We Are Objects In Their World
In the comments, pst314 shares an uplifting, utopian spectacle for Portland’s commuters.
What’s striking about such scenes, I think, is the eye-widening selfishness on display. Other passengers, other people, including children, are seemingly of no importance. Except, perhaps, as obstacles, or targets. And yet we’re told, often and at length, that those who repeatedly indulge in antisocial and criminal behaviour are creatures deserving of indulgence, and with whom we should empathise. As if the favour would ever be returned.
If you’ve watched the reality series Cops or Live PD, pathological selfishness is very much a staple, a defining attribute of the assorted misfits and predators. I remember one lengthy pursuit of thieves who’d robbed a store at gunpoint, terrorised its owner, and then fled the scene in a stolen car, and whose bid to escape did costly damage to other people’s property, and caused other road users to veer and crash, resulting in serious injury.
When finally apprehended, the thieves, themselves unharmed, were entirely unconcerned by the horror and destruction left in their wake, or the fact that it was all but miraculous that no-one had been killed. Instead, they were loudly indignant, as if they were the victims of the drama, heatedly objecting to the discomfort of handcuffs, and demanding to know why their phones had been confiscated. While, within earshot, injured children were being rushed to hospital.
It’s curious how those who find endless opportunities to declare their own altruism and compassion, and thereby signal their elevated status, are very often determined to excuse selfishness of a sociopathic kind and to perform remarkable contortions while doing so.
Such that, having been burgled, for instance – in the middle of the night, by people armed with carving knives – one should apparently sympathise with the bipedal vermin breaking into one’s home and driving off with one’s stuff – in one’s own car. And then, via incoherent prose in a national newspaper, fret about their wellbeing. Burglars being so deserving of our forbearance and goodwill, you see.
If readers are left somewhat puzzled by the piece in question, by Guardian contributor Anna Spargo-Ryan, this is understandable. Consistency doesn’t appear to be a priority, or indeed an option. What matters, it seems, is that Ms Spargo-Ryan is hailed by her progressive peers as a “beautiful person,” oozing, as she is, with infinite compassion. Albeit not so much for other local residents, also robbed in the night, most likely by the same criminal gang, and whose expectations of justice are deemed terribly proletarian and unsophisticated.
But then, ostentatious displays of sympathy for criminals – rather than for their numerous victims, and future victims – are much more statusful. And hey, that’s what matters.
As seen in the links above, the mental convolutions can be quite bizarre. If another illustration is needed, see also this stern moral lecture from the pages of Vice, in which we’re told, emphatically, that the people we should dislike and disdain, and indeed fear, are the ones who don’t feel entitled to rob us, or beat us insensible, or burn down our homes.
I shared yesterday’s clip of the comedian comparing the lyrics of Baby It’s Cold Outside and Wet Ass Pussy with friends and family members.
I was surprised, to say the least, when several replied strongly condemning the language used. My pointing out that their children and grandchildren would in all probability be fully familiar with the offending lyrics fell on deaf ears. They were simply unable to move on from their own pearl clutching and more than a little resentful about me mentioning the incongruity of their position as if pointing out the obscenities was on a par with actually saying them. It was all very much in the “he said something which sounded just like the n word so he must be shamed, sacked and if at all possible prosecuted” category except this wasn’t a satirical news article – it was my friends and family, and they meant it.
it’s tough to hang onto what are at heart decent people. I got used to biting my tongue throughout Covid but the temptation to walk away is getting stronger.
P.s. FWIW these are people who tend to respect and believe anything they see, hear or read on “our” bbc.
https://twitter.com/zwood7/status/1657546686913462274?s=46&t=cGznVa6cu3fowLICcwJBRA
Members of the mysterious Patriot Front travelling on an equally mysteriously empty subway.
Note the “DC Legal Team” folder being carried by one.
To quote Drinker “Yes, I can definitely smell shite”.
She thinks “anti-looting discourse” is the problem.
That.
At which point, I should perhaps mention that the Vice article’s author, Ms Rachel Miller, is now the editor-in-chief of a publication called Self, which educates its readers on skin-care tips, beauty products, and “wellness.”
I can’t think of any common ground with these clowns.
A shining example to us all:
The cop just walks in there, pepper sprays everyone, and walks away, like “job’s done!”
Agreed. You might as well try to find common ground with cannibals.
I like to joke about Laura Ingalls in the loft of that little house on the prairie listening to the bumping and grinding of her parents that resulted in her younger siblings.
Earlier on at Patriot Front HQ
https://twitter.com/vinn_ayy/status/1467550065182998530?s=46&t=cGznVa6cu3fowLICcwJBRA
Here it’s NPR mostly, though CNN held onto people who thought that they were more independent. Back when Ted Turner still had some influence it was an understandable position. I kinda liked the guy but I didn’t trust him. Especially after he married Jane Fonda of all people.
But more to your point about friends and family… I currently have about 200 friends just on FB. I know…surprises me it’s that many as well. I used to appreciate having friends whose ideas and perspectives differed from mine so long as I felt mutually respected. Watching these people during the Trump run up and administration, but especially post-Covid either go full fascist or on observing their obviously, undeniable passive agreement with crap like BLM, etc. and I doubt in my entire life I have a dozen people that I think that I could reasonably count on to some degree. And about half of that dozen are people that I did not get along with 40-50 years ago.
Might have a better chance with the cannibals. At least there’s historical precedence. See Among the Headhunters. Many years before I read that book I believe that I met the widow of one of the men who made their way out. She had later married a friend of my father’s from our church. Of course it was second hand information but it was fascinating what she could tell me which seemed to match up with this book that I read years later. It’s a fascinating story of men who were there to fight a modern war but now had to entrust their lives to people from a stone age culture. Newsman Eric Severied was one of the men on that mission.
That.
Members of the mysterious Patriot Front travelling on an equally mysteriously empty subway.
Also in DC, marching with a Bikerozzer escort and, as the man says, nary a Maoling or other leftist goon to be seen. Once again, afterwards they all loaded up and went away in the back of rented U-Haul box trucks, just like all protesters do.
I for one am looking forward to the day when a false flag antifa attacks one of these false flag patriots. That day will be glorious. Sneetches all around.
WTP
that’s only likely to happen if some of the less bright among them put on the wrong disguise by mistake.
Hey Fred. Who are we today?
Not entirely unrelated. Full video here.
.
In woke-world, the only possible explanation for crime is racism. This does not explain the fact that there are white criminals, white homeless, white meth heads or crime in countries where you never see a white person. Selective attention and denial are the requisites for belonging to that world.
What if crime is the explanation for racism?
Is she on the phone to her doctor?
Heh.
[ Wipes fizzy water from chin and shirt. ]
The problem, dare I suggest, is that some people seem to have forgotten, or have chosen to ignore, that there’s this thing we call total fucking degeneracy.
Pardon my French.
https://www.eatliver.com/sweden-in-70s/
H/T Ace. Swedish album covers of the 1970’s.
As always they saved the best (?) for last.
Includes an astonishing number of Swiss Tonies, a smattering of Hales & Paces and a fair few others who wouldn’t be out of place on Libs of TikTok.
Finally as I don’t want to upset the henchlesbians there’s absolutely nothing wrong with calling your group The Gayes.
What if crime is the explanation for racism?
Simply suggesting that is a racist hate crime.
Anyone here know what Hindi is for “girldick”? Asking for Starbucks.
Given how traditional India is, I suspect that ad won’t go over very well.
Anyone here know what Hindi is for “girldick”?
Budlight?
Had to be the Guardian.
All but inevitable, I suppose. As I said in the post,
But our Guardian columnist preferred to signal her own loftiness to those equally pretentious, thereby being hailed as a “beautiful person,” while increasing the chances of other law-abiding people, including her own neighbours, suffering a similar fate and having their homes violated in the night by sociopathic predators armed with carving knives. During a wave of such violations, with dozens of similar incidents in recent months.
But then, ostentatious displays of sympathy for criminals – rather than for their numerous victims, and future victims – is much more statusful. And hey, that’s what matters,
As a moral display, it’s somewhat perverse and hopelessly unrealistic. But it does offer a telling contrast, one presumably unintended. Having shared her initial reactions to being burgled while she slept – fear, anger, shaking, insomnia, etc – which are believable and, for many, all too familiar – Ms Spargo-Ryan then goes on to make a contrived ideological ‘correction’ for the benefit of her Guardian-reading peers. One that isn’t at all convincing.
It does make the mismatch, the dissonance, hard to miss.
Re-reading Ms Spargo-Ryan’s tale of how utterly wonderful she is a further anomaly which escaped me at the time leaps out.
Our lady of infinite compassion subsequently caught sight of one of the perpetrators wearing a pink hoodie. Seriously? A wannabe gangster in a pink hoodie.
On the other hand positively identifying one out of many youths wearing the standard black or dark blue would hardly have have been plausible. Ergo the facts must change for the greater good of the message.
Yet very little compassion, it seems, for those other families and households that were subject to similar violation by, most likely, the same criminal gang. Dozens in the area in a matter of months. Which makes Ms Spargo-Ryan’s conceit that the perpetrators are just tearaway little scamps in need of guidance, not punishment, all the more grating. And of course insulting to those other local families whose homes were invaded in the night, and whose expectations of justice are apparently to be frowned upon as unsophisticated.
Torn from the annals of “Sounds Like Made Up Bullshit™” we find a conflicted hwite…
To which Ms. Understanding replies…
Well, maybe not all, but certainly all whose income depends on it, like Guardian writers.
[ Post updated. ]
Totally unrelated.
Home invasion: having watched too many episodes of 48 hours, it appears that home invasions are highly likely to end with someone getting shot because such criminals are impulsive, not bright, and probably high or drunk. It is not “just some stuff”. I guess if someone dies it is ok as long as they don’t fight back.
Indeed. As I said in the original thread, burglary should be treated as a mortal threat. To do otherwise would be foolish in the extreme. In Ms Spargo-Ryan’s case, the intruders – the ones with carving knives – are described as being “a few metres” from our columnist’s sleeping children.
But hey, no biggie.
This right here is a huuuge problem.
For one example, why is there a “Climate Crisis”? Because there are trillions of dollars of government spending and millions of jobs whose income depend on there being one.
…it appears that home invasions are highly likely to end with someone getting shot…
Yep, at least in the civilized states where you won’t go to the slammer if you do.
Meanwhile, a lawyer who thinks robbery is no big deal because: “Worst was folks pretending to have a gun, but really using their finger...”
That is an “I’ve watched too much TV” hot take right up there with “shoot them in the leg”.
Properly done, punishment is guidance.
I find that those most loud and proud about this idea tend to have had rich mommies and daddies. They never really worked for that stuff nor had a past life where stuff didn’t just magically appear in their homes when they were young. Cargo cultists.
“In close to a decade of practice and thousands of cases, I didn’t represent a single gunpoint robbery. Worst was folks pretending to have a gun, but really using their finger.”
Liar.
Yes. The LARPing commies when I was in school all seemed to have rich parents.
And even if one were able to instantly and magically replace whatever is taken or destroyed, and even if one were somehow immune to the psychological effects of being violated in this way, the issue of mortal risk remains. If a gang of people have decided to force their way into your home, in the middle of the night, knowing that you’re indoors and likely asleep, and vulnerable, then on what basis can you assume that no harm will be done to you, or to your children?
Exactly how many boundaries have to be crossed?
see also this stern moral lecture from the pages of Vice,
Well, in related news Vice filed for bankruptcy today.
Go woke, go broke, as the kids say.
You’re just supposed to die and go away you bourgeois buffoon. The slippery slope just keeps on a slipping all the while they tell you it doesn’t exist. They will continue to cross boundaries as if there is no resistance until they meet some actual resistance. TBH I don’t blame them. It’s like letting your dog shit on the rug but never trying to stop him from doing so. He’s just gonna keep on shitting.
Liar.
I can actually believe the statement because it’s likely an instance of survivor bias. The punks engaging in actual armed robbery tend to plead out almost immediately because there’s no hope. This guy likely only sees the cases where the punk is trying to get his sentence reduced by arguing that there were no aggravating circumstances.
Three men slashed at NYC subway station, AI Daily sez,
Oh, well, then, fuggedaboudit.
Well, maybe. But:
It is not rare for a plea deal to be reached minutes before the jury is to be called into the court room.As a practicing attorney he must be aware of all those plea deals.Therefore, I again call him a liar. A malicious liar.