Make Way For The Activist-Wanker Caste
As the activist delight in vandalism and traffic obstruction has cropped up in the comments, along with their bizarre rationalisations, I thought it might be worth revisiting some earlier rumblings on the subject.
It’s interesting just how often “social justice” posturing entails something that looks an awful lot like spite or petty malice, or an attempt to harass and dominate, or some other obnoxious behaviour. Behaviour that, without a “social justice” pretext, might get you called a wanker or a bitch. A coincidence, I’m sure.
It is, I think, worth pondering why it is that these supposed displays of righteousness routinely take the form of obnoxious or bullying or sociopathic behaviour, whereby random people are screwed over and dominated, and often reduced to pleading. Pleading just to get home, to children, or to work, or to get to the doctor’s surgery. Even ambulances and fire engines can be obstructed, indefinitely, with both impunity and moral indifference. Among our self-imagined betters, it seems to be the go-to approach for practically any purported cause. Which is terribly convenient. Almost as if the supposed activism were more of a pretext, an excuse, a license to indulge pre-existing urges.
And what kind of person would have urges like that?
Update, via the comments:
The little people will mop up afterwards:
Fearless, selfless, an inspiration to us all. No wait. The other thing.
Imagine the thought process.
“Comrades, I have an idea. It’s brilliantly radical and a jolly lark. Let’s walk into Waitrose and then needlessly steal and destroy dozens of pints of milk, by tipping the contents across the floor while telling people what to do, so that someone else – someone less radical and less well-off – will have to do hours of extra work to clear up the mess before someone slips and the whole thing starts to stink. The customers and staff will be too bewildered and too polite to give us the kicking we deserve. The most they’ll do is walk us out of the store…! How heroic we will be!”
As a way to win hearts and minds, or to sway government policy, it’s not exactly promising. Indeed, the reaction of the general public tends to be overwhelmingly negative, often vehemently so, and hostility to the professed cause is, if anything, likely to increase. But as a way to indulge in some practised self-involvement, and to feel important and powerful at others’ expense, it does have potential. Expressing contempt for those deemed unsophisticated – and generally fucking people over – can be its own reward, for a certain kind of person. All that’s needed is a pseudo-moral fig-leaf.
It seems we are to be scolded by the inadequate, the confused, and the psychologically marginal. And so, the assorted cranks and monomaniacs invoke their End Times fever dreams and boast of how they “will not be stopped” by such trivia as the law, or norms of reciprocation, or common decency. Apparently, and rather conveniently, they “have every right” to vandalise whatever they choose and to screw over countless other people, recreationally and gleefully, in whatever ways they deem fit, while applauding themselves. Say, by “disrupting traffic, throwing soup, and blocking oil depots.” Verily, they have been touched by The Lord.
I suppose some people are all but destined to join apocalyptic cults. It isn’t too hard to see the appeal of the fervour and license of a new-found religion – conveniently stripped of those annoying restrictions on one’s own behaviour. Only the behaviour of others. And with Just Stop Oil, Animal Rebellion and Insulate Britain all indulging in their antisocial roleplay, the subsets of the activist-wanker caste are vying for our attention. And our deference, obviously.
Update 2:
It’s also worth noting how the activist-wanker demographic is quite defined, socially, in terms of class. We don’t see much of the lumpen proletariat, or people who are busy earning a living. But we have seen quite a few videos of upper-middle-class activists, very often upper-middle-class women, looking faintly confused, or just smug, when frustrated working-class people explain, desperately and in vain, that they’re trying to get to work, or trying to take a child to hospital.
The same, rather pointed, class divide is evident in terms of social media support and excuse-making. People who want us to know that they work for the BBC, the Guardian, and the New York Times, for instance, are much more likely to excuse the vandalising of galleries, supermarkets and petrol pumps, and to downplay the obstruction of tube trains and emergency vehicles, than people whose livings are less glamorous and perhaps more modest.
As is the custom among the activist-wanker caste, much of the behaviour we’ve seen, and will doubtless see again, amounts to a moral non-sequitur. Rather like saying, “I’m troubled by the plight of the Javan rhinoceros, so I’m going to start spitting at the elderly and keying random cars, and then boast about it on Twitter, while waiting for likes.” Hence the need to consider other, less edifying motives.
And were I feeling particularly animated about an issue, I don’t think my first thought would be to vandalise an art gallery or a supermarket, or to gratuitously immobilise thousands of random commuters, or to trap ambulances and fire engines, thereby endangering lives, all while feeling important, and powerful, and immensely self-satisfied. I don’t think that would occur to me as an obvious thing to do. I mean, the thought of people dying needlessly because the ambulance couldn’t get to them, or people consequently burning to death in a fire, would, I suspect, put a downer on any self-righteous buzz.
But hey, maybe that’s just me.
Meanwhile, if you laugh at this, you are a horrible person.
I got a one-way ticket to Hell. THAT was funny, I don’t care who you are.
Au contraire, I picture them — many of them — giddy with excitement when they plan these stunts, bursting when they think: we’re really going to do it! it’s a dream of action they couldn’t allow themselves to have any other way.
How many of these superannuated boy-ies do you suppose were ever permitted to roughhouse when they were of child years? Or even had sessions of unsupervised play? There looks like a lot of pent-up kiddie rackaroo coming out in weird ways. And it’s gone stale and rancid in them, from being held too long. Not to mention the ugliness that comes from needing a hated enemy, someone they can resent, a target who justifies the splurge of action they crave.
I have some pity for the teens and younger-twentysomethings doing this. They didn’t ask to be brought up the way they were. I hope all of them find a way not to be like the thirty and forty-year-olds, and even older, who are still behaving this way, or promoting or justifying it.
Another look at the freak.
So sad to be that young and require a comb-over.
I am feeling rather neglected because I live in an area, East Tennessee, where we simply don’t have youngsters pouring out milk or spray painting auto dealerships in protest, likely because it would earn them either a hit upside the head or an unfortunate encounter with the front of an F-150 truck.
We are so very unenlightened here.
Meanwhile, in town-next-door Oak Ridge, they just broke ground on a new nuclear facility so at least we will have the lights on: https://www.wate.com/news/ground-broken-on-first-of-its-kind-nuclear-facility-in-oak-ridge/
There looks like a lot of pent-up kiddie rackaroo coming out in weird ways.
It’s certainly juvenile. It’s also worth noting how the activist-wanker demographic is generally quite defined, socially, in terms of class. Not many low-status ruffians, or people who are too busy earning a living. (Hence the endless videos of upper-middle-class activists, very often upper-middle-class women, looking faintly confused, or just smug, when working-class people, whose days they’re screwing up, explain, in vain, that they’re trying to get to work, or trying to take a child to hospital.)
And I suspect that these are people for whom the prospect of misbehaviour being followed by physical correction is entirely alien. Which may go some way to explaining the preferred targets, which seem carefully chosen, quite genteel. Waitrose, for instance, or the meat counters at Harrods. Places where the customers and security staff are unlikely to deliver the kind of correction that is evidently required.
Eco-freak vandalizes auto dealership.
Betcha his mommy and daddy are rich, he feels guilty about that, and this is his way of turning that guilt into rage at others.
It’s also worth noting how the activist-wanker demographic is generally quite defined, socially, in terms of class. Not many low-status ruffians, or people who are too busy earning a living.
That. The activism is a middle class leisure activity.
That. The activism is a middle class leisure activity.
It does seem to be a very large part of it. And you’ll see the same, rather pointed, class divide in terms of online support and excuse-making. People who want us to know that they work for the BBC, the Guardian, and the New York Times, for instance, are much more likely to excuse the vandalising of galleries, supermarkets and petrol pumps, and to minimise the obstruction of tube trains, fire engines and ambulances, than people whose livings are less glamorous and more modest.
Looks like we have another time-travelling comment.
Though perhaps I have an inkling.
Am re-reading Your Host’s Idea of Hell and Your Host’s Idea of Hell (2), and the comments bring all sorts of memories to the fore. I haven’t heard anything lately from China Miéville and Cory Doctorow–which is just as well–and wonder if my “progressive” and “libertarian” acquaintances have gotten bored and moved on to new “daring” thinkers, or if China and Cory have dropped out of the news as they get older and consequently slow down and quiet down.
Am re-reading Your Host’s Idea of Hell and Your Host’s Idea of Hell (2), and the comments bring all sorts of memories to the fore.
There is, of course, a third visit to Hell.
I suspect more may follow.
I haven’t heard anything lately from China Miéville and Cory Doctorow
Speaking of which, they and other socialist sf writers get mentioned in this book:
Science Fiction and the Dismal Science: Essays on Economics in and of the Genre, edited by Gregory Benford et al:
“[Kim Stanley] Robinson has this in common with [Ian] Banks, who also has sentient artificial intelligence running a galactic economy in the presumptively titled Culture. This seems to appear often in future sf to make it seem plausible that the human science of economics could be objective and not subject to great emotional surges. Nobody questions what the AIs think about taxes or distribution. Nobody much wonders how you know the AIs aren’t running the world to benefit…. AIs? Stuff just appears because the AIs apparently know what will be needed before humans even know themselves. So you get these implausible AI futures that have plentitude, with all the economic magic done off stage.
…
In 2312 the Mondragon Accord is crucially controlled by means of a network of AIs running on quantum computers, as though this solves the knotty human aspects of economics.
…
Maybe that’s why there’s so much love of AI future economies—you build an AI with no motives or biases, to be fair. Can’t trust those pesky humans! …So… AIs should run economics? This is an empty dodge.
Such futures are akin to soft dreaming, ignorant of biology. We are really plain old smart chimpanzees.”
[ Reviews recent comments. Eyes widen. ]
Now I’m time traveling!
There is, of course, a third visit to Hell.
I suspect more may follow.
Suggested book title: The Nine Circles of Socialist Hell.
Now I’m time traveling!
Have I become “unstuck in time”? I hope I don’t end up in a zoo on the planet Tralfamadore.
Well, many of these clowns seem to want the fervour and license of a new-found religion, but without any of the annoying restrictions.
They have adopted a strange new religion that actually removes restrictions involving morality and adds a litany of restrictions on your life. It is a new asceticism, but you get to impose it on others. They would gleefully shut it all down and then be puzzled why they are starving.
Visit to hell: ironically (but not surprisingly) when these twits get a chance to “govern” even themselves, such as at Chaz or Occupy Wall Street, it is anarchy and in their meetings they can’t discuss or make decisions AT. ALL. Because it is a room full of toddlers and narcissists.
They have adopted a strange new religion that actually removes restrictions involving morality and adds a litany of restrictions on your life.
I rather like the line from the U2 song “The Wanderer”: “They say they want the kingdom, but they don’t want God in it.
(The addition of Johnny Cash makes it so much better.)
I’ve come to the conclusion that environmentalism, antiracism, antigender is simply religion without morality, and anything that smacks of teaching ethical behavior (like Jordan Peterson) has to be ruthlessly exterminated. Can’t have people advocating the Golden Rule who are not profiting from it. Makes the milk pourers and sh!t throwers look bad you know.
…when these twits get a chance to “govern” even themselves, such as at Chaz or Occupy Wall Street, it is anarchy and in their meetings they can’t discuss or make decisions AT. ALL.
Anarchy until a Lenin shows up–which is usually sooner rather than later.
I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be a resentful, spiteful narcissist attending one of the activist planning meetings, where the fits of psychodrama, and the imposition on others, can be rehearsed.
I’ve always thought that this (also from a previous thread) is how the average meeting goes with this sort. I’m not so sure it’s rehearsed. I think they’re always on this way.
Pst314,
It took, what, 12 hours for Lenin to show up at CHAZ?
I’ve always thought that this (also from a previous thread) is how the average meeting goes with this sort…
I remember that video. Hilarious, in a sick way. It’s a bit like visiting Bedlam to laugh at the inmates.
…I’m not so sure it’s rehearsed. I think they’re always on this way.
They are, they are.
pst314 has come unstuck in time.
Again.
Poo-tee-weet?
Another satire site. But it can be hard to tell sometimes.
Poo-tee-weet?
So it goes.
Quite.
Stephanie I live in an area, East Tennessee, where we simply don’t have youngsters pouring out milk or spray painting auto dealerships in protest, likely because it would earn them either a hit upside the head or an unfortunate encounter with the front of an F-150 truck.
David And I suspect that these are people for whom the prospect of misbehaviour being followed by physical correction is entirely alien.
Send them to East Tennessee for a while. For that matter, there ought to be some parts of the UK, away from the cities, where the people could also provide the proper ‘therapy’.
The activism is a middle class leisure activity.
Again, the behaviour we’ve seen, and will doubtless see again, is a moral non-sequitur. Hence the need to consider other, less savoury motives. It’s rather like saying, “I’m troubled by the plight of the Javan rhinoceros, so I’m going to start spitting at the elderly and keying random cars, and then boast about it on Twitter, while waiting for likes.”
And were I feeling particularly animated about an issue, I don’t think my first thought would be to vandalise an art gallery or a supermarket, or an upscale car dealership, or to immobilise thousands of random commuters, or to trap ambulances and fire engines, thereby endangering lives, all while feeling important and immensely self-satisfied. I don’t think that would occur to me as an obvious thing to do. I mean, the thought of people dying needlessly because the ambulance couldn’t get to them, or people consequently burning to death, would, I suspect, put a downer on any of self-righteous buzz.
But hey, maybe that’s just me.
the endless videos of upper-middle-class activists, very often upper-middle-class women, looking faintly confused, or just smug
It’s high school mean girls all the way down.
This sociopathy will continue until there are consequences for it that cannot be evaded. Unfortunately, the Bezmenov demoralization is now complete and there is no organization with the moral authority to apply those consequences.
And were I feeling particularly animated about an issue, I don’t think my first thought would be to vandalise an art gallery or a supermarket…
None of these people, none of them, have ever considered careers in STEM fields where they could do the research related to energy generation, energy storage, and so on. They don’t want to do the hard work necessary to actually solve problems in ways that benefit real people. They just want to bully people and break things.
They don’t want to do the hard work …
And yet their ideologies often bang on about “doing the work” and, of course, the irony is lost on them because in clown world, where words mean the opposite of their accepted meanings, “doing the work” usually involves doing no work at all.
They are always telling us to “do the work”. (Whether that work be understanding and agreeing with their ideology or producing the goods that they want to steal from us.)
And remember that risible slogan “I will not enact the labor to explain”?
Another satire site. But it can be hard to tell sometimes.
Indeed, male trees and botanical sexism screw with your allergies.
“Thus, people who want to be not-racist should be willing to “do the work” but not on the terms Critical Race Theory demands, which are themselves racist and productive of more racism.”
– James Lindsay
Netherlands begins feeding bugs to school children.
Male vs female trees: the only tree I know of that is dioecious and planted in urban areas is ginko, which has gross smelly fruits. Maples do not have male/female trees, nor do most major species in Europe or America. Ignorance sure makes it easy to rant about sexism/racism.
A lot of these people are deranged, obviously. Still, when it comes to these activists’ Twitter and online behavior, and behavior towards strangers on the streets, there’s this remarkably close marriage between sadism and exhibitionism.
Maples do not have male/female trees, nor do most major species in Europe or America.
Wikipedia confirms that all oaks are monoecious (male and female parts on same tree), and says that some maple species are monoecious while others are dioecious (individuals trees are either male or female.)
It could be that the pouring of milk and vandalizing stuff comes from a sense of panic about the future (which happens if you read the MSM uncritically) OR from a general anger at not having a place in an imperfect world, so lashing out. How dare the world be uncertain, how dare it not offer me unquestioning love and admiration, how dare there be imperfections in society!!! It is unfair that I have to struggle and work just to afford a used car!!! This is the attitude of a 15 yr old. Adults grow out of this feeling.
Out: “homeless”. In: “unhoused”. Accurate: “unhinged“. When we lock up all the deranged vagrants, let’s lock up their leftist enablers, too: One leftist and one vagrant in each cell.
Does anyone really know what time it is? There should be a handbook covering this — nothing advanced — a Primer. Wouldn’t want to be late for dinner.
Since this is an open thread, I’d like to contribute this rather… unfortunately shared acronym:
https://twitter.com/depthsofwiki/status/1582101548712472578
Does anyone really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care? About time?
That’s what I learned from the pretty lady whose diamond watch had stopped cold dead.
That’s what I learned…
That’s what I said to the pretty lady, not what I learned.
OR from a general anger at not having a place in an imperfect world, so lashing out.
It used to be that those seeking a higher calling became a priest or a nun or joined the Peace Corps. This generation has gone full marxist/leninist by abhoring the personal while making everything personal. Nobody talks about having a family and raising the next generation anymore. It’s all about saving the world now. And since that’s never been a real thing, they sh!t on those who also don’t want to save the world, as a balm for their egos. At least the hippies became “the man” and had families (dysfunctional as they may have been); they joined the human race. This group seems to think they live outside of society; that they’re The New Soviet Man; when really, they’re the Beta class from Brave New World.
It used to be that those seeking a higher calling became a priest or a nun or joined the Peace Corps…
Put another way, people who worried about hunger and homelessness used to distribute food and build homes, but now they bully everyone else to subsidize the shiftless. People who worried about illiteracy used to build free schools and libraries, but now they impede those those who do well in school. People who worried about self-destructive behavior used to go among the poor to persuade them to give up drug and alcohol abuse, but now they hand out free drugs and needles. People who worried about mental illness used to build asylums and counseling centers, but now they demand that lunatics be allowed to wander the streets threatening and assaulting the innocent.
Tomfoolery is on the rise.
Share ye links and bicker.
[ Looks around. Still no bickering. Racks brains over ways to provoke acrimonious responses… ]
France is a pretty good country.
Who remembers “Sod off, swampy”? Bunch of Greenpeace activists got a well deserved kicking by the traders at the London Petroleum Exchange in 2005 for invading the floor. Back then the protesters got arrested for trespass. These days it would probably be the other way round and the traders would end up in clink.
Want report from the future, when does the Tomfoolery Bubble burst so I can get out before.
France is a pretty good country
No argument from moi.