happy about political correctness, Mr. Peterson notes, but “what did they expect to happen? Did they expect these kids would settle for their insipid rationalism?”

This search for a metaphysical teleology denied young people by “insipid rationalism,” in his view, is also “what motivates antifa and Black Lives Matter and white nationalism and all these other romantic revolutionary rebellions. It’s the romance and the heroism these movements offer.” Mr. Peterson recalls the famous line of George Orwell in his review of “Mein Kampf” in 1940: “Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people ‘I offer you a good time,’ Hitler has said to them ‘I offer you struggle, danger and death,’ and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.”

Taking Orwell’s terms “socialism” and “capitalism” both to mean, roughly, life without transcendence or any hint of the supernatural, the point seems defensible. Mr. Peterson thinks atheistic materialism has nothing to compare to religious worldviews. Rather than telling people simply not to do bad things, he says, “the right approach is to say to them: Here’s a better adventure. Now go conquer your own demons.”

In the end, Mr. Peterson hasn’t been successfully canceled. He retains his academic post; his YouTube lectures and podcasts have not been scrubbed from the internet; and his publishers stuck with his books, which are available for purchase. This is true for basically two reasons. The first is that he has tried to understand his would-be cancelers and thinks of them almost as outpatients. He speaks in gentle, clinical terms about a reporter for the New York Times who in 2018 wrote a scathing piece about him headlined “Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the Patriarchy” and later posted online what sounded like a confession (“The roar of Twitter on my side meant the kill was justified and good”). He has, as best I can tell, genuine pity for this writer.

The second reason follows from the first. The cancelers’ strange fixations mean that apologizing to them is folly. Mr. Peterson hasn’t apologized or disavowed any previous statement. Now there’s a rule for his next book: Don’t apologize when you haven’t done anything wrong.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-man-they-couldnt-cancel-11619806528?mod=e2fb&fbclid=IwAR1xenyjWRHryhI3OpLrKlyNX0ypS4o74Up1D1rNm85fJqHEHcoAWFJ959c
Mr. Swaim is a Journal editorial page writer.

[Mike]

Snow White on the verge of being cancelled, for promoting something that doesn't even exist: "rape culture". All because of that horrifying part when the prince kisses the sleeping princess. I don't know about the rest of you fellas, but when I saw that part as a kid, the first thing I thought was, I can't wait to grow up and rape somebody! Thank God it's being done away with now. Someone needed to step in and stop this madness.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/disney-problematic-princess-why-snow-083117952.html

[Bill Ryan]

From Infowars today:


https://infowars.com/posts/train-company-apologises-for-using-phrase-ladies-and-gentlemen-during-announcement

Train Company Apologises For Using Phrase ‘Ladies And Gentlemen’ During Announcement

A government-run British train company has issued an apology after one of its conductors used the phrase ‘ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls’ during an announcement, causing a passenger identifying as ‘non-binary’ to take offence and make a complaint.

The passenger, who happens to be a ‘LGBT rep’ for the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, immediately took to Twitter to whine about the ‘incident’.

The company, London North Eastern Railway, immediately apologised and said “Train Managers should not be using language like this.”

https://twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1392878662383513608

1392878662383513608

Good lord, the horror of the language that was used:

https://twitter.com/markjenkinsonmp/status/1392580638885224451

1392580638885224451

(the article continues (https://infowars.com/posts/train-company-apologises-for-using-phrase-ladies-and-gentlemen-during-announcement)...)

[atman]

Also from Infowars (https://www.infowars.com/posts/twitter-suspends-spanish-politician-for-saying-a-man-cannot-get-pregnant-because-no-uterus-or-ovaries/) today (originally from National File (https://nationalfile.com/twitter-suspends-spanish-politician-for-saying-a-man-cannot-get-pregnant-because-no-uterus-or-ovaries/), yesterday):


Twitter Suspends Spanish Politician for Saying ‘A Man Cannot Get Pregnant’ Because No ‘Uterus Or Ovaries’

A Spanish MP was suspended by Twitter for 12 hours, after he responded to a news article and noted that men do not have the biological ability to become pregnant.

Francisco José Contreras, an MP for the populist right wing party Vox, posted a news article to Twitter about a Spanish female-to-male transgender individual who was pregnant and recently gave birth to a daughter, with the article in question (https://www.elmundo.es/espana/2021/05/03/608fd1fcfdddff74348b4593.html)claiming that this made this individual a father. Contreras in his tweet said that this was a total lie. “A man cannot get pregnant,” he tweeted. “A man does not have a uterus or ovaries.”

However, not long after he tweeted his statement, Contrera received an email from Twitter, claiming that he had violated their rules on “hate speech,” informing him that they do not allow material that “threatens, harasses or promotes violence” against anybody based on a number of personal characteristics, including gender identity, among others. The email also warned him that repeated “breaches” could lead to permanent suspension of his account.

(...)

https://www.infowars.com/posts/twitter-suspends-spanish-politician-for-saying-a-man-cannot-get-pregnant-because-no-uterus-or-ovaries/

https://nationalfile.com/twitter-suspends-spanish-politician-for-saying-a-man-cannot-get-pregnant-because-no-uterus-or-ovaries/

[rgray222]

A bit of fresh air in the suffocating cancel culture world we have been living in for several years.

'Woke' corporations called out in ad campaign; Nike, Coca-Cola in the firing line

The campaign calls out American Airlines, Nike and Coca-Cola for putting politicians before customers

Consumers' Research, an educational nonprofit dedicated to consumer information, on Tuesday launched an ad campaign targeting corporations over "woke" political narratives.

The campaign calls out American Airlines, Nike and Coca-Cola, specifically, saying they have put politicians before their customers, according to Consumers' Research.

"America Airlines shrunk legroom for passengers and laid off thousands of employees during the COVID pandemic while receiving billions in taxpayer bailouts," Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild said in a Tuesday statement. "Coca-Cola and Nike have both been exploiting foreign, potentially forced, labor in China while American workers suffer."

He continued: "It is time these corporate giants were called to task. We are giving consumers a voice. These companies should be putting their energy and focus on serving their customers, not woke politicians."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDWLSAdf48o

The three billion-dollar companies have recently issued statements against Republican-led legislation in several states. Coca-Cola and American Airlines have expressed concern with new GOP voting legislation in Georgia and Texas, respectively.

"We respect everyone’s right to raise their concerns and express their views, but we also believe the best way to make progress now is for us all to come together to listen, respectfully share concerns and collaborate on a path forward," Coca-Cola told FOX Business in a statement. "We remain open to productive conversations with groups who may have differing views."

The company also noted Consumers' Research's specific criticism on sugary drinks leading to obesity saying the company has "taken steps to help people reduce the amount of sugar they consume" in the U.S. and around the world.

On the ad campaign's claims that Coca-Cola uses forced labor in China, the company said it respects "human rights everywhere" it operates and has "strict policies prohibiting forced labor" in its business and with its suppliers.

American Airlines did not respond to the ad but directed Fox Business toward its original statement regarding Texas' S.B. 7 and H.B. 6 voter bills, which extend early voting hours, require specific voter ID, prohibit voting clerks from sending absentee ballot applications to voters who did not request them and ban drive-thru voting – a popular alternative voting method during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a Texas-based business, we must stand up for the rights of our team members and customers who call Texas home, and honor the sacrifices made by generations of Americans to protect and expand the right to vote," American Airlines said in an April 1 statement. "Voting is the hallmark of our democracy, and is the foundation of our great country."

Nike signed an October letter from the Human Rights Campaign opposing Republican legislation in a number of red states banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.

Nike did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox Business.

The ads will air on cable across the U.S., as well as in local markets where the companies are headquartered.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/ad-campaign-woke-nike-coca-cola-american-airlines

[Gemma13]

A CANCEL REVERSAL HAS EMERGED. TEACHER SUING AFTER GETTING FIRED FOR NOT REMOVING BLM POSTER.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/florida-teacher-gets-fired-over-crt-ban-but-parents-still-concerned-over-textbooks_3824057.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email2&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-05-21-3&mktids=1a3596bf191b2ecdf238d2f835e6a3ed&est=ejqbsOdEe0kdbHVJlXSSyqix2urI3Tp%2Fi67esYl5RYLLpX%2FU4eI5gufA3RhEuW6Ivw%3D%3D

Florida Teacher Gets Fired Over CRT Ban, but Parents Still Concerned Over Textbooks

BY PATRICIA TOLSON
May 21, 2021 Updated: May 21, 2021

A Duval County teacher has been terminated from classroom instruction for refusing to remove a Black Lives Matter banner from the wall outside her classroom, violating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools.

A Duval County, Florida teacher Amy Donofrio was terminated from her position as a Language Arts teacher at Robert E. Lee High School for—as Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran described—having “an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter,” reported Action News Jax on May 17.

“The commissioner referred to censure, firing, and termination in his answer at Hillsdale College,” Cheryl Etters, Interim Director of Communications for the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), told The Epoch Times. “All are recommendations he makes to the Office of Professional Practices Services on an ongoing basis and are well within his power.”

The FDOE’s “Office of Professional Practices Services (PPS) investigates misconduct by educators who hold a Florida Educator Certificate or a valid application for a Florida Educator Certificate.”

“In referring to the Jacksonville case,” Etters clarified to The Epoch Times, “he used ‘terminate’ to indicate the decision to terminate the teacher from classroom instruction. This was done by the district, and the commissioner was in agreement. Obviously, the commissioner possesses significant authority to ensure every child has access to a world-class education free from indoctrination.”

Donofrio is suing (pdf) the Duval County Public School system and High School Regional Superintendent Scott Schneider, claiming her termination for not adhering to the principles outlined in Rule 6A-10.081 of Florida’s Administrative Code violated her right to free speech. She is demanding a jury trial.

According to the principles outlined in the rule, teachers “shall not intentionally expose a student to unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement,” and “shall not harass or discriminate against any student on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, marital status, handicapping condition, sexual orientation, or social and family background and shall make reasonable effort to assure that each student is protected from harassment or discrimination.”

“Governor DeSantis has made clear his position on CRT,” Executive Office of the Governor Press Secretary Christina Pushaw explained exclusively to The Epoch Times on Wednesday. “It is divisive, irrational, and has no place in our classrooms. CRT is rooted in Marxism, an anti-American ideology that has caused untold suffering and death everywhere it has been implemented. Moreover, CRT teaches discrimination based on ethnicity and racial background.”

“The governor has zero tolerance for state-sanctioned racism,” Pushaw emphasized, stressing that DeSantis adheres to the same principle expressed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in that he “believes that every child should learn to judge people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

“That’s why the governor has taken bold steps to make Florida the national leader in civics education,” Pushaw added. “The Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative that Governor DeSantis announced in March ensures that Florida’s curriculum will expressly exclude CRT.”

Using $106 million of the state’s portion of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund provided through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriation Act, the Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative is the governor’s proposal “to make Florida a national leader in civics education.”

Among other incentives, the program will reward Florida teachers who complete training and earn the Civics Seal of Excellence endorsement with a $3,000 bonus.

Florida Parents Share Their Thoughts

Textbooks containing CRT subject matter, coming soon to Florida’s classrooms, are raising concerns for parents.

“I’m a Florida resident with children in Florida public schools and I am in full support of Gov. DeSantis and his position on critical race theory,” Lisa Jeannine Smith of Navarre, Florida, told The Epoch Times. “We have a race crisis that has been created in the mind only by the mainstream media and few powerful, yet feckless leaders in our government who must create a crisis to fix, as one does not exist in present day.”

“I want my kids learning about math, science, language arts, history, and geography, among other things,” Hernando County, Florida resident and parent Jose David shared with The Epoch Times, “not about a leftist agenda.”

“I feel that it’s an important move for Gov. DeSantis to get involved in something that is critical for young people,” David explained. “They are easily influenced in schools and radical race theory, in essence teaches them that this country was founded on racism, that our whole system was based on racism, white supremacy, and all this nonsense. So, I feel it’s very important that he got involved.”

“It’s one thing to cover history or current events. But it’s another thing to praise a group like Black Lives Matter that, in my view, is doing absolutely nothing for the black community. So, when you sit there and vilify police officers to impressionable young kids, I just don’t think that’s good anywhere. I think it’s a good move for DeSantis to address this.”

Keith Flaugh, Managing Director of Florida Citizens Alliance (FCA), is pleased by the announcement by DeSantis that CRT will have no place in Florida’s public schools. However, he is concerned about the content of textbooks, which are soon to be adopted in Florida’s public school system.

“We’ve been huge supporters of a number of things DeSantis has done,” Flaugh told The Epoch Times. “We think he’s doing a great job on a lot of fronts, and we certainly applaud his words when he declares critical race theory as ‘whacko theory’ and being banned in Florida. The trouble is, those words have to mean something. Since we have every school district in Florida buying these English Language Arts textbooks right now—that will be in the classrooms for the next four to six years that are full of critical race theory—how does the governor maintain any credibility by saying he’s banned them when, in fact, critical race theory is rampant in the new textbooks they’re buying?”

“These textbook manufacturers are the same publishers that gave us Common Core and they are very progressive,” Flaugh asserted.

In February 2020, at the direction of DeSantis, the Department of Education released the proposed Florida B.E.S.T. (Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking) Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics (pdf), and announced that “Common Core has been officially eradicated from Florida classrooms.”

“So, what they’ve done is a halfway job of meeting those best standards. But they’ve infused into the English Language Arts curriculum and textbooks—that these school districts are buying—a really strong dose of critical race theory and all its tentacles. So, what they’ve ended up with is approved English Language Arts textbooks that are full of critical race theory and—as the governor puts it—‘other whacko theories.’”

When The Epoch Times asked Pushaw how the governor proposed to eliminate CRT from the classroom with textbooks laced with CRT, she said “the Florida Board of Education guides the implementation of policy around public K-12, community college and state college education in our state.”

“The Department of Education will release more detailed information about plans to ensure that Florida schools are not indoctrinating children with destructive ideologies like CRT,” Pushaw added, assuring The Epoch Times she will follow up “when those details become available in the next few weeks.”

What is Critical Race Theory?

According to Middle Tennessee University’s First Amendment Encyclopedia “Critical race theory is a movement that challenges the ability of conventional legal strategies to deliver social and economic justice and specifically calls for legal approaches that take into consideration race as a nexus of American life.”

However, according to Christopher F. Rufo—senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and founder and director of Battlefront, a public policy research center—CRT “is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism.”

“Critical race theorists have constructed their argument like a mousetrap,” Rufo explained in a March 2021 edition of Imprimis for Hillsdale University in a piece titled: “Critical Race Theory: What It Is and How to Fight It.”

“There are a series of euphemisms deployed by its supporters to describe critical race theory, including ‘equity,’ ‘social justice,’ ‘diversity and inclusion,’ and ‘culturally responsive teaching,’” Rufo explained.

“Diversity trainers will make an outrageous claim, such as ‘all whites are intrinsically oppressors’ or ‘white teachers are guilty of spirit murdering black children,’ and then when confronted with disagreement, they adopt a patronizing tone and explain that participants who feel ‘defensiveness’ or ‘anger’ are reacting out of guilt and shame.”

According to Rufo, critical race theorists are “masters of language construction,” who “realize that ‘neo-Marxism’ would be a hard sell. Equity, on the other hand, sounds non-threatening and is easily confused with the American principle of equality.”

“Our Constitutional Republic was founded on the concept of equality,” Flaugh noted to The Epoch Times. “But if you delve into the difference between how progressives use the words equity, versus equality, equity is ‘equal outcomes,’ not ‘equal opportunity".

[Mike]

That's an interesting article Gemma!

I live in Florida and I'm pleased as punch DeSantis is getting rid of CRT.

I don't think teachers should bring their personal politics into the classroom, obviously, and I agree that the banner needed to be taken down. But hanging a banner and teaching CRT are 2 different things. Was she still teaching CRT? I was just a little confused by the article.

[rgray222]

This is what happens when the cancel culture goes unchecked and runs its course. The fact that these ideologies are already being implemented in schools across America is beyond alarming.

Virginia mom who survived Maoist China eviscerates school board's critical race theory push

Xi Van Fleet said Cultural Revolution began when she was 6, pitted students against one another and their teachers

A Virginia mom who endured Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution before immigrating to the U.S. ripped a Virginia school board at a public meeting Tuesday over its stubborn support of the controversial critical race theory.

"I’ve been very alarmed by what’s going on in our schools," Xi Van Fleet told the Loudoun County School Board members. "You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history."

She likened CRT, which critics deride as a form of "neo-racism," to China’s Cultural Revolution, a Mao-led purge that left between 500,000 and 20 million people dead from 1966 to 1976. The estimates vary greatly and many details have been shrouded in secrecy for decades.

https://twitter.com/TVPUAC/status/1402698268597948423

Van Fleet, whose son graduated from Loudoun High School in 2015, shared some of her experience growing up in China’s Sichuan province with Fox News exclusively Wednesday evening.

The Cultural Revolution began when she was 6 years old, she said, and immediately pitted students and teachers and against one another by hanging "Big Posters" in hallways and the cafeteria where students could write criticisms against anyone deemed ideologically impure.

"One of the teachers was considered bourgeoisie because she liked to wear pretty clothes," Van Fleet said. "So the students attacked her and spit on her. She was covered with spit… and pretty soon it became violence."


To me, and to a lot of Chinese, it is heartbreaking that we escaped communism and now we experience communism here.
Communist squads would raid homes and destroy any relics of China’s past culture, history, governments or religion, she said.

"Everything that was considered ‘old,’ feudalist, a vase, Buddhas, everything was taken out and smashed," she said.

There were thought crimes, too.

"We were asked to report if we hear anything about someone saying anything showing that there's a lack of complete loyalty to Mao," she said. "There were people reporting their parents, and their parents ended up in jail."

At 26 years old, she said, she finally made it out, traveling to the U.S. – where she immediately found freedoms she had never been able to enjoy before.

"I felt like it’s such a free country, meaning I have free access to all sorts of information – books on both sides of the issues," she said.

In the current political and cultural climate in the U.S., however, she said she felt some of that freedom eroding.

"I can’t really just say what I mean, even though the other side can say whatever," she said. "To me, and to a lot of Chinese, it is heartbreaking that we escaped communism and now we experience communism here."

In her speech to the school board, which officials made her shorten to fit the one-minute limit, she drew direct parallels between what she saw back then in China and what she sees in the United States today.

"The Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people," she said. "The only difference is they used class instead of race."


I just want Americans to know that their privilege is to be here living in America, that is just the biggest privilege.
She said she witnessed students and teachers "turn against each other" during the pogrom and saw schools change their names "to be politically correct."

"We were taught to denounce our heritage, and Red Guards destroyed anything that is not communist…statues, books and anything else," she continued. "We were also encouraged to report on each other, just like the Student Equity Ambassador program and the bias reporting system."


"This is indeed the American version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution," she said. "The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our school."
Her speech came 246 years after fellow Virginian Patrick Henry declared "Give me liberty or give me death" during the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, 125 miles to the south of Loudoun.

"I just want Americans to know that their privilege is to be here living in America, that is just the biggest privilege," Van Fleet said over the phone Wednesday. "I do not think a lot of people understand. They are thinking they are doing the right thing, ‘be against racism’ sounds really good. But they are basically breaking the system that is against racism."


One of the teachers was considered bourgeoisie because she liked to wear pretty clothes. So the students attacked her and spit on her.

The Loudoun County school board has doubled down on its embrace of left-wing policies, including CRT, in recent months.

Illustrating Van Fleet’s point, a group of Loudoun County parents and teachers were accused of "racketeering" and intimidating conservative parents who raised questions about the radical proposals. Members of the "Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County" allegedly compiled a list of outspoken conservatives in their community in order to track, hack and "doxx" them – or even scare them into self-censorship, according to David Gordon, director of the Virginia Project, a Republican PAC.

Earlier this week, a judge ordered the district to reinstate suspended elementary school phys ed teacher Byron "Tanner" Cross after he was punished for speaking his mind during the public comment portion of a hearing on new transgender policies last month.

Cross declared that he wouldn't "affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it's against my religion. It's lying to a child, it's abuse to a child, and it's sinning against our God."

He was speaking out against a district policy proposal that would require teachers and other school staff to address "gender-expansive or transgender students" with their preferred name, pronouns and gender.

Ian Prior, the father of two students attending Loudoun schools, said Van Fleet’s remarks to the school board "should serve as a stark warning" Wednesday.

"I think for a while now, school systems have really put this stuff in the schools right under our very noses, and we just weren’t aware," he said. "When your kids go to school and you let them go through those doors, you’re trusting the school system to do the job that they’re’ supposed to do…And it took a pandemic and all the information that parents could see with this distance learning to understand exactly what was going on."

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-xi-van-fleet-critical-race-theory-china-cultural-revolution-loudoun

[Matthew]

46798
Source: actual tweet link (https://twitter.com/Tim_Hayward_/status/1403131747248771073)

[Tintin]

(I've downloaded the audio/video and will store it in the library somewhere sensible later.)

Many sound arguments made in the piece with the prevailing theme centering around compelled speech.

----------

Source: The FIRE (https://www.thefire.org/stop-talking-right-now-university-of-oklahoma-training-shows-instructors-how-to-censor-indoctrinate-students/?utm_source=Twitter)

By Daniel Burnett and Sabrina Conza
June 22, 2021

Do you question whether refusing to use preferred pronouns is hate speech? You can’t — writing on that topic is “not acceptable.”

Think Black Lives Matter shouldn’t engage in property destruction? We’ll have to “re-adjust” your thinking.

If you’re a student at the University of Oklahoma — congratulations! Your instructor may already have done all of the thinking for you. But beware: Deviating too far from an instructor’s personal opinions can cost you.

A recording of an “Anti-Racist Rhetoric & Pedagogies” workshop acquired by FIRE raises alarm bells about the state of free expression and freedom of conscience at Oklahoma’s flagship university.

The workshop in question trains instructors on how to eliminate disfavored but constitutionally protected expression from the classroom and guide assignments and discussion into preferred areas — all for unambiguously ideological and viewpoint-based reasons. FIRE’s concerns are further compounded by the University of Oklahoma’s brazen (https://www.thefire.org/university-of-oklahoma-censors-fracking-research-at-the-request-of-oil-company-ceo/) and unconstitutional track record (https://www.thefire.org/cases/university-of-oklahoma-mandatory-diversity-training-requires-compelled-speech/) of putting individual rights out to pasture.

GRnoaxnRp_Y

(We are also linking to the full video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Byxl61VDYp8) and providing timestamps of the sections we discuss. We encourage readers to watch the full workshop.)

The workshop
“Anti-Racist Rhetoric and Pedagogies” is one of nine professional development workshops (https://www.ou.edu/cas/fyc/instructors/workshops) for instructors and grad students at OU. Held on April 14, it featured three faculty presenters teaching instructors how to foster an anti-racist environment in their classrooms. But it’s not just racism the presenters encourage participants to root out.

One of the workshop leaders, Kelli Pyron Alvarez, explained in the recording how undergraduate students in one of her introductory English courses are “a little bit more emboldened to be racist” (17:17). To combat this, she forbids huge swaths of classroom speech, including “derogatory remarks, critiques, and hate speech,” as well as “white supremacist ideas or sources,” unless the student is using those sources to dismantle racism.

If you are wondering what sources or ideas are off limits because they fall into Pyron Alvarez’s subjective categories of white supremacist sources or “derogatory remarks” — well, she never specifies, so you should be.

Making a mistake can cost you: “If they use any of those things, if any of those come through in their writing or in their comments, I will call them out on it.” (18:20)

And if it happens again, “report them.”

Imagine being an OU student who is “reported,” presumably to the administration, simply for your choice of text to analyze or what sources you include in a bibliography.

Undergraduate students — the supposedly emboldened “racists” — in ENGL 1213 – Principles of English Composition (https://ou.edu/content/dam/outreachceap/cidl/documents/ENGL-1213-300_Syllabus.pdf), are apparently supposed to choose their own research topics, but the faculty conducting the training show the participants how they might lead students not only to topics the instructors find appropriate, but also to the side of the argument that the instructors prefer.

Fairly early in the training, Pyron Alvarez addresses the potential reluctance faculty members might have toward putting a heavy hand on student speech. “One of the fears is that we’re going to get in trouble for this, right?,” she says. “Like we can’t tell students that they can’t say something in class. But we can! And let me tell you how.” (17:45)

Pyron Alvarez’ fellow workshop leader Kasey Woody later goes into some detail on how instructors can “steer” students away from “problematic territory” to accomplish this. (46:01)

“I, in this case, usually look for my students who might be, like, entertaining the idea of listening to a problematic argument. Then I say, ‘we don’t have to listen to that.’” (45:45)

That’s right — even thinking about listening to a disfavored argument is apparently to be discouraged.

Woody later reassures the instructors that they won’t face consequences for censoring students: “You do not need to worry about repercussions at any degree in the university if you are responding to a student who is using problematic language in the classroom.” (49:42)

And who gives them the green light to censor OU students? According to Pyron Alvarez, that permission comes from the highest court in the country.

“The Supreme Court has actually upheld that hate speech, derogatory speech, any of the -isms do not apply in the classroom because they do not foster a productive learning environment. And so, as instructors we can tell our students: ‘no, you do not have the right to say that. Stop talking right now’, right?” (20:05)

Education versus indoctrination
To be sure, faculty members have expansive academic freedom rights, and FIRE spends a lot of time defending those rights (https://www.thefire.org/cases/st-johns-university-professor-accused-of-violating-bias-policy-for-asking-students-to-debate-global-trade/). They have wide latitude to manage the atmosphere and tone of the classroom. This may include inhibiting some student expression in class by directing classroom discussions, prompting students to write on topics of the instructor’s choosing, and preventing students from disrupting the class or talking out of turn. As my colleague Peter Bonilla explains:


"[S]tudents should be treated fairly and equitably by their professors. They shouldn’t expect that professors won’t sometimes disagree, even vociferously, with their beliefs, but they do have the right to expect that professors won’t punish students academically on that basis (which has happened (https://www.thefire.org/as-lawsuit-comes-to-close-sgt-christian-dejohn-is-left-stranded/)). Students don’t have the right to avoid demonstrating proficiency with concepts they disagree with, but they do have a right not to be compelled to hold specific political beliefs as a condition for receiving academic credit."(which has also happened (https://www.thefire.org/rhode-island-supreme-court-rules-former-grad-students-first-amendment-case-should-go-to-trial/)).

Professors cannot abuse their power to require students to personally adhere to a particular viewpoint or ideology. As the AAUP has written (https://www.aaup.org/report/freedom-classroom), instructors have academic freedom of “instruction, not indoctrination.” It can be hard to define precisely where this line falls, but there’s no question that a significant amount of this workshop teaches participants how to indoctrinate instead of how to instruct.

As FIRE’s Guide to First-Year Orientation and Thought Reform on Campus (https://www.thefire.org/research/publications/fire-guides/fires-guide-to-first-year-orientation-and-thought-reform-on-campus/fires-guide-to-first-year-orientation-and-thought-reform-on-campus-full-text/) explains:


"By limiting classroom discussion and silencing dissent, professors violate the rights of conscience of their students. The clear aim is not merely to advocate a point of view but to coerce, if necessary, their students into believing the professor’s or school’s version of truth. Such oppressive actions clearly cross the line between education and indoctrination."

The message being sent to the instructors and graduate students attending this workshop is not simply that they have academic freedom rights to direct discussion in the classroom and to prevent disruption. It is that a legitimate basis for exercising that control is to suppress viewpoints not shared by the instructor, under the guise of civility or the avoidance of ill-defined “hate speech.” Indeed, the workshop leaders conflate disagreement with disruption to such an extent that they call it a valid reason for reporting students for discipline.

‘You need to pick something else. You’re not doing that.’
Some of the responses from workshop participants indicated that they understood how what they were being told to do was out of the ordinary, and expressed reservations about it. One workshop participant asked whether instructors are doing a disservice to their students by censoring certain topics. The participant asked how to identify problematic arguments and whether, for example, a student should be able to examine if the Black Lives Matter movement should refrain from property damage. In response, Pyron Alvarez suggests telling students to “re-adjust” their topic if they’re “bordering” on being offensive. (53:05)

That’s not advice on what arguments might be effective — that’s “advice” on what arguments are politically acceptable.

Another participant asked what rights instructors are supposed to respect. (You will no doubt be shocked to hear that freedom of speech or conscience is not found in the workshop leaders’ answer.) Asked what they should do if, for example, a cisgender student wanted to examine arguments about the use of someone’s preferred pronouns, Woody focuses on “leading them” away from wanting to even debate the issue, because, she suggests, the stakes aren’t as high for a cisgender student. She advises instructors to sit the student down and “have a conversation — and be kind with the student about it — but help kind of lead them.” (57:30)

Pyron Alvarez has a distinctly different answer.

“I’m not so kind,” she responds. “If they’re writing and their goal is like ‘Oh, I should be able to use whatever pronouns I deem acceptable for this person despite how they identify,’ then they are invalidating that person’s humanity and their existence. And that’s not acceptable. So I flat out tell them that. This is what this is doing. You need to pick something else. You’re not doing that.”

Again, this is not education about argumentation. This is telling students what topics are “acceptable” to argue about. And this is supposed to be for a class that focuses on analyzing “effective argumentative discourse.”

Interestingly, Pyron Alvarez also noted that last semester, none of her students pushed back against her method of teaching. But in a classroom where “acceptable” opinions are delineated by an instructor’s personal beliefs — and the consequence for stepping beyond those bounds is being reported to the administration — it’s not really a surprise.

[Article continues (https://www.thefire.org/stop-talking-right-now-university-of-oklahoma-training-shows-instructors-how-to-censor-indoctrinate-students/?utm_source=Twitter)......]

[onawah]

Jailed Murderer Wins Public Office in D.C. Election with Five Inmate Candidates from Same Prison
JUNE 22, 2021
JUDICIAL WATCH

(Not sure if this is the right thread for the article. Maybe we need a new thread for "Most Cringeworthy News:. This would surely qualify.)

https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/jailed-murderer-wins-public-office-in-d-c-election-with-five-inmate-candidates-from-same-prison/?utm_source=deployer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=corruption+chronicles&utm_term=members&utm_content=20210623183557

https://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/JudicialWatch_Social_CorruptionChronicles-Prison_1200x627_1.1-768x401.jpg

"As the homicide rate hits a record high in Washington D.C. the city elects a convicted murderer to public office in a unique election featuring all inmate candidates. The freshly elected public official, Joel Caston, has been in prison 26 years and is currently incarcerated at the District of Columbia Jail. In 1996 Caston was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder for ambushing and killing a man in the city’s Anacostia neighborhood. Court records obtained by Judicial Watch indicate that a 2016 appeal was denied. In the document, Caston’s attorneys name the victim, which is not common practice today. Court records also reveal a “speed loader”—a device used to rapidly load ammunition into a firearm—was found by police under Caston’s mattress after the shooting. It contained six rounds of .44 caliber ammunition as well as additional rounds of ammo.

Now Caston is a commissioner on D.C.’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC), which advises the D.C. Council and other local government entities involving matters ranging from liquor license applications to public safety. Commissioners serve two-year terms and are elected in even-numbered years. The ANC was established to bring “government closer to the people, and to bring the people closer to government,” according to its website. Caston was chosen by voters to represent Ward 7, one of D.C.’s most crime-infested areas. It is represented by Councilman Vince Gray, an ex-D.C. mayor who was embroiled in a campaign finance scandal. The Ward 7 ANC seat has never been occupied and D.C. officials conducted an unprecedented election earlier this month to fill the post. All five candidates and the majority of voters they courted are incarcerated at the same prison with Caston, according to a local news report.

Last year the D.C. Council passed legislation allowing incarcerated convicted felons to vote. Besides D.C. only two states—Maine and Vermont—let imprisoned criminals cast ballots, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. After the measure was enacted in D.C., a group of commissioners and a nonprofit called Neighbors for Justice launched an effort to fill the empty ANC seat and pressure the local Department of Corrections to notify inmates they qualified to run for the post. Neighbors for Justice was founded in August 2020 by residents near the D.C. prison who want to support “neighbors at the jail during COVID and beyond.” The group offered all the felon candidates a forum to deliver their campaign message from their cell clad in orange prison uniforms. In the promotional campaign videos Caston is the only candidate who is not wearing the orange uniform. Instead, he appears in a white sweatshirt with a logo that reads “credible messenger.” In the short segment Caston says “my platform would be used to restore the dignity of incarcerated people that we would no longer be judged by our worst mistake and establish equality for both the male and the female population that has often been overlooked inside this space.”

Caston will be issued a laptop or tablet, an electronic mail account, and a workspace in the prison where he can dedicate eight hours a day to his duties as commissioner, the founder of Neighbors for Justice said in a local newspaper article. “It’s not just about a historic election, with a first-ever ANC commissioner who is incarcerated,” said Julie Johnson, the group’s founder. “It’s about giving a voice and visibility to a population that is unseen.” In the same story Caston says that he feels “presidential” after winning the election. On its website Neighbors for Justice congratulates Caston, writing that he will serve as the ward’s inaugural commissioner and confirming that the murderer received 48 of the 142 votes cast in the “historic election.” The note proudly announces that “all five candidates in this election are in residence at the DC jail.”

While they celebrate the election triumph of a convicted murderer, homicides in D.C. are on pace to shatter records. Last year the rate hit a 16-year high and in 2021 it is expected to be worse, according to Metropolitan Police Department data. The figures show homicides are already up 13% from last year. A few months ago, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared that gun violence is a public health crisis. Weeks later she clumped her city’s pervasive gun violence with the COVID-19 pandemic, saying this in a statement: “Many communities across the nation, including Washington, DC, continue to be burdened by two simultaneous public health emergencies. The first is the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit our Black and Latino communities the hardest. The second is the gun-related violence that continues to devastate many of those same communities. Even in 2020, when much of the country shut down for weeks at a time, deaths from gun violence reached historic levels.”

[rgray222]

The cancel culture can move at the speed of light if it does not suit their political agenda.

Liberals pounce on rumors that NFL player Carl Nassib is a pro-Trump Republican after he was praised for coming out as gay

Carl Nassib was praised widely in the mainstream media after he became the first openly gay NFL player active on a team's roster, but others pounced on rumors that he's a pro-Trump Republican to denounce him.

Preview Fearless with Jason Whitlock, talking about the biggest names in sports media. Colin Cowherd, Dan Le Batard, Jemele Hill, and more.
Nassib, who plays defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, revealed his sexual preference on Monday in an Instagram video.

While many LGBTQ supporters praised Nassib, others took to social media to excoriate him based on unsubstantiated rumors that he was a conservative Republican who supported former President Donald Trump.

https://twitter.com/BillyHoward423/status/1407373207309590534
"I'm proud of and support Carl Nassib for coming out….unless he's a Trump supporter then that is just problematic," tweeted one critic.
Nassib was registered to vote as a Republican in two states as late as 2019.

Some cited a photograph with Nassib and his friends, one of whom is wearing a pro-Trump shirt.

"Yep. Carl Nassib is a Trump supporting Republican. Should have surprised no one," another critic responded.

"Apparently Carl Nassib is a registered republican AND a trump supporter. I don't care if he's gay and proud. That administration was evil and he doesn't get a pass," said another detractor.

"What Carl Nassib did was great but apparently he is a Republican and huge trump fan which probably does just as much damage to gay people as anything else," read another tweet.

Others saw racism in the difference between how Nassib was received in comparison to Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team.

https://twitter.com/JosephWinfield/status/1407704816197849088

"[Michael Sam] Came out and was black listed from the NFL but Nassib comes out and ole boy is a hero? GTFOH. plus he's a trump supporter so im not gonna praise or support a white republican," read one tweet.

Despite some outcry against Nassib, his jersey became one of the top-selling NFL jersey at Fanatics, an official e-commerce partner to the NFL.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx64JPbWIKY

Source: https://www.theblaze.com/news/liberals-pounce-on-rumors-that-carl-nassib-is-a-pro-trump-republican-after-he-was-praised-for-coming-out-as-gay?fbclid=IwAR2g9PICi3tco6i1EbyhN05uZGxPuZfjgZWizw_rO7o7E-jfBSzJLH_I_cY#toggle-gdpr

[Kryztian]

When a Valedictorian Spoke of His Queer Identity, the Principal Cut Off His Speech
The principal also took away the valedictorian’s prepared remarks, so the student recited the speech from memory.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/27/nyregion/new-jersey-valedictorian-lgbtq-speech.html?smid=em-share

By Alyssa Lukpat
Published June 27, 2021Updated June 28, 2021, 1:16 p.m. ET

https://i.imgur.com/jpDu9kt.jpg

Less than a minute into Bryce Dershem’s valedictorian speech on June 17, the microphone cut out. He had just told the audience at his New Jersey high school’s graduation ceremony that he came out as queer in his freshman year.

When he made that revelation, the principal, Robert M. Tull, went to the back of the stage and appeared to unplug some cords, a video from the ceremony shows.

Suddenly, Mr. Dershem, 18, was silenced. Mr. Tull walked onstage and took the microphone from its stand.

When the principal took the microphone, he also took Mr. Dershem’s prepared remarks.

Mr. Tull pointed to another copy of the speech on the podium that did not have any references to sexuality or mental health.

A replacement microphone was brought to Mr. Dershem, but at that point, he said in an interview on Saturday, he was frozen. Then his classmates at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees Township, N.J., cheered for him to continue his speech.

“As it was happening, passion was surging through my veins that, yes, I need to give this speech,” he said, “because this is the exact kind of stigma that I want to fight against.”

Mr. Dershem knew every word of his own version of the speech, because he had been working on his remarks for a month.

“I tried my very best to give the speech from memory, and I was just a mess throughout the whole speech and I was just so vulnerable,” he said.

He spoke about how much he went through before he stood on the graduation stage.

“Beginning September of senior year, I spent six months in treatment for anorexia,” he said in the speech. “For so long, I tried to bend and break and shrink to society’s expectations.”

Mr. Dershem wanted to emphasize to students that their identities are valid, he said.


yxLwg9lsbqY
Bryce Dershem, Valedictorian Address


“From a formerly suicidal, formerly anorexic queer,” he said, he wanted the students to know that one person could save another person’s life.

When he arrived at the ceremony, Mr. Dershem wore a pride flag over his robe. A school administrator wanted him to take it off, but he refused. During the speech, Mr. Dershem suspected the principal was trying to pretend that there were technical difficulties.

Mr. Tull had read Mr. Dershem’s speech before the ceremony and wanted Mr. Dershem to deliver the version that the school administration had approved.
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The principal and Mr. Dershem had been debating the contents of the speech for weeks, Mr. Dershem said. The student sent the principal three drafts, he said, because Mr. Tull said his speech was not broad enough for his 500 fellow seniors.

Mr. Tull did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The high school is in Voorhees, a township of about 30,000 people, about 20 miles from Philadelphia.

Robert Cloutier, the superintendent of the Eastern Camden County Regional School District, said in a statement that the district had not asked any students to remove mentions of “their personal identity” from their speeches.
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The New York Times reviewed the high school’s live-streamed video of the ceremony. Mr. Dershem’s father reposted a clip of his son’s speech on YouTube.

Just days before the ceremony, Mr. Dershem said the principal gave him an ultimatum: He could revise his speech, or he would not be allowed to speak at all. He changed his speech but the principal still did not like it, the student said.

“I felt like I was faced with this choice where I could either honor all the belief systems and virtues that I cultivated,” Mr. Dershem said, “or I could just follow the administration.”

Mr. Dershem talked over the decision with his family and decided that he was going to give the speech he always wanted to.

When his speech was over, the audience gave him a standing ovation. A woman thanked him afterward.

“She told me her son hadn’t survived the pandemic due to mental health struggles and she started to cry,” he said. “I thought, This was the one person I made feel less alone. And I knew I did the right thing.”

Michael Dershem, the student’s father, said he could not believe the principal would turn off his son’s microphone, but he said he could not be more proud of his son for regaining his composure and continuing.

“I probably watched the speech I don’t know how many times since then,” Michael Dershem, 56, said. “I’m a pretty tough guy, but, you know, I break down every time I watch it.”

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said on Twitter on Saturday that he was proud of Mr. Dershem for “speaking truth to power, and for your resilience and courage.”

Mr. Dershem is getting ready to move to Massachusetts in the fall. He will be a student at Tufts University, where he plans to promote the rights of women and L.G.B.T.Q. people.

“I’m so happy to know that people are watching this speech,” he said. “I hope they believe in themselves more and feel less alone in their fight.”

[Gracy]

Dan Crenshaw calls for Gwen Berry to be removed from Olympic team (35seconds):

YFGL1pCn8CM

[Kryztian]

Hungary fines store $825 for 'misleading' customers over children's picture book with same-sex families
https://www.rt.com/news/528707-hungary-book-lgbt-fined/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

https://i.imgur.com/2ZH4Wo2.png

A bookstore was fined for selling a kid's picture book depicting LGBT families in Hungary. Officials argued that the store has failed to properly warn customers about the book's content.

The book – 'Micsoda csalad!' ('What A Family!') – is a Hungarian translation of two titles by US author Lawrence Schimel and Latvian illustrator Elina Braslina: 'Early One Morning', and 'Bedtime, Not Playtime!'. It features stories about the everyday life of young children of same-sex couples.

Pest county commissioner Richard Tarnai told Hir TV that bookstore chain Lira Konyv has been fined 250,000 forints ($825) for violating the country's advertising law by not displaying a warning about the content of the book. "They should have specifically indicated that the book's content deviated from the norm," Tarnai said.

Tarnai argued that the book was placed next to classic children's stories, which could mislead customers.

The Lira Konyv book chain said it found the fine "surprising" and is preparing a legal response. It added that a sign will be put in place warning customers that the store sells "books with different content than traditional ones."

The book's Hungarian distributor, the Foundation for Rainbow Families, released a statement saying that the book depicts "completely normal, ordinary families," and that the sexuality of parents is not the focus of the story.

"These families haven't had their own story book so far. That's why we thought it was important to publish a fairytale book about them – and first of all for them," the distributor said.

Schimel accused the Hungarian government of "trying to normalize hate & prejudice with these concerted attacks against books like mine." He told The Guardian newspaper that he wanted to celebrate queer families, but claimed that the fact that children in his books have same-sex parents is "incidental to the story."

Hungary, which is ruled by a conservative government, passed a law last month banning LGBT content from the school curriculum and children's TV shows.

The legislation was sharply criticized by EU officials. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said that the law discriminates against LGBT people and goes against the key values of the EU. She threatened Budapest with repercussions unless the law is changed.

Hungary has rebuffed the attacks from the EU. "Brussels can't tell people how they should raise their children," the Hungarian prime minister's Chief of Staff Gergely Gulyas said on Wednesday, adding that the law is aimed at protecting minors.

[rgray222]

Bill Maher Calls The Cancel Culture an Insanity


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anUlV6umjqM

[Jim_Duyer]

Lesbians are being cancelled, at least on reddit they are anyway. Benjamin Boyce hosts (forgot her name), a former moderator on a reddit forum called True Lesbians, which was a forum exclusively for biological women who are into other biological women. They were accused of being an intolerant hate group by some subgroup of the lgbqt etc, and subsequently shut down. I've only skimmed the video, but apparently since the group was not interested in men who identify as women and still have dicks (trans women), they were being discriminatory and bigoted and therefore had to go.

I've been saying for a long time now that it was just a matter of time before the lgbqt etc community began eating itself. If you're playing victim olympics among groups of allegedly oppressed people who keep endlessly dividing themselves into further oppressed subgroups, those subgroups will eventually view the groups before them as their "oppressors". So, the more groups you create, the more division you sew.

5pjeZXfz_DA

We have a saying down here in Spanish that translates roughly as "there's no hair on your tongue", and it signifies a person that says what they feel; truthfully, straight out, not behind your back, and without much of a filter either. I salute you for your honesty and intelligence.