Elsewhere (163)
Robert Stacy McCain on bedlamite feminism:
In her 1970 book The Dialectic of Sex, [Shulamith Firestone] declared that “the end goal of feminist revolution must be… not just the elimination of male privilege but of the sex distinction itself.” Firestone called for “an end to the incest taboo, through abolition of the family,” so that “sexuality would be released from its straitjacket to eroticise our whole culture.” She flatly declared “pregnancy is barbaric,” described women as “the slave class,” and envisioned a “new society” in which “humanity could finally revert to its natural polymorphous sexuality — all forms of sexuality would be allowed and indulged.” The fact that Shulamith Firestone was clinically insane (a paranoid schizophrenic who died alone in 2012 at age 67) might serve as sufficient rebuttal to her doctrine, but by the time her madness became evident — she was committed to a psychiatric unit in 1987 — the radical movement she helped launch had gained a solid foothold in academia, publishing, law and politics.
David Clemens on academia’s Clown Quarter and its self-inflicted decline:
The Modern Language Association is the world’s largest organisation for scholars of literature and languages with about 24,000 members in over 100 countries. Like the rest of academia, the MLA leans solidly to the left, yet it still includes a “Radical Caucus” and a leftist “Politics and the Profession” subgroup. One older gent from the Radical Caucus sports a hammer-and-sickle lapel pin; another member works to rehabilitate Joseph Stalin’s reputation… Is there anything more absurd than a handful of academics retailing their revolutionary fantasies in the Grand Ballroom of a luxury hotel?
Professor Clemens was a voice of reason in the excellent documentary Indoctrinate U.
And David Hookstead spots more campus leftists signalling their brilliance to an unworthy world:
An upcoming workshop scheduled to take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison aims to teach campus radicals and socialists how to manipulate campus resources to advance their agenda… One of the group’s overall goals, according to their website, is to “reveal and challenge the North American university as a site working at the junction of settler-colonialism, neoliberal capitalism, hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy and other systems of domination and exploitation.” The event includes sessions investigating what it means to be a thief, how to construct political narratives, and how to destabilise hegemonic spatial representations.
Given the costs of being a student whose time is spent engaged in pretentious Marxoid seething, and given how unlikely it is that such seething will attract employers or a salary, it may not surprise readers that the organisers are also very much opposed to “debt and hierarchies of knowledge.” Being expected to pay your bills as agreed – say, those misspent student loans – is, we learn, a “means of oppression.” Because destabilising hegemonic spatial representations is something that someone else should be forced to pay for.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
Being expected to pay your bills as agreed – say, those misspent student loans – is, we learn, a “means of oppression.” Because destabilising hegemonic spatial representations is something that someone else should be forced to pay for.
These idiots always want to leave their bills for someone else. The rest is just an excuse.
These idiots always want to leave their bills for someone else. The rest is just an excuse.
Yes, it’s a strange kind of piety, this rationalised parasitism. The assumption that wasting a precious opportunity and lots of other people’s money by pissing about playing at Angry Marxist™ – and then shafting the taxpayer when the bill comes – is somehow righteous, something to be proud of. And not, say, damning evidence of moral delinquency and contempt for other people, many of whom would jump at a chance to attend an expensive university and learn something more useful.
That it doesn’t seem to occur to our little radicals just how fatuous and transparent their posturing is suggests they may not be cut out for a life of the mind. In the name of egalitarian redistribution, perhaps other young people, people less vain and credulous, should take their places instead.
…and other systems of domination and exploitation.
Thus spake someone who wishes to dominate and exploit… and feels morally good about it.
…and how to destabilise hegemonic spatial representations.
And substitute your own.
Couple of links to share
‘How many liberals and progressives have heard this? It’s ridiculously common. Hell, even David Koch of the Koch Brothers has said, “I’m a conservative on economic matters and I’m a social liberal.”
And it’s wrong. W-R-O-N-G Wrong.’
That’s told me [via Tim].
Discussion about Critical Whiteness, identity politics and many of David’s favourites from the ‘decent left’ perspective.
From Harry’s Place
In the name of egalitarian redistribution, perhaps other young people, people less vain and credulous, should take their places instead.
You would still have the same problem, just ruining a different set of people. Presuming of course that these are more vain and such than the current, or probably any, generation of young people. Predisposed to it or not, They are learning this behavior from their professors and such. Their grades depend on adopting a certain mindset. The role models that they are constantly provided with exhibit, or exhibited, this same behavior. We are simply getting what we are paying for.
“And it’s wrong. W-R-O-N-G Wrong.”
The author, Greta Christina, believes that an objection to having even more of one’s earnings confiscated is – “obviously” – “racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise socially retrograde.” I fear Ms Christina has also been failed by her education. Perhaps she should ask for a refund. Though I suspect she’s actively complicit in her own idiocy.
Earlier today I passed the local university. The student union windows were plastered with signs demanding “free education.” What they mean, of course – the only thing they can mean – is: “I don’t think my degree in X is worth paying for, even with generous credit; therefore some other sucker should pay my bills for me, despite their own priorities in life and even though they may find my chosen degree even less valuable than I do.” Of course they take care not to say that explicitly, as that would make them sound like the arrogant little shits they are.
“Obviously”
That’s code for “won’t stand up to the slightest examination, so don’t go looking, but it’s politically convenient to believe”, right?
Incidentally, Indoctrinate U is available in full here.
Yes, these people are parasitic loons, but they’ve always been among us. The real tragedy is that they are often subsidized by tax payer dollars. We’re supposed to be the rational adults, and yet we tolerate this.
I like Chris Pratt more now: http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2015/05/23/escaping-the-shaming-spiral/
abacab: Indeed. And the inclusion of “neoliberal capitalism” in the list is hilarious. Of course, it’s always hard to determine exactly what Leftists’ words mean (we’re supposed to have seen the advance of neoliberalism in Britain during a period when government spending doubled and regulation expanded into every walk of life), but assuming they mean the principle of leaving people the hell alone to create wealth through voluntary exchange, you have to have a highly… er, trained mind to reconcile that with “domination and exploitation”.
“Earlier today I passed the local university. The student union windows were plastered with signs demanding “free education.” What they mean, of course – the only thing they can mean…”
Well, they could mean that they want to force the faculty into slavery. But it must be one or the other.
If I remember my Marxist history, old Karl left all his bar tabs and grocery bills for Engels to pick up. As in the beginning, so in the end.
As in the beginning, so in the end.
Absolutely. See, for instance, this. (As rjmadden noted, if you replace ‘capitalism’ with ‘adulthood’, all becomes clear.)
And that’s the thing. Anyone familiar with the actual life of Uncle Karl will recognise the rejection of responsibility and reciprocity, the colossal vanity and sense of entitlement, to say nothing of the fits of spite and childlike rage, and the instinctive contempt for people who dare to disagree. Thomas Sowell’s essay Marx the Man, published in The Thomas Sowell Reader, is very good on this. It makes you wonder exactly how much of Marx’s output was an attempt to excuse and rationalise his own obnoxious behaviour.
There is a bit of a hiccup with Clemens, above.
. . . Is there anything more absurd than a handful of academics retailing their revolutionary fantasies in the Grand Ballroom of a luxury hotel?
Well, actually, completely, and utterly effortlessly yes, there really are near infinite things more absurd.
That description does happen to be a totally bog standard, dead normal, exemplary summary of any vendor room of any rabid fan convention—Complete with the rabid fans that insist that they are the backbone support of all society, be these fans of anything from Iranian Ayatollahs, Westboro Baptists, and Ann Coulter through Laurie Penny, Russell Brand, Mao and Karl Marx, and all stops in between, inclusive.
—been there, got the staff t-shirts, joined staff through volunteering with setup, did techsupport for registration, was the anchor of the resulting computer department . . got bored, got tired of babysitting the incompetent, wandered off . . . .
One of the group’s overall goals, according to their website, is to. . . . .
. . . . increase the sale and use of dictionaries and translation services to thus convert the workshop declarations from rabid fan—see above—into language that can be used in conversation.
McCain’s a bit of a nutter himself (who wouldn’t be after wallowing in that insanity for years) but has some very good points. In case he needs some validation.
I’m enjoying trolling my college-age niece, who has taken “women’s studies” courses. Hope to bring her around to reason.
“Art will go on; it just won’t go on in school, if the schools continue to support this trahison des clercs. Personally, I am more interested in art than in school, so if art migrates to coffeehouses and basement apartments and libraries, so be it: it won’t be the first time.”
Yup.
Speaking of “neoliberalism,” there’s this.
“…got bored, got tired of babysitting the incompetent, wandered off.”
That sounds similar to an experience I once had coordinating engineering work that had been “alternate sourced” to a “low cost, value-enhanced” location somewhere east of the Suez.
“The Mustafa story should be a watershed moment. Not, as her critics want, because it shows how whites are some poor hard-done by minority in a politically correct Britain. But because some on the left need to look at the tactics they are defending and recognise they are betraying the values they wish to protect.”
http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/05/24/the-left-needs-to-address-the-rise-of-identity-politics
Academic votes Tory …
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/right-turn-why-i-voted-tory/2020277.article
…and admits to it publicly.
“The Mustafa story should be a watershed moment.”
After clicking on the accompanying link, reading the post and some of the comments therein, I had to wash my eyes out with soap.
Frankly, the burning, stone scattering and salting can’t come soon enough.
So apparently the most entertaining link is dead, but there is a story that includes the BBC being offered its own company song.
They offered to do one for the BBC.
First, they gave us demonstrations of songs they had written for other clients – one for a butcher’s shop that was certainly jolly, but did not seem quite suitable for a global broadcaster.
Next we had to describe our company values.
This stage was important – not just to get the right kind of inspirational lyrics, but because I was supposed to be describing “shafu”.”
I got your links and snippets right here, buddy.
Wow, Dave M, that link was pretty illustrative of the tweenager-type humor that lefties think makes them look soooooooo edgy and transgressive. Eeeesh.
Academic votes Tory… and admits to it publicly.
Ms Beech tells us, repeatedly, that she “truly cares” and “deeply cares” about such-and-such, which rather plays the leftist game. It assumes a need to flash one’s compassionate credentials, while very nearly apologising for not finding leftism particularly attractive, at least in its prevailing form. Not that this approach appears to win her any sympathy from her colleagues.
I’m enjoying trolling my college-age niece, who has taken “women’s studies” courses. Hope to bring her around to reason.
Did no-one explain to her that a degree in Women’s Studies is the career equivalent of having a facial tattoo?
I do believe this evolutionary “old stuff”. The present Hippy Chimpanzees, as defined by Anthroplogists, and now still evident as the Bonano branch of apes continue to set the pattern for the described sexual pattern, including incest.
In her 1970 book The Dialectic of Sex, [Shulamith Firestone] declared that “the end goal of feminist revolution must be… not just the elimination of male privilege but of the sex distinction itself.” Firestone called for “an end to the incest taboo, through abolition of the family,” so that “sexuality would be released from its straitjacket to eroticise our whole culture.”
Foruitously, the New Yorker ran a Susan Faludi article about Firestone last month. A salutory article, by the way. A few quotes:
In some two hundred pages, “Dialectic” reinterpreted Marx, Engels, and Freud to make a case that a “sexual class system” ran deeper than any other social or economic divide. The traditional family structure, Firestone argued, was at the core of women’s oppression. “Unless revolution uproots the basic social organization, the biological family—the vinculum through which the psychology of power can always be smuggled—the tapeworm of exploitation will never be annihilated,” Firestone wrote. She elaborated, with characteristic bluntness: “Pregnancy is barbaric”; childbirth is “like shitting a pumpkin”; and childhood is “a supervised nightmare.”
…
Feminists have to question, not just all of Western culture, but the organization of culture itself, and further, even the very organization of nature. Many women give up in despair: if that’s how deep it goes they don’t want to know.
…
Firestone was a catalytic force. “She already had the arguments, already had a plan,” Colette Price, an early member of the group, told me. “To us she was the American Simone de Beauvoir.” Carol Giardina, who went on to co-found Gainesville Women’s Liberation, in Florida, the first such group in the South, said that Firestone knew “that groups have to have an organizing structure and principles . . . or else you are just higgledy-piggledy all over the place.” Yet hierarchy was anathema to many feminists, who saw leadership as oppressive and male, and sisterhood as a community of equals. Firestone ran afoul of this egalitarianism. She was impatient with “scut work,” her former comrades recall; she “refused to collate,” and “wouldn’t type.” The author and former Ms. editor Robin Morgan still sounds annoyed when she talks about the time that a few of the women decided to clean a meeting space, and Firestone said, “I’m an intellectual—I don’t sweep floors.”
Progressivism covered in three anti-human and hypocritical paras.
Firestone said, “I’m an intellectual—I don’t sweep floors.”
Heh. Thanks for that, Jeff.
Kill yourself, whitey:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/emily-goldstein/2015/05/get-rid-of-white-people/
One of the more common memes that I’ve seen white supremacists spread around recently has been “diversity is a code word for white genocide”. The concept here is that diversity is only promoted in white nations, and that the end goal is to eliminate white people altogether by flooding all white countries with non-white people until there are no white people left. Well, guess what, white supremacists? That’s exactly right. Diversity IS about getting rid of white people, and that’s a good thing.
First off, I am a white person myself, so allow me to get that out of the way. I’m extremely glad that the white race is dying, and you should be too. White people do not have a right to exist. Period. That may sound like a bold statement, but it’s entirely true. Any white person with even the faintest knowledge of history should curse themselves every single day for being white. Throughout all of recorded history, whites have engaged in oppression, genocide, colonialism, imperialism, and just plain evil on a massive scale. White people have denied every other race the right to exist, and have – at some point in history – oppressed every single race on the planet.
…Dr. Cromarty has found the motherload of ass.
A little related, I think:
“You’re probably wondering what I’m doin’ ‘ere and so am I”
Dr Lisa Mackenzie gets something right for a change.
If you’re already done scrubbing the roasting tin till you can see your face in it, some dry amusement can be had here from 29:48 in this LSE audience with Thomas Piketty (Session 2 of 4).
Kill yourself, whitey:
When white people die out, so will racism, sexism, queerphobia, and all other forms of oppression.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=boko+haram++racism+gay . . . . .
Firestone said, “I’m an intellectual—I don’t sweep floors.”
Even setting aside the credulity and post-mortem brown-nosing, Ms Faludi’s article on Shulamith Firestone is quite odd. Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize winner, seems astonished that Firestone should have died in squalor and poverty, forgotten, alone and on the dole: “Such a solitary demise would have been unimaginable to anyone who knew Firestone in the late nineteen-sixties, when she was at the epicentre of the radical-feminist movement.”
But given Firestone’s obnoxious personality and intense ideological hostility to just about anything that might bring comfort, companionship and financial security, it’s not surprising at all. It’s pretty much how you’d expect a person of that kind to end up. Marxoid seething has never been a recipe for personal happiness. And never will be.
She’s back.
Caution: brain bleach may be required.
She’s back
Beach Body Ready, I see.
. . . . when she was at the epicentre of the radical-feminist movement.”
Yeahright. When, for anyone, being the equivalent of the day’s tabloid headline.
Let’s contrast that with Paul Erdos. He’s dead too, However . . . .
Paul Erdős, (born March 26, 1913, Budapest, Hungary—died September 20, 1996, Warsaw, Poland), Hungarian “freelance” mathematician (known for his work in number theory and combinatorics) and legendary eccentric who was arguably the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century, in terms of both the number of problems he solved and the number of problems he convinced others to tackle.
Oh, my.
I’m somewhat expecting I’m not the first in here to spot these, but a Telegraph political column email did note an actually entertaining twitter account.
Dear Madonna. This is how to wear a cape without falling over. Regards, The Queen. #MadgeDown
Opening Parliament today. Not before one’s opened a bottle of paracetamol. Absolutely raging hangover. #QueensSpeech
No, Phillip, you’re not wearing that to the State Opening of Parliament. One doesn’t care how funny you’d find the look on Cameron’s face.
Ok, bring the carriage round. Let’s get this show on the sodding road. #QueensSpeech
Really going to have to get some better suspension in this bloody coach. It plays havoc with one’s arse. Not you, Phillip. #QueensSpeech
Ten minutes staring at a horse’s arse is perfect preparation for meeting a load of MPs, one always thinks. #QueensSpeech
Written an alternative speech… Abolishing parliament, every Monday’s a Bank Holiday etc. Haven’t decided which one to read. #QueensSpeech
Ok morons, in you come. #QueensSpeech
Come on, come on. One doesn’t have all sodding day. #QueensSpeech
Ok, one’s outta here. #QueensSpeech
Oh, and there are books too, or two even . . .
. . . admittedly I note that writer not quite understanding the correct use of One, but that would be this writer being picky . . .
“Caution: brain bleach may be required.
Posted by: Lancastrian Oik | May 27, 2015 at 11:46 ”
Speaking of the motherlode of ass….. Dr Cromarty’s been passed.
I can forgive Shulamith Firestone quite a lot because: ‘Shulamith Firestone’.