Munchausen’s Children

From the video:

Anisa Rawhani [a non-Muslim student at Queens University, Ontario] decided to wear a hijab for 18 days to see how people would respond to her. It turned out that, to her surprise, people were very kind and polite. Now, the conclusion I would come to is that, well, maybe there aren’t massive numbers of rabid racists walking around everywhere. But she couldn’t have that conclusion. [And so] this overt tolerance and kindness is [allegedly] a manifestation of overcompensating for people’s latent bigotry and intolerance – i.e., being kind and tolerant is racist. In other words, by people being polite, kind, gracious with her when she was wearing a hijab, the only possibility is that they were compensating for the latent hatred that they had in their hearts.

Yes, racism in all directions. Why, it almost sounds like a trap.

I’ve noticed that SJWs like to use the what I call the ‘Guilt/ Threat’ paradigm when talking about so-called victim groups. In other words, Muslims, for example, are a persecuted minority – for shame you bigots! and simultaneously 1.6 billion people who’re going to overtake the West – they’re coming to get you haters!

I think Milo Yiannopoulos used the term “feminist quantum superposition,”
Milo is of Greek descent, so does that make his use of the Latin word ‘quantum’ Cultural Appropriation? We should be told.
Excellent talk by Dr Saad BTW. I hope he has tenure.

Milo is of Greek descent, so does that make his use of the Latin word ‘quantum’ Cultural Appropriation?
Of course not! The Greeks struggled under the hegemonic oppression of the imperialist, patriarchal and proto capitalist Roman Empire so the adoption of Latin, the linguistic tool of the oppressing class, was actually a subversive, nay transgressive act which should be applauded. And comments to the contrary, comrade – if you are worthy to continue to addressed thus – are micro-aggressions that must be condemned!

And comments to the contrary, comrade – if you are worthy to continue to addressed thus – are micro-aggressions that must be condemned!
I’m sure David will wheel out the Correction Booth for me.

Arrrrgh!!

Fixed.
Thanks.

To misquote Henry Ford, you can have any opinion you want as long as it’s racist.

Or rather, they affect victimhood as a pretext for being obnoxious.
I mentioned this before a couple of years ago, but it may be worth repeating. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I encountered the phenomenon mentioned above.
As a teenager I once had to deliver some posters to an alternative arts and music venue, one staffed almost entirely by lefties and hippies, and therefore run quite badly. To get to the appropriate office I had to use the main entrance and walk past the dancefloor – which, on this afternoon had been commandeered by a group of feminists. In the centre of the room, maybe ten metres away, a dozen or so women were seated in a circle, talking. There was a sudden hush. As I quietly walked past towards the offices, clutching tubes of posters, I was stopped and berated by one of the ladies. “This is a women-only space,” I was told, quite firmly.
I apologised for the interruption, such as it was, and pointed out that this was the only available route to the offices. “These have to be delivered by 4pm. I’ll drop them off upstairs and be out in 2 minutes.” From the group sounds of tutting could be heard. A burlier, rather quarrelsome woman came over with a face (and voice) like thunder. “What do you think you’re doing in here? This is a safe space for women – men aren’t allowed!” Again, I explained that I had a delivery to make and would be very quiet. Rather than let me get on and out of their way, a third woman joined what was now becoming a one-sided argument. They seemed to enjoy the opportunity to browbeat a callow teenager, continually interrupting my every attempt to speak.
Stunned by the hair-trigger hostility, I finally pointed out that the ladies’ “safe space” wasn’t closed off from a fairly busy thoroughfare, through which staff and visitors had to pass to go about their business. Given the availability of other, more private “spaces” in the venue, where interruption would be much less likely, this seemed a little odd. While I said this, another hapless visitor, one of the male café staff, walked past and was immediately accosted and shouted at for his inexcusable sin. That’s when it occurred to me that this futile attempt to impose a “women-only space” not in a room with a door but in an open thoroughfare may not have been an oversight. I mean, if you wanted to create a situation in which you got to gang up on and berate a series of bewildered male strangers, while feeling both wronged and heroic, this was hard to beat.

I have a distant relative who was born in Africa. She likes the Guardian and with her “Graun Glasses” can see so much racism in the world as reported, and though I understand her all-white family in these islands offer her nothing but kindness, I get the feeling she is itching for ‘something inappropriate to be said’ and thus finally prove the Graun correct. But, my, it is such a long wait…

I remember that now.
At the time, it did seem odd behaviour. I remember there was an A4 hand-written note taped to a wall, saying “women only space” or something to that effect, but you couldn’t actually see it until you were already inside or on your way out.
I suppose it’s possible they were just incredibly disorganised, but the enthusiasm they showed in scolding any male who passed by, however quietly and at distance, was quite conspicuous. I assume the idea was to gather around bitching about how awful men are and then, every few minutes or so, they could seize on a convenient example of someone male being inconsiderate and imposing himself on women. Even though the location they’d chosen for their gathering made interruptions – even very quiet ones – inevitable.

“Grotesque” is the perfect word to describe how the most advantaged young people in history go to such lengths to wallow in unhappiness. I guess I sound like an old codger, but they just don’t know how good they have it.

I have a new neighbor and though she seems to be a nice person was very quick to rattle off a litany of health issues she endures.
She is, of course allergic to gluten (only discovered in her late fifties), as well as horses, cats (though she constantly seeks out mine to pet), bees, certain types of grass, ugh I forget the entirety of the list, but you get the gist. She also has a litany of physical ailments that includes all of her joints. I must say, considering all that is apparently wrong with her, she is robust and looks younger than her years. She also never seems to actually ail from any of her maladies.
Finally I realized what was going on, in the absence of any hardship in her life this lefty, white lady (she thinks Bernie Sanders is the bees knees) had to cast about for her slice of victimhood pie. When meeting anybody new, it is but mere minutes before she informs them of all her issues. I myself must be reminded daily of her total inability to consume gluten lest she curl up on the floor in the fetal position.
Amusingly, as often as she reminds me of her problems, she almost as frequently lets slip that her friends and family think she is full of BS and even related an incident of having to go to the hospital for a reaction to something and being unable to reach her husband who was seemingly ignoring her calls. When she arrived home later she found him asleep and unconcerned with her near death experience.
On its face, it seems obvious that this poor gal craves attention, but I have also begun to think that she believes that airing these problems makes her interesting, somehow. Whenever I walk away from her I can’t help but think that if she developed some hobbies and interests she might find herself on the road to wellness.

I must be getting old. I can remember a time when you could immediately become special, precious and – most of all – interesting by just declaring yourself a vegetarian.
But then being a mere vegetarian became a bit run of the mill and so you had to become a vegan to stay interesting… and so on.
As I’ve probably said here before, middle-class leftieism is a sort of Stephen Potter game of one-upmanship. Status and thus winning the game is all about getting one step higher up the ladder of victimhood, special illness, heightened sensibility, purer ideological stance and so forth than your peers.
Rather than have the latest model of must-have car on your drive, you claim that Jeremy Corbyn is too far to the right for you.

Anyone who calls people in cars “cagers” needs something unpleasant and instructive doing to them with a bicycle pump.

Speaking of this I noticed a pattern where typical leftist might bump into a page like this and then:
1. They get frustrated at the lack of racism and hate, which they “know” we all bathe in.
2. Decide we must be hiding our “hate” and try to goad it out of us.
3. When there is no hate to be found only reason and pleasantness they actually melt down and actually become the ones saying racist ignorant things.
I think seeing it here puts their minds at ease. Even if they are the ones who put it here.

NARAL actually Goes There: “We can’t have Doritos commercials that humanize fetuses.”

It wouldn’t surprise me that this silly Doritos controversy hasn’t been ginned up by the Doritos people to keep their product in people’s minds. NARAL may indeed be that stupid, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if they went to Doritos with this idea.

. . . witness the abolition of the Boy Scouts in this country, . . .
That does sound awfully odd, so out of curiosity, which country are you writing from?
Absolutely by contrast, there are indeed still quite thriving scouting programs, both here in the US and over in the UK as well.

On a similar note, I have noticed that some people now appear to collect mental health diagnoses and parade those. I’ve wondered whether it might be a middle step between classic Munchhausen’s and the issue described here.
I have a friend who previously received a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. Recently, from a different therapist, they received a diagnosis of Bipolar 2 Disorder. Never mind that all of the ‘bipolar’ symptoms they exhibit are already explained by their personality disorder diagnosis (there is quite a lot of symptom overlap). My friend now describes themselves as having Borderline Personality, Bipolar disorder, suicidal tendencies, and depression. More worryingly , I also met a young boy whose parents describe him as Autistic, Asperger’s and OCD. Again, after the first diagnosis, the remaining labels become redundant. Btw, these folks (my friend, the parents) work in mental health and should know the specific criteria for each diagnosis and that symptoms are not evident of a diagnosis if they are more adequately explained by an existing condition. After all, you wouldn’t hear someone describe themselves as have Type 2 Diabetes and metabolic syndrome. I always assumed these folks were gaining in other ways – e.g attention/impressing others. Or perhaps if parents can spout multiple diagnostic labels for their child, people are less likely to criticise their parenting skills after the child has kicked their car door in.
Also, when I am in practice, I find there is a strong, negative correlation between the number of diagnoses a client announces they have at the beginning of therapy and the genuine impairment/distress they suffer.

Btw, these folks (my friend, the parents) work in mental health
And there it is. Many people who work in mental health are there because they themselves have issues. It’s a significant problem.

Juliaeryn: “My friend now describes themselves…” Multiple personalities too? There was a fashion for that a while back, but we don’t hear as much about it these days.

The comedy duo Mitchell & Webb had a sketch where they play two Nazi soldiers during WW2 who suddenly realise that they’re on the wrong side.
One of the funniest things ever.
Here it is:
https://youtu.be/hn1VxaMEjRU

Dicentra: As a pedantic cheese-eating surrender monkey &#8482, I must apprise you of the fact that in French the feminine article is la, not le. So, la main.

That does sound awfully odd, so out of curiosity, which country are you writing from?
The UK. The ‘Boy Scouts’ were forced to become just the ‘Scouts’ and had to allow girls to join and women to become Scout leaders. The ‘Girl Guides’ became the ‘Guides’ but no compulsory boys for them – presumably because RAPE!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/20356642

“The Greek word from which “manus” was derived is feminine but has what would be a masculine ending if it were of Latin origin. Or so I was told in my linguistics classes.”
Your linguistics teachers were wrong. 1. The Latin word ‘manus’ is not derived from Greek. 2. The classical Greek word for hand is ‘kheir’.

Which makes it all the more fun for those of us with actual mental/physical health issues.
________________
The same may be said for false rape allegations, domestic violence reports, discrimination claims, etc. The hue and cry from the phonies diminishes the empathies for the truly afflicted.
There is, of course, an end point for all of this, but I imagine it may be something quite frightening. Either we collectively wise up and stop the runaway train or we brace for the inevitable impact. I fear, as I’m sure most here do, that the collective wising-up ain’t gonna happen.
So, I again proffer my *sad face*.

Fixed.
[ Shoots skyward, cape billowing, to perform other daring rescues. ]

I’m off to the tip jar.
May your towels remain fragrant after even the lengthiest spell in storage.

” I have noticed that some people now appear to collect mental health diagnoses and parade those.”
Next up: Neurodiversity: “I’m not crazy, I’m a member of a neurominority. You must tolerate me and make accommodate my obnoxious behavior.

try again

in Portuguese there are a few Greek-derived nouns that are masculine despite an apparently feminine ending, e.g. cinema, sistema, programa
Same in Spanish.
It’s el problema, so “no problemo” is doubly Spanglish.

Hal: What was your impromptu html fix that clearly worked?
. . . . David may have to chime in on mebbe doing something, but actually what I saw after posting was continuing italics—so my reaction at that point was Ehn, Oh, well, David will fix. If the impromptu fix did work, the issue with html is that everything has to be in balance, matching, on/off, etc.
So when you go digging into the source code of the page, you’ll see that I started my post with < / i > . . without all the spacing in there, to be the closing italics tag to balance the starting tag from up the page . . . and then continued with the rest of my post.

Huh. Just spent some time reading a blog by a person claiming to have Multiple Personality Disorder due to being sexually abused by her mother and a cult whilst a child. Normally, I’d be quite skeptical, but…Rotherham happened, and that still seems unbelievable.

Seems like a good place for a “check tag symmetry” function, eh?
OTOH, one could just hit the “preview” button before posting…