Academia Anthropology Media Politics Shakedowns

Elsewhere (299)

September 14, 2020 by David 47 Comments

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.




Subscribestar
Share: