Reheated (62)
For newcomers and the nostalgic, more items from the archives:
Emily Zak wants us to know that fresh air and countryside are, like everything else, terribly oppressive.
Naturally, Ms Zak has an extensive, at times bewildering list of excuses for why any outdoors recreation should be tinged with guilt and wretchedness. From the claim that, “our society leverages natural spaces as a tool for capitalism and colonialism,” to the “toxic binary expectations we have about gender.” To spare you the tedium, I’ll summarise: If you can’t borrow a tent or don’t have a pair of suitable shoes, and if you don’t see enough adverts featuring gay people kayaking, and kayaking in a discernibly gay-affirming manner, it turns out you’re being oppressed by society.
A balding, middle-aged transvestite, a sociology lecturer, wishes to confuse your children.
Dr Cremin doesn’t seem to grasp, or isn’t willing to admit, that his craving for public transgression – to, as he puts it, “sow gender confusion in kids” – by which he means young people over whom he has leverage – reveals quite a lot about his character. And his fitness to teach. I hate to sound prim, but if I were – God help me – a sociology student, I doubt I’d be reassured by the fact that my lecturer felt entitled to use the classroom as a venue for his transvestite fetish. It does rather suggest a pathological level of self-involvement and raises a suspicion that students may find themselves playing captive audience to – or being reluctant participants in – some personal psychodrama. A kind of power game. Some variation of, “I can do this and you can’t stop me without being accused of bigotry.”
Polite man encounters Mao-lings. Mao-lings lose their minds, scream abuse, then assault him.
While professing their compassion and high-mindedness, and therefore their superiority, the Mao-lings seem determined to out-group Polite Guy and tar him as an interloper, a “white supremacist,” etc., based on nothing at all, except for the fact that he’s white. When this characterisation fails as implausible, and Polite Guy remains polite and pointedly unthreatening, the Mao-lings then get even more hostile and menacing, before assaulting him from behind as he’s trying to leave. Presumably because he made their preposterous self-image more difficult to sustain. And so, he must pay.
Should you want more, by all means click here.
A kind of power game. Some variation of, “I can do this and you can’t stop me without being accused of bigotry.”
That.
That.
Well, based on Dr Cremin’s own statements and obvious preoccupations, it does seem to be the kind of thing that, to say the very least, one ought to bear in mind.
Given our lecturer’s titillation at the thought of unnerving students and colleagues with his unconvincing drag act, and his satisfaction in imposing on them, needlessly – and his apparent license to do so in class – you have to wonder whether any students have felt uncomfortable as a result of this grotesque self-indulgence, and whether they’ve felt free to express any reservations or dissatisfaction.
Dr Cremin deserves to be greeted by a politely smoothened yawn. No, I don’t think that would work (he’d just go further to make it all about him) but it is what he deserves.
kayaking in a discernibly gay-affirming manner
I’m not sure what that might be, but it sounds unsafe.
he’d just go further to make it all about him
That does seem to be his goal. Only the excuses change, as illustrated by the various interviews linked in the original comments.
I’m not sure what that might be,
It’s right up there with gay-affirming potato mashing.
It occurs to me I ought to have checked that potato mashing isn’t slang for some kind of erotic activity. You can’t be too careful.
potato mashing isn’t slang for some kind of erotic activity.
“Hey babe, wanna come upstairs and see my potato masher”
*things never said in 70’s “swedish” films*
70’s “swedish” films
Does that show how old we are, that we both remember that allusion?
Dr Cremin deserves to be greeted by a politely smoothened yawn.
A yawn. Yes, a yawn. A politely smoothed one. Yes, that will work. That will change things. Until they start coming after you for yawning. 25 years ago I rolled my eyes at similar shit and got a figer-wagging lecture in front of my coworkers for it. I have spent the last quarter century fighting back against this shit with virtually zero support from quislings and similar like yourself. I hope you get the pleasure of sitting through one of these sorts of things at your job. Please do yawn. These days you just might get even more than a finger-wagging. Either way, let me know how it goes. I’m in serious need of a damn good laugh lately. Just don’t come crying for sympathy.
Does that show how old we are, that we both remember that allusion?
Don’t forget the Danes.
Don’t forget the Danes.
It cannot be Danish: there is no teak furniture.
there is no teak furniture.
I haven’t looked that closely. The wall rugs and mounted sombreros were enough to take in.
I haven’t looked that closely.
Given our lecturer’s titillation at the thought of unnerving students and colleagues with his unconvincing drag act, and his satisfaction in imposing on them, needlessly
Speaking of unconvincing drag acts which we are now expected to celebrate and bow down to – the one Steve E posted in the Tuesday open thread https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2021/04/the-thrill-of-tuesday.html?cid=6a00d83451675669e2026bdeccb548200c#comment-6a00d83451675669e2026bdeccb548200c used to be the public health minister for Pennsylvania, but if I remember right the new regime promoted him to Secretary of Health for the country. I’d love to be wrong, but I think he’s a cabinet minister, er secretary, now.
That I can get in trouble for describing either clown as a “he” shows how deep the rot has set in.
As Chesterton said,
I’d love to be wrong, but I think he’s a cabinet minister, er secretary, now.
Assistant Secretary of Health, equivalent to a 4 star Admiral (sad, regardless of who), unless the prez decides to do a direct commission, in which case an automatic four star Admiral of the Public Health Service.
Same silliness happens with the US Surgeon General (not to be confused with the separate service Surgeons General) who instantly becomes a Vice Admiral – OK if the person came up through the PHS ranks, but especially silly for a political appointee off the street with no prior leadership/management or public health experience.
The mermaid never becomes more womanly, but only more fishy.
A far more polite version of the “dog poop and ice cream” quip…
The idea that outdoor recreation is racist is completely insane. When I was young I had no money but had no trouble finding ways to go hiking, fishing, canoeing, skiing. Outdoor stuff is cheaper than many other activities like going to a football game. Ms Zak’s claims about these activities having bad attributes are totally fact-free.
How many ships does the health service have? I’m confused.
The idea that outdoor recreation is racist is completely insane.
And yet the same patronising claptrap is churned out with remarkable regularity.
Yawning is a perfectly good reaction to narcissists, WTP. To make a stink just keeps them in the limelight and fluffs up their ego. I’ll be at your shoulder when it comes to fighting the bureaucracies that empower these narcissists to ruin the lives of those around them, but as far as the clown himself? A yawn and a dismissive wave seem perfectly appropriate.
On another subject — whichever CBD option you picked appears not to be working.
From the claim that, “our society leverages natural spaces as a tool for capitalism and colonialism,” to the “toxic binary expectations we have about gender.”
I can’t speak to gay kayaking (wtf is that?), but in Florida (and maybe elsewhere), in the ’90s and early ’00s at least, gay men had no trouble at all with the outdoors, accessing public parks and beaches in numbers – it was their preferred spot for quickie sex. The “Imagine the Picnics” title in this post reminds me of the public reaction to this use of the parks, as the sex stuff was becoming more and more bold – they’d claim clumps of shrubbery for this, and it was going on in the daylight hours such that families and children were stumbling across these activities. Gay Inc was outraged that people objected, but people weren’t thoroughly cowed back then, and this was before Twitter mobs. I moved away, so I’m not sure who won the battle of the parks. But it was a thing for awhile.
@ CLR: “gay men had no trouble at all with the outdoors”
But what about Poison Ivy and Poison Oak? Or are such men immune to the effects of both plants when they go ‘frolicking’ au natural [or partly so] in the outdoors?
How many ships does the health service have?
None that I know of, but it started as a medical service for merchant sailors and they do provide docs, PAs, etc. to the Coast Guard and NOAA, both of whom who do, so there is that.
@CLR I recollect a similar problem with interstate rest areas. Eventually, some states just closed some of them permanently rather than waste resources trying to keep them family-friendly.
Dumb as a Box of Rocks™: Chicago cops may soon need permission before chasing a suspect on foot
“Mayor Lori Lightfoot is considering a momentous change to Chicago police procedure: requiring officers to get a supervisor’s permission before beginning a foot chase. ‘No one should die as a result of a foot chase,’ she said.”
This after a police officer “tragically” shot 13-year old gangster Adam Toledo after the boy fired on a passing car.
If I was a police officer in Chicago I would no longer be prepared to chase anyone on foot, nor to enter a black neighbourhood. Why risk life and limb to uphold the law when that might lead to you spending the rest of your (probably short) life in prison?
Dumb as a Box of Rocks™: Chicago cops may soon need permission before chasing a suspect on foot
Bree Newsome, a self-described writer, producer, activist, artist and consultant, expands an already full résumé to include total fuckwit – succeeds.
Bree Newsome, a self-described writer, producer, activist, artist and consultant, expands an already full résumé to include total fuckwit – succeeds.
“Fuckwit”: Yes, she is contemptibly stupid. But she is also contemptibly evil.
Another fuckwit: Basketball star LeBron James tweeted ‘you’re next’ about the police officer who shot that black girl just before she could stab another girl with a large knife.
All police officers should carefully fail to protect LeBron James in the event that he is attacked in public. He has made himself outlaw.
But what about Poison Ivy and Poison Oak?
If I remember correctly they’d bring flattened cardboard boxes, and this may also have been used as signaling for which clumps of shrubbery were open for frolicking. I’m not sure how much poison ivy and oak is in Florida beach parks – I think sand spurs and fire ants were more likely encounters.
This whole idea that outdoor activities are biased against [insert your favorite victim class here] is insane. Some people just want to be unhappy and complain about something, and if they can make someone else’s life miserable doing it, even better.
I’m not sure how much poison ivy and oak is in Florida beach parks – I think sand spurs and fire ants were more likely encounters
There are self-defense chemical sprays one can acquire that will raise at least a painful rash and potentially skin blisters when directed at miscreants. This seems an appropriate use case.
The idea that outdoor recreation is racist is completely insane.
As noted in the original thread, it does suggest a strange, rather contrived mental landscape. One in which those afflicted with wokeness endlessly poke about under rocks in search of some new excuse to be unhappy, or to pretend to be unhappy, just to impress their equally pretentious and neurotic peers.
And so, Ms Zak, an allegedly empowered feminist, is keen to depict “marginalised people” – including herself, presumably – as devoid of both agency and anything approaching determination. Such that, if your skin tone isn’t the most common skin tone among people on a nature trail, then you must obviously feel oppressed and promptly retreat to cower indoors. And such that, plans for a kayaking excursion will be abandoned due to the brochure not having enough discernibly gay kayakers in it. (Gay people can’t just go kayaking, you see. They have to go kayaking while being very gay and demanding affirmation from anyone nearby.)
Imagine the mindset – desperate for some crumb of evidence, anything – even the rarity of reinforced bicycles for the morbidly obese – to validate this anhedonic posturing. (Note that the equally empowered editor of Everyday Feminism, Melissa Fabello, isn’t a middle-class woman in twenty-first century America, but “a marginalised body that experiences the trauma of oppression.”) It’s ludicrous narcissism. Not a great coping skill for life in general.
MC: “If I was a police officer in Chicago I would no longer be prepared to chase anyone on foot, nor to enter a black neighbourhood.”
That seems to be what brain-dead activists like Derecka Purnell actually want. A sample:
“…if Derek Chauvin were the kindest cop in Minnesota and did not have a biased bone in his body, he still would have been able to arrest George Floyd for any number of alleged illegal acts.”
Wait, ‘alleged’..? Does she know what that word means?
“Because of capitalism, racism and ableism, the darkest and poorest peoples in the United States are relegated to live precarious lives where they do what they can to survive, sometimes including breaking the law.”
Oh. She does. She simply doesn’t think they should apply to people like her.
Maybe LeBron will have a few words of advice for the young girls father?
To quote the late Frank Carson “it’s the way I tell ‘em”.
It’s ludicrous narcissism.
I saw the Ludicrous Narcissists open for Unwanted Absurd Legislation back in… no wait – that’s going on now!
[ Staggers into bar, sweat-drenched and dishevelled. ]
Ephemera… compiled.
sweat-drenched and dishevelled
And yet still notably well groomed, I trust?
Anyhoo, Congratulations!
[ Returns from ablutions, a shimmering vision. ]
Speaking of gun crime, people in Toronto can breathe easier knowing they will no longer be accosted to stand and deliver.
[ Returns from ablutions, a shimmering vision. ]
Oh. For a while I thought the shimmering was due to these drinks here.
*clicks ‘reheated’ tag*
*falls down rabbit hole*
*tickles tip jar*
people in Toronto can breathe easier knowing they will no longer be accosted to stand and deliver.
I dunno. Kinda looks like one of those “classic” decorations status seeking folk used to display around the hovel. Fake swords and plastic grapes (remember seeing those piled up on store shelves?) finished the decor…
(yeah, I’m old. My lawn, offait)
*tickles tip jar*
Bless you, sir. May you know the simple pleasure of bacon French toast.
On requiring officers to get a supervisor’s permission before beginning a foot chase:
To quote Nancy Reagan from another context: “Just say ‘No!'”
Kinda looks like one of those “classic” decorations…
Quite possibly, which would make even more pathetic that Constable Crabtee was bragging that they got it off the street, though the though of Captain Ferrell kicking in the door of a Tim’s, wielding that thing and a rapier and announcing to the cashier that he was a bold deceiver is a step up from the usual antics of the criminal class.
Yawning is a perfectly good reaction to narcissists, WTP. – Yeah, still disagree. But my response to Richard Cranium on the other thread has…mmm…calmed me down a bit.
On another subject — whichever CBD option you picked appears not to be working. – Agree. Just in case anyone is curious about its effectiveness…I’m fairly certain that it did help break the cycle of nightmares. Either that or it was an interesting coincidence. It’s not helping with the stress of the times, however. I can sleep until about 5AM-6AM a good bit but then anxiety about facing the day takes over. Though as arrogant and lacking in self-awareness as this sounds (can one say that?), I could main-line that stuff, or any stuff, and it wouldn’t make a difference because…after much thought, deliberation, etc. over the last 25-30 years or so, and eliminating pretty much every other remotely viable possibility (AFAICS), and overdosing on personal responsibility…the problem isn’t me. As I watch MSM reactions, driving most people’s reactions, friends’ reactions, conservatives…”conservatives” lack of reactions, etc in regard to the recent verdict but many, many other gaslighting news events as well, informs me. As decades of software development (or engineering, if you must) has taught me, attempts to fix things downstream of the root problem without addressing the root problem just makes the problem exponentially worse. Not saying I don’t personally have a good number of problems. Life is complicated. Though YMMV, I suppose.
“Mayor Lori Lightfoot is considering a momentous change to Chicago police procedure: requiring officers to get a supervisor’s permission before beginning a foot chase. ‘No one should die as a result of a foot chase,’ she said.”
I’m old enough to remember when conservatives…”conservatives” over at Insty were quite certain that LL’s rumored cheating on her “wife” would lead to her immanent downfall. My observation that such a completely unsubstantiated play was simply distraction BS for sucker “conservatives” went 75% unappreciated.
If I remember correctly they’d bring flattened cardboard boxes, and this may also have been used as signaling for which clumps of shrubbery were open for frolicking. I’m not sure how much poison ivy and oak is in Florida beach parks – I think sand spurs and fire ants were more likely encounters.
This whole idea that outdoor activities are biased against [insert your favorite victim class here] is insane. Some people just want to be unhappy and complain about something, and if they can make someone else’s life miserable doing it, even better.
Was this in Central FL/Orlando? AIUI, the problem they were having with such at the beautiful, family oriented, center-of-Orlando Lake Eola did get addressed, though it wouldn’t surprise me if it still (or now) happens and no one dares discuss it. I haven’t followed local news in a couple years now. It’s gotten to be all BS so what’s the point? If you are referring, beach-wise, to the north end of Playalinda over on the Space Coast, the nudity is still a thing. There are warning signs and such to be aware that you may encounter nude sunbathers. Back when we would go to Playalinda it was well understood that such went on a good ways past the last parking lot, such that you would need to make the effort to go to the last parking lot then hike a ways. A few years ago I had heard that the “nudists” (not all gays, BTW, but disproportionately so) were becoming more and more casual as to what constituted the “last” parking lot.
people in Toronto can breathe easier knowing they will no longer be accosted to stand and deliver
Being a bit of an aficionado of the period, that looks very much like an unfirable replica. It’s difficult to tell from the photo, but the pan looks to be far too high above the touch-hole.
Perhaps more to the point, I doubt anyone save an avid re-enactor or living historian would have any idea how to even make the black powder and the paper cartridge, much less actually load and prime the thing. They’re finicky as hell. It would be mare dangerous held by the barrel and wielded as a club, which in fact they were designed to do.
One last quick comment…for anyone interested in a fair (IMNSHO) assessment of the Derick Chauvin trial, I can recommend this…
https://youtu.be/l4TWwG_NkJ0
…the pan looks to be far too high above the touch-hole…
It is a percussion cap version, if it is real. If it is real, it doesn’t require any arcane expertise to load or shoot, down here black powder guns (and cannon) and supplies are readily available.
My observation that such a completely unsubstantiated play was simply distraction BS for sucker “conservatives” went 75% unappreciated.
And you were right. Dammit.
@WTP: IIRC was pretty widespread from West Palm all the way down past Ft Lauderdale, and it wasn’t nudity. It was meeting up in the shrubbery for some al fresco, getting more and more bold about it, and getting mad when people stumbled across them and weren’t sufficiently supportive of the activity. My point of that anecdote was more that if there’s something that a certain “minority” group wants to do outside, they’ll do it. They aren’t being held back by anyone but the people within their own subculture, who they need to impress.