A Collision of Intellectuals
Or, When Anarchists Gather. Or, Tremble, Ye Patriarchs.
Further to the shocking news that narcissists are distressed by public contradiction and the apparently fashionable claim that “debate is violence,” Bart steers us to footage from Portland State University’s 5th Annual Law and Disorder Conference, a gathering of self-styled anarchists, feminists, anti-capitalists and other radical titans. And which, it turns out, was a little disorderly.
“You shouldn’t be given the space to speak.”
They are all individuals.
The overall effect is quite funny, albeit unintentionally. “We see it, we are feeling it, it is happening.” It’s sort of ‘Borg hive mind meets amateur dramatics.’
It’s sort of ‘Borg hive mind meets amateur dramatics.’
Big F-bomb woman should definitely be in an off-Broadway production.
Do they allocate seat numbers at these shingdings?
You know it’s been a good discussion when no one gets to say anything and the police have to be called.
Katherine Timpf has some background on this:
As rjmadden says, a good discussion.
Those are the homeliest bunch of rejects I’ve ever seen. I’d call them dogs, but dogs are supposed to be man’s best friend.
You know it’s been a good discussion when no one gets to say anything and the police have to be called.
Well, it’s interesting to note that for many people the most likely place to encounter openly totalitarian, almost Maoist psychology is at a university. And the more “liberal” and “progressive” one’s fellow students claim to be, the more likely that encounter is.
If they won’t be silenced, I’ll have to exercise my right not to listen.
Not an employable being in the entire room.
Did someone stick “Kick Me” stickers on the backs of some of the ‘delegates’?
If so, well done that man.
Not an employable being in the entire room.
I blame the Patriarchy. Or capitalism. Or the pigs.
Not an employable being in the entire room.
“Professionally indignant” and “inclined to Maoist psychodrama” always looks good on a CV.
Also, dating sites.
2 year olds. Spoiled, incoherent 2 year olds.
I’m not sure I understand the situation. Is this a panel of intersectional ideologues being silenced by an audience of intersectional ideologues?
It’s like a dog chasing it’s tail but instead of wearing a dopey canine expression it is doing a bad impression of a overzealous Occupy participant.
If the panel are faculty who indoctrinate students in intersectional ideology and this is them being silenced by their own indoctrinated students I think I might have a celebratory glass of whisky.
Schadenfreude FTW
Spoiled, incoherent 2 year olds.
It’s the passive-aggressive dynamic of an overindulged child.
A telling moment is when the moderator says, “It’s a shame you’re using [these] tactics to silence [us]…” and the Borglings instantly get louder and more emphatic, determined to drown her out. The hefty theatrical woman near the front – Ms Amateur Dramatics – gets particularly miffed: “You do not get to set the discourse and the framework of what is violence.” Swollen with the thrill of mob power, these mighty intellectuals will redefine words, beg the question and of course flatter themselves.
Such is their modesty, they will unilaterally decide who gets to speak and which opinions are permitted. And when challenged on their presumption to speak for all “survivors” of assault, they suddenly claim only to be speaking, or rather shouting, for themselves. Which seems a tad disingenuous. At which point, another Borgling says, “Fuck you for trying to silence us.” As so often, the projection is quite bold. And you do have to wonder just how dishonest their role-play can get before it becomes embarrassing even for them.
I must say that the sight of these Leftist retards at the front of the room being shouted down by the Leftist retards at the back of the room leaves me feeling all warm inside. Its irritating when they do it to a conservative speaker, but when they do it to themselves its marvelous!
Its like a circular firing squad of Lefties with a Leftie tied to the post in the middle. They have discovered a way that they can -all- lose, and all I have to do is sit back and eat popcorn. Yay!
I’m seeing a lot of parallels between the rhetoric used by this current wave of radical leftist feminist types about sexual assault survivors (as illustrated by our indignant video anarchists), and the Satanic Ritual Abuse moral panic that swept through the USA in the 1980s.
Many of the talking points and worldview seem eerily similar:
From a message about the incident on the conference’s Facebook page … of a conference promoting Law and Disorder.
We ask that people be respectful at the conference.
The second biggest laugh I’ve had all day. The biggest laugh all day goes to David:
It’s sort of ‘Borg hive mind meets amateur dramatics.
Also, regarding this:
Spoiled, incoherent 2 year olds.
The poster for the event is remarkably prophetic, showing as it does large simplistic heads with doe eyes on tiny bodies.
Not quite two-year old’s but children nevertheless.
Nikw211,
But it is amateur dramatics, albeit with Maoist overtones. The chunky woman near the front of the audience is definitely acting. It’s not politics; it’s role-play for the terminally unemployable.
We’re talking about arrested adolescents in a cossetting PC environment who invoke “the Patriarchy” and “the prison-industrial complex” in an unironic way. The pretension of intellectualism, such as it is, is basically a pretext for some delinquent narcissism. It’s an excuse to assert power over others and feel important. To assume that the intolerance and acting out is somehow being provoked – or ultimately about concern for anyone else – is to miss the point. It’s all about them. It’s a way for obnoxious little shits to behave like that.
David,
But it is amateur dramatics … It’s not politics
Oh I more than agree … they are clearly having themselves a swell day out.
I imagine family picnics with the Sturmabteilung in the 1930s must have involved a not dissimilar amount of theatrical bravado … certainly I bet there was as much chanting.
…the terminally unemployable
They may just find themselves a job somewhere, though – something with a community focus such as a youth worker or a high school teacher. God, can you imagine?
they are clearly having themselves a swell day out.
To me, it’s essentially the same dynamic as when self-styled ‘anarchists’ vandalise a branch of Tesco and then run away, while claiming some kind of victory over something or other. Their political noises are generally dishonest, incoherent and absurd, and are ultimately beside the point. The balaclava-wearing delinquents aren’t actually expecting to bring about political change. They’re doing it because they enjoy it. It’s exciting and makes them feel dangerous.
And I’m sure there’s a word for people like that.
http://www.kristianwilliams.com/2014/05/03/speaking-in-portland-may-10/
“Saturday, May 10, at 11:30am, I’ll be speaking at the Law and Disorder Conference at Portland State University. I’ll be speaking alongside Jenny Esquivel of Sacramento Prisoner Support and scott crow (one of the founders of Common Ground Relief in New Orleans).
We’ll be talking about informers, infiltrators, and provocateurs.”
There goes another irony meter.
Apparently it was Williams suggestion that those accused of sexual crimes deserved the same presumption of innocence and due process as everyone else that upset the poor dears.
This lot are highly employable. Any number of universities would happily employ them to run a safe space or diversity course.
Jezebel and the Guardian make a habit out of employing university educated intersectional twits like this lot.
Don’t be surprised if in a few years from now some of these potatoes are to be found on Newsnight Review with Tom Paulin and Laurie Penny or regurgitating buzz words like “diversity” & “equality” to wild applause on Question Time
PS:This blog is fantastic not only because of the excellent and witty bitch slapping of social justice warriors but also because it is intelligent below the line.
Unlike Taki or the Speccie’s below the line commentary which always seems to descend into the kind of talk that makes Nick Griffin look like a member of the Rainbow Circle.
I enjoy reading Douglas Murray but find the “kill all the Muzzies” comments BTL a tad off putting. Jim Goad can be great too but below Jim’s work there is inevitably a sewer of racial animosity and verbal gay bashing.
PS: This blog is fantastic…
Someone fetch that chap a drink. No, the good stuff.
“They’re doing it because they enjoy it.”
People do not become terrorists or thuggish kommissars in spite of a deep aversion to violence and cruelty; they do so because they enjoy it.
People do not become terrorists or thuggish kommissars in spite of a deep aversion to violence and cruelty;
But presumably we’re supposed to believe that the people drawn so strongly to such things just happened to arrive at ways to ‘protest’ or make a point that just happen to give enormous license to anyone with sadistic, coercive or sociopathic urges. Because, you know, behaving as if one were an obnoxious and belligerent tit is purely coincidental.
They are such parodies of themselves, I kept waiting for Big F Bomb woman to turn to the camera and scream “Live From New York, It’s Saturday Night!”
And I’m sure there’s a word for people like that.
These days, they’re called hipsters.
And you do have to wonder just how dishonest their role-play can get before it becomes embarrassing even for them.
Embarrassment occurs only in the presence (real or imagined) of a particular audience whose opinion you value. If their preferred audience does not value honesty vs. role-play, embarrassment could happen only if they failed to behave like entitled little pukes.
I sometimes doubt the existence of hell. I see that it exists in a conference room at Portland State. I stand corrected.
Unemployable?? No, these are the Assistant Deputy Chief Diversity Strategic Outreach Officers of the future, I’m afraid. Sadly, they are all too employable at public expense. Laugh then weep…
Williams’s controversial writing, “The Politics of Denunciation,” states that factions of feminism have made questions about sexual assault “off limits” because it has become widely accepted that the answer is always “whatever the survivor says it is.”
So the moment he accidentally says something truthful and sensible he’s basically shouted down by people accusing him of silencing them.
Glad that’s all clear.
In case you were unaware, there are a lot of useless twits in Portland. The TV show is remarkably realistic.
Ohhh, I would have loved to read for the f-lady part. The original f-lady part, not the roles of the Mechanicals who all descend into random f-bomb background chatter.
I just read this stuff about Cult Characteristics and it’s taken on a horrible new meaning: http://www.prem-rawat-talk.org/forum/uploads/CultCharacteristics.htm
This one stood out: “The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.”
This business of ostentatious self-flagellation is comical and pathetic and often distressing (if one is forced to watch it) but it is also a technique that cult leaders use to gain control over the adepts.
These sorry folks are driven mad by the thought that they might Be Racist or Be The Oppressor, even inadvertently, and so they undertake obsessive rituals to cleanse themselves, chief among them being public confession of sin. Secondarily, they accuse someone else of uncleanliness — the more difficult to detect the better — thus absolving themselves of any sin that might remain hidden.
Among the cult leaders this is done to establish one’s credentials as The Good People Who Are Worthy To Rule; among the sheeple it’s to avoid the wrath of the leaders, who would expel them from The Worthy at the least sign of unworthiness. Here’s more:
All they need are the matching robes, incense, and sitar music.
They have a religious garb of sorts. White female SJWs dye their hair red and wear vintage cats eye glasses. White male SJWs wear Cat Weasel facial hair, trance hippy clobber and wooden earings.
The hallowed people of colour as the priestly class are free to wear what they choose. The superior vibrancy of their beautiful, rich brown chakras and the nobility of the oppressed soul is more than enough to set them apart from the troglodytes
Rik from The Young Ones sums up their meaningless lives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L3NsQPp-Ok
Wearing a Keffiyeh also marks one out as one of the faithful. Queers for Palestine and all that self destructive solidarity
Just re-watched the video.
4 pairs of vintage cats eye glasses. Check!
3 Keffiyehs. Check!
3 Cat Weasel beards. Check!
1 pair of wooden earrings. Check!
Dodgy trance hippy clobber galore
“You know it’s been a good discussion when no one gets to say anything and the police have to be called.”
Sadly, my interminable workplace meetings never go like that… 🙁
So, basically, it’s like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onntXB7qRts
4 pairs of vintage cats eye glasses. Check! 3 Keffiyehs. Check! 3 Cat Weasel beards. Check! 1 pair of wooden earrings. Check!
Heh. An eye for fashion detail.
To assume that the intolerance and acting out is somehow being provoked – or ultimately about concern for anyone else – is to miss the point. It’s all about them. It’s a way for obnoxious little shits to behave like that.
That, big, in every university.
Bad social justice warrior hipster fashion yes.
When they are not silencing dissent and demonizing white men on university campuses they can be found in my neck of the woods banging djembe like the Duracell bunny or strumming an acoustic guitar in a bad imitation of Redemption Song.
As a white male music lover with a passion for the sartorial they offend me on every single level of my being.
That, big, in every university.
Well, it’s quite funny reading some of the exchanges with the protestors on various Facebook pages, none of which achieve much. There’s too much question-begging and unshiftable narcissism, with needy, pampered idiots calling themselves “radicals” and “political prisoners.” Even the meanings of basic words are inverted. But that’s the thing about this kind of cultivated grievance – it’s like squid ink and makes realism all but impossible. For the am-dram Borglings it’s not about coherence or moral plausibility; it’s about whose Rules Of Pretending™ get to prevail. And arguing with people who are arguing in bad faith won’t get you very far. There’s practically nothing to be gained from interacting with such people, unless you’ve the patience to highlight for onlookers what it is they’re doing.
they can be found in my neck of the woods banging djembe like the Duracell bunny
Oh dear, that can’t be good. Have you tried throwing things – rocks, furniture, barrels of burning pitch?
The best that can be done to repel the crusty social justice virus is play good music, wear good garms and call them out on their dogmatic world view whenever one gets the chance.
Unfortunately the zeitgeist has shifted in their favour and arguing with social justice warriors and the claims to oppression of the hallowed People Of Colour rarely wins much support and only seems to embolden the SJW with righteous indignation
@ Jon Powers: ‘They are such parodies of themselves, I kept waiting for Big F Bomb woman to turn to the camera and scream “Live From New York, It’s Saturday Night!”‘.
You owe me a keyboard…..
@ David T: keep it up. This stuff is beyond funny.
Makes you wonder where the little fascists get their ideas.
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/17444/
Oh wait.
Makes you wonder where the little fascists get their ideas.
As noted previously, many, many times, the mob mentality has more than a few supporters – and active participants – among faculty. And apparently there are educators – grown men and women – who believe their time is well spent stealing and destroying insufficiently leftwing student newspapers.