Discontinued Lines
In the pages of the Los Angeles Times, Jade Sasser, an associate professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at UC Riverside, informs us,
She then asks, somewhat bizarrely,
Bringing another person – specifically, a baby – into a society in which people don’t always agree on every subject is a new and terrifying scenario, apparently. One entirely unprecedented in all of human history.
In an attempt to make this opening question, and its implications, seem less peculiar and contrived, our fretful educator searches out other, likeminded beings:
The purpose of this racial filtering remains a tad mysterious, beyond a modish obligation to bolt race onto every conceivable subject, ideally with implications of victimhood. The nearest we get to an explanation in the article is the claim that “climate emotions like anxiety, fear, and trauma” somehow weigh more heavily on the minds of “marginalised groups.” A purported phenomenon that will “become an increasingly important component of climate justice in the United States.”
Other categories of assumed downtroddenness are mentioned too:
Badges, so many badges. See how they catch the light.
Hold that thought as we dive into the wisdom of these brown and suffering souls:
“I think I may not have children although I do want them,” she notes. “Just because, with all of the things we see going on in the world, it seems unfair to bring someone into all of this against their will.”
Readers are welcome to suggest how one might bring someone into existence – a child, say – with their consent. And no, you can’t use a time machine.
Melanie adds,
Such sorrow. Such sweet, pretentious sorrow.
Clue.
Punchline incoming.
Whether the latter is a function of sexual dysmorphia and compulsive pronoun stipulation, or of art school, I leave to the reader.
For some reason, the words natural selection come to mind.
Not having a dad is indeed regrettable. And so, naturally, Elena makes a point of rejecting any potential fathers:
As part of her reasoning for shunning motherhood, and by extension, shunning a stable relationship, Elena also invokes a dread of “really weird weather patterns,” should any arise. Yes, I know. The word reasoning is creaking under the load.
Other interviewees envision a future in which they are free to focus on themselves. Which may strike readers as a mixed blessing.
This blog is powered by the tip jar buttons below.
And they wonder why people talk about the ‘woke mind virus’…
As I was reading the article, I kept thinking of my nephews and nieces, and their ability to have children, and to find meaning and gratification in it, without the pretentious, neurotic agonies seen above.
Pretentious, neurotic agonies that seem to have been inculcated. In the name of progressive education.
We are the carbon they want to reduce.
What’s shameful is telling kids that having a family (and being happy) will KILL THE EARTH.
Elena must be a fun first date. I wonder how she even finds time to bring it up, what with all the smashing the patriarchy, ending capitalism, banner waving, protesting, and social justicing.
On the bright side, do we really want their genes in circulation?
Given the results quoted above, the dynamic does seem rather… abusive.
I’m still mulling how you’d get permission from a child you haven’t had yet for initiating said child’s existence.
It has the makings of a science fiction novella.
It calls to mind the cliché of the sulking teenager who shouts, “I didn’t ask to be born.” And who then slams the door before storming off upstairs.
It’s also worth noting that Ms Sasser bemoans the social and political polarisation of American society, while carefully avoiding any reflection on whether this social divergence might have anything to do with her own questionable assumptions. Her own begged questions. Her own peculiar worldview.
I and some others have noticed a lot of that lately: Women we haven’t heard from in years are popping up daily in our social media feeds, posting things that are full of red flags–hysterical political rants and various all sorts of random memes/remarks indicating emotional problems.
A clue that maybe, just maybe, certain demographics really should be regarded with distrust. The sorts of people who, by statute, should be outside the town limits by sundown.
Neither their genes nor their ideas.
I think I see the problem.
This. A thousand times this.
Coincidentally, just yesterday I saw a snide comment from a leftist women announcing to the world that she doesn’t miss all the people who cut off contact with her after COVID/the Saint George Floyd riots/the 2020 election. And yet the only such cutting offs I know of were initiated by her.
Well, reading the thing, my first – and lingering – impression was of how predictable yet alien Ms Sasser’s mindset is. It’s so dense with fashionable assumptions, so short on evidence to support those assumptions, and so riddled with contrivance and unrealism. It’s one begged question piled upon another.
And again, the worldview she conjures – and which she seems keen to propagate – is so removed from that of any of my friends and family.
That’s a red flag
Another red flag
A yellow flag, by FIRE’s rankings.
And Jade Sasser’s profile is itself a big red flag.
Space alien? 🙂 I was listening to a podcast this summer in which the interviewee mentioned the “lizard people” meme that figures in some political conspiracy theories. The interviewer pointed out that psychopathy is not uncommon in politics, and that some psychological dysfunctions manifest as behaviors which might be characterized as lizard-like. Note, for example, how some sociopaths/psychopaths are often excoriated as “reptiles”. I believe Emperor Caligula was called a reptile by contemporaries.
[ Blearily reviews the comment thread. ]
Please excuse any grammatical errors as being due to insufficient coffee.
[ Strokes mug of coffee. ]
Intense Amazonian, since you ask.
anti-establishment artists
So they actually produce aesthetic art without a bunch of agitprop?
One of the built-in problems with artists is that they tend to be creative personalities, but being creative has nothing to do with being right: Most ideas are wrong, and must be tested against the real world to assess their truth and usefulness. And yet such testing is anathema to “progressive minded people”.
[ Slides bowl of chilli-flavoured toenail clippings to Ted. ]
Granted, the arts do currently attract many people who are not genuinely creative but want to be. Hence all the art bollocks that David has been reporting on.
As parents I think we all have days where we regret our choice to have children, not because of any guilt that we are subjecting them to the world’s evils – without their consent, mind you – but simply because they too can be real pain in the asses.
I would be interested to hear from the parents of those being interviewed.
We mustn’t forget Professor Alan Dettlaff, who feels entitled to loudly denounce as racist and “white supremacist” anything that catches his eye, without being obliged to offer evidence of any kind, even when this is being done in a supposedly academic journal. Or his cheerleading colleague, Leigh Kimberg, who was also outraged and oppressed by expectations of even minimal logical and scholarly rigour.
As I said at the time,
But this, it seems, is where we are.
You have to wonder how you would sustain, or even begin, a remotely realistic discussion with such people. I.e., people who don’t feel that they need any evidence, or logical coherence, in order to be right, and therefore deferred to.
People who seem to believe they should win an argument by default. Just because.
American society feels more socially and politically polarised than ever.
Only because she and her vacuous and otherwise unemployable ilk are busier than the stokers on the Titanic keeping it that way because their livelihoods depend on it.
Allowing leftists into academia was a mistake.
As Instapundit often quips, “Maybe letting the enemies of our civilisation teach our children was a mistake.”
Letting our enemies do anything was a mistake.
That casual sex is going to dry up. Getting old alone isn’t much of a win.
And on top of all that, what if the apocalypse, on which so much has been staked, fails to materialise, or proves instead to be some fairly minor inconvenience?
This is slightly off topic, but if you thought Zoe Williams was bad, this guy (who is a teacher, of course) is going for the crown of worst father in the world, and the Don’t Blame The Criminal Sweepstakes. Seen via Ace:
“Accidentally” driving without a licence, into oncoming traffic, and ramming a school bus.
The guy actually did the Norm Maconald take. RTWT
We’re gonna need many, many large buses.
Indeed. I recall reading off-hand comments by gay men that casual sex is easy for young attractive men to obtain but gets more difficult on an exponential curve as those men age. Old men in gay bars hoping without hope that some young beauty will not reject their advances. And so there they are, alone, having failed to build a family and the resulting network–ever growing network–of close relationships upon which they can rely. But they did it to themselves, they and the narcissistic, psychopathic culture they were tempted to enter.
I haven’t seen anything about why he crossed the center line and drove into the bus: Was he drunk? (Very common among these immigrants who come from cultures where drunk driving is widespread and accepted.) On drugs? Falling asleep? Or did he lose control due to distracted driving?
The claims that every little thing you do, using a straw, plastic bags, breathing, are going to destroy the Earth, can certainly cause anxiety. But the claims are bogus. Pollution in developed countries has been falling for decades. If you take the most extreme forecasts of the IPCC seriously, even those do not lead to destruction, just to some disruption. The middle forecasts portend warming, very much increased plant growth, and rising wealth. It is insane.
Navel gazing does not lead to insight if no one is home. Too much internet. These people need a productive hobby.
Unfortunately that always ends in them believing they have earned subservience from others.
Oh, this isn’t an exclusively left-wing thing. When I was 11 years old, attending a fundamentalist Presbyterian school for the first time, we were fed Biblical doom and gloom right before Christmas. This was as the Yom Kipper war was winding down. The Bible said that no one would know when the end of the world would come so what a better time for the end of the world to come than at Christmas when everyone was distracted by the horrible secularism that Christmas had become. Santa is an anagram of Satan, you know. So me being 11 and wanting to live at least to 16 so I could drive a car at least once decided to take it upon myself to concentrate on the world ending with every moment available to me. At least through Christmas. And you know…here we are. But has anyone ever thanked me for saving the world back in 1973? No. No one cared. Because it’s always about the fear. It distracts from the real evil going on.
FTFY
Bingo. Even, and especially lately, the supposedly more “stable” and “smart” ones. The valedictorian and salutatorian types. Top 10. National Merit scholarship finalists. Etc.
But only once in many cases.
Only half the milk then?
Again, from another perspective…let’s come back to this sometime after November. Or after January 20 perhaps.
Fig. A
Narcissism is the enemy of family. My first concern is the well-being of my wife, kids, grandkids. Not myself. I don’t need much. Infants have valid immediate needs and none of those needs is to comfort your anxiety or validate your politics. The rewards of a family are infinite. As I get older I see that I would be living a pretty sad life without them.
I have also seen many women who claimed to not want kids and then in their mid-thirties become desperate to have them. Don’t deny your biology.
[ Has hankering for bacon and brie sammitch. ]
[ Dabs greasy chin with napkin. ]
Having a child is a potential consequence of having sex. If you don’t want children don’t have sex. The purpose of sex is reproduction.
If women truly wanted control of their bodies they wouldn’t have sex that might result in reproduction
I haven’t seen anything about why he crossed the center line and drove into the bus:
As usual, facts that will only come out much later as it was not, in fact, a 60 y/o yte dude, but regardless, unless he was driving a cement truck, how the hell fast was he going to knock a bus so hard to end up like this (slight embankment notwithstanding)