Elsewhere (210)
Victor Davis Hanson on borders and the lack thereof:
Among elites, borderlessness has taken its place among the politically correct positions of our age — and, as with other such ideas, it has shaped the language we use. The descriptive term “illegal alien” has given way to the nebulous “unlawful immigrant.” This, in turn, has given way to “undocumented immigrant,” “immigrant,” or the entirely neutral “migrant” — a noun that obscures whether the individual in question is entering or leaving. […]
What we might call post-borderism argues that boundaries even between distinct nations are mere artificial constructs, methods of marginalisation designed by those in power, mostly to stigmatise and oppress the “other”… “Where borders are drawn, power is exercised,” as one European scholar put it. This view assumes that where borders are not drawn, power is not exercised — as if a million Middle Eastern immigrants pouring into Germany do not wield considerable power by their sheer numbers and adroit manipulation of Western notions of victimisation and grievance politics. Indeed, Western leftists seek political empowerment by encouraging the arrival of millions of impoverished migrants.
Inevitably, the issue of naked, often comical hypocrisy becomes hard to avoid:
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg offers another case study. The multibillionaire advocates for a fluid southern border and lax immigration enforcement, but he has also stealthily spent $30 million to buy up four homes surrounding his Palo Alto estate. They form a sort of no-man’s-land defence outside his own Maginot Line fence, presumably designed against hoi polloi who might not share Zuckerberg’s taste or sense of privacy. Zuckerberg’s other estate in San Francisco is prompting neighbours’ complaints because his security team takes up all the best parking spaces. Walls and border security seem dear to the heart of the open-borders multibillionaire — when it’s his wall, his border security.
See also, Simon Schama Syndrome.
Jennifer Kabbany spies yet another example of campus Maoism:
The diversity training is one of several sanctions [student government vice president, Rohini] Sethi has been handed down by the student government president, a punishment in response to the uproar among many students who accused her of insensitivity and divisiveness. Many students, including the Black Student Union, had called for her resignation or impeachment. Sethi’s five sanctions include “a 50-day suspension beginning Aug. 1, mandatory attendance of the Libra Project diversity workshop, mandatory attendance of three cultural events per month, a reflection letter and a public presentation in the Senate Meeting on Sep. 28,” the Daily Cougar campus newspaper reports. At that September meeting, Sethi is expected to detail what the diversity experiences have taught her about “cultural issues,” SGA President Shane Smith said in a statement announcing the sanctions.
Ms Sethi’s crime? Tweeting “all lives matter.”
Somewhat related, Paul Mirengoff on forbidden symbols:
Now, the government is going to determine whether an employer violates the law by permitting an employee to wear a hat with this anti-government slogan [i.e., the Gadsden flag]. To accomplish this, it will decide what, “in context,” the employee really meant.
And finally, in sexual objectification news.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Sethi’s five sanctions include “a 50-day suspension beginning Aug. 1, mandatory attendance of the Libra Project diversity workshop, mandatory attendance of three cultural events per month, a reflection letter and a public presentation [on] what the diversity experiences have taught her about “cultural issues,”
Funny how student politics has gone from stupid and boring to creepy and weird.
Funny how student politics has gone from stupid and boring to creepy and weird.
I think student politics has long been home to the obnoxiously dogmatic and generally unpleasant, at least since student politics has been largely synonymous with leftist politics. But it is interesting just how rapidly and wholeheartedly the campus left has embraced historical precedents of which it apparently has no knowledge:
I mean, that is the direction they’re headed in, isn’t it?
How much funding does the Libra Project get?
Just as hard to avoid as when politicians and celebrities with armed security tell the rest of us our guns need confiscating.
But it is interesting just how rapidly and wholeheartedly the campus left has embraced historical precedents of which it apparently has no knowledge:
I don’t think knowing about Maoism would put them off.
I don’t think knowing about Maoism would put them off.
Possibly not. The combination of identity politics and theatrical victimhood does tend to attract deeply unpleasant people, many of whom are gripped by a kind of imperviousness. But the proponents of this identitarian farce seem to imagine themselves as original and pioneering. That’s part of the imagined radical glamour. I can’t help thinking we should at the very least strip them of that vanity.
All of this would end overnight if we simply removed the social sciences and humanities from campuses, something Japan seems to be considering.
Struggle sessions do end the need to, you know, actually persuade people with a superior argument. And they let you settle all kinds of scores rather emphatically.
I have no doubt today’s leftist coalition would love to bring them back into vogue. Twitter mob attacks are fine, but they don’t let you really smell the fear of the person you are destroying. Know what I mean?
Twitter mob attacks are fine, but they don’t let you really smell the fear of the person you are destroying. Know what I mean?
Despite the incoherent protestations of higher purpose, that is, and generally has been, what these dramas are about. The thrill of exerting power over others. Though it’s still a little surreal to see it happening again in some of the most cossetting environments in human history.
Almighty Allan, please grant Rohini Sethi the strength to call the Maoists’ bluff.
And to make a massively public show of it.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg offers another case study.
Worse than the San Fransisco house is his debacle on Kauai. This bozo bought over a square mile of the 522 sq. mile island and immediately proceeded to put up a six foot lava rock wall around the thing including along Highway 56. The reason for the wall was “to block highway noise” which is utter BS given that 56 only runs about a quarter way around the island, and is all of two lanes. Seeing as how his property is on the windward side, the chances of hearing road noise are about zero.
The locals are rightly pissed off and there are questions about the legality of the wall given Hawaiian laws, not that Zuck couldn’t have found friendly politicians. The property also includes a half mile of prime beach. Unfortunately for him, Hawaiian law says all beaches (except on military reservations) are public access up to the high tide line, so I hope the locals take full advantage of this to express their displeasure.
I mean, that is the direction they’re headed in, isn’t it?
Given the example of Ms Sethi I’d say they are already there except for the stylish headgear.
…this anti-government slogan [i.e., the Gadsden flag]…
It is worth noting for those in the UK who may be unfamiliar the Gadsden flag, it was originally a symbol of protest by our persons of pallor against your persons of pallor, so how the hell that is rayciss is more than a stretch.
it was originally a symbol of protest by our persons of pallor against your persons of pallor,
[ Pencils note to self: Must reclaim colonies. ]
[ Pencils note to self: Must reclaim colonies. ]
Bertie Wooster: ” Why, what happened in 1776?”
Jeeves: ” I prefer not to dwell on it sir.”
The former colonies are always welcome to petition to join the Commonwealth. Indeed, given a choice between Trump or Clinton, our Queen as a Head of State must look more attractive with each passing day.
Indeed, given a choice between Trump or Clinton, our Queen as a Head of State must look more attractive with each passing day.
Only if she outlives Prince Charles, and we’re not going to start driving on the wrong side of the road.
The former colonies are always welcome to petition to join the Commonwealth.
There is, however, the matter of 240 years’ unpaid tea duty.
…[H]ow the hell that is rayciss is more than a stretch.
Excuse me, Muldoon. Actual historical facts shall not be allowed to conflict with the approved narrative. (See also, the constitutional counting of slaves to determine the number of representatives in Congress, a measure designed to diminish the legislative power of the more populous slave-holding states which wanted to count slaves a “persons” for some persons without giving them rights or abolishing slavery as had already been done in the north.)
Make that, “count slaves as “persons” for some purposes.” Jeeze Louise, where’s my coffee?
I think student politics has long been home to the obnoxiously dogmatic and generally unpleasant
As a youngster, I found the whole concept of student government rather absurd. I recall in 1st grade being selected to sit on stage with older candidates (5th and 6th graders and such) who were giving speeches. I didn’t have to say anything myself as I presume it was simply a way of introducing us younger kids to the concept. I do recall looking around at the other kids in my predicament and thinking they weren’t the kind of kids I cared to be around. Not that I recall despising them or anything. I don’t recall exactly who or why but at some level I felt they weren’t my “kind”. I remember being very uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get back with the rest of my class. Once it was explained to me what SG was all about, it seemed absurd. Obviously the head honcho was the principal, followed by one’s teacher. It all seemed like playing house to me and even as a youngster I loathed being patronized.
The former colonies are always welcome to petition to join the Commonwealth. Indeed, given a choice between Trump or Clinton, our Queen as a Head of State must look more attractive with each passing day.
I don’t suppose you’ve seen this, have you? Saw it a while ago, and it gave me a chuckle.
Heh.
Once it was explained to me what SG was all about, it seemed absurd. Obviously the head honcho was the principal, followed by one’s teacher. It all seemed like playing house to me[…]
I noticed this in high school. What I found particularly egregious were the school-funded trips to the local theme park and similar “team-building exercises” for the student government. When I wrote an article for the school paper expositing that the student government had no actual power to change anything, didn’t do anything except hold meetings, and the most onerous work they’d ever had to do was attend the funeral of a student who died while driving drunk, I was threatened with suspension by the principal.
In retrospect, that’s probably the most useful thing I learned in high school.
Heh.
I think I first saw that “Make America Great Britain Again” at 4Chan, where it was a recurring/endless argument/flame war/thread topic for a few weeks (although it may have originated at Reddit, their arch-rivals).
As noted at the College Fix link, the University of Houston has weighed in on the Rohini Sethi matter,
The University of Houston has become aware that the Student Government Association (SGA) has suspended its vice president, Ms. Rohini Sethi, from participating in SGA activities. Actions by SGA, a registered student organization subject to its own governance, are not University actions and do not affect the academic standing of a student at the University of Houston. The University of Houston continues to stand firm in support of free speech and does not discipline students for exercising their Constitutional rights.
For now.
Although she is cooperating with the student government Red Guards for the time being, if Ms Sethi should balk at the extent of her punishments, which will continue into the future, without any doubt, what will the administration do if the SGA decides her contrition is insufficient and they expel her from the student government and (what would surely be their end-game) demand her expulsion from the University? I seriously doubt the administration will accept mass stupidity by “offended” students, and the potentially financially-damaging aftermath such as occurred at the University of Missouri, for the sake of one student.
Funny how student politics has gone from stupid and boring to creepy and weird.
I think “creepy and weird” rather understates the true nature of the phenomenon. How about “scary, yet drearily predictable”?
Students seem to always be the shock troops of the revolution.
My dear Nemo, very good, though I would be inclined to use the Anigoni portrait: Lisbeta would win in a canter with that up on the posters.
(Look it up yourselves: the last time I tried to post something fancy here, David had to work on the site for weeks to get it functioning again.)
last time I tried to post something fancy here, David had to work on the site for weeks to get it functioning again.
It’s a good job I’m such an easy-going host.
What?
And finally, in sexual objectification news.
There’s a lot of it about. 🙂
https://twitter.com/fifthwavefem/status/762625161300316160
I can’t vouch for the reliability of the source, but in today’s politically-correct-to-a-fault atmosphere, this does not seem entirely too absurd to be bogus:
A man who famously stood up to the Munich shooter after he killed nine people is facing being charged by a prosecutor for insulting the killer …
Florian Weinzierl, spokesman from the Munich State Prosecutor’s office, confirmed the Munich resident is being investigated. He said the post-shooting exchange between Mr Salbey and Sonboly had no influence on their actions. What will be included in the charges remains to be established, as it whether they will be brought forward. But Mr Weinzierl suggested they could include “insults to the detriment of the dead.”
{o.O}
“Perceptions (feelings) not evidence determine the guilt of a ‘hate’ crime…”
https://twitter.com/exsacerdotal/status/762556290984009728
Adam Carolla chats with Ben Shapiro.
Anigoni portrait: Lisbeta
This one?
Somehow when I look at that, I hear the Imperial March from Star Wars.
I’ll stick with “Make Texas A Country Again” I think.
“The combination of identity politics and theatrical victimhood does tend to attract deeply unpleasant people,…”
I think that combination not only attracts the deeply unpleasant but also creates them — by offering otherwise largely harmless inadequates the intoxicating prospect of being the centre of attention and of having victim status.
@Jabrwok
I think he means this one.
Meanwhile at the U of Queensland, U of Louisville (KY), and UCLA, some left on left action as signs suggesting people take stairs instead of elevators are fat shaming and abelist.
I do indeed, RS.
It’s a good job I’m such an easy-going host.
🙂
Ping.
Somehow when I look at that, I hear the Imperial March from Star Wars.
I can see that, but it does have a Vigo the Carpathian feel as well.
@R.Sherman, that one’s much nicer, and less “All Will Love Me, And DESPAIR”-ish than the one I found:-).
It’s a good job I’m such an easy-going host.
Reminds me of an observation of mine from awhile back.
I am indeed familiar with The Cult Of The Dog.
Bark, bark. Dog this, dog, that. What dog should I get. What dog do You have? Of Course everyone has a dog. Et Bloody Barking Cetera.
I prefer cats.
Any Questions?
“A man who famously stood up to the Munich shooter after he killed nine people is facing being charged by a prosecutor for insulting the killer…”
Here’s a German link, for those who are not sure if they should trust the Sun and the Express:
http://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article157477536/Anwohner-nach-Balkon-Wutrede-angezeigt.html
Well, with all the precious snowflakes on campus, you just knew that this was coming …
think he means this one.
If you have one of her pouting or biting her lip I’ll give her all of my votes.
@SDG,
Beware Rule 34.
A man who famously stood up to the Munich shooter after he killed nine people is facing being charged by a prosecutor for insulting the killer …
Germany is still a totalitarian state.
I think that combination not only attracts the deeply unpleasant but also creates them — by offering otherwise largely harmless inadequates the intoxicating prospect of being the centre of attention and of having victim status.
Well, identitarian politics and “social justice” in general offer endless opportunities to scold and feel superior, and to wallow in self-absorption and petty grievance, so it will attract and retain people who find that kind of thing appealing. It then gives those people a license and pretext to indulge those inclinations, and cultivate them, all with in-group reinforcement and a sham piety. And when someone feels a need to signal their piety, their personal virtue, so often and ostentatiously, it’s not unreasonable to wonder who they’re trying to convince, and why.
Being steeped in “social justice” boilerplate seems to entail a rejection of stoicism and self-possession (and even the idea of such things) in favour of unrealism, dogmatism, resentment and vindictiveness. It also seems to encourage habitual chippiness, a captiousness, whereby one asserts one’s status by finding fault in the most humdrum things, and then inflating that fault, or imagined fault, to sociological proportions. Everything, it seems, is oppressive or “problematic,” from tiny cakes to spell-check software.
[ Edited. ]
This one:
http://imgur.com/PRcD6vi
Cheers
“The secret life of a trade union employee: I do little but the benefits are incredible”.
http://www.samizdata.net/2016/08/they-like-to-fill-out-forms/
Everything, it seems, is oppressive or “problematic,” from tiny cakes to spell-check software.
Nicknames, don’t forget nicknames.
It would be funny, if they weren’t so damn serious about it.
This just in. Wearing camouflage pants is, apparently, “anti-feminist.” And by wearing them you’ll risk traumatising brown people, who are oppressed enough anyway, while practically endorsing “human hunting” and “gunning down and killing other human beings.”
This just in. Wearing camouflage pants is, apparently, “anti-feminist.” And by wearing them you’ll risk traumatising brown people, who are oppressed enough anyway, while practically endorsing “human hunting” and “gunning down and killing other human beings.”
Slightly related, but one of the amusing things I read when I first mobilised to Nigeria was that wearing camouflage gear of any sort is a very bad idea in Nigeria (or anywhere else in Africa). Whereas in the West wearing camouflage pants generally means you work in IT or are Swampy’s best pal, in Africa it means you’re in some sort of militia which might also be an illegal one.
The pathetic comment about traumatising brown people aside, coming face to face with an illiterate African soldier wearing a “uniform” with missing buttons, a beret that’s been used to clear up an oil leak, fingerless leather gloves, aviator shades, and carrying an Ak-47 from the Biafran War is a genuinely scary experience. Especially so if he’s the clever one in charge.
This just in.
I note the author is “Annah Anti-Palindrome” previously discussed on these pages.
previously discussed on these pages.
She was indeed.
Wearing camouflage pants is, apparently, “anti-feminist.”
“Three powerful stories.” Powerful but inaccurate to the point of being complete fiction, and what is it with these morons that everything is “powerful”.
1. She reminded me that US border guards are often armed white folks dressed in full military fatigues…
Actually, the guys in the picture are a “militia” with no authority to do anything anywhere except their own property. The actual Border Patrol that would have been encountered is 52% Hispanic and looks like this:
Large lack of camouflage in those Texaco Man suits.
2. Needless to say, these troops weren’t there to provide aid. They were sent to establish military order and authority over a newly displaced community – the majority made up of low-income black folks…“[T]hese troops [in New Orleans] are armed as they would be in Iraq, with automatic rifles, guns strapped to legs, and pockets overflowing with ammo.”
Total and utter horseshit, this one just pisses me off. Those sufficiently interested can read about the whole thing here, (highly recommended) but the bottom line is that only one of the six Task Forces (TF DEFENDER) subordinate to Task Force PELICAN, the over all C2, was comprised primarily of MP units, and at that they functioned as much as a humanitarin aid distribution unit as MPs. The other TFs were aviation, (flying 6.500 missions tht rescued 9.600 people, transported, 35,000 locals, and delivered 2,100 tons of cargo in 11 days), engineer (responsible for restoring infrastructure), logistic (both internal to the TFs and external to the citizens). The only real patrolling was done in Orleans parish (New Orleans city, basically) out of 13 supported parishes, by a subordinate TF of TF Santa Fe, and that was only done because the locals couldn’t behave themselves.
“Pockets overflowing with ammo…” what utter overwrought horseshit, one does not carry ammo in pockets, and certainly not to the point of overflowing. It is amazing that these jerks can’t even see how stupidly nonsensical their comments are.
3. At that time, it was difficult to distinguish photos of police in Ferguson from images coming out of war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Armored vehicles driven by officers (dressed in full camouflage battle uniforms) patrolled the streets at all hours.
Yeah, no. The only cops dressed in camouflage were SWAT, and the only reason they were there was because the locals were burning their own town down and looting.
The humor value of these idiots is starting to wear off, but I guess I shouldn’t expect anyting rational from our old friend Annah Anti-Palindrome.
Total and utter horseshit, this one just pisses me off.
The problem is not that the horseshit appears in Everyday Feminism; its that it appears in the mainstream media on a regular basis. You and I can chuckle about “pocket overflowing with ammo,” but the NYT and others do their best to confuse semiautomatic and automatic weapons almost daily. The MSM knows most of its readers are too lazy or insulated to seek out the truth.
Another Ben Shapiro talk, at the University of Rochester.
R.Sherman,
For reasons that are not important now, I got direct info on the Katrina mess daily from people on the ground and this knee-jerk disparaging of troops who were doing a hard job in lousy conditions for frequently ungrateful people, I probably take too personally.
You are, however, of course correct, but the disinformation is like a cholera outbreak with no way to secure the Broad Street pump handle.
Farnsworth,
Katrina is something that disturbs me greatly, as well. It was used solely as a means of attacking a) Bush The Younger and b) deflected attention from the Democratic mayor and governor of LA who had truly fucked the first response up beyond recognition. Virtually everything negative which as reported was fabricated to one degree or another. (Remember the cannibals running amok in the Superdome) First disaster response is a state and local issue, not a federal one by statute, but only the feds took any blame while Ray Nagin and Mary Landrieu escaped scrutiny.
R.Sherman,
Plus all the millions in federal money provided over the years to raise and maintain the levees that was siphoned off to nothing but corrupt officials slush funds.
First disaster response is a state and local issue, not a federal one by statute…
Indeed, but active component planners not being idiots, they knew AC units would be deployed, orders were going out to AC units before landfall, and the only reason there was any delay was because Blanco’s refused to allow JTF-Katrina (DoD) to take over evacuation and command of the National Guard units in Louisiana.
…the constitutional counting of slaves to determine the number of representatives in Congress, a measure designed to diminish the legislative power of the more populous slave-holding states which wanted to count slaves as “persons” for some purposes without giving them rights or abolishing slavery as had already been done in the north.
There was a similar trick pulled in Australia with regard to Aborigines.
The colonies with the highest Aboriginal population were also the ones that didn’t permit Aborigines to vote. Upon Federation, the constitution held that (1) a state’s representation in federal parliament would be directly proportional to that state’s population, and (2) “population” was to be defined as only those people who were permitted to vote.
Thus, the newly-minted states of Queensland and Western Australia had to choose between maximising their representation at the federal level or a full extension of the franchise. They eventually caved in 1962 (Western Australia) and 1965 (Queensland).
But if you ask an educated Australian when and how Aborigines got the vote, they’ll tell you it was thanks to a referendum in 1967 – and they’ll probably repeat the canard that prior to this referendum Aborigines were “officially classed as flora and fauna”.
I’ve heard that line often enough, and in those exact words too, that I assume it must come from some official or respected source, despite it being total bollocks. (I’d say obvious bollocks, except that I didn’t twig that anything was wrong when my history teacher said it.)