The Three Magic Words
“Can everybody look up from their phones? Hello, you guys, look at me.”
As someone quips in the replies, “Is this on the test?”
Mr Zoa is a “performer and educator” who uses the word black as if it were a credential, an obvious accomplishment. Preferred pronouns, because of course, are “she/they/he,” and areas of expertise, of which there are so many, include “loving myself,” “hair micro-aggressions,” and gyrating in heels like a stripper. Readers may note how these daringly individual people – the ones so busily, and so loudly, being themselves – so often default to the same tedious cartoon.
Update, via the comments:
Mr Zoa also thinks that employers shouldn’t object to him going backless at work, on account of his non-binary fabulousness. Which, it has to be said, doesn’t suggest an encouraging set of priorities, or a mind focussed on the task for which said person is being employed. The imagined right to parade around the workplace in a cloud of self-absorption, forever on the cusp of voguing, in some backless, strapless ensemble is a strange hill to die on. For a high-school teacher.
But Mr Zoa seems to regard his hashtags – #lgbt #nonbinary #gay – as amulets of some kind, as protections against criticism, while seeking ever-greater indulgence.
Also, open thread.
Mr Zoa also thinks that employers shouldn’t object to him going backless at work, on his account of his fabulousness.
Today’s word is ‘narcissism’…
It’s all a bit, “Must you find yourself quite so fascinating?”
He would not have lasted long at my high school, and it likely would have been the black kids who did most of the work driving him out.
Well, isn’t that special …
I wonder if he makes sure the kids are looking up from their phones when he’s actually, you know, teaching what he was hired to teach?
“areas of expertise, of which there are so many, include ‘loving myself,’”
I’d never have guessed.
If it is non-binary how can it also be gay?
Mr Zoa is a “performer and educator” who uses the word black as if it were a credential, an obvious accomplishment.
In his world, in the Clown Quarter, it is. As is gay, trans, queer, non-binary. And the more of them you can tack on, the better. So of course, pronouns, because it’s about others’ acknowledgement of your credentialed fabulousness, and the power to control what others say. The pronouns thing has exploded recently with the whole trans mafia takeover of the BLTGQWERTY++ crowd. Gay is “straight-adjacent” much like hispanics and asians are “white-adjacent” when they are inconveniently normal. Trans and black are fighting it out for top of the grievance totem pole – blacks think that spot should be theirs by right, because slavery, but trans is in large part a bunch of white men who think they should be top dog. It’s MA’AM and don’t you forget it. This guy found the intersection of black and trans-adjacent, and thus the first thought is to film the basking in the generated approval…well, if they would only pay attention. So: look at me. LOOK AT ME!
If it is non-binary how can it also be gay?
While I’m fairly certain this is a rhetorical question, and not intending to be stating the obvious myself, there is quite obviously no logic to virtually any of this BS and I think the arguments against it need to more forcefully point this out. By even trying to argue most of this nonsense using even the most fundamental reason and logic is granting them way too much legitimacy. It’s like treating the student council of your local high school with the degree of legitimacy one would grant the principal…or the town mayor. It should be pointed out in every public interaction with them that they are not to be taken seriously. Without going into detail as to why. Simply state that these people are fools and when any newsperson or “concerned citizen” presses the issue by asking why, put the onus on them to explain why, in what sort of context, that these clowns be taken even remotely seriously.
It should be pointed out in every public interaction with them that they are not to be taken seriously.
I used to be heavily involved in the indie tabletop RPG scene until it was taken over by clowns. My home town has multiple colleges and universities and a large indie gaming scene, including some designers of international repute[1]. One such is a tragically mentally ill woman who literally dresses like a clown and had a double mastectomy in her early thirties because gender or something.
Publicly, I’ve been ostracized from the community for pointing out that her work and her public Internet persona are screamingly, obviously symptomatic of someone who’s been terribly abused and is engaged in a destructive downward spiral; that “taking her seriously” instead of encouraging her to get the help she clearly needs is making it worse. Privately, a number of people closer to my age bracket have indicated that they were all thinking it and that it’s getting increasingly uncomfortable interacting with her.
I’ve bailed on “the scene” but I’ve been working private channels and consistently encouraging people to look at these people’s actual behaviour and how toxic and self-destructive it is. A few of them are coming around, but the social environment is 100% dependent on the universities.
[1] Keep in mind that I could host the average indie TTRPG con comfortably in my bathroom[2] so this isn’t actually all that impressive.
[2] The ensuite, not the master bath.
Mr Zoa also thinks that employers shouldn’t object to him going backless at work, on account of his fabulousness.
If he was a woman and teaching my kids I still wouldn’t want him turning up for class in a backless dress.
It clearly didn’t need to make this announcement as the least brain-dead of its pupils would already have worked out what they’re dealing with. But it did make a fabulous (in zer opinion) TikTok and that’s what really matters.
If he was a woman and teaching my kids I still wouldn’t want him turning up for class in a backless dress.
Well, no. It wouldn’t suggest an encouraging set of priorities, or a mind focussed on the task for which said person is being employed. The imagined right to parade about the workplace in a cloud of self-absorption, forever on the cusp of voguing, in some backless, strapless ensemble is a strange hill to die on. For a high-school teacher.
But Mr Zoa seems to regard his hashtags – #lgbt #nonbinary #gay – as amulets of some kind, as protections against criticism, while seeking ever-greater indulgence.
What an idiot. I mean, who still wears a mask?
School should not be the place to show off your fetishes and sexuality. Don’t like the rules? Don’t work there. Frankly, no job is the place for this either. A job is to get the work done in the cheapest and best way possible. Do any of us care about the sexuality of the bus driver or nurse? Why should we be forced to? If a straight person bragged about their sexual conquests they would get in trouble.
School should not be the place to show off your fetishes and sexuality.
See also:
Do look at the photos.
[ Edited. ]
First time posting here, but a long (long) follower of this rather excellent spot on the web. Anyway, standards being a ‘white racist construct’ to put down the PoC, I thought this is something the good people here would appreciate (if it hasn’t already been seen and shared.)
https://twitter.com/VibezGyn/status/1429996914703945728
Privately, a number of people closer to my age bracket have indicated that they were all thinking it and that it’s getting increasingly uncomfortable interacting with her.
Bless you sir for speaking up. Typical of my experiences. Everyone knows there’s a problem, or at least a significant number of people know it, yet no one speaks up. So you take it upon yourself to burn some political capital to do so and the best you get is a private “thank you”. I increasingly find the private thank you to be worse. It’s not the “thank you” that matters to me one way or the other. It’s the absolute chicken-shit failure of people to publicly support what they know is the right thing to do. One of these days I am going to lose it with one of these people and tell them to shove their “thank you” up their #$$##. Of course that will only create more problems….Often these people will argue with you quite vehemently about something that they are on the popular side of and then prance around like proud chickens when the howler monkeys join in with them. But when it comes to fight the serious fight about things that are not so goody-goody popular but are of significant consequence with which they privately claim to agree, they are as quiet as church mice. This is the biggest reason, as I’ve said previously, as to why I’ve grown to hate virtually everyone I know. I could tolerate that sort of thing for decades but my patience with the “good” people has completely run out.
I increasingly find the private thank you to be worse
I see your point, and I don’t disagree. I don’t maintain close friendships with any of these people any more as our values have become more and more dissonant (or, I think now, their publicly professed values). But human beings are social animals and the geek community is phobic about judgment. There needs to be a critical mass of people prepared to say “no, I will not engage in this foolishness”. That’s a long fight, and there are more and more people – young people – joining it every day. We’re fighting against a very, very long-established culture that rejects any kind of judgement or exclusion.
If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me (top left) and I’ll rattle the spam filter, which is a twitchy beast.
That.
That.
Well, again, it does suggest priorities that are narcissistic rather than educational. It reminded me of this, from the Colin Cremin post, linked upthread:
And yet it seems we mustn’t notice absurdity. Or suboptimal hiring choices.
I need to feel sensuous while I’m working.
Something tells me Mr Bezos doesn’t suffer such attitudes when filling the wage cages. This phenomenon correlates with how “essential” ones employment is, and how many poor fools are ready to replace you.
I need to feel sensuous while I’m working
Derek, you look like the Chrysler building.
But human beings are social animals and the geek community is phobic about judgment.
Excellent link. Thank you.
But Mr Zoa seems to regard his hashtags – #lgbt #nonbinary #gay – as amulets of some kind
That’s because in his culture, and in the broader culture which bends over for him (pun intended), they very much are.
But human beings are social animals and the geek community is phobic about judgment.
Somewhat sadly, this is recently changed. Now that everyone is a “geek” and “plays games” the broader social scene has infected the previously (overly)tolerant culture. Instead of drama over personal issues we are seeing attacks and exclusions of people for showing affiliation or even tangential association with wrongthink.
There was always the possibility that the guy who didn’t shower or had terrible social skills could learn. Now you dare not actively exclude lgbtbbq members for similar behavior issues. That guy with some spicy opinions on politics and society that you don’t even agree with? You’d better not make an appearance on his podcast for a cozy, uncontroversial discussion of your favorite games and how a particular company’s business decisions are making it more or less attractive from a financial point of view.
Because punching nazis is good now and nazis come in all kinds of flavors. There’s the 100yo nazi party member, the shaved-headed FBI informant, the KKK grand dragon FBI informant, and the body builder/indie book publisher FBI informant. And don’t forget the guy who thinks illegal immigration is bad or the guy who thinks his country isn’t irredeemably guilty or the white guy who doesn’t think he owes anything to black people.
Somewhat sadly, this is recently changed. Now that everyone is a “geek” and “plays games” the broader social scene has infected the previously (overly)tolerant culture. Instead of drama over personal issues we are seeing attacks and exclusions of people for showing affiliation or even tangential association with wrongthink.
The geek culture was always intolerant of “wrong” political opinions and affiliations. I frequently heard loudly expressed contempt for conservatism, Christianity, etc in the 1970’s from people who prided themselves on their “tolerance” and could not see that there was something incongruous about their ignorant hatred of all sorts of people. So I think what we are seeing today is largely just a more virulent manifestation of a tendency that has been there for a long time.
Somewhat related postscript: Why have I never personally known a Mensa member who was not at least to some degree a fool? /rhetorical question
And why have most of the science fiction fans I have known been unable to notice that there is something seriously wrong with a person who boasts of giving material aid to domestic terrorists? /also rhetorical question (David: How much human and economic harm was done by those Antifa-like rioters ikn the early 2000’s?)
Clarifcation: David, I meant only the rioters in the UK. Wouldn’t presume to ask you to keep close tabs on us uncouth colonials.
I frequently heard loudly expressed contempt for conservatism, Christianity, etc
Paul Jaquays was an openly Christian game designer and artist in the late 70s and early 80s. One of his early works contained a “ways in which the random NPC might be nuts” table, which was copy-pasted from the DSM IV. And so it included a small chance the random NPC might be homosexual.
He was hounded out of the hobby. He ended up making more money as a level designer for video games anyway. Then he decided he was a woman. As moral fables go it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Are you non-binary? Please answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (which of course, are binary. Confusing this thing called modern life, isn’t it?)