Speaking of “diversity” and its wonders, Heather Mac Donald ponders Germany’s ongoing experiment in self-annihilation:  

There follows a horror-show catalogue of incompetence, dishonesty, and inassimilable monsters, with criminal records of prodigious length, pious newcomers calling for the murder of “every critic of Islam,” and in which the word machete crops up quite a lot.

A dark surrealism ensues, not least with regard to the convoluted ordeal of deporting uninvited visitors bent on one’s destruction. All set against gushing media coverage of a “Techno Parade für Toleranz,” and cheery posters reminding viewers of the approved attitude: 

In terms of ideology, “diversity” seems to be the belief that the less we have in common, and feel we have in common, the happier we will be. An unobvious proposition, to say the least. Yet the word is mouthed as if it were a self-evident good, a “strength,” a moral imperative, a thing of which one could never have enough.

Update, via the comments:

Dicentra adds,

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.

It’s a mental world in which everyone is expected to pretend that everything is fine and no grave mistakes were made, despite all available evidence. And in which the only real problem is not the ongoing, quite rapid degradation of German society, and other European societies, but those who dare to notice this unhappy transformation.

Ccscientist notes the please-don’t-rape-me dance, above, and adds,

The unrealism of such people and their peers, Our Betters, created a problem on a vast scale and which is dire in its implications – a problem that they are unwilling to fix or even clearly identify. And so, they retreat further into unrealism and absurdity, while expecting others – those on whom they’ve inflicted the problem – to become unrealistic and absurd too.

It’s the progressive way. In this and so much else.

Update 2:

Regarding the pretence above, Dicentra replies,

There’s also a weird air of displacement, of vehemently resenting those who notice the problem. And so, we get claims like this one here, in which BBC broadcaster Dan Snow denounces as “stunningly racist” even the suggestion that incompatible tribes exist. Because Mr Snow feels they shouldn’t exist, that they somehow ought not to.

And so, magically, they don’t. And only Very Bad People would say they do.

From the linked piece:

And the above, this farce, is pretty much a standard pattern.

Regarding Mr Snow, his practised obliviousness, and his rush to deploy accusations of racism, Dicentra adds,

Well, this is a pretty good summary of the phenomenon. It does rather capture the recurring dynamic:

Of course, reality is not always congenial, and what one might wish to be the case may be preferable to what actually is. I can see the appeal of a world in which everyone just rubbed along nicely with endless reciprocation and common ground. But pretending that’s the case, when it clearly, vividly, isn’t, isn’t a wise or moral way to behave.

Especially when the consequences of that pretence are imposed on others, who then, in addition, get badmouthed and vilified for daring to object. Say, people not entirely happy about the sudden ubiquity of Congolese and Somali borra gangs, whose modes of expression involve machetes, or people who discover their doorsteps literally being shat on.

Update 3:

In the comments, EmC quotes this,

And adds,

I paraphrase, of course. Though, judging by this piece in the San Francisco Standard, not by much:

Or, my activist lifestyle should be subsidised by others, the less important.

Ah, that community spirit, a triumph of fairness over selfishness, in a city of good people. Good people who steal as a matter of routine. Because when it comes to paying their way, well, they’d rather not.

Behold the moral clarity of Our Betters. The unwavering righteousness.

You see, stiffing others with the bill, the cost of you getting from A to B, is the very measure of politeness. It’s altruistic fare-dodging. Another terribly progressive innovation.

As one might imagine, this modish, habitual freeloading, now estimated at 20% of users, possibly higher, has had certain consequences, including the alienation of many paying customers. Say, those not impressed by orange-vested climate activists who repeatedly screw the law-abiding, and the taxpayer, while applauding themselves for their belief that “Muni should be free.”

Left unchallenged or actively reinforced, the disregard for paying bills may of course spill into other areas of life, and losses from municipal parking garages are also mentioned as a “concern.” The fiscal state of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is described by insiders as “incredibly dire,” with a deficit projected to rise from a mere $15 million to a rather more impressive $322 million.

Rafael Mandelman, the chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, is one of those concerned, though more by the election of Donald Trump, and the consequently dimmed prospects of further federal bailouts, than by the culture of fare-dodging among the network’s own supposed customers. Suggested solutions to these economic woes include taxing ride-share companies, parcel taxes, increased parking charges, and bake sales.

Action of a sort is, belatedly, being taken:

However, this being San Francisco, an uphill struggle is expected:

Ms Malan, whose progressive charisma can be viewed here, is, she says, “working smarter, not harder.”

@theedoodlebop Suddenly im having the best day of my life ! #sanfrancisco #sf #hotweatherhacks #fypシ゚ #missionsf #goldengatepark #sanfranciscobayarea ♬ original sound – Tasha 🧍🏻

Again, good people, Giving It To The Man. Or at least, giving it to those unhip, fare-paying suckers.

Ms Malan, a self-styled “artist,” was later caught fare-dodging by the aforementioned fare enforcement officers, or Muni cops, and given a $130 citation – an indignity Ms Malan describes, quite vehemently, as “bullshit.”

@theedoodlebop FINE yall win this time😔 #sf #sanfrancisco ♬ original sound – Tasha 🧍🏻

It’s worth noting that the replies to Ms Malan’s fare-dodging dramas are almost entirely sympathetic. Her admirers applaud her recreational mooching, a measure of hipness, and offer tips on doing the same. “Best way to live,” says one. “God, I love this city,” adds a likeminded bint. “It’s a simple and beautiful life,” says another. Albeit a life based on exploiting, and sneering at, those more honest. The ones being left to pick up the tab.

Other attempts at fare enforcement have, inevitably, resulted in hair-trigger accusations of “racism,” presumably on grounds that Magical Brownness entitles those so endowed to an indefinite exemption from normal proprieties.

Readers may recall our previous visits to the world of glamorised fare-dodging – for instance, in Washington DC, where progressive commuters, including lecturers, lawyers and screenwriters, aired their “exhausted rage,” not at the rapidly growing number of freeloaders eroding social trust and bankrupting the transport network, but at those careless enough to notice such things.

Because noticing routine and shameless thievery is apparently much worse than indulging in it. And certainly more likely to result in opprobrium.

Some will doubtless recall Ms Claudia Balducci, a scrupulously progressive woman responsible for Seattle’s public transport network, and who, when faced with evidence that up to 70% of passengers are now fare-dodging with impunity, replied:

Which, we’re to believe, is progress. An achievement unlocked.

Oh, and we mustn’t forget this feat of Bay Area ingenuity, complete with magic cardboard and public masturbators.

Update, via the comments:

Responding to this rather convenient excuse,

Clam replies, not unfairly,

Given the nature of public infrastructure and its bureaucracy, and given the city’s pronounced progressive leanings, I don’t doubt that the transportation system may be suboptimally conceived and suboptimally implemented. But as we noted recently, rules and systems can only do so much, and whether a system works, or works to some extent, will also depend on compliance and enforcement, on human capital, the quality of its inputs, its users.

And it’s not obvious how any system that one might realistically devise could function adequately if subjected to large enough numbers of people much like our “artist,” Ms Tasha Malan, or the activist with the banana, or the research associate who excuses her habitual freeloading as being “like a San Francisco thing, I guess.”

The weight of shitty, selfish people is not to be underestimated.

Update 2:

Regarding the self-satisfied justifications for being a selfish bum, a – dare I say it – parasite – commenter [+] adds,

Well, yes. And I’m not sure how a struggling transport system can overcome the prevalence of such attitudes, unless the people running it are willing to add some serious Find Out to all the Fucking About. And I suspect that wouldn’t be regarded as “a San Francisco thing,” man.

It’s also, I think, worth pondering how those announcing their habitual freeloading, even boasting of it, don’t seem to regard themselves as being in any way uncivilised or morally questionable. 

As if their behaviour – their choices, made repeatedly – couldn’t possibly indicate something untoward or unsavoury. Something warranting shame. Perhaps they assume that “working for a climate nonprofit,” or being a “research associate for a Google-owned subsidiary,” or just living in San Francisco, a progressive Mecca, makes them a good person. An unassailable being.

It seems to me that political attitudes are to a very large extent downstream of personality and psychology, the kind of person you are. Say, the kind of adult, statusfully employed, who will make the kind of noises more typically expected from thick, delinquent teenagers. And if your super-progressive city has attracted a lot of shitty, self-entitled narcissists, the morally juvenile, creatures like Ms Malan, well, things will tend to degrade.

Whether the degradation can be reversed without addressing the underlying psychology, those shitty personalities, I leave to the reader. 

Lifted from the comments, it turns out that Transport For London is advertising assisted suicide. They seem to be giving it quite a push:

Westminster Death Tunnel sponsored by @dignityindying pic.twitter.com/fW0mbtqVRc

— Fleur Elizabeth (@fleurmeston) November 25, 2024

Very on-brand, I’d say. Almost too on-the-nose. I mean, if London’s buses and tube network were suddenly to be plastered with huge posters saying END IT ALL NOW, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO, it wouldn’t be entirely inexplicable, or entirely dissonant with the customer experience.

It’s perhaps worth noting that Transport For London has a staff training centre, complete with fake station and platform, and “suicide pits,” where employees learn how to manage what are euphemistically referred to as “passengers taken unwell” or “disruptions to the tube service.” Events that occur on average once or twice a week.

In 2019, staff “intervened” in the self-destructive thoughts of 426 customers deemed “visibly in distress,” “up from 252 in the previous year.”

As EmC quips darkly in reply,

Update, via the comments:

The adverts for assisted suicide are now being partially covered, by persons unknown, with posters for a Samaritans helpline.

Consider this an open thread.

Lifted from the comments, a worldview in snapshot form:

I filmed a liberal activist trying to retrieve her iPhone back from the homeless that possibly stole it. She encouraged them to sell anything they steal from “rich scum” but that she’s “nice” and “honest” and needs it back. She told @tarafaul503 and I she won’t call the police pic.twitter.com/STzxXlyDNY

— Kevin Dahlgren 🥾 🥾 (@kevinvdahlgren) November 22, 2024

You see, they’re only supposed to steal from “rich scum.” Not nice people. Say, nice progressive women who are, like, totally cool with the robbing of others. 

A tightly-wound progressive gentleman offers lifestyle advice:

It all sounds terribly exciting.

Leftist shares his plan if Trump wins this election. This is a whole new level of delusion… pic.twitter.com/BYYqVAL8T9

— Amala Ekpunobi (@amalaekpunobi) October 26, 2024

Update, via the comments:

Martin D adds, not unfairly, 

Ah, yes, but there’s a sweet role to play, a self-flattering psychodrama to enact. Or as Mr Muldoon puts it, 

And regarding the prospect of Our Betters being forced into some terrified silence, Eagle quips,

That was, I think, the bit that really strained credulity. The idea that Agitated Chappie and his radical comrades could ever inhibit their compulsion to announce their own superiority at every opportunity. It was a stretch, even compared to the implication that the streets would soon be patrolled by some Trumpian Sturmabteilung.