I thought it was a sandwich. || Choose your weapon. || Thief deterred with wetness and warmth. || And the winner is. || Today’s word is irony. || “Euphoria overload, gotta spinny.” || The good, the bad and the gayageum. || Good to know, I guess. || Houseguest of note. || Hold space to fly straight, a one-button game. || Strange gull detected. || The thrill of fungus. (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || The rise and fall of the movie poster. || Perhaps a tad excessive. || Place your bets. || Big plane scenes. || Car park scenes. || Sporting scenes. || Today’s other word is parenting. || School-board meeting pushback. || Upscale catfight. || He thought it was a caravan. || Elvis, the unreleased recordings. || And finally, “I do have this huge aura of feminine energy.” And very busy hands.

Should you be tempted, you can follow me on Twitter.

For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives:

Pantomime.

Sociology lecturer wants you to be disconcerted by his stockings.

Let’s Do That Thing That Doesn’t Work.

In which resentful narcissists give really bad advice.

The Bedlamite Solution.

He’s a campus counsellor and he’s here to help.

Only Doing It For The Betterment Of Us All.

Come, dip a toe in the world of “queer studies.”

Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

Blimey, look below. I see buttons.

I miss the concept of shame. As social correctives go, it was underrated.

Apparently, we’ve arrived at a stage of civilisation in which chunky middle-aged men dress as women and then deliberately piss themselves in public, on camera, as an erotic high, before sharing the recording on social media and awaiting likes. Which is to say, affirmation.

See also, via Stephanie, this. And somewhat related, this item here.

Lifted from the comments, which you’re reading of course. Also, open thread.

And how was your day at work, dear? || Swamp thing. || Stairwell situation. || Nommy-nommy-nom. || Nommy-nommy-nom 2. || Grim poll, scroll down. || Lumpy mud. || Flapping detected. || Attractive and practical. || A problem arose, a solution occurred. || A reminder to be careful who you hire. || The progressive retail experience, parts 480, 481, and 482. || “Still lots of work to be done.” || Oh come on, we’ve all had mornings like this. || Fat woman who doesn’t like walking bemoans the shortness of life. || Laser facial. || Finger check. || On recidivism. || Vibrancy and enrichment. || Modern romance. || His is bigger than yours. || His is bigger 2. || Good to know, I guess. || Odd dog. || Bad dogs. || It’s a lot to take in in fifteen seconds. || And finally, hours of fun, and inexpensive, too.

Should you be inclined, there are buttons below the fold.

Speaking of educators who say things like this:

Here’s another one for the collection. This time from Mearns Academy, a secondary school in Aberdeenshire:

I’m guessing that the chap speaking means more than two. But hey, he’s a professional educator. We must make allowances.

Because acknowledging reality will, evidently, get you kicked out of class. And then scolded by a man who’s getting remarkably upset – possibly for reasons that aren’t being fully articulated.

And this,

Which seems to translate as “Just sit there in silence while I mouth obvious lies.”

The combination of feeble arguments and peevishness – and the line, “I know what you think and I know what the authority thinks” – does rather suggest that the teacher is aware of the dishonesty in which he participates. Which, I suppose, would explain his irritability.

Update, via the comments:

It’s perhaps worth noting that, despite the drama and agitation, nothing in the video, or in subsequent reports, suggests that the pupil, Murray Allan, was actually rude or mean or gratuitously disruptive. Of the two, he seems the more emotionally restrained, and the more coherent. From what I can make out, he merely responded to the teacher’s own pointed disapproval of website forms that don’t offer umpteen imaginary ‘gender’ categories. Things of this kind.

Rafi adds,

Pretty much. Again, I don’t get the impression that the teacher is a true believer. He strikes me more as someone cornered into an absurd position. Someone who knows where the power and status lie, and the consequences of being realistic, and who doesn’t want to jeopardise his own modest position in the progressive pecking order.

Which is, of course, how petty tyrannies often work.

The dynamic seen above may also be a function of just how rapidly these pretensions have spread throughout the educational system, seemingly untested and all but unopposed. I’d imagine there’s been little time, and possibly little inclination, to devise convincing rebuttals to some obvious objections, and so the response to demurral, to any hint of realism, is to chastise and threaten. As if noticing the obvious were some moral failing, an act of wickedness.

It’s also been my experience that people whose self-image and in-group status depend on mouthing things that aren’t true, or which they suspect may be untrue, even absurd – but which are still mouthed anyway – do often react to disagreement, even polite disagreement, as if it were a personal attack, or some wanton outrage. Which, again, may help explain the farcical intolerance seen above.

Update 2:

The student, it turns out, was subsequently suspended for a month, and then expelled – ostensibly, for recording the teacher without his knowledge. The only other mentioned transgression is his reply to the teacher’s claim that a website dropdown menu with only two sexes is “old-fashioned” and “controversial” – by saying that there are two sexes. A heresy that resulted in being ordered out of the classroom and then berated.

And which may strike some readers as a pretty good reason to be recording teachers.

The school’s anti-bullying policy, by the way – and which I mention for no reason whatsoever – suggests that witnesses “speak to parents” and “record the incident.”

Further to this rather telling incident, a footnote of sorts, via the Telegraph:

Not the Moon, obviously. Just a moon, a generic moon. With a cape.

Readers of a certain age may recall pupils being sent home for wearing trainers or an inappropriate skirt. I remember overhearing a discussion regarding the selective enforcement of dress codes, and the precise shortness of skirt that would escape the disapproval of certain teachers, while resulting in the desired impression of rebellion and sluttiness. It turns out that similar issues remain, albeit with a twist:

At a distance, it is, of course, difficult to tease apart mischief and mentalism. And even up close, it’s not clear to me how a teacher, dutifully observing the Sensitivities Of The Current Year, could dismiss as mere prankery some farcical claim. As opposed to some other farcical claim.

With many secondary schools now teaching children that they “may be born in the wrong body,” with “safeguarding” policies that often exclude parents but include dozens of imaginary identity options, and which are shaped by unhinged activist groups – activist groups suggesting that teachers should “engage in conversation about… the benefits of the furry community” – then farce, and mischief, will ensue. And be difficult to untangle.

Or, “How You Identity.”

A professional educator, Mrs Donna Starkey of Rye College, East Sussex, attempts to impart her new and shiny knowledge. Two schoolgirls prove troublesome:

Threats of further ideological correction ensue. Apparently, the recorded exchange was prompted by a pupil claiming to identify as a cat, and the two girls, heard above, expressing some doubt.

Update:

Very much related.

Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

She does this better than you do. || Birds and sheep. || Today’s words are bee cartridges. || Larger forces were at work. || Incongruous Dalek. || Daylight. || Those load-bearing arguments. || Compression test. || The robbery attempt did not go entirely to plan. || Plot twist. || Plot twist 2. || Today’s other word is stealth. || It’s not a sex toy, it’s a prayer robot. || “Am I gonna be in, like, a jail with, like, a lot of, like, ghetto people?” || In this case, far away is probably a good thing. || “I’m just gonna see what happens,” he said. || For those of you wondering what an Antifa admin-moderator looks like. || Cake and a shower. || Incoming. || When you hear a bothersome rattling noise. || Safe and reliable. || Some serious toe. || And finally, furtively, there’s quite a lot going on between the ladies’ legs.

Should you be inclined, there are buttons below the fold.

Because you’ll only complain otherwise, I bring you performance art:

I’m reading the catalogue and press release. Bear with me. Send sandwiches.

Needless to say, the accompanying prose is quite extensive. The words “sustainable heterotopic space of discourse” crop up, obviously, and which, as you can imagine, is an enormous help. Quite how one might “exchange ideas” with a plant is, alas, not divulged.

We are, however, offered a tantalising preview of a “sensitive, sensual performance” by Lisa Hinterreithner and her associates, in which the four ladies “lead us into a world of living vegetatability.” It is, as will become clear, a “human-plant utopia.”

Should you be tempted by the prospect of watching four women being intimate with nature, fondling straw, and tonguing moss, you can behold the full 100-minute performance at the Künstlerhaus Factory, Vienna, July 20-23, where other, equally stunning works can doubtless be savoured.

Visitors are advised to “if possible, bring socks.”

Speaking of schooling, and lifted from the comments:

A message, indeed. I’m assuming the campy paper fan is a fundamental aspect of his “full authentic self.”

Evidently, our fearless educator has determined that any gay kids in his class – or rather, kids who may turn out to be gay on hitting puberty – need aspirational role-models. Like a grown man with painted nails, wearing tinselled Deeley Boppers, and flapping a paper fan. Because hey, what else could they possibly aspire to?

See also this:

You see, authenticity requires fancy dress and elaborate accessorising. And it’s just “so important” to parade around the classroom, looking “cute,” in painted nails and make-up.

What’s that you say? A one-off, an aberration? Oh, you sweet innocent thing.