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Elsewhere (274)

June 17, 2018 by David 31 Comments

Heather Mac Donald on leftist contradictions: 

The same left-wing establishment that in the morning rails against American oppression of an ever-expanding number of victim groups in the afternoon denounces the U.S. for not giving unlimited access to foreign members of those same victim groups. In their open-borders afternoon mode, progressives paint the U.S. as the only source of hope and opportunity for low-skilled, low-social-capital Third Worlders; a place obligated by its immigration history to take in all comers, forever. In their America-as-the-font-of-all-evil-against-females-and-persons-of-colour morning mode, progressives paint the U.S. as the place where hope and opportunity die under a tsunami of misogyny and racism… In pressing for an immigration policy determined by the desire of hundreds of millions of foreigners to enter the U.S., progressives implicitly acknowledge that the left-wing narrative about America is false.

Toni Airaksinen on feminist nutrition: 

Two professors argue in a newly published anthology on “feminist nutrition” that “athletic performance” and “longevity” are simply “Western values.” 

The authors, Allison Hayes-Conroy and her sister, Jessica Hayes-Conroy, are unhappy that dietary literature, which they wish to “decolonise,” rarely devotes space to activist issues such as “strikes and boycotts,” knowledge of which is apparently essential to any attempt to lose weight or correct a vitamin D deficiency. The ladies are also unhappy that farmers markets are “spaces of whiteness” and therefore oppressive.   

And via R. Sherman, Bret Weinstein describes his career-changing encounter with the Mao-lings at Evergreen: 

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the day that 50 Evergreen students – students that I had never met – disrupted my class, accusing me of racism and demanding my resignation. I tried to reason with them… Their response surprised me, and it would take months for me to fully understand what had happened. The protestors had no apparent interest in the very dialogue they seemed to invite. I was even more surprised by the protestors’ fervour in shouting down my actual students – some of whom had known me for years. The cruelty and derision reserved for students of colour who spoke in my defence was particularly chilling.

As the professor seems to have belatedly realised, good-faith dialogue holds little appeal for the spiteful, the malevolent and the sadistically inclined. Unlike scolding, humiliation and mob harassment. And of course, exerting power over others.

Update, via the comments: 

Very much related to the above, Franklin Einspruch on the mental and moral contortions of woke commentary:  

Noah Berlatsky is a herpes lesion on the lip of cultural criticism. This is someone who thinks Janis Joplin’s music is racist. He thinks the show “Altered Carbon” is racist. He can probably find racism in cloud formations and wood grain. After several years of politicising culture to within an inch of its life, he turned to politics. There, his attitude—that the world is divided into white supremacists, and people who agree with him—has guaranteed him an audience as a progressive journalist.

Do read the whole thing.

As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.




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