Elsewhere (159)
Kevin D Williamson on the strange fictions of Hillary Clinton:
Herself, who speaks in clichés and who gives some indication that she thinks in them, too, says that she is in the van — “Road trip!” she tweeted — because she is “hitting the road to earn your vote.” The Clintons — not too long ago “dead broke,” as Herself put it — have earned more than $100 million since the president left office… That’s armoured-car money, and an armoured car is of course what Herself is riding around in… There is something ineffably Clintonesque in that: She declined the use of the customary limousine because she wanted to appear to share the lives and troubles of the ordinary people, so she rides around in a customized armoured van, having spent a great deal of money — starting prices for such vehicles are comparable to those of Porsches — to avoid the appearance that she has a great deal of money.
Heather Mac Donald on crime, race and shooting:
Blacks make up over half of all homicide perpetrators [in the US]; in 2013, they were 42 percent of all cop-killers, despite being merely 12 percent of the population. From 1980 to 1998, young black males murdered police officers at almost six times the rate of young white males. According to Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University, police officers are less likely to kill a black suspect who threatens or attacks them than they are to kill a white suspect who threatens or attacks them… A 2007 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that police officers were no more likely to shoot unarmed black men than unarmed white men in video simulations of encounters with armed and unarmed suspects. A 2014 simulation study from Washington State University found that officers waited longer to assess the situation when confronted with black suspects than they did with white suspects.
And via Dr Cromarty, James Bartholomew on signalling one’s virtue:
It’s noticeable how often virtue signalling consists of saying you hate things. It is camouflage. The emphasis on hate distracts from the fact you are really saying how good you are. If you were frank and said, ‘I care about the environment more than most people do’ or ‘I care about the poor more than others,’ your vanity and self-aggrandisement would be obvious. Anger and outrage disguise your boastfulness.
Which may help explain why some signallers of piety make a point of telling us how they “long for the pure, uncomplicated political anger” felt by their younger selves. An odd thing to long for, given the possibilities. Our old friend Laurie Penny is forever romanticising anger and saying, with a hint of pride, that she’s written something that’s “angry,” as if anger were the important thing, the marker of status, as opposed to, say, being coherent or truthful. “It’s getting harder to stay angry,” wrote Laurie, in one of many posts about her fascinating self. “That terrifies me more than anything.” One of Ms Penny’s fans subsequently asked, “Why do you feel it important to be angry all the time?” Sadly, no answer was forthcoming. But it’s interesting to reverse the sequence of ideas. After all, pretending to be angry makes some people feel important all the time. And if anger is hard to muster, there’s always everyday obnoxiousness. That can be a credential too.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
Also, the mild-mannered Christina Hoff Sommers has caused feminists to feel “triggered” and “unsafe”.
It’s important to feel angry all the time because self-righteous indignation is an addictive drug.
self-righteous indignation is an addictive drug
Well, some people seem to feel obliged to display passionate disapproval of certain things, and thereby signal their virtue, regardless of how random and incongruous the outburst may be. I remember one impromptu social gathering where someone I’d only just met suddenly, apropos of nothing, began a lengthy and emphatic monologue on “right wingers” and their inherent wickedness. This baffling lecture went on for some time, escalating in vehemence, and the speaker simply presumed the entire room’s agreement. It wasn’t an invitation to discussion; it was very much a monologue, a display. By the time a rhetorical climax had been reached, triumphantly, it seemed impolite even to hint at disagreement. There was then an awkward pause as the rest of us tried to remember what the hell we’d been talking about.
… a six-year-old boy name Marcus Johnson was killed a few miles away in a St. Louis park, the victim of a stray bullet fired in a dispute. There were no mass protests over his killing; Al Sharpton did not call for a Justice Department investigation. Few people outside St. Louis even know the boy’s name.
That.
I get these at my libary book club. Some one will start a rant against gun owners or PM Harper or how hard women have always had it and expect everyone to agree.
Another easy virtue is to like things on facebook instead of actually doing something to help the poor.
Excuse my French, but what the actual fuck is up with this?
Inspirational messages for “straight white men” from the Assn of Writers & Writing Programs
Excuse my French, but what the actual fuck is up with this?
They’re showing us their inner loveliness. And if memory serves, the publishing industry is now overwhelmingly staffed by women. This one made me smile, though. I think she means fewer. Unless she missed out a comma and is ordering straight white men to do less reading.
Facebook is full of specious knee-jerk rubbish emanating mostly (but not entirely) from the Left.
It’s a bit like trying to sit down and enjoy a coffee, or maybe a pint, with a casual but nevertheless likeable acquaintance only to find oneself constantly disturbed by a never-ending string of slightly disturbed, incoherent and shouty individuals, each and every one of whom is banging an upturned dustbin lid with a pickaxe handle.
On moral positioning: Brendan O’Neill at Spiked notices a marked difference at how angry people got at the drowning of 400 migrants, and how angry they got at Katie Hopkins writing a nasty column about them:
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/hopkins-hate-and-the-inhumanity-of-political-correctness/16886
“A 2014 simulation study from Washington State University found that officers waited longer to assess the situation when confronted with black suspects than they did with white suspects.”
Probably less “assessing the situation” than second guessing every possible action.
Curious how people who can get angry at the small, trivial and even inconsequential things can grow very angry at social media outpourings. There must be something in a tweet, like a flavouring or a hidden E-number chemical, that prompts an increase in the ferocity of those venting their spleen.
That was an enlightening read about your creative haters.
I got accused of non-sexual harassment last year when I made a female employee break down in tears at work. They were going to throw the book at this poor old straight white man too! The HR hags were talking about suspension without pay, sensitivity training, and possible anger management courses before I would be allowed to return to work. I still remember the sanctimonious old HR cankle blossom lecturing me over the phone and the relief I felt when I hung up in her ear.
I phoned up the CEO, and told him that I lost my patience with the lady when I found out she couldn’t handle basic numeracy and had couldn’t properly add the charges required for customer estimates. Then I listed 6 key account customers that were threatening to pull their business if we (as a company) didn’t learn to read as well as add. It turns out our hapless girl didn’t understand basic shipping instructions, dea. dlines and other unsavoury minute details that only creepy old white guys obsess over. Finally, I told the CEO to call off the HR harridans or I would quit – and NO, I wouldn’t be taking any anger management or sensitivity courses either.
In the real world, sometimes the good guys DO win. Fact is that if you AREN’T offending loud, stupid domineering women – you’re probably doing something wrong.
Male ‘privilege’…
http://i.imgur.com/RlZYyuj.png
Facebook is full of specious knee-jerk rubbish emanating mostly (but not entirely) from the Left.
I’ve an old classmate on Facebook who has taken on the full SWP/CND/Free Palestine package of left wing views since our school days.
His relentless Trotsky quotes and Guardian shares are tolerated simply for the unintentionally hilarious posts, such as the one where he confessed that he almost burst out crying when his son picked up a water pistol. Water pistols, apparently, glorify war.
“…taken on the full SWP/CND/Free Palestine package of left wing views… relentless Trotsky quotes and Guardian shares…”
And Chomsky. And Pilger.
And Chomsky. And Pilger.
But never Thomas Sowell, Roger Scruton or Theodore Dalrymple. Perhaps it’s people of more conservative views who don’t want to ‘ram them down your throat’ (ironically, something lefties accuse others of, esp over religion).
Chomsky and Pilger are treated almost like Holy Writ by their acolytes.
re Joan’s “male privilege” link, my nursing-background-corporate-mid-level-manager sister-in-law was once pointing out the disadvantages of women (usually she’s more pro-woman than anti-men so usually I let it pass) when I suggested to her to sit outside her hospital’s prosthetic services office and count how many men patients come out vs. how many women patients. That ended that.
Oh, and yay Glenfilthie. Good on ya. I’ve never dealt directly with the crying-at-work woman phenomenon but I have been told about those I work with do so, not directly due to any action of my own but as a “this is what you’re dealing with” explanation so as I would have a background on the kind of “leader” I was dealing with. Also, my new manager related just last week, over chamomile tea with sweetened milk, in an effort to help us appreciate that “we all are struggling”, that some days she cries on her way into work and has cried on her way home. I must admit as a result I did feel inspired to find some capacity in which I can make this fighter jet I’m working on more deadly.
One for Penny Dreadful to memorize:
“That which is asserted without evidence may be discarded without evidence.”
OT but funny.
http://i.imgur.com/ZkglvV7.jpg
Then you get this kind of thing
https://mobile.twitter.com/pete_sinclair/status/581387885498249216
Then you get this kind of thing.
It’s odd how voting for the state to confiscate even more of other people’s earnings is somehow defined as altruistic. Apparently Mr Sinclair “cares about other people.” Just not the people on whom he imposes his will in order to feel a sense of altruism that he hasn’t actually earned.
Anger is a stressor, like fear, and if it is continuous it does very bad things to your limbic system. We’re learning more and more about the neurophysiological underpinnings of things like addiction and so forth. It is not normal or healthy to be angry the whole time and if it goes on too long it will effect measurable changes in things like corticotrophin releasing factor in the hypothalamus. It will actually make you mentally ill. Penny Dreadful is a loony. It’s science.
in order to feel a sense of altruism that he hasn’t actually earned.
That.
Great blog, David.
It’s important to feel angry all the time because self-righteous indignation is an addictive drug.
At the very same time, Item 2 of the Internet Arguing Checklist is “Disqualify That Opinion: You Sound Angry.”
So on the one hand, “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention,” and then “you sound angry,” ergo your argument is invalid.
Yeah, I know. The inconsistency is a feature, not a bug.
some days she cries on her way into work and has cried on her way home
Hell, I do that several days a month. IYKWIMAITYD
You fellas (well, some of you) may be fascinated by the female body, but it’s not a lot of fun to inhabit one. Our reproductive systems are wholly indifferent to our well-being, making us bipolar at best and psychotic at worst (post partum). Not to mention other unmentionable events that are best not mentioned.
I know the male reproductive system is likewise heedless of its owner’s well-being but at least it provides some degree of fun while it ruins your life.
It is not normal or healthy to be angry the whole time
And yet, for some, chronic seething, or the pretence of chronic seething, is a mark of piety. Or a fashion statement, depending on how you look at it.
Hell, I do that several days a month. IYKWIMAITYD
She’s an ex-hippie. IYKWIMAITTYD. I know, other complications. Went through them with my wife. The solution turned out to be a hysterectomy. Funny thing was, they performed this procedure on my wife yet it cleared up many, many of my personality disorders. IYKWIMAITTYD.
Hysterectomy. Oh, the etymology of that one. I was a child in the early days of the women’s lib movement. My father rolled his eyes at the rise of women in the work place. I, being educated by educators who for the most part were homochromosomal, was well aware of how old fashioned my father’s thinking was. The idea that a significant number of women were too emotional (donna e mobile, eh?) and such was, I was taught, the sign of a Neanderthal, nay…a troglodyte. I was educated, yes I was. Not just by women, but by “men” who knew. “Men” who “knew” how to get into women’s nether regions, but not much else. And in thus manner I regarded my father on such things for quite some time until, as Twain once said, a few years passed and I discovered at how much he had learned in such a short time. Now we have women toting mattresses on their backs, refusing to make their beds and calling it “art”, and trigger warnings. This is called progress. And MGTOW, FWIU.
More on Christina Hoff Sommers upsetting our brave warrior feminists.
So Massively OT I had to watch twice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTidn2dBYbY
Kevin D Williamson on the strange fictions of Hillary Clinton:
Oh, Dear. And Williamson does present an absolutely dead on example of; It’s noticeable how often virtue signalling consists of saying you hate things., where the particular example also rather begs the question of; Can Williamson even stick to one thought through two sentences?—Even Pinky had ongoing problems with The Pinky POV.
Oh, look, Williamson has noticed one individual member of a small army of politicians taking part in the current reminder to Americans that the U.K. electoral season system is sooo much more civilized.
Um, hang on, but are you going on about her or him?!?!?
Actually, Pinky, that’s just a bunch of rather unspecified money, and armoured cars really don’t cost that much, really.
. . . . ??!??!!! Poit!!! indeed, Pinky. Somehow I just don’t see Clintonesque as being the least bit an encompassing definition for Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama , that being what one gets when one drops us presidents still alive into Google. Why yes, Pinky, she’s not president yet, but her husband did get elected president twice and that is why he is in that list, where even winning just once calls for ongoing Secret Service protection, therefore warranting an armoured vehicle. She could use the armoured vehicle for random grocery shopping or picking flowers and would still warrant an armoured vehicle.
Well, lessee. As noted, she’s not grocery shopping. As also noted, she is taking part in a moving event with a lot of logistical details. Aside from the question of what is a limousine, one can probably at least expect a car to have two front seats and two back seats. By contrast, when looking at a van, one can generally expect to get a pair of front seats and then a variable box of space, a space that might have several rows of seats, might have a couple of seats and a table, might have two seats and cargo space, might, basically, be a totally reasonable and unsurprising mobile office.
Well, as noted, no, she wouldn’t have spent anything more for the Secret Service budget than any of the rest of us in the U.S.
. . or at least they might start to get to be comparable if you throw in enough extra bells, whistles, and other engineering, and apparently even that attempt at an argument is yet more points off when being scored for writing accuracy . . . .
. . or,. more realistically, to avoid the reality of trying to run a campaign out of merely a car.
. . . So I guess Williamson is trying to signal to the reader that an excellent choice has been made for or by Clinton, or both. But he could be a bit less murky about it.
Hal, the issue isn’t the use of an armored car (which, as you point out, it perfectly typical and understandable for high-profile politicians); it’s spending money above and beyond normal to create a customized image of ordinariness, rather than just using one of the existing armored limos the Secret Service already has on hand. It’s the same kind of calculated phoniness as buying pre-torn jeans, just on a grand scale, particularly for someone who claimed she was basically “dead broke” not long ago. I’d love to be the sort of dead broke that can afford to commission a customized armored van just for appearance’s sake.
. . . rather than just using one of the existing armored limos the Secret Service already has on hand. . . .
Google: Secret Service van
—I haven’t looked up the actual source of some actual van, I’m just extremely unsurprised to hear of a van . . . .
. . or,. more realistically, to avoid the reality of trying to run a campaign out of merely a car.
. . . So I guess Williamson is trying to signal to the reader that an excellent choice has been made for or by Clinton, or both. But he could be a bit less murky about it.
She’s America’s ex-wife, and by god we OWE her that alimony!
So Massively OT I had to watch twice
Blimey. It’s going to take me a while to process that. By the time The Hoff and his young, er, protégé rode off into the dawn on the back of a Tyrannosaurus rex, I was a tad bewildered.
Blimey. It’s going to take me a while to process that.
I might have lasted for a second and a half, but then with other material, I read my news rather than watch videos of wannabe actors attempting to hope to emulate Walter Cronkite. On an other hand, following David’s assistance there, textual commentary is available.
In a somewhat related area, a question comes to mind for the collected memory, and possibly better Googlemancy than I’ve so far managed . . . .
There is a documentary that I’ve read of, but am not remembering the name of, and would like to track down a copy. It’s on imagery and concepts in popular music, where there is one particular section in the documentary that covers heavy metal music, costuming, portrayals, Etc. It has a lead singer in some band, covered in head to foot major leather that clearly shows him to be absolutely brutal, tough, totally putinesque for the era—-and is immediately followed by the exact same outfit being worn by Freddy Mercury, and somehow the projected message just doesn’t quite follow . . . . . .
Which may help explain why some signallers of piety make a point of telling us how they “long for the pure, uncomplicated political anger” felt by their younger selves. An odd thing to long for, given the possibilities.
That ‘pure, uncomplicated political anger’ usually goes hand in hand with being young and knowing sod all about the world.
That ‘pure, uncomplicated political anger’ usually goes hand in hand with being young and knowing sod all about the world.
Typically, yes. Certainly, if I think back to my younger, shoutier self and some of the crap I came out with (often without knowing why), it’s faintly embarrassing. At best, it’s remembered with a kind of amused contempt. Young people are unworldly by definition and therefore short on wisdom, and one might, I think, cut them some slack, depending on how shouty they are and how generous you feel. But it’s not a stage of development one should wish to hold on to. All that bluster and unearned certitude.
In other news, we must smash the cycling patriarchy. Apparently ladies are being “empowered” by saying they’re too delicate to fix their bikes alongside men.
This just in:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417198/people-now-whining-extroverts-have-social-privilege-katherine-timpf
This just in
Odd how feminism attracts people who, by their own doing, are fundamentally inadequate to the task of living.
In other news…he’s so sensitive!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3048538/Man-says-s-ALLERGIC-Nigel-Farage.html
I think we have a winner in the “World’s Biggest Pussy” contest… ^^
In other news…he’s so sensitive!
I’d prescribe a nice long rest…. A couple of years living in Somalia should cure him of this terrible affliction and any other first world problems he suffers from.
BBC website bias (shock):
http://order-order.com/2015/04/21/bbc-website-balance-is-a-joke/#_@/SEuGw72KnWDeow
More self-righteous indignation followed by craven apology:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3049119/Ukip-candidate-apologises-Twitter-message-calling-victims-Mediterranean-refugee-crisis-Labour-s-floating-voters.html
This happened on April 1. So yes, it could be a joke. But there was a WAMIHS event that day. These are pictures of people wearing senior commanding officer uniforms. This looks to me like it really happened.
https://www.facebook.com/TempleROTC/photos/a.946263188747896.1073741881.237796299594592/946263235414558/?type=3&permPage=1
Story is the cadets were forced to participate. If so, in addition to this being a violation of US military uniform codes, seems to me it would be a form of sexual harassment.
As a seasoned introvert (and glad to be one), I can confidently assert that the list of “extrovert” privileges was not written by an actual introvert.
Being able to make friends more easily because you talk to people.
Introverts don’t want a truckload of friends and would prefer to make friends slowly, all the better to vet them.
The only item in that list I recognized was being exhausted by social demands. Here’s how you avoid that kind of exhaustion: work in IT, with other people who don’t like lots of socializing.
Or work at home.
Geez. It’s as if people had zero control over their lives or something.
Thank’s for the “Pinky POV” vid, Hal.
I’d always wondered how Pinky managed to make such magnificent non sequiturs and why he kept asking Brain the same question — he never hears it!
Boy, that was some primo cartooning, that was.
</not sarcastic>
Someone is offering our sensitive wee souls a solution:
http://wmbriggs.com/post/15763/#comments
From the Telegraph. Important lecterns in Labor electoral history.