And again, note the assumption that women are every bit as strong and fearless as men, and every bit as willing to do physically demanding and highly dangerous jobs, often working nights and in harrowing conditions – and yet, simultaneously, these fearless, near-superhuman women can be deterred and rendered tearful by a children’s cartoon.
It occurs to me that the kinds of people who can be deflected by the gender of a cartoon firefighter are unlikely to be the kinds of people you’d wish to count on when it really matters.
Pogonip
March 18, 2019 2:12 pm
Not anyone who’d lived through a fire, that’s for sure.
I would have become an explorer with all kinds of cool gadgets if only that damn Johnny Quest had been named Jane Quest.
Then I was considering going into a STEM field but could find no evidence at all that girls were allowed to do that stuff.
So I went to the kitchen and made my lord and master a sandwich. Been there ever since. 😡
a different James
March 18, 2019 2:14 pm
“Images of men rushing into burning buildings does little to encourage gender equality.”
Indeed. Thank God a woman fire chief did not allow men to evacuate the Grenfell Tower Block. Could you just imagine the damage it would have done to gender equality
I would have had a career as a criminal mastermind if it weren’t for those Meddling Kids.
TDK
March 18, 2019 5:29 pm
I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble but isn’t there a woman in Fireman Sam. If recall correctly, all the characters except the Station Chief do all the activities.
To put it bluntly, Penny is more than a “Token” presence.
Penseivat
March 18, 2019 5:47 pm
Apart from Sam, who is every woman’s fantasy figure, Penny, the female firefighter, is the only intelligent person on the show. Elvis is so thick he could become a politician, and the Station Officer is an English Colonel Blimp type, while the other men in Pontypandy are disasters waiting to happen, so no male superiority there. The only reason the show may put women off joining the fire service is to avoid working with such a bunch of tossers. The only other 2 men in the show are American and Australian, so they don’t count.
Yes, I know the programme is a children’s cartoon, but if women watch this, believe it is real, and give it as a reason not to become a firefighter, perhaps they are not intelligent enough to be one, and should stay at home doing the ironing.
(My 3 years old grandson and I now consider ourselves experts on the profession).
Steve E
March 18, 2019 6:21 pm
Female firefighter Alex Johnson tells us,
“Most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed. We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population.”
I just happened to be at a fire that broke out in my neighbourhood. The firefighters arrived and immediately set up tables and handed out pamphlets engaging with the youth who lived on the street. The house burnt to the ground, but three young girls (one black, one brown, and one eurasian) assured everyone present that they would be firefighters when they grew up. So Yay! community and youth engagement. /sarc
Sam
March 18, 2019 6:36 pm
Who is this Fireman Sam? Is he like McGruff the Crime Dog or Smokey the Bear except…human? Apart from Sam, who is every woman’s fantasy figure
[ blushes, giggles then coughs in a very manly manner ]
“Gender equality” in firefighting? Who the hell decided *that* should be a priority?
The same people who lie through their teeth when called on their multitudinous failures.
Angelo
March 18, 2019 7:17 pm
This is largely because of the image of firefighters portrayed in the media and in films, which is of men rushing into burning buildings to rescue people … Most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed.We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population.
Can we not outsource the putting-out-fires thing? For a holistic 21st century fireperson, it’s just as important to be able to engage with youth on the Instagram feed.
It used to be that uniformed services had female auxiliaries to do exactly those sorts of holistic tasks – it was recognized that women had useful complementary skills in administrative support, dealing with the public, providing care to victims, especially when women and children were involved, so that the uniformed men could concentrate on putting out fires, arresting criminals, or killing the enemy.
But that’s insulting to female moxie, suggesting that men can do things that women can’t. So it’s essential these days that women dress up as firefighters, collect firefighter pay, and are available for inspiring photo ops for girls. https://dalrock.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/the-fantasy-of-drafting-women/
What this is about, and what this always has been about, is envy of men. It is about eradicating the idea of masculine virtues, and more importantly, erasing all sentiment of gratitude for what the men in the military do. To a feminist feeling gratitude to men is unbearable. This is why every unit, especially elite forces and combat infantry, must include women. When Seal Team Six took out Bin Ladin feminists were forced to bear the unbearable; public officials expressed gratitude for the “men who risked their lives to accomplish the mission”, and feminists couldn’t chime in with “and women too!”
Never again.
Since the goal is to erase the concept of masculine virtues, the new bargain the introduction of women into combat represents isn’t to have women join equally or even seriously in the fighting and dying. The new bargain is that men will continue to be the ones who fight and die, but they must not feel a sense of masculine pride in either doing this or having this obligation.
I’ve provided plenty of examples in support of my opinion that the British police long ago stopped being police in the commonly-understood meaning of the word, and this latest announcement is fully consistent with that. Consider this statement: The college’s Chief Constable Alex Marshall said the feeling was the nature of police work has changed significantly and officers were just as likely to be “patrolling online” as on the street.
… What this is about is shifting police work from the wet, windy streets to comfortable chairs in front of computers in air-conditioned offices – the type of job the government promised graduates with worthless degrees from mediocre universities. Also, I am sure it is no coincidence that this shift is occurring a few years after the police made considerable efforts to recruit more women, and made policing an attractive career choice for young mothers. It is a lot easier to comprehend this latest move if you understand what the British police is actually for.
Watcher In The Dark
March 18, 2019 7:22 pm
It isn’t just burning buildings that should worry us: I hear that the people who go underground to keep the sewers functioning are about 100 per cent male.
I honestly don’t know why women don’t see sewer maintenance as a great opportunity for equality.
Killer Marmot
March 18, 2019 7:30 pm
Most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed. We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population.
I suggest that certain parts of the job are more critical than others. When being saved from a burning building, few of us worry whether our rescuer is appropriately diverse.
Pogonip
March 18, 2019 7:36 pm
One of the things that converted me from feminism was noticing their implicit (then) and explicit (now) belief that only what men value should have any value. They have now added to the core statement—“Only what non-white men and crazy white women value should have any value.” Since there are millions of people out there who value unanesthetized clitoridectomies performed on children with a rusty razor blade, feminism disn’t seem like a good fit any more.
Sam
March 18, 2019 7:41 pm
How well do the tenets of Star Wars’ “Dark Side of the Force” (DSF hereafter) apply to modern Lefty ideology? Consider:
-The DSF is described as the “easy” and “quick” path, whereas the Light Side is difficult and painstaking. Much like grievance studies vs STEM, blaming society vs blaming individual (especially blaming oneself), welfare vs undesirable work, hashtags vs soup kitchens, etc.
-The DFS is powered by emotions, especially anger, while Jedi are supposed to strive for detached loyalty. See: pretty much every post on this blog.
-Power is the ultimate goal, and despite (I think) being allowed to love the Sith only revel in gaining power over others. My observations are that centrist and most non-leftists are simply not that interested in political power. To the modern Left, however, power over others is the alpha and omega.
-The weak-minded are especially susceptible to the DSF. No further comment.
See also the Sith Code (via Wookiepedia): Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
This varies only slightly from BLM and BAMN manifestos.
Reading the last post on the brown(ish) poet who simultaneously required white guilt while bemoaning it I remembered a passage from some extended SW universe book that described Vader during private meditation. He was using the (Dark Side) Force to heal his extensive wounds, but the pleasure of succeeding immediately sapped his power to continue. He needed his hate for power, but his power could not achieve his goals.
While Mr Lucas was obviously using Nazi’s for his popcorn flick baddies I think he inadvertently created a useful metaphor for the wellspring of authoritarianism – emotions and revenge overriding conscious tolerance. The empire’s totalitarianism was direct and on the nose given the epic fantasy context, and I would’ve loved to see what kind of soft outreach a defeated Sith would have used in it’s attempt to seize power back from a feckless republic. Alas, we got something…else.
jabrwok
March 18, 2019 8:11 pm
only what men value should have any value
Very Freudian.
WTP
March 18, 2019 8:20 pm
“Gender equality” in firefighting? Who the hell decided *that* should be a priority?
The “grown-ups in the room”. Dead serious. They are not to be laughed at. They are also responsible for the idea that most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed.We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population. The idiocy. Most of firefighting isn’t about firefighting. Most. Which literally…ABLILML…means > 50%. 50% is still 1/2, right? Or has that changed? 1/2 is still 0.5, yes? Or is there some new SJW definition of “most” that I’m just a dumb ignorant old man who doesn’t understand 21st century language/math? Just checking…It takes an intellectual to construct a system that stupid. They saw the cops engaged in non-cop work like this and figured they had to get in on the not-real-work work too. Which means more “jobs” for firefighters. Because by reaching out into the community and connecting with youth, said youth will be much, much less likely to start fires, pull false alarms, or play with fire extinguishers. Because in the past we used to have rules and expectations and severe punishments for young people who did these things. But we got rid of all that old-school, mean old meany, pre-21st century discipline stuff. Now we waste every kid’s time by asking them ever so nicely not to do things that most of them would have never considered doing in the first place, were they properly disciplined. And thus more jobs for firefighters. See how that works, you taxpaying suckers?
ComputerLabRat
March 18, 2019 8:45 pm
Most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed. We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population.
What part of the word “firefighter” does this dumb bint not understand? There is nothing in that word about cushy female-attractive type work like “youth and community outreach”. Fire departments do that kind of thing as a side effort, maybe, but the main job of the fire department is to be ready and able to put out fires and rescue people trapped in said fires. And in the US I think, in cities at least, they also do building inspections for fire safety code compliance. That she even thinks that “most” of firefighting isn’t about fighting fires makes me seriously doubt her qualifications for the job. And that’s the rub, isn’t it.
Sam
March 18, 2019 8:53 pm
Ms Johnson has fronted a social media campaign to get women to join the fire service, which focuses on children singing the praises of their firefighter mums
Take that, Dad!
pst314
March 18, 2019 9:34 pm
Fire departments do that kind of thing as a side effort, maybe, but the main job of the fire department is to be ready and able to put out fires and rescue people trapped in said fires.
That’s just what I was going to say. Police and fire departments have always had “community outreach and education” programs–although I believe they were not called that 60 years ago–but those doing the “outreach” were real police and fire personnel, from beat cops to higher ranks. These programs were conducted when and as more important duties allowed. Miz Johnson should consider the implications of seeing firemen doing their weekly grocery shopping with the fire truck parked outside the store: If an alarm comes in, they abandon their carts and go to the fire. Does she think the fire station should have someone on staff who is paid as much as real firefighters but whose duties consist solely of things that the less physically fit can do? And in the US I think, in cities at least, they also do building inspections for fire safety code compliance.
That’s right.
pst314
March 18, 2019 9:36 pm
the Sith Code…This varies only slightly from BLM and BAMN manifestos.
Note that a significant fraction of BLM zealots are gang-bangers and other criminals.
pst314
March 18, 2019 9:46 pm
When I say “significant” I do not mean “majority” but “large enough to take note of as an instructive indicator”.
pst314
March 18, 2019 9:51 pm
It is a lot easier to comprehend this latest move if you understand what the British police is actually for.
Of course, this poster need to be updated to depict how the “watchful eyes” will protect us from the Politically Incorrect opinions of the Unmutual Ones.
PiperPaul
March 18, 2019 10:24 pm
That looks like it would be an album cover for The Alan Parsons Project.
. . . When George Lucas created Star Wars, he went back to the original stories about stories, the original quest for something missing, which inevitably and ultimately always leads to Bill Moyers interviewing Joseph Campbell.
The Force is just Zen Buddhism filtered through Carl Jung’s archetype of the Shadow. It’s a fundamental mistake to interpret the Shadow as inherently evil or malicious – or even selfish – but Lucas has never been much for accuracy in his swiping, and successive generations of hack writers and game designers haven’t helped matters.
You know you’re over the target when you catch flack.
From down the Twitter rabbit-hole, a somewhat telling exchange between a chap named Rob Seal and Rebecca Futo Kennedy, a feminist historian:
RFK: Quillette doesn’t publish things that don’t adhere to its ideological positions. If you publish in the venue, you support those positions, which are racist to the core.
RS: Can you cite examples to support this assertion?
RFK: You can read it. It is its own citation.
RS: So… I need to prove your assertions. I see. I’ve read quite a few Quillette pieces and they seem to span a pretty healthy Left-to-CentreLeft-to-Centre-Right range. What is wrong w/covering speech in the Centre? Especially vis-a-vis academia?
[ At which point, a fellow leftist academic attempts to derail the request for evidence with some random hostility. ]
RFK: I’ve had the people he [Rob Seal] tagged [Quillette’s Claire Lehmann and Jonathan Kay] blocked forever. So, whatever… Good old Rob gets blocked next. I don’t “prove” things to people who don’t actually want evidence.
[ While ignoring several commenters pointing our their factual errors, Ms Kennedy and her fellow leftist academic then congratulate each other on their intellectual magnificence and obvious superiority. ]
The thing with the diversity police is, they don’t see jobs as something to be done. They only see them as credentials, as something to be given as a prize for being good. And obviously, they’re only interested in jobs that confer status.
Jacob
March 19, 2019 7:38 am
I don’t “prove” things to people who don’t actually want evidence.
Lefties project.
Lefties project.
For some, it’s like breathing.
So, to recap. A publication emerges in which a range of viewpoints can be aired, often testing the narrow assumptions that prevail in the Clown Quarter, from a variety of positions, left, right and centre, and often by fellow academics concerned by the dogmatism of their peers. Said publication is promptly denounced by Clown Quarter inhabitants as “racist to the core,” with subsequent boasts about blocking contributors, and indeed blacklisting them. Because, for the pious, the way to refute arguments you don’t agree with is to try to sabotage the careers of the people who air them. And those who question the wisdom and professionalism of this reaction are themselves promptly blocked.
Hence, Clown Quarter.
[ blushes, giggles then coughs in a very manly manner ]
Kindly turn your head when you cough.
Simon Williams
March 19, 2019 8:30 am
And that exchange really is an illustration of the “teaching a pigeon to play chess” quote. She did knock over all the pieces, shit on the board and then strut around acting like she’d won.
Lancastrian Oik
March 19, 2019 8:52 am
A response to David Lammy’s criticism of “white saviours”.
And that exchange really is an illustration of the “teaching a pigeon to play chess” quote.
Well, you have to marvel at how self-styled intellectuals – educators – can publicly boast about their refusal to provide evidence for their own rather dubious assertions, as if this were obvious grounds for applause, and boast about what amounts to a kind of hysterical intolerance. Such that, if you’ve ever written anything, at any time, on any subject, for a magazine that has offended their sensibilities, in ways they don’t care to substantiate, you should expect to be blocked, blacklisted and defamed as a racist.
Ah, the life of the mind.
Sam
March 19, 2019 1:42 pm
publicly boast about their refusal to provide evidence [and] boast about what amounts to a kind of hysterical intolerance
Just as taxes are not about raising government revenue, gun control is not about reducing deaths from guns, public education is not about educating the public, global warming isn’t about the globe warming, and social justice is not about enacting justice or healing the social climate, this is about power. They are fucking drunk on it.
this is about power. They are fucking drunk on it.
As I like to think I’ve demonstrated over the years, leftist psychology is driven in large part by vanity and spite, a combination that seems intoxicating for those who succumb, but which is poisonous, impervious and consequently stupefying.
Sam
March 19, 2019 2:12 pm
A a Turing test of sorts, what is “rightist” ideology driven by you think?
Just as taxes are not about raising government revenue . . . global warming isn’t about the globe warming
Welll, keeping in mind that I for one—just like pretty much any other individual—don’t have the budget to personally fund USDA, the CDC, the DOD, so a bit more nuanced observation would note more that Just as particular demands for extremely low or extremely high taxes are not about raising government revenue . . .
And given the DOD’s own tactical projections, prolly the also more nuanced note would be that Just as hysterical shrieking to demand or deny global warming isn’t about the globe warming . . .
. . . . . Beyond that, I’ve always been in favor of gun control, one should always insist on successfully hitting the target that one shoots at . . . and certainly the best way for general individuals to guarantee such is indeed personal firearms and lots of practice with ’em . . .
what is “rightist” ideology driven by you think?
I’d need to give it some thought. I’m not sure about the term rightist, in that the people I know who might be thought of as bourgeois, or small-c conservative, at least by people on the left, don’t seem terribly ideological, and their behaviour doesn’t seem anywhere near as uniform, mannered or neurotic. Politically, anyway. They don’t have the same kind of endlessly shifting fashions and shibboleths, and are much less inclined to games of ideological Gotcha!, in which the merest slip or failure to keep up can result in being denounced and out-grouped as insufficiently pure. And they don’t seem to let politics dominate their lives.
I think that’s why I focus on leftist psychology. It’s more interesting because it’s so dysfunctional.
[ Edited. ]
Sam
March 19, 2019 3:03 pm
@Hal
RE taxes: sure, but let a guy have some rhetorical flourish, eh?
RE global warming: in this case it is literally not about “global warming” since AGW activists – who actually hold government and corporate power – modified the name to “climate change”, as well as including increasingly far-fetched phenomena under the umbrella of planet-wide warming.
And the DOD? Really?? A government agency is predicting that it will need lots of money to continue it’s operations? YA DON’T SAY! @David
I think you answered the question fairly well, and in a way that can at least be tested anecdotally. I come here to join in the trainwreck spotting but think it’s very important to turn the lens on our own camp from time to time.
pst314
March 19, 2019 4:22 pm
…since AGW activists…modified the name to “climate change”…
They have also flirted with “climate chaos”, but seem to have largely abandoned it–presumably because it did not poll well. 🙂
Steve E
March 19, 2019 5:29 pm
They have also flirted with “climate chaos”
They should be held accountable to their original thesis which was Catastrophic Anthropomorphic Global Warming (CAGW) a descriptive name for their screed and all it promised. The looser the name the lesser the acountability. Climate change is an ongoing natural process few can dispute while CAGW remains a largely unproven “scare” story designed to provide cover for increased wealth expropriation and redistribution.
I’m approaching fifty (no idea how that happened) and I don’t remember a time when some kind of climate catastrophe wasn’t imminent. First it was acid rain caused by CO2 in the atmosphere. They seem to have forgotten about that. Then it was the hole in th ozone layer, but alternatives to CFCs were identified and that one seems to have been sorted. Ever since, it’s been global warming, lately modified to climate change. The tenor has always been “we must act now, or a post-apocalyptic future of flooding in some places, deserts everywhere else. The catastrophe shows no obvious sign of being imminent, no matter how many schoolchildren with no memory of the last 40 years they can terrify. Either all the efforts to reduce emissions have been generally successful, or all the warnings have been a wee bit overstated.
I’m approaching fifty (no idea how that happened) and I don’t remember a time when some kind of climate catastrophe wasn’t imminent.
We’re of a similar age, and I don’t remember any of my classmates giving much thought to the consequences of acid rain, or the lack of anyplace to dump garbage, or the new ice age looming on the horizon. It’s not that we were young and stupid (though we were), nor that we never heard about these pending disasters (we heard plenty). Rather, it was that we had several thousand Soviet ICBM’s pointed at our homes, and woke up each morning with the small but significant chance that life on Earth would be snuffed out at the touch of a button.
Fortunately for all of us, and all who have come after, we had Sting. After Dream of the Blue Turtles was released, I knew we’d be okay, because of course the Russians love their children, too.
Of course our lack of long-term planning had consequences. We’re just lucky that the acid rain melted the mountains of garbage, and what remained was covered up by the ice and snow. Life finds a way!
Pst314
March 19, 2019 6:51 pm
Catastrophic Anthropomorphic Global Warming
Anthropogenic (darned autocorrect?) but the idea of an apococalyptic plague of furries is funny.
Sam
March 19, 2019 7:00 pm
In terms of the quantity of furries, what’s the cutoff between “convention” and “apocalyptic plague”?
Something tells me we’ll need to know.
WTP
March 19, 2019 7:04 pm
Rather, it was that we had several thousand Soviet ICBM’s pointed at our homes, and woke up each morning with the small but significant chance that life on Earth would be snuffed out at the touch of a button.
As an 11 year old boy I was told by my “teachers” in a parochial school that the events of October 1973 were aligning very closely with biblical prophecy. As the bible tells us, no one will know when the end times actually will occur. They suggested what better time for such a thing to happen but at the upcoming Christmas season when everyone is distracted with the festivities. So I spent that fall into winter obsessed with thinking, as close to 24/7 as possible, about the end of the world. Because of course if just one person would think about it, it wouldn’t happen. And you know, guess what guess what guess what? It didn’t happen. Did I so much as get a thank you for saving the world? No. You bastards don’t even have the g-d common courtesy to send me a Christmas card. A similar thing might also explain what happened to the Ozone hole, though I can’t personally take credit for it. Just a suspicion. Also tangentially, the world was going to run out of oil anyway by 1978…but I digress…
Anthropogenic (darned autocorrect?) but the idea of an apococalyptic plague of furries is funny.
Lol! Thanks. Ahem, yes darned autocorrect. In terms of the quantity of furries, what’s the cutoff between “convention” and “apocalyptic plague”?
It depends on how much you’ve had to drink/smoke/and or snort. If you’ve had the brown acid then the answer is one.
Steve E
March 19, 2019 8:00 pm
Because of course if just one person would think about it, it wouldn’t happen.
For me it was the magical qualities of baking soda that could prevent bad things from happening. My grandfather told me that grandma put baking soda in the refrigerator to keep the elephants out. I’ve never seen an elephant in any refrigerator that held a box of baking soda. I’d like to think it worked for the ozone layer too–some sort of chemical reaction I suspect.
the magical qualities of baking soda…
Another St. Patrick’s Day, another round of confusion as to why “soda bread” tastes nothing like Coca-Cola.
That being said, I must admit that I’ve never seen an elephant in an Irish pub, so at least that theory is still whole.
“Rightist” Ideology?
A bit of a contradiction in terms, I feel, but I know what you mean.
Start, perhaps, with a sense of responsibility; to the past, the present, and the future. We have inherited something, mostly good, from our ancestors, who went through great troubles to leave us what they did.
We have a responsibility to identify and conserve the best of what our ancestors left us, and improve it where possible for the sake of our posterity.
Only when we accept responsibility can we insist on reasonable liberty, to take the risks life sends our way, and enjoy the fruits of our efforts.
I take the view that our sub-species is well equipped to do this without much compulsion, simply education for the young and sanction – severe if necessary – for those who break the rules most of us keep without difficulty.
If you detect a touch of race realism in my views, I will not deny it. I also recommend some ideological realism when considering the types described here: they are our deadly enemies, and may have to be killed in the end, without sentiment.
You all seem like an astute and cultured bunch, so I’ll ask…. How many people here have been watching ‘Love, death and robots’, a collection of animated SF shorts on Netflix? I’ve watched all but the last three so far and I’ve been quite enjoying it for what it is. There’s some stunning visual imagination and creativity on display. Some of the criticisms online are a bit predictable – the shows aren’t feminist enough for the Grauniad, basically (but then, what is?) I think the weaknesses of the shorts arise because of their strengths – ie, the focus on animation and CGI has meant plot and character and narrative creativity are sometimes missing. And some of the old fantasy-SF tropes are really wearing thin (another story about werewolves/vampires? Really?) For me, the more realistic and 3D the animation is, ironically, the worse the results (I think it’s one reason why the ‘this aren’t feministing good!’ cry goes out from the likes of Grauniad journos – realistically animated men and women somehow look more porny than the old ‘Elmer Fudd’ style of animation). Anyway, those are just a few thoughts – I’m interested in knowing what others think.
jabrwok
March 20, 2019 12:01 am
‘Love, death and robots’,
Nope. Don’t have Netflix. I’ve been watching Terrence Popp on YouTube.
NSFW for language and non-PC opinions. The Grauniad would have a conniption.
Sam Duncan
March 20, 2019 1:47 am
“what is “rightist” ideology driven by you think?”
I’ve been here before many times. There is no single, identifiable trait of “rightism”, other than that it isn’t Leftism. So the answer is, “Anything you want it to be”. Or, perhaps more accurately, “Anything the Left needs it to be, at any given moment”.
This became clear to me in my early 20s, as an avid reader of the old music weeklies. One minute they were solemnly accusing Morrissey of harbouring Nazi sympathines because he had the temerity to wave a Union Jack on stage, and within a year or so were happily blazoning the very same flag over their front pages as part of the whole “Cool Britannia” brouhaha. And now were back to “Union Jack = Nazi” again.
But then, I suppose that’s where postmodernism gets you. “I’m approaching fifty (no idea how that happened)”
I hear you. I’m just about getting used to being over 30, and now suddenly I’m nearly 50. Slow the hell down, dammit!
Ray
March 20, 2019 9:19 am
Coming to this a little late, but my understanding of firemen’s other duties was putting the fire engine outside on a sunny day and then stripping to the waist and giving it a good wash. This excited one of my wife’s friends no end and the mere mention of yellow waterproof trousers would have her quite flustered. Come to think of it, having firewomen strip to the waist and wash the engine would probably be worth a watch too.
Don’t get me started on Postman Pat.
“Gender equality” in firefighting? Who the hell decided *that* should be a priority?
And again, note the assumption that women are every bit as strong and fearless as men, and every bit as willing to do physically demanding and highly dangerous jobs, often working nights and in harrowing conditions – and yet, simultaneously, these fearless, near-superhuman women can be deterred and rendered tearful by a children’s cartoon.
It occurs to me that the kinds of people who can be deflected by the gender of a cartoon firefighter are unlikely to be the kinds of people you’d wish to count on when it really matters.
Not anyone who’d lived through a fire, that’s for sure.
I would have become an explorer with all kinds of cool gadgets if only that damn Johnny Quest had been named Jane Quest.
Then I was considering going into a STEM field but could find no evidence at all that girls were allowed to do that stuff.
So I went to the kitchen and made my lord and master a sandwich. Been there ever since. 😡
“Images of men rushing into burning buildings does little to encourage gender equality.”
Indeed. Thank God a woman fire chief did not allow men to evacuate the Grenfell Tower Block. Could you just imagine the damage it would have done to gender equality
.. and her black and white pussy?
In other news, that is possibly invoking Nathan Poe, see also.
Not entirely unrelated.
I would have had a career as a criminal mastermind if it weren’t for those Meddling Kids.
I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble but isn’t there a woman in Fireman Sam. If recall correctly, all the characters except the Station Chief do all the activities.
To put it bluntly, Penny is more than a “Token” presence.
Apart from Sam, who is every woman’s fantasy figure, Penny, the female firefighter, is the only intelligent person on the show. Elvis is so thick he could become a politician, and the Station Officer is an English Colonel Blimp type, while the other men in Pontypandy are disasters waiting to happen, so no male superiority there. The only reason the show may put women off joining the fire service is to avoid working with such a bunch of tossers. The only other 2 men in the show are American and Australian, so they don’t count.
Yes, I know the programme is a children’s cartoon, but if women watch this, believe it is real, and give it as a reason not to become a firefighter, perhaps they are not intelligent enough to be one, and should stay at home doing the ironing.
(My 3 years old grandson and I now consider ourselves experts on the profession).
Female firefighter Alex Johnson tells us,
I just happened to be at a fire that broke out in my neighbourhood. The firefighters arrived and immediately set up tables and handed out pamphlets engaging with the youth who lived on the street. The house burnt to the ground, but three young girls (one black, one brown, and one eurasian) assured everyone present that they would be firefighters when they grew up. So Yay! community and youth engagement. /sarc
Who is this Fireman Sam? Is he like McGruff the Crime Dog or Smokey the Bear except…human?
Apart from Sam, who is every woman’s fantasy figure
[ blushes, giggles then coughs in a very manly manner ]
[ Leaves breath mints on bar. ]
The same people who lie through their teeth when called on their multitudinous failures.
This is largely because of the image of firefighters portrayed in the media and in films, which is of men rushing into burning buildings to rescue people … Most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed.We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population.
Can we not outsource the putting-out-fires thing? For a holistic 21st century fireperson, it’s just as important to be able to engage with youth on the Instagram feed.
It used to be that uniformed services had female auxiliaries to do exactly those sorts of holistic tasks – it was recognized that women had useful complementary skills in administrative support, dealing with the public, providing care to victims, especially when women and children were involved, so that the uniformed men could concentrate on putting out fires, arresting criminals, or killing the enemy.
But that’s insulting to female moxie, suggesting that men can do things that women can’t. So it’s essential these days that women dress up as firefighters, collect firefighter pay, and are available for inspiring photo ops for girls.
https://dalrock.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/the-fantasy-of-drafting-women/
http://www.desertsun.co.uk/blog/7413/
It isn’t just burning buildings that should worry us: I hear that the people who go underground to keep the sewers functioning are about 100 per cent male.
I honestly don’t know why women don’t see sewer maintenance as a great opportunity for equality.
I suggest that certain parts of the job are more critical than others. When being saved from a burning building, few of us worry whether our rescuer is appropriately diverse.
One of the things that converted me from feminism was noticing their implicit (then) and explicit (now) belief that only what men value should have any value. They have now added to the core statement—“Only what non-white men and crazy white women value should have any value.” Since there are millions of people out there who value unanesthetized clitoridectomies performed on children with a rusty razor blade, feminism disn’t seem like a good fit any more.
How well do the tenets of Star Wars’ “Dark Side of the Force” (DSF hereafter) apply to modern Lefty ideology? Consider:
-The DSF is described as the “easy” and “quick” path, whereas the Light Side is difficult and painstaking. Much like grievance studies vs STEM, blaming society vs blaming individual (especially blaming oneself), welfare vs undesirable work, hashtags vs soup kitchens, etc.
-The DFS is powered by emotions, especially anger, while Jedi are supposed to strive for detached loyalty. See: pretty much every post on this blog.
-Power is the ultimate goal, and despite (I think) being allowed to love the Sith only revel in gaining power over others. My observations are that centrist and most non-leftists are simply not that interested in political power. To the modern Left, however, power over others is the alpha and omega.
-The weak-minded are especially susceptible to the DSF. No further comment.
See also the Sith Code (via Wookiepedia):
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
This varies only slightly from BLM and BAMN manifestos.
Reading the last post on the brown(ish) poet who simultaneously required white guilt while bemoaning it I remembered a passage from some extended SW universe book that described Vader during private meditation. He was using the (Dark Side) Force to heal his extensive wounds, but the pleasure of succeeding immediately sapped his power to continue. He needed his hate for power, but his power could not achieve his goals.
While Mr Lucas was obviously using Nazi’s for his popcorn flick baddies I think he inadvertently created a useful metaphor for the wellspring of authoritarianism – emotions and revenge overriding conscious tolerance. The empire’s totalitarianism was direct and on the nose given the epic fantasy context, and I would’ve loved to see what kind of soft outreach a defeated Sith would have used in it’s attempt to seize power back from a feckless republic. Alas, we got something…else.
only what men value should have any value
Very Freudian.
“Gender equality” in firefighting? Who the hell decided *that* should be a priority?
The “grown-ups in the room”. Dead serious. They are not to be laughed at. They are also responsible for the idea that most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed.We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population. The idiocy. Most of firefighting isn’t about firefighting. Most. Which literally…ABLILML…means > 50%. 50% is still 1/2, right? Or has that changed? 1/2 is still 0.5, yes? Or is there some new SJW definition of “most” that I’m just a dumb ignorant old man who doesn’t understand 21st century language/math? Just checking…It takes an intellectual to construct a system that stupid. They saw the cops engaged in non-cop work like this and figured they had to get in on the not-real-work work too. Which means more “jobs” for firefighters. Because by reaching out into the community and connecting with youth, said youth will be much, much less likely to start fires, pull false alarms, or play with fire extinguishers. Because in the past we used to have rules and expectations and severe punishments for young people who did these things. But we got rid of all that old-school, mean old meany, pre-21st century discipline stuff. Now we waste every kid’s time by asking them ever so nicely not to do things that most of them would have never considered doing in the first place, were they properly disciplined. And thus more jobs for firefighters. See how that works, you taxpaying suckers?
Most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed. We do community and youth engagement work, where we need to be seen to be representative of the population.
What part of the word “firefighter” does this dumb bint not understand? There is nothing in that word about cushy female-attractive type work like “youth and community outreach”. Fire departments do that kind of thing as a side effort, maybe, but the main job of the fire department is to be ready and able to put out fires and rescue people trapped in said fires. And in the US I think, in cities at least, they also do building inspections for fire safety code compliance. That she even thinks that “most” of firefighting isn’t about fighting fires makes me seriously doubt her qualifications for the job. And that’s the rub, isn’t it.
Ms Johnson has fronted a social media campaign to get women to join the fire service, which focuses on children singing the praises of their firefighter mums
Take that, Dad!
Fire departments do that kind of thing as a side effort, maybe, but the main job of the fire department is to be ready and able to put out fires and rescue people trapped in said fires.
That’s just what I was going to say. Police and fire departments have always had “community outreach and education” programs–although I believe they were not called that 60 years ago–but those doing the “outreach” were real police and fire personnel, from beat cops to higher ranks. These programs were conducted when and as more important duties allowed. Miz Johnson should consider the implications of seeing firemen doing their weekly grocery shopping with the fire truck parked outside the store: If an alarm comes in, they abandon their carts and go to the fire. Does she think the fire station should have someone on staff who is paid as much as real firefighters but whose duties consist solely of things that the less physically fit can do?
And in the US I think, in cities at least, they also do building inspections for fire safety code compliance.
That’s right.
the Sith Code…This varies only slightly from BLM and BAMN manifestos.
Note that a significant fraction of BLM zealots are gang-bangers and other criminals.
When I say “significant” I do not mean “majority” but “large enough to take note of as an instructive indicator”.
It is a lot easier to comprehend this latest move if you understand what the British police is actually for.
Of course, this poster need to be updated to depict how the “watchful eyes” will protect us from the Politically Incorrect opinions of the Unmutual Ones.
That looks like it would be an album cover for The Alan Parsons Project.
While Mr Lucas was . . . .
. . . . Alas, we got something…else.
Three forms of storytelling,
or,
The Once And Future Jedi, by T.H. White,
or,
Poor Mickey Mouse, he has indigestion and gout.
. . . which focuses on children singing the praises of . . .
The one funny bit of The Interview . . .
Funny stuff Hal, good link.
I see your long blog post and raise you a 5-hour video critique:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBBJXQJJavX2VueOEqGSaBNsGaHZREWEr
The Force is just Zen Buddhism filtered through Carl Jung’s archetype of the Shadow. It’s a fundamental mistake to interpret the Shadow as inherently evil or malicious – or even selfish – but Lucas has never been much for accuracy in his swiping, and successive generations of hack writers and game designers haven’t helped matters.
You know you’re over the target when you catch flack.
The one funny bit of The Interview . . .
Funny in what way, Hal?
You know you’re over the target when you catch flack.
“We fucking see you.”
Our brightest and best.
The one funny bit of The Interview . . .
Funny in what way, Hal?
You know you’re over the target when you catch flack.
From down the Twitter rabbit-hole, a somewhat telling exchange between a chap named Rob Seal and Rebecca Futo Kennedy, a feminist historian:
[ At which point, a fellow leftist academic attempts to derail the request for evidence with some random hostility. ]
[ While ignoring several commenters pointing our their factual errors, Ms Kennedy and her fellow leftist academic then congratulate each other on their intellectual magnificence and obvious superiority. ]
The thing with the diversity police is, they don’t see jobs as something to be done. They only see them as credentials, as something to be given as a prize for being good. And obviously, they’re only interested in jobs that confer status.
I don’t “prove” things to people who don’t actually want evidence.
Lefties project.
Lefties project.
For some, it’s like breathing.
So, to recap. A publication emerges in which a range of viewpoints can be aired, often testing the narrow assumptions that prevail in the Clown Quarter, from a variety of positions, left, right and centre, and often by fellow academics concerned by the dogmatism of their peers. Said publication is promptly denounced by Clown Quarter inhabitants as “racist to the core,” with subsequent boasts about blocking contributors, and indeed blacklisting them. Because, for the pious, the way to refute arguments you don’t agree with is to try to sabotage the careers of the people who air them. And those who question the wisdom and professionalism of this reaction are themselves promptly blocked.
Hence, Clown Quarter.
[ blushes, giggles then coughs in a very manly manner ]
Kindly turn your head when you cough.
And that exchange really is an illustration of the “teaching a pigeon to play chess” quote. She did knock over all the pieces, shit on the board and then strut around acting like she’d won.
A response to David Lammy’s criticism of “white saviours”.
And that exchange really is an illustration of the “teaching a pigeon to play chess” quote.
Well, you have to marvel at how self-styled intellectuals – educators – can publicly boast about their refusal to provide evidence for their own rather dubious assertions, as if this were obvious grounds for applause, and boast about what amounts to a kind of hysterical intolerance. Such that, if you’ve ever written anything, at any time, on any subject, for a magazine that has offended their sensibilities, in ways they don’t care to substantiate, you should expect to be blocked, blacklisted and defamed as a racist.
Ah, the life of the mind.
publicly boast about their refusal to provide evidence [and] boast about what amounts to a kind of hysterical intolerance
Just as taxes are not about raising government revenue, gun control is not about reducing deaths from guns, public education is not about educating the public, global warming isn’t about the globe warming, and social justice is not about enacting justice or healing the social climate, this is about power. They are fucking drunk on it.
this is about power. They are fucking drunk on it.
As I like to think I’ve demonstrated over the years, leftist psychology is driven in large part by vanity and spite, a combination that seems intoxicating for those who succumb, but which is poisonous, impervious and consequently stupefying.
A a Turing test of sorts, what is “rightist” ideology driven by you think?
Just as taxes are not about raising government revenue . . . global warming isn’t about the globe warming
Welll, keeping in mind that I for one—just like pretty much any other individual—don’t have the budget to personally fund USDA, the CDC, the DOD, so a bit more nuanced observation would note more that Just as particular demands for extremely low or extremely high taxes are not about raising government revenue . . .
And given the DOD’s own tactical projections, prolly the also more nuanced note would be that Just as hysterical shrieking to demand or deny global warming isn’t about the globe warming . . .
. . . . . Beyond that, I’ve always been in favor of gun control, one should always insist on successfully hitting the target that one shoots at . . . and certainly the best way for general individuals to guarantee such is indeed personal firearms and lots of practice with ’em . . .
what is “rightist” ideology driven by you think?
I’d need to give it some thought. I’m not sure about the term rightist, in that the people I know who might be thought of as bourgeois, or small-c conservative, at least by people on the left, don’t seem terribly ideological, and their behaviour doesn’t seem anywhere near as uniform, mannered or neurotic. Politically, anyway. They don’t have the same kind of endlessly shifting fashions and shibboleths, and are much less inclined to games of ideological Gotcha!, in which the merest slip or failure to keep up can result in being denounced and out-grouped as insufficiently pure. And they don’t seem to let politics dominate their lives.
I think that’s why I focus on leftist psychology. It’s more interesting because it’s so dysfunctional.
[ Edited. ]
@Hal
RE taxes: sure, but let a guy have some rhetorical flourish, eh?
RE global warming: in this case it is literally not about “global warming” since AGW activists – who actually hold government and corporate power – modified the name to “climate change”, as well as including increasingly far-fetched phenomena under the umbrella of planet-wide warming.
And the DOD? Really?? A government agency is predicting that it will need lots of money to continue it’s operations? YA DON’T SAY!
@David
I think you answered the question fairly well, and in a way that can at least be tested anecdotally. I come here to join in the trainwreck spotting but think it’s very important to turn the lens on our own camp from time to time.
…since AGW activists…modified the name to “climate change”…
They have also flirted with “climate chaos”, but seem to have largely abandoned it–presumably because it did not poll well. 🙂
They have also flirted with “climate chaos”
They should be held accountable to their original thesis which was Catastrophic Anthropomorphic Global Warming (CAGW) a descriptive name for their screed and all it promised. The looser the name the lesser the acountability. Climate change is an ongoing natural process few can dispute while CAGW remains a largely unproven “scare” story designed to provide cover for increased wealth expropriation and redistribution.
I’m approaching fifty (no idea how that happened) and I don’t remember a time when some kind of climate catastrophe wasn’t imminent. First it was acid rain caused by CO2 in the atmosphere. They seem to have forgotten about that. Then it was the hole in th ozone layer, but alternatives to CFCs were identified and that one seems to have been sorted. Ever since, it’s been global warming, lately modified to climate change. The tenor has always been “we must act now, or a post-apocalyptic future of flooding in some places, deserts everywhere else. The catastrophe shows no obvious sign of being imminent, no matter how many schoolchildren with no memory of the last 40 years they can terrify. Either all the efforts to reduce emissions have been generally successful, or all the warnings have been a wee bit overstated.
alternatives to CFCs were identified and that one seems to have been sorted
Or so they say…
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/ozone-problem-back-vengeance
but…
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/good-news-about-ozone-hole-even-better-you-think-ncna835971
Odd.
Meanwhile, checkout Beto’s Big Giant Head….
https://www.newsweek.com/beto-orourke-2020-earth-art-appears-texas-story-amazing-man-1367442
I’m approaching fifty (no idea how that happened) and I don’t remember a time when some kind of climate catastrophe wasn’t imminent.
We’re of a similar age, and I don’t remember any of my classmates giving much thought to the consequences of acid rain, or the lack of anyplace to dump garbage, or the new ice age looming on the horizon. It’s not that we were young and stupid (though we were), nor that we never heard about these pending disasters (we heard plenty). Rather, it was that we had several thousand Soviet ICBM’s pointed at our homes, and woke up each morning with the small but significant chance that life on Earth would be snuffed out at the touch of a button.
Fortunately for all of us, and all who have come after, we had Sting. After Dream of the Blue Turtles was released, I knew we’d be okay, because of course the Russians love their children, too.
Of course our lack of long-term planning had consequences. We’re just lucky that the acid rain melted the mountains of garbage, and what remained was covered up by the ice and snow. Life finds a way!
Catastrophic Anthropomorphic Global Warming
Anthropogenic (darned autocorrect?) but the idea of an apococalyptic plague of furries is funny.
In terms of the quantity of furries, what’s the cutoff between “convention” and “apocalyptic plague”?
Something tells me we’ll need to know.
Rather, it was that we had several thousand Soviet ICBM’s pointed at our homes, and woke up each morning with the small but significant chance that life on Earth would be snuffed out at the touch of a button.
As an 11 year old boy I was told by my “teachers” in a parochial school that the events of October 1973 were aligning very closely with biblical prophecy. As the bible tells us, no one will know when the end times actually will occur. They suggested what better time for such a thing to happen but at the upcoming Christmas season when everyone is distracted with the festivities. So I spent that fall into winter obsessed with thinking, as close to 24/7 as possible, about the end of the world. Because of course if just one person would think about it, it wouldn’t happen. And you know, guess what guess what guess what? It didn’t happen. Did I so much as get a thank you for saving the world? No. You bastards don’t even have the g-d common courtesy to send me a Christmas card. A similar thing might also explain what happened to the Ozone hole, though I can’t personally take credit for it. Just a suspicion. Also tangentially, the world was going to run out of oil anyway by 1978…but I digress…
(The Modern Parents by John Fardell, from Viz)
Anthropogenic (darned autocorrect?) but the idea of an apococalyptic plague of furries is funny.
Lol! Thanks. Ahem, yes darned autocorrect.
In terms of the quantity of furries, what’s the cutoff between “convention” and “apocalyptic plague”?
It depends on how much you’ve had to drink/smoke/and or snort. If you’ve had the brown acid then the answer is one.
Because of course if just one person would think about it, it wouldn’t happen.
For me it was the magical qualities of baking soda that could prevent bad things from happening. My grandfather told me that grandma put baking soda in the refrigerator to keep the elephants out. I’ve never seen an elephant in any refrigerator that held a box of baking soda. I’d like to think it worked for the ozone layer too–some sort of chemical reaction I suspect.
the magical qualities of baking soda…
Another St. Patrick’s Day, another round of confusion as to why “soda bread” tastes nothing like Coca-Cola.
That being said, I must admit that I’ve never seen an elephant in an Irish pub, so at least that theory is still whole.
Not just Fireman Sam. Offence archaeologists have found Peppa Pig refers to FireMEN.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/19/peppa-pig-sexism-row-use-word-fireman-8938361/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Never mind that it took 10 years for anyone to take offence, or that the fire brigade is female only. No, cartoon pig says wrong word so ‘Evil!!!!’
“Rightist” Ideology?
A bit of a contradiction in terms, I feel, but I know what you mean.
Start, perhaps, with a sense of responsibility; to the past, the present, and the future. We have inherited something, mostly good, from our ancestors, who went through great troubles to leave us what they did.
We have a responsibility to identify and conserve the best of what our ancestors left us, and improve it where possible for the sake of our posterity.
Only when we accept responsibility can we insist on reasonable liberty, to take the risks life sends our way, and enjoy the fruits of our efforts.
I take the view that our sub-species is well equipped to do this without much compulsion, simply education for the young and sanction – severe if necessary – for those who break the rules most of us keep without difficulty.
If you detect a touch of race realism in my views, I will not deny it. I also recommend some ideological realism when considering the types described here: they are our deadly enemies, and may have to be killed in the end, without sentiment.
You all seem like an astute and cultured bunch, so I’ll ask…. How many people here have been watching ‘Love, death and robots’, a collection of animated SF shorts on Netflix? I’ve watched all but the last three so far and I’ve been quite enjoying it for what it is. There’s some stunning visual imagination and creativity on display. Some of the criticisms online are a bit predictable – the shows aren’t feminist enough for the Grauniad, basically (but then, what is?) I think the weaknesses of the shorts arise because of their strengths – ie, the focus on animation and CGI has meant plot and character and narrative creativity are sometimes missing. And some of the old fantasy-SF tropes are really wearing thin (another story about werewolves/vampires? Really?) For me, the more realistic and 3D the animation is, ironically, the worse the results (I think it’s one reason why the ‘this aren’t feministing good!’ cry goes out from the likes of Grauniad journos – realistically animated men and women somehow look more porny than the old ‘Elmer Fudd’ style of animation). Anyway, those are just a few thoughts – I’m interested in knowing what others think.
‘Love, death and robots’,
Nope. Don’t have Netflix. I’ve been watching Terrence Popp on YouTube.
NSFW for language and non-PC opinions. The Grauniad would have a conniption.
“what is “rightist” ideology driven by you think?”
I’ve been here before many times. There is no single, identifiable trait of “rightism”, other than that it isn’t Leftism. So the answer is, “Anything you want it to be”. Or, perhaps more accurately, “Anything the Left needs it to be, at any given moment”.
This became clear to me in my early 20s, as an avid reader of the old music weeklies. One minute they were solemnly accusing Morrissey of harbouring Nazi sympathines because he had the temerity to wave a Union Jack on stage, and within a year or so were happily blazoning the very same flag over their front pages as part of the whole “Cool Britannia” brouhaha. And now were back to “Union Jack = Nazi” again.
But then, I suppose that’s where postmodernism gets you.
“I’m approaching fifty (no idea how that happened)”
I hear you. I’m just about getting used to being over 30, and now suddenly I’m nearly 50. Slow the hell down, dammit!
Coming to this a little late, but my understanding of firemen’s other duties was putting the fire engine outside on a sunny day and then stripping to the waist and giving it a good wash. This excited one of my wife’s friends no end and the mere mention of yellow waterproof trousers would have her quite flustered. Come to think of it, having firewomen strip to the waist and wash the engine would probably be worth a watch too.