Elsewhere (299)
Theodore Dalrymple on pretentious guilt and moral grandiosity:
But posing and posturing have become a mass phenomenon, the tattooing of our time. Of nothing is this more true than contemporary Woke morality. Whereas not long ago young people of the middle classes sought to express their sympathy for the lower and supposedly oppressed orders by imitating their tattoos and way of dress, imitation being the highest form of empathy available to egotists, they now express the same desire by making Wokeness the touchstone of their morality. They think they are rebelling when, of course, they are conforming. They do not realise that it is more difficult, and more courageous, to contradict a friend than to criticise a society.
Douglas Murray on denunciation hysteria and societal malware:
It is unsustainable that we are held hostage as a nation by a minority of fanatics, who have fanatical views that we have never voted in… You do not have to pay your tithes to Black Lives Matter; you do not have to pay your Danegeld to the latest LGBT thing. You don’t have to do any of this. […]
I don’t care if [the media] say [Tony Abbott] is a misogynist. I don’t care if they say he’s a homophobe. I don’t care about any of it now and nor should anybody else. They’ve overused their currency. They’ve hyperinflated – we’re in Zimbabwean situation. And it’s time that we say, ‘We don’t care. Your magic spell-words don’t work anymore.’ […] By the way, it has to be said, if you are Kay Burley and watching this, I’ll play that game back to her. 2009, she throttled a female reporter round the neck until the woman was bruised. Okay? Fine, Kay Burley, want to play that game? ‘No-one should appear in a studio with Kay Burley because she’s someone who throttles women ‘til they’re bruised. And if you appear in a studio with her, you approve of the throttling of women.’
And G. Thomas Burgess on the perverse, dystopian outpourings of Ibram X. Kendi:
Kendi believes racial integration is a “one-way street” in which blacks assimilate into white society, a process he likens to cultural “lynching.” He therefore considers integrationists to be more harmful than segregationists, because they try to impose “white” values on blacks by disguising them as universal values. But he does the same thing, only in reverse: feeding blacks the falsehood that what are in fact universal assumptions—about the value of education and the dangers of crack cocaine—are actually “white” values to be shunned. Which raises the question of which is more harmful—the existence of such values, or Kendi’s claim that when blacks embrace them, they internalise racism against their own people. Because where would Kendi be without parents and other role models who encouraged him to excel? Where would most of us be without such people?
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
’ It is unsustainable that we are held hostage as a nation by a minority of fanatics…’
But enough about current UK government Covid policies…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8730095/Ministers-urge-public-report-neighbours-breaking-new-Rule-Six.html
Because where would Kendi be without parents and other role models who encouraged him to excel?
They’re always hypocrites.
They’re always hypocrites.
Like parasitic inversion, it does seem to be a standard default. Sadly, drawing attention to such things is of limited effect. The people in question, and their admirers, don’t appear to care much.
Imagine the childish petulance required to demand cancelling the Nobel Peace Prize because you’re hysterically averse to the nominee!
the perverse, dystopian outpourings of Ibram X. Kendi
The more that black people assert that they are a race apart, incapable of integrating into the ethics and values of western civilization, the more the rest of America is going to take them at their word.
“And if you appear in a studio with her, you approve of the throttling of women.”
Quite.
Here’s a question for Sundown Joe Biden about what he approves. His campaign has received more than $119 Million from Black Lives Matter via donations to its website. According to today’s logic, accepting such donations means that Joe Biden personally agrees with BLM on every point of doctrine and practice.
Does BLM just want Biden to be elected President, or do they expect him to be THEIR President? I think that question has already been answered, but not by Biden.
Just bringing a little Monday Morning Sunshine to this forum…
The more that black people assert that they are a race apart
That. Indeed, what could be more “racist”?
LOL
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/400301/
LOL
Heh. Captures the general flavour, I think.
Speaking of the ludicrous Mr Kendi and his peers,
Hold Still, Child, While We Test You For Racism.
Somewhat related, those liberal arts.
Ministry of Truth
Just in time for the Holidays: “A multistakeholder, consultative, inclusive and participatory process to define a new global normative instrument”!
It’s OPEN SCIENCE! Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science
But more than that, Open Science is tied into Critical Race Theory via “Convergence Theory”
My University has just adopted this as it moves towards “[Derrick] Bell’s (1980) interest convergence, a key concept in critical race theory, as a useful analytic and strategic tool to analyze, critique, make sense of, and reform sites in teacher education that we argue should be studied and interrogated to improve policies and practices in the field….”
“…During this presentation, faculty member Myrene Magabo will review of the applicability of Convergence Theory in teaching and learning along with the purposeful nature of instructional communication. In addition, the relevance and value of a proposed Open Science Framework in the online teaching and learning process at the University of XXXXXXX will be presented.” [communication to faculty]
Who is ‘faculty member’ Myrene Magabo? “..a Doctoral Student of Communication, Associate Director- Global Listening Centre Officer and Member: Board of Directors, American Communication Association.”
This is what she advocates:
POLITICAL MOBILIZATION: to earn the political and policy commitment in order to have the necessary resource allocations to achieve goals. • GOVERNMENT MOBILIZATION: to gain the cooperation of service providers and other government organizations which can provide direct or indirect support to the program. • COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION: to attain commitment of local political, religious, social, and traditional leaders, as well as local government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), women’s groups and cooperatives. • CORPORATE MOBILIZATION: to secure the support of national or international companies in promoting development goals, in providing resources or carrying out advertising campaigns. • BENEFICIARY MOBILIZATION: to inform and motivate the program beneficiaries through trainings, establishment of community groups, and communication through traditional and mass media.
The success of ACSM rely on behavior change and the following behavior change guidelines are hereby proposed: 1. Identify the Barriers, Challenges and Opportunities 2. Select and concentrate on priority groups or beneficiaries 3. Identify the value that each priority group could find in adopting the desired behaviors 4. Understand and address the incentives and costs of change – financial, opportunity, psychological, social, scarcity, etc. 5. Design messages, materials, services and behaviors that fit people’s reality 6. Position the new behavior as more compelling, relevant, and potentially more valuable to people when they practice it, in comparison to the alternatives 7. Test program strategies and elements before implementation 8. Do not rely solely on mass communication campaigns but communicate at the individual, interpersonal, group, and organizational and community levels. 9. Increase access to information, places, food choices and services that reinforce desired behaviors 10. Establish centers in strategic locations for distribution of materials and services, and create opportunities for members of the priority group to engage in behavior changing activities 11. Utilize community-based programs and citizen engagement to facilitate collaborations and create healthier environments and policies 12. Consider policies that include incentives and disincentives for activity behavior 13. Explore how social networks and social media can influence norms and diffusion of desired behaviors 14. Utilize Edu-entertainment (such as use of compelling stories through print, video blogs, tapping the Power of THONS, etc.) 15. Develop ACSM framework grounded on Communication Theories and Tactical Theories of Change
https://www.slideshare.net/mmagabo/acsm-implementation-strategies
Briefly, it appears that the University of XXXXXXX may soon be fundamentally transformed into a social justice institution, casting off the oppressive yoke of centuries of white patriarchy and usher in the bright shining path of universal humanity, prosperity and something.
Ministry of Truth
Tsk, Darleen. You’re not supposed to notice the finger on the scales.
“But enough about current UK government Covid policies…”
Hey, it could be worse.
More, somewhat jollier, Douglas Murray here.
You’re not supposed to notice the finger on the scales.
One of the reasons for the uniformity of results is that a lot of those search engines are actually using Google at the back end. DuckDuckGo does, for example, it just strips out the identifying headers Google uses to “target” your search. Bing used to be completely independent, but Microsoft has become infested with open source zealots so it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re leeching Google’s feed now.
The larger and more overarching question that immediately suggests itself is, “What on earth would we talk about if racismracismracism wasn’t the only topic discussed, ever, by everyone? What did we talk about before racismracismracism? I cannot for the life of me remember. Did we talk about art, or literature, or biology, architecture, travel, our hopes and dreams? Did we talk about something interesting we heard at work? What did comedians and directors and writers talk about? Their artistic visions and how those were manifested? What did athletes talk about? The latest game, their next game, training, preparation, etc? What did politicians talk about? Innovative policies to make life better for their constituents? Learned and honest discourse about the challenges facing the citizenry and encouragement to pull together as one to prevail?
I don’t remember and I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. There is only racismracismracism and all earthly and heavenly concerns must be viewed through its prism.
I speak in jest, of course. But it has become laughably tiresome.
And if there is even one PAOC (Precious Angel of Color) reading this, please listen to me.
When everything is racist, nothing is racist. The word and the concept itself become so diluted and haggard that it loses all its force. Calling me a racist is like calling me a grand piano. It means nothing. It is nonsense. It is mouth noises.
And one more thing. You have no idea how many Whites the world over have end-stage Negro fatigue. That we seethe through gritted teeth as you tell us we don’t deserve what we have and that our children don’t deserve a future. I’d say you’re more trouble than you are worth but that inaccurately implies that most of you are worth much at all.
Well, I guess there were two more things. Because I have to ask my black reader…aren’t you embarassed?
It’s quite likely Kendi sees the harm as a feature, not a bug.
Ministry of Truth
According to the article, applies to Duck Duck Go as well. I never thought much of DDG. Felt like another kind of gaslighting from conservatives promoting it. The results were not very good, nor presented well. Thing is, Google seems to have gone downhill a good bit in the last two years or so. I haven’t worked in about 6 months but even the tech searches were becoming less useful. Granted, perhaps the ongoing rapid increase in volume is the problem there but stuff like this makes me wonder what may accidentally been tweaked the wrong way.
On another note, David and his damn link backs to articles from years ago…am I the only one who cringes at seeing a misspelling of simple words… like Say…’fear’ …in one’s own comment from two years ago…or more? Just me? K…let it go, let it gooooo…
Note that Boston University has not just plied Dr. Kendi with a professorship, but a whole department created ex nihilo so that he can work his magic.
I am considering leaving town for good.
am I the only one who cringes at seeing a misspelling of simple words… like Say…’fear’ …in one’s own comment from two years ago…or more? Just me? K…let it go, let it gooooo…
You should let your misspellings go. According to our betters, an insistence on proper grammar and spelling is atrociously racist anyway.
Just me?
No.
Boston University has not just plied Dr. Kendi with a professorship, but a whole department created ex nihilo so that he can work his magic.
I bet they do. Exhaustive.
Note that Boston University has not just plied Dr. Kendi with a professorship, but a whole department created ex nihilo so that he can work his magic.
It occurs to me that if your own career and status are in large part the result of racial favouritism and racial double standards, of pretentious cooing and unwarranted indulgence – which is to say, of an environment without probity, an insincere place – then you could easily suppose that that’s how everything works, everywhere. And that other people – those white devils, for instance – can only have achieved whatever they’ve achieved by similarly dubious means, by being a certain hue, and therefore don’t deserve it.
Would that count as irony?
David, don’t know if you’ve seen it or covered it (I’ve missed if you have), but there’s a list of “BIPOC DEMANDS FOR WHITE THEATER” by some “#weseeyou” outfit circulating now.
A long manifesto, nay, ransom note to NY live productions filled with inane claims, darkly murmured threats, and strange sentences that begin with a (poorly) logical mooring and veer into the insane.
It would be very, very funny if one couldn’t see the mad eyes staring through the paper.
You should let your misspellings go. According to our betters, an insistence on proper grammar and spelling is atrociously racist anyway
That only applies to Blacques, you are expected to adhere to some standards..
Peasant.
“According to the article, applies to Duck Duck Go as well.”
Can’t say I’m surprised. DDG doesn’t aggregate as many engines for images as it does for text. In fact, until recently a “!i” query simply redirected to Google’s results page. It may still only be using Google behind the scenes.
“I never thought much of DDG. Felt like another kind of gaslighting from conservatives promoting it.”
It’s not ideal, but I’ve always thought of it as a proxy for Google/Bing, rather than an alternative.
Courage
Twitter thread of note: https://twitter.com/Doc_0/status/1305847342046818304
Twitter thread of note
Yes, that.
And again, it’s easier to sell the idea that the wider society is racially fixated and racially corrupt, and driven by racial “privilege,” with exemptions from normal corrections and reciprocal obligations, if the social and academic environment of the person making such claims, and their protégées, is geared to precisely those things.
We foster exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data-driven educational and advocacy campaigns, and narrative-change initiatives.
Further to Darleen’s pithy observation, one cannot help but wonder how wide-ranging this research might be. Will there be any investigation of the comparative lawlessness of black men aged 15-29 versus other demographic subgroups? Will there be any analysis of the upbringing of incarcerated felons, to see if skin color has more or less of an impact than the lack of a father in the household?
Will there be advocacy campaigns and narrative-change initiatives to identify and drive out the common reaction among black schoolchildren that any peer who does his homework and pays attention in class is “acting white?” Will there be research into the correlation between “acting white” and successful outcomes later in life? Will there be an analysis of “inherited wealth” which compares the relative privilege of children of different races after four generations of stable families, versus the relative privilege of different races after four generations of broken families?
Can you imagine if the Center for Antiracist Research discovered that most of the imbalances in living standards and police interactions were the results of poor decision-making and sub-optimal behavior, and only weakly correlated to skin color? How profound and encouraging such findings would be! Just imagine the public-service campaigns telling young people that their futures were in their own hands, and that they could enjoy comfort and success in their lives if they just put in the work to develop skills and a work ethic. It could be the most successful anti-racism program ever dreamed of!
Of course there’s no money in telling people that their problems are their own damned fault, so this is about as likely as my appearance on the cover of People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive issue.
‘Always respect the media’…
https://twitter.com/OrwellNGoode/status/1305888281108926464
“Welcome to Coffee Talk I’m yah host Linda Richman. On this show we tawk about coffee, dawters, dawgs, you know no big whoop just Coffee Talk…
And oh! That BLM! So many black loives! Now I’m verklempt. Tawk amongst yahselves. I’ll give yah a topic: Scientific American is neither scientific nor American. Discuss!”
‘Gina Carano, one of the stars of the popular show The Mandalorian on Disney, is at the center of a social media maelstrom after changing her pronouns on Twitter to “beep/bop/boop.” For changing her pronouns to beep/bop/boop, Carano has been accused of “mocking trans people.”‘
https://thepostmillennial.com/disney-actress-lists-pronouns-as-beep-bop-boop-and-internet-freaks-out
Honk!
“beep/bop/boop.”
How about bibbidi/bobbidi/boo? Would that annoy them even more?
The next time someone asks, my pronouns are hee, haw, and har.
Speaking of The Mandalorian.
Beep/bop/boop
Aaaand Gina Carano ascends to Olympus.
“beep/bop/boop.”
How about bibbidi/bobbidi/boo?
I identify as an attack helicopter, and my pronouns are “whup-whup-whup/brrrrrrrrttt”
brrrrrrrrttt
Cobra, or dirty communist Hind?
*Eye narrowing intensifies.*
I’m a longtime erstwhile lurker in these teeming waters but I feel as though it’s high time to say hello to you all, if only once. Into the handsome proprietor’s ornamental vase, I’ve plunked some coins in thanks. To those already seated around the vase, I affirm that I, too, have emerged from it under duress in varying states of undress.
Into the handsome proprietor’s ornamental vase, I’ve plunked some coins in thanks.
It’s a priceless antique, the tip jar. And bless you, sir. While washing the pots and wondering whether you’ve wet your sleeve, may you never discover that the act of checking whether you have is precisely what causes you to wet your sleeve, and to do it very thoroughly.
Pronouns
The ultimate; I, me, mine
Cobra, or dirty communist Hind?
AH-64 Apache.
AH-64 Apache
Ah, but they only speak cracka-acka-acka and various dialects of fwoosh-boom.
The first Cobras were a more diverse lot, with fluency in combinations of brrrrrrt, thunka-thunka-boom-boom, cracka-acka-acka, and fwoosh-boom.
So one notes this morning that the Google homepage has a link labeled “See how America is searching to support Black trans communities.” Because one is a glutton for punishment (hence one’s membership in this illustrious club), one clicked the link.
Evidently, the American Medical Association declared a year ago that violence against transgendered people was “an epidemic” worthy of action from the AMA’s House of Delegates. According to the cited data, there were about two dozen recorded murders of transgendered individuals in the U.S. in 2018.
If two dozen deaths was “an epidemic” a year ago, one can only imagine what kinds of new labels the AMA must be working on to describe the current COVID-related impacts to public health. What a difference a year makes!