Elsewhere (276)
Via Darleen, Terry Newman on life among the Mao-lings at Concordia University:
For readers, Alice’s journey in Wonderland is amusing. But to be Alice is something altogether different. The experience is hard to pin down with words. With few exceptions, no one on campus is officially censored. But the culture itself exerts power. One feels constantly judged. One is always on-edge. To perceive nuance, to be sceptical, to ask questions, gets one quickly accused of moral deficiency. The students are zealous, the professors often unprepared, fearful, or complicit. And make no mistake — to be told unendingly that the whiteness of one’s skin is disqualifying, one’s morals questionable, one’s words offensive, one’s opinions invalid, has a significant cumulative psychological effect.
John Ellis on presumptuous and revolting male feminists:
I understand that Dr Michael Kimmel is accomplished in the non-scientific field of sociology and traffics himself as a gender-studies expert. And I understand that some consider him “the world’s most prominent male feminist.” But why does he get to speak for me and my fellow “heterosexual white ones” at a condescending conference with a priori commitments to the silliness called intersectionality?
And Andy Ngo on the inexplicable demise of an intersectionally feminist bookstore:
The customer wasn’t always right. In fact, he was expected to “abide by” seven “guidelines” including this one: “Cishetero-patriarchy exists, white supremacy exists, ableism exists, racism exists, colonialism never ended, capitalism is bad. This is not a space where we argue about the basics of the situation.” […] Signs denouncing police, the U.S. military and immigration authorities lined the windows. Inside, I looked at some of the merchandise for sale. There were “Riots not diets” buttons and a “Fuck patriarchy” T-shirt. The latter was double-extra-large—too big for me. One piece of merchandise carried a label that read “Trigger warning: gendered and patriarchal language.” The offending verbiage? Instructions for using a feminine-hygiene product. I attempted to make a small purchase but didn’t have any cash. A sign at the counter declared: “Due to patriarchy we require a $5 minimum on all debit/credit card purchases.”
I left empty-handed.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Fun With (doubtless patriarchal) science: If you are, or know, a beekeeper, or just like to observe the fascinating little critters, you are probably aware that laying worker bees of the apis mellifera species can only lay male (drone) bees, not females, and that’s why if the beekeeper notices an unusual number of drones in a hive he knows he’s got enough laying workers to cause a problem and usually has to go to a lot of work to set things right. But interestingly enough, in the African subspecies A. m. capensis a laying worker can produce females, who, if fed correctly, will grow into queens. If they’re not sent down the path of royalty, they will be workers, parthenogenetic clones of their mother.
I think most people know that aphids, like tribbles, are born pregnant, and Mom Aphid cranks out lots of parthenogenetic clones of herself. And I imagine a fair number of people knew about parthenogenesis in several species of ants (as if the world didn’t already have more than enough ants). But bees?!?! That was a new one!
The utter derangement of these idiots to think that somehow it is better to cope with an ailment, and that people with disabilities are somehow marginalized because of a movie cure, is astounding.
Ms Lopez’s article reminded me of this.
Apparently, we’re to believe that a black character’s desire to escape from chronic, disabling pain and impending death – using “white science” – is “ableist” and steeped in “white privilege,” and therefore wicked.
…
reminded me of this
I can’t get past this feeling that a few months from now, a year maybe, we’re going to look back at today with a nostalgia for even these saner, happier days.
Last night Mrs. Oik and I watched La Hora Final, a dramatised account of the hunt for and eventual capture of the leader of Peru’s onetime band of bloodthirsty Maoist lunatics known as The Shining Path.
It’s no Lives Of Others, but it’s not bad and worth a couple of hours of anyone’s time.
I did a bit of Googling afterwards, trying to find out a bit more about the movie and stumbled across this. Sample excerpt:
Tens of thousands of Peruvians lost their lives at the hands of the state repression unleashed in response to the tactics employed by Shining Path. Rather than trying to mobilize the working class in revolutionary struggle, that movement sought to organize a Maoist, peasant-based insurrection in the Andean countryside that would supposedly gradually encircle the capital..
Trans: when the gummint do murder, rape and torture, it’s “state repression”; when Marxist revolutionaries do the same, it’s “tactics”.
Go on, “fill your boots” as they say around these parts. That’s if you can make it though more than a couple of paragraphs of mind-numbing, morally insane Marxoid bollocks.
Oh, and I’ve set up a shrine in the house to honor St. Willis [Carrier]
Me too!
Good to see fellow worshippers! Any plans to celebrate our hero on the 17th?
Ms Lopez’s article reminded me of this.
When one starts a paper with such a flawed premise, it is small wonder that the outcome is a dog’s breakfast.
A) As the implant merely goes into the mastoid, it is not “brain surgery”, it is outpatient otolaryngology surgery, though that hardly is as scary or hysterical, b) it does not “simulate” sound, it directly stimulates the 8th cranial nerve, turning sound waves into electrical impulses, i.e., the same thing that happens in a person with normal hearing*, but with an external boost c) “maniacal obsession” – lighten up, Francis, d) maybe the author should have skipped the stuff about which ze had no clue.
With that bit of po-mo twaddle I abandoned further reading as at 0652, it is too early to start drinking.
*I denounce myself for violent audism.
Audism… is the “notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of those who hear.”
I have a niece who was born with a hearing problem, successfully corrected with an implant, and a father-in-law who relies on a hearing aid. So far as I can recall, I haven’t ever felt “superior” to either of them on grounds that my hearing works better than theirs. And both seem immensely grateful for the devices that allow them to enjoy music, family gossip and questionable gameshows.
When there are so few real problems, problems have to be invented, Chapter 1,287,265.
So far as I can recall, I haven’t ever felt “superior”…
Yes, that is because you have sonoblind audism. Sonodeaf audism ? Whatever it is, you are obviously just denying you audonormative oppression. I think I can get a paper out of this.
As a follow up to The Stupidest Article Ever:
Canada’s reply: hold my anatomy book;
“Accurate”, I do not think that word means what they think it means.
So far, so good. Fingers crossed.
This, sent to me via a friend, is worth a read: https://quillette.com/2018/07/08/the-fear-of-white-power/
I get the impression that a lot of the dead advocates feel, perhaps subconsciously, that because they cope without sound that *they* are superior.
Certainly the ones opposing cures behave exactly as would a group that *was* superior that was asked to renounce what made them superior.
Deaf advocates, obviously. Sigh.
Deaf advocates, obviously.
These days, not obviously, many people are necrophobic and life-shame Bodies of Decay.
Thanks, Nemo, that indeed was well worth my time reading.
This stood out, too:
What the racemongerers have to know is that crying “wolf” too often and the people they are trying to intimidate with “RAAAAACIST” accusations are going to ignore them.
Maybe they’re just don’t care.
All capitalist enterprizes risk failure, but a anti-capitalist capitalist enteprize doubly so. To repudiate the very thing that the business needs to flourish must generate enormous cognitive dissonance.
This, of course, presupposes that the persons under discussion engage in, or are indeed capable of cognition.
In the legal realm this is referred to as ‘assumes facts not in evidence’.
“Are you planning to use this equipment for alt-right purposes?“
Just got back from two glorious, internet-free weeks in the wilds of New Mexico–it’s a dry heat. I see you all have been busy. Someone slide something cold this way.
Good point about the Thai rescue effort.
I am disgruntled because an idiot backed into my car, which I was not using for alt-right purposes, and now I am the one who has to be inconvenienced running around getting estimates, etc. I want a Federal, at least, preferably international, law that in a car accident caused by idiocy the idiot has to do all the legwork AND has to accompany the victim to all time-consuming accident-related appointments.
I bet persons of all nationalities, races, religions, “genders,” you name it, would support this. It could be the issue that finally unites mankind.
😡😠🧐
“Are you planning to use this equipment for alt-right purposes?”
Heh. It’s going to be both lively and tedious if denying service for not being sufficiently leftwing is going to be the hot new thing.
I see you all have been busy. Someone slide something cold this way.
You escaped the internet for two weeks…? ‘Tis the stuff of legend, sir.
[ Slides Sherman’s favourite tankard along bar. A pickled egg follows. ]
Tim Newman on women in the workplace.
[ Slides Sherman’s favourite tankard along bar. A pickled egg follows. ]
The pickled eggs are now moving about on their own??
You are getting your bar snacks from Strangefellows, aren’t you . . .
The pickled eggs are now moving about on their own??
I think they’ve developed some kind of bacterial sentience. They seek out body heat.
The idea that language drives thought, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, is a very enticing. It’s also pretty much total bullshit
I always ask what conclusions they draw from the slang terms in Spain for genitalia having opposite genders (el coño, la polla). Is everyone in Spain secretly gay or transgender?
Here we have a woman joining an industry and then complaining how things are done when she gets there.
Two American liberals who grew up in a large city bought s second home in a very rural area. For years afterwards I heard their complaints about the local people. Why, in winter they even drove their snowmobiles into town! And of course these liberals made a big thing of being tolerant and open-minded.
I work in an open-plan office and I hate it because of the noise.
I bet at least half of the workers who felt they were being watched use Facebook. 😄
I bet at least half of the workers who felt they were being watched use Facebook.
Of course, the really shifty buggers may well be reading this thing.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the Two Deaf Lesbians:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/08/davidteather
Would be a great band name, except it’s not funny.
Is everyone in Spain secretly gay or transgender?
Don’t give them any ideas.
presumptuous and revolting male feminists
‘Related’…
https://www.refinery29.com/2018/07/203982/feminist-apparel-ceo-alan-martofel-fires-staff
‘Related’…
Good gracious, is there ever a lot to unpack from that article. Is the CEO trying to atone for his past transgressions, or is he a very clever fox who built a house tailored to appeal to a particular kind of hen? Were the (now former) employees pulling one over on their boss, or were they complicit in his ongoing abuses? Is the company offering its feminist customers a valuable way of broadcasting their message and empowering one another, or is it all just a lie?
If the women who voluntarily exchange their money for these products find the products to be valuable and empowering, does it matter if the CEO is a {calculating monster|contrite former abuser}? Are the thousands of t-shirts out there now “fruit of a poison tree,” or do they represent the triumph of Strong Feminists over the stale patriarchy of the CEO?
If Angry Studies were a legitimate field of study, this article would make for a fascinating couple of classes.
If Angry Studies were a legitimate field of study,
And if my grandmother had wheels…
is he a very clever fox who built a house tailored to appeal to a particular kind of hen
The latter. Opportunistic online T-shirt stores (often based on outrageous copyright violations) are an entire market segment. Dude found a way to tap into the affluent bourgeois I Hate You Dad market. Good for him.
I found that article vastly entertaining, and I honestly don’t even care whether Martofel is a genuine penitent or a heartless user. He’s a businessman and it’s his company. He’s the one who went to the risk, effort, and expense of founding it and making it a successful going concern. He’s the one who gave that pack of self-righteous graspers jobs at it. If they suddenly decided he was too morally repugnant to work for they should have quit. Instead they tried to fire him. From his own company. The fact that he didn’t go into some sniveling defensive crouch and instead responded by firing them is the sort of poetic justice that makes me smile.
Is the CEO trying to atone for his past transgressions, or is he a very clever fox who built a house tailored to appeal to a particular kind of hen?
The CEO seems to be a feminist of the Hugo Schwyzer type. New allegations of predatory behavior give the Schwyzer type better media exposure for his schtick as a charming rogue who struggles with toxic masculinity, opening up new career opportunities and more access to freshmeat interns, which sooner or later leads to new allegations of predatory behavior…
The typical pajamaboy male feminist doesn’t have the kind of antifragility. There’s always a suspicion that if he hasn’t been sexually misbehaving, it’s because he doesn’t have much opportunity put his way. One strike and Pajamaboy is out – nobody liked that creep anyway.
The appeal of the Schwyzer type to the hens, apart from being better looking and more socially adept than the typical wussy male who’s always hanging around, is that he can be relied on to behave as badly as they believe all men behave, or would if they were given the chance, and he’s happy to go along with their narrative explaining his bad behavior as a manifestation of a toxic masculinity for which all men are collectively guilty.
“Heh. It’s going to be both lively and tedious if denying service for not being sufficiently leftwing is going to be the hot new thing.”
It’s going to be even more lively and tedious when people realize that they won’t be able to order from a restaurant without getting their food contaminated / poisoned once the woke start doing an internet search on the info you provide for every transaction and find out their political donations, blog posts, etc.