Reheated (53)
For newcomers, some items from the archives:
“Social justice” howler monkeys prove difficult to please.
So, to recap. Forty or so “social justice” activists disrupt a keynote address at DePauw University, holding signs that scold the audience for being insufficiently deferential to the protestors’ racial fixations and delusions of being oppressed. Being schooled in “privilege and identity,” and therefore suitably cowed and pretentious, the audience starts applauding the disruption, and applauding the scolding being aimed at them. And then those applauding are promptly scolded for doing so.
Salon’s Silpa Kovvali insists that gendered pronouns must be abolished. Everyone, she says, is a “they.”
Ms Kovvali believes that gendered pronouns and honorifics are an “outdated linguistic tic.” And not a useful, rather concise source of information, a signal of respect, and a way of clarifying who it is we’re talking about. Despite her claims, almost all of us seem quite happy to be referred to as either male or female, as if it were in fact “relevant,” and the demand for gender-neutral pronouns remains, to say the least, a niche concern. I’d even venture to suggest that some of us might feel slighted by the wilful omission of – diminishing of – our respective maleness or femaleness. However, Ms Kovvali feels a need to inform those less enlightened, i.e., the rest of us, that, “The goal is greater inclusion… to be respectful to those we write about, and to be clear to our readers.” By risking affront on a daily basis and introducing a clumsy and needless ambiguity. Because vagueness is the new clarity.
Leftist students indulge in thuggery. Laurie Penny lies about it.
In Laurie’s mind, presumably, nothing you see in this video actually happened. Nobody laid siege to someone else’s property, terrorising staff and trapping them in their offices. Nobody barricaded fire escapes and used mob force repeatedly, while denouncing any kind of physical retaliation or attempt to enforce the law. No, the thuggery and shoving, the attempts to intimidate and impose on others… that somehow didn’t happen. It was, in Laurie’s mind, “a peaceful occupation.” Like so many of her comrades, Laurie relies on a kind of faux naiveté – according to which, laying siege to a building and trapping staff for hours while chanting “Fuck the police” is in no way provocative or an invitation for scuffles and violence.
I Don’t Deserve This Shabby Treatment.
The signature vainglory of the academic left.
Professor Surber’s self-regard continues to tumesce. He has fathomed all of history and it validates him: “It is because we liberal-arts professors… have carefully studied the actual dynamics of history and culture; and we have trained ourselves to think in complex, nuanced, and productive ways about the human condition that so many of us are liberals.” In short, if you haven’t reached a similarly leftwing conclusion, you haven’t achieved sufficient complexity and nuance in your thinking, you peasant.
There’s more, should you want it, in the greatest hits.
“Howler monkeys” is good. I may re-use that.
Leftist students indulge in thuggery. Laurie Penny lies about it.
Shocked face.
Shocked face.
I suppose the second part could be applied to just about any subject Laurie writes about frequently. Not least herself.
Another protestor, resident assistant Amata Giramata, denounced the applause as a display of “white sympathy,” which is apparently the wrong kind of sympathy, and is therefore offensive
Our universities are a breeding ground for basket cases.
Our universities are a breeding ground for basket cases.
The Clown Quarter isn’t an ideal venue for retaining a sense of proportion, or realism, or basic honesty. It seems to be a pathological environment, in which the vanities and vices that would usually be discouraged – say, by exposure, mockery and social rejection – are actively cultivated and reinforced. To the extent that even the most obnoxious, self-indulgent and threatening behaviour can be excused and applauded by faculty and administrators. As if hysteria, spite and gratuitous thuggery were exemplary and virtuous.
Professor Surber’s self-regard continues to tumesce.
I think that was the first post I ever read here (as a lurker).
*looks at date*
8 years ago!
8 years ago!
You should try sitting here.
And I still think Professor Surber’s article is much more revealing than he seems to realise. Again, vanity is a powerful drug.
8 years ago!
Not to brown-nose the host, but blog-longevity is an underappreciated achievement, especially for those of us who are un-woke. The whole “fighting against the tides” stuff can become wearisome in short order. Were it not for the booze and henchlesbian floor show now and again, we’d all be hold up in our fortified compounds listening to old Ronald Reagan speeches.
The clowns are out today.
https://twitter.com/IncMonocle/status/991297493555208193
Not to brown-nose the host, but blog-longevity is an underappreciated achievement,
[ Discreetly slides free drinks voucher to Mr Sherman. Pinned to his usual copy of Colossal Knockers. ]
Pinned to his usual copy of Colossal Knockers.
Being a Renaissance Man is my cross to bear.
The clowns are out today.
Useful idiots. Their puppet masters are long gone, but the marionette show must continue anyway.
Marxist marionette musical accompaniment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohOJksxnoE0
Now doesn’t that make the march all the more entertaining?
Speaking of the May Day Clown Show, the Chinese, of all people, have developed a way to deal with such annoyances.
The “shouting” part is pure genius.
The clowns are out today.
Speaking of which.
OT: Is anyone masochistic enough to have watched the new season of Handmaid’s Tale? The missus watched a few episodes last night and it was the first time I’d seen any of them and…wow. A more perfect expression of the contemporary white chick progressive id cannot be possible.
They’ve constructed a universe in which resting bitch-faced WASPs are not only the victims, but are the ONLY victims. It is simultaneously a rape fantasy, an African slavery fantasy, an intersectional polemic, and even a climate change critique featuring what I can only imagine is what the Left thinks a white supremacist patriarchy would actually resemble. The acting is overwrought to the point that the players visibly delight in their characters’ victimhood, basking in it and wearing that familiar feminist frown with such righteousness that it blinds you to look directly at it.
It’s a dramatic tween’s creative writing journal in which the author, shall we say, appropriates every type of oppression anyone has experienced and uses absurd worldbuilding to explain how it is all happening to white whammen. Example: a women – excuse me, a chattel, is punished in front of the rest of the group by having her hand tied to a stove(!) and lighting it. In another scene the dissident womyn are rounded up by police state types and, despite having the advantage numerically and in firepower they goons place identical, stylish gags over each of the 20 or so rebels. And, though women aren’t exactly known for their efficiency as chain gangs, the overlords hand them pickaxes and whip them to work. Think Roots as interpreted by Dworkin. Subtlety is not the show’s strong suit.
I cannot recommend it enough. I laughed until I cried.
A more perfect expression of the contemporary white chick progressive id cannot be possible.
It smelt bad from a distance, for the reasons you confirm, so I steered clear. I spend enough time poking about in the progressive id as it is, and there’s only so much TV I can watch ironically.
Sam, what network is that on? Or is it a Netflix? I might want to make my wife watch it to keep her in line. I decided I’m not moving that damn sofa ever again.
@WTP
It’s a Hulu-exclusive. I genuinely thought the score was very good, and it helped set the “look at all the grinding oppression!” atmosphere. Some advice when exercising your patriarchal privilege: don’t make your chattel wear those cartoonishly large bonnets. It makes it much more difficult to move about the house while oppressing them.
It struck me again while watching that the fringe left has such an incredible funding advantage for their little fantasies. The show was extremely well produced and the quality of costume, sets, etc was top notch.
For Howler Monkeys, Louder Calls Mean Smaller…
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/10/22/for-howler-monkeys-louder-calls-means-smaller/#.WuiRbFlOmf0
You may be more right than you know….
They’ve constructed a universe in which . . . the ONLY victims. . . a rape fantasy, an African slavery fantasy, . . . appropriates every type of oppression anyone has experienced . . . having her hand tied to a stove(!) and lighting it. . . . place identical, stylish gags . . . hand them pickaxes and whip them to work.
Oh. So y’say they’re merely doing another Fifty Shades Of Idiots.
—I know people who actually do actual BDSMIsh, and the ongoing and totally uniform reactions to Fifty Shades Of Bilge is, well, Fifty Shades Of Bilge. It’s quite definitely in the category of a rapper claiming to be a musician.
—I’ve also read the book The Handmaid’s Tale and there are indeed the reasons that the book got the awards it did . . . . and the book begins, sets up the assorted pieces, notes the bloody inevitable failing fracture lines of such an environment, and then having done that, the book ends.
Is anyone masochistic enough to have watched the new season of Handmaid’s Tale?
I never got past the first few episodes of the first season, the whole premise was so preposterous I just didn’t care what happened to anyone.
Is anyone masochistic enough to have watched the new season of Handmaid’s Tale … featuring what I can only imagine is what the Left thinks a white supremacist patriarchy would actually resemble
It’s interesting to watch a future patriarch, of a migration background, in a German high school. The clip is in German, but it’s the tone and body language of the boy that’s interesting.
He doesn’t have the guilt that’s white boys have piled onto them by their culture, he’s not bracing himself to be scolded and called a misogynist loser, and he’s not being deliberately provocative to tease the girls.
He knows that German culture disapproves of his views, and he doesn’t care because his culture supports him, and he’s not handicapped by self-hatred and inherited guilt. If the future is going to be like Handmaid’s Tale, these are the boys who’ll be running it, not their timid, second-guessing, walking-on-eggshells blond classmates.
Nice White Lady: would you marry a Christian girl? Future Patriarch: I might have a Christian girlfriend, but I’m expected to marry an Albanian Muslim girl.
Would she have to obey you? Yes, and if there was any carrying-on with other men, there’d be trouble.
In our Constitution, men and women have equal rights. ohhhkay, but…
You don’t accept that? No I don’t accept that.
But it’s our Constitution! (Future Patriarch grunts dismissively)
So is the family more important than the Constitution? Yes, naturally.
I think a few weeks working at a McDonald’s would greatly benefit these precious assholes.
Welcome to the land of self righteous vegans
https://twitter.com/7AnthonyDagher7/status/990330619870707718
Welcome to the land of self righteous vegans
The comments are intellectually enriching. Real Algonquin Round Table stuff.
As I said in a prior post, we should all just admit that everything is racist…
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/05/school-dress-codes-are-biased-against-black-girls.html
Speaking of shabby treatment, here is Roz Ward from Down Under bemoaning how the rest of us rubes cannot get to her wavelength of awesomeness and wokeness.
‘Those on the political and socially conservative right (and wherever Mark Latham now sits on the political spectrum) have accused me several times of plotting for the downfall of civilisation in what they predict will be some sort of “cultural Marxism”. Even my mum, who thinks I’m doing a pretty awesome job, knows that my powers of destruction are more limited.’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/01/roz-ward-i-will-never-give-up-fighting-for-a-more-free-and-joyful-world
Ms Ward you may recall is one of the authors of Safe Schools wherein students on the LGBTI spectrum were to be protected against bullying. And Ms Ward was subsequently fired for bullying herself after an altercation at a protest against President Trump’s election.
https://zero-filter.com/2016/11/21/roz-ward-safe-schools-and-anti-bullying-activist-caught-assaulting-australian-trump-supporter/
To be honest, not sure why I wrote ‘Ms’ Ward. I will report myself to the correction booth.
David didn’t tell you those are door knockers.
Not least herself.
Like when she shaped a narrative of her having had to strip her way through university. Then it turned out the truth was that she had joined her school’s burlesque group.
As if hysteria, spite and gratuitous thuggery were exemplary and virtuous.
Were we discussing higher education, the Middle East, or the more ridiculous backwaters of Africa? And does it matter which anymore?
we should all just admit that everything is racist.
I’ve gone ’round and ’round with women on this whole “OMG girls are disciplined WAY more than boys for dress code violations CUZ SEXISM”
… no one seems to care that if it were boys wearing midriff baring tops or cheek-high shorty shorts they’d be sent home to change, too.
::sigh:::
Then there’s the usual “well, just tell boys to not LOOK if they are distracted”
as if these parents didn’t go through puberty either and not know that girls are deliberately dressing to get the boys to look.
:::double sigh:::
It’s a dramatic tween’s creative writing journal
You misspelled “Margaret Atwood”.
Sorry, are there non-self-righteous vegans?
Some vegetarians are pretty live-and-let-live, but vegans rarely so.
(I divide vegetarians in my mind into two groups: people who happen not to eat meat, who I can generally get on fine with, and “moral vegetarians”, who I try to avoid. There is a third group, those who are “eating-disorder caused vegetarians”, but I try not to psychoanalyse people from a distance.)
Sorry, are there non-self-righteous vegans?
Some vegetarians are pretty live-and-let-live, but vegans rarely so.
There is a particular noted issue with a diet that is absolutely only vegan or vegetarian and nothing else.
After awhile, one is going to run out of them, and then will have to go back to other forms of meat.
In Laurie’s mind, presumably, nothing you see in this video actually happened.
She’s shameless.
She’s shameless.
When it comes to dishonesty, Laurie has a certain élan, a certain expertise. In this instance, however, it wasn’t just Laurie. The accounts in student papers were often written by leftist activists and so departed from reality to much the same degree and in very similar ways. And so these would-be journalists simply ignored the hours of incriminating online footage, which took me all of 30 seconds to find, and the accounts of the police, and the accounts of the actual people being threatened and trapped, and whose workplace was under siege.
Instead, we were told that the protestors’ thuggery was both “peaceful” and “a legitimate form of dissent,” while any attempt to dissent from their position – say, to reclaim one’s property or freedom from captivity – was a “disregard for both the welfare of students and the university community.” It was positively Kafkaesque. I couldn’t find a single student journalist who registered the irony of masked thugs terrorising random people, threatening them, vandalising property, blocking fire escapes, assaulting police officers, and generally exulting in sub-rational behaviour, while demanding free degrees.
Because of all that intellect.
Like when she shaped a narrative of her having had to strip her way through university. Then it turned out the truth was that she had joined her school’s burlesque group.
And when her Grandma won the George Cross, then it turned out she was living in Malta when the entire island was awarded it. Which would mean I’m a Nobel Prize winner, through virtue of being an EU citizen.
You misspelled “Margaret Atwood”.
She’s one of yours, too.
Further to my previous, I suppose you have to marvel at a mindset in which you can initiate hostility, gratuitously, physically, forcing your way inside someone’s place of work and issuing threats, with no regard whatsoever for the people you’ve frightened and trapped in their offices, for hours, and all while insisting that you’re the victim of the drama that you’ve gone out of your way to create, and in which you’re clearly exulting.
For me, one of the more telling moments – caught on video but which I now can’t find – was of a group of ‘occupiers’ attempting to block a doorway with some large object while kicking repeatedly at the police from behind it. When the officer being kicked returned the favour, the students immediately and loudly denounced his “violence” while omitting any mention of their own. As if any kind of pushback to their provocation were some inexplicable violation.
But that’s who they are. It’s who they all are.
Meanwhile, in the world of art, “…an Unusual and Radical Act…”, by which I am guessing they mean “…trite and hackneyed…”.
I am going to go out on a limb and speculate that the “cutting edge” “artists of color” are going to suck even more than the average Warhol, and I always thought an “artist of color” was someone who didn’t just do monochromes.
Yes, because a “person of color” could not possibly appreciate a Michaelangelo, and it is important that we Balkanize all the things.
On the subject, I am triggered by the Baltimore Art Museum as its neo-classical facade represents dead white European males. A clearly radical act would be to tear it down and replace it with something resembling rundown storefronts.
Sorry, are there non-self-righteous vegans?
Some vegetarians are pretty live-and-let-live, but vegans rarely so.
That’s kinda where I draw my line with religions. I refuse to submit to any religion that tries to control what I eat or drink. Not saying I disrespect those who do, but for me dietary restrictions are a big red flag. Now if there was a religion that forbade eating something I wouldn’t eat anyway, I suppose that wouldn’t be such a big deal. But in the context of all such religions, has there ever been one that expressly forbade eating dogs, cats, or monkeys? I suppose there are a (very) few other things I don’t eat but it certainly seems odd that there isn’t a religion stating such.
Yes, because a “person of color” could not possibly appreciate a Michelangelo,
Well, quite. The assumption that a given racial demographic will only have an interest in art by that same racial demographic, by artists who look superficially like themselves, is a tad… um, what’s the word?
I am going to go out on a limb and speculate that the “cutting edge” “artists of color” are going to suck even more than the average Warhol,
I’m no Warhol fan, but the examples of minority artistry offered in the article by way of links – including the unattractive daubings of Jade Fadojutimi and Amy Sherald’s shockingly mediocre portrait of Michelle Obama – don’t exactly inspire great confidence. But then, it seems to me that such venues have largely abandoned any aesthetic function. To the extent that, if half of them were to be levelled tomorrow and the sites used as car parks, surprisingly little would be lost.
Now if there was a religion that forbade eating something I wouldn’t eat anyway, I suppose that wouldn’t be such a big deal.
I think – and as was pointed out to me not too long ago – the general idea is to interrupt one’s normal life with a reminder of higher matters, immortal souls and such. And so, prohibiting indulgences that aren’t actually tempting and would rarely, if ever, crop up wouldn’t serve that purpose terribly well. Hence prohibited things tend to be tasty, like bacon, or worth burning down an orphanage for, like coffee.
the general idea is to interrupt one’s normal life with a reminder of higher matters
Yeah, that was the excuse presented to me as well. Not to totally dismiss the merit of what I’m calling an excuse. Though I suppose given the idiocy of today, infusing a religion with a ban on eating dogs or monkeys might result in encouraging it, so prolly not a good idea. That said, I’m still pondering the cat thing….
I don’t find much or Warhol’s oeuvre to be pretty or appealing on its own merits, but there’s a certain irony in pushing out a man bent on recognizing “everyday art” and the work that goes by every day without any pretense or notice, and replacing him with matter that is recognized too much for its merits.
A can of Campbell’s tomato soup is visually pleasing, and the artist is ignored – as with a well-chosen angle and lighting for a shot of Marilyn Monroe. Warhol’s success at pointing this out is up for debate; but I give you a solemn guarantee whatever replaces Warhol will be deliberately ugly, and the artist celebrated. “This, too, is art” is incompatible with “art must be ever-more rarified vomit of incomprehensible spite”.
There’s being shallowly thought-provoking, and then there’s attempting to gridlock thought because you’re an asshole.
Colossal Knockers
It has a challenging crossword, and I always find the gardening page extremely helpful.
the general idea is to interrupt one’s normal life with a reminder of higher matters, immortal souls and such
And perhaps to be incompatible enough with other people’s normal life that you don’t get too intimate with them – so you remain friendly in a business context with Mr Cohen/Ahmed/Singh, but after that awkward dinner party when his wife asked about the chopping boards, you don’t invite him to your home, so his children don’t mingle with your children, there’s less chance of intermarriage, and the community carries its food taboo meme into the next generation.
Any personal food choice is objectionable to the extent that it disrupts sitting down to dinner together as a ritual of social bonding and hospitality. To be fair, that’s not the case for the vegetarians I know, who are excellent cooks and hosts and guests.
Again, vanity is a powerful drug.
Tut tut, David. You should respect philosophy professors.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/44518/
Tut tut, David. You should respect philosophy professors.
Our progressive elites increasingly seem defined by a combination of bewildering ignorance and outright moral perversity.
Our progressive elites increasingly seem defined by a combination of bewildering ignorance and outright moral perversity.
It’s one thing to do the self-referential post thing. It’s another to dig out comments from several years ago at the drop of a hat. Quite frankly, it’s a bit scary. What happens when our 80+ year old mothers decide it’s time to become acquainted with the internet and then scour it for stuff we’ve posted in their copious free time?
The stuff of nightmares, actually.
On racist dress codes: “There’s research showing kids who are subject to out-of-school suspensions are more likely to fall behind, drop out, or encounter the criminal justice system.”
I’m starting to think that sociology professors aren’t well acquainted with the work of E. Propter Hoc.
Quite frankly, it’s a bit scary.
I have been doing this for over a decade. In this tiny, marginal arena, I have some small expertise.
And you’ll notice I can only do it with my comments.
And you’ll notice I can only do it with my comments.
Well, sure. For now.
Use your power for good and not evil, my son.
Well, sure. For now.
As a superpower, it’s right up there with sock pairing. I doubt a film franchise awaits.
This stuff is just so wearying.
bewildering ignorance and outright moral perversity.
Wow. That whole comment. There’s a couple of people I want to send that to.
That Minnow guy(?) is a bit slippery.
a bit slippery.
A phrase that comes to mind is rhetorical mucous.
the general idea is to interrupt one’s normal life with a reminder of higher matters, immortal souls and such.
Most Jewish dietary laws are there to keep you from eating things that are likely to kill you, like salmonella and trichinosis, if one happens to be part of an early iron age tribe with no understanding of microbiology.
I laughed until I cried.
If you ever want the laughter without the tears, there’s always No Men Beyond This Point (2015). It’s the radfem moist dream dressed as comedy. A new utopia where parthenogenesis has sent males to the edge of extinction.
But of course a university would fund such an event. Mind you, I would be curious to find out what ‘classic queer cinema’ entails. Would Brokeback Mountain qualify, or does masculine homosexuality discount it?
https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/deakinlife/2018/04/09/come-along-to-the-geelong-queer-film-festival/
… bewildering ignorance and outright moral perversity.
Gah! Hal and Minnow posting at length in the same thread. “Rhetorical mucous” indeed.
Daniel, “most”? You are, I hope, aware that Jewish dietary laws go far beyond prohibiting pigs and shellfish. Rabbits, camels and horses are no less unkosher than pork, even though they don’t carry trichinosis; dolphins and swordfish are just as much off-limits as oysters.
Nor do the requirements for kosher slaughter, the prohibition of certain abdominal fats (while others are perfectly okay) and of the sciatic nerve, or the prohibition on mixing milk and meat – to name just a few of the other Jewish dietary laws – have anything to do with microbiology or with ancient health regulations. David’s and PQ’s comments above (especially David’s) are rather closer to the mark.
Welcome to the land of self righteous vegans
Well then. Out of the helicopters they must go lest they confound the great conservative revival.
Ancient dietary restriction weren’t just there to head off salmonella or whatever. They also, and likely morseso, solved incentive traps in societies that had no full time inspectors or regulators
E.G. Pigs were an extremely ecologically bad fit in ancient Israel, being an animal of littoral preferences in a dusty environment. Raising them might have satisfied some wealthy person’s taste for bacon, but at a cost of insufficient food overall. So a taboo, as with most taboos, arose for a reason, later codified into scripture.
The anthropologist Marvin Harris covered such topics nicely, back in the day, in his books such as “Cows, pigs, wars and witches” and “Cannibals and kings.”
Been a few decades since I read them, but I do remember both as being well worth one’s time.
And as I think about it, maybe it’s better to stick to books from earlier eras, before the Great Stupidizing Of The Humanities had laid such waste to the land.
Sorry, are there non-self-righteous vegans? I try not to psychoanalyse people from a distance.
Occasionally succeeding, one insists.
There is a particular noted issue with a diet that is absolutely only vegan or vegetarian and nothing else.
Handily, there is also a particular noted issue with a diet that is absolutely only not vegan or vegetarian and nothing else.
Speaking of balance, as rigorous as a rosary of anti-vegan disavowals in the name of cultural-political holiness generally is, there is an equally handy raft of data supporting the practice. Health, impact, even a type of just the oddest humane morality you can imagine.
Anyway, bacon is so the salt of the earth and who invited you into my kitchen you Orwellian toadie and like that. Toodles.
Ten,
avowing anti-vegan rosaries means speaking out in support of veganism.
But you’re angry, right?
Oh dear, that first word should have been “dis”avowing. Mom, the HTML ate my homework again.
“Rhetorical mucous” indeed.
In much the same way that hagfish can exude vast quantities of slime to escape predators, it’s the tool of someone practised in evasion, a way to not be pinned down. And no-one did rhetorical mucous quite like Minnow.
Oh Lord, I fell down my own rabbit hole of links to old threads.
Though it wasn’t entirely devoid of entertainment. For instance, “Personally, when something looks too good to be true, I tend to think it is.” Said the tireless apologist for communism.
I thought mine more of a faint logical blip in the strict classical structuralism of anti-vegan principle, Sing, but just as axiomatically, you’d know better than I its attendant umbrage. I try not to psychoanalyse people from a distance, if that’s not already taken.
But you’re angry, right?
No, just a troll. Note the great gobs of gobbledygook. (Similar to slime.)
Easy, Geez. They’ll never take your triple bacon cheese Fatburgr.