Reheated (113)
I expect to be busy elsewhere for much of this week, so, to soften the blow, the trauma of it all, here are some items from the archives:
An experiment in self-annihilation.
It seems to me we’ve strayed very far from the idea that an attractively developed society should – and must – be discerning about which kinds of newcomers it welcomes, lest it be flooded with incompatible tribes and the trash of the world. The idea that the locals, the voting citizens, might want a good deal and ask, “What’s in it for us?” seems anathema to Our Betters. Likewise, the notion of a civilised society implying, quite strongly, “You’re lucky to be here. Behave accordingly.”
And so, instead, we get the routine airbrushing of crime news, and instructional videos in which ludicrous progressive women film themselves performing please-don’t-rape-me dances.
On the psychology of Antifa’s Transgender Enforcement Wing.
And remember, the targets in the videos above – the unimposing, the elderly, the disabled – are chosen deliberately and with glee. Because that’s who they are, these mighty warriors of the Cluster B Tendency. Malevolence is their aphrodisiac, their euphoria. It’s how they feel important. It’s how they process the buzzing noise inside their own heads…
The threat of catastrophic injury would, I suspect, be the only language such creatures are likely to heed. It’s certainly hard to imagine them being swayed by appeals to logic, reciprocation, or basic decency. I see no evidence of a better nature to which one might appeal. I mean, once you’ve chosen to spend your afternoon menacing the elderly and disabled precisely because they’re unlikely to give you the vigorous kicking you deserve, you’re pretty much beyond any negotiation or genteel outreach project.
How To Invalidate Your Own Vocation.
On the evaporating standards of “affirmative psychotherapy.”
In this supposedly therapeutic context, the words affirmation and validation translate as a willingness to lie. A willingness to indulge obvious bollocks and play along. And so, one might wonder how Dr Tess Kilwein – PhD, pronouns “she/they” – might affirm and validate some of the chaps seen here. Or this merry bedlamite, who violates women’s toilets and pushes his phone camera under the doors of occupied stalls in order to livestream to his admirers, all those affirming fans, the protests of his latest victim.
Clara Jeffery, the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, is not entirely honest.
The phenomenon was seemingly contagious and quite bizarre, a collective fit of transparent fabrication, and soon became a mocking meme. But I think we’re seeing much the same psychology. The same telling of tall tales in order to assert status and to fuel some progressive psychodrama.
The urge to inflate grievances, and indeed to fabricate them, to balance umbrage and chest-puffing on the merest mote, is a progressive credential. Theirs is a hamster-wheel world of competitive indignation. But when you’re very publicly complaining about a flight attendant using the word blessed, as if this one word signalled some impending theocracy – and when you’re using your eight-year-old child as a political ventriloquist’s doll – then we’re in the land of make-believe. And possibly, anti-psychotic medication.
For those craving more, this is a pretty good place to start.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
Ooh, three buttons. I wonder what they do.
Considering his prior convictions, the sentence should have been natural life.
Make Executions Great Again.
Accomplished.
I wish I could upvote that a dozen times.
.
AWFL is awful.
well said, Rafi.
[ Frantically compiles tomorrow’s Ephemera. ]
Not everything gone will be missed. I’m actually surprised they dragged it out this long.
Actually, on reflection, that’s not entirely fair. I do have some residual fondness for a time when you could just blog – out of the box, as it were – with very little technical expertise, and at a tiny fraction of what it costs me now.
[ Checks tip jar is clearly visible. ]
Again, what we’re seeing, and seeing quite a lot, doesn’t seem explicable in terms of mere politics, of actual policy. It smells of psychodrama.
On which, more tomorrow.
A never-ending pattern: The developers and the experienced users forget about the new user and the user who who does not want to spend endless hours learning how to use the app just to accomplish some very basic task.
Among the perpetually fractious European nations sits untroubled Switzerland, an idyllic gem of peace and harmony.
CDL driver goes off on instructor. Hurls insults, threats. Guess his skin color.
Betcha an analysis of crime statistics will show that blacks are just as unstable and prone to violence as trans loonies.
Three for three.
As someone quips in reply, “Why are the BBC targeting one of London’s minority groups with this campaign?”
BBC fact-checking.
Women’s spaces, not so much.
A suggestion: Whenever someone does this, alter the photo, video, or whatever to use BBC people as examples of offenders who need to mend their ways. Or MSM journalists in general. Or “progressive” university professors. Or leftist government wankers.
As noted before, if they’ll lie about this – something so blatant, so glaringly obvious – one has to wonder what else they’re happy to lie about.
They lied about the Ukrainian Famine, the Gulags, etc., yes? So….
If flying your national flag is an act of rebellion, you are living in an enemy-occupied country
Note, by the way, how so many liberals in America see the flag as a symbol of evil and a warning that whoever flies it is themselves evil and dangerous.
I was reminded of a Telegraph news item linked here some years ago, now no longer available, in which Pendle Council, under the control of Liberal Democrats, reprimanded Matthew Carter, a black dustman born in Barbados, for wearing a St George’s Cross bandana to keep his dreadlocks out of the way:
Mr Carter was told by the Council that his bandana “could be considered offensive and racist.” Rather than, say, heartening. The cack-handed symbolism of the decision struck me at the time. And rather more so now.
That puts a rather different light on the Brits who have criticized how often Americans display the flag. Calls into question the “we’re so patriotic we don’t need to display it” rhetoric. Not that I found it credible even then.
Over the last few days, we’ve driven through a number of small English towns and villages, and the number of British and English flags that were visible, on flagpoles and in gardens, was quite striking. And I have to say, rather charming. And I say this as someone who is not known as a flag-waver.
Ctrl Z
Shopkeeper obviously guilty of excessive restraint.
Also this, from one of David’s favorite sites.
And this, for no reason whatsoever.