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Art Free-For-All Politics Pronouns Or Else

The Regurgitation Of Slogans

March 10, 2024 151 Comments

Lifted from the comments, where Mr Muldoon directs us to,

Liberal Jane, a “queer feminist making art about bodily autonomy,” which amazingly looks like every other bit of dreck of the sort.

There is a dull mediocrity, a predictable trajectory:

I think it’s fair to say that, whatever her creative limitations, Liberal Jane, aka Ms Caitlin Blunnie, does like her slogans. One might say incantations. Almost all of which have an air of self-satisfaction, as if some previously unregistered profundity had been heroically unearthed.

One creation extols the radical virtues of skiving in the workplace and not doing the work one is being paid to do. “Craft is resistance in a late-stage capitalist society,” reads another. Also, “Self-love is self-care.” “Riots, not diets.” “Hex the imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy.” “Fantasy is for everyone.” “Abortion builds new futures.” Oh, and “Smash the state and masturbate,” and “Stretch marks are ubiquitous to the human experience.”

And if even more excitement is called for:

Free digital downloads for educators.

The item below is a recent and fairly topical example of Ms Blunnie’s morally corrective offerings to the world:

Happy #InternationalWomensDay! 💜 pic.twitter.com/8LEdvZDeSj

— Liberal Jane (@liberaljanee) March 8, 2024

At which point, readers may note just how often progressive posturing seems to require a fairly high tolerance of contrivance and short-cuts, internal contradiction, and the kind of begged-question soundbites that are all but designed to shut down thought. A kind of pre-emptive short circuit.

For instance, in Ms Blunnie’s X feed, a professed concern for “bodily autonomy” appears alongside the slogans “Abortion builds new futures,” and “Funding abortion is an act of radical empathy,” along with a jolly pink poster for “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day,” which suggests that the bodily autonomy of some people, very small ones, doesn’t count.

And even if “bodily autonomy” applies only, and rather conveniently, to women, or a subset of women, one might have thought that it could extend to concerns regarding creepy, mentally ill men barging into women’s intimate spaces for a furtive wank.

But apparently not. Because “a woman is anyone who identifies as one.”

Update, via the comments:

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Written by: David
Academia Free-For-All Parenting Pronouns Or Else

Impermissible Thoughts

March 5, 2024 181 Comments

Via Uma Thurman’s Feet, some educational news:

An eastern Ontario teachers’ union is warning its members they could face discipline under the human rights code [for] regulating student misbehaviour and expressing a series of opinions, 

The particulars of which, we’ll get to in a moment. But in the meantime, do feel free to take a guess. Perhaps it could be the basis for a drinking game.

The email to union members, sent by John Vince, the chief negotiator for Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation district 27, is positively heaving with thou-shalt-nots:

Vince encouraged teachers that keeping secrets from parents is not a bad thing, telling teachers that they shouldn’t tell parents if they catch their child vaping and implied that if a teacher caught a student snorting cocaine or other illicit substance, parents shouldn’t be notified. 

As we’ve seen, many times, some teachers and educational bureaucrats do seem rather titillated by the prospect of actively deceiving parents. As, for instance, when middle-school teachers in Missouri were urged to fabricate and publish a false curriculum, purely to hide from parents the details of their activism and what they were actually up to in class. A move pre-emptively described by its proponent, Natalie Fallert, as “not being deceitful.” And regarding which, I wrote:

It occurs to me that when your solution to such complaints [from parents regarding classroom indoctrination] includes the words “so parents cannot see it,” it may be time to revisit your assumptions.

But I digress. Let’s get back to Mr Vince’s emailed instructions to Ontario educators:

Teachers were told to not tell students to get off their phone, to pull their hoodies down, and should not ask a student why they had arrived to class excessively late. 

Apparently, tardiness is a human right. Other sins to be avoided include the words blind spot, and the immensely oppressive phrase ladies and gentlemen. 

Also forbidden are:

The opinion that women who have gone through male puberty should not participate in women’s sport.

The opinion that women who have male reproductive organs (ex. a penis) may make some women uncomfortable in change rooms or washrooms.

The notion that there are only two genders.

Disagreement that someone could be born in the wrong body or that we all have a ‘gender-soul’.

The idea that keeping secrets from parents/guardians is bad. 

These, it turns out, are “right-wing” opinions, and therefore have soul-blackening properties.

Needless to say, this quoted selection is but a small sample, a mere appetiser. Teachers are also warned not to congratulate parents on their child’s performance in a school play. Why this humdrum politeness should be avoided, with the threat of disciplinary consequences, is not entirely obvious and no hints are offered as to the reasoning. It is, however, framed as equal in sinfulness to informing a parent that their child has been “snorting a white powder.”

Because if little Billy is chopping them out in class, it’s now a teacher’s duty to keep parents in the dark, you see.

The full text of the email in question can be found via the link above. Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.

Oh, and by all means consider this an open thread.

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Written by: David
AI Free-For-All Problematic Questions Pronouns Or Else

Learning To Pretend

February 26, 2024 75 Comments

The Rabbit Hole demonstrates a test for AI wokeness and ideological distortion:

When given the question, Gemini responds that one should not misgender Caitlyn Jenner to avoid a nuclear apocalypse. 

Before you ask, Caitlyn Jenner himself does appear to regard averting nuclear apocalypse as the more pressing concern.

Some questions were met with an equivalent of fudging:

Gemini was unable to definitively determine who is more controversial when comparing Elon Musk to Joseph Stalin. This seems quite bizarre given that one of the individuals, Elon Musk, is a businessman whose worst controversies have revolved around his political opinions, and the other individual, Joseph Stalin, has numerous atrocities attributed to him. 

When presented with other questions – the particulars of which I’ll let you discover for yourself – the responses ranged from oddly incoherent to a faintly ominous reticence. And the fingerprints of severely educated progressives proved hard to miss.

Via pst314.

Update, via the comments:

Somewhat related:

Google’s Gemini AI invented fake negative reviews about my 2020 book about Google’s left-wing bias. None of these book reviews… are real. None of these quotes are real. This is Google’s AI blatantly lying in defence of Google.

Via Kate.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

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Written by: David
Free-For-All His Pretty Nails Problematic Toilets Pronouns Or Else

Powder Room Scenes

February 15, 2024 179 Comments

A territorial struggle of sorts:

⚠️EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING⚠️

A trans activist using the women’s bathroom slides his phone under the stall to film a woman.

These are the people who want to share a bathroom with your daughters. pic.twitter.com/T8NKAnK4Vk

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 14, 2024

And remember, ladies, when a male bedlamite pushes his phone camera under an occupied bathroom stall in order to livestream to his admirers a woman who is unhappy about a male bedlamite’s presence in a ladies’ toilets – and when said bedlamite’s phone is kicked away and he then claims victimhood, specifically injury to his penis, which he mentions quite a lot – this is totally normal and nothing to worry about.

It’s just how things are now. Embrace all that progress.

A word of caution. The link immediately above contains graphic content.

Update, via the comments:

Mags notes our bedlamite’s livestreaming of his bathroom adventures, and of his victim, adding,

Because that always makes you look good.

Well, quite. As a way to convince women that they’ve nothing to fear, that any concerns they might have are merely bigotry, and that you’re not at all unhinged and a danger… it does leave something to be desired.

Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

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Written by: David
Academia Anthropology Free-For-All

Your Host’s Idea Of Hell (5)

January 23, 2024 96 Comments

In the nightmare, I’ve been found guilty of something terrible – it was only a matter of time, I suppose – and am sentenced to an eternity of listening to this:

Teacher candidates in Ontario are receiving top-notch training. Not. pic.twitter.com/CBGPLzdJ9k

— Chanel Pfahl 🇨🇦 (@ChanLPfa) January 18, 2024

The speaker above, our bringer of deep and hidden wisdom, is Dr Andrew Campbell, an “educator, facilitator, storyteller and author,” and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. His areas of expertise – and naturally, they are numerous – include “educational change,” “radical leadership for social change,” “diversity,” “equity,” and painting his nails.

In return for his scholarly expertise, and his heroic struggles with basic grammar, Dr Campbell is paid a mere $169,272 – excluding speaking fees, obviously. Oh, and our educator’s response to scepticism and gentle mockery, expressed via social media and immediately blocked, is pretty much what you’d imagine. From a thirteen-year-old girl.

His mission is to challenge stereotypes.

Update, via the comments:

Dr Campbell also insists, loudly and with much flailing of arms, that “representation” and “diversity” do not, ever, entail a lowering of standards. “How dare you,” says he.

At which point, I’m tempted to peer over my spectacles.

Via Jonathan Kay. Previously in Hell.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

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Written by: David
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In which we marvel at the mental contortions of our self-imagined betters.