Womenfolk, Know Your Place
An adult biological male who identifies as a woman edged out a 13-year-old girl to take first place in a women’s skateboarding contest held in New York Saturday.
Sometimes reality is a little too on-the-nose.
Update, via the comments, where Melofon adds,
Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire takes a brave stand in favour of … the tradition and competitive integrity of the sport of women’s skateboarding. Opening itself up to the (correct) rebuttal that it has no interest in skateboarding or women in skateboarding, and is only covering it to pick on the tranny.
Well, I doubt that ladies’ skateboarding is a regular topic of conversation at the Daily Wire, or among its readers, but the particulars of the sport are not the thing that’s most interesting. There is a wider context, of which the above is very much part. I would guess that readers are more likely to be interested in the pretence that unwell men can become women, seemingly by dint of wishing, and are therefore to be admitted, unopposed, into women’s sports and women’s intimate spaces. The Daily Wire’s readers may even regard this trend, correctly, as pretentious, unrealistic, and unhappy in its implications.
To register this phenomenon – and its wide and rapid spread – as noteworthy is rather more than, as Melofon puts it, picking on the tranny.
More details of the skateboarding saga can be found here.
Readers will note that several wins by dysmorphic men have occurred in women’s skateboarding, and that female players who aren’t entirely happy with this arrangement find themselves assailed by trans activists for daring to complain. Again, the issue isn’t ladies’ skateboarding as such, but rather the ongoing and widespread efforts to normalise something that’s quite odd, one might say surreal, and often unjust.
If another example is required, one that shows, quite vividly, just how awry things can get…
Note that, being scrupulously woke, the women’s shelter sided, quite emphatically, with the male interloper. A man who is seriously mentally ill, who boasts of stabbing people and is very excited by the thought of poisoning the water supply, and who seems to enjoy taunting the abused women with whom he shares a space by making sure they see his erection.
Despite what would seem to be a full board of flashing red lights, the woke administrators denounced criticism of their policy – and concern for the actual women subjected to his proximity – as “transphobic.” Concerns regarding the inaptness of his presence, and its implications for the women’s safety at a time of vulnerability, were dismissed as unworthy of acknowledgement: “We refuse to engage in a dialogue that gives a platform to transphobic groups or individuals or otherwise does damage to women who are transgender.” Instead, the shelter’s administrators insisted, proudly, on being “non-judgmental.”
It would, I think, be a plausible premise for a psychological horror film. Not one I’d care to watch, mind you, but still.
And if someone, or an entire institution, can be fundamentally compromised on something so glaringly obvious, with the sociopathy staring them in the face, where is the upper limit of all this pious pretending? What bridge would be too far?
Update 2:
And no, the above is not some one-off aberration.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
Your children will look at my genitals.
They call it Pride, you know. I suppose that if, instead, the events were called “Dignity” or “Self-Respect,” or “Don’t Hate Us, We’re Just Like Normal People,” the mismatch with what’s on show would become a little too obvious.
Trans woman, 29, defeats 13-year-old girl.
STUNNING AND BRAVE
STUNNING AND BRAVE
How dare you, madam. Grown man beats small girl is the very definition of social progress.
Did you not get the memo?
Trans woman, 29, defeats 13-year-old girl.
Playing on easy mode.
All this “Tr@n$” Sh1t£ boing foisted on humanity in The West (I can’t detect it going on in places like Swordy-Arabia or ChIndo-A$!@) must be a deliberate plant of confusion and disruption.
Designed as yet one more method of undoing all the bolts that hold Western Civiliation together.
We need, and fast, to find out the names of those which are “very high up” and which are responsible for this plan.
Playing on easy mode.
Plus getting the chance to humiliate other people for no good reason, and to be applauded for it. By pretentious idiots, I mean.
must be a deliberate plant of confusion and disruption
Um, yes? Bezmenov told us how this was going to go down forty years ago.
the names of those which are “very high up” and which are responsible for this plan
The whole point of “demoralization” is that there are no higher ups. It’s subversion of the culture by amplifying the existing internal divisions while destroying the fundamental moral universals that keep a culture together (that’s what Bezmenov means by “demoralization”; he wasn’t aware that in English the term has a different meaning, that of despair and despondency). The Soviet subversives started the dominoes falling long ago. What we’re seeing now is just the last of them falling.
What is demoralizing – in the English sense – is that Bezmenov was 100% right about everything we’ve seen come to pass, and he also said that once you have reached the point where we are today there is no coming back. When an entire generation, arguably two, is this “demoralized” there’s no fixing it. You have to write off those entire generation(s) and start with the next, inculcating traditional Western values and religion-based morality from birth up. But the only people available to do that are the demoralized generations who don’t believe in any of it.
I’ve said before that in Canada at least the only two options remaining are Chile or Venezuela, and since we have no nor can produce a Pinochet, it’s catching rats for dinner for us. It remains to be seen whether the US can produce a Pinochet at this point, because a brutal suspension-of-the-Constitution level purge with bodies falling from helicopters like rain is the only way to retake the civic institutions.
Assuming Bezmenov was right about that. And he was right about everything else.
What is demoralizing – in the English sense – is that Bezmenov was 100% right about everything we’ve seen come to pass,
Well, if people can deny the obvious reality right in front of them – and can rage against anyone who dares to notice the reality that they are so carefully ignoring, or pretending to ignore, neurotically – then you have to wonder what else such people can do, and to whom. It’s why the trans issue seems much bigger than the tiny demographic that it’s supposedly about. If you can be made to lie about this, to abandon basic probity and tie yourself in knots, what else will you lie about?
Where is the upper limit of all this pretending?
Your children will look at my genitals.
I suspect that taking your children to Pride is about the best way available to instil conservative values.
Those three little words.
Those three little words.
Does she think she’s going to give birth to a horse?
Does she think she’s going to give birth to a horse?
Given the advanced stage of the lady’s pregnancy, I’m tempted to find an image of a foetus of similar age and then superimposing her own words. But then it might seem a little… well, sick.
Those three little words.
TBF, she could be referring to herself.
But according to that soccer player Rappinoe (sp?), it is a myth that trans XY are a threat to women’s sports. It is so curious that not a single XX trans is taking titles away from men.
Just realised there are actually four words. I missed the ‘a’.
But the point stands.
In 2017, the US women’s soccer team lost 5-2 in a friendly to Dallas U15s boys team. Not only is Rapinoe full of shit, she knows it.
https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/a-dallas-fc-under-15-boys-squad-beat-the-u-s-womens-national-team-in-a-scrimmage/
The bedlamites and anarchists fail to appreciate that civilization is the most difficult state to attain and keep. It is easy to destroy–look what Biden has done in just a year. Look what BLM did. Look at Venezuela: from richest country in South America to literally eating rats. And of all the people who would suffer during a collapse, the wokies are the least prepared. Chaos is a terrible thing. Horrific.
Speaking of Bedlamites, if his doesn’t end the war in Ukraine, nothing will.
…and the Oscar goes to…
Glue hands to pavement: that guy used to play soccer.
Those three little words.
Related…
What better way to say “We’re not grooming kids!” than parading naked in front of kids as a famous cartoon character?
For best supporting actress in “Jaywalking”*, the Oscar goes to…
*(cough – bullshit – cough)
Speaking of Bedlamites, if his doesn’t end the war in Ukraine, nothing will.
Meanwhile, Putin has turned to General Burkhalter to save the day. Actually he appears to be two, two, two General Burkhalters in one.
Are we to assume that Tres is not only pretending to be female but is also pretending to be adolescent?
@aelfheld – yes.
Meanwhile, and related.
The interview is here, and hard to watch because of how this guy got to be where he is.
according to that soccer player Rappinoe (sp?), it is a myth that trans XY are a threat to women’s sports.
She’s now moved a bit to defensive mode and claims that because it’s not important because “it’s not everywhere.” and, oh, your kid’s volleyball team is just not important.
IOW “shut up, bigots.”
Who would have thought it was so simple to remove gluey hands from pavements?
Clearly not the British police (is there anything I can get you?).
What better way to say “We’re not grooming kids!” than parading naked in front of kids as a famous cartoon character?
“Hey, kids like Bugs Bunny – maybe they’ll like my withered genitals too, especially if I flap them about…”
As one of the comments pointed out it is st least a small mercy that no children were visible during that particular clip so maybe US parents in presumably west coast cities haven’t completely lost the plot.
Having said that how many of the parents will be monitoring their children’s curriculum to make sure “bugs” isn’t hosting story time?
Coming soon to a grade school near you.
It is interesting that not a single parent in history ever requested that schools allow demonstrations of hero sex acts or naked hetero adults to small children, nor have schools pushed it. Now that we are to normalize the rainbow, and the rainbow is totally defined by sex acts, we have the mass adoption of sex-explicit discussions and naked people for small children. This is logical, in a perverted way.
allow demonstrations of hero sex acts
“And now, Hercules will demonstrate his heroic strength by impregnating these two dozen maidens.”
This is logical, in a perverted way.
Indeed. Indeed.
Seven TikTok dances you can do to save Roe v. Wade.
Not just dances, TikTok dances!
Roe: one of the states they are protesting has a 15 week trigger for it to be illegal. 15 weeks. There are lots of people who think an early termination is not so terrible but who don’t like the idea of an identifiable baby being killed. The Left is going all in on killing babies, not just fetus’. And up to day of birth in many cases. Eventually, they show who they really are. When nothing is sacred and it is all about “me me me” then convenience and feelings determines morality.
Seven TikTok dances you can do to save Roe v. Wade.
The best part is it is listed under “Parenting”.
The Left is going all in on killing babies, not just fetus’.
Given the hair color, not what I expected.
Seven TikTok dances you can do to save Roe v. Wade.
There used to be a New Yorker cartoonist, Jules Feiffer, who did cartoons of silly women saying liberal things while doing interpretive dance.
It is interesting how a lot of people are figuring out that this is the last stage (or is that accepting “MAP” ideology?)
But in case of the Trans issue, I would argue the root cause isn’t some diabolical Soviet plot. It’s the outcome of the insanity of western feminism and it’s central concept: women are at least equal to men in every respect, and any differential outcome is sexism (unless it’s in their favour of course)
If you have a culture where media, corporate, government office, cinema, university propagates gender “equity” and we are bombarded with kick ass female heroines, flawless female leaders and girl power….
How do you then push back when a man says “you know what? You are right. I am just like a girl and demand to be treated as such”
Well, if people can deny the obvious reality right in front of them
Bezmenov again:
your kid’s volleyball team is just not important
Neither is women’s soccer.
Keep in mind that Rapinoe will never be affected by the proposals she’s spouting because she’s retiring shortly.
the root cause isn’t some diabolical Soviet plot. It’s the outcome of the insanity of western feminism and it’s central concept
Feminism is and has always been explicitly Marxist.
Where is the upper limit of all this pretending?
Limits… Limits? We don’t need no stinking limits!
Good News Everyone! Roe v. Wade is so yesterday, the new Current Thing is ZOMG, we are now a theocracy !!!11!.
Farnsworth, the notion that someone somewhere may be praying keeps them up at night. That’s because their secret fear is not that the prayers are being spoken, but that they are being heard.
their secret fear is not that the prayers are being spoken, but that they are being heard
Something I’ve never understood about militant anti-theists. If you truly believe He doesn’t exist, then who the hell cares that somebody’s praying to Him?
I will say that I 100% agree with their position on prayer in public schools, but my solution to that is to privatize all education and allow parents to send their children to whatever sectarian institute they deem best.
I will say that I 100% agree with their position on prayer in public schools…
Having gone to a public grade school in the South, every morning we had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and The Lord’s Prayer, later I was at a school where Grace was recited before every meal, still later at places where chaplains were trotted out before nigh every mandatory ceremony. Only times I have been a house of worship of any denomination was for weddings and funerals.
All that public praying didn’t turn me into a Southern Baptist (the dominant brand at the time and place) and as I remain a proud member of the Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic (“We Don’t Know, and We Don’t Care”) I just stand there when everybody else is doing whatever their rituals are.
Mandatory prayer in school – no, somebody praying on their own and/or with their like minded compadres, who cares.
Speaking of theocracy, Qatar is keeping this poor thing from archaeology and sex work.
What’s a girl to do?
Farnsworth: so she wants to jump their bones?
Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire takes a brave stand in favor of … the tradition and competitive integrity of the sport of women’s skateboarding. Opening itself up to the (correct) rebuttal that it has no interest in skateboarding or women in skateboarding, and is only covering it to pick on the tranny.
Skateboarding is an activity for androgynous teenage misfits, for whom trannies are a good cultural fit, included and invited. A lot of skateboarders sympathize with or participate in Antifa-type groups, and would take a swing with a bicycle lock at Ben Shapiro if the opportunity presented itself. But his paper is presenting itself as their defender, from something they haven’t chosen to defend themselves against.
The prize money – $500 for 1st to $100 for 6th – doesn’t cover the costs. I assume the regulars on the tour are funded by their parents, by sponsorship deals, and by social media promotions. If they get bumped off the podium by a tranny, they lose visibility which might lose them a sponsorship deal, but they can’t complain too loudly because complaining about the tranny will lose them all their sponsorship deals. They live and die by social media likes. Tough, but that’s the life they’ve chosen.
The 13 year old and the 10 year old who got bumped down a place by the tranny were also in the top six when they were 12 and 9 last year. That’s in the nature of skateboarding, where four out of the top six males were also 16 or under. It’s also in the nature of women’s sports, where a fully-developed adult female body can sometimes be a competitive disadvantage – a contradiction that women’s sports seems happy to live with (the official explanations for prepubescent female champions – the sport oppressed women until five years ago by telling them that athletics was harmful for their marriage and career prospects, but these girls are the new generation who’ll stay in it as adults as long as there’s equality of earnings, media hype, merchandise purchases, “mainstream acceptance” AND transgender acceptance). So the Daily Wire has no good reason to be worried on behalf of the little girls who are competing against grown-ups – in this sport it’s the grown-ups who should be afraid of the little girls.
Opening itself up to the (correct) rebuttal that it has no interest in skateboarding or women in skateboarding, and is only covering it to pick on the tranny.
I doubt that ladies’ skateboarding is a regular topic of conversation at the Daily Wire, or among its readers, but the particulars of the sport are not the thing that’s most interesting. There is a wider context, of which the above is very much part. I would guess that readers are more likely to be interested in the pretence that unwell men can become women, seemingly by dint of wishing, and are therefore to be admitted, unopposed, into women’s sports and women’s intimate spaces. The Daily Wire’s readers may even regard this trend, correctly, as pretentious, unrealistic, and unhappy in its implications.
To register this phenomenon – and its wide and rapid spread – as noteworthy is rather more than, as you put it, picking on the tranny.
only covering it to pick on the tranny
A tranny who has no problems whatsoever “competing” against tween girls. As you mention, the stakes in this “sport” won’t cover the cost of bus fare to the stadium. So what exactly is the motivation for this mentally disturbed bully? It’s not the thrill of competition, it’s not the money. It’s so he can pretend he’s a “champion” and force everyone to affirm his coping mechanism at the same time, while muscling aside little girls who want to play on their skateboards.
Sounds like he deserves some picking on.
The 13 year old and the 10 year old who got bumped down a place by the tranny were also in the top six when they were 12 and 9 last year. That’s in the nature of skateboarding, where four out of the top six males were also 16 or under
Since lacking a fully developed male body is generally never an advantage in any sport (Tony Hawk placed 4th at 2021’s X Games at the age of 53), I suspect this has more to do with the fact that this isn’t a real sport and adult men realize pretty quickly that flailing around on a skateboard “professionally” won’t even pay for their weed.
adult men realize pretty quickly that flailing around on a skateboard “professionally” won’t even pay for their weed.
Well, there goes another retirement plan down the …
Meanwhile, Putin has turned to General Burkhalter to save the day.
This ear is directed by Hidep Kojima now?
…the general, who weighs in at an estimated 280 pounds…
Maybe if he’s 4’5″.
ccscientist – I suspect most of the “anti abortion” states will settle on something like 15 weeks, and exceptions for medical reasons / rape.
Those specific reasons are always cited by pro-abortion camp, and they are red herrings, amounting to maybe 1% of all abortions.
The real questions are:
a) the right to abort the “clump of cells” on a whim, all the way to third trimester and
b) Forcing their views on everyone even if it’s through unconstitutional means, and against the right of states.
Incidentally, I was indifferent to this. Then I found out how abortions are carried out, tearing them limb by limb.
And that the brain connections that are linked to pain are developed by week 20.
The fact that the pro abortion crowd couldn’t care less about the above, also told me a lot about those people.
War, not ear.
Sheesh.
Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire takes a brave stand in favor of … the tradition and competitive integrity of the sport of women’s skateboarding. Blah, blah, blah….
Beefy men in women’s clothes competing in women’s sports will never be okay.
Beefy men in women’s clothes competing in women’s sports
Puts a rather odd spin on the Lingerie League, no?
So the Daily Wire has no good reason to be worried on behalf of the little girls
Look, I’m an old lady from a time that “skateboards” were something your dad made you when you outgrew your metal skates. (that and building scooters by adding an orange crate and handles to the “skateboard”)
But I’m supposed to ignore when mentally ill males foist themselves into a kids/girls sport/recreational pastime because I have no personal connection to contemporary skateboarding?
By whose rules? Indeed, IMHO we have gotten to this sorry place because most “nice people”, like little old ladies who read the Daily Wire, would rather not say anything that might “cause a scene”. Shrugging and walking away or averting one’s eyes certain hasn’t worked for decades as the demands of the Left have done nothing but grow, regardless of how outrageous.
I’m so OVER this crap. I WILL be concerned with little girls AND boys. They are being targeted and I will not avert my eyes.
Back off, dude.
Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire takes a brave stand in favor of … the tradition and competitive integrity of the sport of women’s skateboarding. Opening itself up to the (correct) rebuttal that it has no interest in skateboarding or women in skateboarding, and is only covering it to pick on the tranny.
What’s wrong with picking on tranny creeps and pervs who intrude themselves where they don’t belong?
I myself have no interest in skateboarding, or women’s sports, or sports in general. But that does lose me the right to care about bad people trying to harm those activities. There are many activities and institutions that I have no interest in, while retaining an interest in the health of society and thus an interest in the health of all its institutions.
By the way, I do not recognize the commenter name “melofon”. Are you a longtime lurker, or did you find your way to this thread in some other way?
Two fine products of the American education system.
But that does lose me the right to care about bad people trying to harm those activities.
Arrgh, does NOT lose me, does NOT lose me.
Bartender, do you have anything that will prevent me from making such mistakes?
“Bartender, do you have anything that will prevent me from making such mistakes?”–sorry, but typically what bartenders offer CAUSES such mistakes.
He might have something that will cause me to not care about my mistakes.
We are in the midst of an epidemic of girls suffering from psychological trauma over how they fit in in society, how they stack up to the idealized female body, how they should be getting “everything” but aren’t quite making the grade somehow – right now, arguably, young girls in modern society are in a world of hurt.
I bet it’ll help when the world shows them that guys can be better girls than they can be.
Anyone who writes a lengthy and presumably serious defence of dudes in frocks who can’t cut it as men dumping on actual women (or children in this instance) clearly hasn’t been a regular visitor here.
Opening itself up to the (correct) rebuttal that it has no interest in skateboarding or women in skateboarding, and is only covering it to pick on the tranny.
More details of the skateboarding saga can be found here.
Note that several wins by dysmorphic men have occurred in women’s skateboarding. Note, too, the female players who aren’t entirely happy with this arrangement – and who find themselves assailed by trans activists for daring to complain.
Again, the issue isn’t ladies’ skateboarding as such, but rather the ongoing and widespread efforts to normalise something that’s quite odd, one might say surreal, and often unjust.
For the kiddies.
Meanwhile, in everything-is-racist news:
No, really. It says so here.
We have, needless to say, previously noted the strangely non-reciprocal nature of such complaints, such that the terms “black microaggressions” and “microaggressions by black people” yield few pertinent search results. And the phenomenon of, say, overtly contemptuous teeth-sucking, a common enough occurrence in some classrooms, is not, it seems, widely discussed. Except, of course, when exalted as a great accomplishment.
One example [of an alleged microaggression] was staff “rolling their eyes during … meetings while Principal Moffett is speaking.” [ … ] Errol Hassell Elementary made the news earlier this year when a parent got a lawyer involved regarding the school’s “21-Day Social Justice Challenge.” The parent alleged Principal Moffett had “dismissed” his concerns and retaliated against his daughter.
It’s true that rolling your eyes at something someone is saying is disrespectful.
Then again, it’s also true that being a complete cunt tends to rub people up the wrong way.
‘Related’…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10958359/Trans-skateboarder-claimed-prize-girl-13-divorced-ex-Navy-dad-three.html
For the kiddies
Is that Justin Trudeau running to congratulate him?
And the phenomenon of, say, overtly contemptuous teeth-sucking, a common enough occurrence in some classrooms, is not, it seems, widely discussed. Except, of course, when exalted as a great accomplishment.
Honk.
Back off, dude.
Don’t make Darleen cross. She’ll shiv you like it’s nothing.
From the Daily Mail article:
IOW, he knows he is an ersatz woman, but he is going to play one on TV anyway.
If true, Shiloh appears to be a bigger than man than he is.
Yte Womxn, get out the way…
I thought it had something to do with an event between 1861 and 1865, but I am not a black, brown, or indigenous woman, femme, or non men, so what do I know.
…the freedoms we have now are because of our fight…
Ah, another racist moron. How refreshing.
So the Daily Wire has no good reason to be worried on behalf of the little girls who are competing against grown-ups – in this sport it’s the grown-ups who should be afraid of the little girls.
Where’s the proof of this bullshit claim? Or is it just, “those darned kids are just so gosh-darned spunky that nothing can hold them back, because golly-gee, they have the hearts of tigers” nonsense that Hollywood sells? Sexual dimorphism is real and no amount of socially enforced playing pretend is going to make it go away. And by the way, the word “tranny” seems like a disrespectful and demeaning way to address a human being…even one with mental challenges.
Meanwhile, your license fee being put to very good use.
Heaven forfend the ersatz people should in any way be discommoded.
…and now for something completely different
a) An elaborate pisstake;
b) Someone took a six year old seriously;
c) Tell me you haven’t a clue about aerodynamics without telling me you have no clue about aerodynamics;
d) You took the brown acid, didn’t you;
e) b&c
f) b,c, and d
We have, needless to say, previously noted the strangely non-reciprocal nature of such complaints, such that the terms “black microaggressions” and “microaggressions by black people” yield few pertinent search results.
Even “black macroaggressions”, from assault and battery to even torture and murder, are regarded as justifiable or even laudable: Whites and Asians and Jews may be assaulted for having the wrong opinions or merely for existing.
Meanwhile, your license fee being put to very good use.
The Monty Python crew ought to update their Upper Class Twit of the Year sketch to be about leftists instead of toffs. They won’t, but they should.
Yte Womxn, get out the way…
White people who openly espouse KKK opinions are shunned by nearly all whites. That is not true of blacks who are openly and virulently racist. This needs to change.
How Tres discovered that he was a woman.
One day, Tres – ranked 800ish in the world – scanned the performance stats of top female competitors and realized that his worst scores often beat their best scores. Suddenly, as if waking from a nightmare into a glorious sunrise, Tres knew that deep down in his psyche that he was always really a woman.
The end.
…or is it the beginning?
“Employees who insisted on using traditional gender pronouns like “he” and “she” can create “discomfort, stress, and anxiety” for trans people…”
Since the feelings of trans-people must be protected at all times, the upshot may be to require cis (i.e. normal) employees to use new, assigned pronouns approved by the “LGBTQ community” as non-offensive. “Er/Um/Ah” are suggested replacements.
“epidemic of girls suffering from psychological trauma”
Self induced, I’d say. While providing laughter.
I’m a giver that way.
“The fact that the pro abortion crowd couldn’t care less about the above, also told me a lot about those people.”
Plus their resistance to make the Pill available over the counter to anyone.
Plus the lack of any public health campaigns encouraging men to wrap that sucker.
Follow the money.
…and now for something completely different
Perhaps slightly better than the glide profile of a rock, but only slightly.
Minority teachers at an Oregon elementary school are claiming that rolling one’s eyes is a “harmful practice rooted in White supremacy.”
Doing so got me a stern talking to after class by the diversity training instructor 30 years ago. Stare decisis or something.
Perhaps slightly better than the glide profile of a rock, but only slightly.
Heh. I thought that profile reminded me of something. The Space Shuttle. A good bit roomier of course.
The key to Wokeness is delivering mind-mumbingly insane pronouncements with a perfectly straight face, and having the sheep nod along passively. Any sign of resistance or acknowledgement of how insane it is such as rolling the eyes breaks the magic spell and might allow the sheep to wake up. Can’t have that.
Some 30 years ago when 360 evaluations were all the rage but I worked at a very top-down corp where it was well understood that management was trigger-happy, we had a dept meeting after getting our 360 training and our boss asked for feedback. You could have heard a pin drop. Not a single person broke the silence. As we hoped, that fad immediately vanished. No such luck with this insanity.
Some 30 years ago when 360 evaluations were all the rage but I worked at a very top-down corp where it was well understood that management was trigger-happy…
I’m very glad that I got out of the big-corporation world early in my career. I got a very small taste of it over 40 years ago at a corporation that pressured all employees to sign up for an automatic payroll deduction to the United Way charity. (100% participation made the company look good.) Failure to do so resulted in a meeting with your immediate supervisor, followed by his superior, all the way up to a vice president. They couldn’t force you to sign up, but employees got the message that failure to do so was so strongly Frowned Upon that one could legitimately fear it would affect one’s career.
As we hoped, that fad immediately vanished. No such luck with this insanity.
So…do you suppose it just disappeared on its own? That management had a sudden raising of its own consciousness and disappeared it without fanfare or do you suppose possibly that someone, somewhere in the organization pushed back and after some back and forth with the objecting party both sides agreed to let it drop quietly and never speak of it again?
corporation that pressured all employees to sign up for an automatic payroll deduction to the United Way charity. (100% participation made the company look good.) Failure to do so resulted in a meeting with your immediate supervisor
My first professional job out of college was operations-oriented shift work. They pressured us very hard on the United Way and US savings bond things. This was around the time a United Way chief was caught giving favors and such to his bit of side crumpet. I and one woman on our shift refused to give. Had to have a sit down with my manager, etc. After the campaign was officially over, the manager posted a sign on the door congratulating the team for their participation by noting first shift participated 100%, third shift participated 100%, second shift 87%. I will also note that I still see that manager on FB. He’s a true conservative…”conservative”. I will note he comments/agrees with me on damn near everything I discuss with a mutual friend. Hmmm…
I will note he comments/agrees with me on damn near everything I discuss with a mutual friend. Hmmm…
He was probably under pressure to get 100% participation, as was the manager above him, etc. And the higher you go in an organization, the more pressure there is to “go along to get along”.
I had conversations with other employees about United Way. Most of the complaints were about the pressure, but some were about the charities that United Way funded–although I cannot recall any specifics about those criticisms.
On the topic of corporate idiocy, my former employer had a company-wide Zoom meeting for all employees to express opinions about the George Floyd case and the protests/riots that were starting. And then they formed a Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee to “study” how the company can become more politically correct. And that was not a large corporation. Do these fools really think they can afford to waste time and money on leftist bullsh*t? Really glad I’m out.
At the U.S. newsroom where I worked on the copy desk, we passed around a “where are you politically” The x-axis was liberal / conservative and I can’t remember what the y-axis was (authoritarian / libertarian perhaps?).
When we looked at the results, among the dozen people on the desk, I was the most conservative, by virtue of being in the exact center of the grid. Everyone else ranged from “leaning liberal” to socialist.
My newspaper got rid of the copy desk, and myself, in 2012, and I’ve been enormously happy ever since. It was bad enough before, but it would have been impossible dealing with these people during the trials that followed. (The biggest pain was having CNN on all the time.)
pst314: this is a key point. The margin between success and failure of most corporations is thin. If they take their eye off the ball to engage in bullshit like DIE or pronouns, they can go down. It is even worse when they insult their customers, like Disney (stock down 50%) or gillette, or annoy them like ESPN. Creating or tolerating internal turmoil likewise can destroy them. As the Gibson bakery case shows, you can even expose your organization to multi-million $ lawsuits.
What makes it even crazier, is that by simply existing a corp is already “doing good”. It pays property and sales taxes and provides goods or services people need. Just ask the people who have been unable to get toilet paper or diapers or formula over the past year if having these things is a “good thing”. The need of owners/managers to prove their virtue is superfluous.
The margin between success and failure of most corporations is thin…
This, this, this.