Elsewhere (281)
Further to recent rumblings in the comments, Helen Dale on the massive oversupply of negligibly-talented artists and writers:
There are too many artists, too many people who want to be artists, and most of them aren’t very good… Meanwhile, universities (yes, you can go to university, rack up student debt, and ‘learn’ to be a writer) tell some people – depending on skin tone, sex, orientation, or something else – that as a matter of routine they have an important and luminous story to tell because of what they are… These people are everywhere in the economy, living hand-to-mouth and doing idiot things like demanding “luxury communism now.”
Via Tim, James Delingpole and David Craig on low standards in higher education:
When we were at university, probably one out of six school-leavers went to university. Now it’s about one out of every two. The number of people going to university has gone up from about 700,000 thirty years ago to over 2.3 million now… The way we’ve achieved that is not by increasing the intellectual capacity of British youth. For example, now, around 51% of all people going to university are getting in on three ‘D’s at A-level, or worse. Leeds Metropolitan University during one year had 97 courses for which you only needed two ‘E’s at A-level… We’ve increased the number of students with a huge drop in the bar you need to get over to get a place at university, and to be able to borrow up to £50,000 of taxpayers’ money.
There are currently around £100bn in outstanding student loans, of which, according to some estimates, 83% are expected to be in default to varying degrees.
Somewhat related, this:
“Teaching is proving to be one viable way for socialists to get into the labour movement and wage class struggle in a key industry that is under attack by capital,” the pamphlet declares. “Teachers across the country and indeed the world have shown us that if we organise in the schools, we can not only win concessions from the millionaire and billionaire class, but can also set a powerful example for the entire working class to follow.”
And Dave Huber on fixated academics and racist hair colouring:
Award-winning poet Claudia Rankine is back, this time dissecting what it “means” when people decide to — wait for it — bleach their hair blonde. Given her monumental racial imagination, it shouldn’t be all that difficult to guess where the Yale professor took the significance of being light-maned.
Apparently, it’s an “unconscious, ubiquitous metaphor” for “whiteness,” and therefore deeply worrying to professors of poetry.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Today’s word is gratitude.
“My pronouns are they and their.”
There’s a non-trivial number of men writing romance novels under a female nom de plume because women won’t buy trashy housewife porn written by a man.
Can confirm.
Can confirm.
It’s all coming out now.
The tolerant left, part 3,097.
Can confirm.
It’s all coming out now.
Oh. So that’s why you started suddenly wiping the bar. A lot.
@pogonip
The Wiki is wrong. His real name is Michael Something (of the Boston Somethings, I believe.)
My gosh, the Internet’s wrong! What’s the world coming to?
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, from my perspective your post is also part of “The Internet”. It therefore becomes a question, which part of the internet is wrong? A post by pogonip or:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fern_Michaels
http://www.webbiography.com/biographies/fern-michaels
https://www.amazon.com/Fern-Michaels/e/B000API3A4/
To be honest, I’m actually interested in the article you mentioned. Fern Michaels the person – not so much.
Further, the risk of absconding is not the only consideration. The majority of people accused of crimes have long histories of contacts with the criminal justice system. For many, the inability to make bail at least keeps puts their criminal activity on hiatus for a few months.
This is how we Brits (well, the English and Welsh parts- they do things different north of the border) go about things: The Bail Act 1976.
My early career was spent as a Senior Crown Prosecutor with the then fledgling CPS, the equivalent of a junior DA. I worked in a very busy magistrates’ court (here in the UK, everything criminal goes through the magistrates court at first instance) and I was often tasked with horse-trading bail decisions with defence lawyers for those who I and the police felt could be released and then engaging in a series of hearings where the magistrates (usually lay volunteers guided by a legally qualified clerk) would get to decide who stayed “banged up” and who got out with conditions: residence, curfew, non-contact with witnesses, not to go to a particular locale, etc. Sureties were a rare thing indeed. On the whole it worked; those with long criminal records, histories of violence or serial failure to turn up when required stayed in, everybody else got bail either with or without conditions.
Those refused bail in those days (late 80s/early 90s) retained jail privileges not available to them when finally sentenced; unlimited phone calls (the inevitable black market in trading telephone cards in jail sprang up), daily visits (an opportunity for the smuggling of drugs and another black market) and the right to wear civilian clothes. For the majority it meant an ability to lead a relatively sybaritic lifestyle in that the few comforts available made it preferable to do your time “on remand” (refused bail) rather than under the harsher regime of prison, and was an incentive to spin out proceedings as long as possible before either being convicted or pleading guilty and receiving the inevitable custodial sentence.
Incidentally, doing this stuff for a living had a profound effect because after a couple of years’ exposure to the hopeless circumstances of life for many defendants (the majority were just plain stupid; see Dalrymple, passim.) and the sheer nastiness of of a few genuinely evil individuals who would never ever reform, my hitherto impeccably liberal/Left political views had already begun to change; so, for example, when Lefty folkster Billy Bragg came up with the fatuous “Rotting On Remand” as a response to the inevitable consequences of the policies outlined in the previous paragraph I just had to laugh. Talk about being nutted by reality….
My pronouns are they and their.
I’m damn close to going full misanthrope. You’ll know I’ve done it when I change my pronouns to there and they’re .
I’m damn close to going full misanthrope.
After ten years of this, it’s amazing I remain such a charming human being.
What?
Fern’s a man. His article appeared some 30-35 years ago in a book called “How to Write a Romance Novel and get it Published.” In those pre-Amazon days, romance was one of the few fields where a new writer who didn’t know anybody could get a foot in the door, because editors couldn’t afford to be snobbish. Romance fans read voraciously. It was common to see a woman coming out of a used bookstore with a grocery sack full of paperbacks. Unfortunately, the writers were unanimous that since the readers read 6 books a month on average, they’d catch you faking it, so you had to love the genre to work in it.
Incidentally, doing this stuff for a living had a profound effect because after a couple of years’ exposure to the hopeless circumstances of life for many defendants (the majority were just plain stupid; see Dalrymple, passim.)
I second that, especially the “plain stupid” part. Which brings me to . . .
Losing your job over a misdemeanor is not really an effective way to keep the marginally criminal in work and therefore on a path out.
As Darleen notes above, a person charged with a misdemeanor really has to be a screw up to wind up in jail. In my jurisdiction, 90% of people charged with misdemeanors are released with a summons on a promise to appear. If they don’t show up, they get a card in the mail. If they don’t show up again, a warrant is issued and a bond amount set (maximum amount $500) which can be had by paying 10% to a bondsman. Judges also allow a posting of 10% with a promise to pay an additional $450 if there’s another FTA. Cash only bonds don’t make an appearance until someone’s failed to show up at least three times.
Further, even for those convicted of misdemeanors who can’t pay the fines, judges allow jail as an alternative to be served on weekends or days off from work. Suffice it to say, it’s not exactly “Cool Hand Luke” out there.
Dave Rubin interviews headmistress Katherine Birbalsingh.
The anecdote, 20 minutes in, about a meeting for low-income minority parents being aggressively disrupted by white middle-class lefties shrieking obscenities may sound familiar, if not amuse.
When this is all you have to worry about, you really might not have a life.
Re: Katherine Birbalsingh.
She highlights what essentially is the racism of the White Left–“middle class” in the UK, I guess. There must be a white savior at all costs. How dare POC have agency and exercise responsibility for choosing their own path. See e.g. Candace Owens.
For some reason, I was reminded of the novel and movie of a few years back, The Help, which garnered much praise on the Left in this country. My response at the time, was, “Well, of course. The hero is the ‘Southern White Girl of Privilege’ who goes off to Left-Wing Yankee College and then swoops in to rescue the poor benighted black domestics.”
The Left’s identity politics must have a “Magic White Person” to survive.
How dare POC have agency and exercise responsibility for choosing their own path.
Like so many other examples, it does rather suggest that the lefties in question aren’t terribly interested in outcomes or enabling choice – and are not naturally inclined to regard their Designated Victim Groups as consisting of actual people with preferences of their own. Instead, these Designated Victim Groups seem to exist more as scenery and furniture – primarily there to decorate the lefties’ own self-flattering drama.
How dare POC have agency and exercise responsibility for choosing their own path.
Related, over at Farcebook, having an internal group suggesting it might be a tad politically biased is wrongthink.
Bet the ranch that the people kvetching were not “minorities”.
“Dozens at Facebook will soon be fired.”
And all I could see was the headline.
When this is all you have to worry about, you really might not have a life.
But it’s terrible that an item of biscuit packaging isn’t dismantling capitalism. As biscuit packaging should, apparently.
The new group has upset other Facebook employees
A leftist fool said “the arc of history bends towards justice”.
It is more accurate to say “the arc of leftism bends towards totalitarianism.”
Bet the ranch that the people kvetching were not “minorities”.
I won’t take that bet, but it is true that “minority” leftists are just as intolerant.
Bet the ranch that the people kvetching were not “minorities”.
Bet the ranch that FB has no minorities among their senior staff.
Pogonip,
And all I could see was the headline.
I can report that it does include the phrase, “critics seized”.
(“Republicans/Conservatives pounced” has gone out of fashion lately.)
Paging James Damore… Paging James Damore…
Let’s hope he didn’t go to work at Farcebook, the poor guy will get fired AGAIN!
No paywall:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/08/28/business/business-breaking/dozens-at-facebook-unite-to-challenge-its-intolerant-liberal-culture/
You’ll know I’ve done it when I change my pronouns to there and they’re .
My favorites are I, Me, and One.
Particularly with One quite covering anyone else regardless of circumstance, claimed circumstance or otherwise . . . .
The big unanswered question: what are Fern Michaels’s pronouns?
dozens-at-facebook-unite-to-challenge-its-intolerant-liberal-culture
Meanwhile, from statista.com:
As of December 2017, 25,105 people were employed by the social networking company
So somewhere on the order of a few thousandths of the staff are willing to speak up.
Pogonip, are you confusing Fern Michaels with Jennifer Wilde, which was the pen name of a man named Tom Huff, and who wrote historical romances in the late 1970s and early 1980s?
I don’t think so, but it’s possible. It’s been a long time since I read that book.
But it’s terrible that an item of biscuit packaging isn’t dismantling capitalism. As biscuit packaging should, apparently.
She went to Bowdoin College. $50,000 a year.
You see, reality is problematic, and so being “inclusive” and “more ethical” entails learning not to think in a remotely realistic way.
She went to Bowdoin College. $50,000 a year.
But of course. This kind of idiocy isn’t arrived at by accident. You have to pay for it, if you want that all-important woke status.
Two words. Guardian contributor.
In an effort to avoid “problematic” search terms, a public university’s library system recently added several new immigration subject headings…
I guess looking up info on Operation Wetback is going to be completely out of the question, then.
Two words. Guardian contributor.
I piss and moan over inconsequentials for the generations of women before me, and unlike me, who did actual work.
Needless to say, said item was retweeted, unironically, by Ms Laurie Penny.
Meanwhile in today’s exciting installment of “Let’s All Get Offended Over Nothing”, another small problem in movie casting.
One would think the SJW crowd would be giddy as schoolgirls that a movie is being made about a dwarf actor who had a role other than a Munchkin, but even if Villechaize was part Filipino, for some strange reason I don’t think Hollywood is really awash in half-Filipino dwarves who got cheated out of a part by another wypipo.
Meanwhile in today’s exciting installment of “Let’s All Get Offended Over Nothing”…
Next out of the gate is Scope (a disability charity) complaining that a non-disabled actor was cast in the role of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.
Jesus wept.
Following this logic, and I use that word with some reservation, to its natural conclusion, will they only be casting actual serial killers and rapists in movies about those types of criminals? How many roles, outside of the Elephant Man, would be open to someone with Proteus syndrome?
The second part of the interview with Katherine Birbalsingh.
The new terms “may foster student academic success by creating inclusive atmospheres,” the announcement on the website reads.
“I’d like to thank my parents, my colleagues, and the members of the Society for granting me this recognition today. But most of all, I’d especially like to thank the university librarians for adding inclusive euphemisms to the search database. Without those euphemisms, I doubt I’d have been able to complete my studies, and I wouldn’t be standing before you now.”
But most of all, I’d especially like to thank the university librarians for adding inclusive euphemisms to the search database.
As Charles Cooke noted last year, “If our colleges continue down this road, they are going to create a host of extremely weird, hyper-sensitive people who have no earthly idea how to converse and interact with the sane.”
“If our colleges continue down this road, they are going to create a host of extremely weird, hyper-sensitive people who have no earthly idea how to converse and interact with the sane.”
I don’t understand. What did he mean by “are going to”?
How many roles, outside of the Elephant Man, would be open to someone with Proteus syndrome?
Given the recent trend to cast, for example, a Somali female as Tsar Nikolai II, any historical white male, but never, ever, as either a freak, monster, or disabled person, because those would be stereotypical and demeaning.
What did he mean by “are going to”?
They’re just getting warmed up, my friend. Wait ’til you see what they can do once they get a little momentum!
Australian Aboriginal Values: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271152/child-sex-abuse-crisis-leftists-dont-want-you-know-danusha-v-goska
Because Noble Savage!
Australian Aboriginal Values
Yeah, lost me at
Australia is totes big. I went there once and only saw a really, really tiny part of it, so like first-hand knowledge and stuff.
My pronouns are they and their.
I identify as a man in the 1990s, which means it’s not offensive when I say the above is ludicrous.
My pronouns are he and his; my verb tenses are future and future perfect continuous, as in, I will have been delighted once Trump gets elected in 2016.
I identify as a man in the 1990s, which means it’s not offensive when I say the above is ludicrous.
I identify as a psychiatrist in the 1950s, which means I can have them put on a locked ward where they will not be a danger either to themselves or others.
Australian Aboriginal Values
IIRC Black Ball has brought this up before; specifically the failure of the culturally lobotomized, morally castrated Australian authorities to do anything.
British forces in the Falkland Islands used to refer to the islanders as Bennys, after a character in the soap Crossroads. This was seen as offensive (almost certainly accurately) and The Powers That Be banned the use of the term. Troops then started calling the islanders Stills, as in “he’s still Benny”. This, of course, was still unacceptable and the use of the term Stills was banned. The troops then moved on to calling them Andys: “And he’s still Benny”…