Elsewhere (295)
Rod Dreher on Bad Whitey, Corrupter Of All Things:
In New Jersey, two high school boys stand accused of racially harassing and intimidating four younger black girls. The accused are of South Asian (Indian) descent. You might think that this ugly display is a reminder that the sin of racism is a universal part of the fallen human condition. You would be wrong, according to Princeton historian Nell Irvin Painter. Writing in the New York Times, the L’Osservatore Romano of the Cult of Social Justice, Painter tells us that it’s really whitey’s fault… Even when racist harassers are brown-skinned, they’re really white, and their alleged actions are the fault of white people… I remind you that this racist screed was written by a Princeton professor, writing on the op-ed page of the most important newspaper in the world.
You see, when members of one racial minority assault and degrade members of another racial minority, they are, we’re told, merely “enacting American whiteness,” something seemingly akin to demonic possession. This, and only this, is apparently “what matters.” Such, then, are the standards of Princeton employees.
And Steve Salerno on woke education – and mediocrity for all:
It should be apparent that implementing [‘Social-Emotional Learning Theory’] necessarily presupposes some dilution of the traditional nuts-and-bolts curriculum — the diversion of finite class time to topics and methodologies that have nothing to do with mastering, say, long division. The gurus of SEL make no apologies for this. Rather, as [New York mayor, Bill] de Blasio insists in his Fortune piece, “These are hard skills… just like reading and math, that must be taught, practised, and strengthened over time.” SEL’s unflinching emphasis on the so-called “non-cognitive factors” in cognition is bad news for all supporters of no-nonsense education — that is, the kind that doesn’t encourage students to devote class time to communicating their current emotional status to their peers via emojis, as has happened in some SEL implementations.
Because the way to encourage mastery of a subject is to do away with red-pen corrections, which are “stigmatising,” and to embrace “individual” spelling – as opposed to the stuffy and outdated kind, with its rules and whatnot, and thus the possibility of being wrong. Presumably, on grounds that being precise, articulate and in possession of one’s thoughts – or just knowing the difference between ask and axe – is terribly racist.
Update, via the comments:
I’ve mentioned before how at my own state school there were several educators who felt that teaching basic grammar was insufficiently forward-looking and therefore unnecessary, positively beneath them. Consequently, at secondary school, my long-suffering German teacher was amazed to find that his ‘A’ stream students had no idea what a subordinate clause was and had almost no formal knowledge of grammar at all. As a result, the poor chap ended up spending large chunks of every lesson, for months, providing remedial English tuition to some of the brightest kids in school. So that we could eventually learn some German.
Similar views are still propagated by, among others, the Marxist, poet and BBC regular Michael Rosen, who tells fellow Guardian readers that “there’s no such thing as correct grammar.” For Rosen – whose own grammar is of course carefully crafted – learning the rules of the national language is both oppressive and inegalitarian and should therefore be frowned upon. Presumably, Mr Rosen doesn’t believe that other people – poorer people or people with browner skin – should be offered the same tools to get on in life – the tools he employs. Perhaps they’re expected to compensate with proletarian gusto and ethnic charm.
And this is the standard posture, the inevitable dishonesty. Readers may recall the taxpayer-funded race hustler Dr Caprice Hollins, who was paid $86,000 a year to tell Seattle educators that “students of colour” needn’t learn the grammar and fluency that she herself enjoys and with which she signals her own intellectual status. Apparently, those job applications needn’t be grammatical, and any spelling will do, however incomprehensible. Basic skills and attitudes, including foresight and punctuality, are apparently “white values,” and expectations thereof constitute “cultural racism.” We must, she said, see brown people as “racial beings,” but we mustn’t expect them to turn up on time.
I’m trying to imagine how the conscientious parents of a “student of colour” might feel on learning that this is the kind of attitude being propagated in many state schools, at their expense. And at the expense of their children.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
You see, when members of one racial minority assault and degrade members of another racial minority, they are, we’re told, merely “enacting American whiteness,” something seemingly akin to demonic possession.
It’s the miracle of transubstantiation: an inky-black person instantly becomes white the instant he does something of which the Left does not approve. And conversely.
When I got into the “real” world of reading my managers’ and directors’ and such direct emails (heh…when they did away with secretaries sooo much was revealed), I was stunned by seeing these words misused.
My very favorite corporate solecism: a reference to a “polo bear.”
Read much, do you?
One of my pet hates, and it’s ubiquitous, is “one of the only”. Its the “only one” or “one of the few”, not “one of the only”.
Similar to “very unique;” there are no degrees of uniqueness.
Another one that I detest: “period of time.” Grrrr. Is there a period of something else, temperature maybe?
How about using the word shart instead of malodorous, explosive diarrhea?
I agree with any nasty comment anyone cares to make about Michael Rosen… He once interviewed me (years ago now) on the Radio 4 programme (or program for our US friends) Word of Mouth, and while he was very affable on air, he completely ignored me the rest of the time and was quite off-hand to the production staff. I had the impression of a man who thought considerably more of himself than was justified by his achievements.
Interesting. I met Rosen some years ago (he’s a friend of an acquaintance of mine) and he was, indeed, unpleasant – snide and offhand.
Incidentally, the programme Word of Mouth used to be one of the best things on radio – unmmissable to anyone fascinated by language. Since Rosen took over it has become tedious – juat another platform for self-involved lefties to talk among themselves.
Meanwhile, a debate professor at Weber State University in Utah has proved that space doesn’t exist because he’s never been there. Likewise, Paris.
“Professor” Wash clearly doesn’t have a brain. After all, no one has ever seen it.
Malicious wokeness (in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago.)
That WIRED article ends with this fascinating remark
“at some point the question of who is a woman becomes a cultural inquiry: How athletically outstanding can a girl or woman be before we no longer see her as female?”
So…males who are not very successful athletes are cultural females, and females who are athletically successful are cultural males?
So…when I’m cycling or swimming I’m male, and when I’m running I’m female.
But what about when I’m skiing?
The recent confusion over rogue/rouge is another irritation. I keep asking is what have they got against the reds ?
Meanwhile, a debate professor at Weber State University in Utah has proved that space doesn’t exist because he’s never been there. Likewise, Paris.
One of the important games you play with your infant is “peek-a-boo”. Hide your face, reveal your face. Yes, it’s fun, the giggles are priceless but what you teach your child is that you still exist, even if she or he can’t see you!
Here’s a debate professor who isn’t just arguing solipsism, but actually seems to believe in it. So sad his mommy and daddy didn’t play ‘peek-a-boo’ with him.
when they did away with secretaries sooo much was revealed
Back in the old days, I was an executive secretary. I even took dictation.
Of all the subjects I studied in school, my business classes really sharpened my writing skills. I had to type letters (with carbons, no less) with no more than two corrections. When typing from my dictation (which was phonetic symbols – Gregg Diamond Jubilee shorthand), I not only had to have a good grasp of spelling and grammar but also punctuation and how to craft a decent paragraph.
All those polished business letters that went out before email. Secretaries – making their bosses look great.
The Meghan Murphy talk occurred Tuesday night at a Toronto Public Library. Here’s one columnist’s take on the event. Watching the alphabet people battle the radical feminists is great sport.
Sue-Ann Levy is a right of centre, lesbian opinion writer for the Toronto Sun. So she’s been labeled far-right and a TERF.
Transgender athletes are having a moment. At all levels of sport, they’re stepping onto the podium and into the headlines. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard won two gold medals at the Pacific Games, and college senior CeCé Telfer became the NCAA Division II national champion in the 400-meter run. Another senior, June Eastwood, has been instrumental to her cross-country team’s success. At the high school level, Terry Miller won the girls’ 200-meter dash at Connecticut’s state open championship track meet.
These recent performances are inherently praiseworthy—shining examples of what humans can accomplish with training and effort.
Judging from what we know about the record of these trans-athletes, they’re shining examples of individuals who were mediocre in their field when they played against athletes who were the *actual* gender of their birth.
I don’t mind the solution, mooted elsewhere in the article, of sports being regulated with a series of handicaps, with female only events, trans-female only events, male only events, trans-male only events.
These recent performances are inherently praiseworthy—shining examples of what humans can accomplish with training and effort
If that were true, where’s the female-bodied Man winning at male sports?
The ‘Indy’ has a column today on how transphobia is really down to capitalism
Malicious wokeness (in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago.)
If anyone were still to doubt that things may have gone just a little too far and got just a little too out of hand, they may want to take a peek at this.
From the “Science” section of Wired
Or you could just handicap competitors according to their socio-economic status.
From the “Science” section of Wired
“Sports – and life – have never been fair” is an odd opening line – suggesting, as it does, that female athletes should step aside and suck it up – and given the simultaneous claim that it’s somehow unfair for men who think that they’re women not to compete against actual women, where their physical advantages, as men, could be leveraged, unfairly. Such that the star athletes of women’s sports would, in time, be biological men. If anything, the quoted line suggests a kind of rhetorical panic. Though I suppose the disarray doesn’t matter because the author has arrived at the conclusion currently in fashion among her own in-group.
Your daily dose of cringe.
If she did it Pirelli-style, I’d buy one.
the tendency on you lot over there dropping the letter H (or aitch, which would explain a lot right there)
Us lot? I fear you may be confusing my lot with some other lot. How else would one pronounce H other than ‘aitch’?
Bloody colonials.
Pronouncing ‘H’ as haitch, not aitch. That’s grounds for a fistfight.
“labeled far-right”
Anything that is not full-on woke/progressive is “far-right”.
I don’t mind the solution, mooted elsewhere in the article, of sports being regulated with a series of handicaps, with female only events, trans-female only events, male only events, trans-male only events.
There will, of course, be the problem that the trans competitions will attract very few fans, and that will immediately become a “problem” for which a “solution” must be found and imposed. 🙂
There will, of course, be the problem that the trans competitions will attract very few fans, and that will immediately become a “problem” for which a “solution” must be found and imposed. 🙂
I’m sure I’ve said before that if RuPaul’s Drag Race involved actual drag racing – squealing tyres and yards of billowing chiffon – it might be quite fun.
RuPaul’s Drag Race
A rather niche product, which gets a channel today only because of the diversity fostering blessings of cable tv and the Internet. On the other hand, there are few or zero shows that nearly everyone watches.
…watches anymore.
Heh….I’ll leave you to aich vs. haich. In fact I’ll make some more popcorn. But this nonsense of “I’ll be there in a hour”/”I’ll be there in an hour” has got to stop. And of course “A horse is a horse” NOT “an horse is an horse”, of course, of course.
All those polished business letters that went out before email. Secretaries – making their bosses look great.
The last large (like several hundred people) department that I worked in did have secretaries, excuse me…administrative assistants, for the head honchos (hhhhonchos, not ‘onchos…but I digress). Damned if one of them didn’t throw his AA under the bus for “failing” to check the distribution list on the email that went out under HIS name, such that he spammed the entire 100,000 people corporation with something that was effectively useless itself. And then he used that experience to berate the rest of us in a second email that this was a good lesson on the importance of attention to detail. He sent that email out without putting the (this time proper) distribution list on the BCC line. So…not much was actually learned. Except possibly that his secretary couldn’t seem to find employment working for anyone else.
become a “problem” for which a “solution” must be found and imposed.
Well, you do know what is going to happen there, right? The will intermix the tranny stuff with the regular men’s/women’s stuff such that we…well not me, I’ll totally have given up on sports by that point (thank you instant replay)…will have to sit through the transcrap to get to the events that do put fannies in the seats. The simplest games/events will go on for hours until people eventually give up on them entirely. The real objective is to kill off sport or athletic competition entirely due to its problematic patriarchal fascism. Plus it wastes resources and contributes to climate change.
we…will have to sit through the transcrap to get to the events that do put fannies in the seats.
Marginally related: I gave up on live rock performances many decades ago when I realized that the bands never started on time, so that I’d have to wait in the bar one to two hours before they would play. Besides the fact that this made it impossible to get enough sleep before going to work early the next day, it showed the contempt that the bands and bar owners felt for the customers.
…will have to sit through the transcrap to get to the events that do put fannies in the seats.
Here again we have a language problem as American fannies are not the same as UK fannies and whether they technically can even be in a seat, as opposed to on a seat, of course depending on what constitutes a trannie fanny.
trannie fanny
Band name.
Hmmm….a good start, but needs more cowbell. Something like The Fabulous Trannie Fannies or Bare Naked Tranny Fannies…ok, that last one maybe not…how about Tranny Fanny Cult? The Electric Tranny Fanny Orchestra? The Kinks? No, might be a copyright issue there. The Pink Tranny Fannies? Hmm….three more minutes until lunch…let’s see…Trannies of the United States of America? Tranny Fanny and the Furious Five? Annie and the Tranny Fannies? One for the millennials, Modest Tranny Fanny? Possibly too obvious but Tranny Fanny Revolution? The Tranny Fanny Monkeys (plays into my theory that anything performance-wise can be improved by adding a monkey). Tranny, Fanny, and Palmer?…OK, that’s lunch. TTFNMF.
I don’t mind the solution, mooted elsewhere in the article, of sports being regulated with a series of handicaps, with female only events, trans-female only events, male only events, trans-male only events.
Unworkable, since no matter how much the presstitutes lie the aren’t that many of there freaks.
Tom Swift and His Atomic Tranny Fanny. Chicago Tranny Fanny Authority.
What do UK visitors think when they see candy shops named “Fanny May” and “Fanny Farmer”?
Trannybananafanannyrama
Tranny, Tranny, bo-branny
Banana-fana fo-franny
Fee-fi-mo-mranny
Tranny!
Fanny, Fanny, bo-banny
Banana-fana fo-anny
Fee-fi-mo-manny
Fanny!
All together now!
TrannyFanny, TrannyFanny, bo-brannyFanny
Banana-fana fo-frannyFanny
Fee-fi-mo-mrannyFanny
TrannyFanny!
Barman! One Night-Nurse/NightTrain Banana Daiquiri for Mr. Baceseras! And don’t forget the little paper umbrella this time.
Just bring me a Rusty Knife, please.
Unworkable, since no matter how much the presstitutes lie the aren’t that many of there freaks.
And even less when they don’t get an easy victory by being born male and competing against born females.
I watched a bit of the Warriors basketball game last night, wherein the pre-game show included an interview with Megan Rapinoe, of US Women’s soccer/futbol fame. There has been an ongoing kerfuffle over pay rates for various women’s soccer teams. Her contribution, in this interview, as far as I could suss it out, was, “Pay us equally [to the men] now. Work out the economic issues later.” IIRC the other interviewee was a woman from the US WNBA, making essentially the same argument. Except her suggestions included spending (from who’s pocket?) “equal” money on facilities/stadia, sponsorships, scholarships.
Now, I’m actually in favor of the original goal of the US “Title 9” rules, which demanded that state-funded university and college athletics support and fund men’s and women’s sports equally. But WNBA and US Soccer are “professional” enterprises, notionally (Hah!) free of government funding. So Megan and her colleague can shove it, until they get the audience, advertising revenue, ticket sales, and commercial sponsorships bumped up high enough to fund their wish list.
Tact for tack.
I hear people I think should know better make this mistake all of the time. When I try to correct them, they look at me like I am insane. No, we don’t need to take a different tact.