You Must Lie To Belong
Lifted from the comments:
On the first page of AT&T’s Listen Understand Act internal portal, the company encourages employees to study a resource called “White America, if you want to know who’s responsible for racism, look in the mirror.” The article claims that the United States is a “racist society” and lays out its thesis plainly: “White people, you are the problem.”
“Racism is a uniquely white trait,” says racist black woman.
There are words for this kind of thing. One of them is gaslighting.
After nearly two decades as an AT&T Wireless customer, I ditched them in favor of an MVNO a few months ago. I did it to save money (it cut my phone bill by 80%), but this recent news makes me glad that I’ve cut my ties with them, and they won’t see another dime from me in the future.
It would be hilarious if some dissident engineers at AT&T were to hack AT&T’s online “equity” training materials, inserting documents showing American blacks’ high rate of criminality and low rate of intellectual accomplishment. It would be even more hilarious if they were to scatter copies of such documents across all of AT&T’s servers, so that anyone might accidentally run across them while looking for, say, photos of the last office picnic.
Doesn’t that count as a ‘hostile work environment’?
Commissars at Old Vic cancel Terry Gilliam for personal opinions expressed elsewhere.
Weasel-worded public statement: “senior management had later met Gilliam and his co-director Leah Hausman ‘as a matter of course to discuss our culture and values’. The theatre said it had ‘mutually agreed’ with Scenario Two ‘that the production of Into the Woods will not take place at the Old Vic’.”
And:
“Gilliam also raised hackles in an interview with The Independent last year. After being questioned about the privileges of ‘white men’ he replied: ‘When I announce that I’m a black lesbian in transition people take offence at that. Why?’ “
Speaking about sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, Terry Gilliam said: “There are many victims in Harvey’s life and I feel sympathy for them but then Hollywood is full of very ambitious people who are adults and they make choices…We all make choices and I could tell you who did make the choice and who didn’t. I hate Harvey. I had to work with him and I know the abuse.”
Sooner or later we have to talk about those “choices”: There are women who are so ambitious or unprincipled that they will have sex with anyone who might advance their career. In fact, there are women who will trade sex for even the most trivial benefits. I may have previously mentioned female science fiction fans who would spread their legs in exchange for crash space and breakfast at a convention. I heard of women who, after graduating from high school or college, never rented their own apartments, but instead made a practice of shacking up with whoever would give them free room and board.
I think “America is a uniquely racist country” is the big lie of the day. Every society ever has had racist attitudes about some other group and exploited them if they could. To the ancient chinese all non-chinese were barbarians (and they weren’t exactly wrong). The Japanese look down on Koreans. There has been tribal warfare and even genocide in Africa the past few decades. Everywhere. And slavery too. It is either the big lie or reflects massive ignorance of history and the world outside the woke bubble. That such talk can flourish in a university reflects very badly on their standards.
The Hollywood Casting Couch. Been going on for decades, a century or more I believe. Everyone knew. Surely that makes it acceptable, doesn’t it? Why are all these people objecting now? Is it because women have sooo many other choices today than they had 100 years ago yet are still willing to “give it up” even after making millions in their last picture? Wait, that doesn’t make sense…or does it?
Disclaimer: no matter what one wishes to deduce from the above, HW is scum.
That such talk can flourish in a university reflects very badly on their standards.
That such talk can flourish in a university reflects badly on those who attend it as well. Short of medical degrees and the more STEMmiest of STEM, I find it increasingly hard to take seriously any college degree issued in the last 20 years. With all the other options available today, I could not understand why so many of the software developers in the gen-x and early millennials wasted time and money on Masters degrees.
“You Must Lie To Belong“
A slogan for our times in general, I think.
And if that’s the bargain, then (not without regret) I’ll take not belonging, thanks.
The Hollywood Casting Couch…
We need to make a distinction between men who demand sex in exchange for favors, and women who willingly offer sex in exchange for benefits.
To return to my sf example, I cannot recall any men who made a practice of approaching women with an offer of crash space in exchange for sex, but I knew of many women who went to conventions with the plan that they would offer sex in exchange for a room and meals.
You Must Lie To Belong
And so we can return, once again, to a famous essay by Theodore Dalrymple about the true purpose of political correctness.
We need to make a distinction between men who demand sex in exchange for favors, and women who willingly offer sex in exchange for benefits.
The problem with this entire issue is that people don’t like nuance; they want clear, unambiguous Good Guys and Bad Guys.
There’s at least a third category: men who demand sex in exchange for favors and women who agree of their own free will. I have long been of the opinion that Weinstein fell into that third category. No one’s ever presented any accusations that Weinstein forced himself on anyone. It’s beyond unbelievable that Weinstein on his own could completely blacklist an actress who didn’t tumble, so the extortion angle doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
I have always suspected that Weinstein was a sacrificial lamb thrown out to appease the #MeToo movement and deflect attention from worse offenders. Given the accusations from Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman there are far, far worse rapists running rampant in Hollywood who have never been named (beyond Bryan Singer and Dan Schneider, who have largely avoided any consequences).
In fact, there are women who will trade sex for even the most trivial benefits. I may have previously mentioned female science fiction fans who would spread their legs in exchange for crash space and breakfast at a convention.
Hubby was a roady and in charge of all the keyboards and synthesizers for Dio’s 1986 Sacred Heart Tour. You should hear some of his stories!
Hubby was a roady and in charge of all the keyboards and synthesizers for Dio’s 1986 Sacred Heart Tour. You should hear some of his stories!
If he writes a book I will read it.
There is a jazz number on a Jeff Beck album titled “Head for Backstage Pass”.
Wasn’t there something in “The Right Stuff” about astronaut groupies who wanted to have sex with every astronaut in the Mercury program?
I have long been of the opinion that Weinstein fell into that third category…
But wasn’t Weinstein the one who would lock his office door and then demand sex? Or am I confusing him with another Hollywood producer?
the one who would lock his office door and then demand sex was the TV news producer Matt Lauer.
Yes. HW was the one who ran a batch in a bush, in public, in front of an actress. Or so the story went. Scumbag either way.
“Head for Backstage Pass”
Ha! I was in my mid-teens when I first heard that title, and I thought it was something to do with a route through a mountain range. Completely forgotten about it until now. How naive I was!
Explains the contentious ‘customer service’ at AT&T.
“Head for Backstage Pass”
“It looks just like a Telefunken U-47″…
*obscure reference number 3,873*
“It looks just like a Telefunken U-47″…
Even though I was many years older when I bought Joe’s Garage (as in, 19 rather than 15), I’m not sure I quite got that one at the time either. Sigh…
P.S. hopefully any Zappa fan with access to the BBC noticed the documentary that was shown on BBC4 on Friday 24 October.
“It looks just like a Telefunken U-47”
Okay, I had to look that up. “According to Telefunken USA, the U 47V is big and warm, with a velvety upper mid-range and top end…”
To which, I can only say…
If the US just forcibly ships out the entire black and brown population to Liberia, but keeps the smart ones (Orientals……yes I can still say that), then racism will disappear overnight. I’m thinking of a kinder, nicer final solution here.
the one who would lock his office door and then demand sex was the TV news producer Matt Lauer.
Thank you. Much appreciated.
Ha! I was in my mid-teens when I first heard that title, and I thought it was something to do with a route through a mountain range.
The title confused me too. As did some of the jokes in Bored of the Rings. I was a very naive teen.
haha bored of the rings! Tim Benzedrino! Stoned hobbits! ahahaha loved it.
“Gandalf carried an ancient weapon, known to the elves as a Browning semi-automatic.”
“This is a mighty queer river, said Spam, as the water lapped as his thighs.”
“‘Dost thou like what thou doth see?’, said the voluptuous elf maiden…”
And beware the dread thesaurus.
Loved “Bored of the Rings.” From memory:
Tim! Tim! Benzedrine!
Hash! Poo! Valvoline!
Clean! Clean! Clean for Gene!
First! Second! Neutral! Park!
Hie thee hence, thou leafy narc!
“Oooo, toes! I love furry toes!”
“dry gulch a lone farmer”
Boggies. Twodor and Fourdor. Moxie and Pepsi Dingleberry. Galadriel shoving her finger down her throat in an ancient elf farewell.
Yeah, quality literature there.
As for Matt Laurer, he was also the one with the office door he could lock with a button on his desk. And as for Harvey Weinstein, he damaged Mira Sorvino’s career when she said no. From wikipedia: “According to Peter Jackson, Weinstein blacklisted Sorvino and Ashley Judd, another alleged victim of Weinstein, from being considered for casting in The Lord of the Rings films.”
I know a chap whose family has a relative who is of, let us say, a darker skin colour than most of the rest of the family she married into. So it goes, and let me state that all reports from him are she is fun to be with. However according to my chum it is she who attends ‘events’ where the flaws of white people are discussed openly and eagerly, while the white parts of his family would have no truck with any such event where the flaws or traits of other races, either real or imagined, were aired.
Needless to say her behaviour somewhat puzzles his family.
Funny old world, as I am wont to say.
“Doesn’t that count as a ‘hostile work environment’?”
– Not if you deserve it for being white.
Explains the contentious ‘customer service’ at AT&T.
Those bastards keep pinging me to upgrade my internet. They just spent the summer, several months, installing new high-speed lines. It was a pain-in-the-ass for our neighborhood’s (mostly Hispanic) lawn maintenance people. They had to stop their mowers, pick up the stupid flags, and put them back down again. This in the hot Florida summer. A drag on their productivity and, as HOA president, I had to put up with all the complaining about it from both home owners (who for some stupid reason thought the HOA was doing it) and our maintenance crew. The latter didn’t complain very much but we like them a lot. Went through several other companies to get this good of quality service. I spent considerable time contacting AT&T, then some flunky survey/ditch digging company (whose contact was some young woman whom I doubt knew which end of a screwdriver was up) that they pawned much of the work onto, then Spectrum trying to contact SOMEONE in a position of responsibility. Finally got the city to give me ONE direct contact for AT&T. That guy was moderately helpful but when I pointed out that it was our lawn crew that was bearing most of the pain for their sloooooow progress and asked that maybe they could at least buy those guys a lunch or something, ooooh….no, no, no, Mr. W. We can’t do that. That would be wroooong.
Needless to say I will be seeking a new internet and phone provider. Which won’t be easy as AT&T and Verizon are the only truly viable options up here in the mountains for the summer. And I seem to recall considering Verizon once before for some reason but something in their “woke” playbook made me decide not to bother.
“Not if you deserve it for being white.”
That’s the attitude. It’s different when they do it, because they’re good people. As if that wasn’t always the excuse.
Doesn’t that count as a ‘hostile work environment’?
And this. Years ago, after sitting through, and being singled out in Jane Elliott style PC BS, then David posted about Jane Elliott here about 10 years ago (which was about 15 years after my first bad experience), I warned people that this sort of thing was coming. Even showed one of them the Jane Elliott videos (which I found recently have been disappeared). No. No way something like that will happen. That’s just some one-off. You spend too much time on the internet. Don’t worry about these things. It’s a phase we’re going through. It will pass. “But doctor, I don’t think you understand…” “Oh, now come on. Get a grip. We just laugh at these things. They will go away.” Well at least he went away. I suppose it’s possible he’s in one of these very classes right now on the other side. Not that I would wish it on him. Well, maybe…
According to Peter Jackson, Weinstein blacklisted Sorvino and Ashley Judd […] from being considered for casting in The Lord of the Rings films
Yes, Sean Astin, Karl Urban and Liv Tyler‘s careers all certainly took off like Saturn V rockets after the Lord of the Rings films.
Both Judd and Sorvino have worked consistently since 2001, and at the time Lord of the Rings was released were in their mid-thirties. Weinstein only controlled what Weinstein controlled. Methinks there’s a different reason they aren’t getting the kind of roles they used to.
However according to my chum it is she who attends ‘events’ where the flaws of white people are discussed openly and eagerly, while the white parts of his family would have no truck with any such event where the flaws or traits of other races, either real or imagined, were aired.
This.
It’s Original Skin, although unlike Original Sin, there’s no baptism in the Woke religion that will wash away the stain.
AT&T unfortunately is the only option around here for internet outside the cable company, and I can’t afford nor want to deal with the cable company. The two AT&T techs that have been out to my place to install or fix the modem were pleasant, knowledgeable young men with good senses of humor, and took care of things in a timely fashion. I didn’t care that they were black, and it didn’t seem that they cared that I wasn’t. Maybe they were putting on a show for the middle-aged white lady – I don’t know anymore. I was raised to take people as they come – angels and assholes come in all shades.
Here’s me thinking I was the only person who had read Bored of the Rings. I’ve tried dropping a few quotes and references on the Babylon Bee where they are doing a pretty good read-through series of podcasts. Trouble is they’re all too young to have a clue what I’m referring to.
Even so to find so many of us in a single place is not in itself cause for alarm (or alarum as Professor T might aptly put it).
AT&T unfortunately is the only option around here for internet outside the cable company
*cough* Starlink *cough*
(I don’t know for sure, but Professor R. over at Insty has written nice things about it.)
Call me crazy, but if your name is Lucifer Devil Divinitas then I’m surprised you even lived to age 52.
Mother of the Year
Joe’s Garage
I used to play the bit where he sings “do not stain the sofa” in German while driving through Erlangen with my windows open in the early 1980s.
Here’s me thinking I was the only person who had read “Bored of the Rings”.
In his hand he carried an ancient and trusty weapon, called by the elves a Browning semi-automatic.
Nope, never read it. coughs
Mother of the year
Maybe she is acquainted with the British legal system?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/millionaire-ehsan-abdulaziz-who-said-he-accidentally-tripped-and-penetrated-teen-cleared-rape-a6774946.html
Continuing the post heading theme:
“Maybe in the fact that I’m trying so hard to pull pieces together, maybe I’ve forgotten certain things. It’s hard sometimes when you’re so anxious to find some of the gaps you know are there.”
Continuing the post heading theme
Perhaps a bigger feather would have helped.
Doesn’t that count as a ‘hostile work environment’?
Still, could be worse.
Perhaps a bigger feather would have helped
These types have been around for a century in the Canadian academic and activist scene. They’re our equivalent of Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King, and for the same reason; there’s a lot of money and prestige to be had by claiming to be a native, and until very recently no real way to confirm or deny such claims.
Perhaps a bigger feather would have helped.
Eventually she will use the whole chicken.
Maybe she is acquainted with the British legal system?
I do wonder how a jury came to that verdict. Low quality jurors? Instructions to the jury that the law required them to give credence to even the most absurd assertions of the defense? Something else?
A cunning plan
Pay one set of politicians, prosecutors and Attorney Admirals (or whatevers) to reduce arrests, prevent prosecutions, limit incarceration, free criminals, and then pay another load of them to do the exact opposite.
Works for them!