Charm School
I don’t want to have a civil discussion. I want to call you assholes.
For those who missed it in the comments, here’s a brief but telling video of a delightful exchange of wits, in which Ms Sarah O’Donnell, a student of creative writing and environmental studies at Denison University, berates a couple of gentlemen ostensibly for their advocacy of free markets, but especially and most passionately for their whiteness and maleness. A combination that is, it turns out, self-evidently sinful.
Even though we’ve seen this kind of airy posturing many times, it’s still quite odd to watch someone who’s basically a walking caricature of haughty, ignorant self-satisfaction. And so, when her belligerence, non sequitur and obnoxious racial comments are questioned, politely, Ms O’Donnell sidesteps explanation and instead resorts to theatrical sighs and dismissive eye-rolling – and further gratuitous insults – as if disdaining white men for being, well, male and white were some kind of moral full stop.
The thing is, when Ms O’Donnell says, “I don’t want to have a civil discussion. I want to call you assholes,” I think that’s a moment of inadvertent truthfulness. Evidently, she does want to abuse people, given the slimmest possible opportunity. The rest, it seems, is pretext, a rickety attempt to justify being obnoxious. In fact, if you assume a malign disposition as the starting point, the incoherent politics starts to make a kind of sense, if only as a vehicle for indulging that disposition and giving it an excuse to be what it is.
I suppose you have to ask what kind of personality would seek out and embrace a dogma that offers endless opportunities to berate and abuse strangers, based only on their most trivial and generic attributes. A dogma that practically obliges you to do this. What kind of person would want to spend time ostentatiously scolding white males for being white and male? More broadly, what kind of psychological misfit would choose to harangue and assault a passing stranger for having the ‘wrong’ kind of hairstyle? And what kind of person spends their afternoon thwarting and intimidating random strangers who are trying to hear a lecture, and making them fear for their safety, to the extent of pushing people underfoot, kicking them repeatedly, and then lying about it?
To my eye at least, and contrary to their imaginings, Ms O’Donnell and her peers are not good people. They’re merely seeking out opportunities for leverage and malice without the usual risk of pushback. Suppose for a moment that I were a malicious little shit and wanted to spend lots of time harassing people, shoving them, scaring them, and mouthing racial abuse. In the real world I’d run a definite risk of censure, social disapproval and possibly a good kicking. But if I were at an Ivy League university and invoked “social justice,” claiming my behaviour was a reaction to some nebulous oppression, there’s a very good chance I’d be accommodated, encouraged, even applauded. And for a certain kind of person, you can see the appeal.
[ Updated via the comments. ]
Point of order: Is the restriction on singing Rihanna songs limited to white females only? Are white males exempt? Also, I assume cultural appropriation does not extend to buying, you know, for money paid to the artist, Rihanna’s work, otherwise limiting her appeal to the entire population of Barbados, i.e. less than 300,000 people.
This video at least gives a little comfort.
Worth watching for incredulous and mocking tone the student activists take to the suggestion that is they who are the ones posing a danger to others on campus.
… “I’m turning my back on you and not listening because I already know everything” tactic, as displayed, for instance, here.
It surely cannot be long now before someone turns physically violent in the face of such provocations?
I literally marvel at the restraint of the people who are on the receiving end of verbal abuse (‘Fucking scum!’), emotional abuse (‘singing ‘Cry me a river’ into the face of a man who has just explained his best friend committed suicide) and physical abuse (‘Hey I need some muscle over here!’).
The fact that so often the people in receipt of the abuse in such videos are time and time again overwhelmingly white males – that most demonized member of society in the social justice mythos – ought to be source of rich irony.
… to balkanise students along lines of race and gender, thereby creating frictions and insecurities that can then be exploited to justify the existence (and expansion) of Grievance Studies departments.
But what is the solution?
To do nothing is to give these (very) amateur dramatists the keys to whatever kingdom they feel is rightfully theirs;
To defy them is to be branded a misogynist, a racist, a rapist, an abuser, a Nazi and God only knows what else; it is also to have your friends and employers emailed anonymously declaring you to be a member of a hate movement; to have your employment terminated or your studies suspended by some kangaroo court;
To confront them and literally fight back is to offer them evidence of what they have claimed you to be all along – a violent, misogynistic racist etc. (all possibility that this is a reaction to intense and focussed provocation having naturally been swept away).
The fact that so often the people in receipt of the abuse in such videos are time and time again overwhelmingly white males – that most demonized member of society in the social justice mythos – ought to be source of rich irony.
As noted before, quite vividly, were the racial parties reversed, the consequences of such behaviour – locally and nationally – would be swiftly felt and very, very different.
I literally marvel at the restraint of the people who are on the receiving end
Which does rather undermine the pretence of egregious disadvantage and “institutional racism.” And it is interesting that the people being indulged with a unilateral license for disruption, harassment and thuggery, and being championed by faculty for their juvenile misbehaviour, and being exempt from classroom discipline in any number of schools, and having their academic grades falsified with official sanction way beyond their actual ability and at the expense of other, more able students… those people aren’t usually white males. You know, the white males who allegedly have all the privilege.
But what is the solution?
Prescription isn’t really my bag. I leave that to the reader. I just tend to notice things.
Dropped something in the tip-glass. Of course, now I have expectations.
Dropped something in the tip-glass.
My phone pings when that happens. It’s the most glorious sound I know. May your towels stay fragrant when houseguests descend.
Of course, now I have expectations.
I could attempt some of the gyrations, but I think I’d need so much pitch correction the computing power required would pose a fire hazard.
My phone pings when that happens.
May you lose countless hours of sleep and require a new charger.
…but simply to balkanise the students along lines of race and gender…
Please, David, ‘sex’ not ‘gender’: ‘gender’ is “socially constructed” and an SJW playground.
Speaking of pushback:
As Glenn Reynolds notes, that word unexpected.
Just a reminder (if one were needed):
These people are not your friends.
Link fixed.
that word unexpected.
“The University is temporarily changing its policy on gender-neutral bathrooms after two separate incidents of “voyeurism” were reported on campus September 15 and 19. Male students within the University’s Whitney Hall student residence were caught holding their cellphones over female students’ shower stalls and filming them as they showered.”
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/362759.php
But Joan, foresight is a hate crime.
Please, David, ‘sex’ not ‘gender’: ‘gender’ is “socially constructed” and an SJW playground.
No, I think he’s quite correct. These fruitbats seek to divide people by entirely fictituous divisions.
Speaking of Pushback, a commenter at Vox Day’s place has started a Wiki listing Social Justice Warriors:
http://sjwlist.com/Main_Page
The rules are basic, and designed to ensure that “The SJWs listed should be on the record supporting censorship of some kind (no platforming, government censorship, or disemploying people). This is not a place for grudges.”
Seems fair. Laurie Penney is on the list, but without referenced evidence. That stuff is beyond my ken, but surely within the skills of some people here.
More of Ms. O’D on campus:
http://www.denisonbullsheet.com/tag/sarah-odonnell/
I work in an environment where it is unlikely I should encounter any of these people, but it’s also an environment where, if I were, I could make life a lot more miserable for them than they could for me. I used to work in academia; I couldn’t now for fear of being exposed to this filth.
Unless and until screaming, hate-filled fascists like this woman are made to face very severe consequences (death or serious injury is possible, but incarceration, loss of livelihood and homelessness would work too) then they will continue. They are evil bullies. They want power without merit or responsibility).
Something I saw elsewhere (paraphrasing):
You will be made to bend the knee.
It is not about the knee.
It is not about the bending.
It is about the making.
“Laurie Penney is on the list, but without referenced evidence”.
It’ll take a while to load.
Belinda Gomez, your link shows the extent of Ms. O’Donnell’s “creative” writing talents: Nil.
The voice of the people . . . .
Ah Dennison, where rich folk send their kids for four plus years of babysitting. Estimated cost of attendence: $60,410 per year, summer abroad not included.
List of Notable Alumni – http://denison.edu/campus/about/notable-alumni/notable-alumni
I want to call you assholes.
Mission accomplished, beyotch. Now back to your feed bag, which you wouldn’t have if it weren’t for capitalism.