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.
I think that person three in from the left in row four is ‘Minnow’.
If they get they ever overthrow the current capitalist/patriarchy system and have a role in implementing the “revolution” they want, they’ll soon find out that they’ll be the Trotsky and Bukharin to a Stalin and Beria. They are useful idiots for those will eventually take real power, know what real violence is and how to use it.
Correct. If they ever get the revolution they long for their Islamist comrades (as the soldiers of their revolution) will slaughter their feminist/LGBT activist arses even before the white Christian men.
Funny thing is as self loathing middle class whiteys themselves they will blame themselves and excuse their killers to the bitter end
I just watched that again and- whew….. it’s like being bukkake’d with stupidity, prejudice, self-righteousness and ignorance (please forgive my infelicitous turn of phrase).
What must it be like to live in the kind of intellectual and moral straitjacket that these eejits impose upon themselves? No joy. Nothing funny. No poetry. Everything you experience filtered through a fine sieve, where any and every human experience is politicised. It must be like being Amish, only without the barn-raising. To live like that is to be permanently affronted, every minute of every waking hour. And human life really isn’t like that.
That’s scary- to think that that sort of collective cretinism (or maybe cretinous collectivism?) took place on a university campus…. but then, as Alan Sokal has shown us, to enter into some areas of academic life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been to fall down the rabbit hole.
The horror…. the horror….
It must be like being Amish, only without the barn-raising.
It’s the new definition of radical. A person for whom almost everything is beyond the pale.
Intersectionality is the ultimate rabbit hole. Truth is sacrificed on the twin identities of gender and race. Original sin is recast as privilege. Racism and sexism are like god omnipresent yet unseen due to aforementioned privilege.
The ubiquitous and unseen nature of racism, sexism and privilege means we need our priestly betters to police our thoughts.
The only escape is to acquiesce to their demands and repent for our original sin.
The horror indeed
>It’s the new definition of radical. A person for whom almost everything is beyond the pale.
Except violence.
A Leftist Mob in action.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/13/ukip-mep-gerard-batten-home-attacked
“They are all individuals.”
Brings to mind……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QereR0CViMY
I’m quite certain that is what David was referencing.
Thanks for posting it though.
Hey David, speaking of skin colour, of course everything must be beyond the pale
Please let’s bring back the draft to straighten if only to straighten these self-absorbed snowflakes out. Although with what the JEF is doing to the military, special snowflakes may get special dispensation.
I see some chiiluns need an a$$ whuppin.
I didn’t like this movie. The camera work is shaky (I realize the film maker may have been trying to mimic the discordance of anarchism in a kind of meta-performative, but I think it comes across as grossly contrived), the dialogue is so hackneyed as to be laughable, and the acting comes across as forced and mannered, with amateurish emphasis put on the first “fuck.” It’s almost like this is a student film and not the work of Jennifer Siebel.
Going to have to give it 2 thumbs down.
Somebody get these women a copy of The World According to Garp. Point them to the chapters on the Ellen Jamesians. Tell them it’s a manual.
We ask that people be respectful at the conference.
Interesting that they even have to ask this. I thought they were better than us.
Point them to the chapters on the Ellen Jamesians. Tell them it’s a manual.
You’re firm, Jeff, but fair.
Interesting that they even have to ask this.
Quite. As so often there’s a mismatch between the lofty rhetoric and those nasty little egos. It reminded me of another gathering of ‘anarchists’, which, with remarkable ease, went from ostentatious compassion and “children welcome” to balaclavas and window smashing. Because you can’t create a more “caring, ecological and egalitarian society” without smashing glass onto terrified Starbucks customers.
Why, it’s almost as if the ideology attracts dysfunctional people.
Another video to watch…
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/14/VIDEO-UKIP-rally-footage-and-protests
Fascists: Known for violence. Everything inside the state, nothing outside the state.
UKip: Peaceful, smaller state.
So-called “anti-fascists”: violent disruption of meeting calling for smaller state..
“Professionally indignant” and “inclined to Maoist psychodrama” always looks good on a CV.
I’ll say it again: Leftism + identity politics = employer repellent.
I’ll say it again: Leftism + identity politics = employer repellent.
Well, I can’t help wondering how many of those pre-emptively shouting down dissent are also taking degree courses that flatter such behaviour and are economically and vocationally useless. Indeed, the courses most conducive to that kind of psychology may well have negative value, insofar as many employers will regard them not as a credential, even a comedy credential, but as a warning.
And after months or years of being avoided by employers and left heavily in debt, these unhappy beings will have to devise an explanation for their predicament. Will it be the patriarchy, “white privilege” and the evils of capitalism? Or will a more realistic appraisal begin to dawn on them? Will it occur to them, any of them, that maybe they’ve been had by the peddlers of the Kool-Aid they so willingly imbibed?
Given what we’ve seen so far, I don’t hold out much hope.
Don’t be downcast, David. Have a look at this article:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/14/british-universities-need-black-studies
Note in the particular the use of “must” in the sub-headline – a clear warning that one is about to be hectored.
And then have a look at how it’s comprehensively rubbished in the comments.
And then have a drinkie on me. [Hits tip jar]
“It must be like being Amish, only without the barn-raising”
Except the Amish don’t want impose their beliefs on everybody else. In fact, they just seem to want to be left in peace to get on with it.
Richard,
I was just reading that gem over at Tim Worstall’s gaff. Clearly, we need more people who are, as it were, professionally black. Especially those who’d rather study the Notting Hill carnival than actually, you know, be employable.
[ Heads towards Majestic Wine Warehouse dragging tip jar behind. ]
Steve’s first comment on that Tim Worstall thread is an absolute classic, containing such gems as:
and:
Good stuff!
“Leave science and law and accountancy and medicine to the white and asian kids! I have a special ghetto degree just for you. You can thank me later!”
This is actually an incredibly important point.
There is no denying that black (and to a lesser extent) Muslim communities suffer from economic inequality and higher rates of crime/incarceration.
Currently the majority of the mainstream assume inequality of outcome is hard evidence of white privilege and the omnipresence and eternal nature of uniquely bigoted white Western populations.
It seems to me that a more likely explanation for inequality (more feasible than law defying ubiquitous, unseen, subconscious, systemic oppression) is that the belief that as a “Person Of Colour” the world hates you, the system is stacked against you and that anger/hostility is understandable and violent crime an empowering necessity of survival rather than a morally abhorrent choice.
Surely anyone who truly believes they are eternal victims of a world which hates them, and oppresses them for something as arbitrary and permanent as their skin pigmentation, is far more likely to be an angry, hostile person who is less employable and more prone to the seductive glamour/respect and profits of violent criminality?
If my heretical hypothesis is correct it is insult to injury that so many members of disadvantaged groups who pursue education end up doing so by studying the most dogmatic, least scientific and economically useless fields of grievance studies.
The whole thing is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Racism is omnipotent, omnipresent and unseen.
The majority of People Of Colour who work within the system to educate and better themselves, still find themselves on the wrong side of economic inequality due to their lack of marketable qualifications. Thus we come full circle, proving the widely held belief (the same one taught in grievance studies courses)
That racism is omnipotent, omnipresent and unseen!
God I hate having to use code. I put [bold tags] around the original quote but for some reason it emboldened my whole post. Why no edit option?
I put [bold tags] around the original quote but for some reason it emboldened my whole post.
[Muttering] Fag burns in the upholstery, bloody tags left open, bold spilled everywhere… [/Muttering.]
Why no edit option?
Yeah, the preview button does help . . .
Freshverbal,
Why no edit option?
Apparently some browser settings can render the preview button invisible. Is Javascript enabled?
I’m using a Nokia phone. Its all a bit clunky.
PS: So it seems I did something wrong (tags left open?)
This is why I hate code, I need a bleeding tutorial
PPS: For some unfathomable reason Java and Flash are not supported on this Nokia model. Its a smart phone but not that clever or advanced
In HTML, anything one switches on with
< insert HTML switch here >
one switches off with
< /insert HTML switch here >
—note the near initial / that goes just after the <---and in all cases, one trusts the results as far as one can throw them, and uses the preview button just to check---and only then post.
Thank you very much indeed. I knew I needed a tutorial. Is HTML common knowledge or are you displaying your “IT privilege”?
Thank you for your help but please bare in mind I only needed it because of the structural discrimination us ‘People Of Limited Technological Know How’ suffer
Well, that was educational.