Preening Interruptus
Or, Call It A Counter-Protest.
Lifted from the comments and further to recent rumblings, a safe space is violated.
“What is wrong with you?” they ask.
Says Joan,
We’re going to see a lot more of this. Good.
It seems to me that these ladies actually got off lightly. If you choose to block the roads, determined to needlessly frustrate hundreds, even thousands, of people, just so you can indulge in some in-group preening, while ordering drivers to walk, then you should expect some physical push-back from the people on whose freedoms and imperatives you’ve chosen to piss. Because, hey, sabotaging attempts to get to jobs, airports and doctor’s appointments, while impeding emergency vehicles and thereby endangering lives, is such a lark, baby.
Acts of planned and gratuitous aggression, including narcissistic aggression – which is what these ‘protests’ are – should be treated accordingly. It’s important that these cossetted pinheads, so gorged on their own sense of entitlement, learn to fear those on whom they recreationally impose themselves. Their expectations of impunity should be shattered. Along with the conceit that the way to make people sympathetic with your cause, whatever it may be this week, is to screw them over – because you can – while applauding yourself for doing so.
Update:
Despite the pretence of martyrdom and claims by the participants that they “do not enjoy” exerting power over random passers-by – or would-be passers-by – it seems quite obvious that personal gratification is by no means incidental. These disruptions and obstructions – forcibly immobilising large numbers of people – are very much recreational, a rush of ego, as bullying often is. Now imagine being so privileged, so removed from normal concerns, that being arrested is a form of recreation, a leisure activity, a way to impress your peer group and accrue status.
If your go-to solution, your preferred mode of expression, is to frustrate and harass random people who are just trying to get to work, or to get home – and you do this while feeling enormously self-satisfied about your own imagined radicalism – then this tells us very little about the world or any purported cause. It does, however, tell us quite a bit about what kind of tosser you are.
But then, Extinction Rebellion is a kind of moral sludge made of the credulous and incoherent, the tediously pretentious, assorted slackers, and a core of Marxoid fanatics, whose stated ambitions include the toppling of European civilisation, which they denounce as uniquely “toxic” and the cause of all conceivable ills. Or at least the cause of the voices that won’t stop buzzing in their heads. These are broken, ludicrous people and should not be taken seriously, except perhaps as an expression of malign psychodrama, and a self-declared threat.
What Joan said.
Oh yeah, no sympathy with these nitwits.
In Melbourne the XR crowd were proudly displaying a video of them moving out of the way for an ambulance. They actually thought it made them look good.
the XR crowd were proudly displaying a video of them moving out of the way for an ambulance.
While other emergency vehicles, which may be stuck a mile or two down the tailback, as a direct result of their behaviour, remain conveniently out of sight.
They actually thought it made them look good.
Vanity is a powerful drug.
I can’t think of a suitably witty caption for this, so I’m just going to post the link without comment:
https://twitter.com/OldManLikeRon/status/1185489880962519040
“It’s important that these cossetted pinheads, so gorged on their own sense of entitlement, learn to fear the people on whom they recreationally impose themselves.”
I doubt any of them will be trying it on in East London again…
View from above, with appreciative commentary:
https://twitter.com/tyIerzilla/status/1185278788197896192
D’oh. Just noticed I put the link above in the wrong thread. Sorry.
Somewhat Related
Dutch farmers are protesting against their government.
Rather like the Yellow Vests in France, I’ve not seen this on the Beeb.
Vanity is a powerful drug.
Indeed, listen to the first 30 seconds of this cheesedick, “…we do not enjoy…there in no other option…”
Sod off, swampy.
we do not enjoy
For some people, dishonesty is like breathing.
narcissistic aggression – which is what these ‘protests’ are
That.
I can’t think of a suitably witty caption for this, so I’m just going to post the link without comment:
My God, it’s like a mass psychosis.
They are, in part…
We’re over here now.
Hello, David. 🙂
My God, it’s like a mass psychosis.
They’ve weaponised the medium of interpretive dance.
We must flee.
I can’t think of a suitably witty caption for this, so I’m just going to post the link without comment:
Captain Nemo, how would you compare that mob of terrestrial vermin to these aquatic vermin you once had to deal with?
Spelunking down Farnsworth’s cheesedick link, this is great…
https://mobile.twitter.com/spacecadet0697/status/1184819733633339394
Right, I’m heading out for dinner with the in-laws. Play nicely. Use coasters.
I can’t think of a suitably witty caption for this, so I’m just going to post the link without comment:
Is crime by cruciform vegetables a significant problem in the inner city? Asking for a friend.
Is crime by cruciform vegetables a significant problem in the inner city? Asking for a friend.
Quite the opposite, if you call any vegetable the chances are good, the vegetable will respond to you.
In-N-Out burger workers take out the trash.
In the immortal words of the great Iowahawk:
Extinction Rebellion, allow me to introduce Tired of Your Shit Rebellion.
These nitwits have been prancing around thinking that civil disobedience is a one way street.
In-N-Out burger workers take out the trash
I’m reminded of the security video in an Italian restaurant where a young hoodlum comes in with a pistol and tries to rob the place.
The average weight of the middle-aged, Italian-eating staff, and patrons, was probably about 280, if not more. One of the cooks was closer to 350. So as six to eight of the patrons and staff piled on the hoodlum, one of the cooks just casually saunters over to the telephone to call the cops.
When they show, the perp has been pinned under half a ton (or more) of annoyed patrons, and was practically begging the cops to rescue him from them…
I’ve been seeing a few commenters here and there say it’s unacceptable to respond to the protesters in this way and that folks should just wait for the police. I’m not buying it – I’ve seen no evidence of people being hurt, aside from hurt feelings, which don’t matter. The responses of ordinary citizens are proportional and reasonable ways to settle matters (albeit they are dealing with completely unreasonable loonies).
The responses of ordinary citizens are proportional and reasonable ways to settle matters
I’m honestly flabbergasted by this. It’s so easy for this to tip over into a violent scrum as passions are running high. And that’s exactly what these protestors want – a violent reaction that they can blow up on social media to make themselves look like victims, turn into a witchhunt against whomever laid hands on them, and use this as a powerful disincentive against anyone else who might be thinking of acting in the same way.
I’ve seen no evidence of people being hurt, aside from hurt feelings
I did see a photo on Twitter, purportedly of one of the Extinction Rebellion people who interfered with a London commuter train, in the hospital with bruises and a very swollen nose. Sorry I failed to save the URL of the Twitter post, and that post did not link to anything (was just a photo).
The police aren’t there to protect citizens from criminals. They exist to protect criminals from citizens.
Until they no longer function as designed.
I’ve seen no evidence of people being hurt…
It wasn’t during one of their
demonstrationsriots, but there is this “anti”fa clod’s mysterious demise.Sadly, back here in Blighty, the police are once again showing us just whose side they are on:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7592483/Police-search-evidence-against-commuters-carried-attack-XR-protester.html
They stopped the traffic because they wanted my attention. OK, they have it. What they want me to do? Stop burning fuel and freeze? Sell my car and buy a horse? Depopulate Nottingham and let the Sherwood Forest to regrow?
we do not enjoy
As several people have noted elsewhere, imagine being so privileged, so removed from normal concerns, that being arrested is a form of recreation, a leisure activity, a way to impress your peer group and accrue status.
But then, Extinction Rebellion is a kind of moral sludge made of the credulous and incoherent, the tediously pretentious, assorted slackers, and a core of Marxoid fanatics, whose stated ambitions include the toppling of European civilisation, which they denounce as uniquely “toxic” and the cause of all ills. Or at least the cause of the voices that won’t stop buzzing in their heads.
These are broken, ludicrous people. One should not take them seriously, except as a self-declared threat.
From the Daily Mail Link:
Attacking a doctor ! How dare they attack a noble healer what heals people and the planet ?
Oh, struck off then ? Nevermind.
These are broken, ludicrous people.
Speaking of which, we are remiss because yesterday we failed to celebrate National Period Day for menstrual equality and ending period poverty because one in four American women (or men, thank you sister [or brother]) are forced to use cardboard “or even trash” instead of tampons or pads. It must be true the women (or men, thank you sister [or brother]) in the video said so.
…because one in four American women (or men, thank you sister [or brother]) are forced to use cardboard “or even trash” instead of tampons or pads.
Shoving cardboard and trash in your undies would certainly explain a lot of behavior at these Extinction Rebellion protests.
“They were a grandfather, an ex-buddhist teacher, a vicar and a former GP”
Is this the singular, politically correct ‘they’ pronoun meaning that this refers to one person who is all these four things?
Is this the singular, politically correct ‘they’ pronoun meaning that this refers to one person who is all these four things?
Good question.
If only there were simple rules of grammar that would allow us to express our thoughts precisely, with none of this perplexing ambiguity.
These are broken, ludicrous people.
A follow up to National Period Day, another front in the Terf Wars opens over this, and a sanitary napkin maker surrenders to the transgender “men” over having the symbol of Venus on the package because they might lose $129.68 in annual revenue by not caving to a tiny minority.
Related, WTF, New Zealand ?
Oh good, because those would clash with the painted nails and false eyelashes on the lads.
Let’s put it this way, pst314. If faced with the choice between saving those activists or a giant squid, I’d save the squid.
because one in four American women (or men, thank you sister [or brother]) are forced to use cardboard “or even trash” instead of tampons or pads.
Who in hell actually believes that stat? Even before disposable pads were available, and in countries where they still aren’t, women use cloth. Cardboard? Trash?
They can’t resist exaggerating the lie, can they?
One in four sounds awfully high. Maybe after another 25 years of deterioration…
They can’t resist exaggerating the lie, can they?
Not in the least, it is utterly insane. Apparently they think sales tax on tampons is unconstitutional.
Skipping past that “people who menstruate” nonsense, that works out to about two bucks a year/woman between the ages of menarche and menopause, not even the price of one coffee outside of a Waffle House.
Let’s put it this way, pst314. If faced with the choice between saving those activists or a giant squid, I’d save the squid.
Well, the squid are more likable.
[Side note: that drawing is from the first French edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Very fine drawings by a very fine artist.]
You folks got it easy. I live in Hong Kong where it’s daily barricades, firebombing the MTR (our Tube) and if the police try to stop it, it’s called “police brutality”.
Rather hi your XR nincompoops any day…
one in four American women (or men, thank you sister [or brother]) are forced to use cardboard “or even trash” instead of tampons or pads
Of a piece with the feminist assertion that one in four women in American universities are raped, that Super Bowl Sunday is the occasion for a massive upsurge in domestic violence, and that there is a massive hunger problem among the poor in America, some of whom are so food insecure they can barely keep their weight up to 300 lbs.
…that works out to about two bucks a year/woman between the ages of menarche and menopause, not even the price of one coffee outside of a Waffle House.
You’ve forgotten how these people think. A sane person says 2 bucks, I can afford that. The looners say 2 bucks that’s not too much for the state to pay. Same input drastically different output.
You’ve forgotten how these people think.
Not that they think at all; considering sales tax, a) is set by states (and counties and cities), and b) helps pay for all the socialist goodness they like so much, one would think they would be more than happy to chip in their two frogskins.
And she’s being groomed for a Congressional run.
I will NOT be your hostage. Please don’t be my speedbump, It will briefly sadden me if I run you over.
And she’s being groomed for a Congressional run.
Because feelings trump embarrassing things like anatomy and physiology.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is proof any idiot can get a Master of Public Health degree, and that having an MPH doesn’t automatically equate actually to knowing anything about health.
It’s important that these cossetted pinheads, so gorged on their own sense of entitlement
I submit “engorged” might be a more appropriate characterization.
I will NOT be your hostage. Please don’t be my speedbump, It will briefly sadden me if I run you over.
Mmmmmmmmm (engine noise, Doppler shifted by its approach) DUB-DUP mmmmmmmmmmmmmm (engine noise, Doppler shifted by its departure)
Jay, or:
Mmmmmmmmm (engine noise, Doppler shifted by its approach) DUB-DUP, Screech of brakes, high speed reversing noise, DUP-DUP, Screech, mmmmm brief, engine noise again, DUB-DUP, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm (engine noise, Doppler shifted by its departure).
Just to be sure…
Very much related to the Exhibitionist Rebellion bozos, these items were over at The People’s Cube where I initially thought they were the usual parody. Alas, not so.
First up, The Guardian, of course, introduces NewKilm, climate specific Newspeak.
RTWT
Next, Get your Get-Into-Gulag-Free-Card !
You can Sign Up Here Now !
Actually, I am down with these clowns signing up, I am sure over in the UK rather than breaking the system through overcrowding, prison barges on the Thames can be brought back, and over here, we can always use chain gangs.
Mmmmmmmmm
Whup-whup-whup-whup-whup-whup-whup
Other than it’s a PITA for you (given the disruptions), what other similarities do you see between the HK demonstrators and the XR ninnyhammers?
If you choose to block the roads
Oh, if you choose to block the roads, you’re arguably committing “illegal detention” which is basically the same crime as kidnapping (but without moving the victim involved). And kidnapping is considered a violent felony, allowing resistance with deadly force.
Yes, these knuckle-draggers got off light, all things considered.
The responses of ordinary citizens are proportional and reasonable ways to settle matters
Posted by: TimT | October 19, 2019 at 22:59
I disagree. I think they are way under-proportional.
I don’t have a problem with a free citizen causing these sand-in-the-gears pain.
The idea that we should be all civilized and talk out our differences and be tolerant is predicated on everyone else going along.
When folks specifically scheme to break the social compact, reasonable people have NO requirement to treat them nicely with kid gloves. NONE. (Ever heard of the legal doctrine of “fighting words”?* Some people deserve to be dealt with in an ordinarily unacceptable manner.)
Otherwise you’re claiming civilized behavior is a suicide pact. And I won’t go along with that.
(* And yes, our “betters” have tried to obliterate that natural law/common law doctrine.)
over here, we can always use chain gangs.
We might like to, but our “betters” in the courts have decided they violate the 13th Amendment prohibition on “indentured servitude”. (Yes, yes, I know what the amendment SAYS, but that’s the claim of our courts.)
We might like to, but our “betters” in the courts have decided they violate the 13th Amendment prohibition on “indentured servitude”.
We still have them, just with fancy vests and no actual chains, and of course, there are always prison farms where these boneheads could learn useful skills like ditch digging.
The Guardian, of course, introduces NewKilm, climate specific Newspeak.
Big Brother would be very proud, then angry, then proud, then angry again…
Good news – Virtue Signal: The Game of Social Justice has more than made their Kickstarter goal.
Despite the pretence of martyrdom and claims by the participants that they “do not enjoy” exerting power over random passers-by – or would-be passers-by – it seems quite obvious that personal gratification is by no means incidental. These disruptions and obstructions – forcibly immobilising large numbers of people – are very much recreational, a rush of ego, as bullying often is.
That.
That.
Well, again, and I think this bears repeating – if your go-to solution, your preferred mode of expression, is to frustrate and bully random people who are just trying to get to work, or to get home – and you do this while feeling enormously self-satisfied about your own imagined radicalism – then this tells us very little about the world or any purported cause. It does, however, tell us quite a bit about what kind of tosser you are.
“What is wrong with you?” they ask.
Lefties project.
They run their little operations like a protection racket thought up by a two year old.
But then, Extinction Rebellion is a kind of moral sludge…whose stated ambitions include the toppling of European civilisation, which they denounce as uniquely “toxic” and the cause of all conceivable ills.
On a handful of occasions, I’ve asked these loons how they can consider themselves righteous crusaders for the Earth when they ignore the lion’s share of polluters, instead focusing their efforts on nibbling away at the margins. I mean, if they were truly serious about this stuff, they’d be staging their little demonstrations on the streets of Vijayawada or Guangzhou, instead of bothering middle-class commuters in countries whose pollution levels and trends are really quite benign.
I’ve tried to recruit them into my “Nuclear power at home and nuclear devastation in China” movement, but I have to admit I haven’t gotten much traction.
Yet!
Good news – Virtue Signal: The Game of Social Justice has more than made their Kickstarter goal.
I backed a for single copy.
Then the game and the creator got blacklisted from boardgamegeek because some SJWs wet their panties.
So I backed for multiple signed copies. Because I’ve had about enough of my hobbies being taken over by toxic wokescolds.
Nuclear power at home and nuclear devastation in China
I’ve used this argument repeatedly myself. If someone really, truly believes that we have only twelve years to save the planet they should be advocating for total war with India and China. Anything less means they’re just not serious.
As good as it may feel to stick to the dimwit protesters, and I’m certainly grinning at the video, I think they’re still cape, so to speak, not matador.
This seems appropriate:
The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’ – this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
-Aldous Huxley
Theater of the
AbsurdOppressed.OK folks. Period talk time. Yes, I know no one asked.
I am a woman who has I would describe an ‘average’ period experience. It is perhaps not as heavy as some, but it goes for 5-6 days which is the upper end of the average duration. Each period I would use a 2 pkt of tampons. That costs me approx AU $4.50-$6. Halve that if its on special, or if I go to Aldi. I also get cramps on the first few days, for which I use paracetemol. I would never use a full packet, but for ease lets jut day I do use a full 12 pkt. That will be $2-3. So at a maximum I spend $9 per month (on average it’s probably closer to $5). The tax on that (tampons only, no tax on paracetemol) is probably about 60c. per month.
I’ve lived pretty skint, but never once have I had to resort to desperately jamming garbage up myself to stem the flow. At the very worst, one can use toilet paper, which are in all public bathrooms (free to use here). The only people who may have difficulty purchasing are rough sleepers, if they have absolutely no money. But if you can afford to buy literally anything, you can afford a home brand package of sanitary products, even with tax. The 1 in 4 figure is crazy.
Also, I think the stated reasons for applying the tax are stupid and inconsistent. Condoms do not attract this tax as they are a disease-prevention measure. Well, I would have thought that it was a public health issue not to have public seating lined with blood or skidders (toilet paper is taxed here too), but maybe I’m in the minority there.
But seriously. 60c per month tax. Considering what we blow our money on that is not essential (ask women whether they use an expernsive face moisturiser, or the bottom-of-the-range hydrobase), it seems like very small potatoes. And as we are taxed on toilet paper (which penalises anyone with a butt), which are as necessary as tampons, hygiene-wise, surely we can’t claim the tampon tax is a discrimination issue. Put your energy toward something else.
Oh and lastly, transgender women can’t menstruate. Ladies, this issue is not about you, and thats ok. It doesn’t detract from your experience as a woman. But I won’t pretend with you. And if you *do* have blood coming out of your dickhole, pls go to a dr.
Every once in a while youtube throws me a clip of an old film — usually musicals, which I love. What gets me about this clip from Donald O’Connor’s 1956 film Anything Goes is the whole premise of the song. Teaching kids not to dwell on their hurt or disappointments – don’t cry for sympathy – be strong, act happy and you’ll “bounce right back.”
Now we teach kids they are oppressed and the biggest whiners win.
What a change in so short a time.
These imposed standards of whiteness are the white gaze. The white gaze frames how we are supposed to behave, how to think, and what to value. It tells us what is normal, right, proper. And, when people think, act, or be outside of the gaze, they are seen as abnormal and broke.
White Gaze: The cracker’s eye creates an area of oppression, as in the oppression field spell, in an infinitely extending cone. At the start of each of its turns, the cracker decides which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active. The oppression effect causes feigned psychic damage to players of color and to any creatures that identify as a gender not matching that indicated on their character sheet. The feigned psychic damage grants the affected 1d6 victim points and the choice to perform one of the following free actions:
Fall on the ground wailing
Receive 30 silver
Prevent another creature from moving
Destroy an object belonging to another creature
Any creature that worships Al’lah-lah-lalala, the orcish Deity of Diddling Little Children, receives 2d6 feigned psychic damage and has the additional free action options of either charming one female NPC under the age of 18 or with a wisdom score of less than 8, or exploding in a fireball.
I salute your obscure D&D reference sir.
If I thought anyone here would get it, I’d follow up with an Apocalypse World joke.
I salute your obscure D&D reference sir.
As so often, I understand barely half of what goes on here.
…surely we can’t claim the tampon tax is a discrimination issue.
Particularly when it is just not wxmyn paying the tax, every guy here who has ever been confronted by the bewildering wall of these products when asked by a wife or girlfriend (or both) to quick go get some* (or routinely buy them on grocery runs), please raise your hand.
*([In the days before cell phones or 24 hr convenience stores]
GF: ZOMG, can you run down to the store and grab me some tampons ?
FMM: Uh…sure, any brand ?
GF: I don’t care, please get some quick.
FMM: Returns after having been confronted by bewildering wall Here you go.
GF: No not those !
FMM: What kind, there were thousands ?
GF: Look under the sink !
FMM: Looks There aren’t any.
GF: That’s why I need them !
FMM: Goes back to store brings back an assortment, GF picks one out, FMM opens scotch. Next day takes others back and buys secret stash for next emergency, uses half of them soaking up fluids while changing head on an engine.)
We still have them, just with fancy vests and no actual chains,
Its very good business here in Florida. Not for the state mind you, for the inmates. We are lucky to recover our costs most months.
They are quite adept at finding very creative ways to smuggle contraband behind the fence via work squad drops. And with a $20 flip phone from Walmart fetching almost $500 and the $50 dollar smart phones going for upwards of $800, who can blame them; not to mention drugs and tobacco all of which sell very well.
These maggot-souls dream of toppling Western civilization, but get to keep all the baubles and flick-of-a-switch conveniences of that civilization.