Content Goes Here
Yes, an open thread. In which to share links and bicker.
I’ll set the ball rolling with some augmented reality and an offer of possible interest.
Oh, and your weekly reminder that members of Antifa are just like normal people and in no way unhinged or likely to be afflicted with quite serious personality disorders.
[ Added, via the comments: ]As I’ve said before, Antifa is not so much a political movement as a metastasising personality disorder, a Cluster B contagion. Which is to say, I think the root motive is psychological – a desire to do harm to other people, to cow, obstruct, frighten and assault, while feeling important and, via mob coercion, powerful. The politics, such as it is, is largely a pretext, a focus, a convenient excuse. Which would explain why its glaring idiocies, routine inaccuracies and inversions of reality do nothing to impede participants, and why the victims of Antifa aggression include disabled old ladies trying to use a pedestrian crossing. And who find themselves being gleefully harassed, physically intimidated and screamed at as “Nazi scum.”
A less deranged person might register the optics of such behaviour, the nakedly opportunist sociopathy. Menacing little old ladies, because you can – and hey, why not? - is a strange expression of “social justice” or “anti-fascism” or “resistance” or whatever. But the creatures typically drawn to Antifa, which include an extraordinary concentration of resentful misfits and the mentally unwell, are enjoying themselves far too much to care. The screeching, thuggery and harassment isn’t principled or political so much as compulsive and recreational. They do it because they enjoy it, because they want to, and because it makes them feel powerful.
It’s worth bearing in mind that while dogmatic morony is commonplace, not least among Antifa and leftist student agitators in general, many of the participants are choosing to believe, or pretend to believe, whatever it is that offers opportunities to behave in threatening, controlling or antisocial ways. Facts are not a priority and are often actively avoided.
And so, for instance, Charles Murray is attacked by a mob and denounced as “sexist,” “racist,” “anti-gay” and a “white nationalist.” By people who boast of having never read his books. As even the briefest use of Google would reveal, Murray married a Thai woman while in the Peace Corps, has mixed-race children, has tutored inner-city black children for free, and was an early advocate of gay marriage – hardly the most obvious markers of a supposedly anti-gay white nationalist.
There are several video clips of Antifa ‘activists’ and other leftist delinquents harassing people and accusing them of various, lurid, quite particular sins, only for their targets to explain how impossible that would be – say, by not being anywhere near the site of the alleged sin at the time it supposedly occurred – and for the accuser to promptly reply, with a grin, that it doesn’t matter whether the accusation is true or not – and then immediately resuming their harassment. As one Antifa member put it, “Oh, yeah, I just fucking made it up, ‘cause I can make shit up if I want.” For devotees and opportunist LARPers alike, any pretext will do, any baseless accusation, even outright lies.
That’s who they are.
It’s a ball of malice with delusions of grandeur.
Don’t ever change, Guardian.
We did this one before.
Select Incidence (all new cases which includes the asymptomatic who test positive):
Iceland: 524/100,000
Germany: 190/100,000
Denmark, Norway: ~177/100,000
dRumpfHitler: 284/100,000 – with about five times the testing as any other country has conducted
bOrisHitler: 233/100,000
CFR:
Iceland is the winner at 0.5
Germany and dRumpfHitler are tied if you account for the serious skewing by NYC
Denmark, 4.8. Bad Denmark
bOrisHitler’s numbers make no sense, I blame the NHS for not testing enough, no way the UK is the same as Italy at about 13.
The bottom line is, no, female leaders are no better, you have to look at more than just plain deaths, Iceland’s incidence is high because there are only 350,000 people there so they too have a high testing rate, the deaths low not the least because almost 75% are under 55. Other factors come into play in other countries. However, as we all know, that doesn’t make for clickbait.
Janet:
This isn’t the end of the world, but it’s also very definitely NOT the flu. For example, the population-wide death rates in New York are running about four times higher than last year, right now. That’s not the Black Death, but it’s also something quite significant, quite a lot of lives lost that didn’t need to be.
I will be very interested in the number of deaths over the year. In theory, if the majority of Wuhan flu deaths are people with co-mobidities, these were people who were less than a year from dying anyway.
I’d imagine, broadly, there’s some hideous feedback loop.
It is akin to witnessing someone who has a history of relationships with b-grade/not entirely bright narcissistic manipulators finally reach the day when they find themselves drawn in and latched onto by a true, silver-tongued, capital-N Narcissist. The downward slide from there may take a few years in some cases, and many who are in frequent contact with the person may not be astute enough to recognize the signs of what is really transpiring. No matter how subtle the methods of the manipulator are, however, the end result in the mental degradation of the person you once knew is glaring.
And by that point they are completely hooked. The predator-parasite who has disfigured them is good for them, they will tell you, and all the more so because of how fucked up and broken they’ve become since the day they met.
Don’t ever change, Guardian.
Even the left leaning ABC isn’t buying into the Powerful Womyn/Jacinda Ardern hype.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-27/has-new-zealand-done-better-than-australia-on-coronavirus/12182254
For New Zealander Anita Affleck, who lives in the city of New Plymouth on the North Island, the clear instructions gave her family peace of mind.
“It’s really easy to understand and there’s not much decision-making required,” she said.
So she’ll happily surrender my liberty and my economic and mental well-being, but please don’t ask her to think.
Give me strength!
Don’t ever change, Guardian.
Sex or race as a job qualification is a sign of a decision making process which is probably distorted in various ways that lead to the selection of suboptimal and even subaverage candidates. This may not always be obvious, however, because the people who choose to go into politics tend to be suboptimal anyways. 😉
Optics aren’t the same kind of concern when the police and the media are both protecting you. When you’re above the law, sychopathic behavior is optically desirable. It demonstrates strength. “Use it or lose it”. The mafia also had to keep reminding people that they could use extra-legal violence and get away with it.
Antifa is the not-quite-official paramilitary wing of the official left. They don’t need you to like them, only to fear them.
many of the participants are choosing to believe, or pretend to believe, whatever it is that offers opportunities to behave in threatening, controlling or antisocial ways.
That. Goal = thuggery. Politics = excuse.
That. Goal = thuggery. Politics = excuse.
Well, when your go-to solution to almost any professed issue is to frighten random people, or beat them, or rob them, or frustrate them, or dominate them, or humiliate them, or to smash their possessions… then I think we can assume that the thuggery isn’t some unfortunate or reluctant side effect of otherwise good people under duress, but was always the objective. The sweetest plum.
And if someone in most other respects doesn’t have a grip on their own life, to the extent that they end up with police mugshots – and do look at the sample mugshots linked above – then they may harbour quite vehement fantasies of exerting power in other, more exciting ways. Which is to say, exerting power over others. It’s a dreary compensation, I think, and quite pathological – but again, just look at who they are.
Somewhat related, this and this.
Shot:
‘It’s a racial justice issue’: Black Americans are dying in greater numbers from Covid-19
Chaser:
1,000 People Attend House Party in Chicago During Coronavirus Pandemic
via Battle Beagle
He does this better than you:
https://twitter.com/HolyCow_Inc/status/1255114020941639681
He does this better than you
That’s exactly how I would have done it.
What?
Back when we were young and beautiful, a buddy of mine spent some time as a tree surgeon, with much the same carefree attitude as shown in the video. He explained that he could do one or two jobs a day if he did all the safety prepwork and followed proper procedures, or he could do four or five a day if he just scrambled up the tree and went crazy with his chainsaw.
Even with the high probability that he’d spend six weeks mending from a fall or a bad laceration, he figured he could make 50% more in a season by skipping all the safety nonsense.
That worked great until the Work Comp insurance and safety regulators caught up with him. These days, he teaches music to 5th and 6th graders at a charter school. Not sure which is the scarier pursuit.
just scrambled up the tree and went crazy with his chainsaw.
One of the neighbours had tree surgeons in a couple of years ago. In the time it took me to drink two mugs of coffee, a thirty-five-metre tree disappeared, except for a neat stack of slices. Remarkable to watch.
“Shot: … Chaser:”
Leftism could almost be defined as “hostility to the principle of cause-and-effect as it applies to human society”.
The only time the Left appears to like the concept is when it can be used as an excuse for its own actions against its enemies. Call someone a nasty name, and the loss of your job and expulsion from polite society are simply the natural consequences of your
indiscretionhate. But fail to maintain your home, be diligent in your job, or look after your health, and the fact that you live in a shithole isn’t your fault; it’s capitalism, or racism, or something.Leftism could almost be defined as “hostility to the principle of cause-and-effect as it applies to human society”.
Somewhat related.
chainsaw…
My father had a pair of work jeans with a neat slash across the back on one knee. The result of working in a tree with a saw which dropped to the end of its safety rope and then swung into the back of his leg. Before the chain stopped.
He called them his “lucky” jeans. I was about 10 when I watched this happen. Made an impression. So I am pretty careful with my chainsaw. Which also has a deadman chain-brake – lose your grip and the chain stops instantly.
Hey, another fun timbering story…
My brother in law told us of a neighbor gent (in central Mass.) who went missing. He was eventually found in a far corner of his property with his head almost torn off. Seems the tree he was felling had split, and part of the split had caught him under his chin. Ouch. Be careful out there.
It’s from 2019 but the subject is evergreen: Naked Yoga and Cuddle Parties: Lap Dancing Clubs for the Woke
Speaking of content, David, apparently this leaked trailer is a trans wo/man and two lesbians in a post-apocalyptic somethingorother.
https://twitter.com/animegirlpits/status/1254862027027214336
The remaining question is if this wokeness is a tacit admission, a profound accidental coincidence, or next-level social enlightenment.
If we wait they’ll advise.
this leaked trailer is a trans wo/man and two lesbians in a post-apocalyptic somethingorother.
I’m… not familiar with the kind of thing I’m seeing.
Honestly.
We are all dust in the wind.
No. Just No!
There is no way in the world I am quoting a Kansas song. Even via Bill and Ted. US soft rock is an abomination. The only think good about Kansas is that at least they aren’t f**king Toto.
I was thinking of Genesis 3:19
The only think good about Kansas is that at least they aren’t f**king Toto.
Heh. Preach, brother!
” As a journalist writing about weird workshops and unusual classes I’ve covered cuddle parties, rope-binding, naked yoga, and tantra, to name but a few. These classes are popular with the hipsters who are colonising Hackney Wick and other areas of East London in the throes of gentrification. And with each event I cover, I become more suspicious that these “alternative” workshops are simply a way for apparently progressive men to gawp at women—lap dancing clubs for the woke.
Sadsack men never change. It’s, um, a reassuring constant in life.
(I should probably clarify that…. anecdotally I’ve heard that the men who frequent prostitutes tend to have a number of issues in their personal and mental life. So it’s not surprising to hear that in supposedly woke hipster Naked Yoga classes, you get the same sadsacks, fundamentally.)
The only think good about Kansas is that at least they aren’t f**king Toto.
I say, that joke is wizard !
Antifa do seem to display sociopathic behaviour. Such people tend to care for nothing but themselves, which is an important clue on how to deal with them. Don’t try to reason with them. That’s like trying to reason with your cat. And don’t appeal to their better nature, because they probably don’t have one. Rather everytime they break the law they must be charged and prosecuted. Sue them when the opportunity arises and it makes sense (e.g., you know who they are and they aren’t a complete turnip). Every time they put their hand on the stove, make sure it burns.
Speaking about sociopaths … it’s about time!
I’m… not familiar with the kind of thing I’m seeing.
It’s the trailer for The Last of Us 2, the sequel to a fairly well-done zombie apocalypse cinematic video game. Apparently the CEO of the studio fired the writer of the previous game and replaced her with some Twitter wokerati gender activist. The Marvel comics business strategy, basically
Egg donor requests, but is denied, application to be recognised as sperm donor on document detailing who provided which gametes.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/29/uk-court-transgender-man-cannot-legally-listed-father-childs-brith-certificate/#
Appeal to follow.
(And TypeKey login for Twitter is borken.)
Appears to have been a Floudclare issue.