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“Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.” ― George Orwell, 1984 |
Not only do the defectors regard these phenomenons as having been "rammed down workers' throats" by the establishment, but they also want to discard the name "Communist" as "drawn down to the dirt".
Almost half of the members of the Communist Party in Malmö are resigning. Instead, they plan establish a new workers' party that doesn't put as much emphasis on things like multiculturalism, LGBT issues and climate alarmism, which have become the staples and rallying calls of today's left.
Nils Littorin, one of the defectors, explained to Lokaltidningen that today's left has become part of the elite and has come to "dismiss the views of the working class as alien and problematic". Littorin suggested that the left, as a movement, is going through a prolonged identity crisis and that his group, instead, intends to stick to the original values, such as class warfare.
"They don't understand why so many workers don't think that multiculturalism, the LGBT movement and Greta Thunberg are something fantastic, but instead believe we are in the 1930s' Germany and that workers who vote [right-wing] Sweden Democrats have been infected by some Nazi sickness," he explained to Lokaltidningen.
The right-wingers' major gains from the working class are, according to Littorin, a token of widespread dissatisfaction with liberal economic migration that leads to "low-wage competition" and the "ghettoisation of communities", a development that "only benefits major companies".
According to Littorin, one of the underlying problems is a "chaotic" immigration policy that has led to cultural clashes, segregation and exclusion due to an uncontrolled influx from parts of the world characterised by honour culture and clan mentalities.
Littorin described multiculturalism, LGBT issues and the climate movement as state ideologies that are "rammed down people's throats". According to him, phenomena like LGBT-certification and the cult around 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and "other -isms" happen at the expense of the real issues, such as income equality.
"Pride, for instance, has been reduced to dealing with sexual orientation. We believe that human dignity is primarily about having a job and having pension insurance that means that you are not forced to live on crumbs when you are old," Littorin explained.
The goal, according to Littorin is to enter Malmö City Council by 2022. The name of the party remains undetermined, but Littorin stressed that the word "Communist" will no longer be present.
It's a word drawn to the dirt, a nasty word today, and not entirely undeservedly. In communist parties, there is this risk of elitism, self-indulgence, and a belief that a certain avant-garde should lead a working class that does not know its own best interests, instead of asking people what they want. 20th-century Communism died with the Soviet Union, it has never been successfully updated for the 21st century but has been stuck in 100-year-old books. But the principles that Marx formulated, they still apply to me," Littorin concluded.
Earlier this week, Markus Allard, the leader of the left-wing Örebro Party expressed similar thoughts in an opinion piece called "Socialists don't belong to the left", accusing the mainstream left of completely abandoning its base , switching from the working class to "parasitic grant-grabbing layers within the middle class".
Owing to its long-standing socialist traditions, Sweden currently has two active communist parties , the Communist Party and the Swedish Communist Party, both dating back to the 1970s. Despite formally remaining loyal to Marxism-Leninism, the two are not on speaking terms. Also, the Left Party, which unlike the two aforementioned ones has parliamentary representation, was called the Communist Party for several decades.
( Aug 26, 2017 , www.unz.com )
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Jan 22, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Mao Cheng Ji , Jan 22 2021 18:01 utc | 9"It is not pure idioticy that Biden pushes out such nonsense. From the view point of the ruling class it makes sense to split the plebs along cultural ideological lines. As long as they fight each other about access to bathrooms based on 'identity' they will be distracted from recognizing that class discrimination and economic imbalances are the real problems they should care to change."
While I completely agree that splitting the working class into warring factions is the main purpose of liberalism (American liberalism of the last ~40 years, that is), I kinda doubt that any of the proles care enough about the bathrooms.
The main liberal tools are 'anti-racism', multiculturalism, and 'anti-sexism' ('feminism').
All this homo and trans stuff is unnecessary overkill, imo. In fact, this is mostly a way for liberals to eat their own.
Jackrabbit , Jan 22 2021 18:25 utc | 16
erik , Jan 22 2021 18:42 utc | 20The practical effect of Biden's policy will be to further the conservative agenda.
More families will chose to leave public school systems, starving those systems of funds and furthering the two-tier educational system.
Separate but equal = = => Separate and unequal
!!
karlof1 , Jan 22 2021 19:07 utc | 26"Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes." LOL But you'd best know you'll be fired and mistreated should you publicly express the opinion that people like Rachel Levine are clearly disturbed and maybe shouldn't hold high office.
Jen , Jan 22 2021 20:07 utc | 40RT has an op/ed agreeing with b :
"When it comes to adults, outlawing discrimination on the basis of gender identity is just as dangerous. There are good reasons why prisons, domestic violence refuges, certain health services and even some beauty salons are exclusively for females. This is not to discriminate irrationally against transgender people but to protect women who, in these specific circumstances, are particularly vulnerable.
"Biden's executive order opens the door for men to access women's private spaces. It makes it more difficult for medical professionals to direct advice about cervical smear tests, contraception and abortion provision, or breast cancer checks, at the women they are intended to help. It puts low-paid women who offer intimate beauty services at risk. And it makes it far more difficult to measure accurately whether there are sex-based differences in rates of pay or access to employment."
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Stonebird @19--
The culprits in this case are hormone mimickers--chemicals that have the same appearance as estrogen and testosterone, along with those hormones themselves which are put into the ecosystem via the household toilet and industrial drains. What's more is the amounts required to cause harm are far lower than the listed harmful levels--parts per billion versus parts per million.
William Gruff , Jan 22 2021 20:26 utc | 49karlof1 @ 26:
There actually was a case in British Columbia in 2019 in which a transgender woman called Jessica Yaniv targeted beauty salons run by sole female owners, all of them working-class and of Indian / Sikh backgrounds, and accused them of discriminating against transgender individuals when they refused to wax Yaniv's genitals. The businesses clearly advertised they served female clients only. One business was only a short walk away from a larger salon that served male and female clients.
Initially when the court case became public, the Canadian general public was sympathetic towards Yaniv until the lawyers for the women whose businesses had been targeted by Yaniv took the unprecedented step, with their clients' consent, of revealing their identities. Canadian public opinion then sided with the women. One of the women had had to close down her business due to Yaniv's targeting.
At some point during the trial, information about Yaniv's Tweeting activities became public, revealing this individual as racist and being obsessed with prepubescent girls.
I believe Yaniv lost in that case.
As can be seen even in this example, Identity Politics is being used to punish women, and women from lower classes and disadvantaged backgrounds in particular.
Prof K , Jan 22 2021 21:01 utc | 57Damn, I was born in the wrong era. Given this opportunity back in high school I definitely would have "identified" as female and joined the girls' Greco-Roman wrestling team.
According to this law hormone tests to determine eligibility will be unlawful. "Identifying" as female is all it will take, and there are no tests to determine identity. Identity is purely subjective. "Identity" is literally anything that the individual wants it to be, and trying to assert otherwise is flaccid pseudoscience nonsense.
Our host is correct. Girls' sports are now dead. It is just a matter of time before they are overrun by XY "girls" . There are lots of incentives for boys to "identify" as girls and no real disincentives, so why wouldn't they?
Contradictions stemming from western society's delusion metastasize.
On the very dangerous fad of teenage female-to-male trans-ing:
https://www.amazon.com/Irreversible-Damage-Transgender-Seducing-Daughters-ebook/dp/B07YL6XK55
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Jan 06, 2021 | www.rt.com
US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is calling out her party for pushing through a new code of conduct that essentially denies women exist by requiring gender-neutral language in Congressional rules.
"It's the height of hypocrisy for people who claim to be the champions of rights for women to deny the very biological existence of women," Gabbard said on Monday night in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
//www.youtube.com/embed/y74xmzlvbJ8
New guidelines introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday and passed Monday by Congress in a party-line vote endeavor to "honor all gender identities" by making all pronouns and references to familial relationships gender-neutral. For instance, "seamen" has been changed to "seafarers," and House rules have been scrubbed of such words as "father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister.""Aunt" and "uncle" will be replaced by "parent's sibling." Lawmakers also must inculcate such words as "parent-in-law,""stepsibling" and "sibling's child" to replace "mother-in-law,""stepsister" and "niece.""He" or "she" references to House members are instead "such member,""delegate" or "resident commissioner."
"It's mind-blowing because it shows just how out of touch with reality and the struggles of everyday Americans people in Congress are," Gabbard said. "Also, their first act as this new Congress could have been to make sure that elderly Americans are able to get the COVID vaccine now , but instead of doing something that could actually help save people's lives, they're choosing instead to say, 'Well, you can't say mother of father in any of this congressional language.' It's astounding."
Amid crises and pandemic, Pelosi chooses to focus on new Congress rules that ELIMINATE 'gendered terms'Congress also has made permanent its Office of Diversity and now requires all committees to discuss in their oversight plans how they will address "inequities on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age or national origin." Committees also must "survey the diversity of witness panels at committee hearings to ensure we are hearing from diverse groups of experts as we craft legislation."
Gabbard has run afoul of Democratic Party orthodoxy repeatedly in the past two years, opposing the impeachment of President Donald Trump, speaking out against election fraud, opposing regime-change wars and blasting the controversial Netflix movie 'Cuties' as " child porn ." She embarrassed party favorite Kamala Harris, now vice president-elect, in a Democrat presidential debate in 2019, and the Iraq War veteran called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the " queen of warmongers " after Clinton suggested that she's a Russian asset.
Gabbard, who didn't seek a new term in Congress, was attacked as a "transphobe" and "bigot" after introducing a bill last month to limit participation in women's sports to biological females. The movement to "deny the existence of biological women – it defies common sense, it defies basic, established science, it just doesn't make any sense," she told Carlson on Monday.
Tulsi Gabbard branded 'transphobe' after introducing bill to limit women's sport to biological females"No wonder they called you a Russian spy," Carlson replied. "It's dangerous to have you in the Democratic Party. I'm sorry you're leaving [Congress]."
Republicans praised Gabbard's latest contradiction of Democrat talking points. "Can we please trade Mitt Romney for her?" one Twitter user asked. Brazilian entrepreneur Daniel Gonzalez called her "the best Democrat since JFK."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was among the many Republicans who opposed Pelosi's rules changes. "This is stupid," he said. "Signed, a father, son and brother."
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Aug 04, 2020 | threadreaderapp.com
If you looked at the details of #19, Colin Wright mentions that he got in trouble for tweeting about Lisa Littman's work. This article explores about the controversy around Dr. Littman's paper, and the unfair treatment she was subjected to.
As a Former Dean of Harvard Medical School, I Question Brown's Failure to Defend Lisa Littman - Quillette This week's controversy surrounding an academic paper on gender dysphoria published by Brown University assistant professor Lisa Littman -- brought on by the post-publication questioning of Dr Littman's
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Aug 03, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
Sebastian H 08.03.20 at 5:09 am (
146 )I forgot to include the Vox accusations. They have a bunch of the tropes.
Emily VanDerWerff accuses Matt Yglesias of making her feel less safe at work as a trans person for signing the Harper's letter which she asserts contains "many dog whistles toward anti-trans positions".
Her definition of anti trans dog whistles is included at the link. It has huge Presumption of Guilt and Abstraction problems. She claims to not want any consequences for Yglesias, but if that is the case she shouldn't have used "feel less safe at work" which is less of a dog whistle and more of an alarm bell for Human Resources to immediately open an investigation into the (for cause) firing of someone.
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Jul 23, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Home / Articles / Culture / The Transgender Craze Is Creating Thousands Of Young Victims CULTURE The Transgender Craze Is Creating Thousands Of Young Victims
Abigail Shrier's new book details the damage done to young girls. Lilly Curran (far right), aged 11, is transgender and is part of a group of male to female trans kids living in the Austin area. Photographed with trans friends Zuri Jones (2nd left), Fiana McKillop (2nd left), and Ruby Ryan (not trans - 2nd right) on July 07, 2018, in Round Rock, Texas. (Adam Gray / Barcroft Media via Getty Images / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
JULY 21, 2020
|12:01 AM
JONATHON VAN MARENIrreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters , Abigail Shrier, Regnery Publishing, 287 pp.
In 2014, TIME magazine featured transgender actor Laverne Cox on the cover under the title "The Transgender Tipping Point." A year later, in 2015, CNN announced the formal arrival of our "transgender moment." In June of that year, Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover made it official. Trans was in, come hell or high water.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/13045197114175078?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13045197114175078-0&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theamericanconservative.com&rid=www.theamericanconservative.com&width=838
If 2015 was when the transgender moment began, Abigail Shrier's Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters , published last month by Regnery, is a badly needed report card. Shrier's book reads like one we will look back at and point to in the years to come for its prescience and prophetic warnings. Considering the vicious climate surrounding the transgender debate, it took genuine courage for Shrier to write this book. She is already being attacked as transphobic, and Amazon has refused to allow the book to be advertised. Despite that, Irreversible Damage is no ideological screed. It is a measured and relentless look at the damage the transgender movement has wrought in an unbelievably short amount of time.
When Shrier uses the term "craze," she means it in the scientific sense. Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) is what Dr. Lisa Littman calls a "social contagion," and it primarily impacts young girls. Just a short time ago, only .002% to .003% of girls in the U.S. identified as transgender. Now, it is up to 2%, and Shrier told me that she believes the rate has spiked by thousands of percentage points (in the UK, the number of girls identifying as trans has risen by over 4000%). Most trans-identified youth used to be males -- that has reversed. In 2016, for example, girls accounted for 46% of sex reassignment surgeries in the U.S. One year later, that number had spiked to 70%.
In Littman's much-maligned 2018 study "Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria," she discovered that a full 70% of trans teens belonged to a peer group in which one had already had already come out as trans, and according to parents, a third of these had shown no sign of being dysphoric previously. Despite the insistence of trans activists that this is simply "transphobia" on the part of the parents, 85% of the parents surveyed were LGBT-supportive. But for asking questions, for begging their daughters to delay puberty blockers and top surgeries, they are condemned by trans activists as vicious bigots.
Shrier's interviews with the parents of trans children are heartbreaking. Many of the parents pinpointed the Internet as the source of their child's interest in transgenderism -- Littman's study indicates that 65% of girls discovered transgenderism via social media -- and wildly popular trans influencers are functioning as Pied Pipers calling on girls to "cut off" parents who question their new identity. These parents, according to trans influencers, are "toxic" and "unsafe" and will likely cause suicidal ideation. These parents, suggest the transgender stars of YouTube, can be replaced by other trans folk -- "your glitter family."
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.398.1_en.html#goog_1073800747 00:51 / 00:59 00:00 Next Video × Next Video J.d. Vance Remarks On A New Direction For Pro-worker, Pro-family Conservatism, Tac Gala, 5-2019 Cancel Autoplay is paused
Trans influencers are generally young and incredibly charismatic, producing how-to videos and running vlogs that rack up hundreds of thousands of views. Shrier notes a consistent series of mantras: If you think you might be trans, you are; binders (compression sleeves to flatten the breasts to "pass" as male) are a great way to try it out; if your parents actually loved you, they'd support you; if you don't get support, you'll probably kill yourself; and lying to doctors is okay if it helps you transition. Trans influencers help girls purchase binders online, explain what to say to doctors and therapists in order to get diagnosed as trans, and lay out how to get testosterone, colloquially referred to as "T." There are over 6,000 videos explaining how to inject "T," and all assure the viewer that it is amazing.
Although trans activists insist that puberty blockers are safe, the evidence Shrier cites suggests otherwise. Puberty blockers have an impact on brain development, reduce the density of bones, and stunt growth. They risk barring the user from reaching peak IQ, inhibit sexual function, thicken the blood, raise risk of heart attack by up to five times, create a higher risk of diabetes, blood clots, and cancer, and can result in vaginal atrophy. They also transform the natural development of the genitals. After taking testosterone for awhile, young girls may see their clitoris grow to the size of a baby carrot. After a few months, girls grow body hair and beards, their voice will lower, and they'll get acne and sometimes male-pattern baldness. The nose will generally round, the jaw will square, and muscles will become pronounced. Sex becomes painful, if not impossible. Some of the changes are permanent: even if girls stop taking testosterone, the body and facial hair will probably stay, as will the enlarged clitoris.
Breast binders can cause back pain, shoulder pain, chest pain, shortness of breath, and fractured ribs. It can also "permanently damage tissue, leaving breasts looking like deflated balloons, flat and wrinkled." And if girls pursue top surgery -- a double mastectomy -- the damage is permanent. Despite the fact that Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy of the Center for Transyouth Health flippantly told an LA audience that "If you want breasts later in life, you can go and get them," this is not quite the case. You can, it is true, get lumps of flesh that resemble them sewed on, but the capacity for breastfeeding, the erogenous zones -- all of that is gone. Up to 36% of biological females identifying as trans men get top surgery, and another 61% want it. Fortunately, relatively few girls are interested in pursing "bottom surgery," or phalloplasty.
Teens can often get puberty blockers before they can drink, smoke, drive, or vote. Permanent infertility and bodily mutilation are often the result.
The transgender craze has been assisted by the public schools, which teach gender ideology as fact. For example, Shrier cites this gem from the California Board of Education's Who Are You? The Kid's Guide to Gender Identity : "Babies can't talk, so grown-ups make a guess by looking at their bodies. This is the sex assigned to you at birth, male or female." In short: "You are who you say you are, because YOU know best." Father -- or Mother -- certainly does not know best, and parents are not told if their children are identifying as trans or pursuing transition as a matter of policy. As fifth grade teacher C. Scott Miller told Shrier bluntly: "Parents come in and say, 'I don't want my kid called that.' That's nice, but their parental rights ended when those children were enrolled in public school." The schools teach children that they can be any gender they choose. Not incidentally, the only option that goes uncelebrated is "cisgender."
The cost of all of this is already in evidence. Shrier interviews respected therapists, scientists, and experts driven from their fields by vengeful trans activists who accuse them of facilitating suicidal ideation in trans children (a trope she carefully debunks with evidence). She speaks with "de-transitioners" who have realized that gender dysphoria did not actually explain their discomfort in their own bodies (common for teen girls, as Shrier points out) or their mental health struggles. This community is often ostracized and slandered by the trans movement, who essentially claim that they do not exist. If you desist, they explain glibly, you were never trans. Thus, no trans people desist. The reality is that many girls are suffering through a heartbreaking scenario that Shrier lays out in chilling terms. One day, Shrier writes, many girls wake up with no breasts and no uterus and wonder: I was just a teen. A kid. Why didn't anyone stop me?
As devastating as her account is, Shrier leaves the reader with hope. There are many things parents can do to protect their daughters, she writes, and she told me that it is essential parents take this "transgender craze" seriously and do this that. She advises parents of trans children to find a support group of other parents dealing with the same issue; to avoid giving children a smartphone, and to push back against the gender ideology infusing their daughters' education. Above all, she writes, parents should not relinquish their parental authority, and should stop supporting these new fads unquestionably. Adults have a responsibility to children, now more than ever. Dramatic steps may be necessary -- she cites parents who needed to physically move to separate their daughters from poisonous peer groups and "affirming" schools. And above all, she writes movingly, we must stop pathologizing girlhood. Girls are different, and puberty is hard. It is not something to be cured. It is, she writes, wonderful to be a girl, and an ideology based on the outdated sex stereotypes that the feminists once sought to do away with should not be the path to drugs, mastectomies, and a longing to escape girlhood.
Shrier is giving us an opportunity to rethink the transgender craze sweeping the Western world. For the sake of our daughters, we should listen to her.
Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has appeared in National Review, The European Conservative, the National Post, and elsewhere. Jonathon is the author of The Culture War and Seeing Is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion as well as the co-author with Blaise Alleyne of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide.
HVac Adriana Pena • 2 days agoThe transgender craze reminds me a lot of the gluten sensitivy craze. For every genuine sufferer there are ten who convince themselves they have it. As for parents pushing it into their kids, look up "Munchaussen syndrome by proxy"
YEs. there are genuine sexual dysphoria cases. But I suspect that the majority have talked themselves into it - and too many were pushed into it by rigid sex roles imposed on them. As for kids, well, common sense indicates 1) Kids need some growing up to do before they achieve their identity. 2) Giving hormones before bones are fully formed is criminal
Adriana Pena HVac • a day agoEvery single one of them has talked themselves into it. Every single one. Downvoted you for making a BS claim that nature magically created "genuine" transsexualists. They are ALL cult members, to a man!
SimpleMachine88 Adriana Pena • 6 hours ago • editedIf you knew anything about science, you'd learn no to use words like "always" or "never" "all" or "none" Because there is always one example that jumps at you and turns your theories to a house of cards. Assume that there will be exceptions to the rule, but that their number is small enough not to make any idfference. If you say "all swans are white" then one black swan will tear you theory to pieces, but if you say "Most swans are white" a black swan fits nicely with the theory.
Techne Digest Adriana Pena • 8 hours agoAnd we can approach this issue with sympathy, as well as a sense of reality.
I think it's pretty understandable that black swans wouldn't want to feel so alone, and white swans would want to feel special. Not an excuse for allowing an Exxon Valdez, and letting children play in it.
HollisC • 2 days ago"too many were pushed into it by rigid sex roles imposed on them."
In my distant youth, a girl who was athletic, enjoyed pal-ing around with boys instead of other girls, etc...was, in our "sexist" past, simply understood to be a normal healthy girl, tomboyish perhaps!
Now after 5 decades of unhinged feminism, a tomboy isn't a type of normal girl: she's considered a sick creature with "gender dysphoria", needing surgical mutilation.
How is that progressive?!
HVac HollisC • 2 days agoI find it a little ironic that the article features a photo of MtF transgender children while discussing the danger of ROGD on young girls and teens. Other than that, this is a good review of a book that takes a very critical view of gender ideology and its dangers. Thanks for the article.
RED_Peril87 HVac • 3 hours agoI agree it is a bit like showing a photo of female genital mutilation on an article about the horrors of male genital mutilation.
off the reservation • 2 days agoActually, I'd personally compare it to the opposite situation - the effects of exogenous testosterone on the developing female body are much more extreme and fast occurring than those of exogenous estrogen are on the male body. The use of "puberty blockers" on either has been massively underplayed, though. Absolutely terrible side effects on both boys and girls...
Jeffrey Samuels off the reservation • a day agoCraze is correct. How people can be so messed up is scary. There's no such thing as transgender. Sex is the role played in reproduction and has nothing to do with the clothes one wears. A boy in a dress is still a boy in a dress.
nomore Jeffrey Samuels • a day agoyou are being very presumptive about there being no such thing as transgender. Though I am sure you are sincere in this belief, you can't possibly know this as fact. It is opinion probably based on your own cisgender confidence and religious belief. The mind is a complex and incredibly varied thing. Transgenderism is probably as real as homosexualtiy which I am pretty sure you also feel is 'fake'.
HVac Jeffrey Samuels • a day agoReally? So there exists an infinite amount of "genders", of which there is ZERO biological evidence, that somehow trumps genetics and fundamental biology as your "true" sexual orientation? This is ludicrous and would be laughable were it not for the mutilation of children.
These people literally have a grievance against reality and will remove your rights over your children if you let them.
Jeffrey Samuels HVac • a day agoBoth transsexualist cult members and homosexualist cult members are each in fake cults, lying to themselves about "being born that way". They are perverts, freaks, deviant and dupes. They should quit the cult and be normal people and marry the opposite sex and have children and stop LARPing as women or engaging in unnatural degenerate sexual fetishes. The whole thing is a complete fraud. You're a victim of lies. The LGBT cult is the enemy of normal society, normal families and normal futures. It needs to be dismantled root and branch. Homosexualism is a ridiculous ideology that has recruited millions into a life of failure.
off the reservation Jeffrey Samuels • a day agorant much? Be sure to wipe up the drool when you are finished.
Jeffrey Samuels off the reservation • a day agoAny guy that in his mind believes that wearing a dress and pretending to be female will magically make his life all better has mental issues, and there's nothing religious about that. The suicide rate in that group is high for that very reason, when they finally come to grips with the fact that it didn't solve their issues and haven't received the proper help they needed in the first place. The mind is a complex thing but it is mostly learned behaviors. Nobody is born that way any more than they are born racist or born with a favorite color. They make a decision based on life events. If 'transgenderism' hadn't been brought into the mainstream I guarantee there wouldn't be so many doing it (or being convinced that is their problem).
LFM Jeffrey Samuels • a day agoI work at a college, and I have seen young men walking across campus wearing dresses (not many). I think it looks stupid, but it is not my decision to make and I don't know what is going on their lives that makes them feel comfortable in those clothes; and that is the point. It is not my decision, and I would no more make a decision for them than to let them make that decision for me.
You mention that the suicide rate is higher among that population. Someone I respect calls this the 'bully' theory (no I am not calling YOU a bully). The argument goes that a bully is asked why he is beating up on the small kid crying on the ground and the bully responds that the kid is crying and he finds it annoying so he beats him up.Perhaps the suicide rate is partly determined by people's reactions to the transgendered individuals feelings and desires, not the feelings and desires themselves.
Just sayin.
off the reservation Jeffrey Samuels • a day agoIf the 'trans' phenomenon were not at least partly created by social encouragement, you would not expect it to respond so dramatically to such encouragement. Male and female homosexuality, after all, existed for thousands of years in certain kinds of societies without much social encouragement.
So too, did the 'trans' phenomenon, of course, but in far smaller numbers. Women have periodically worn men's clothes for centuries in the Western world, but that's because men's clothes were much less restrictive than their own and it was not safe to travel or move around in public as a woman for much of our history. (In other parts of the world, the dividing line between male and female clothing was often much less distinct, e.g. Chinese peasants.) Men's wearing of women's clothes was much rarer and always considered a signal of something strange about them unless done purely in a spirit of mockery, but men's desire to try to *be* or pretend to be women was stronger and more persistent.
Thus while the 'trans' phenomenon may not be entirely the creation of a social moment, it certainly seems to be so in part. Another thing to consider is that the expression of homosexuality, while perceived in most parts of the world throughout history as undesirable, did not involve inflicting injur on one's own body. Nor did it require that whole human populations should adjust the meaning of the words 'man' and 'woman' to include people with the genitals of one sex but who supposedly have the mind of the other sex. This makes nonsense of the words and is leading to many dangerous attempts at restructuring the social conventions around sports participation, locker and washroom use, and the use of 'safe spaces' intended for abused women.
Tomonthebeach • 2 days agoPretending to be something/someone you're not is called acting.... or acting out.
bradleyscreek Tomonthebeach • 2 days agoPerhaps it has not occurred to the anti-trans pearl-clutchers that the increase in transgender identification is not because of "social contagion," but because there is less social pressure to stay in the closet.
I was in my 50s before I finally got woke regarding gender dysphoria. I understood it as a mental health disorder (I'm a psychologist), but it took genomics research before I understood that there is very often a biological basis for dysphoria and seeking surgical re-assignment. There are ample documented cases of partial hermaphroditism (under-developed genitals, covert uterus, overly-large clitoris). Research more recently is showing that brains can be influenced by abnormal hormone presence leading to gender identity dysphoria. That Tomboy might actually be a boy mentally, and hormonally, but tests need to be done.
A complicating factor is that adolescence hits kids as young as 10 with what parents used to call raging hormones. Every individual has to adjust to adult hormonal imbalance in their teens and this can lead to sexual orientation confusion as well as gender identity dysphotia. However, delaying reassignment surgery until age 21 might result in a return to brain-body identity changes from trans back to CIS. That is one reason why researchers recommend waiting on surgical reassignment until adulthood.
It surely is not helpful to anybody but perhaps parents who cannot cope with a child suffering from gender dysphoria to start attributing the problem to a childhood fad. Even kids know how the world treats "queers." It is not cool to be gay or trans in real life as being out in school always results in bullying, social exclusion, discrimination in sports. etc. I cringe when I hear parents say things like it is a fad or cool. They have zero basis for such attributions - they are not kids today in grammar and high school today, and have no experience with sexual orientation or identity confusion as a teen. Worst of all, such remarks heard by one's offspring risks life-long alienation and resentment.
HVac bradleyscreek • 2 days agoWhat part of "70 times more than chance" don't you understand? Shrier addresses this point early on in her book. Of course you expect an increase in a behavior if it had been formerly suppressed. But the amount of increase is 70 times more than chance and with all variables controlled seems related to online interaction with a peer group.
Before you throw around a lot of judgment at parents you might want to review Littmann's research in addition to the book, or spend some time online at 4thWaveNow where very informed, compassionate, pro LGB parents discuss this. Considering that Littmann got rape and death threats and had a consultancy taken from her for publishing her very rigorous study, perhaps you could extend your knee-jerk compassion to the real heroes here instead of assume they haven't approached this difficult issue with commendable courage and integrity.
HVac Tomonthebeach • 2 days ago • edited" where very informed, compassionate, pro LGB parents discuss this."
There are few things more hilarious than parents who already cucked to the L, already cucked to the G, already cucked to the B, quibbling merely with the T.
Imagine swallowing the LGB propaganda but having a problem with the T "because it goes too far". LOL.
Tomonthebeach HVac • 2 days agoYou're precisely nothing but a brainwashed cult member who swallowed a bunch of lies about a fake identity cooked up by a psychotic group of leftist sexual revolutionary activists and once you cross that rubicon you're no longer equal to me and you're just a threat to my children by the bad example you set. I'd like to see you forcibly exiled from society so that this cancer would stop going in society. Eastern Europe has the right idea in treating the LGBT cult members as the radioactive social contagion that you are. You're nothing but a human Chernobyl that needs a lid put on it.
HVac Tomonthebeach • 2 days ago • editedIn real life I am a retired NIH research program official and science officer. Everything I said is science-based. Everything you said is at best religion-based and is more compatible with the Muslim religion but I betcha you think your a Christian. Of course a real Christian would not curse people for showing compassion and a real Muslim would just chop off my head. What you gonna say to St. Peter when he asks you about this hateful screed?
RED_Peril87 HVac • 3 hours agoBlind worship of credentialism and careerism will not save you my friend. Even Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby were good at their day jobs. There is absolutely nothing resembling an objective scientific fact about "a few million duped men LARPing as women". I'm agnostic, as in, I'm not arrogant enough to claim I know if there is a being that created the universe, I just don't know. But I do know there is no such thing as a sex change and no such thing as being born in the wrong body and no such thing as transsexualists being legitimate.
GabbaGabba Tomonthebeach • 2 days agoWell, it is legitimately a fetish for enough middle-aged straight men... Google "forced sissification" to see for yourself.
AlexanderHistory X Tomonthebeach • 2 days agoYou survived in a workplace where it is nigh impossible to get fired. And you would likely get thrown off a building and then your corpse stoned; that is how they kill women in Muslim countries.You bring in the concept of Judgement Day; what are you gonna tell St. Pete about the desecration of your body and the willful rotting of your tortured soul? Don't call out Christians because you suffer the ultimate identity crisis and your brand of it is just a bridge too far for functioning human beings. It's not normal and you know it. And you are filled to the brim with self-loathing and conflict. Enjoy your scientifically validated existence. Leave the rest of us alone.
bradleyscreek Tomonthebeach • 2 days ago"Science based."
Bahahaha
pat Tomonthebeach • a day agoThe transactivist movement is based on junk science and trying to silence serious scientists through rape and death threats (including of their children). Look at Blanchard and Bailey who rigorously presented the argument that male transgenders are heterosexuals with paraphilias (autogynephilia) and the way Lisa Littmann was forced out of a consultancy and her employer Brown was harassed for simply publishing a robust study on rapid onset gender dysphoria.
If you're truly scientific and open-minded, go to Transgender Trend for scientists who unpack the serious methodological flaws in the few studies that are routinely quoted and explain how transactivists silence the research (pre and post study) that questions their faith-based ideology.
Sancho Tomonthebeach • a day agosir i consider myself center right paleocon and i always try to remain rational. i personally would discourage transgenderism but, what you say is very evidence based and honestly right
MrsDK Tomonthebeach • 2 days agoIf you are a retired NIH research program official and science officer, that doesn't speak well of the state of science in this country. Transgender ideology is simply incompatible with basic biology and reproduction. It is the equivalent of "creation science" or pseudo-scientific ideas that were once popular such as Phrenology, Eugenics or Lysenkoism. Of course, there were scientists who were proponents of Phrenology, Eugenics and Lysenkoism, so I suppose that we shouldn't be surprised that there are scientists today who have embraced this transgender nonsense. Scientists, even those with respected credentials, are not immune from idiotic, anti-scientific ideas.
Ainsley Tomonthebeach • 2 days agoThen why didn't my kid get a brain scan before being put on non-FDA-approved hormones by the university -- at an age when buying an alcoholic drink would still be illegal? My kid was part of a cluster of suddenly trans kids at the local high school, where being trans is celebrated.
I have not been able to get a single scientific answer from any therapist, doctor, or endocrinologist that I ever talked to -- and I'm part of a national coalition of hundreds of parents who have experienced the same thing. You're no different. Please tell me why healthy body self-acceptance is the healing strategy for anorexia and bulimia -- but if a kid at any age says they're trans, the strategy is immediate social/legal/medical transition -- based on no objective tests whatsoever.
HistoryProf Ainsley • a day agoI'm going to try not to get angry... but I completely disagree... and just by looking at the rest of the comments people will give me shit but I dont care...
This article is basically saying that you should get rid of all your child's friends and make sure they are called their old name and not allowed to transition at all... just because they "might grow out of it". In reality very few people de transition... most people are happy with their decision.. by not allowing your child to transition all you are doing is worsening their dysphoria, which from my experience as a trans person is honestly very painful... honestly you are probably leading your kids to suicide... an alarming number of trans kids think about or attempt suicide... I think I would definitely have a child who changes their body, or even "damages" it as you might say, then a dead child. Yes being a girl is lovely, if you are a girl. If you're a boy then it sucks. If you do this to your trans child I honestly think that you are doing a lot of unnecessary harm to them
DukeofAnarchy . HistoryProf • a day agoTrans suicide rates are high because about half of trans individuals have clinically diagnosible personality disorders, and people with personality disorders attempt suicide at high rates.
RED_Peril87 HistoryProf • 3 hours ago • edited100% of them have at least one serious clinically diagnosible personality disorder.
diverick Tomonthebeach • 2 days ago • editedI think that "buyers remorse" WRT serious and irreversible body modification plays a role in the suicide rate, too. It is actually higher in the cohort who have had "gender affirming" treatment and the studies which indicate this were conducted on adults. Allowing children and adolescents to make lifelong, sterilising alterations to their body in a time of great distress is simply unconscionable especially when the data shows that between 70-90% will desist before the age of 18 if left alone. This is what psychologists and doctors refer to as "watchful waiting".
Watchful waiting does not a lifelong medical patient make, however.
CPT diverick • a day agoSerious questions:
What percentage of transgender people suffer from partial hermaphroditism (under-developed genitals, covert uterus, overly-large clitoris) vs. what percentage have no physical deformity of their genitalia? (You claim that you have researched this, so I'm assuming that you can answer.)
Also, in the case of a female that has no physical deformities of her genitalia but perhaps has a hormonal imbalance that is causing Gender Identity Dysphoria, why would the preferred treatment involve hormone treatments that reinforce and exacerbate that hormonal imbalance, especially when that course of treatment will have to be maintained continuously for the rest of their lives, will have negative physical side effects (increased risk of heart attack, diabetes, blood clots, and cancer, etc.) and will require drastic surgeries to simulate the opposite biological sex in order to complete their "transition"? If Gender Identity Dysphoria is caused by hormonal imbalances, why would you not use hormone treatments that would bring her hormones into balance with what would be normal for her physical body?
Finally, as a psychologist, if a person came to you who was suffering from Body Integrity Dysphoria and told you that they really feel, deep in their heart/psyche, that they are a quad amputee, would you recommend that they actually get their limbs amputated in order to bring their physical body into alignment with their mental image of themselves? (This is not a rhetorical question. Since you claim to be a psychologist, I really want you to answer this.)
HVac • 2 days agoYou asked all the right questions.
HVac HVac • 2 days ago"Shrier notes a consistent series of mantras: If you think you might be trans, you are", where have I heard that before? Oh, with the "if you think might be gay, you are".
The ONLY difference between someone horrified by the homosexual lifestyle craze 50 years ago and the transsexual craze now, is 50 years of propaganda.
Give it 50 years, and even TAC writers will believe the "born that way" trans propaganda lines are axiomatic truths. After all, they all believe the gay propaganda of the last few decades!
martinblasperezpinilla HVac • 2 days agoThese books, these articles, don't matter. Face the facts, you live in a world where in 50 years flat the Western world went from being horrified by the sexual perversion and degeneracy of the homosexual lifestyle, and wanting to protect their kids from its propaganda, to a society where suburban moms cheer on homosexualists like Anderson Cooper adopting some innocent baby and denying the baby his mother on purpose.
HVac martinblasperezpinilla • a day ago"... denying the baby his mother..."
Was the baby (literally, not rhetorically) kidnapped? Blame it on his mother and your libertarian fellow travelers.
martinblasperezpinilla HVac • a day agoHomosexuals that set out to extract a child from their mother's arms are not my fault. I support the death penalty for sodomy.
HVac HVac • 2 days agoRead again my words. Are you the (rent belly) mother or a (non-paleo) libertarian?
HVac HVac • 2 days agoALL it takes is a few decades of propaganda and your grandchildren when
they are adults, will be socially conditioned to believe every last shred of the transsexualist cult's lies, "born that way", "your true self", "born in the wrong body", "transwomen are women", "you're an evil bigot Hitler if you disagree", "bake the cake bigot"...
HVac HVac • 2 days agoFACE IT!, JK Rowling is NOT going to save you, a couple of books and commentators and ex-trans testimonies are NOT going to stop the 'T' train, which is an out of control psychotic propaganda locomotive speeding down the tracks to civilizational destruction, JUST as nobody was ever able to stop the 'G' train, or the 'L' train, or the 'B' train.
HVac HVac • 2 days agoThe entire LGBT cult and all its psychotic
permutations, is going to be forcibly rammed down your kids and
grandkids' and their kids' throat, and there is NOTHING you can do about
it, because you live in the post-apocalyptic dead husk of the Western
world where obvious falsehoods become "reality" with enough propaganda.
AlexanderHistory X HVac • 2 days agoIt is merely the decades-long process that brainwashed society to "accept" millions of young men being brainwashed by the LGBT cult and its propaganda to believe they were "born gay" and "gay is who you are", repeating itself, this time with "trans". The LGBT sexual "identity" cult is an insane cult with massive power over this doomed and dying society and it will stop at nothing to produce a populace that spews lies and falsehoods such as the discredited "born that way" theories of its sick and twisted "identities" and made up "sexual minorities".
HVac AlexanderHistory X • 2 days agoIn 50 years the western world will be dead and gone, replaced with a new dark age, totalitarian foreign control, or something of the sort.
It's gonna be a blast! Being post op transgender in a collapsed world is gonna be real fun too, I'm sure.
JTravianDTerius • 2 days agoDilate!
HVac JTravianDTerius • 2 days ago • editedI just see Nikita Khruschev banging his shoe on the podium, "we will bury you from within..."
He was right.
He won.
DukeofAnarchy . JTravianDTerius • a day ago • editedIndeed. None of us will ever live, not even a newborn child will ever live, to see anything as naive, the gold medal for naivete and gullibility in the last thousand years, nobody will ever see anything as naive as the post-cold war order where Clinton and Bush 1 and think tanks and political scientists thought OK that's it cold war over. The nuke had been planted decades ago, inside the West and even if Gorbachev or any of the other 1980s leaders of the USSR wanted to stop it there is no way they could have. The radiation leaks from that social demoaralization nuke continue to poison us.
JTravianDTerius DukeofAnarchy . • 16 hours agoNothing to do with that stupid peasant Khruschev. He was neither clever enough nor wicked enough.
Gary Sellars JTravianDTerius • 15 hours agoOh, okay. That settles it. Some peckerwood says it's so, so it's so. Okay den.
GabbaGabba • 2 days agoHow do you figure that tranny tyranny is due to Khrushchev or the Soviets???? That's a serious delusion you're playing with there...
1stbabyboomer • 2 days agoThey can play dress-up and the appropriate pronoun game all they want. This is a mental condition. Allowing children to participate in this at this level is criminal. Evil. This herd culls itself on an alarming scale despite the physical efforts to accommodate the head full of snakes. It's not hip. It's not 'in'. It's sick, and Mr and Mrs America are tired of pretending otherwise. Keep your clown show private.
Oscar 1stbabyboomer • 2 days agoAs a libertarian, I used think how one chooses to live ones private life was their right. Unfortunately it is never enough. They don't keep it to themselves and want to shove it up my nose. There was a darn good reason for staying in the closet. The very life of our culture is being drained away. The beauty of what it means to be human is next. The crazies can never know happiness and they will take our entire world down with them. Insanity does that, ya know.
LFM Oscar • a day agoI sympathize with those who genuinely suffer
from gender dysphoria. But for sickos like
Bruce Jenner who turn their problem into reality
shows, who instead of suffering in silence, use
their mental illness as the fast track to fortune
and fame, I got nothing. Those who insisted
they could stay above the fray are now being
made to care. Good catch!
motoran 1stbabyboomer • 2 days agoAt least Jenner won his medals fair and square as a man before he 'transitioned'. I'm furious at the idea that men will get to play at being trans for a few years, compete for (and win) prizes and scholarships meant for female athletes, and a few years later, shrug it off saying 'You know, I used to be gender-confused but now I'm not...' Where there's real money at stake, there are always people willing to do what they have to in order to obtain access to it, especially if there's no amputation involved.
HistoryProf motoran • 2 days agoI know. Horrifying how "they" are trying to force you to become transgender. How dare they to claim their freedoms. Especially if having to see "them" is such a tremendous infringement of your freedoms. I completely agree, your libertarianism gives you the freedom to force other people to live how you think they should.
motoran HistoryProf • a day agoSorry, but their freedom definitely should not mean that the "dude-dressed-like-a-lady" has some sort of human right to get naked next to my 9 year old niece in the local pool changing room.
HistoryProf motoran • a day agoI know. There are hordes of transgender women congregating in changing rooms just waiting to get naked next to 9-year olds. Happens all the times. They actually have a secret Facebook page where they talk plan this.
RED_Peril87 1stbabyboomer • 3 hours agoOne of the central platforms of the trans lobby is that anyone should be able to use whichever changing room, shower room, bathroom, etc that they want based solely on self declaration. If you don't think there are tons of men just drooling at such an opportunity, you aren't living in the real world--the world where there are tens of thousands of porn sites catering to fetishes like exhibitionism and/or voyeurism.
Chris Pile • 2 days ago • editedLook, I don't really care what other adults do as long as they don't impinge on the rights of others either. Involve children or attempt to impose your delusions via legislation, though, and you are impinging on the rights of others, particularly the most vulnerable. Women and innocent children bear the brunt of this nasty ideology.
HVac Chris Pile • 2 days agoI have a niece who declared that she was a gay man about 2 years ago. Messed up the family big time. So far, all she's done is take testosterone which lowered her voice dramatically, and changed her name to something sounds male (but is actually a brand name). She is incredibly unhappy, and sometimes wonders if she did the right thing. In the meantime, the rest of us suffer.
Oscar • 2 days ago"and changed her name to something sounds male (but is actually a brand name)."
What does she call herself? Mr. Clean Magic Eraser?
vb • 2 days agoThis se xual chaos has destroyed an entire generation.
It is absolutely insane to make mental illness popular
and to promote it in our schools. POOR PARENTS!In the UK, after studying at home for several months,
thosands of "transgendered" youth have realized they
were not the other se x after all. When removed from
the horrific peer pressure to become freaks, when
the leftist indoctrination from their teachers stopped,
they became normal again. This is a TRAGEDY!Mutilating kids' bodies and shooting them full of
artificial hormones is abuse of the medical profession.
Those suffering from gender dysphoria need therapy
to adjust their delusions to reality, NOT be carved up
to adjust their bodies to their delusions. Lock up all
thoe involved in this child abuse.
Chester Courtland vb • 2 days ago • editedKids today are not rooted in the real world and taught real skills they can feel proud of. Whether it is a girl learning to cook for the family when her mom is away or a boy learning to change a tire or till a garden, These accomplishments help distract kids from the hormonal changes they are going through. Today's kids spend too much time gaming and on social media. They shouldn't be spending their time in fantasy worlds where the stripe on a NIKE is more important than putting a meal on the table pr changing a diaper.
Mark • 2 days agoThe teachers don't deserve the entire blame. Where are these kids parents? Teachers can't help themselves because they've were indoctrinated long ago but what about the parents? Where do they stand in this abomination?
Dan Lo Pan Mark • a day agoAm I the only one who could make zero sense of that photo caption?
Kevin Cosner • 2 days agoNope. Also, why was it used when the book and article focus on transmen?
Callinectes sapidus • 2 days agoThey are coming for our kids....just like people said they would. Surprise, surprise.
HVac Callinectes sapidus • 2 days agoThis may be the most depressing thing I have ever read! For a long time my instincts have led me to suspect peer and parental influence was. behind the trans trend that seemed to be sweeping America and Europe. It may be an omen of the beginning of human failure. It is perverse and abusive.
While its reality is shocking, the fact that the medical community and societal leaders have been silent on the subject; and organized leaders of athletic conferences have persisted in allowing transwomen to compete in athletics against cis-Women are the indicators that this phenomenon has legs!
Callinectes sapidus HVac • 2 days agoDownvoted for using the false word "transwomen".
HVac Callinectes sapidus • 2 days agoSo, HVac, are you that arrogant!? I admit my ignorance on the subject. Why don't you let me in on the secret. Is it trans women?
T Clark HVac • a day agoThe correct term is "delusional brainwashed perverts who are members of the transsexualist cult"
Seaside • 2 days agoDownvoted because you're getting spittle all over my screen.
Chester Courtland • 2 days agoThe WAR against America's children. The Bible would be a good source for those who do not understand that GOD created man and woman...male and female...anything outside of the biological male and female is ALL PRETEND...NOT REAL. Gender Dysphoria is a mental illness which is being exploited by evil people who are unfortunately connected to children's schools. Indoctrination and brainwashing is being conducted in public schools. Parents should be outraged.
In WA State, evil, radical, far-left governor Inslee passed an inappropriate, salacious s****e******$x bill to se*****$xualize students in WA State's public schools. This heinous bill was written by WA State's evil Superintendent of Public Instruction.
"Chris Reykdal: Obsessed with se******$X, bored with his job," By Todd Herman
The USA continues its WAR against children by closing schools using the phony, politicized excuse of cv19. Parents need to VOICE their objection to the emotional and physical abuse against their children by evil politicians, teachers.
bradleyscreek Chester Courtland • 2 days agoThe feminists are all closed mouthed about this tragedy. Because they don't want to upset their place in the resistance they remain mute on the effects it has against real women and girls. Feminists have always been a disgrace and this is evidence that they will continue being a disgrace to all women.
HVac bradleyscreek • 2 days agoYour comments are wrong. There is a large movement of gender critical feminists who have been raising lots of concerns about this. The Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) has been partnering with Conservative Women for American to battle proposed legislation that would remove protections for women and girls in prisons, sports, changing rooms, and other sex-segregated spaces.
The gender critical feminist movement has been acquiring so many new members that Reddit actually banned the Gender Critical Subreddit about month ago. It had 65,000 members from around the world. It has reformed at Said.it and will have its independent site soon. Meghan Murphy who runs Feminist Current has led the charge in Canada against transactivist abuses and has been banned from Twitter for stating that trans women are men.
Chester Courtland bradleyscreek • a day agoWho cares what a pack of baby genociders have to say about post-born children (survivors of the abortion holocaust) getting caught up in the trans cult. BY DEFINITION, feminazis hate children, they are the biggest slaughterers of children in human history, having murdered tens of millions of them in the US in the last 50 years alone. Hundreds of millions globally. FCK feminists.
HVac Chester Courtland • 2 days ago65,000 members? That breaks down to 1300 a state. Woefully inadequate for making any kind of impactful difference.
LMJ313 • 2 days ago • editedSome feminists manage to make some noise about how much they hate the men who LARP as women, but who cares what the baby genociders known as "feminists" think about anything? I don't. They all need to be sent to an island.
HVac LMJ313 • 2 days agoWhat I would love to know is WT actual F is going on with the parents. No self-respecting person who gave their kids safety the slightest thought would ever condone or allow their child to participate in this nonsense. It begs the question:
If children cannot consent to sex (a temporary act) because they are not informed or mature enough to make a conscience choice, then why are children being given the complete ability to make uninformed, immature and FOREVER LIFE-ALTERING choices they are inherently incapable of making wisely?
LMJ313 HVac • 2 days agoThe parents are leftists.
HVac LMJ313 • 2 days agoOh I get that...but still, they are kids....their kids, supposedly. Push comes to shove every leftist I've ever met that ever espoused educational, social or fiscal standards for everyone else balked into a full-on backtrack of those standards the moment they feared them being applied to their kids and resulting in harm.
CPT LMJ313 • a day agoLeftists have murdered tens of millions of their kids since Roe v Wade.
LMJ313 CPT • a day agoThe kids tell their parents that they are at risk of committing suicide if their trans identity is condoned. Seriously, trans activists and influencers talk CONSTANTLY about suicide. So it becomes easy for the parents to think "if I don't accept this, I might lose my child" and to play along with it.
Meg LMJ313 • a day agoSo true. Both my teenage daughters must have stated that they wanted to die, their lives were over, they hated XYZ, etc. hundreds of times and never meant any of it because they were immature kids. Parents who allow this nonsense to be inflicted on their children are culpable in the degeneracy they later spread and suffer from. That mother of Desmond Is Amazing? She's going to hell, straight up no doubt.
LMJ313 Meg • 18 hours agoBy the time kids are teens, 95% of these moms are trying to parent with whatever little energy they still have left when they get home from work at six o'clock. They're in way too deep with mortgages in nice suburbs, etc., to contemplate a lifestyle change in favor of intensive parenting. Which is the only thing that can save most of these kids - just being present enough to get between them and the culture, all day every day (including switch to home- or cyber-schooling). It wouldn't take long at all for these problems to evaporate if the kid's daily context could just shift away from the source of social contagion. But the parents won't do it. They're only willing to do as much as can be done without serious lifestyle change. It's not even just materialism - lifestyle change to support intensive parenting just seems too crazy, like going too far. They're hamstrung by an artificial, unexamined limitation on how hard you're allowed to fight. What the point of the nice dual-income lifestyle is even supposed to be once your kid starts violently mutilating herself, I don't know, but they can't see past it.
scriberareal LMJ313 • 10 hours agoThis is definitely one of the more interesting takes on the matter. Very well stated.
BillDaytona • 2 days agoSome of these parents literally have no choice but to go along with it. In some places, the government/CPS will take their children away if the parents refuse to allow drugs or surgeries.
HVac BillDaytona • 2 days agoI still say it's something in the environment. There's at least a partial physical cause here.
Bruce Jenner in all likelihood permanently unbalanced his hormones through steroid use in the 70s, back before the impact was fully understood.
Adriana Pena BillDaytona • a day agoBruce Jenner has already confessed to sniffing and trying on his mother's underwear when he was a boy. His erotic fetish of seeing himself as a woman dressed in women's underwear and clothes started LONG before his Olympian years. A stone cold pervert who needs to be sent to an island with all the other perverts there is nothing else to the entire LGBT cult, except a generations-long story of them recruiting kids into their perversion and messing up their own adult lives and the adult lives of the kids and youths they shill these false beliefs and fetishes to. I include ALL homosexualists in this assessment.
Tradcon • 2 days agoBruce Jenner inflicted the Kardashians upon us. That tells all you need to know about his judgement
Mccormick47 • a day agoInteresting. I know there has been a lot of controversy with "de-transitioners" among others who a few years after making the decision still feel unsatisfied or no longer like the change they made. It makes one wonder if we're too quick to appease (probably not the word I'm looking for but can't think of a better one) the whims and wishes of those who want to built the egalitarian and receptive society. Or at least, in doing so, blind themselves to any other solution rather than allowing those with an obvious problem to do as they wish to themselves. It very obviously isn't healthy and the stark increase in this trend would lead one to believe that its something more than just social pressure being removed from the those with gender dysphoria, the stat about those who are informed about it through social media goes to further increase these suspicions. At the very least there should be some age restrictions for these things if not an entire change in the way we deal with this issue. Unlikely now that I think about it.
HVac Mccormick47 • a day agoThere's no evidence that ROGD exists. It's an invented panic, like the Satanic Ritual abuse craze of the 1980's. It's more plausible than Qanon, but a book from a religious publisher doesn't make it real.
281commenter Mccormick47 • a day ago • editedLOL a "religious publisher". As if leftism and transsexualism aren't also religions. You're hilarious chump.
HVac 281commenter • a day agoI'm not sure what you mean when you claim there is no evidence ROGD exists. If there was a rapid rise in visits to gender dysphoria clinics by pubertal and near-pubertal girls who had not previously shown any signs of gender dysphoria (in contrast to the prior notion that children with gender dysphoria usually make their discomfort known long before puberty), then that is evidence that ROGD exists. Such a rise has been observed. Therefore ROGD exists. It doesn't really matter whether the publisher that publishes the observation is religious or not.
T Clark • a day agoNothing exists except brainwashed little kids. These are not "clinics" but the equivalent of Scientology centers. These are the places where the cult engages in its rituals. The LGBT cult needs to be excised like the cancer it is.
HVac T Clark • a day agoI know a girl. When she was 16 she decided she was really a boy. She was influenced in this by her favorite manga comics characters, who were all boys. She had had a very difficult life. Adopted from Asia. Raised by a white single mother who is unable or unwilling to provide a structured life. Deeply depressed and anti-social. Her mother was also unwilling to send her for therapy other than aromatherapy.
I'm willing to believe that there are boys and girls who will be better off if they can change their identities to those of the opposite sex. They should have to be mature and mentally stable enough to make that decision. No 13 year old meets that standard.
T Clark HVac • a day agoLOL you're willing to believe there are boys and girls will be better off becoming transsexuals. LOL.
HVac T Clark • a day agoI am not a good judge of what is best for another mature, mentally sound person. I don't know what's best for you. You are even less of an appropriate judge, given your bitter hatred for others who are different from you. I don't remember ever reading a compasionate word from you.
We need to protect children from decisions which could permanently damage their lives until they are old enough and sound enough to decide for themselves. It's clear you have no real concern for children.
CPT T Clark • a day ago • editedIf you don't know that kids growing up to believe they are transsexuals is something to be avoided at all costs then you were raised wrong.
T Clark CPT • a day ago • editedWanting to cut off parts of your body and pump yourselves full of artificial hormones to look more like the opposite sex is itself a sign that you are not mentally sound. A sane society would recognize that.
Wally • a day ago • editedThat's a perfect example of Catch 22. And that's not the way it's supposed to work. People are supposed to be able to run their own lives. You know, the whole pursuit of happiness thing. Remember - that unalienable right thing? Or is that only for pursuits you approve of?
sarsfield • a day ago • editedAssuming all this is true... that it's a "craze" and these kids are being "influenced"...
What a hoot! 😂 I mean, can you imagine? Foolish and incompetent parents send their crazy kids off the deep end. Good for them. I think it's a perfect illustration of how media has wrecked civilization. Vloggers! 😂 Almost as bad a Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and TAC.
Comicus • a day agowhat a nightmare - I have 2 sons and fortunately no gender confusion there - when they were teens my big worries were pregnant girlfriends, drugs, booze, speeding, athletic injuries, fights....if I were the father of a daughter who was being influenced by one of these adult wackos, I would be....hard pressed.....ugh.
Les Brunswick • a day ago
Dmitry Ts • 15 hours agoThis is horrific, but my guess this fad is going to end in a few years. You know, with child sex abuse, when it first came to public attention, there wild wild claims, like if a person said they were not abused as a child, it proved they were. Many children were interviewed by people who manipulated them into believing they had been abused. You had the infamous McMartin nursery school case. Many people had their lives ruined by false accusations.
But then as time when by responsible people in various positions figured out more rational ways of handling the child sex abuse problem. Part of this was the research on false memories.
I think something like that is going to happen here. In particular, I expect there will be some lawsuits, like against doctors and school district counselors who are facilitating trans madness. The accused parties will lose badly and pay out millions of dollars.
As a consequence boards of educations will get scared the same thing will happen to them, and likewise medical clinics. And also insurance companies, like for education districts or medical malpractice, will clamp down, and things will get straightened out.
donthomson1 • 4 hours agoLooks like the DQSH employees receive very good bonuses.
There's no such thing as a trans man or woman. There's no known way to do it. A castrated man is a eunuch and there's been thousands of years of experience of that. There were still castrati sopranos being created to sing opera in Italy in the 19th century. Genital mutilation isn't a modern invention.
Wishing doesn't make it so. Magic doesn't happen. More people wishing it was possible changes nothing except for people who want to follow the latest fashion. Parents shouldn't give up their parental duty to "woke" dreamers about genital mutilation "improving" their children. If you know there are vicious teachers in your child's school, don't expose them to danger in the first place. [email protected]
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Jul 09, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
Some of the public figures who signed an open letter decrying the rise of cancel culture retracted their support, presumably fearing they too might become a victim of it.
As we highlighted yesterday , 150 intellectuals, authors and activists including Noam Chomsky, Salman Rushdie and JK Rowling signed the letter, which was published by Harpers Magazine.
The letter criticized how "the free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted" as a result of "an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty."
"Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes," states the letter.
Following its publication and pushback from leftists, some of the signatories caved and publicly withdrew their support.
... ... ...
Vox journalist Matt Yglesias was also reported to his own employers by a transgender colleague because she claimed his support for free speech and his association with JK Rowling was an 'anti-trans dog whistle'. (tweet since deleted)
Is it any wonder that free speech is in such dire straits when this is the reaction to a letter that simply expresses support for it?
* * *
My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me. Please sign up for the free newsletter here . Donate to me on SubscribeStar here . Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.
Demeter55 , 41 minutes agoOhiolad , 1 hour agoSuch cowardice! They put Joseph McCarthy's victims in heroic contrast to their stupid selves.
We have never seen the degree of cowardice that we are now seeing from the so-called "intellectual" class. How can these people be so spineless?
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Jun 27, 2020 | www.rt.com
The outrage police have managed to get comedy writer Graham Linehan 'permanently' suspended from Twitter for alleged hateful conduct. He is a vocal critic of a no-holds-barred approach to transgender issues. Linehan, famous for his work on sitcoms 'Father Ted' and 'The IT Crowd,' was kicked out by Twitter on Saturday. The service said his account was "permanently suspended after repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation."The ban happened shortly after Linehan responded to a post by the Women's Institute wishing a happy Pride to all its transgender members. Linehan reportedly said to it: "Men aren't women tho," according to the UK newspaper Metro.
Following the expulsion, a post appeared on the parenting website Mumsnet under Linehan's handle, which appears to explain his understanding of the situation. He said it came after a protracted pressure campaign by radical supporters of trans rights. His opponents apparently took on the task of digging up tweets from the past that did not violate any rules at the time of posting, but have since been deemed unacceptable by the service.
"Recently, I keep being locked out of my account and forced to delete tweets to get back in," the post reads. "The latest tactic by trans rights activists is to run a search for any time I've used the word 'groomer,' a phrase Twitter recently decided was Not Allowed."
Also on rt.com JK Rowling refuses to bow down & apologize to 'woke mafia' on transgender positionThe post says the same tactic was successfully used against other people, who, like himself, oppose what Linehan calls "gender ideology."
"The one good thing about my situation is that I'm in great company – Claire Graham, Meghan Murphy, Skylar Gwynn, Miranda Yardley, GNC Centric and many more, important feminist and critical voices who have been silenced for fighting a dangerous ideology that tells children it's possible to be born into the wrong body," the post said.
Linehan has a history of online spats over transgender issues. In October 2018 the Irishman was even issued a warning by the West Yorkshire police not to contact activist and trans woman Stephanie Hayden, with whom he'd had a bitter conflict.
She accused the writer, among other people, of harassing her by using her original male name. The practice is called "deadnaming" by transgender activists and has been considered a form of hateful speech by Twitter since November 2018.
UK woman says she was held by police for 7 hours after 'misgendering' trans activist on Twitter
Meghan Murphy, one of the people mentioned by Linehan, was among the first people to be suspended by Twitter after the new policy was introduced. The following year, the Canadian feminist writer filed a lawsuit against the tech giant seeking to be reinstated; it was dismissed.
Contrary to what his accusers claim, Linehan denies being transphobic and says he considers gender dysphoria a serious medical condition that needs proper treatment and support. But he believes radical activists are pushing to make gender transition available at a whim and to attack anyone objecting to this goal. He also branded the wider acceptance of giving hormone drugs to children, which he compared to Nazi human experiments.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
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Jun 21, 2020 | www.rt.com
The burgeoning 'cancel culture' has forced Amazon to ax an ad campaign for a book by a Wall Street Journal author which is critical of liberal views on transgender identity, its publishing company has said.
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Jan 14, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
by Tyler Durden Tue, 01/14/2020 - 17:45 0 SHARES
Authored by Tyler O'Neil via PJMedia.com,
Far-left activists don't just want Americans to approve of transgender ideology and to call people by preferred pronouns unmoored from biological sex - they also want to force taxpayers to foot the bill for dangerous experimental surgeries that leave people infertile and scarred for life.
On December 23 , Illinois joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia to explicitly require Medicaid to pay for transgender surgeries. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the state's primary Medicaid agency, published new administrative rules mandating the coverage of certain "gender-affirming" services. Illinois formerly excluded "transsexual surgery" from the taxpayer-funded program.
"Health care is a right, not a privilege, and I'm committed to ensuring our LGBTQ community and all Illinoisans have access to that right," Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) said in a statement in April.
" Expanding Medicaid to cover gender affirming surgeries is cost effective, helps avoid long-term health consequences, and most importantly is the right thing to do. With continued attacks coming from Washington, this administration will always stand with our transgender community and their right to lead safe and healthy lives."
Almost everything in this statement was dead wrong. Health care should not be considered a "right," because it involves the hard work of doctors and nurses, who deserved to be compensated for their work. Perhaps most importantly, however, the idea that "gender-affirming" surgeries help "avoid long-term health consquences" is false, as is the idea that covering these surgeries is necessarily "the right thing to do."
Transgender activists have pushed this narrative based on the idea that the only way to curb the high rate of suicide among people who identify themselves as transgender is to force society to accept transgender identity. Te thinking goes like this: When transgender people have surgery to "affirm" their identity as the opposite sex, they will be less likely to commit suicide. Therefore, transgender surgery is essential to their health, and the government paying for it actually saves money in the long run.
The evidence actually suggests the opposite. While there are few long-term studies on transgender health available, the most thorough follow-up study involving transgender people -- extending over 30 years and conducted in Sweden, where there is a strong pro-transgender culture -- found that transgender surgery does not paper over mental unrest. Ten to fifteen years after surgical reassignment, the suicide rate of those who had undergone the surgery rose to 20 times that of their peers!
Many of those who undergo the surgery experience deep and painful regret.
"Now that I'm all healed from the surgeries, I regret them," a 19-year-old man who had himself surgically mutilated to affirm a female identity, wrote in a letter . "The result of the bottom surgery looks like a Frankenstein hack job at best, and that got me thinking critically about myself. I had turned myself into a plastic-surgery facsimile of a woman, but I knew I still wasn't one. I became (and to an extent, still feel) deeply depressed."
Transgender activist Jazz Jennings experienced complications during the surgery to remove his male genitals, leaving him with scars across the top of his legs.
Even those who stopped shy of the genital mutilation have found themselves permanently scarred .
"I am a real, live 22-year-old woman, with a scarred chest and a broken voice, and five o'clock shadow because I couldn't face the idea of growing up to be a woman, that's my reality," admitted Cari Stella.
The medical establishment has rushed to affirm transgender "health care" that often involves giving healthy people a disease or urging genital mutilation on perfectly healthy men and women.
After the case of the 6-year-old boy James Younger seized national attention, states across the nation are expected to pass laws protecting children from the damaging effects of transgender drugs.
Yet Illinois joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia in going the opposite direction -- forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for transgender surgery. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin also use Medicaid funds for transgender surgery.
Sixty-two percent of Americans said employers should be able to opt-out of covering transgender surgeries, and 80 percent of them said doctors and medical professionals should be able to opt-out of performing surgeries they think dangerous to their patients.
If businesses should be able to opt-out of footing the bill for dangerous and controversial surgeries, why shouldn't taxpayers?
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Jan 03, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
EB 12.31.19 at 3:58 pm ( 19 )
@ Tim #3: Totally. Already, 20% of immigrants voted for Trump. Even somewhere between 12 and 15% of African-American men voted for him. Not because they like him, but because they don't identify with the rhetoric of the left. And I say this as a longstanding member of the left.The highly exclusionary mottoes of the various identity-based groups that the Democrats provide a home for are working against us -- "the future is female," "gender is not binary and not fixed," "the problem of whiteness," the extreme insistence on equality of outcomes over equality of opportunity -- these are all pushing parts of the natural Democratic constituency away and into the arms of the Republicans (or into a stance of not voting at all).
And the rhetoric around economic issues is not helping either. Voters are not stupid; they realize that free college, college loan forgiveness, Medicare for all, and massive spending on housing are not going to happen all at once given the makeup of congress. They are not hearing enough from the Democratic primary candidates about policy changes that can realistically happen in the next 4 years.
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Jan 01, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
ph 12.30.19 at 12:54 am ( 90 )
"Identity politics involves a demand not merely for tolerance but for acceptance."Aubergine 12.30.19 at 2:24 am ( 91 )For me this is the critical issue. When we 'demand' something from another, or another group, we are making an explicit statement of our own intolerance, we refuse to accept the values, attitudes, and/or behaviours of another. And the framing of this demand as a right, rather than a request, or a suggestion, is a problem for many here.
The levels of bigotry, hatred, and intolerance expressed towards MAGA people in general, and a few individuals in specific, over the last three years has been breathtaking. The notion that respect, tolerance, and acceptance cut both ways is routinely explicitly rejected. Indeed, so much so that both the NYT and the WAPO this weekend felt the need to remind readers of the need to respect MAGA people. The same might be said of people of faith, another much-maligned group, especially if these folks happen to be white and Christian.
I'm glad that JH posted the 'amateur' warning, because that's precisely what too much of what CT has become. People may or may not be engaging in good faith arguments. Calling people racists and fascists, as a matter of course, in no way contributes anything to any discussion, and would seem to be a direct violation of the comments policy. Yet, in thread after thread, that's what we continue read – racist, Christian, fascist, racist,white fascist, racist, fascist until the terms have lost all meaning, lo these many years.
The ground is moving beneath our feet. If the last few months (years?) are any indication, the CT community has very few ideas about what is happening in America, Europe, and other nations, or what to do about it. Or, people are expressing their ideas elsewhere.
Buying into myths does the community no good: remember all the time wasted on Koch Conspiracy Theories? Then, from 2016 up to the present, leading Democrats and 'progressive' bubbleheads literally channelled Joe McCarthy 'I have secret evidence, which I cannot divulge now, that leading members of this administration are in fact agents of a foreign power!' I mean, you couldn't make that stuff up.
Night after night, day after day for the last three years – TRAITORS, RUSSIAN AGENTS, and no matter how many times a few (Greenwald, Taibbi, Tracy) tried to point out that the accusations had been crafted literally by the same intelligence agents that brought us Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, these factual cautions fell on deaf ears.
Lost in all of this is reality: which is that the world is not twitter. All firsthand reports I receive from family and friends in Canada, America, and Europe is that people of different faiths and opinions work hard, if not harder now, to demonstrate respect and compassion to one another and sincerely enjoy doing so. Huh?
Happy Holidays and the best to everyone in 2020!
JQ: To get back to the criticism of identity politics from the left, consider what would happen if your original post was made in a less sedate, more idpol-friendly forum. Nobody would be engaging with the arguments you've made, which at least some commenters on this thread have been doing. Instead, they'd be focussing on you , working out which classes of privilege you enjoy – particularly racial, gender-based and (dis)ability-based privileges – so that they can attack you from those directions in the knowledge that any response from you would be considered an expression of privilege, and thus subject to further criticism.dbk 12.30.19 at 4:25 am ( 92 )Since this post is pretty unobjectionable you might get away with it, but I can see at least a couple of angles of attack in the first line ("Warning: Amateur sociological/political analysis ahead"): if you're an "amateur", why are you speaking instead of listening to the people who have direct personal experience of [whatever marginalised identity]? , and why does this analysis need to come from you when you could be making space for someone less privileged to give their own, more valuable analysis?
I read the sequence in the OP differently, I think, from most commenters (and, I think, from JQ):MisterMr 12.30.19 at 12:59 pm ( 95 )Tolerance: Women allowed the vote (19th Amendment, 1920);
Acceptance: Women admitted to all-male Ivy League universities (Yale, 1969)
Deference: Affirmative Action (EEOC, 1965)
Dominance: ? The election of Barack Obama (2008) ?[Note: This is the interpretation given by those on the right – those currently in power.]
Identity Politics has served to mask the real problem in the U.S. over the past 30-40 years: growing inequality. Yes yes, I know: intersectionality – but how successful has that been, really? Examples, please. [Note: Idpol imho belongs to the so-called "private sphere," not the "public sphere" – I have no interest in the private life of others; their public life, however, is of considerable interest to me and other citizens.]
I don't think this was accidental. It is to the ruling class's benefit that citizens/voters coalesce emotionally around issues which detract attention from growing inequality.
The U.S. is governed by the rich, the 1%. But if this were broadly understood and accepted, the 1% would be voted out of office at all levels (local, state, national).
Identity politics ensures that voters will be more or less equally distributed between Ds and Rs, with Ds = pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-abortion; Rs = anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-abortion (+ other issues).
I invite CT commenters to engage in a small thought-experiment: What would it be like in the U.S. if its Gini score were half what it was in 2016 (so, 20 instead of 40+)?
On a related – though not, for some, alas, obviously so – note, I recommend an about-to-be-published book by labor historian Toni Gilpin: "The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland," which will come out early in 2020. Gilpin analyzes the Farm Equipment Workers (FE) union and their strike in Louisville, KY against IH (International Harvester), during which blacks and whites united against IH for economic reasons, and won.
Full economic equality goes a fair way towards advancing tolerance and acceptance, obviates the need for deference, and does away with the existence of dominance.
@orange watch 79EB 12.30.19 at 1:10 pm ( 96 )It seems to me that in this thread there is a lot of confusion about the idea of identity and groups, and your comment doubles down with the idea that economic class is an identity.
First from a old fart Marxist point of view, you are mixing up base (the economic structure, the relationship with the means of production) with superstructure (blue collar identity). These two are not the same thing, the same way sex (a biological fact) is not the same as gender (a cultural thing). Only gender is a matter of identity, biological sex cannot be, precisely because it is not a cultural thing. For similar reasons class proper is not the same as identities based more or less on class.
Second, however you want to put it high education at best makes you upper middle class, not ruling class (although many people of the ruling class also have high education, but they aren't ruling class because of this). This again is the old (19th century) distinction by Max Weber between classe and ceto, I use the Italian words because they both translate as "class" in English damn you anglophones. I recently chatted with a friend who has a degree in statistics who confirmed that this is still a taught as a bread and butter distinction in statistics, at least in Italy.
Finally there is a big distinction between identities and the often (but not always) different moral assumptions that go with that on the one hand, and on the other the way these identities are used in terms of political marketing, that is something different and mostly make sense in democracies, but not for example in an argument about colonialism where identities still exist but the political situation is totally different.
Finally, the problem is that with each identity or set of identities comes a set of moral values. Now if we see morals as coming from identities but identities as a natural thing, we enter in a world of moral relativism where only the identity group who cries louder can manage to force its values on others.
This is in fact the implicit idea in right wing populism, and the reason they sometimes seem to think that political might makes right.
But in reality:
1) identities are not a natural thing at all, for example gender identities depend on forms of the family that are obviously historical and linked to economic structures, so is the low education blue collar identity;
2) many disequalities are objective and we can measure them, for example we know that economic inequality increased in recent decades.So on the whole I think it is possible to make a case about objectively more egalitarian (and therefore better) sets of values and identity.
Three questions:Chetan Murthy 12.30.19 at 6:27 pm ( 98 )1. There is a missing category in the 4-stage paradigm, and it is "affirmation." People can feel tolerated and then accepted, but not affirmed as much as the majority group feels affirmed, and this is a significant. Although what, specifically, it feels like to be affirmed, or to extend affirmation, can be murky. Is affirmation even a legitimate or realistic thing to expect or demand from one's social environment? Why or why not? What proportion of the social environment should extend affirmation in order for an individual from a marginalized group feel that they are being treated equally?
2. In every society in which there are dominant identities (I can think of few where the dominant group is singular and monolithic), there is history to contend with. The four (or five) states of intergroup relations are not like a light switch that can be turned on or off. What rate of changed attitudes and relationships of power are realistic to expect?
3. How do we feel about groups who are in some senses marginalized, but that within their own community, express dominance in harmful ways against some members of their group or against some members of other groups? What about feminists who look down on specific (or all) religions, and within their group do not tolerate religious individuals? what about religious minorities that persecute LGBTQ individuals? and so forth.
dbk @ 92:SusanC 12.30.19 at 6:49 pm ( 99 )I invite CT commenters to engage in a small thought-experiment: What would it be like in the U.S. if its Gini score were half what it was in 2016 (so, 20 instead of 40+)?
There's been considerable academic work on this subject. Just off the top of my head, there's the seminal paper by Bland, Castile, Crawford, Garner, Martin, Rice et al. And another important study of labor force effects by Argent, Arquette, Beckinsale, Garth, et al. And no literature review would be complete without discussing the groundbreaking work by Boyne, Carroll, Crooks, Harth, Holvey, Zervos et al.
An alternative take on what "identity politics" might mean:soru 12.30.19 at 7:12 pm ( 100 )A style of politics in which people are people are divided – for the purposes of political organization – on the basis of a small number of characteristics, which initially appear to be relative hard to change and easy to determine. Further, such groups are treated as if they were homogeneous, with a shared political interest.
But:
a) Such characteristics are typically not mutually exclusive. A political group that is "homongenous" wrt to one characteristic may well contain members that differ in some other politically relevant characteristic, with consequent divergence of political objectives. eg. "woman" contains both "white women" and "black women". cf. bell hooks
b) Who is a member of the group and who isn't often turns out to be more vexed than it might initially appear. There exist people of mixed race, people with intersex conditions, transgendered people, white momen who have grown up in a household with African-American step-siblings (cf. Rachel Dolezau), etc. etc. A noted feature of "identity politics" is people getting very, very upset about the existence of a small number of borderline cases whose political group membership is being argued.
Black Lives Matter isn't just fighting for economic rights: they're fighting for the right to not be executed in the street.
I think this gets to the heart of the matter: the very thin definition of the word 'economics' held by certain liberals, mostly referring to the precise timing of the next stock market boom/bust cycle.
To those with a less restrictive definition, people being executed in the street is, absolutely and centrally, a matter of economics. Those who support or enable those executions do so because they do not trust the government to effectively defend their private property rights without such measures.
The radical economic solution to that is the abolition of private property; it is of course perfectly understandable that those most affected are not keen on waiting for that.
Nevertheless, the less radical solution is still economic in nature, mainly involving raising taxes in order to spend the money on a police force adequate to the task of maintaining public order without such executions. Most of Europe provides the existence proof that such a thing is possible.
Measurable social issues require the commitment of non-symbolic amounts of societal resources to solve them. In an ideal world, this would leave the phrase 'identity politics' for those issues which could potentially be resolved by the right person tweeting the right thing
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Jan 01, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
Seren Rose 12.29.19 at 7:20 am (no link)
There is a horror at finding myself – as a gender critical feminist – adjacent to arguments like Likbez's @1 that I think puts the fear of God in me. So I feel compelled to write a comment, though I usually just observe the conversation here.notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 9:38 am ( 68 )Likbez @1 is, I think, similar to those people who would pop up in conversations about gay rights in the 90's and say, "What about this man, who had sex with 300 strangers in one week," as an example of "gay rights extremism." The difference I notice here is that there is no longer any concern, on the conservative or progressive side of the argument, with prurient interest. We glibly discuss the most private details of a child's life and body, and it's incumbent on everyone involved to either hash out the details while condemning, or hash out the details while celebrating.
I * do * think a child accessing sterilising medical and surgical treatments for the purposes of gender affirmation is extreme (and to me it's no less extreme when that child has a supportive family around them). Another useful parallel might be the conversations we had about whether it was respectability politics to not include "bareback" subcultures in gay pride. But again, even there, we had a stable liberal position which could acknowledge the subculture / without / having to condemn or celebrate it.
I wonder if it isn't the gay marriage debate that has evacuated that liberal posture. Well might a social conservative answer a question about the decriminalisation of sex between men by saying, "You can engage in x, y, or z sexual practice, but don't expect me to like it," and it's not really remarkable – why would I expect or require a stranger to / like / the sex I have?! But when it's said about marriage there is something mean about it – marriages, or at least weddings, are by definition the communal celebration of a sexual relationship.
Can we as a liberal society tolerate the miserliness of refusal to celebrate gay marriages? And if we can't, what do we do with this blurring of public and private, this need to endorse and celebrate what is done by strangers (even the compulsion to have a clear formed opinion on all the private activities of strangers).
– I wonder if there isn't a further connection with the anxieties of young people, a need for the approval of strangers.
***
"Instead of being accepted as one element of a diverse community, the formerly dominant group becomes the object of hostility and derision. The signs of that are certainly evident, particularly in relation to the culture wars around religion."
I immediately thought John was talking about Catholics. For centuries, where Catholics have lived as a minority in predominantly Protestant and Anglican societies, they have been exposed to all the bigotry and mistreatment we associate with minority status. But this has had no effect on the institution of the Catholic church, or its hegemony in Catholic societies (and even Catholic communities in protestant / Anglican societies).
(On reflection, I'm not sure that's what JQ is referring to at all).Stephen @ 56notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 9:41 am ( 69 )"Good questions. I'm not sure there is a necessity for a default identity and dominant groups; I merely observe that in most if not all stable, long-lived societies there has been such. If you can think of exceptions, they would be very interesting."
As I'm not an expert in the area, I'm probably not a good person to ask. If we assume the observation is true, however, while it may be interesting I don't see that it is particularly helpful.If the number of attempts were zero then that doesn't really tell you anything about if it would work or not.
For example, from my understanding monarchies were the "default" organisational structure in Europe for a long period of history. One can imagine someone who lived during those eras saying – correctly – that most if not all stable, long-lived societies were monarchies. I hope you'd agree that that wouldn't really tell us much about if Monarchies are the only, or indeed even best way of organising a society?
In short, I think that while your observation may be true (I'm afraid I lack the evidence to make any claims one way or another), I don't think it really gets us any closer to understanding whether or not a default identity and/or dominant group are a) necessary, b) useful, and c) beneficial.
As for the default identity including sexuality: I'm not sure it's necessary, just that it mostly goes that way.
Again, I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that the male/female binary is a) not necessarily biologically supported (from asking biologists) and b) may in fact not be the default identity (I believe there are examples outside of western culture, in the Philippines, Mexico, etc.). Of course, I am not an expert (I believe you've already said your not either?) so perhaps it would be better to ask someone who is rather than us speculating in ignorance?
I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two).
Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender? I don't see that it is helpful or clarifying in any way – bestiality is about what you have sexual intercourse with (and implies a problematic lack of consent), while being transgender is (as the name helpfully implies!) about your personal gender identity (which is not about preferences regarding sexual intercourse, and does not have the problematic inherent consent issue), so these would seem to be very different categories.
[Moreover, and I mean this as a helpful future tip, perhaps if you want to avoid fully any doubts people might have about whether or not you are equating these two things, but you feel it is useful to include a form of sexual attraction, why not pick homosexuality, bisexuality, etc. instead?]
Perhaps I am a bit odd in this respect, but if you ask me to imagine a "default" English person, I don't think I could. It may be a failure of my imagination, but I would think of the people I know who are English, and I don't think there is enough commonality for me to make an assessment. I suspect (though I don't have evidence) that if there is such a thing as a default identity, it is probably most similar to a stereotype. And, as far as I can tell, stereotypes are a) generally not excessively helpful to accuracy and b) vary from area to area and region to region.
Moreover, I would think that "dominant culture" is something that can change (as the OP implies). For example, homosexuality was illegal until fairly recently (if I recall correctly England and Wales: 1960s, Scotland and Ireland 1980s), but I think that now the number of people who would support recriminalizing it is pretty small. The dominant culture which was hostile to homosexuality is now – at the very least – indifferent, if not actively absorbing it. While I certainly wouldn't suggest homophobia is a thing of the past, perhaps in future eras (assuming we don't wipe ourselves out due to our incompetence at handling looming crises) people objecting to homosexuality will be thought of as odd and irrelevant – changing the dominant culture still further. Is it not possible, then, that such a thing could happen with transgender identities?
In short, with respect, I'm not sure what you (or I) can imagine is particularly relevant. Given that neither of us appear to have much expertise in this area, perhaps we should wait for others with better evidence and understanding to way in?
[Blast, apologies to the OP, but could you accept this instead of my previous post, I made a HTML tag error which makes it seem as though one of Stephen's statements is actually mine.]faustusnotes 12.29.19 at 11:18 am ( 70 )Stephen @ 56
"Good questions. I'm not sure there is a necessity for a default identity and dominant groups; I merely observe that in most if not all stable, long-lived societies there has been such. If you can think of exceptions, they would be very interesting."
As I'm not an expert in the area, I'm probably not a good person to ask. If we assume the observation is true, however, while it may be interesting I don't see that it is particularly helpful.If the number of attempts were zero then that doesn't really tell you anything about if it would work or not.
For example, from my understanding monarchies were the "default" organisational structure for a long time – and one can imagine someone who lived during those eras saying – correctly – that most if not all stable, long-lived societies were monarchies. I hope you'd agree that that wouldn't really tell us much about if it is the only, or indeed even best way of organising a society?
In short, I think that while your observation may or may not be true (I'm afraid I lack the evidence to make any claims one way or another), I don't think it really gets us any closer to understanding whether or not a default identity and/or dominant group are a) necessary, b) useful, and c) beneficial.
As for the default identity including sexuality: I'm not sure it's necessary, just that it mostly goes that way.
Again, I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that the male/female binary is a) not necessarily biologically supported (from asking biologists) and b) may in fact not be the default identity (I believe there are examples outside of western culture, in the Philippines, Mexico, etc.). Of course, I am not an expert (I believe you've already said your not either?) so perhaps it would be better to ask someone who is?
I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two).
Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender? I don't see that it is helpful or clarifying in any way – bestiality is about what you have sexual intercourse with (and implies a problematic lack of consent), while being transgender is (as the name helpfully implies!) about your personal gender identity (which is not about preferences regarding sexual intercourse, and does not have the problematic consent issue), so these would seem to be very different categories.
[Moreover, as a helpful future tip, perhaps if you want to avoid fully any doubts people might have about whether or not you are equating these two things, but you feel it is useful to include a form of sexual attraction, why not pick homosexuality, bisexuality, etc. instead?]
Perhaps I am a bit odd in this respect, but if you ask me to imagine a "default" English person, I don't think I could. It may be a failure of my imagination, but I would think of the people I know who are English, and I don't think there is enough commonality for me to make an assessment. I suspect (though I don't have evidence) that if there is such a thing as a default identity, it is probably most similar to a stereotype. And, as far as I can tell, stereotypes are a) generally not excessively helpful to accuracy and b) vary from area to area and region to region.
Moreover, I would think that "dominant culture" is something that can change (as the OP implies). For example, homosexuality was illegal until fairly recently (if I recall correctly England and Wales: 1960s, Scotland and Ireland 1980s), but I think that now the number of people who would support recriminalizing it is pretty small. The dominant culture which was hostile to homosexuality is now – at the very least – indifferent, if not actively absorbing it. While I certainly wouldn't suggest homophobia is a thing of the past, perhaps in future eras (assuming we don't wipe ourselves out due to our incompetence at handling looming crises) people objecting to homosexuality will be thought of as odd and irrelevant – changing the dominant culture still further. Is it not possible, then, that such a thing could happen with transgender identities?
In short, with respect, I'm not sure what you (or I) can imagine is particularly relevant.
Seren Rose, likbez is a straight-up christian fascist. If you find your politics overlapping with his in any way shape or form, it might be a good idea to assess whether the overlapping part is something you want to keep. Here's a tip: if the overlapping part is based on excluding a minority from public spaces, there's probably a reason it appeals to likbez.Aubergine 12.29.19 at 2:32 pm ( 71 )Also as a gender critical feminist I'm guessing you are in favour of preventing trans women from using female-only spaces. I recommend you read this so that when natal women start being harassed and beaten up as a consequence of your policies, you can't make the excuse that you weren't warned.
Well, I wasn't going to bring it up, but now we're herenotGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:53 pm ( 72 )Rightwing trolls or troll-like posters like likbez don't focus on transgender activism by accident. It's the ne plus ultra of identity politics gone wrong: it seems superficially reasonable, by association with LGB liberation movements, but its claims are irreconcilable with long-standing goals of other movements usually found on the left (particularly many kinds of feminism); it demands the use of language that makes it difficult or impossible to express disagreement and harrasses, threatens and deplatforms people who refuse to submit; it is relentlessly, viciously misogynistic. And when otherwise sympathetic people get a glimpse into the nastier side of trans activism and who exactly it is protecting (the Dana Rivers, the Karen Whites, the Jessica Yanivs, etc. etc.), and especially what its goals mean for women and girls – the stuff that the activists try with all their might to stop feminists drawing attention to – they tend to begin to regard it as completely bonkers. Which is of course one reason why all dissent must be silenced before it can spread.
It's the perfect wedge, and the trolls know.
Likbez @ 60notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:53 pm ( 73 )I am trying very hard right now to give you the benefit of the doubt in your arguments. You haven't addressed any of my criticisms or comments in my post at 36 (fair enough, you don't owe me any answers). I would assume normally you have missed it, didn't think it was worth replying to, or are formulating a response. However, your most recent comments at 60 are, to put it mildly, very problematic.
First, have you got around to making a working definition for transgender extremism yet? I only ask, because if I think religious extremism I imagine beheadings, massacres, suicide bombings; if I imagine political extremism, I imagine violence, bombings, terrorism; but as far as I can tell your definition of transgender extremism is apparently daring to exist and ask maybe if they could be treated as human beings rather than evil incarnate. One of those does not seem like the others.
Likbez @ 60notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:58 pm ( 74 )Here are my problems with your post at 60. I hope you will at least consider this, and perhaps re-evaluate what you are saying and how you are saying it.
" With this quote I think we reached the point in this discussion when it might be appropriate to discuss the appropriate scope of repression for deviant minority groups when their demands conflict with the larger society or more powerful groups ethics and cultural norms.
"deviant minority groups". OK, so Mormons? Or were they not the deviant minority group you were thinking of? You see, that's one of the fundamental problems with your assertions – you are unable or unwilling to offer any clear ideas as to how you come to decide the term and who it applies to. You seem to operate on what you personally feel comfortable with – which is not a particularly useful starting point.
The usual "woke" argumentation is very weak in issues outlined below and opposite arguments have a real weight: I would repression of the minority groups start with pedophiles and financial oligarchy especially vulture funds leadership such as Romney, Paul Singer, etc. But this is just me.
Funnily enough, people pushing for transgender awareness are not pro-paedophile. I know that you seem to struggle with understanding this (or, indeed, anything judging by your inability to reason), but paedophilia = having sex with children; being transgender = taking on a gender identity in-keeping with your internal model and different to that assigned at birth. The key difference there, and bear with me as apparently you find this very complex, is that one group are raping children, the other isn't. Try repeating this a few times in the mirror – I am optimistic you will eventually get it.
"IMHO insatiable "demanding" and proselyting of transgender identity already brought us very close to a strong corporate and community backlash against transgender rights and by extension LGBT rights as a whole."
You know, people said the same thing about gay rights. And you know what was interesting? It turns out the whole "line to far" was that they existed. Given you haven't really made any attempt to explain why you think "personal medical decision" is functionally extremism, I am not overly confident in your ability to determine what constitutes "too much" demanding.
"Of course transgender folk is just minor, expendable pawn in a bigger game of Dem Party identity politics, but still."
Yes, because the Democratic party of America basically rules Europe. That was sarcasm, by the way. I did point out before that making US based judgements and assessments without considering how it fits into the global phenomena makes you look ignorant. Apparently you don't think that that was a point worth considering.
"Many Christian parents now prohibit their children to join Scouts of America and their fears and not unfounded ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/04/24/boy-scouts-face-hundreds-new-sexual-abuse-claims/3547991002/ )"
Again, when discussing transgender people, you start bringing in sexual abuse with children. Yet no-where in the article is any reference to transgender people. I am now a lot less optimistic in your ability to understand the difference. It is also worth considering that the Catholic Church – which arguably has a little more power and privilege than the LGBT – has been complicit in covering up a horrific amount of child-rape. Interestingly, you don't seem to be railing against them.
To summarise
You don't seem interested in researching anything or gaining any facts. You don't appear to consider other arguments. You repeatedly conflate transgender people with paedophiles. You don't support your arguments, don't define your terms, and don't seem to care whether or not anything you say is rooted in evidence.
This is why I am having a very hard job considering you someone who is arguing in good faith right now.
Likbez @ 60William Timberman 12.29.19 at 3:03 pm ( 75 )Finally, as a few comments I hope you will consider.
1) Paedophilia and transgender people
The reason I object to paedophiles is not because they are a small number of people who are different to me. I object to paedophiles because they are causing harm. They are causing harm, because they are committing an action (sex) with someone who cannot give consent (a child).
Transgender people are committing an act (adopting a different gender identity) which affects only themselves (who give consent because they are undertaking it).
If you do not make a case to link transgender people and child rape, I would appreciate if you stopped conflating the two. Even if I assume the absolute best case – that you don't think the two are the same but are trying to incoherently make a point – it makes for a completely incoherent argument to include here.
2) Transgender people in society
If you want to argue that transgender people should be denied privileges available to other people, that is your prerogative. But you should probably actually make a case, and try to support it with evidence. For example, if you could prove that people being allowed to determine their own gender is objectively bad in some way, that would be a good starting point. You don't though – and, though I try to avoid ascribing motivations to other people, I suspect it is because you don't actually have an argument that it is harmful – merely that you don't like it. And apparently, for you, "I don't like this" is a good reason to deny rights to one group of people you extend to others. It might be worth reflecting on what that says about you as a person.
3) likbez
When someone repeatedly refuses to make their case after adopting the burden of proof, it is very difficult to take them seriously on that topic. It also impacts how you precieve them on other topics.
You don't owe me anything, and if you wish to continue making unsupported statements, falacious arguments, and equivication falacies, by all means do continue. I won't however, consider you as someone who should be considered worth listening to – which I hope you'd agree is my prerogative.
Undiscovering America. It's too late for that, I think. The muddying of the waters, i.e. post-historical tribalism, can't obscure the fact that the underlying conflict is between our individual and our collective identity(ies). It doesn't really matter whether the collective is family, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sports team. If we aren't, as individuals, the ultimate arbiters of our own allegiances, and if the collective(s) we belong to, either by accident, affinity, or choice, are unwilling to give up on the project of defining us without asking us what we prefer, then our present conflicts will continue, and in all likelihood get nastier as the stakes in our-post hierarchical, post-literate universe rise ever higher.William Timberman 12.29.19 at 3:13 pm ( 76 )I should probably add that China's much-touted ignoble experiment in Gleichschaltung is going to introduce modes of historical failure which the world hasn't seen since Roman times. Xi Jinping has absolutely no effing idea of the doom he's trifling with. Compared to Donald Rumsfeld, I suppose you could call him a visionary, but only if you love the smell of apocalypse in the morning.notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 3:35 pm ( 77 )Seren Rose @ 67likbez 12.29.19 at 3:54 pm ( 78 )I've no wish to tell you "this is how you should think", and am open to having a dialogue with anyone who is interested in doing so (it helps me refine my position or, when I am wrong, to re-evaluate my premises). I hope, therefore, you'll be will to indulge me a little when I make the following comments – I would, if you are interested, value your thoughts (though I don't wish to make demands on your time).
I don't particularly enjoy discussing anyone's private details – I generally prefer it if private lives can remain private – and certainly would hope I don't do so glibly. Unfortunately, when there is a discussion about whether or not a person should be permitted to make a private decision, sometimes it is necessary to discuss the facts surrounding the case. I would state, however, that to me it is important that as much anonymity as possible is afforded the individual, and as little of the details are discussed as necessary. Do you think that that is unreasonable?
My first comments were regarding Likbez's first link. To me, it is not only the first mentioned, but also the most clear cut. Someone who is 17 wishes to transition, their mother (who they have alleged was abusive, whom they left 2 years ago) objects. Given that the individual seems to have made well-reasoned comments, their mother does not seem to be well-placed to make any evaluations (or indeed make any decisions regarding their child), and I have no reason to think they are unable to make an assessment regarding their own gender, I don't see any reason to object. Do you think there is?
Hopefully you'll agree that I have managed to avoid discussing them or their body too much. If not, I'd certainly appreciate it if you pointed out where I've erred – this is not sarcasm, I genuinely want to do better.
You appear to have considerable concerns regarding Likbez's second link. You know what – so do I. It isn't quite as portrayed – further reading indicates that what was proposed was a reversible treatment with no surgery, which allays some of the concerns – but I agree that "what age can someone make a reasonable decision regarding their gender" is a good discussion to have. As is, "what is the best way to handle this", and "how do we ensure that people are afforded freedom proporitionate with their maturity and responsibility". However, I would want such a discussion to involve evidence (not specific details of people, but anonymised scientific evidence), logical arguments, and conclusions which come as close as possible to achieving the best decision. I hope you would agree that that is a good approach?
Now, I am not an expert. However, as far as I can tell, the people who study this for a living seem to say that biology and gender are far more complex that traditional models allow for. That being the case, it does not seem unreasonable to change these models. After all, if you are worried about the effects of peer-pressure on children, I would think that being forced into an identity which causes you incredible discomfort (or even feelings of dissonance) is probably not good for their long term health. For example, trying to force people who are homosexual to be heterosexual does not seem to have been good for them, or for society. I imagine, as a gender critical feminist, you can think of similar examples of the harm resulting from women being forced into roles far better than I.
In short, my position is that people should be afforded the maximum reasonable ability to make their personal decisions. In cases where there are concerns regarding their ability to do so, I am fine with society coming to an evidence based conclusion about where to draw the line. This will, as always, lead to some inherent unfairness (our systems are "one-size-fits-all" and this will inherently lead to some people being let down), but hopefully we can make our society as fair as possible. And, continue to refine.
If you think I am being unreasonable, unnecessarily prurient, or am on a path which is detrimental, I would certainly appreciate your pointing it out to me – I am always keen to do better.
faustusnotes 12.29.19 at 11:18 am @.70Orange Watch 12.29.19 at 5:23 pm ( 79 )Here's a tip: if the overlapping part is based on excluding a minority from public spaces, there's probably a reason it appeals to likbez.
Imbecilization of discussion of controversial issues like in case of your comment is a normal development typical for the periods of intellectual declines which naturally follows the economic decline of a given empire.
There's growing evidence the West is going through the same process as the USSR.
CM@64 :Chetan Murthy 12.29.19 at 5:43 pm ( 80 )the history is pretty clear: the class-based movements cane first, and they failed to make any progress toward (or even care about) the rights of these oppressed groups. [ ] Also, many of these movements explicitly recognize the importance of intersectionality -- why else would you see feminists and gay rights groups so heavily involved in immigrant rights?
Well, since you're all about fairness and avoiding double standards let's compare contemporaneous movements. How much did abolitionists help alleviate the oppression of women? How much did suffragettes fight segregation? Did the LGBTQ rights movement include BTQ for most of its history? Did any of these historical movements fight against ablism? How much did they achieve WRT immigrant rights, indigenous rights, and the rights of minority religions? Or are you comparing very, VERY recent developments in these movements with historical class identity movements? I'd point out, BTW, that it's very disputable whether gender/racial right movements came after class identity movements – both are far older than their recent (to say nothing of modern) forms. And throughout the history of all of these, there have been not just unhelpful but actively repressive elements in all of them. Yet you're only comparing contemporary intersectional essentialist identity politics to historical class identity politics why is that? Especially when modern class identity politics are also influenced by intersectional thinking and ally themselves with more than than just class-based movements even if they prioritize class. Yet here we have you telling us that socioeconomic status is not an identity – that the idea of identity becomes meaningless if we consider it as such. That has a very particular and somewhat suspicious look.
To pull this back more closely to the subject of OP, your pile of unexamined privilege looks an awful lot like you're uncritically accepting the highly-educated/rich/socially & professionally networked/managerial-professional-executive workers' (i.e., upper class) "default" cultural perspective, and are insisting that failure to see it is deviant and immoral (no more and no less than a cis het white Xian man insisting that a mythical 1950s represents the objective reality of Americanism). The rich minority is dominate in that epistomology, and the managerial-professional minority is deferred to. Among lower-class conservative adherents, this translates to education being suspect, but wealth & social status is taken as proof that these classes are reliably jus'folks who haven't been corrupted by too much learning; among lower-class liberal adherents, wealth is suspect but the education & social status proves our elites are woke egalitarians who haven't been corrupted by greed and power but in both cases, the rich are dominant and the managerial-professionals are deferred to. 100 years ago this would have been a harder sell, as our culture was more disparate in terms of class identity, but mass media driven by consumption (and advertising) homogenized our worldview and humanized the rich to a great degree, with the result of aggressively encouraging the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" mindset and belief in the myth of meritocracy.
The point of everything you TL;DR'd in order to lecture me about How Things REALLY Are again was not that you're a hypocrite – it's instead how very telling it is that you don't simply want to de-prioritize the idea of economically-oriented reform, but de-legitimize the very idea of it. It's appalling to see you invoke intersectionality in this context; are you so come-lately to it that you don't know its history before it was housebroken? A common early criticism of intersectionality was that it placed too much focus on just three intersecting identities: gender, race, and, yes, class. The subsequent trend to view intersectionality as a thing distinct from class identity is a development that looks an awful lot like institutional co-opting as former outsiders addressing an insurgent critique of distorted elite analysis made peace with the academic hierarchy, got tenure, and mysteriously lost their impetus to challenge privilege based on wealth, education, profession, or social status. What you've done here has unintentionally been extremely instructive in terms of what OP discusses; you're providing a case study of a privileged minority arguing against perspectives that do not conform to the dominant default culture in order to protect the deference you feel due, and the dominance of the hierarchy which entitles you to that deference.
Seren Rose @ 67:Orange Watch 12.29.19 at 5:51 pm ( 81 )
You write about a lot of things, and some of them I don't feel qualified to comment upon. But at least this, seems pretty obvious:Can we as a liberal society tolerate the miserliness of refusal to celebrate gay marriages? And if we can't, what do we do with this blurring of public and private
The record here is pretty clear: gay marriage advocates fought for gay marriage not for the private celebration, but because in ways big and small, myriad public and publicly regulated institutions and organizations confer advantages upon the married. From family health insurance policies to "who gets to visit you as you lie dying," to "who gets to pick up your kids at school."
I think this is a good example of the way that demands by identity groups can get misinterpreted, either inadvertently or intentionally. Nobody asked for Evangelical pastors to be compelled to perform gay marriages. What they -did- ask, was that in any public accommodation or regulated business of any sort, that prefers advantages to married couples, this advantage be extended to gay couples who are married. And this is no different from the "full faith and credit" clause that makes marriages in one state valid in another.
(One thing I'd add to tie the idea of class identity politics to the discussion here is that contemporary upper class resistance to it vs. comparative upper class acceptance of essentialist identity politics fits well into the zero-sum vs. positive-sum distinction made by Peter Dorman . Class identity movements seek to flatten the socio-economic hierarchy via wealth redistribution, progessive taxation, increased democratization of political processes, etc. Essentialist identity movements do not directly threaten the hierarchy that entrenches the rich as dominant and professionals as deferred to – it changes the pool of available candidates within the heirarchy, which may lead to individuals or sub-groups resisting if they feel unable or unwilling to compete with individuals previously below them on other hierarchies, but more diversity in the C-suites is not an existential threat to the upper class.)Chetan Murthy 12.29.19 at 5:54 pm ( 82 )notGoodEnough @ 68:Jake Gibson 12.29.19 at 9:01 pm ( 83 )
Stephen: "I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two)."notGoodEnough: "Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender?"
I have to laugh. We both know why he included that reference, don't we? It's the same reason "Box Turtle Ben (Domenech)" included it in that speech that Texas Senator John Cornyn was to deliver ("It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife"). It's the same reason likbez pretends that pedophiles are an identity group like gay people.
Decent people must feel that bestiality and pedophilia are beyond the pale. By juxtaposing them with LGBT, the goal is to subtly induce decent people to associate their feelings of disgust toward (e.g.) sex with box turtles, and gay people and oh-so-icky ways.
It's a tell that Stephen hasn't got a tolerant bone in his body.
TBH, likbez seems to be regurgitating typical transphobic arguments. Linking to homophobic hate groups does not enhance his position.John Quiggin 12.29.19 at 10:10 pm ( 84 )
He/she clearly does not think that trans people have any rights that he is obligated to honor.
On the other hand, seems to expect that we are obligated to respect his bigotry.likbez, you've derailed the thread, and your comments are trolling at best. Nothing further from you on this thread, please. Also, if I write further on identity politics, please refrain from commenting.
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Jan 01, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
Aubergine 12.29.19 at 2:32 pm ( 71 )
Well, I wasn't going to bring it up, but now we're herenotGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:53 pm ( 73 )Rightwing trolls or troll-like posters like likbez don't focus on transgender activism by accident. It's the ne plus ultra of identity politics gone wrong: it seems superficially reasonable, by association with LGB liberation movements, but its claims are irreconcilable with long-standing goals of other movements usually found on the left (particularly many kinds of feminism); it demands the use of language that makes it difficult or impossible to express disagreement and harrasses, threatens and deplatforms people who refuse to submit; it is relentlessly, viciously misogynistic.
And when otherwise sympathetic people get a glimpse into the nastier side of trans activism and who exactly it is protecting (the Dana Rivers, the Karen Whites, the Jessica Yanivs, etc. etc.), and especially what its goals mean for women and girls – the stuff that the activists try with all their might to stop feminists drawing attention to – they tend to begin to regard it as completely bonkers.
Which is of course one reason why all dissent must be silenced before it can spread.
It's the perfect wedge, and the trolls know
Likbez @ 60Orange Watch 12.29.19 at 5:51 pm ( 81 )Here are my problems with your post at 60. I hope you will at least consider this, and perhaps re-evaluate what you are saying and how you are saying it.
" With this quote I think we reached the point in this discussion when it might be appropriate to discuss the appropriate scope of repression for deviant minority groups when their demands conflict with the larger society or more powerful groups ethics and cultural norms.
"deviant minority groups". OK, so Mormons? Or were they not the deviant minority group you were thinking of? You see, that's one of the fundamental problems with your assertions – you are unable or unwilling to offer any clear ideas as to how you come to decide the term and who it applies to. You seem to operate on what you personally feel comfortable with – which is not a particularly useful starting point.
The usual "woke" argumentation is very weak in issues outlined below and opposite arguments have a real weight: I would ]suggest that the ]repression of the minority groups starts with pedophiles and financial oligarchy especially vulture funds leadership such as Romney, Paul Singer, etc. But this is just me.
(One thing I'd add to tie the idea of class identity politics to the discussion here is that contemporary upper class resistance to it vs. comparative upper class acceptance of essentialist identity politics fits well into the zero-sum vs. positive-sum distinction made by Peter Dorman .Chetan Murthy 12.29.19 at 5:54 pm ( 82 )
- Class identity movements seek to flatten the socio-economic hierarchy via wealth redistribution, progessive taxation, increased democratization of political processes, etc.
- Essentialist identity movements do not directly threaten the hierarchy that entrenches the rich as dominant and professionals as deferred to – it changes the pool of available candidates within the heirarchy, which may lead to individuals or sub-groups resisting if they feel unable or unwilling to compete with individuals previously below them on other hierarchies, but more diversity in the C-suites is not an existential threat to the upper class.)
notGoodEnough @ 68:Chetan Murthy 12.30.19 at 12:37 am ( 87 )
Stephen: "I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two)."notGoodEnough: "Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender?"
I have to laugh. We both know why he included that reference, don't we? It's the same reason "Box Turtle Ben (Domenech)" included it in that speech that Texas Senator John Cornyn was to deliver ("It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife"). It's the same reason likbez pretends that pedophiles are an identity group like gay people.
Decent people must feel that bestiality and pedophilia are beyond the pale. By juxtaposing them with LGBT, the goal is to subtly induce decent people to associate their feelings of disgust toward (e.g.) sex with box turtles, and gay people and oh-so-icky ways.
It's a tell that Stephen hasn't got a tolerant bone in his body.
Orange Watch @ 79:Oy, it looks like you've made my point for me. Let me recap:
(1) Aubergine pointed out that some of these identity groups tend to absolutely privilege pursuit of their group's goals over the pursuit of a broader class-based agenda
(2) I agreed that this was the case, and that it was only natural, because (a) historically broad class-based movements have done zilch for oppressed minorities and interest groups, and (b) indeed, to a great extent, for many of the kinds of physical oppression faced by minorities, women, and LGBT folks, the oppressors are well-represented in the proletariat also.
In short, the only way any of these groups got their very real concerns about the conditions of their labor and life addressed, was by speaking up for themselves.
(3) To this your argument was first that these groups don't work toward a class-based agenda, and now that there's no evidence in history that they have worked to support each other, either. [As if the latter matters; I never argued that class-based movements -should- support (e.g.) gay rights: I noted that they DID NOT, and hence it made sense that gay rights groups FOCUSED on gay rights. Notwithstanding, in recent years these interest groups DO support each other.]
(4) Throughout, you've focused on the economic issues, and denigrated the issues that drove these groups into being:
To pull this back more closely to the subject of OP, your pile of unexamined privilege looks an awful lot like you're uncritically accepting the highly-educated/rich/socially & professionally networked/managerial-professional-executive workers' (i.e., upper class) "default" cultural perspective, and are insisting that failure to see it is deviant and immoral
What can I say? You're making my point for me. If you can't see that the goals #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, ACT-UP and others are important, even though they're not economic, well, is it any surprise they refuse to subordinate them to your goals?
... ... ...
And one last thing: again, it seems like you think that the right of a well-educated woman or black man to have a good job on the same terms as a white man, is less important than lifting up all the poor people. It is as if you're saying
Do you remember what LBJ said?
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Do you see the similarity with your rhetoric? You're arguing that the effect of these interest groups is to aid entry of members of these minorities into the rich class, and per se this is bad.
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Dec 24, 2019 | www.theburningplatform.com
The globalist cabal controls the money, the promotions, the tenure, the continuance of careers. God help anyone who disagrees.
Pequiste Just maybe this embracing (that will sound bad in this context ) of all things LGBTQPIBN+, no matter how bizarrre or disgusting, is to usher into a position of great importance in the government, the likes of Pete Buttgeek?
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Dec 08, 2019 | crookedtimber.org
In all of this, it's worth remembering the observation of La Rouchefoucald that "hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue". The accusation of virtue signalling represents the refusal of vice to pay this tribute.
Phil 12.05.19 at 10:10 am ( 2 )
... in my experience the kind of people who talk about VS also talk about 'clicktivism' and similar; in other words, a lack of effort or cost is particularly characteristic of VS (and, in their eyes, particularly repugnant).nastywoman 12.05.19 at 11:13 am ( 4 )...And what's about all these people who wear these: "I'm a Deplorable" – T-shirts?SusanC 12.05.19 at 12:37 pm (no link)I thought the concept was supposed to be (a)not actually doing anything to reduce a problem; while (b) making ostentatious signs that purport to show you care about it.SusanC 12.05.19 at 12:45 pm (no link)A better example might be attending an Extinction Rebellion protest without changing your own consumption/pollution causing activities.
I wonder if it somehow relates to the Mary Douglas cultural theory of risk?
If so, we might tentatively include, e.g. Making a big noise about terrorism without really considering yourself to be at risk from it
"Vice signaling" was a good joke; I think it captures a notion that the affiliation the person is attempting to signal is not a universally shared one,
For that matter, terrorism itself, in its typical modern form, could be regarded as vice signalling: ostentatiously commiting public acts of violence ostensibly in support of a political cause, without regard to whether the political cause is in fact being advanced by their actions.cs 12.05.19 at 1:37 pm (no link)... I would say the implication is about the ostentation and a kind of insincerity. Insincerity in the sense that the person displaying the rainbow flag wants to be seen as the kind of person who cares about gay rights, when maybe they don't actually care about it all that much. That isn't quite the same as hypocrisy I think.MisterMr 12.05.19 at 2:02 pm ( 12 )I'll try to give my economic based explanation for this, based on this paper from Piketty:chedolf 12.05.19 at 4:14 pm ( 18 )Brahmin Left vs Merchant Right:Rising Inequality & the Changing Structure of Political Conflict
This paper has been cited here various times, however I'll drop this line from the abstract that summarizes the main finding:
Using post-electoral surveys from France, Britain and the US, this paper documents a striking long-run evolution in the structure of political cleavages. In the 1950s-1960s, the vote for left-wing (socialist-labour-democratic) parties was associated with lower education and lower income voters. It has gradually become associated with higher education voters, giving rise to a "multiple-elite" party systemin the 2000s-2010s: high-education elites now vote for the "left", while high-income/high-wealth elites still vote for the "right"
Do you think the criticism of Pharisees who pray theatrically in public was exclusively an attack on hypocrisy?Sashas 12.05.19 at 4:15 pm ( 19 )I would add to Phil @2 a third option.MrMister 12.05.19 at 4:34 pm ( 21 )
(a) You're a hypocrite.
(b) The thing you're signalling isn't actually a virtue.
(c) You're attacking me by reminding everyone of a virtue I don't have.I think the old-fashioned term for virtue signalling is sanctimony, not hypocrisy. Notably, sanctimony is also compatible with genuine belief and/or commitment. It does connote that the committed person has a degree of self-love over their commitments, and that perhaps the frequency or intensity of their display of their commitments is caused by an underlying desire to experience that self-love whenever the opportunity arises.Tohubohu 12.05.19 at 8:15 pm ( 26 )Sanctimony–correct word, I think–puts me in mind of that old bumper sticker, "I brake for animals" of which I once saw an example tidily shortened to: "I bake animals".Trader Joe 12.05.19 at 9:41 pm ( 29 )The problem I have with the whole concept is the stereotyping and bias implicit in it.Dr. Hilarius 12.05.19 at 10:24 pm ( 30 )When I see the Rainbow I'm supposed to think open minded, inclusive and left-thinking and that's fully o.k in the minds of liberals, but not in the minds of the Conservatives who see something else (which I'm not inclined to list).
When I see the MAGA I'm supposed to think closed minded, racist and right-thinking, but Conservatives would see hard-working Americans trying to make their country a better place.
Displaying a rainbow flag or wearing a MAGA hat strikes me as visible tribal identification more than virtue signaling. I think MrMister's mention of sanctimony is closer to the truth. Another poster mentioned Pharisees and public prayer. Consider a meeting to discuss replacing culverts to allow better passage of spawning salmon. The participants represent various interested parties, private and government. The meeting is disrupted by a person who proceeds to lecture all present about the history of racism, broken treaties and Native American reverence for nature. This person is not Native American. The speaker assumes that his/her information is unknown to the audience. The information does nothing to advance the goal of culvert replacement nor does it do anything to right historic wrongs. The speaker gets to feel superior. This is high-grade virtue signaling.SamChevre 12.05.19 at 11:17 pm ( 32 )It has been my experience that virtue signalling is often practiced on behalf of marginalized groups by people who do not belong to that group but presume to speak for them.
I'll second several commenters above: "virtue signalling" isn't primarily an accusation of hypocrisy. The related accusations targeted at the right are "sanctimony" and "prudishness" more than hypocrisy. The accusation is that you care more about "being seen as the sort of person who supports X" than about X.engels 12.06.19 at 2:19 am ( 37 )I think it means making a political statement in order to look good, where good is understood in a moral sense. That's a real phenomenon, especially in our age of online narcissism/personal branding, and it probably does affect the liberal-left more than the right because left-liberal politics tends to be more morally inspired.Bernard Yomtov 12.06.19 at 2:28 am ( 38 )I wouldn't use the term myself (or SJW)
I agree with SusanC at 7 and cs at 10 that the term is mostly intended to suggest that you support some cause or other that you don't really care about, as a way to identify yourself, or establish bona fides, with some group.steven t johnson 12.07.19 at 12:19 am ( 53 )https://www.primalpoly.com/virtue-signaling-further-readingengels 12.07.19 at 10:41 am ( 57 )https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/are-you-guilty-virtue-signaling
https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/identitieswhat-are-they-good-for/articles/virtue-signaling
https://www.nas.org/blogs/dicta/are_colleges_wasting_endowment_funds_on_virtue_signaling
I'm so far behind I'm still bemused by the thought that a flag lapel pin, pledges of allegiance and praying in public, are all virtue signalling. The tie-ins to libertarian economics and evolutionary psychology are even more puzzling, but maybe that's because I think they're just ideological scams/Vavilovian mimicry trying to pass off nonsense as real ideas.
I invented 'virtue signalling'. Now it's taking over the worldmtraven 12.07.19 at 6:47 pm ( 62 )
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/10/i-invented-virtue-signalling-now-its-taking-over-the-world/Bartholomew did not invent "virtue signalling", of course: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/20/virtue-signalling-putdown-passed-sell-by-dateDonald 12.08.19 at 12:42 am ( 64 )The term is related to " Social Justice Warrior".
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Nov 02, 2019 | caucus99percent.com
identity politics icon himself
"This idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're always politically woke and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly," Obama said, to some laughs from the crowd.Here are a few callouts.. @lizzyh7
"The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws." he continued.Obama cited college campuses and social media as a breeding ground for wokeness.
"One danger I see among young people particularly on college campuses," he said, "I do get a sense sometimes now among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, there is this sense sometimes the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people and that's enough."
Obama then directly poked fun at 'woke' keyboard warriors:
"Like if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn't do something right or used the wrong verb or then, I can sit back and feel good about myself: 'You see how woke I was? I called you out.'" he mocked.
People who do good stuff dont bomb 7 countries
-- Ruth Bader Joinersburg (@JuboktimusPrime) October 30, 2019
Or throw citizens in dog kennels for the oil companies.
Or hire lobbyists in nearly every single cabinet position.
up 24 users have voted. --
#2 Go on ahead and mock all you want. Those of us who see you for what you are will never stop seeing it and calling you out on it. Boohoo mofo.
America is a pathetic nation; a fascist state fueled by the greed, malice, and stupidity of her own people.
- strife delivery
Alligator Ed on Wed, 10/30/2019 - 7:47pm
snoop, give the guy a breakWally on Thu, 10/31/2019 - 9:05am@snoopydawg He only filled 12 of the 13 Citigroup nominees. A real sell-out Neolib/neocon woulda done all 13.
13's an unlucky number? Yeah. So is number 44.
People who do good stuff dont bomb 7 countries
-- Ruth Bader Joinersburg (@JuboktimusPrime) October 30, 2019
Or throw citizens in dog kennels for the oil companies.
Or hire lobbyists in nearly every single cabinet position.
What's this Obama lovin' stuff, Alligator Ed?Cant Stop the M... on Thu, 10/31/2019 - 2:07pmA veritable Mr. Aloha, huh?
In a nutshell, Obama is saying we all need a little more aloha spirit -- being respectful & caring for one another. Not being so quick to judge. Not seeing everything as black/white. I hope you'll join me in bringing the spirit of aloha to the White House. https://t.co/tYADx6Dzqs
-- Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) October 30, 2019
#2.1.1 He only filled 12 of the 13 Citigroup nominees. A real sell-out Neolib/neocon woulda done all 13.
13's an unlucky number? Yeah. So is number 44.
My comment elsewhere in this essayWally on Wed, 10/30/2019 - 4:14pmshould not be taken to mean disagreement with your excellent points here, snoop.
People who do good stuff dont bomb 7 countries
-- Ruth Bader Joinersburg (@JuboktimusPrime) October 30, 2019
Or throw citizens in dog kennels for the oil companies.
Or hire lobbyists in nearly every single cabinet position.
Promises, promisessnoopydawg on Wed, 10/30/2019 - 9:08pmObama made some pretty campaign finance promises in the 2008 primary, and then did an about-face during the general, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from the usual suspects. Then he declined to prosecute the bankers. Let's not do that again.
-- Meagan Day (@meaganmday) September 24, 2019
Bernie Sanders on Elizabeth Warren's work for big corporations such as advising Dow Chemical:
"I'll let the American people make that judgment. I've never worked for a corporation. I've never carried their baggage in the U.S. Senate." pic.twitter.com/yV9TRw7jPB
-- BERNforBernie2020 (@BernForBernie20) October 29, 2019
#2 Go on ahead and mock all you want. Those of us who see you for what you are will never stop seeing it and calling you out on it. Boohoo mofo.
Have you seen how the Bernie tweet is being played?Cant Stop the M... on Thu, 10/31/2019 - 2:02pmPeople are defending Warbama's helping DOW screw women who had breast cancer out of their settlement. It's absolutely sickening to see people defending the indefensible. "She needed the experience." WTAF does that even mean?
Obama made some pretty campaign finance promises in the 2008 primary, and then did an about-face during the general, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from the usual suspects. Then he declined to prosecute the bankers. Let's not do that again.
-- Meagan Day (@meaganmday) September 24, 2019
Bernie Sanders on Elizabeth Warren's work for big corporations such as advising Dow Chemical:
"I'll let the American people make that judgment. I've never worked for a corporation. I've never carried their baggage in the U.S. Senate." pic.twitter.com/yV9TRw7jPB
-- BERNforBernie2020 (@BernForBernie20) October 29, 2019
Barack is intelligent enough to know that the current brandof identity politics is bullshit. He's offended enough by irrationality that he's willing to comment on that in public--now that he's out of the Presidency and doesn't have to win any more elections.
However, none of that would stop him (or did stop him) using that kind of identity politics to the hilt for his own political advantage.
#2 Go on ahead and mock all you want. Those of us who see you for what you are will never stop seeing it and calling you out on it. Boohoo mofo.
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Oct 24, 2019 | www.theamericanconservative.com
When a Court Forces Your Boy to Become a Girl It's happening in Texas, showing just how far coercive trans ideology has wormed into our culture.
The latest case to have every rational person in a state of horror is that of a Texas dad who has been forced by court order to allow his seven-year-old son to undergo a medical gender transition at the hands of the child's mother. It's a massive judicial overreach that destroys the bond between parent and child, and it exemplifies everything that opponents of trans ideology have been warning about.
Dr. Anne Georgulas and Jeffrey Younger, parents to twin boys, are in stark disagreement as to the best treatment for their son. Unable to come to an adequate solution, the dispute landed them in court. On one side was Georgulas, who believes that her seven-year-old, James, wishes to live as a girl called Luna. Her answer to this delusion (which may, in fact, be her own, and not her son's) is to drug the child with puberty blockers and estrogen. Younger, the boys' father, who until this point has had joint custody with Georgulas, does not believe his healthy son should be altered in this way.
Judge and jury have now found in Georgulas' favor. Under mother's care, James will be chemically castrated, put on drugs that will render him infertile, and only allowed to interact with those who call him Luna, reinforcing the falsehood that he is a girl. While what's happening to James is tragic, the most dangerous part of all is how this case could set a precedent for further social indoctrination and maltreatment. Younger is being compelled by a court of law to lie to his own son.
Trans ideology initially surfaced in mainstream culture as a pre-formed idea, with activists claiming that even to question it was hate speech. These ideologues successfully manipulated public compassion to convince people that the view that biological sex is mutable and gender is innate in the brain is correct, even if that doesn't make any biological or logical sense.
Now the existence of trans adults is mandating the creation of trans children. The idea that grownups who were born male were actually always female only works if there are trans youth. The court system is allowing this delusion to be perpetrated simply so that the dogma of trans adults can make sense. If a child came forward and said he needed one leg removed, or an eyeball sewn onto his hand, or a nose job, the courts would undoubtedly say no. The fact that they say otherwise to drastic body modifications when trans is involved shows how powerful this perspective has become.
The idea of trans is that gender dysphoric youth need to be affirmed in their delusions because otherwise they will commit suicide. But this is the only area where risk of self-harm has led to the upholding of a sick person's self-deception. Similar reinforcement is never attempted with anorexia, depression, or any other mental condition. What makes trans so special is the advocates behind it, who are pushing at every level for recognition, even if it means depriving a parent of his rights.
This court case makes clear that if parents do not go along with trans ideology, their rights to properly raise their children will be taken from them. Custody disputes are always a mess. But there should never be be a case in which a parent is removed from joint custody because he or she objects to a healthy child undergoing unnecessary, experimental medical treatment.
Whether or not James believes he is female -- which is seriously in doubt -- there should be no medical professional who is willing to give a child life-altering drugs designed to deny his biological sex and development. If a parent speaks out against this, the court should do everything in its power to open the door to preventing the child from undergoing medical harm. Additionally, if this seven-year-old's idea that he is female turns out to be untrue, he'll need an adult in his life to whom he can turn, to whom he will not feel responsible to stay trans in order to earn their approval. The court is denying that the child will ever need a way out, yet detransitioners exist and are making their voices heard.
When we are seven, we believe what we are told, not only about the world around us but about our own bodies. It's easy to convince children that lies are truth, because they have nothing to base their understanding on. This is why it's so essential to give kids accurate information. Just as it would be cruel to tell a child that red is blue, or cats are dogs, it is similarly horrible to tell them that boys can become girls. They will believe it, and it is a lie.
Fortunately, some in the medical establishment are starting to sound the alarm about the dangers of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones being administered to young children. The risks of these drugs include bone loss, brain dysfunction, and permanent sterility. There may be other side effects, too, but since these drugs are not tested, no one knows what those might be. Yet trans advocates insist that affirming their ideology is more important than watchful waiting.
The practice of affirmation is actually confirmation. Compelling those around the child to use a new language and new name, to support the delusion instead of insisting that the child's body is fine as it was made, reinforces that the child is trans. No parent should be compelled by a court of law to lie in this way, and that it's happened shows how insidious trans ideology has wormed into our culture.
Libby Emmons is a playwright living in Brooklyn, New York. She has written for The Federalist, Quillette, and Arc Digital, among other publications. You can follow her on Twitter @li88yinc .
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Dec 01, 1992 | www.moonofalabama.org
On the abandonment of Enlightenment intellectualism, and the emergence of a new form of Volksgeist.
When hatred of culture becomes itself a part of culture, the life of the mind loses all meaning. -- Alain Finkielkraut, The Undoing of ThoughtToday we are trying to spread knowledge everywhere. Who knows if in centuries to come there will not be universities for re-establishing our former ignorance? -- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799)
I n 1927, the French essayist Julien Benda published his famous attack on the intellectual corruption of the age, La Trahison des clercs. I said "famous," but perhaps "once famous" would have been more accurate. For today, in the United States anyway, only the title of the book, not its argument, enjoys much currency. "La trahison des clercs": it is one of those memorable phrases that bristles with hints and associations without stating anything definite. Benda tells us that he uses the term "clerc" in "the medieval sense," i.e., to mean "scribe," someone we would now call a member of the intelligentsia. Academics and journalists, pundits, moralists, and pontificators of all varieties are in this sense clercs . The English translation, The Treason of the Intellectuals , 1 sums it up neatly.
The "treason" in question was the betrayal by the "clerks" of their vocation as intellectuals. From the time of the pre-Socratics, intellectuals, considered in their role as intellectuals, had been a breed apart. In Benda's terms, they were understood to be "all those whose activity essentially is not the pursuit of practical aims, all those who seek their joy in the practice of an art or a science or a metaphysical speculation, in short in the possession of non-material advantages." Thanks to such men, Benda wrote, "humanity did evil for two thousand years, but honored good. This contradiction was an honor to the human species, and formed the rift whereby civilization slipped into the world."
According to Benda, however, this situation was changing. More and more, intellectuals were abandoning their attachment to the traditional panoply of philosophical and scholarly ideals. One clear sign of the change was the attack on the Enlightenment ideal of universal humanity and the concomitant glorification of various particularisms. The attack on the universal went forward in social and political life as well as in the refined precincts of epistemology and metaphysics: "Those who for centuries had exhorted men, at least theoretically, to deaden the feeling of their differences have now come to praise them, according to where the sermon is given, for their 'fidelity to the French soul,' 'the immutability of their German consciousness,' for the 'fervor of their Italian hearts.'" In short, intellectuals began to immerse themselves in the unsettlingly practical and material world of political passions: precisely those passions, Benda observed, "owing to which men rise up against other men, the chief of which are racial passions, class passions and national passions." The "rift" into which civilization had been wont to slip narrowed and threatened to close altogether.
Writing at a moment when ethnic and nationalistic hatreds were beginning to tear Europe asunder, Benda's diagnosis assumed the lineaments of a prophecy -- a prophecy that continues to have deep resonance today. "Our age is indeed the age of the intellectual organization of political hatreds ," he wrote near the beginning of the book. "It will be one of its chief claims to notice in the moral history of humanity." There was no need to add that its place in moral history would be as a cautionary tale. In little more than a decade, Benda's prediction that, because of the "great betrayal" of the intellectuals, humanity was "heading for the greatest and most perfect war ever seen in the world," would achieve a terrifying corroboration.
J ulien Benda was not so naïve as to believe that intellectuals as a class had ever entirely abstained from political involvement, or, indeed, from involvement in the realm of practical affairs. Nor did he believe that intellectuals, as citizens, necessarily should abstain from political commitment or practical affairs. The "treason" or betrayal he sought to publish concerned the way that intellectuals had lately allowed political commitment to insinuate itself into their understanding of the intellectual vocation as such. Increasingly, Benda claimed, politics was "mingled with their work as artists, as men of learning, as philosophers." The ideal of disinterestedness, the universality of truth: such guiding principles were contemptuously deployed as masks when they were not jettisoned altogether. It was in this sense that he castigated the " desire to abase the values of knowledge before the values of action ."
In its crassest but perhaps also most powerful form, this desire led to that familiar phenomenon Benda dubbed "the cult of success." It is summed up, he writes, in "the teaching that says that when a will is successful that fact alone gives it a moral value, whereas the will which fails is for that reason alone deserving of contempt." In itself, this idea is hardly novel, as history from the Greek sophists on down reminds us. In Plato's Gorgias , for instance, the sophist Callicles expresses his contempt for Socrates' devotion to philosophy: "I feel toward philosophers very much as I do toward those who lisp and play the child." Callicles taunts Socrates with the idea that "the more powerful, the better, and the stronger" are simply different words for the same thing. Successfully pursued, he insists, "luxury and intemperance are virtue and happiness, and all the rest is tinsel." How contemporary Callicles sounds!
In Benda's formula, this boils down to the conviction that "politics decides morality." To be sure, the cynicism that Callicles espoused is perennial: like the poor, it will be always with us. What Benda found novel was the accreditation of such cynicism by intellectuals. "It is true indeed that these new 'clerks' declare that they do not know what is meant by justice, truth, and other 'metaphysical fogs,' that for them the true is determined by the useful, the just by circumstances," he noted. "All these things were taught by Callicles, but with this difference; he revolted all the important thinkers of his time."
In other words, the real treason of the intellectuals was not that they countenanced Callicles but that they championed him. To appreciate the force of Benda's thesis one need only think of that most influential modern Callicles, Friedrich Nietzsche. His doctrine of "the will to power," his contempt for the "slave morality" of Christianity, his plea for an ethic "beyond good and evil," his infatuation with violence -- all epitomize the disastrous "pragmatism" that marks the intellectual's "treason." The real problem was not the unattainability but the disintegration of ideals, an event that Nietzsche hailed as the "transvaluation of all values." "Formerly," Benda observed, "leaders of States practiced realism, but did not honor it; With them morality was violated but moral notions remained intact, and that is why, in spite of all their violence, they did not disturb civilization ."
Benda understood that the stakes were high: the treason of the intellectuals signaled not simply the corruption of a bunch of scribblers but a fundamental betrayal of culture. By embracing the ethic of Callicles, intellectuals had, Benda reckoned, precipitated "one of the most remarkable turning points in the moral history of the human species. It is impossible," he continued,
to exaggerate the importance of a movement whereby those who for twenty centuries taught Man that the criterion of the morality of an act is its disinterestedness, that good is a decree of his reason insofar as it is universal, that his will is only moral if it seeks its law outside its objects, should begin to teach him that the moral act is the act whereby he secures his existence against an environment which disputes it, that his will is moral insofar as it is a will "to power," that the part of his soul which determines what is good is its "will to live" wherein it is most "hostile to all reason," that the morality of an act is measured by its adaptation to its end, and that the only morality is the morality of circumstances. The educators of the human mind now take sides with Callicles against Socrates, a revolution which I dare to say seems to me more important than all political upheavals.T he Treason of the Intellectuals is an energetic hodgepodge of a book. The philosopher Jean-François Revel recently described it as "one of the fussiest pleas on behalf of the necessary independence of intellectuals." Certainly it is rich, quirky, erudite, digressive, and polemical: more an exclamation than an analysis. Partisan in its claims for disinterestedness, it is ruthless in its defense of intellectual high-mindedness. Yet given the horrific events that unfolded in the decades following its publication, Benda's unremitting attack on the politicization of the intellect and ethnic separatism cannot but strike us as prescient. And given the continuing echo in our own time of the problems he anatomized, the relevance of his observations to our situation can hardly be doubted. From the savage flowering of ethnic hatreds in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to the mendacious demands for political correctness and multiculturalism on college campuses across America and Europe, the treason of the intellectuals continues to play out its unedifying drama. Benda spoke of "a cataclysm in the moral notions of those who educate the world." That cataclysm is erupting in every corner of cultural life today.
In 1988, the young French philosopher and cultural critic Alain Finkielkraut took up where Benda left off, producing a brief but searching inventory of our contemporary cataclysms. Entitled La Défaite de la pensée 2 ("The 'Defeat' or 'Undoing' of Thought"), his essay is in part an updated taxonomy of intellectual betrayals. In this sense, the book is a trahison des clercs for the post-Communist world, a world dominated as much by the leveling imperatives of pop culture as by resurgent nationalism and ethnic separatism. Beginning with Benda, Finkielkraut catalogues several prominent strategies that contemporary intellectuals have employed to retreat from the universal. A frequent point of reference is the eighteenth-century German Romantic philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder. "From the beginning, or to be more precise, from the time of Plato until that of Voltaire," he writes, "human diversity had come before the tribunal of universal values; with Herder the eternal values were condemned by the court of diversity."
Finkielkraut focuses especially on Herder's definitively anti-Enlightenment idea of the Volksgeist or "national spirit." Quoting the French historian Joseph Renan, he describes the idea as "the most dangerous explosive of modern times." "Nothing," he writes, "can stop a state that has become prey to the Volksgeist ." It is one of Finkielkraut's leitmotifs that today's multiculturalists are in many respects Herder's (generally unwitting) heirs.
True, Herder's emphasis on history and language did much to temper the tendency to abstraction that one finds in some expressions of the Enlightenment. Ernst Cassirer even remarked that "Herder's achievement is one of the greatest intellectual triumphs of the philosophy of the Enlightenment."
Nevertheless, the multiculturalists' obsession with "diversity" and ethnic origins is in many ways a contemporary redaction of Herder's elevation of racial particularism over the universalizing mandate of reason. Finkielkraut opposes this just as the mature Goethe once took issue with Herder's adoration of the Volksgeist. Finkielkraut concedes that we all "relate to a particular tradition" and are "shaped by our national identity." But, unlike the multiculturalists, he soberly insists that "this reality merit[s] some recognition, not idolatry."
In Goethe's words, "A generalized tolerance will be best achieved if we leave undisturbed whatever it is which constitutes the special character of particular individuals and peoples, whilst at the same time we retain the conviction that the distinctive worth of anything with true merit lies in its belonging to all humanity."
The Undoing of Thought resembles The Treason of the Intellectuals stylistically as well as thematically. Both books are sometimes breathless congeries of sources and aperçus. And Finkielkraut, like Benda (and, indeed, like Montaigne), tends to proceed more by collage than by demonstration. But he does not simply recapitulate Benda's argument.
The geography of intellectual betrayal has changed dramatically in the last sixty-odd years. In 1927, intellectuals still had something definite to betray. In today's "postmodernist" world, the terrain is far mushier: the claims of tradition are much attenuated and betrayal is often only a matter of acquiescence. Finkielkraut's distinctive contribution is to have taken the measure of the cultural swamp that surrounds us, to have delineated the links joining the politicization of the intellect and its current forms of debasement.
In the broadest terms, The Undoing of Thought is a brief for the principles of the Enlightenment. Among other things, this means that it is a brief for the idea that mankind is united by a common humanity that transcends ethnic, racial, and sexual divisions.
The humanizing "reason" that Enlightenment champions is a universal reason, sharable, in principle, by all. Such ideals have not fared well in the twentieth century: Herder's progeny have labored hard to discredit them. Granted, the belief that there is "Jewish thinking" or "Soviet science" or "Aryan art" is no longer as widespread as it once was. But the dispersal of these particular chimeras has provided no inoculation against kindred fabrications: "African knowledge," "female language," "Eurocentric science": these are among today's talismanic fetishes.
Then, too, one finds a stunning array of anti-Enlightenment phantasmagoria congregated under the banner of "anti-positivism." The idea that history is a "myth," that the truths of science are merely "fictions" dressed up in forbidding clothes, that reason and language are powerless to discover the truth -- more, that truth itself is a deceitful ideological construct: these and other absurdities are now part of the standard intellectual diet of Western intellectuals. The Frankfurt School Marxists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno gave an exemplary but by no means uncharacteristic demonstration of one strain of this brand of anti-rational animus in the mid-1940s.
Safely ensconced in Los Angeles, these refugees from Hitler's Reich published an influential essay on the concept of Enlightenment. Among much else, they assured readers that "Enlightenment is totalitarian." Never mind that at that very moment the Nazi war machine -- what one might be forgiven for calling real totalitarianism -- was busy liquidating millions of people in order to fulfill another set of anti-Enlightenment fantasies inspired by devotion to the Volksgeist .
The diatribe that Horkheimer and Adorno mounted against the concept of Enlightenment reminds us of an important peculiarity about the history of Enlightenment: namely, that it is a movement of thought that began as a reaction against tradition and has now emerged as one of tradition's most important safeguards. Historically, the Enlightenment arose as a deeply anti-clerical and, perforce, anti-traditional movement. Its goal, in Kant's famous phrase, was to release man from his "self-imposed immaturity."
The chief enemy of Enlightenment was "superstition," an omnibus term that included all manner of religious, philosophical, and moral ideas. But as the sociologist Edward Shils has noted, although the Enlightenment was in important respects "antithetical to tradition" in its origins, its success was due in large part "to the fact that it was promulgated and pursued in a society in which substantive traditions were rather strong." "It was successful against its enemies," Shils notes in his book Tradition (1981),
because the enemies were strong enough to resist its complete victory over them. Living on a soil of substantive traditionality, the ideas of the Enlightenment advanced without undoing themselves. As long as respect for authority on the one side and self-confidence in those exercising authority on the other persisted, the Enlightenment's ideal of emancipation through the exercise of reason went forward. It did not ravage society as it would have done had society lost all legitimacy.It is this mature form of Enlightenment, championing reason but respectful of tradition, that Finkielkraut holds up as an ideal.
W hat Finkielkraut calls "the undoing of thought" flows from the widespread disintegration of a faith. At the center of that faith is the assumption that the life of thought is "the higher life" and that culture -- what the Germans call Bildung -- is its end or goal.
The process of disintegration has lately become an explicit attack on culture. This is not simply to say that there are many anti-intellectual elements in society: that has always been the case. "Non-thought," in Finkielkraut's phrase, has always co-existed with the life of the mind. The innovation of contemporary culture is to have obliterated the distinction between the two. "It is," he writes, "the first time in European history that non-thought has donned the same label and enjoyed the same status as thought itself, and the first time that those who, in the name of 'high culture,' dare to call this non-thought by its name, are dismissed as racists and reactionaries." The attack is perpetrated not from outside, by uncomprehending barbarians, but chiefly from inside, by a new class of barbarians, the self-made barbarians of the intelligentsia. This is the undoing of thought. This is the new "treason of the intellectuals."
There are many sides to this phenomenon. What Finkielkraut has given us is not a systematic dissection but a kind of pathologist's scrapbook. He reminds us, for example, that the multiculturalists' demand for "diversity" requires the eclipse of the individual in favor of the group . "Their most extraordinary feat," he observes, "is to have put forward as the ultimate individual liberty the unconditional primacy of the collective." Western rationalism and individualism are rejected in the name of a more "authentic" cult.
One example: Finkielkraut quotes a champion of multiculturalism who maintains that "to help immigrants means first of all respecting them for what they are, respecting whatever they aspire to in their national life, in their distinctive culture and in their attachment to their spiritual and religious roots." Would this, Finkielkraut asks, include "respecting" those religious codes which demanded that the barren woman be cast out and the adulteress be punished with death?
What about those cultures in which the testimony of one man counts for that of two women? In which female circumcision is practiced? In which slavery flourishes? In which mixed marriages are forbidden and polygamy encouraged? Multiculturalism, as Finkielkraut points out, requires that we respect such practices. To criticize them is to be dismissed as "racist" and "ethnocentric." In this secular age, "cultural identity" steps in where the transcendent once was: "Fanaticism is indefensible when it appeals to heaven, but beyond reproach when it is grounded in antiquity and cultural distinctiveness."
To a large extent, the abdication of reason demanded by multiculturalism has been the result of what we might call the subjection of culture to anthropology. Finkielkraut speaks in this context of a "cheerful confusion which raises everyday anthropological practices to the pinnacle of the human race's greatest achievements." This process began in the nineteenth century, but it has been greatly accelerated in our own age. One thinks, for example, of the tireless campaigning of that great anthropological leveler, Claude Lévi-Strauss. Lévi-Strauss is assuredly a brilliant writer, but he has also been an extraordinarily baneful influence. Already in the early 1950s, when he was pontificating for UNESCO , he was urging all and sundry to "fight against ranking cultural differences hierarchically." In La Pensée sauvage (1961), he warned against the "false antinomy between logical and prelogical mentality" and was careful in his descriptions of natives to refer to "so-called primitive thought." "So-called" indeed. In a famous article on race and history, Lévi-Strauss maintained that the barbarian was not the opposite of the civilized man but "first of all the man who believes there is such a thing as barbarism." That of course is good to know. It helps one to appreciate Lévi-Strauss's claim, in Tristes Tropiques (1955), that the "true purpose of civilization" is to produce "inertia." As one ruminates on the proposition that cultures should not be ranked hierarchically, it is also well to consider what Lévi-Strauss coyly refers to as "the positive forms of cannibalism." For Lévi-Strauss, cannibalism has been unfairly stigmatized in the "so-called" civilized West. In fact, he explains, cannibalism was "often observed with great discretion, the vital mouthful being made up of a small quantity of organic matter mixed, on occasion, with other forms of food." What, merely a "vital mouthful"? Not to worry! Only an ignoramus who believed that there were important distinctions, qualitative distinctions, between the barbarian and the civilized man could possibly think of objecting.
Of course, the attack on distinctions that Finkielkraut castigates takes place not only among cultures but also within a given culture. Here again, the anthropological imperative has played a major role. "Under the equalizing eye of social science," he writes,
hierarchies are abolished, and all the criteria of taste are exposed as arbitrary. From now on no rigid division separates masterpieces from run-of-the mill works. The same fundamental structure, the same general and elemental traits are common to the "great" novels (whose excellence will henceforth be demystified by the accompanying quotation marks) and plebian types of narrative activity.F or confirmation of this, one need only glance at the pronouncements of our critics. Whether working in the academy or other cultural institutions, they bring us the same news: there is "no such thing" as intrinsic merit, "quality" is an only ideological construction, aesthetic value is a distillation of social power, etc., etc.
In describing this process of leveling, Finkielkraut distinguishes between those who wish to obliterate distinctions in the name of politics and those who do so out of a kind of narcissism. The multiculturalists wave the standard of radical politics and say (in the words of a nineteenth-century Russian populist slogan that Finkielkraut quotes): "A pair of boots is worth more than Shakespeare."
Those whom Finkielkraut calls "postmodernists," waving the standard of radical chic, declare that Shakespeare is no better than the latest fashion -- no better, say, than the newest item offered by Calvin Klein. The litany that Finkielkraut recites is familiar:
A comic which combines exciting intrigue and some pretty pictures is just as good as a Nabokov novel. What little Lolitas read is as good as Lolita . An effective publicity slogan counts for as much as a poem by Apollinaire or Francis Ponge . The footballer and the choreographer, the painter and the couturier, the writer and the ad-man, the musician and the rock-and-roller, are all the same: creators. We must scrap the prejudice which restricts that title to certain people and regards others as sub-cultural.The upshot is not only that Shakespeare is downgraded, but also that the bootmaker is elevated. "It is not just that high culture must be demystified; sport, fashion and leisure now lay claim to high cultural status." A grotesque fantasy? Anyone who thinks so should take a moment to recall the major exhibition called "High & Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture" that the Museum of Modern Art mounted a few years ago: it might have been called "Krazy Kat Meets Picasso." Few events can have so consummately summed up the corrosive trivialization of culture now perpetrated by those entrusted with preserving it. Among other things, that exhibition demonstrated the extent to which the apotheosis of popular culture undermines the very possibility of appreciating high art on its own terms.
When the distinction between culture and entertainment is obliterated, high art is orphaned, exiled from the only context in which its distinctive meaning can manifest itself: Picasso becomes a kind of cartoon. This, more than any elitism or obscurity, is the real threat to culture today. As Hannah Arendt once observed, "there are many great authors of the past who have survived centuries of oblivion and neglect, but it is still an open question whether they will be able to survive an entertaining version of what they have to say."
And this brings us to the question of freedom. Finkielkraut notes that the rhetoric of postmodernism is in some ways similar to the rhetoric of Enlightenment. Both look forward to releasing man from his "self-imposed immaturity." But there is this difference: Enlightenment looks to culture as a repository of values that transcend the self, postmodernism looks to the fleeting desires of the isolated self as the only legitimate source of value.
For the postmodernist, then, "culture is no longer seen as a means of emancipation, but as one of the élitist obstacles to this." The products of culture are valuable only as a source of amusement or distraction. In order to realize the freedom that postmodernism promises, culture must be transformed into a field of arbitrary "options." "The post-modern individual," Finkielkraut writes, "is a free and easy bundle of fleeting and contingent appetites. He has forgotten that liberty involves more than the ability to change one's chains, and that culture itself is more than a satiated whim."
What Finkielkraut has understood with admirable clarity is that modern attacks on elitism represent not the extension but the destruction of culture. "Democracy," he writes, "once implied access to culture for everybody. From now on it is going to mean everyone's right to the culture of his choice." This may sound marvelous -- it is after all the slogan one hears shouted in academic and cultural institutions across the country -- but the result is precisely the opposite of what was intended.
"'All cultures are equally legitimate and everything is cultural,' is the common cry of affluent society's spoiled children and of the detractors of the West." The irony, alas, is that by removing standards and declaring that "anything goes," one does not get more culture, one gets more and more debased imitations of culture. This fraud is the dirty secret that our cultural commissars refuse to acknowledge.
There is another, perhaps even darker, result of the undoing of thought. The disintegration of faith in reason and common humanity leads not only to a destruction of standards, but also involves a crisis of courage. "A careless indifference to grand causes," Finkielkraut warns, "has its counterpart in abdication in the face of force." As the impassioned proponents of "diversity" meet the postmodern apostles of acquiescence, fanaticism mixes with apathy to challenge the commitment required to preserve freedom.
Communism may have been effectively discredited. But "what is dying along with it is not the totalitarian cast of mind, but the idea of a world common to all men."
Julien Benda took his epigraph for La Trahison des clercs from the nineteenth-century French philosopher Charles Renouvier: Le monde souffre du manque de foi en une vérité transcendante : "The world suffers from lack of faith in a transcendent truth." Without some such faith, we are powerless against the depredations of intellectuals who have embraced the nihilism of Callicles as their truth.
1 The Treason of the Intellectuals, by Julien Benda, translated by Richard Aldington, was first published in 1928. This translation is still in print from Norton.
2 La Défaite de la pensée , by Alain Finkielkraut; Gallimard, 162 pages, 72 FF . It is available in English, in a translation by Dennis O'Keeffe, as The Undoing of Thought (The Claridge Press [London], 133 pages, £6.95 paper).
Roger Kimball is Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion and President and Publisher of Encounter Books. His latest book is The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (St. Augustine's Press).
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Oct 17, 2019 | www.unz.com
"If minorities prefer Sharia Law, then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law.
Russia does not need minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell "discrimination"
-Vladimir Putin
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Oct 13, 2019 | www.zerohedge.com
fliebinite , 1 hour ago link
Maybe the fastest way to reduce STDs is to stop promoting homosexuality in our schools. Since HIV inhibitors were created and HIV virtually cured, the gay community has been in overdrive on the sexual practices that causes most of the STDs on the report. Just like the 80's the doctors in these studies suggest a massive increase in spending across everyone when in fact, you can reduce the rate of these diseases massively by targeting this subsector of society that continues these filthy practices.
"In 2014, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men accounted for 83% of primary and secondary syphilis cases where sex of sex partner was known in the United States. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men often get other STDs, including chlamydia and gonorrhea infections. HPV (Human papillomavirus) , the most common STD in the United States, is also a concern for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. Some types of HPV can cause genital and anal warts and some can lead to the development of anal and oral cancers. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are 17 times more likely to get anal cancer than heterosexual men. Men who are HIV-positive are even more likely than those who do not have HIV to get anal cancer."
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Sep 26, 2019 | www.unz.com
The conservative movement's unwholesome obsession with Israel is not an entirely organic obsession to be sure. There is a whole lot of dark kosher oligarch money lurking behind the neoconservative cause, Christian Zionism, and the Reagan/Zioboomer battalion. Nevertheless, whether organic or not, the boomer generation's excessive regard for Israel is today authentic and undeniable. A strong fealty to Israel is deeply entrenched amongst boomer-generation conservatives. Indeed, when it comes to defending Israel and its conduct, many of these types are like samurais on meth. They don't seem to care at all if their entire state or city should devolve into a semi-anarchic New Somalia, but god forbid some Somali congresswoman should lambaste the sacred Jewish state. That simply can't be countenanced here in the land of the free!
Mind you, this article is not meant to constitute a polemic against Israel, or Jewish ethnopolitics for that matter. The BDS movement is just as wrongheaded as Ziocuckoldry, in my humble opinion. Although there is much wrong with Israel, there is plenty right with it as well. Despite what the modern left may believe, there is nothing inherently illegitimate about a state like Israel, one rooted in history, in genes, in religion, and in race. States built around a shared ethnicity or a shared religion (or, as in Israel's case, an ample helping of both) are generally more stable and successful than diverse societies erected upon propositions most people and peoples don't really accept, or leftist values that have ideological quicksand for their foundations.
With that said, there is something awfully peculiar, almost disturbing about the old guard's infatuation with Israel. I mean, why are American boomers so concerned about the Jewish state and its survival? How exactly does a tiny apartheidesque ethnostate half-way around the world affect their everyday lives? Are they simply mind-slaves to a mainstream media dominated by powerful Jews and powerful Jewish interest groups? Is this all really about scripture as Christian radio likes to contend? Or is there something else afoot here? Well, in short, there is.
White Westerners, white Americans in particular, are a thoroughly vassalized, deracinated people. We aren't allowed to celebrate our own race's host of historic accomplishments anymore. That would be racist. We aren't allowed to put our own people first either, as all other peoples do. That would likewise be racist. White Western peoples aren't even allowed to have nations of our own any longer, nations which exist to advance our interests, and which are populated by and overseen by people like us, who share our interests and our attitudes. That also would be, you guessed it, racist. Our very existence is increasingly little more than an unfortunate, racist obstacle to a brighter, more diverse future, in the eyes of the Cultural Marxist sociopaths who rule the Western World. Needless to say, most white Americans would rather be dead than racist, and so we are naturally, quite literally dying as a result.
The white American psyche has been tamed, broken as it were. Ziocucking is a symptom of that psychic injury. Because white boomers possess no group/tribal identity any longer, or collective will, or sense of race pride, or civilizational prospects, because they have been enserfed by a viciously anti-white Cultural Marxist overclass, they have opted to live vicariously through another race. White Americans can not, they must not, stake claim to an identity or a future of their own, so they have essentially committed themselves to another people's identity and future instead of their own. Indeed, just as the cuckold doesn't merely permit another man to penetrate his wife, but actually takes a kind of perverse pleasure in the pleasure of that other man, in large measure by fetishizing his dominance and sexual prowess, the Ziocuck likewise doesn't merely allow his civilization to be debased, he takes an equally perverse pleasure in the triumphs of other peoples and nations, and by so doing imagines, mistakenly of course, that America itself is still as free and proud a nation as those foreign nations he fetishizes.
Actually, Donald Trump's electoral victory is at least partially attributable to a very similar psychological phenomenon. White Americans, who have largely lost the self-confidence to stand behind their traditions and convictions, still had the gumption to vote for a man who possesses in oodles and cringy oodles, the self-same self-confidence they lack. White Americans are thus engaged in an almost unstated, indirect, vicarious defiance of Cultural Marxism via Trump/Trumpism, a tangible, albeit somewhat incoherent, symbol of open revolt against Western elites. The repressed group will of whites is longing for an authentic medium of civilizational expression, but can only find two-bit demagoguery and Israel worship. The weather is not fair in the white, Western mind.
Through this sordid, vicarious identitarianism, threats to Jewish lives become threats to their own white lives. Jewish interests become tantamount to their own interests. It is a sad sight to behold anyhow, a people with no sense of dignity or shame, too cowed by political correctness to stand up for their own group interests, too brainwashed to love themselves, too reprogrammed to be themselves, idolizing alien peoples. Nevertheless, the need for belonging in place, time, and history, and for collective purpose, doesn't just go away because Western elites say being white signifies nothing but "hate". As white civilization aborts and hedonizes itself into extinction, as whites practice suicidal altruism and absolute racial denialism, atomized white individuals seek out other histories, other stories, other peoples to attach themselves to and project themselves onto.
White Americans have thus foolishly come to see their own destiny as inseparable from the destiny of a people whose destiny they don't really share. After all, the birthrates of Jews in Israel are at well above replacement level . Israelis are optimistic about the future. As whites in the West fall on their proverbial sword to atone for their racist past, Jews in Israel are thriving. As whites in America suffer from various epidemics of despair , their fellow white Americans seem more interested in the imaginary plight of Israelis who can't stop winning military skirmishes, embarrassing their Arab enemies, and unlawfully acquiring land and resources in the Levant. The actual, visceral plight of their own people seems almost an afterthought to most white Americans. The whole affair is frankly bizarre and shameful.
This peculiar psychological phenomenon of vicarious identitarianism is at least partially responsible for the Zioboomer's undying devotion to Israel. Furthermore, that unwholesome obsession will not dissipate until whites reclaim their own history, rediscover their roots, learn to take their own side, and demand a place in the planet's future (yes, I said demand , since the white race's many enemies have no intention of saving a place for them or willingly handing them a say in that future). Until whites have a story and a spirit of their own, they will only, and can only, live through the identities and triumphs of other races. And perhaps most critically, they will continue to be a ghost people on the march to extinction.
nymom , says: September 26, 2019 at 4:24 am GMT
Well you are almost right.silviosilver , says: September 26, 2019 at 4:59 am GMTWe can say Israel is the canary in the coal mine for the US. Might be closer to the truth
A related phenomenon is Russia-cucking. White American conservatives who have seen through Jewish bullshit often seem to conclude that the racial predicament in America is hopeless, so they switch to Russia-cucking. Being pro-Russia is obviously more sensible than being pro-Israel, but it's nationalism by proxy all the same.
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Sep 24, 2019 | tech.slashdot.org
RightSaidFred99 ( 874576 ) , Monday September 23, 2019 @06:47PM ( #59228670 )Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) , Monday September 23, 2019 @07:14PM ( #59228786 )It's a real coincidence... ( Score: 4 , Interesting)It's just such a coincidence that the people Google tends to hire would be so high maintenance. Just one of those weird things I guess. Google should keep hiring the same people, I'm sure it will turn out different!
On the other hand, as someone over 40 who isn't a dramatic, hysterical weirdo like at least 30% of those under 35 are, I'm liking my job prospects over the next 15 years as employers get sick of this shit and notice a pattern. Wonder if they'll make "reverse age discrimination" a thing.
Re:It's a real coincidence... ( Score: 5 , Interesting)It's just such a coincidence that the people Google tends to hire would be so high maintenance. Just one of those weird things I guess. Google should keep hiring the same people, I'm sure it will turn out different!I'm no fan of Google (anymore) but to be fair, Google employs 103,459 people as of Q1 2019. 45 people throwing a fit is an acceptable margin considering their overall size.
I agree their is an issue with ageism but I disagree with the idea that it would reduce the number of people throwing a fit because nutcases come in all ages.
swillden ( 191260 ) writes: < [email protected] > on Monday September 23, 2019 @07:37PM ( #59228890 ) Homepage JournalRe:It's a real coincidence... ( Score: 5 , Interesting)It's just such a coincidence that the people Google tends to hire would be so high maintenance. Just one of those weird things I guess. Google should keep hiring the same people, I'm sure it will turn out different!OTOH, consider that Google has over 100K employees, and in a few months 45 such stories were collected... and the stories themselves cover a period of a couple of years. I don't want to minimize the issues suffered by any mistreated employee, but I find it hard to believe that any company could be so perfectly well-managed as to not have a couple dozen cases per year where employees were pretty badly treated. Or, as you imply, that a couple dozen employees might feel mistreated even when they aren't. I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt to the individuals.
As a Google employee myself I do have some concern about the alleged retaliation against the organizers of the walkout. That sort of thing could have a chilling effect on future protests (though I've seen no evidence of it so far), and I think that's a potential problem. It's important that employees feel free to protest actions by the company if a large enough percentage of them are bothered by it. Personally, I didn't join the walkout, but some others on my team did and I supported their action even though I didn't agree with their complaint.
On the other hand, as someone over 40 who isn't a dramatic, hysterical weirdo like at least 30% of those under 35 are, I'm liking my job prospects over the next 15 years as employers get sick of this shit and notice a pattern. Wonder if they'll make "reverse age discrimination" a thing.FWIW, in my nearly 10 years with Google I've seen no evidence of age discrimination. A large percentage of new hires are straight out of college (mostly grad school), which does skew the employee population young, but I'm in my 50s and I've worked with guys in their 60s and one in his mid-70s. Of course, my experience is anecdotal.
jebrick ( 164096 ) , Monday September 23, 2019 @07:10PM ( #59228770 )HR ( Score: 3 )As many people find out, HR is for the company, not for the employee.
beepsky ( 6008348 ) , Monday September 23, 2019 @07:19PM ( #59228814 )"Punished for reporting sexual jokes" ( Score: 3 , Interesting)"Punished for reporting sexual jokes"
Please keep doing this. People without a sense of humor are the worst, especially when they're cunts who report everybody whenever they don't get the job
imidan ( 559239 ) , Monday September 23, 2019 @08:07PM ( #59228982 )Re:"Punished for reporting sexual jokes" ( Score: 4 , Insightful)I'm a straight white guy, and I have worked with a guy who was a never-ending source of sexual and racist "jokes." I never reported him, but after a couple of months, I wished every time I worked with him that he'd just shut the fuck up and do his job. Any tactful suggestion that he do just that was met with more laughing, sneering, "it was only a joke" or "no, you don't get it." Yes, I got it, man. Your shitty old boomer joke about how you hate your ugly wife but want to fuck her anyway just wasn't funny. God, it was like a goddamn clown show you couldn't turn off. It wasn't even so much that I was offended by his shit; it was that he seemed to genuinely believe he was hilarious, and if you didn't think so, too, you had to endure his constant, pathetic attempts to make you feel somehow inferior for not appreciating his humor.
Anyway. People who mistakenly think they have a sense of humor are, indeed, the worst.
Anonymous Coward , Monday September 23, 2019 @08:12PM ( #59229000 )Re:LatinX? ( Score: 5 , Insightful)No. Consider the words "latino" and "latina." These are gender specific. The fact that they specify gender is a great harm. A great deal of mental gymnastics are necessary to perceive that harm, but it is possible.Yet in the same sentence they mention "female". You can't make this shit up.
Tailhook ( 98486 ) , Monday September 23, 2019 @07:31PM ( #59228868 )Re:Gaslighting? ( Score: 4 , Insightful)While gaslighting does indeed have a useful definition -- one that you can trivially learn for yourself and I won't repeat here -- that meaning won't be helpful in understanding the most common use of the word. Gaslighting is a term frequently used to blame someone else for the difficulty one suffers reconciling reality with the ones own cognitive dissonance.
AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) , Tuesday September 24, 2019 @04:52AM ( #59229990 ) Homepage JournalRe:Gaslighting? ( Score: 2 )It's a form of psychological abuse where the abuser acts as if something is true when it clearly isn't.
It's from a book where a character is driven mad by the people around her claiming the the gaslights are lit when she can clearly see that they are not. She starts to think that she must be losing her grip on reality if everyone else can see the gaslights but she can't.
It's not uncommon in abusive relationships, unfortunately.
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Sep 24, 2019 | slashdot.org
MrKaos ( 858439 ) , Tuesday September 17, 2019 @02:58AM ( #59202012 ) JournalKokuyo ( 549451 ) , Tuesday September 17, 2019 @03:50AM ( #59202094 ) JournalThe Shaming has to End ( Score: 5 , Insightful)That's not going to stop a PR disaster unless they do fire them. That's what being a social justice warrior is all about: Mass shaming.Point and shame. That's how you destroy careers and the standards of excellence that makes a nation. No evidence required, don't bother reading the deposition, the personal is the political, ad hominem attacks from beginning to end for defending someone (Minsky) that wasn't accused of anything .
With metoo backfiring so that men don't trust being alone in an office with a woman, feminism is looking a lot like a hate movement with the way they throw accusations of sex crime around in order to get their hit of indignation to maintain their moral superiority. Guilt by association, career destroyed, court of opinion adjourned.
Considering what RMS contributed not only to freedom but economic wealth you can see these people don't care who they destroy and it doesn't matter if you are innocent of all charges once your reputation is destroyed. Getting even isn't equality.
That's why this shaming of men must end.
Re:The Shaming has to End ( Score: 5 , Interesting)Muros ( 1167213 ) , Tuesday September 17, 2019 @07:10AM ( #59202434 )There is another reason this must end.
If they piss off men long enough, they're going to hit back with real patriarchy.
I mean just look at MGTOW... Instead of just being careful when choosing a mate, as they should have been taught to be anyway, they're just going in the opposite extreme. A considerable pool of men deciding to be bachelors is neither good for those men psychologically, nor is it good for the species.
The backlash will be just as dumb as what we're seeing right now. This is a social equivalent of England and France laying the groundwork for the second world war in Versailles.
The eradication of accountability is going to come back to haunt us for decades to come.
Re:The Shaming has to End ( Score: 4 , Interesting)Penguinisto ( 415985 ) , Tuesday September 17, 2019 @11:30AM ( #59203456 ) JournalA considerable pool of men deciding to be bachelors is neither good for those men psychologically, nor is it good for the species.I'm pretty sure studies have found that single men have better mental health than married men, but poorer physical health.
Re:The Shaming has to End ( Score: 4 , Insightful)Anonymous Coward , Tuesday September 17, 2019 @07:47AM ( #59202522 )I'm pretty sure studies have found that single men have better mental health than married men, but poorer physical health.Depends on who you marry (no, seriously). If you are as choosy as the ladies are, you find yourself far better off in the long run.
Re:Patriarchy ( Score: 5 , Interesting)Stoutlimb ( 143245 ) , Tuesday September 17, 2019 @08:10AM ( #59202578 )Never had a female president in the USLast time I looked more than half the US population is female and President is elected, so how is that a sign of the patriarchy?
the vast majority of corporate management is maleStudies have shown that men are more willing to put career ahead of family in an effort to move up the ranks. What is stopping women from doing the same thing?
women are paid less for equal workThis has been debunked in numerous studies. Women are not paid less for equal work but are paid less in general precisely because they don't do equal work and because during salary negotiations at hiring time they are, on average, less forceful in demanding a higher starting salary.
These reports claiming otherwise are looking solely at titles - oh Jane the Jr. Java Developer makes less than Joe the Jr. Java Developer, obviously the company is paying women less.
Let's not consider, however, that Jane only works 9-4 so she can be home with her kids, won't pull weekend duties or be on call late night, whereas Joe is in at 7, leaves at 6, works on weekends to meet deadlines and carries a pager 1 week out of 4. Also, let's not consider that when being hired Joe negotiated up from the offered $68k start to a starting salary of $75k as a base and Jane simply accepted the offered $68k.
Both were given the exact same opportunities, but Joe works harder, more hours and was willing to negotiate a hgher starting wage.
But let's not let facts get in the way of a good attack narrative shall we?
they cannot be priestsYes they can in many denominations, maybe not yours but others.
huge percentages of them have been rapedhuge is an overstatement, studies show it around 20%. Also if you look at the statistics [wikipedia.org] not all rapes are against women and not all rapes of women are by men.
and the list goes onAs does the continued mis-information campaign.
Re:Patriarchy ( Score: 5 , Informative)burtosis ( 1124179 ) writes: on Tuesday September 17, 2019 @09:12AM ( #59202814 )I would also like to add to your stats. Men in USA are raped more often and more brutally than women are. Yes, prison rape counts.
Re:Patriarchy ( Score: 4 , Interesting)jcr ( 53032 ) writes: < [email protected] > on Tuesday September 17, 2019 @08:14AM ( #59202590 ) JournalIf you approach any authority as a man and claim you were raped, not only will they likely laugh in your face, but probably harass you as well. Women are afraid of not being believed. Who really cares which gender is raped more often, is it too much to ask that the claims be taken seriously regardless of gender?
Re:Patriarchy ( Score: 5 , Insightful)Never had a female president in the US
If you want a female president, try nominating a decent female candidate. That criminal narcissist the Democrats came up with last time couldn't even beat Trump, for fuck's sake.
-jcr
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Sep 22, 2019 | www.unz.com
Anonymous [425] Disclaimer , says: September 22, 2019 at 1:05 am GMT
It's all so crazy. This is what goes by 'hate speech'. Truth is now hate. In a way, it makes sense because truth hates falsehood.
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Aug 25, 2019 | www.unz.com
Amanda , says: August 24, 2019 at 10:47 pm GMT
@Paul Tarsus Good question. Others have asked the same thing:https://consortiumnews.com/2019/08/22/the-missing-howls-of-denunciation-over-major-sex-trafficking/
I've always wondered if the whole MeToo movement was orchestrated by a hidden hand – same for those horrible pussy hats they came out with after Trump was elected.
It seemed like the MeToo was weaponized and ready to go when Kavanaugh was nominated (and I'm not a fan–he's connected to Bush and the Patriot Act). They brought out Dr. Chrissy Fraud and Julie Swetnick (who seemed quite mentally unstable with her accusations that Kavanaugh was connected to gang rape parties).
Back then Allyssa Milano and others were telling us that we must believe all women (so now guilty until proven innocent), but those same women have been completely silent when one of Epstein's accusers said she was forced to have sex with Bill Richardson (D) and George Mitchell (D), both of whom denied the allegations.
And, of course, such accusations were barely mentioned in the MSM.
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Jul 31, 2019 | www.strategic-culture.org
Doug Casey : The PC types say there are supposed to be 30 or 40 or 50 different genders -- it's a fluid number. It shows that wide swathes of the country no longer have a grip on actual physical, scientific reality. That's more than a sign of decline; it's a sign of mass psychosis.
There's no question that some males are wired to act like females and some females are wired to act like males. It's certainly a psychological aberration but probably has some basis in biology.
The problem is when these people politicize their psychological peculiarities, try to turn it into law, and force the rest of the society to grant them specially protected status.
Thousands of people every year go to doctors to have themselves mutilated so that they can become something else. Today they can often get the government or insurers to pay for it.
If you want to self-mutilate, that's fine; that's your business even if it's insane. To make other people pay for it is criminal. But it's now accepted as normal by most of society.
The acceptance of politically correct values -- "diversity," "inclusiveness" -- trigger warnings, safe spaces, gender fluidity, multiculturalism, and a whole suite of similar things that show how degraded society has become. Adversaries of Western civilization like the Mohammedan world and the Chinese justifiably see it as weak, even contemptible.
As with Rome, collapse really comes from internal rot.
Look at who people are voting for. It's not that Americans elected Obama once -- a mob can be swayed easily enough into making a mistake -- but they reelected him. It's not that New Yorkers elected Bill de Blasio once, but they reelected him by a landslide. All of the Democratic candidates out there are saying things that are actually clinically insane and are being applauded.
International Man : In fact, in the recent Democratic debate, candidate Julián Castro even mentioned giving government-funded abortions to transgender women -- biological men. It received one of the loudest bouts of applause from the audience.
That's not to mention that two other candidates spoke in broken Spanish when responding to the moderator's questions.
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Nov 10, 2016 | discussion.theguardian.com
JamesWonnacott , 10 Nov 2016 11:18
"And of course, they answer it by bashing immigrants and people of colour, vilifying Muslims, and degrading women."
Muslims, of course, never degrade women do they?
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Nov 10, 2016 | discussion.theguardian.com
dartmouth75, 10 Nov 2016 10:26
KelvinYearwood , 10 Nov 2016 10:30That ship has sailed. Bernie was the opportunity and it wasn't grasped. The moment for a 'left' alternative has been lost for a long time. The whole globalised liberal paradigm - allied to the metropolitan elite's obsession with identity politics at the expense of bottom-line issues - has been broken up by people who now realise centre-left politicians (Clinton/Obama) have presided over whole communities being gutted in the name of 'free' trade (for 'free' trade read labour arbitrage). I felt it in my bones that Trump would be elected - 55% of US households are worse off than they were in 2000, how on earth could anyone possibly think that that would result or a vote for the status quo.
rebuydonkey , 10 Nov 2016 10:31Well said Naomi.
I am an angry white male, and I am not a misogynist, as this paper would have it. I am fully aware of the appalling nature of Donald Trump.
On the other hand, I fully understand the bureaucratic nature of the Democrat Party, the embedded interests of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex in that bureaucracy, the dirty tricks that that bureaucratic machinery got up to in order to extinguish Bernie Sander's campaign.
I am aware of how that machinery has been ramping up a situation of global conflict, shamelessly recreating an aggressive Cold war Mk II situation with Russia and China, which is simply cover for the US racist colonial assumption that the world and its resources belongs to it in its sense of itself as an exceptional entity fulfilling its manifest destiny upon a global stage that belongs to its exceptional, wealthy and powerful elites.
And I am aware of how Hillary was so keen to service this reality and American image of itself. And to go beyond that, and bomb Libya for 6 months, killing thousands of civilians (Middle eastern unpeople) and, may I suggest, doing nothing whatsoever for the women of Libya. Quite the opposite!
Michael Moore, in a talk in which he predicted the victory of Trump before the election, notes how Trump went into an American car factory and told the executives of that company that if they relocated to Mexico, he would put a huge tax on their cars coming into America. Not all was misogyny in the vote for Trump. Whether he delivers on his threat or not, unlike the democrat bureaucratic machinery, he showed he was actually listening to working class Americans and that he was ;prepared to face up to company executives.
What has this paper got to say about Hillary and the Democrat Party's class bigotry – its demonstrable contempt for 10s of millions of Americans whose lives are worse now than in 1973, while productivity and wealth overall has skyrocketed over those 43 years.
What has this paper got to say about the lives of African American women, which have been devastated by Republican/Democrat bipartisan policy over the last 43 years?
What has Hadley Freeman got to say about Hillary's comment that President Mubarek of Egypt was "one of the family? A president whose security forces used physical and sexualised abuse of female demonstrators in the Arab Spring?
A feminist would need more than a peg on their nose to vote for Hillary – a feminist would need all the scented oils of Arabia. Perhaps Wahhabi funded Hillary can buy them up.
brianpreece -> rebuydonkeyGreat article. I think there needs to be a lot of soul searching in certain sections of the media and amongst the left wing political parties too. They don't have the correct approach to a rapidly changing ground swell of opinion. They are fast becoming out of touch - leaving a huge void for more conservative rhetoric (euphemism) to take over.
The failure to tackle immigration concerns across the west is the greatest example of comfy left wing elites being so far away from general consensus imo. The assumption that if you are concerned about immigration then you are a racist, xenophobic half wit appears rife amongst elites and the highly educated.
TeTsuo36 -> rebuydonkeyI agree that this is a great article. And I agree that there is a coming migration crisis that we need to be very worried about, as the refugees from the Middle East try desperately for a better life away from conflict zones and poverty. However, the right wing have very skilfully redirected the anger that SHOULD be directed at what Naomi cleverly calls the "Davos class" onto a very small "immigration" issue that we have in the UK today.
The evidence for this is that in the EU referendum, the areas that were most strongly Leave were generally speaking those with few or no immigrants. I campaigned for Remain here in Stockport where there are very few immigrants and I also campaign regularly against privatisation in the NHS and over and over again, I am told that immigrants are the problem in an area which has virtually none. I don't think that people are concerned about immigration are half wits, but I think they've been manipulated.
"Fear the stranger" is an evolutionary response buried deep in our brains that we need to control with rationality and it's such an easy button for the right wing to push. I grew up in Northern Ireland so I saw this at first hand. My grandfather was a highly intelligent technocrat, but he was also an Orangeman. He did not seem able to understand that the Catholics he knew and were his friends were the same "them" that he demonised. All progressive people need now to find a way, as Naomi's article says, to repoint this anger to where it belongs. Sorry if this makes me a comfy left wing elite!
zephirine -> brianpreeceIt is not going to happen. The holier than thou, supremacist arrogance of the illiberal class, means they can never admit they were wrong. Look at the past year here ATL and then BTL. Witness the absolute, unchanging and frankly extreme editorial line, in the face of massive discourse and well argued opposition BTL. Even now there are no alarm bells ringing in the back of their minds, they are right and everyone else is wrong. No attempt to understand, such is their unwavering belief in the echo chamber. You will only find an attempted programme of re-education in these pages. They will be still be doing it as Europe falls into the hands of the far-right.
ID3924525 , 10 Nov 2016 10:33It's all about jobs, really, isn't it? There is a natural fear of 'the other', but if times are good and jobs (proper jobs, not ZHC) are plentiful, it feels less important. On the face of it, it seems odd that the most fear of immigration is in places where there isn't much immigration, but they're often places where there isn't much work either.I campaigned for Remain here in Stockport where there are very few immigrants and I also campaign regularly against privatisation in the NHS and over and over again, I am told that immigrants are the problem in an area which has virtually none. I don't think that people are concerned about immigration are half wits, but I think they've been manipulated. "Fear the stranger" is an evolutionary response buried deep in our brains that we need to control with rationality and it's such an easy button for the right wing to push.
OhReallyFFS , 10 Nov 2016 10:34Here is what we need to understand: a hell of a lot of people are in pain. Under neoliberal policies of deregulation, privatisation, austerity and corporate trade, their living standards have declined precipitously. They have lost jobs. They have lost pensions. They have lost much of the safety net that used to make these losses less frightening. They see a future for their kids even worse than their precarious present.
Yes. But, in the meantime, the system has become so right-wing that it only permits a right-wing outburst - a Social-Democratic one is instantly discredited by the totalitarian media outlets.
There is no way to articulate an effective response to this attack within the system.
tomandlu -> OhReallyFFS 2 3As usual Klein seems to make more sense than anyone else.
This paper needs to decide where it's going to stand politically for the next few years.
Rights are important, but identity politics contain too much whimsy and focus on the self.
SaintTimothy , 10 Nov 2016 11:01Yes, but they're politically and economically cheap, don't require much thought, and you get to hang out with pop-stars.
This article is spot on except that both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren jumped on the Clinton neoliberal train for reasons of political expediency. From now on, anything either of them say should be critically examined before being supported.
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Nov 10, 2016 | discussion.theguardian.com
In order to justify the unjustifiable (a corporate elite exploiting the world as their own private estate), they constructed an artificial equivalence to make it seem that their self-interested economic system was part and parcel of a package of 'democracy', 'multi-racial tolerance', 'LGBT tolerance' etc, so that people would be fooled into thinking that rejecting the economics meant rejecting all the other things too.
George Soros' "Open Society Foundation'" is a key offender here. The false consciousness thus engendered does indeed set the scene for fascism, but a genuine left opposition can and needs to be built and we can only hope that we can succeed in so doing.
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Jul 01, 2019 | www.moonofalabama.org
karlof1 , Jun 30, 2019 6:16:41 PM | 51
Kamala Harris's Hillaryesque tweet re Trump meeting Kim at DMZ:"This President should take the North Korean nuclear threat and its crimes against humanity seriously. This is not a photo-op. Our security and our values are at stake."
Comments on the thread are telling, and she's not fooling anyone.
VietnamVet , Jun 30, 2019 8:11:02 PM | 76
Thank goodness that there is one place where Globalism, Boeing, and Kamala Harris can be discussed. From the bottom, looking up, they are intertwined. Corporate media strictly ignores the restoration of the robber baron aristocracy, the supremacy of trade treaties, the endless wars for profit, the free flow of capital, and corrupted governments. The sole purpose is to make the rich richer at the expense of everyone else.uncle tungsten , Jul 1 2019 8:07 utc | 121There are many tell-tale signs that this is an apt description of the world. With deregulation and outsourcing, there is no incentive to design and build safe airplanes. That costs money. Two 737 Max(s) crash killing 346. Workplaces are toxic. The life expectancy in the UK and USA is declining. The US dollar is used as a military weapon. Monopolies buy up innovation. Corporate law breaking is punished by fines which are added to the cost of doing business. There is no jail time for chief executives. The cost of storm damage is increasing. Families are migrating to survive. Nationalist and globalist oligarchs are fighting over the spoils. Last week the global economy was 10 minutes away from collapse by an American air attack on Iran.
Kamala Harris is multi-cultural, East Indian and Jamaican, globalist educated in the USA and Canada. To be elected and earn rewards she identifies herself as an African-American. Neo-Populism and France's Yellow Vests are the direct response to global capitalism that is supported by Corporate Democrats, New Labour Party, and Emmanuel Macron. The rise of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in response is no coincidence.
snake #97Why burden b when you can read this by Caitlin Johnston: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/kamala-harris-is-everything-the-establishment-wants-in-a-politician/
especially read this by Helen Hanna in the comments section:
kamala looked aside while wells fargo bank established 3 million fraudulent accounts while she was attorney general of california. she did nothing to punish them. she might as well be wearing a hillary mask. as someone who lived in the bay area for 31 years, i remember her on the 'matier and ross' interview program--her performance was juvenile and silly--- and i remember her being willing to join the parade of willie brown's cocaine addicted mistresses,. as number 21 and as a woman of color, she was a relief---not white, not skanky, no silver cocaine spoon around her neck while pretending to eat dinner at chez michel with willie, but why on earth would you want to join this parade and go out with this sleazy man whose kiton suits do not improve his image one bit, a politician who offended the san francisco public by his obnoxious habit of publicly flaunting his many skanky female hangers on, and reveling in their 'whiteness.' what a bad choice kamala made. remember that pelosi and feinstein wouldn't let willie brown anywhere near the inauguration podium of barack obama because these women did not want willie's offensive background to sully obama. willie had had an illegitimate child while 'serving as' mayor of san francisco, a city of 500 churches, mostly catholic. the catholic church continued to retain him in the role --'of counsel.' that was astounding to me, absolutely astounding.... willie also laundered drug money in a sutter street garage with his haberdasher, wilkes bashford, but dianne feinstein prevented him from being jailed. i can just see the sisterhood at temple emanuel where dianne feinstein worships--i can just see them admonishing her for even suggesting one of serial adulterer willie's former mistresses be the first woman president....is that why senator feinstein is keeping such a low profile lately? what i don't understand is why pelosi and feinstein keep bringing us these puppet-like women----hillary will always be bill's puppet and kamala will be willie's puppet. you cannot possibly choose two more sleazy, obnoxious men to be your superior.
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Jun 28, 2019 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Originally from: We’ve Seen the Debates–And What Could Be Our Future The American Conservative
... ... ...
Those emotions erupted in the Thursday debate when Kamala Harris took on Biden for his earlier remarks about the old days of the Senate when he could work collaboratively with Southern segregationists such as Alabama's James Eastland. Harris said it was "very hurtful" to hear Biden "talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputation and career on the segregation of race in this country." She scored Biden also for working with such senators in opposition to busing for racial balance in schools during the 1970s.
"Do you agree today, do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America then? Do you agree?" she asked with considerable emotion in her voice. She added it was a personal matter with her given that she had benefited from busing policies as a young girl.
Biden retorted: "A mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists." He added that he never opposed busing as a local policy arrived at through local politics, but didn't think it should be imposed by the federal government. "That's what I opposed," he said.
The exchange accentuated the extent to which racial issues are gaining intensity in America and roiling the nation's politics to a greater extent than in the recent past. Biden's point, as he sought to explain, was that there was a day when senators of all stripes could work together on matters of common concern even when they disliked and opposed each other's fundamental political outlook. That kind of approach could point the way, he implied, to a greater cooperative spirit in Washington and to breaking the current political deadlock suffused with such stark animosities. But that merely stirred further animosities, raising questions about whether today's political rancor in Washington can be easily or soon ameliorated.
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Jun 24, 2019 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Our deranged media continue their propaganda offensive. Here is a Houston TV station celebrating the sexualization of a little boy, whose parents ought to be ashamed of themselves. We have completely lost our moral minds.
This is true:
I long thought the sexualization of little girls in beauty pageants had become gross, and until recently there seemed to be a growing consensus about that. Now the sexualization of little boys dressed as girls is a cause of great celebration. Count me out. https://t.co/j7nVQkRJEX
-- Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) June 22, 2019
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Meanwhile, a cosmetic surgeon in Baltimore is purportedly offering to lop off women's breasts -- including the breasts of teenage girls -- at a discount, to celebrate Pride month:
1. Latest leak from our source in the affirming parents Facebook group: Dr. Beverly Fischer in Baltimore, MD is offering a $750 discount on double mastectomies if booked during Pride month, according to this mother. pic.twitter.com/Od9w0TFXPp
-- 4thWaveNow (@4th_WaveNow) June 22, 2019
No kidding -- the surgeon tweeted this out herself:
June is PRIDE MONTH! Celebrate with a $750 discount on our Top Surgery procedure! #plasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgery #genderaffirmation #gendertransition #FTM #DrBevsBoys pic.twitter.com/6tuPy8tl1v
-- Dr. Beverly Fischer (@BeverlyAFischer) June 7, 2019
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Discount breast-lopping to celebrate a holiday -- is that not the most American thing ever? And you used to think two-for-one radial tire sales for Washington's Birthday were trashy! Can't you just feel the pride?
We are a sick civilization that deserves to be punished.
Nate J • 19 hours ago
A "pride month" sale on plastic surgery to mutilate children's breasts is the most "snapshot of America in 2019" story imaginable. Welcome to the brave new world, where the neoliberal obsession with consumerism (and the reduction of all human experience to markets) meets prog-left social chaos. What an unholy union.
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Jun 11, 2019 | www.zerohedge.com
... ... ...
What we have here is a clash of values.
What one side believes is preserving the God-given right to life for the unborn, the other regards as an assault on the rights of women.
The clash raises questions that go beyond our culture war to what America should stand for in the world.
"American interests and American values are inseparable," Pete Buttigieg told Rachel Maddow.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Claremont Institute:
"We have had too little courage to confront regimes squarely opposed to our interests and our values."
Are Pompeo and Mayor Pete talking about the same values?
The mayor is proudly gay and in a same-sex marriage. Yet the right to same-sex marriage did not even exist in this country until the Supreme Court discovered it a few years ago.
In a 2011 speech to the U.N., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "Gay rights are human rights," and she approved of U.S. embassies flying the rainbow flag during Pride Month.
This year, Mike Pompeo told the U.S. embassy in Brazil not to fly the rainbow flag. He explained his concept of his moral duty to the Christian Broadcasting Network, "The task I have is informed by my understanding of my faith, my belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior."
The Christian values Pompeo espouses on abortion and gay rights are in conflict with what progressives now call human rights.
And the world mirrors the American divide.
There are gay pride parades in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but none in Riyadh and Mecca. In Brunei, homosexuality can get you killed.
To many Americans, diversity -- racial, ethnic, cultural, religious -- is our greatest strength.
Yet Poland and Hungary are proudly ethnonationalist. South Korea and Japan fiercely resist the racial and ethnic diversity immigration would bring. Catalans and Scots in this century, like Quebecois in the last, seek to secede from nations to which they have belonged for centuries.
Are ethnonationalist nations less righteous than diverse nations likes ours? And if diversity is an American value, is it really a universal value?
Consider the treasured rights of our First Amendment -- freedom of speech, religion and the press.
Saudi Arabia does not permit Christian preachers. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, converts to Christianity face savage reprisals. In Buddhist Myanmar, Muslims are ethnically cleansed.
These nations reject an equality of all faiths, believing instead in the primacy of their own majority faith. They reject our wall of separation between religion and state. Our values and their values conflict.
What makes ours right and theirs wrong? Why should our views and values prevail in what are, after all, their countries?
Under our Constitution, many practices are protected - abortion, blasphemy, pornography, flag-burning, trashing religious beliefs - that other nations regard as symptoms of a disintegrating society.
When Hillary Clinton said half of all Trump supporters could be put into a "basket of deplorables" for being "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic," she was conceding that many Trump's supporters detest many progressive values.
True, but in the era of Trump, why should her liberal values be the values America champions abroad?
With secularism's triumph, we Americans have no common religion, no common faith, no common font of moral truth. We disagree on what is right and wrong, moral and immoral. Without an agreed-upon higher authority, values become matters of opinion. And ours are in conflict and irreconcilable.
Understood. But how, then, do we remain one nation and one people?
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Aug 01, 2017 | www.amazon.com
Q Garcia , August 9, 2017
1984 is Here - Everybody's Brother is WatchingBrumble Buffin , August 18, 2015This book covers our current inability to allow all voices to be heard. Key words like "racism " and "?-phobia" (add your preference) can and do end conversations before they begin .
Hate speech is now any speech about an idea that you disagree with. As we go down the road of drowning out some speech eventually no speech will be allowed. Finger pointers should think about the future, the future when they will be silenced. It's never wrong to listen to different point of view. That's called learning.
.0 out of 5 stars A Professor's Review of the Outrage Circus (and the first non-Vine review :-)Tolerance gone astraySteve Bicker , August 1, 2015I became interested in this book after watching Megyn Kelly's interview with Benson (Google it), where he gave his thoughts on the SCOTUS decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states. He made a heartfelt and reasoned plea for tolerance and grace on BOTH sides. He hit it out of the park with this and set himself apart from some of his gay peers who are determined that tolerance is NOT a two-way street.
We are seeing a vindictive campaign of lawsuits and intimidation against Christian business people who choose not to provide flowers and cakes for same-sex weddings. The First Amendment says that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Thumbing your nose at this core American freedom should alarm us all. Personally, I'm for traditional marriage and I think the better solution would be to give civil unions the same legal rights and obligations as marriage, but that's another discussion.
So what about the book? It exceeded my expectations. Ham and Benson are smart and articulate. Their ideas are clearly presented, supported by hard evidence and they are fair and balanced. The book is a pleasure to read - - unless you are a die-hard Lefty. In that case, it may anger you, but anger can be the first step to enlightenment.
A Well Documented Death of DebateA very clear and balanced portrait of the current political landscape where a "minority of one" can be supposedly damaged as a result of being exposed to "offensive" ideas.
A well documented journey of the transformation from a time when people had vehement arguments into Orwell-Land where the damage one supposedly "suffers" simply from having to "hear" offensive words, allows this shrieking minority to not only silence those voices, but to destroy the lives of the people who have the gall to utter them.
The Left lays claim to being the "party of tolerance", unless you happen to "think outside THEIR box", which, to the Left is INtolerable and must not only be silenced, but exterminated... A great book!
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Jun 03, 2019 | russia-insider.com
Walter • 2 months ago ,
Isabella Jones Walter • 2 months ago ,Rachel is the grand daughter of a Lithuanian (J) what else would you expect her to be but anti-Russia?
Jasaah • 2 months ago ,The brilliant American physicist, Nobel prize winner, Richard Feynham was also descended from LIthuanian Jews.He had no time for any religion, and refused all aspects of Jewishness. He was a brilliant mant who contributed much to American Science.
Don't make generalisations based on race. Every race has demons and devil, and brilliant angels, and all points in between.
Rachel Maddow is garbage. She is godless and without any principles, honor, or dignity.
Unfortunately, she probably represents at least 50% of the US population these days.
- Orthodox Christian Palestinian
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May 08, 2019 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Too often caught between Randian individualism on one hand and big-government collectivism on the other, America's working-class parents need a champion.
They might well have had one in Elizabeth Warren, whose 2003 book, The Two-Income Trap , co-authored with her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi, was unafraid to skewer sacred cows. Long a samizdat favorite among socially conservative writers, the book recently got a new dose of attention after being spotlighted on the Right by Fox News's Tucker Carlson and on the Left by Vox's Matthew Yglesias .
The book's main takeaway was that two-earner families in the early 2000s seemed to be less, rather than more, financially stable than one-earner families in the 1970s. Whereas stay-at-home moms used to provide families with an implicit safety net, able to enter the workforce if circumstances required, the dramatic rise of the two-earner family had effectively bid up the cost of everyday life. Rather than the additional income giving families more breathing room, they argue, "Mom's paycheck has been pumped directly into the basic costs of keeping the children in the middle class."
Warren and Warren Tyagi report that as recently as the late 1970s, a married mother was roughly twice as likely to stay at home with her children than work full-time. But by 2000, those figures had almost reversed. Both parents had been pressed into the workforce to maintain adequate standards of living for their families -- the "two-income trap" of the book's title. Advertisement
What caused the trap to be sprung? Cornell University economist Francine Blau has helpfully drawn a picture of women's changing responsiveness to labor market wages during the 20th century. In her work with Laurence Kahn, Blau found that women's wage elasticities -- how responsive their work decisions were to changes in their potential wages -- used to be far more heavily driven by their husband's earning potential or lack thereof (what economists call cross-wage elasticity). Over time, Blau and Kahn found, women's responsiveness to wages -- their own or their husbands -- began to fall, and their labor force participation choices began to more closely resemble men's, providing empirical backing to the story Warren and Warren Tyagi tell.
Increasing opportunity and education were certainly one driver of this trend. In 1960, just 5.8 percent of all women over age 25 had a bachelor's degree or higher. Today, 41.7 percent of mothers aged 25 and over have a college degree. Many of these women entered careers in which they found fulfillment and meaning, and the opportunity costs, both financially and professionally, of staying home might have been quite high.
But what about the plurality of middle- and working-class moms who weren't necessarily looking for a career with a path up the corporate ladder? What was pushing them into full-time work for pay, despite consistently telling pollsters they wished they could work less?
The essential point, stressed by Warren and Warren Tyagi, was the extent to which this massive shift was driven by a desire to provide for one's children. The American Dream has as many interpretations as it does adherents, but a baseline definition would surely include giving your children a better life. Many women in America's working and middle classes entered the labor force purely to provide the best possible option for their families.
Fran Macadam April 4, 2019 at 4:34 pm
She Woke up.Tim , says: April 4, 2019 at 7:19 pmCareerism trumps sanity. In the age of #MeToo, it's got to be all about me.
Warren's academic work and cheeky refusal to fold under pressure when her nomination as Obama's consumer ('home ec.'?) finance czar was stymied by the GOP are worthy of respect. I'd like to see her make a strong run at the dem nomination, but am put off by her recent tendency to adopt silly far-left talking points and sentiments (her Native DNA, advocating for reparations, etc.). Nice try, Liz, but I'm still leaning Bernie's direction.K squared , says: April 5, 2019 at 7:05 amAs far as the details of the economic analysis related above, though, I am unqualified to make any judgment – haven't read the book. But one enormously significant economic development in the early 70s wasn't mentioned at all, so I assume she and her daughter passed it over as well. In his first term R. Milhouse Nixon untethered, once & for all, the value of the dollar from traditional hard currency. The economy has been coming along nicely ever since, except for one problematic aspect: with a floating currency we are all now living in an economic environment dominated by the vicissitudes of supplies and demands, are we not? It took awhile to effect the housing market, but signs of the difference it made began to emerge fairly quickly, and accelerated sharply when the tides of globalism washed lots of third world lucre up on our western shores. Now, as clearly implied by both Warren and the author of this article, young Americans whose parents may not have even been born back then – the early 70s – are probably permanently priced out of the housing market in places that used to have only a marginally higher cost of entry – i.e. urban California, where I have lived and worked for most of my nearly 60 years. In places like this even a 3-earner income may not suffice! Maybe we should bring back the gold standard, because it seems to me that as long as unfettered competition coupled to supply/demand and (EZ credit $) is the underlying dynamic of the American economy we're headed for the New Feudalism. Of course, nothing could be more conservative than that, right? What say you, TAColytes?
"Funny that policy makers never want to help families by taking a little chunk out of hedge funds and shareholders and vulture capitalists and sharing it with American workers."Funny that Warren HAS brought up raising taxes on the rich.
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May 06, 2019 | www.unz.com
Multiculturalism means that you confer political privileges on many an individual whose illiberal practices run counter to, even undermine, the American political tradition.
Radical leaders across the U.S. quite seriously consider Illegal immigrants as candidates for the vote -- and for every other financial benefit that comes from the work of American citizens.
The rights of all able-bodied idle individuals to an income derived from labor not their own: That, too, is a debate that has arisen in democracy, where the demos rules like a despot.
But then moral degeneracy is inherent in raw democracy. The best political thinkers, including America's constitution-makers, warned a long time ago that mass, egalitarian society would thus degenerate.
What Bernie Sanders prescribes for the country -- unconditional voting -- is but an extension of "mass franchise," which was feared by the greatest thinkers on Democracy. Prime Minister George Canning of Britain, for instance.
Canning, whose thought is distilled in Russell Kirk's magnificent exegesis, "The Conservative Mind," thought that "the franchise should be accorded to persons and classes insofar as they possess the qualifications for right judgment and are worthy members of their particular corporations."
By "corporations," Canning (1770-1827) meant something quite different to our contemporary, community-killing multinationals.
"Corporations," in the nomenclature of the times, meant very plainly in "the spirit of cooperation, based upon the idea of a neighborhood. [C]ities, parishes, townships, professions, and trades are all the corporate bodies that constitute the state."
To the extent that an individual citizen is a decent member of these " little platoons " (Edmund Burke's iridescent term), he may be considered, as Canning saw it, for political participation.
"If voting becomes a universal and arbitrary right," cautioned Canning, "citizens become mere political atoms, rather than members of venerable corporations; and in time this anonymous mass of voters will degenerate into pure democracy," which, in reality is "the enthronement of demagoguery and mediocrity." ("The Conservative Mind," p. 131.)
That's us. Demagoguery and mediocrity are king in contemporary democracies, where the organic, enduring, merit-based communities extolled by Canning, no longer exists and are no longer valued.
This is the point at which America finds itself and against which William Lecky, another brilliant British political philosopher and politician, argued.
The author of "Democracy and Liberty" (1896) predicted that "the continual degradation of the suffrage" through "mass franchise" would end in "a new despotism."
Then as today, radical, nascent egalitarians, who championed the universal vote abhorred by Lecky, attacked "institution after institution," harbored "systematic hostility" toward "owners of landed property" and private property and insisted that "representative institutions" and the franchise be extended to all irrespective of "circumstance and character."
... ... ... "
Ilana Mercer has been writing a weekly, paleolibertarian column since 1999. She is the author of Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa (2011) & The Trump Revolution: The Donald's Creative Destruction Deconstructed " (June, 2016). She's back on Twitter , after being suspended, and is also on Facebook , Gab & YouTube
imbroglio , says: April 27, 2019 at 1:24 pm GMT
The franchise should be granted by whom? You're forgetting the 800 pound gorilla and where he sits when he enters the room. Franchises and every other grant are granted by those who have the power to grant them.anonymous [340] Disclaimer , says: April 27, 2019 at 2:01 pm GMTCanning's "organic, enduring, merit-based communities" will emerge, in ghastly form, as the solipsistic constituencies of identity politics. Why do people like Omar laugh at America and Americans? "Here's a people so stupid as to clasp the adder to its breast. You're clasping? I'm biting."
Bernie is utopian. Utopians do terrible things if and when they have the power to do them. But you can't fault him for insincerity.
The younger Tsarnaev who hid out near my home town was doing what his older brother told him to do assuming that the bombing wasn't a false flag. Not an excuse. Only to say the kid had no political convictions and probably wouldn't bother to vote if he could.
Sanders is just a wine and cheese socialist, totally an armchair theorist. He has no background in actually doing anything besides being involved in politics which has provided a living for him. It's doubtful he could run a couple of Walmarts. This is his last go-around and he's out to see how much in contributions he can garner. Pushing the edge, theoretically of course, keeps him in the conversation. He's worthless but such is the state of politics where characters like him, Biden, and the rest of the Dem lineup could be taken seriously. Just one big clown show.hamtok , says: May 5, 2019 at 6:15 pm GMT@Jim Bob Lassiter Yes, but, his wife could steal money from a collapsing college to serve her daughter. Corruption must run in the family as Bernie has been conspicuously silent on this subject. He must feel the Burn!
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May 05, 2019 | www.unz.com
It is a simple fact that females are more "emotionally unstable" than males. Psychological analyses all agree that by the time females reach adulthood, they are significantly higher in the personality trait "Neuroticism" than are males of the same age. [See Age differences in personality traits from 10 to 65: Big Five domains and facets in a large cross-sectional sample , by C. Soto et al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011].
Neuroticism is characterized by "feeling negative feelings strongly," with the opposite of Neuroticism being "Emotional Stability." Such "Negative Feelings" include sadness, anger and jealousy. But females score particularly strongly on "anxiety" -- possibly because, in prehistory, the children of anxious, protective mothers were less likely to get seriously injured. But the key point is that the stereotype is correct.
And people are also correct to think that women -- that is, those who, on average, score higher in Neuroticism -- will be less able to cope in the brutal world of power-politics.
Successful politicians -- the ones who get into their country's legislature but don't make it to the very top -- score significantly lower than the general public in Neuroticism, according to research published in the leading psychology journal Personality and Individual Differences . [ The personalities of politicians: A big five survey of American legislators , by Richard Hanania , 2017]
And this research reveals something very interesting indeed. These "successful politicians," while being more emotionally stable than most voters, score higher in the personality traits Extraversion ("feeling positive feelings strongly"), Conscientiousness ("rule-following and impulse control") and Agreeableness ("altruism and empathy").
But this does not tend to be true of those who reach the very top of politics -- and especially not of those who are perceived as great, world-changing statesmen. They tend to be highly intelligent but above average on quite the opposite personality traits – psychopathology and Narcissism [ Creativity and psychopathology , by F. Post British Journal of Psychiatry, 1994]. However, high Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Extraversion are true of successful politicians in general.
In much the same way, run-of-the-mill scientists are above average in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness but genius scientists combine being relatively low in these traits with stratospheric intelligence. This gives them creativity, drive and fearless to be original. [ At Our Wits' End , by Edward Dutton and Michael Woodley of Menie, 2018, Ch. 6]
This is important, because these are typically female traits: women score higher than men in Agreeableness, Consciousness and Extraversion. This means that, in general, we would expect the relatively few females who do reach high political office to be fairly atypical women: low in mental instability and certainly moderately low in altruism, empathy or both -- think Margaret Thatcher , who according to Keith Patching in his 2006 book Leadership, Character and Strategy, was organizing her impending Bar Finals from her hospital bed having just had twins; or even Theresa May. Neither of these British Prime Ministers have (or had) neither of whom have particularly "feminine" personalities, though they may reflect (or have reflected) very pronounced Conscientiousness, a trait associated with social conservatism. [ Resolving the "Conscientiousness Paradox" , by Scott A. McGreal, Psychology Today , July 27, 2015]
But, sometimes, a female politician's typically anxiety will apparently be " compensated " for i.e. overwhelmed by her having massively high Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. This likely occurred in the case of Jacinda Ardern, who suffers from intense anxiety to the point of having being hospitalized.
This will become a problem in a time of crisis when, as happened with Ardern, such a politician will become over-emotional. This, combined with very high empathy, would seem to partly explain Ardern's self-identification with New Zealand's Muslims to the extent of donning a head scarf and breaking down in public.
But it also explains why females, on average, tend to be more left-wing than males and more open to refugees. They feel empathy and even sadness for the plight of the refugees more strongly than do men [ Young women are more left wing than men, study reveals, by Rosalind Shorrocks, The Conversation, May 3, 2018
This means that there will be a tendency for females to push politics Leftwards and make it more about empathy and other such "feelings." It also means that, in a serious crisis, they may well even empathize with the enemy.
In that gay men are generally feminized males, this problem help would to explain why people are skeptical of the suitability of homosexual men for supposedly "masculine" professions (such as politics) [ The extreme male brain theory of autism, by Simon Baron-Cohen, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2002], sometimes including political office. [ The Hidden Psychology of Voting, by Zaria Gorvett, BBC News , May 6, 2015]
Supporters of gay Democrat Pete Buttigieg 's campaign for his party's presidential nomination [ Protester Shouts "Sodom and Gomorrah" at Gay 2020 Dem Pete Buttigieg, by Tyler O'Neil, PJ Media, April 17, 2019] should, perhaps, take note . . .
freedom-cat , says: April 29, 2019 at 7:34 am GMT
What about Science and Technology? Are they suited for that? Maybe science could use a little more wisdom and conscientiousness.Ray Woodcock , says: Website April 29, 2019 at 6:46 pm GMTJ Robert Oppenheimer, the genius Physics professor, was known to be "temperamental" and not suited for high stress assignment. So, along with several other genius's, some who came over from Germany, he presided over the making of the A-bomb. Hallelujah just kidding.
There's an excellent book that covers J Robert Oppenheimer and the making of the A-bomb called "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer".
The guy was totally volatile and emotionally unstable. While in school he left a knife in an apple on his teacher's desk that he did not like.After the bomb was dropped on JAPAN, in a documentary much later, he is shown with tears in his eyes quoting the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds".
A couple decades or so later there were interviews of some of these guys who were part of the project and they were crying. They had the GENIUS to build such a monstrosity, but seemed to have failed to understand the impact it would make on the world; breaking down in tears when talking about it. They had no clue or ability of Foreknowledge. What would have happened if more women were on the team? Would we all be annihilated by now? Or maybe no a-bomb would have been made? Who knows .
Interesting. And I appreciate the citations to sources. But I find that interpretation of psychiatric traits is a bit like reading tea leaves: there is a temptation to cherry-pick one's preferred quotes and conclusions. For me, this article would have been stronger if it had followed a recognized authority's path through the Big Five personality traits.SOL , says: April 29, 2019 at 9:24 pm GMTFeminism is dyscivic.You can't handle the truth , says: May 1, 2019 at 4:29 am GMTIt seems rather unfair to pick a moron like Jacinda Ardern to represent all female politicians. And even though when it comes to foreign policy, I'll take a Tulsi Gabbard over any male politician like Rubio, Graham, Schumer, Pence, Trump, Pompeo, Bolton any day, I will have to say, in general, you're right, the crop of female politicians we've seen today do not inspire confidence in women as politicians, not just in the US but Merkel, May yikes. But women had been good heads of states in the past, like Margaret Thatcher and Queen Victoria. But they were the exceptions rather than the rule.Anon [192] Disclaimer , says: May 1, 2019 at 4:32 am GMTAlso agree that gays make for bad politicians. Even though their moral degeneracy and drama queen antics make politics look like a natural fit, their extreme narcissism means they will always get sidetracked and can't stay focused. The only thing any gay man cares about is his gayness. Plus no one outside the western world will ever give them an ounce of respect. Picture Buttplug showing up in a muslim country as POTUS, with his husband! Either they'll get stoned to death which will get us into war or the US will be the laughing stock of the world. And then of course he'd have to go bomb some country just to prove his manhood, getting us into more unnecessary wars. No gays for politics, ever.
Are Homosexuals Suited for Politics?Dan Hayes , says: May 1, 2019 at 4:49 am GMTApparently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harden–Eulenburg_affairhttps://www.google.com/search?q=lavender+mafia
Oh, you really meant to ask Are Homosexuals Suited for Governance?
@freedom-cat freedom-cat:SafeNow , says: May 1, 2019 at 4:49 am GMTThere has been a very successful effort to paint Oppenheimer as a secular saint. But Princeton's John Archibald Wheeler stated that he never trusted Oppenheimer. So what? Because JAW was notorious for otherwise saying nice things about almost everyone else, especially his academic rivals. Also JAW happily and productively worked on the US H-bomb project which was embargoed by Oppenheimer and his many disciples.
I agree with the point made above, that, in our nuclear age, behavior in a crisis is the most important personality trait. I think that men's crisis-calmness can suffer from macho/ego, and with women, from anxiety and panic. Democratic candidate Amy K reportedly throws things when angry, and to me, this is disqualifying. Assuming no nuclear destruction, the analysis is this: We have devolved into a gigantic banana republic/soft dictatorship; whose personality constellation is best suited to politics in a banana republic?Thomm , says: May 5, 2019 at 4:34 am GMTNo female leader of any country, ever, has been particularly good, except one.Nicolás Palacios Navarro , says: Website May 5, 2019 at 4:39 am GMTAnd that one was only because she was fortunate enough to be the PM of the UK at the same time as Ronald Reagan was President of the US. He was handholding every single decision of hers. Reagan was effectively running two countries (the #1 and #4 largest GDPs in the world at that time). At least she was smart enough to let him tell her exactly what to do.
Given this dataset, no, women are not suitable for very high political office.
Is Ardern still wearing that hijab in order to cynically manipulate her insipid voters? AnywayTeacup , says: May 5, 2019 at 5:03 am GMTI have come to realize that women, on the whole, tend to be poorly suited to many traditionally male-doninated activities. Politics, for sure. Very few good, dependable female politicians come to mind. But the list at my immediate recall that are emotional, vapid, destructive slobs -- Angela Merkel, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Eva Perón, Michelle Bachelet, Isabel Allende Bussi, Annie Lööf, Anne Hidalgo, Ursula von der Leyen, Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Rashida Tlaïb, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, et al -- seems practically limitless. Not only is the fairer sex not adept at political leadership, but they are ill-suited to even vote rationally. The weakness of Anglo-American men's resolve against the suffragettes was the beginning of the end.
Preeminent excellence seems to elude the grasp of women in a number of other careers. For whatever reason, there are few women writers of prose fiction that can equal the heights men have reached in that field. This despite the fact that the contemporary literary industry is overwhelmingly dominated by women. True, there are the rare instances of female literary transcendence in the guise of a Clarice Lispector, Hilda Hilst, Okamoto Kanoko, Murasaki Shikibu, Unica Zürn, and so on. But they tend to be the exceptions that prove the rule. (On the other hand, women seem naturally gifted at lyric expression, with great female poets existing since at least Sappho.)
Orchestral conducting, too, is a field wherein women cannot produce an equal or better of, say, a Furtwängler, Mengelberg, or Beecham. There are plenty of them around today -- all lousy. (To be fair, though, nearly all living conductors today -- male or female -- are lousy.)
I'm a university degree holding woman, of the traditional type with XX chromosomes, and since I was a teen some forty years ago, I've thought that men are better suited for politics. Not that a few women can't do it successfully (Thatcher and British Queens for examples) but that it's a profession far more suited to men, being as many are more naturally mentally strong, steady and rational, and not as given to bursts of emotion and utopian fancies as women can often be. In fact, I'd be delighted if only U.S. born citizen male property owners over the age of 25 were allowed to vote. How's that for being a Dissident?
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Jan 19, 2019 | www.unz.com
FB , says: April 10, 2018 at 3:29 pm GMT
Justin Raimondo has just done a U turn on 'president' Dump' doesn't this prove I was wrong about Trump and his movement all along?
I was very wrong to discount the role of character, personality, and intelligence: Trump is simply not fit to be President '
Raimondo's reaction to Dump's incredible imbecility re the Syria 'chemical attacks '
' A child could see through the fake "chemical attack" supposedly launched by Bashar al-Assad just as his troops defeated the jihadists and Trump said he wanted out of Syria '
Yes anyone watching that white helmets footage is immediately cringing for those poor kids being abused as props in a macabre stage play
How stupid is Dump anyway ? That's the question
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Mar 23, 2019 | blog.usejournal.com
In March 2017, young people armed with baseball bats prowled the parking lots of Evergreen State College. They hoped to find Bret Weinstein, a biology professor, and presumably bash his brains in. Bret had caught the ire of the student body after he refused to participate in an unofficial "Day of Absence," in which white students and faculty were told to stay home, away from the campus, while teachers and students of color attended as they normally would. In prior years, people of color voluntarily absented themselves to highlight their presence and importance on campus. In 2017, the event's organizers decided to flip the event, and white people were pressured to stay away from the school.
In a letter to the school's administration, Bret explained why he opposed the idea:
There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space in order to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away. The first is a forceful call to consciousness which is, of course, crippling to the logic of oppression. The second is a show of force, and an act of oppression in and of itselfOn a college campus, one's right to speak -- or to be -- must never be based on skin color.When word of Professor Weinstein's objection got out, enraged student activists began a hostile takeover of the school, and the college president ordered the campus police force not to intervene. Professor Weinstein was told, in essence, that nobody would protect him from young people with baseball bats. The police warned Professor Weinstein that their hands were tied and that he should stay off campus for his own safety.
Professor Weinstein is an avowed liberal with a long history of progressive thinking. As a young man, he was the center of another controversy when he blew the whistle regarding the exploitation of black strippers by a college fraternity. Regardless, his refusal to participate in what can be described as a "no-white-people-day" ironically earned him the brand "racist" by the student body. He was essentially removed from the campus on the threat of physical harm.
And its core, the story of Bret Weinstein and Evergreen State College is about a college's descent into total chaos after someone presented mild resistance to a political demonstration.
Bret Weinstein is on the left, politically, but the leftist students and administration attacked him for not being left enough . Imagine now, how the college may have treated a person who leaned right. As it turns out, there are quite a few examples.
Before discussing what the Wilfrid Laurier University did to a woman named Lindsay Shepherd, it's important to know about Jordan Peterson.
Dr. Peterson is a psychology professor, clinician, and best-selling author. He is also, perhaps, today's most controversial academic. He burst into the public consciousness after he opposed bill C-16 in Canada. The bill added gender expression and gender identity to the various protections covered by the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Dr. Peterson objected to the bill because it set a new precedent -- requiring citizens to use certain pronouns to address people with non-traditional gender identities. Dr. Peterson calls transexual people by whatever gender they project , as long as he feels like they're asking him to do so in good faith, but he's wary of people playing power games with him, and he saw something dangerous about the government mandating which words he must use. He believed that under C-16, misgendering a person could be classified as hate speech, even it was just an accident.
Having spent much of his life considering the dangers that exist at the furthest ends of the political spectrum -- Nazi Germany on the far right, the Soviet Union on the far left -- Dr. Peterson has developed a tendency to see things in apocalyptic terms. In bill C-16, he saw what he considered the seeds of a serious threat to the freedom of expression -- a list of government-approved words -- and decided it was a hill worth dying on.
He's controversial, verbose, discursive, sometimes grouchy, and almost incapable of speaking the language of television sound-bites. He makes it easy for critics to attack and misrepresent him -- and ever since he took a stance against C-16, he's been subjected to student protests and journalistic hit-pieces.
One example comes from Queens University. While Dr. Peterson gave a lecture, student protestors broke windows, tried to drown him out with noisemakers and drums, and one protestor told others to burn down the building with Dr. Peterson and the attendees locked inside.
Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with his opinions, Dr. Peterson should have the right to express them without other people suggesting that he be murdered with fire. Furthermore, people should be able to talk about what he says.
Enter the case of Lindsay Shepherd.
While working as a teacher's aid at Wilfrid Laurier University, Lindsay Shepherd showed students two clips from public access television featuring Jordan Peterson debating someone over bill C-16. After showing the clips, she asked her students to share their thoughts.
Days later, the school called her into a meeting with a panel of three superiors. They said that they had gotten a number of complaints from students. Lindsay asked how many complaints they had received, and was told that the number was confidential.
The panel claimed that she had created a toxic environment by showing the clips and facilitating a discussion without taking a side against Dr. Peterson's view. They said it was as if she had been completely neutral while showing one of Hitler's speeches. The panel thought the clip probably violated the Human Rights Code, and they demanded Shepherd to submit all of her future lesson plans ahead of time so that they could be vetted.
Although one student expressed some concern about the class, the number of formal complaints that the administrators had received was actually zero.
During their discussion, Lindsay said:
The thing is, can you shield people from those ideas? Am I supposed to comfort them and make sure that they are insulated away from this? Is that what the point of this is? Because to me that is against what a university is about.Lindsay found herself at the mercy of school administrators whose brittle spirits couldn't bear to present students with opinions that they might have found offensive. She had believed that universities were places where people could explore ideas. On that day, the panel showed her just how wrong she'd been.
And she caught it all on tape.
Over the past few years, the news has become littered with stories of schools overrun by children while hand-wringing professors and administrators do everything possible to placate them. Recently, a group called "The Diaspora Coalition" staged a sit-in at Sarah Lawrence. Their demands included, among other things, that they get free fabric-softener. The origin of their grievance was an op-ed published in the New York Times about the imbalance between left-leaning and right-leaning school administrators.
Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business, sums the phenomenon up tidily :
You get kids who are much more anxious and fragile, much more depressed, coming onto campus at a time of much greater political activism -- and now these grievance studies ideas about, 'America's a matrix of oppression,' and, 'look at the world in terms of good versus evil.' it's much more appealing to them, and it's that minority of students, they're the ones who are initiating a lot of the movementsEvery day, or at least every week, I get an email from a professor saying, 'you know, I used a metaphor in class and somebody reported me.' and once this happens to you, you pull back. You change your teaching style
What we're seeing on campus is a spectacular collapse of trust between students and professors. And once we can't trust each other, we can't do our job.
We can't risk being provocative, raising uncomfortable ideas. We have to play it safe, and then everybody suffers.
To understate it, President Donald Trump is a deeply troubling human being. However, he may have done a good thing on Thursday, March 21st, when he signed an executive order that requires public schools to "foster environments that promote open, intellectually engaging, and diverse debate."
Schools that don't comply may lose government-funded research grants.
In theory, the order will compel colleges to prevent scenes like those at Evergreen State and Sarah Lawrence. Schools will have serious financial incentives to protect their professors from mobs of unruly children. If all goes well, students will learn to engage with controversial opinions without resorting to baseball bats or demanding Snuggle Plus fabric softener.
One would be remiss if they didn't consider the hidden or unintended consequences of the new policy, though. The executive order is vague, and it gives no criteria for judging whether an institution complies with its requirements. Instead, the specific implementation is left for structures lower on the hierarchy to decide. Hopefully, nobody decides that Young Earth theories must be taught alongside evolution.
The policy could very well become a tool by which the dominant political party punishes schools that lean in the opposite direction. Since there is a 12-to-1 imbalance between liberals and conservative college administrators right now, it would be a Republican administration punishing liberal colleges.
This is hardly a perfect solution -- but at least it's an effort to address the problem. The stability of our society depends on an endless balancing act between the left and the right. The political landscape of academia has tilted too far left, and it's clearly becoming insular and unstable. Now it's necessary to push things back toward the center.
Hopefully, this recent executive order does more good than harm.
Postscript
After the events at Evergreen State College, the school was forced to settle with Bret Weinstein and his wife, who was also a professor there. The college paid the couple $500,000. Enrollment at the college is said to have dropped "catastrophically."
After the events at Wilfrid Laurier University, the school released several letters of apology. It is being sued for millions of dollars by Lindsay Shepherd and Jordan Peterson.
Forty professors endorsed the demands made by the Diaspora Coalition at Sarah Lawrence, and several others endorsed challenging Samuel Abrams's tenure -- Abrams being the person who wrote the op-ed that appeared in the New York Times.
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Feb 18, 2019 | www.rt.com
As the narrative of a 'racist, homophobic attack' on actor Jussie Smollett in Chicago continues to collapse, politicians and celebrities who fueled the outrage over the incident are quietly backing away and hoping no one notices.
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Feb 02, 2019 | www.nbcnews.com
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation on Thursday mandating that every school in the state teach students about "the political, economic, and social contributions" of LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.
The legislation, which will apply starting in the 2020-21 school year, requires that the boards of education for middle and high schools ensure that instructional materials, such as text books, include accurate portrayals of the contributions made by LGBTQ people and those with disabilities.
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Jan 04, 2019 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
ChiGal in Carolina , , January 4, 2019 at 6:01 pm
The University of Michigan Has At Least 82 Full-Time Diversity Officers at a Total Annual Payroll Cost of $10.6M.
so applying some crude arithmetic, 8 cost $1M meaning they are paid upward of 100k apiece? Or if it's differently apportioned the Chief Executive Officer of Diversity makes some unimaginably astronomical salary and the others are in the 60-80k range?
Maybe they are including a travel allowance as part of "payroll"? I know much of what they do is recruitment since back in the 90s my then-bf was one of only two -- count 'em, TWO -- Blacks in the entire graduate physical sciences division at the University of Chicago. He was in Computer Science (machine learning) and the other was in Chemistry. They would send him back to Atlanta where he gone to school at Morehouse and the University of GA.
a different chris , , January 4, 2019 at 6:18 pm
>they are paid upward of 100k apiece?
Don't forget that medical is a good 15K, prolly more like 18k, so "paid" is a fluid term here.
Not that there is anything wrong with your post, I just want to make sure our ridiculous medical costs get into every possible discussion :)
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Dec 31, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
From time immemorial, it was understood that women, especially young women, needed to be shielded from the sexual predations of men. Camille Paglia, the radical/conservative cultural critic, has been arguing for decades that key institutions in society, often derided as "patriarchal" -- from marriage to single-sex education to exemption from military service -- were mostly the result of a desire to protect women, not to pinion them.
Not surprisingly, legends and parables reinforced this cultural wisdom. For instance, there's Little Red Riding Hood. After many centuries of telling and retelling, the origins of the story are obscure. Yet it doesn't take a Freudian genius to see that there could be more than one meaning to the scene in which Red Riding Hood is tempted into bed with the Big Bad Wolf.
The fact that the story has a happy ending doesn't mitigate its cautionary nature. (Interestingly, a pop song from the '60s, "Little Red Riding Hood," includes lyrics that restate the warning message: "What full lips you have/ They're sure to lure someone bad.")
With these dangers in mind, societies all over the world came up with rituals of courtship, aimed at circumscribing -- if not proscribing altogether -- impulsive romantic love. The bottom line was that parents, matchmakers, chaperones, clergy, and community were involved. Were these social systems confining to women? Perhaps. But they were also confining to men . Suppression was also protection. The overriding goal was for a vulnerable woman not to end up in the lair of a wolf.
Then came modernity, when most of the guardrails were trampled. Or, as Marx said of modern times, "All that is solid melts into air."
We might think of this change, beginning in Europe in the 18th century, as the Great Unleashing, when young people left the farm and mostly ended up in mills and factories, there to meet a new kind of fate.
In 1731, the English artist William Hogarth issued his own form of warning. A Harlot's Progress consists of six engravings showing the descent of a young woman, from innocence to prostitution to death at age 23. Four years later, Hogarth published a companion set of warnings to men, A Rake's Progress .
Two centuries later, on this side of the Atlantic, several novels by Theodore Dreiser also described the new times. Perhaps Dreiser's most famous work, An American Tragedy (1925), began with a look back at the old ways, shaped by family and faith. Describing a stern matriarch, Dreiser writes, "The mother alone stood out as having that force and determination which, however blind or erroneous, makes for self-preservation." And then the family sings a hymn: "The love of Jesus saves me whole/ The love of God my steps control."
The sorrowful message of the book, of course, is that once those restraining strings are untuned -- as when boys and girls end up on their own in the big city -- then hark, what discord comes. (The novel was made into a Hollywood movie twice, once in 1931 and again in 1951 -- the second starring Elizabeth Taylor.)
In this modern vein, it's interesting to note that while "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is closely associated with the Christmas holiday, there's no mention of Christmas, or any holiday, in the lyrics. In these secular times, it seems, "Christmas" is little different from "winter."
In the '50s, '60s, and '70s, the Great Unleashing gained momentum. Indeed, "Baby It's Cold Outside" was sometimes interpreted as a song of women's liberation , a lyric of empowerment -- she being free to make her own choices.
Yet as Dreiser would have predicted, some of those choices were mistakes. Recently, The New York Times published an oral history of Andy Warhol's "Factory," a not-so-homey home for pretty vagabonds:
One day a drug dealer came up. He shot up this girl, and she for some reason passed out. It was in the bathtub. She went under water. We thought she was dead. We panicked because she was not waking up. Finally someone said, "We should send her down the mail chute." We wrote little notes on her body and puts stamps on her forehead. Then we realized she wasn't dead. I don't think she would have fit in the mail chute. But we would have tried.
That nameless girl, of course, was a daughter, and it seems reasonable to assert that society could have done a better job of protecting her -- including, if at all possible, from her own careless impulses. That is, after all, a basic reason that civilization exists.
By the 1980s, sexually transmitted diseases had slowed the pace of the sexual revolution. Many feminists turned more conservative on at least some sexual matters, led by law professor-turned-anti-pornography crusader Catharine MacKinnon .
Today, we can draw a line from MacKinnon's neo-Victorianism to the #MeToo movement, and from there to the monologues of comedian Hannah Gadsby, avatar of a new kind of vengeful anti-humor, perhaps better described as dire sermons against heterosexual men. (Some would say, to be sure, that many males have it coming -- that scorn is the price to be paid for the wolfish life that many have chosen.)
So perhaps now is the right time to put "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in its most socially useful framework: it's a cautionary tale, right up there with Little Red Riding Hood , Hogarth, and Dreiser. Sure, the song is fun and sexy, yet it describes a path that most young women probably don't wish to be on -- at least not in retrospect. And almost certainly, few actively wish that path for their daughters or other female relatives.
Some will insist, of course, that prudential safeguards -- whether as matters of law or just custom -- are inhibiting, even stifling. Others will say there's something dubious about those who dwell too much on the dangers that might befall others. Still others will say that to focus on the harm done to unlucky individuals is to "blame the victim."
Even so, cautionary tales are valuable because, after all, caution is valuable. Society can and should do its part to serve and protect, yet there's no substitute for informed common sense. Oh, and let's not forget: common sense and virtue are good for men as well.
So sure, people will continue to listen to "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Yet at the same time, they should realize that it can be perilous inside.
That's a good synthesis of hard-earned wisdom for the holiday season -- and any other.
James P. Pinkerton is an author and contributing editor at . He served as a White House policy aide to both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
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Nov 27, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
Christine Blasey Ford Thanks America For $650,000 Payday, Hopes Life "Will Return To Normal"
by Tyler Durden Tue, 11/27/2018 - 17:30 171 SHARES
Amid the sound and fury of the disgusting antics of the Brett Kavanaugh SCOTUS nomination process, one of the main defenses of Christine Balsey Ford's sudden recollection of an '80s sexual assault was simply "...why would she lie... what's in it for her?"
Certainly, the forced publicity by Dianne Feinstein and public questioning guaranteed her 15 minutes of fame (and perhaps even more infamy if Kavanaugh's nomination had failed) but now, in a statement thanking everyone who had supported her, Ford is "hopeful that our lives will return to normal."
The full statement was posted to her GoFundMe page :
Words are not adequate to thank all of you who supported me since I came forward to tell the Senate that I had been sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh. Your tremendous outpouring of support and kind letters have made it possible for us to cope with the immeasurable stress, particularly the disruption to our safety and privacy. Because of your support, I feel hopeful that our lives will return to normal.
The funds you have sent through GoFundMe have been a godsend. Your donations have allowed us to take reasonable steps to protect ourselves against frightening threats, including physical protection and security for me and my family, and to enhance the security for our home. We used your generous contributions to pay for a security service, which began on September 19 and has recently begun to taper off; a home security system; housing and security costs incurred in Washington DC, and local housing for part of the time we have been displaced. Part of the time we have been able to stay with our security team in a residence generously loaned to us.
With immense gratitude, I am closing this account to further contributions. All funds unused after completion of security expenditures will be donated to organizations that support trauma survivors. I am currently researching organizations where the funds can best be used. We will use this space to let you know when that process is complete.
Although coming forward was terrifying, and caused disruption to our lives, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fulfill my civic duty. Having done so, I am in awe of the many women and men who have written me to share similar life experiences, and now have bravely shared their experience with friends and family, many for the first time. I send you my heartfelt love and support.
I wish I could thank each and every one of you individually. Thank you.
ChristineWell one thing is for sure - she has almost 650 thousand reasons why life since the accusations could be more comfortable...
non_anon , 41 minutes ago link
PCShibai , 43 minutes ago linkpayday, she should be prosecuted for perjury and in prison. Won't happen.
Dogstar59 , 1 hour ago linkNice work when you an get it. Short duration, no education necessary, and all you need to do is read from a script and lie your *** off.
petroglyph , 43 minutes ago linkHere's an interesting fact: Her immediate family (siblings and parents) wants nothing to do with her. They refused to sign a petition of support created by "close family and friends", they refused to make any supporting statements and they refused to show up to the hearings.
Very interesting...
spiderbite , 1 hour ago linkAny links?
chubakka , 1 hour ago linkHopes Life "Will Return To Normal"
Mindfucking people for the CIA
aardvarkk , 1 hour ago linkSorry doesn't seem like much money to me at all. Put family through all that for that amount? Risk ones families welfare and safety for that amount and a bad name? One would have to be a total idiot or crazy for that.
Able Ape , 3 hours ago linkWanders in, belches out a pack of lies, destroys an entire family's lives, tears a big chunk out of the social fabric of the country, collects a huge payday and hits the beach for the rest of her life, or at least the portion not dedicated to indoctrinating yound minds.
She is at least as much of a Democrat as Obama ever was.
keep the bastards honest , 3 hours ago linkExceedingly unremarkable people always insist on using the title Dr. as if it is a sign of high intelligence and status... They wish...
Disgusting female. Brett Kavanaugh and his family donated the gomfund me set up for his family, to a charity for abused women.
Ford has a second go fund me which raised more, to,pay for legals, she has made a fortune, has a 3 million plus home, and whatever she was given for this charade. And the abortion drug company interest. Plus the google renting illegally events thru the second fromt door.
Kavanaugh has an ordinary car, a simple home worth 1.3 million and a debt of 860,000. Always been an employee so never the big paycheck like Avenatti got.
volunteers for homeless. Plus the sports coaching for school, kids and lecturing...both no more.
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Nov 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
BM , Nov 23, 2018 11:36:41 AM | 92 ">link
Gender Politics and the Sinking of the KNM Helge Ingstad
From the article this gem: "It is advantageous to have many women on board. It will be a natural thing and a completely different environment, which I look at as positive," Lieutenant Iselin Emilie Jakobsen Ophus said. She is a navigation officer at KNM Helge Ingstad, according to Defense Forum.
Well, if the objective of having many women on board is to keep all the occupants occupied full-time on a one-to-one basis instead of letting them get busy at shooting at people, then I am all for that, they should adopt it for the whole of NATO, especially the US.
Sounds like a good Scandinavian way of addressing NATO policy deficiencies. But when through your distraction you end up crashing into oil tankers, just don't blame it on the Russians or the Chinese.
Also in the article a very nice picture of the frigate (not the one at the top, the one a little further down the page) which makes for an excellent picture of a George-Soros-frigate. It should be renamed KNM George Soros. Anyone for an HMS George Soros Aircraft carrier?
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turcopolier.typepad.com
Publius Tacitus on Dr. Ford - posted by PL
With the benefit of hindsight, I suspect most Democrat leaders now realize that their attempt to take out Judge Brent Kavanaugh with false charges that he sexually assaulted someone in High School was a disaster. Their heavy handed, Bolshevik tactics backfired and galvanized a broad spectrum of Americans who were sickened by the spectacle of a verbal lynch mob being led by the decrepit Diane Feinstein. The truth about the sex-fraud, Dr. Chrissie Ford, is now exposed by the voluminous report issued by Senator Grassley's Judiciary Committee staff. Read it here . ( https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2018-11-02%20Kavanaugh%20Report.pdf ). Here are the highlights:
that he dated Dr. Ford for six years. He said that she never mentioned being the victim of sexual assault or misconduct. He also stated that Dr. Ford did not mention any fear of close quarters or flying, and that the two traveled together, including on a small propeller plane. also said that he witnessed Dr. Ford, drawing from her background in psychology, help prepare her roommate, Ms. Monica McLean, for a potential polygraph examination when Ms. McLean wasinterviewing for jobs with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office. He stated that Dr. Ford helped Ms. McLean become familiar and less nervous about the exam. The Judiciary Committee report also details the allegations and findings from others who alleged sexual misconduct by the Judge. It was all a pack of lies. A contrived hit job intended to destroy the man's reputation and try to cow him into backing away from the nomination. That bullying tactic failed spectacularly. It ended up rallying a broad swath of the American public, especially women, who understand fairness and justice. The injustice on display by the Democrats ended up helping the Republicans nail down a bigger majority in the Senate. Look for fewer Democrat seats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- The Committee was informed that Dr. Ford had a fear of flying caused by Justice Kavanaugh's alleged sexual assault on her more than 35 years before. That was a lie and the committee staffers discovered subsequently that Dr. Ford had racked up a ton of frequent flyer miles. When asked about her fear of flying and about whether she had ever helped anyone prepare for a polygraph examination, Dr. Ford acknowledged that she flew to the hearing and traveled by plane for work and leisure. Indeed, Dr. Ford listed on her CV that one of her hobbies includes international surf travel.
- The Judiciary staffers interviewed 17 people who had information about Dr. Ford's allegations. No one could corroborate her claims about Judge Kavanaugh. In fact, two men testified that they had a contact with Dr. Ford as teen-agers that was in line with the account provided by Dr. Ford except that it was consensual.
- A long time boyfriend of Chrissie testified:
Pat Lang Mod , 21 hours ago
IMO a criminal referral on Dr. Ford would be appropriate.Kelli K -> Pat Lang , 6 hours agoAbsolutely agree. With Nadler now openly talking about impeaching Kavanaugh, there is no alternative. The truth must be brought out. The alternative is to leave him exposed permanently and keep this whole plan viable for use against future nominees. With RBG approaching retirement this is critical.Fred W -> Pat Lang , 19 hours agoGetting to the actual facts would be a great good. But we know that will not happen. The administration and the senate have already shown their attitude toward professional quality investigation. That appears to be the last thing they want. If they actually believed any of what they said, they would follow your advice. We will see.Fred -> Fred W , 18 hours agoOn second thought that is probably an unfair standard. Opening up discovery for a trial would have negative effects even for a very solid case.
Pat Lang Mod -> Fred W , 19 hours ago"The administration and the senate have already shown their attitude toward professional quality investigation."You mean the Mueller "Russia" investigation? That is beyond a joke at this point. Dr. Ford should be charged. She's got $1 million or more from the go
bribefund me accounts. She should lawyer up. So should Ms. Mclean.No! Let's see her tried for perjury with full discovery I will be glad to be a pro bone consultant on that trial and i have a lot of experience.Bill H -> Fred W , 3 hours agoI think the lesson to be learned is that getting all the facts simply cannot be done, which is why we have a statute of limitations, and why Dr. Ford's accusation should not ever have seen the light of day 30 years after the purported event.Pat Lang Mod -> Fred W , 4 hours agoMost liberals seem to think the statute of limitations has to do with the purported offender "living with guilt," but the law does not acknowledge the "sensation of guilt." The statute is because after a period of time the offense cannot be fairly prosecuted because witnesses die or move away, memories fade, evidence degrades or disappears, and so forth, and this shoddy exhibition is proof of the validity of that principle.
I do not see how you can fault Grassley's efforts to get the facts. He bent over backward to accommodate the Democrats lies about Kavanaugh and the WH authorized the the additional FBI investigation.Karl Kolchak , 19 hours agoThe Dems COULD have made Kavanaugh's support for torture a principled reason for opposing him. Then if they lost, which they were likely going to do anyway, it would have at least been considered fair politics and it would have placed the spotlight on a very ugly chapter in the country's recent history that needs to be addressed.RaisingMac -> Karl Kolchak , 7 hours agoThe Dems could've raised all kinds of principled objections to Kavanaugh; but tellingly, they chose not to. They chose to take the low road instead.Divadab Newton -> RaisingMac , 4 hours agoThey are complicit. Especially Feinstein. SHe's AOK with torture and 24-7 surveillance. WHat do you expect from an ardent cannabis prohibitionist?FarNorthSolitude -> Karl Kolchak , 3 hours agoShaming, shunning, bullying, threats of violence, and violence are all now accepted as methods by the left. They are totally consumed in a political tribalism. Rather than raising the moral standards of the group they are using the most primitive instincts and you can see this in many of the tweets from the left that use gross sexual imagery to demean their "enemies".blue peacock -> Karl Kolchak , 17 hours agoThe more I read on group psychology such as Freud, Le Bon, etc. the more concerned I become whether the age of reason, principles, and science will survive group psychosis given the powerful tools like social media enabling it. Social media is one of the most dangerous technologies we have developed.
"In order to make a correct judgment upon the morals of groups, one must take into consideration the fact that when individuals come together in a group all their individual inhibitions fall away and all the cruel, brutal and destructive instincts, which lie dormant in individuals as relics of a primitive epoch, are stirred up to find free gratification. But under the influence of suggestion groups are also capable of high achievements in the shape of abnegation, unselfishness, and devotion to an ideal.
While with isolated individuals personal interest is almost the only motive force, with groups it is very rarely prominent.
It is possible to speak of an individual having his moral standards raised by a group. Whereas the intellectual capacity of a group is always far below that of an individual, its ethical conduct may rise as high above his as it may sink deep below it." - Gustave Le Bon
Indeed. That would have been a principle worth highlighting. And the question put forward - "Should a torture supporter serve on the Supreme Court?" But..Dianne Feinstein and Chuckie Schumer were never interested in that. All they were interested in was creating a media spectacle and that's exactly what they did by holding on to Ford's letter for 2 months and unleashing it the day before the vote.william mcdonald , 5 hours agoChristine Ford, Monica McLean and the others should testify to a grand jury. Isn't perjury what they indicted & convicted Gen. Flynn & George Papadopolous for?
Wily old Senator Charles(the Fox) Grassley gave the democrats sufficient rope to hang themselves with, an act they did with gusto.PRC90 , 10 hours agoAnother amateurish mess. One effect may be that the Democrats will be more careful in their next attempt to discredit some opponent.DianaLC -> PRC90 , 2 hours agoThe recent accident that RBG experienced has probably caused both Democrats and Republicans some concern that there may soon be another Supreme Court seat to fill under a Trump administration.akaPatience , 15 hours agoWhy is it that Christine Ford can get away with blatantly and repeatedly lying to Congress about a federal judge but Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos were dragged through court (no doubt at great expense to them) for so-called minor lies to FBI interrogators?Mad_Max22 -> akaPatience , 2 hours agoOff topic: I'd love to read PT's take on the mid-term election with attention paid to the boxes of suddenly-discovered ballots in AZ that have put (wouldn't you know!) Democratic Senate candidate Sinema in the lead. And in light of the FL recount, I'd also be interested in what he has to say about the flagrant disregard for chain of custody of [the infamous] Broward Co. boxes of ballots.
Why is it that ballots discovered post-election day always seem to help Democrats? I don't recall ever reading or hearing about newly-discovered ballots that benefited Republican candidates.
In my experience lying to the FBI, 18 USC 1001, was used very, very infrequently. It was used as an add on charge in the prosecution of some of the Watergate subjects and they had been placed under oath. It was used to my knowledge to prosecute an individual who had made a false accusatory statement in the Ray Donavan investigation in the early 80's, another debacle instigated by Senate Democrats. Otherwise it was rarely used, and it shouldn't be used in my opinion unless the person has been given a separate warning and waiver, or placed under oath.Pat Lang Mod -> Mad_Max22 , an hour agoOnce Big Government has opened the floodgates on prosecuting people for lying to the FBI, especially when it becomes obvious that it is being used selectively, and in isolation in order to hang a charge on somebody in pursuit of manifestly political ends, cooperation with FBI Agents trying to do their job will, and should, dry up. Who needs to take a chance on some partisan operation, such as Bob Mueller, parsing their adverbs and adjectives for signs of deceit when the option is to take advantage of your right to silence.
Launching 18 USC 1001 prosecutions like so many torpedoes might look expeditious in the short term but in the long term, it will be bad for both the working agent on the street and for justice in the bigger picture.
Ford lied to the senate judiciary committee under oath. In your scheme of things people like Avenatti and his female tools can slander and libel at will in conformations even if they are interviewed by the FBI? OK, then the FBI should interview them under oath.Bill H -> akaPatience , 3 hours agoWhy isn't the Supreme Court stepping in to stop the unseemly Florida recount as it did in 2000?Pat Lang Mod -> Bill H , an hour agowe're not "there" yet.Ed Lindgren , 15 hours agoIf at least one Democrat is going to be removed from the Senate Judiciary Committee as a result of the midterm election realignment, I nominate 'Spartacus' as the guy.Greco , 17 hours agoNow that there's a new AG in town--one who isn't either cowed, incompetent, or possibly blackmailed--Mrs.Ford may get her just deserts.blue peacock , 17 hours agoKavanaugh's real crime was he went after Bill Clinton and now he paid the price for it. It's too bad in Yale they don't teach them how to watch their backs in Washington.
"The injustice on display by the Democrats ended up helping the Republicans nail down a bigger majority in the Senate. Look for fewer Democrat seats on the Senate Judiciary Committee."Pat Lang Mod -> blue peacock , 4 hours agoWhile this may have held true for the Senate, it didn't in the House.
IMO skillful Democrat candidate selection had a great deal to do with the result in the House.DianaLC -> Pat Lang , 2 hours agoI agree with you in the sense that many of the Democrat candidates did not take the ultra progressive (socialist?) path. Many seemed more centrist.MP98 -> Pat Lang , 4 hours agoThat was the result of state and country Democratic parties.
I think this because I definitely see a difference in the different county Republican parties in my state.
Unfortunately in my state (CO) what happens in Boulder and Denver usually carries. And as we say in CO, Boulder is about 40 square miles surrounded by reality. Denver is becoming a similar alternate reality.
Thus, I am ashamed to say, our current Governor is a person from a quite alternate reality from the one in which I live.
And Never-Trumper RINOs who ran as Democrat-lites.Tidewater , 18 hours agoBrian Merrick has been revealed as the boyfriend. He is a realtor in Malibu. His letter states: " Despite trying to maintain a long distance relationship, I ended the relationship once I discovered that Dr. Ford was unfaithful while living in Hawaii. After the breakup, I took her off the credit card we shared. But nearly 1 year later, I noticed Dr. Ford had been charging the card and charged about $600 worth of merchandise. When confronted, Dr. Ford said she did not use the card but later admitted the use after I threatened to involve fraud prevention." 'Revealed: The Man Accusing Blasey Ford of Lying About Polygraphs.' The Daily Caller, October 3, 2018. https://dailycaller.com/201...Keith Harbaugh , 18 hours agoA male witness "(Sept. 26): stated that when he was a 19-year-old college student, he visited D.C. over spring break and kissed a girl he believes was Dr. Ford. He said that the kiss happened in the bedroom of a house which was about a 15-to- 20 minute walk from the Van Ness Metro, that Dr. Ford was wearing a swimsuit under her clothing, and that the kissing ended when a friend jumped on them as a joke. The witness said that the woman initiated the kissing and that he did not force himself on her. "
A woman who said that she attended UNC with Dr. Ford, identified a third woman, name blotted out, and stated that the three of them "used to purchase drugs" from a male whose name also has been blotted out. The three of them "regularly attended parties with members of his fraternity." The witness said "that she was present at --a blotted out name of an apartment--"one night in April 1987 when Dr. Ford and --someone again blotted out--"arrived to consume drugs." This witness "said that the Dr. Ford she knew had an active and robust social life in college." (Sept.25)
PT, thanks very much for posting this. I cannot find any mention of this Judiciary Committee report at the Washington Post web site. They had a ton of coverage of Ford's allegation before the vote, including a lengthy interview with her current husband.It says a lot about them that they have, unless I have missed something, ignored this report. Could the reason they are ignoring it be that they don't want to publicize anything which contradicts the line that "Women tell the truth"? A line that they have used to great political effect, in particular in the sinking of the Senate candidacy of Judge Roy Moore of Alabama.
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Nov 08, 2018 | www.nytimes.com
Looks like here are are dealing with two pretty unpleasant people. Kavanuch might have or used to have a drinking problem and might became agreessve in intoxicated state.
She remembers one can of ber she drunk (to protect her testimony from the case of completly drunk woman assalu, whuch is still an assalt) but do not remeber who drove her to the house, location and who drove her back. That's questionable.
Dr. form used somebody else creadit card and lied about poligraph test.
Looks there three scoundrels here: Senator Feldstein (violating the trus a leaking form letter), Klobuchar (trying to expolit fradulent Swtnick testomy for political purposes), Kavanuch (unability to take punches camly, low quality of some regulations (this supplosed to be the best legal mind the county can find), possible past drinking problems, possible agressive behvious when drunk), and Dr. Ford (heavy drinking in high scool and colledge, possible promiscuity, possible stealing funds by abusing former boyfirnd credit card (he left her, not vise versa), using questional methods to rent part of her house, and even more qurestionable method to justify this, etc)
Jay Lincoln NYC 5h ago
Why does the Times always have to spin news with a ludicrously liberal slant? Ford's credibility was attacked by her ex boyfriend of 6 years, who lived with her, saw her prep her friend for polygraph tests, flew with her on small propeller plans among the islands of Hawaii, and had his credit card fraudulently charged by her.
The source is her ex-boyfriend. Yet the title implies it's Senate Republicans launching a partisan attack. Give me a break.
Also, she's hurting her own credibility by claiming to remember having EXACTLY one beer 36 years ago. When she can't even remember where she was or how she got home after supposedly being nearly raped and killed.
JDO Kensignton, MD 5h ago
Bearn Atlanta, GA 3h agoThe longer this Freak Show continues, more and more of Ford's bones will be pulled from the closet. Time to vote, time to move on. If Democrats want to pick judges, they need to win elections.
Henry Washington 4h ago"Christine Blasey Ford's Credibility Under New Attack by Senate Republicans"
This is an interesting headline for an article that is actually about a former boyfriend who submitted a letter refuting many of Ford's claims.
I am not sure how the Senate Republicans asking Ford's counsel for corroborating evidence, that Ford herself brought up in the hearing, is equivalent to them attacking her credibility? Maybe this article was actually meant to be in the opinion section written by the editorial board?
I am no expert, but isn't it the purpose of journalism to get down to the unbiased truth? The Times should go pursue this ex-boyfriends story and try to find whether or not he is credible rather than spewing out misleading headlines.
Reply 38 RecommendRobinR California 5h agoI still find Dr. Ford's testimony believable and far more consistent with what else we know about her and her attacker.
And (here comes one of those dreaded "even if" arguments): Even if Mr. Merrick's account is factual, it elides a crucial distinction. When I read the senate question, the only relevant reason I can see why Republican senators would ask it (through their proxy) is to ferret out if Dr. Ford had any experience "beating" a polygraph, which might undercut the value ascribed to her taking that test.
The old boyfriend seems to be describing something different. He writes that Dr. Ford "explained in detail what to expect, how polygraphs worked and helped McLean become familiar and less nervous about the exam." This seems to describe something along the lines of reassuring a friend nervous about her interviews, including anxiety about the experience of taking a polygraph. It seems much more along the lines of something explaining to a nervous patient what to expect during an MRI scan to reduce their anxiety, not some sort of movie scene where the the evil mastermind explains how to beat the cops' interrogation.
Were I in Dr. Ford's place, I'm very sure that an episode in which I'd calmed down an anxious friend before a job interview would be unlikely to come to mind if asked if I'd "ever given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test," and I'd feel confident and honest answering "never".
Ginny Virginia 4h agoIts absurd that people are up in arms about this. It's a known fact that polygraphs are unreliable, can be cheated and can create false positives. Even the person who invented the test claimed they are faulty. Why she bothered to do one at all is a mystery, since she probably knows they're unreliable. Did Kavenaugh do one?
Pono Big Island 2h ago Times PickHow is investigating the allegations attacking her? SHe made statements in her testimony that this letter form the ex-boyfriend has insight about. He shared what he knows. Should this not be investigated? Does the NYT expect that only information about Kavanaugh should be investigated? She has made allegations. Should not the credibility of those allegations be looked into when there is evidence that perhaps she was not truthful? How is it right to only investigate one side of the story, especially when there is no evidence and there are no witnesses to the alleged event! To simply accept that she is telling the truth and say she is being attacked when anyone questions her story is outrageous. But then this is a story in the NYT, so of course the headlines are salacious and misleading to better advance your agenda. I believe in free press and understand its place in a free society. But these kinds of stunts are yellow journalism, and not healthy for our nation, or for the TImes in the long run. You are destroying your reputation as honest journalism each and every time you do something like this.
Reply 33 RecommendJessica Evanston, IL 5h agoWhy shouldn't her credibility be established?
She is making damning accusations dating back 36 years.
Regardless of the genders of the parties involved and the nature of the incident, with no corroborating witness, this still boils down to "she said , he said".
To be fair there is really not much else you can do but try to establish the relative veracity of the two people involved.
It seems that "fairness" is not the goal of extremists on either side.
It's strictly about the outcome going their way.Ralphie CT 4h ago@Psst Ms. Mitchell was right to ask about the test, based on Dr. Ford's expertise as a psychologist. When I hearing that she took and passed a polygraph, I thought, "She's a psychologist, doesn't she know how those work?"
Brookhawk Maryland 3h agoI'm sorry, but those who "believe" Ford need to understand that polygraphs are not valid and they are not reliable. The psych literature is full of research papers on this. Here is a quick summary from the American Psych Association.
https://www.apa.org/research/action/polygraph.aspx
Polygraph tests are widely used in psych classes as examples of modern day pseudoscience, akin to phrenology.
People who believe their story, who have been trained, who don't care or who are psychopaths can easily pass a polygraph even when lying.
Dr. Ford, as a psychologist knows this. So her story about taking the polygraph and finding it distressing are ridiculous. She took it as a stunt knowing she could easily pass because polygraph's don't detect lies. The whole charade further undermines her story, as much her professed fear of flying or her statement that she didn't tell anyone about this except husband and therapist until she came forward -- which later morphed to, she discussed it with her beach friends.
I don't know what Ford's game is, she may believe her tale, or she may have deliberately come forward with a false accusation to stop a conservative from ascending to the highest court in the land. She is a committed dem activist.
Polygraphs are bogus -- they only work through intimidating naive individuals.
JB Chicago 5h agoI never told boys or men I was dating about my experiences with sexual abuse. Why would I? Dating someone does not require you to open your soul. I never told my parents about two of the three episodes I was victim to. I was too stunned, shocked and ashamed. I'm a woman. That's what I was taught to be. I was taught it was my fault if I was abused. I was taught that by the whole society we live in. Why in heaven's name would I ever mention my history to someone I was simply dating?
Robin Cambridge 2h agoFinally we get some information about Kavanaugh's main accuser. For a while it seemed as if she had just sprung into existence and had no history beyond her claims of sexual assault.
freddy 16 harrisburg 4h ago"Still, Rachel Mitchell, the Arizona sex crimes prosecutor who questioned Dr. Blasey at last week's hearing, seemed to know to ask her about whether she had ever advised anyone about taking a polygraph test."
So it's very likely the Republicans knew in advance of Mr Merrick's statement but chose to withhold it. Given their criticism of Democrats' conduct about Dr Ford's statement they seem a little hypocritical. Sen. Grassley's charging a "lack of candor" is risible.
Even if Dr Ford had 20 years ago coached someone in techniques to pass a polygraph test and exaggerated her claustrophobia - both of which I doubt - big deal. "Central to the credibility of her testimony " pace Sen Grassley, it is not. It is on the periphery.
One can only surmise what Mr Merrick's motivation is but it seems overwhelmingly likely he's providing this to support the Republican cause or for money or (contrary to what he says) because he's ill disposed to Dr Ford (or a mixture of the three).
Why else would he interfere? She's not the one applying for the job (if she had been, any intelligent committee would have seen she's far better qualified, temperamentally and intellectually).
GWPDA Arizona 4h agoI did not vote for Trump but it is obvious that the New York Times is out to destroy him and his programs.
Remember Clinton's statements about the economy, " It is the economy, stupid. " You have to give Trump credit for a very strong economy, low unemployment, and a vibrant stock market. Voters will get it, the New York Times may not.
P.S. I believe that the media is responsible for the anger in our country. Would be much better if the media sought to build a consensus, trust, achievement, not division.India midwest 4h agoThis is an obscenity. That the nomination of a marginally qualified apparatchik to the Supreme Court would result in the corruption of the institution and the rule of law as the foundation of the United States is obscene. Any further move other than the nomination's withdrawal will be catastrophic. Any further political involvement in this nomination will be deliberately destructive.
Mark Greenwich 4h agoSo it's okay to "smear" Judge Kavanaugh by publicizing allegations from former college "friends" etc, but it is deeply unfair to even mention that Dr Ford might just not be Joan of Arc. I seem to see a bit of a double standard here.
KBronson Louisiana 4h agoPeople who use others credit cards are liars. Selective honesty is not possible. She is dishonest. Doesn't mean Kavanaugh is honest but she is a pawn and loves the attention.
Melissa Massachusetts 3h agoEvery psychologist knows that polygraphs are unreliable and can be faked. It is even an official position of the American Psychological Association. Why would any psychologist have a polygraph test other than to scam someone? If any of this is true, a lot of people have just been duped by a great actress, which the best deceivers always are. But like cultists, having emotionally committed themselves few will have the courage to admit it.
Harvey NC 3h ago@Charlie No, that's not clear at all.
Fear of flying and claustrophobia start in adulthood. Ford and this man started dating when she was just out of college, whereas fear of flying's average age of onset, according to online sources is 27 and it worsens with age -- especially after marriage and kids as people emotionally have more to lose.
I had an employee years ago who was fine flying for work in his mid-20s, but as he approached 30 he started to experience terrible anxiety about flying. He also became quite claustrophobic and couldn't get in the elevator if it was crowded. We had to adjust his job around it.
Ford also stated under oath that the attack she alleges was not the only cause of her anxiety/claustrophobia. She alluded to other predispositions. Go back and listen to the testimony.
Rosie James New York, N.Y. 4h agoFrom this article "The former boyfriend told the Judiciary Committee that he witnessed Dr. Blasey helping a friend prepare for a possible polygraph examination, contradicting her testimony under oath. Dr. Blasey, a psychology professor from California who also goes by her married name Ford, was asked during the hearing whether she had "ever given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test." She answered, "Never."
Someone correct me here as I thought the question was had she ever been given tips or advice by someone on how to take a polygraph test.
Quite a different meaning than asking if she had ever coached someone on how to take a polygraph test.roane1 Los Angeles, Ca 3h agoOh, I was under the impression that only The Media could attack (Kavanaugh, that is.) Almost everything I have read in the news (other than the Wall Street Journal) is based on speculation, written by Left Wing Activists (see article from yesterday's NY Times).
Dr. Ford (or probably her attorneys) have mislead and lied directly to the american people about Dr. Ford's "Fear of Flying" when she flies all over the place. When the Senate Committee offered to interview her privately in her California home or anywhere private she wanted she knew nothing about it.
Either she is lying or her attorneys are lying to her or keeping information that doesn't advance their narrative. Either way this whole thing stinks!
Wine Country Dude Napa Valley 2h agoYou accept flat-out what this ex-boyfriend says without question, and thus paint Dr. Blasey Ford as a "liar"? What about Kavanaugh's "selective honesty"? And how you get to being a pawn and loving attention from her extreme reticence is a total mystery. It appears you accept whatever the Senate Committee majority puts out without critical examination or waiting to see if there is any rebuttal.
zb Miami 3h agoRead: women should not be challenged when they lob career-ending accusations at men. They should be taken at their word and not subjected to any type of opposition. Because, heck, doing so would re-victimize the victim (even though her status as victim is very far from established).
We heard the same thing with Tawana Brawley, Sarah Ylen, Jackie Coakley at UVA and Crystal Gayle Mangum--to subject their stories to any critical analysis was revictimization. When they were shown to be frauds, the argument became that one may not criticize proven liars and frauds because that may "revictimize" other, unnamed, hypothetical victims of sexual assault.
What women propose is an end run around fundamental principles of fairness, to say nothing of the judicial principles that have governed us for centuries. And to say nothing of the proposition that they are adults themselves, have willingly entered the big bad government and financial worlds and proclaimed that they can handle themselves ferociously, just like men, thank you very much.
Reply 15 RecommendSoxared, '04, '07, '13 Boston 3h agoThe evidence clearly corroborates that Kavanagh was a drunken abusive lout in high school and college. His testimony in Congress proves he still is. At this point it really doesn't matter what Miss Ford said or did not say; what matters is what Cavanaugh has said and done.
Lee California 4h agoCharles Grassley knew about this lie and fed it to Rachel Mitchell to entrap Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Who can't see through the blatant partisan desperation?
Son of Liberty Fly Over Country 3h agoIsn't it glaring to anyone that not her parents nor her brothers have come out to speak for her? I don't believe they attended the hearing.
Something just isn't right here. I know I would upfront and personal with anyone who would doubt my daughter.
gary e. davis Berkeley, CA 3h agoI've seen and heard so many of my friends on the left say with great conviction: "I believe her!" But if you're willing to analyze with a fair mind all the accusations flying around, you'll agree there isn't a shred of corroboration.
This credulous yet firmly-held faith in Dr. Ford is just that "Faith" - belief without objective evidence.
In fact, there's more reason to believe in Santa Claus than in Dr. Ford. At least with Santa, the cookies and milk we left for him before bed were gone in the morning and were replaced by presents. Now that's real corroboration - at least in the mind of a credulous child.
XLER West Palm 2h ago"Civic duty" doesn't entail going public. It involves providing further information to relevant decision makers, i.e., Judicial Committee members. But going public does serve poitical interests. It does not serve interest in truth.
Dr. Ford was outed as the author of a letter to Senator Feinstein because the outing party wanted to see action shown, in light of the letter, that had not been publically shown.
But evidently the letter wasn't considered actionable by Senator Feinstein. Dr. Ford indicated that she had discussed her letter with persons she knows. Likely, then, someone she knows outed her. Civic duty calls for follow up, which could protect Dr. Ford's evident desire for privacy by remaining confidential communication with the Judiciary Committee.
But she chose otherwise. Armed with two attorneys, she chose to politicize her experience, evidently exploiting the #MeToo atmosphere for the sake of embarrassing Republicans.
That looks like duplicity that gels with the implausible character of her accounts.
Jonathan Northwest 2h agoSo there you have it. She lied under oath at least twice. And now we know that her "second door" was added in 2009, not 2012 as she claimed, based on oermitnhistory and used as an entrance to a rental unit they built. She also lied about credit card fraud until her ex threatened to prosecute her. Add that to the multiple memory lapses" and no evidence to back up her story this woman is simply not credible. I was also bothered that she stated her friend Leland didn't remember the party because she currently had health issues. Why would that make any difference?
Holly Los Angeles 3h agoThe ex-boyfriend dated Dr. Ford from 1992-1998 and that corresponds to when McClean was hired by the FBI. Conversely what does the ex-boyfriend get out of this -- grief from the press for daring to question Dr. Ford? Dr. Ford's claims are so full of inconsistencies it is absurd. The polygraph issue is just one aspect of the ex-boyfriend's letter -- there are other deliberate lies that Dr. Ford is being accused of presenting in her testimony. Time for the press to examine where Dr. Ford lived when the ex-boyfriend asserts she was living in a 500 square foot apartment with ONE door.
Kristen B Columbus, Ohio 2h ago@Ora Pro Nobis I disagree that it was unfair. Rather, in the testimony, Kavanaugh revealed his extreme partisanship, lack of respect, lack of decorum, lack of honesty, lack of ability to handle pressure, unwillingness to answer questions and his immaturity -- all of these extremely important to consider in weighing his fitness for a seat on the Supreme Court. Dr. Ford did the nation a tremendous service in presenting an opportunity for Kavanaugh to let us know what he's made of.
Ora Pro Nobis A Better Place 3h agoUntil this week, I often wondered whether the Me Too movement had gone too far- publicly shaming men, rather than going through official HR or legal channels. I thought perhaps some of us women could benefit from pulling out our high school copies of "The Scarlet Letter." But frankly... now I'm fed up.
Just 30 minutes ago, my pleasant afternoon walk was interrupted by some nasty, lascivious cat-calling--directed at me from some men painting a neighbor's house.
Still feeling hurt, objectified and dirty, I sat down to catch up on today's news. Well, that was a mistake. I believe Dr. Ford, 100%. But at the beginning of this whole Kavanaugh controversy, I could still understand why some men might feel uncomfortable with the idea that a tweet, a news story, or even a rumor could turn into a full blown scandal within minutes. But no more!
Kavanaugh is not on trial! He's an applicant for a job! Anyone who has ever had to work at finding a job knows that it is UP TO THE APPLICANT to show (yes, to prove) that they are the BEST person for that job! And you better be double sure that you're squeaky clean before you aim for even a moderately high profile job, let alone a Supreme Court Justice.
So I'm not wondering anymore... I'm fed up with comments like, "I guess now it's guilty until proven innocent" or how men should be "scared" in this Me Too era. Too bad we can't just magic the GOP all into a woman's body for a day, and send them on a walk down a busy city street.
J c Ma 1h agoI guess I need to revise a comment I made earlier. I called Dr. Ford's allegations baseless. That was incorrect. They were worse and weaker than baseless. Her allegations were refuted under oath by numerous people and now further undermined by the latter released by her ex-boyfriend. This is what you get when you allow hearsay and uncorroborated allegations into the process.
Chris CT 2h agoA whole lot of peopleare jumping to coclusions on both side. The point of Dr Ford's testimony was not that Kavanaugh is definitely a bad guy, we probably cannot know that for sure, barring further investigstion.
The problem is not that, though. It's that Kavanaugh behaved so badly for so long that this kind of accusation was even possible. He is unfit based on his already admitted undiciplined, unmoored, and irresponsible behavior in drinking and, more disturbingly, in money. This guy could be blackmailed, easy.
rick chicago 3h agoDon't participate in victim-shaming, New York Times, by publishing victim-shaming letters. From wikipedia:
"In efforts to discredit alleged sexual assault victims in court, a defense attorney may delve into an accuser's personal history, a common practice that also has the purposeful effect of making the victim so uncomfortable they choose not to proceed." Of note, past sexual history, such as cheating, is often raised to discredit the victim. Sound familiar??kona ma 2h agoI don't see why McClean or Ford's supporters are complaining about the ex-boyfriend's allegation. Allegation is the new standard of proof, right? Allegations don't require any support at all. In fact, as we have learned here in NYT, an allegation that is refuted by everyone alleged to be present is still to be believed if it goes along with an earnestly told story. It's earnest denials that no longer count. I thought Ford's description of the assault was quite plausible. However, it's implausible that she didn't know Grassley had offered to interview her at home, that fear of flying was the cause of her delays, that she doesn't know who drove her home-but is sure she drank exactly one beer, and that she needed to study her invoices to figure out that her legal services and polygraph are free.
Reply 9 Recommendkfm US Virgin Islands 3h agoI no longer care about whether Kavanaugh or Ford are telling the truth. What I do care about is the blatant partisanship, half truths and revenge evidenced in Kavanaugh's testifimony. 'WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND". If America thinks this behavior and thinly veiled threat is an acceptable mindset for a supreme court justice, I need to start investing in real estate in Canada.
Randall Bachmann port st lucie 1h agoKavanaugh's quote is "We're loud obnoxious drunks, with prolific pukers among us." You know, that sensitive stomach that reacts to spicy foods, that he swore under oath was the reason for his well-documented vomiting.
Also, "[A]ny girls we can beg to stay there are welcome with open..." What exactly is it you mean here, church-going, studious St Brett?
Kayle Simon Seattle WA 1h agoMy predictions were that Ford would not deliver the therapist's notes. She claimed, as did many here, that hey were the evidence that proved the story. Then she insisted that they were 'private' after the discrepancies were noted in her stories from the letter to Feinstein to the WaPo story.
Now we've learned that the second door was actually for the addition to the house, along with a bathroom and kitchenette. A room that was rented out. Not another WAY out.
In the notes, I'm sure that there is no mention of the need for another door due to the 'fear' Ford claimed. Especially since the permit for that addition with a door was pulled in 2008. Not in 2012. The therapist notes also are almost certainly from the 'counselor' who rented the apartment/office initially, who they also bought the house from and is now refusing to discuss it further.
I was clear in my earlier posts that as a psychologist, especially a teaching psychologist, Ford would have to know about polygraphs and how they work. https://www.apa.org/research/action/polygraph.aspx
And how to evade them: https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/09/25/nsa-whi...
Of course the person she helped is going to deny it. First, she would be in trouble with the FBI (she can count on an inquiry) and second, to admit it would prove that her friend whom she supported is a liar and perjurer.Allen Ny 2h agoWhen Mitchell asked Ford whether she had ever helped anyone prepare for a polygraph, my first thought was, they have something. Then it took them a week to use it. I wonder when he contacted them, or how many of her ex boyfriends they called.
Rolf Grebbestad 2h ago@Steve
He said she never showed any sign of claustrophobia living in a 500 square foot apartment. We now know the second door to her home was not another exit but an entrance for tenants installed years before she claims to have mentioned her trauma in therapy. He said she showed no fear of flying, ever, not even in smaller prop planes. We know that despite her statement about being afraid of flying she flew frequently and went long distances. These facts corroborate his statements and there is a growing list of lies and half-truths she has been identified uttering. She is not credible.Chico New Hampshire 2h agoThat woman appears to be deeply troubled. She has zero credibility.
Scrumper Savannah 2h agoIt's strange that "Bart" Kavanaugh was shown to lie, be confrontational, bullying and evasive, yet the Senate Republican's do not seem to have a problem with it.
When you have the FBI being restrained from talking to witnesses and following leads is outrageous, not interviewing Dr. Ford and "Bart" Kavanaugh makes this a joke investigation and will taint this Supreme Court pick forever.
Murphmurph Murphmurph 2h agoThis Merrick goes on to say "During our time dating, Dr. Ford never brought up anything regarding her experience as a victim of sexual assault, harassment, or misconduct," he wrote. "Dr. Ford never mentioned Brett Kavanaugh."
My ex wife had been the victim of an attempted rape in her teens yet in ten years of knowing her she never mentioned it once. My Grandfather fought in WWII and witnessed horrific stressful things yet never spoke about them either. So we can discount the assertion in Merrick's letter.
Jon Boston 4h agoPolygraph tests are inaccurate - statistically, they're slightly better than just guessing. They're not lie detectors; we'd be better off calling them anxiety detectors. If you're evaluating Ford's testimony, feel free to just throw the whole polygraph out, if that makes you more confident about your opinion.
If you believe what Mr. Merrick says is true, understand that an M.A. in psychology is going to tell you what any good friend would tell you before taking a polygraph test: Relax, be calm, tell the truth. You're a good person, you have no reason to be worried.
If you asked me if I *ever* gave advice on a polygraph test, and it turns out me and my roommate talked about it once twenty-five years ago, please don't hold it against me that I responded "no."
James Kirk California 4h agoHe also alleges she committed credit card fraud in grad school. But nobody should have their character judged by something that happened so long ago, right?
Rob Campbell Western Mass. 3h ago@D. Goldblatt
I am an engineer and have actually developed advanced signal processing and machine learning algorithms for this kind of bio-sensory application. New methods very immune to artificial manipulation and someone saying they heard her give advice for 1990 strip chart technology is nuts. But it is not surprising for someone to think this is old technology.
Pretty weak counter-attack. Time to bring in testing of Kavanaugh.Charlie Messing Burlington, VT 4h agoIf it is shown that Ford and/or any of the other accusers have lied and brought forward false accusations, should they be criminally charged?
Prof Emeritus NYC NYC 37m ago@Jay Lincoln You say the Times had a slant? What would the story sound like standing straight up? Different? Her ex-boyfriend may not be a reliable source - he saw her tell someone what a polygraph test was like - not how to beat one. PS - if you only drink one beer when you drink, remembering that would not be hard to accept. (Did she have many beers at other times? You know anything about it?) Please - take the break you say you need.
Anthony Carinhas Austin, Texas 38m agoThe NY Times and other Democratic organizations are beginning to panic.
Ford's story is ... falling apart.
Reply 5 RecommendRegards, LC princeton, new jersey 3h agoI'm so glad I'm a centrist because this bickering has become foolish. Yes the country deserves honorable justices on our courts, there's so much dishonesty coming from both sides that it seems everyone should be cut off in exchange for another nominee. The country's divisions are getting careless and childish that anyone will say anything to get their way. Put someone else on the table already folks.
Gerwick New York 3h agoAs many observers have noted, the WH has perhaps dozens of qualified candidates to replace Kavanaugh without a stigma of sexual assault hovering over them and who reflect views consistent with those of the Republicans.
Why then continue with a nomination that has ripped the country apart?
The answer is Mr. Trump's inability to acknowledge a mistake and to adopt the posture of Roy Cohen: never backdown; always punish your enemy more painfully than he/she punished you; never show weakness.
So it's another incident in which we have to suffer, often needlessly,
to satisfy Mr. Trump's narcissistic, egomaniacal needs.Mor California 2h ago@al Ford is not the one accused of running rape gangs despite having an impeccable much commended judicial service record for 23+ years. He is understandably upset.
Also "innocent holes"? There is no such thing in law. Either you are lying or you are not.
javierg Miami, Florida 3h agoPolygraph is junk science anyway. At best, it can determine whether the person believes she is telling the truth, not what the truth is. I think Dr. Ford believes her own words. But the more I learn about the circumstances of her testimony, the less inclined I am to believe that the alleged assault happened the way she described it. I suspect it is a classic case of false memory or confabulation. The FBI should interrogate her therapist with regard to the kind of therapy Dr. Ford received. And what about Dr. Ford's husband? Can't he tell us when, exactly, his wife remembered the name of her attacker? And how is the ex-boyfriend who apparently was with Dr. Ford for six years (in another country he would be called a common-law husband) did inot know about the assault that had supposedly blighted Dr. Ford's life? These questions need to be answered. Otherwise the entire thing is just a charade. And for the record, I was bitterly opposed to Kavanuagh nomination because of his position on Roe. Now I wish him confirmed just to end this circus. Trump's other nominee won't be any better on abortion anyway.
Jacqueline Colorado 2h agoThe ex boyfriend commentary brings new meaning to the saying "hell has no fury like a man scorned" (I substituted man for woman). This is what appears to have happen. Never in my lifetime would I have thought that I would witness such division and the airing out of our dirty laundry for the world to see. This makes the famous novel entitled The Beans of Egypt, Maine, by Carolyn Chute, look like a Disney story.
Gerwick New York 2h agoSeems to me that it's all a bunch of hearsay. At this point I think Kavanaugh is too divisive and shouldn't be confirmed because this process has horribly divided us along partisan lines, however, there can really be no truth known.
It's just all a bunch of hearsay. She said, he said, with no evidence. I dont believe either of them quite frankly. There are always three sides to the story. One sides story, the other sides story, and the actual truth. The actual truth is known through empirical evidence, and I dont think there is anything real. Sworn statements and polygraph tests are not evidence. DNA or a video are evidence, and there is none of that. As such, the FBI cannot get to the truth and never will.
I disagree with this political hit job. The Democrafs are the ones stoking the fires of division in this battle. However, they have succeeded and at this point Kavanaugh is so divisive that I believe it would hurt American institutions if he was nominated.
nom de guerre Kirkwood, MO 3h ago@CPR Ford's claims are uncorroborated, even refuted by her own best friend. Where was the defense for Kavanaugh then? Not so much male privilege or power when he is not even given the basic courtesy of being held innocent until proven guilty.
Gerwick New York 3h ago"He also wrote that they broke up "once I discovered that Dr. Ford was unfaithful" and that she continued to use a credit card they shared nearly a year before he took her off the account. "When confronted, Dr. Ford said she did not use the card, but later admitted to the use after I threatened to involve fraud protection," he said."
Small points, but:
They weren't married or engaged and perhaps the relationship had played itself out. I'd venture to say the majority of failing relationships end with the involvement of a third person. If he's trying to assassinate her character, this is a weak attempt. Heck, look at the guy who's in the WH.They shared a credit card that she "continued to use a year before he took her off the account". This doesn't constitute fraud, her name was on the account at the time she used it. He had no basis for a fraud case.
He claimed she lived a 500sf place with only one door- ok, but it was in California, where space is at a premium. She was obviously on a budget, which dictates what one can afford.
sandy Chicago 3h ago@Rickske "Klobuchar apologize to Kavanaugh?! Like telling a black person to apologize for taking a bus seat before a white person."
What? This makes no sense whatsoever. Klobuchar went after Kavanaugh over the Avenatti rape gangs claims which are now laughing stock of the whole nation. That's why she must apologize. Especially to his family and daughters.
bored critic usa 3h ago@Phyliss Dalmatian Too many holes in the story.
Have you read about the supposed "2nd door" Ford claims to have installed for protection? Well, seems it was really to "host" i.e., rent out the area of her master bedroom to Google interns (prior to that, it was used as a business). Ford also owns a 2nd home. She does not have two doors on that home. She lied about her fear of flying, about never having discussions about polygraphs in the past and she doesn't remember if she took the polygraph the day of her grandmothers funeral or the day after. Seriously? Those are just the lies that stick out to me. The omissions are too many to recall here. Try, please try, to take your loathing of Trump from the equation and realize that this woman lied! I believe her too. But I do not anymore. She's lying. It's frightening. What's more frightening is that the media isn't being honest about their reporting. This is ruining a man's life and that of his family. This isn't fair.Mike CT 4h agofeinstein was holding onto dr. ford as her "ace in the hole". she wasn't going to use it if she didn't have to and she was holding out until the last minute. which also gives rise to the longest delay possible for the confirmation vote. simple dirty politics.
bored critic usa 4h ago@Andy
I graduated college in 1981, a fews years before Judge K but the same era. Drinking was common, altercations happened. No news here.Do teenaged boys make awkward sexual references? Im not surprised.
It doesn't mean judge K is a predator as he is being portrayed by the Dems.
bored critic usa 3h agosounds like muldar from x-files, "I want to believe". so I will believe, regardless of any additional information which should perhaps cast a shred of doubt.
Reply 4 RecommendPhil NJ 1h agobut can you explain her lack of memory and the inconsistencies in her story?
Ralphie CT 1h agoThere is a simple, effective way to handle all allegations, now or future ones.
First, the timetable is arbitrary.
That gives FBI full authority to impartially investigate all allegations.
To prevent adding allegations, give a time limit to all allegations.
Then conduct the investigation for a reasonable amount of time. No constraints, no limits if material to the accusations that is up to the FBI to decide.
You can still complete this investigation before elections if that is a priority.
Finally if investigations reveal anything against him that would have impacted his support for the court, impeach him if he is on it.Just by what has transpired, his sneaky lies, partisan attack and blatant threat he is unfit for any court. If he values his family, he would spare them the worst by withdrawing now.
Elections have consequences. In a zero sum game your vote determines the outcome. As a matter of principle Election commission's goal ought to be 100% participation with a mandatory improvement in every election, period.
Gerwick New York 4h ago@Henry Slofstra The fact is psychologists (Ford is one) know polygraphs are pseudoscience and can easily be beaten if you know how they work.
Gerwick New York 3h ago@4merNYer What about the senate's conduct? Why was the allegations hidden until after the hearing until the last moment? Instead of a confidential investigation as is due process, and if confirmed charges then disqualification of the man's nomination, again as is due process, he and his family dragged into a media circus. Its only fair he got a little upset at the way it was handled.
His answers were concrete, he categorically and emphatically denied all allegations. There was nothing more to be said.
bored critic usa 4h ago@Mercutio
1. You accuse a man of impeccable record and public service to America for 23 years - of running rape gangs. Crucify him in public, drag his family and daughters into this chaos - and then expect him to be unemotional? How's that fair?
2. He's clearly demonstrated what now? where? You're reaching too much.
MB MD 57m agohow is this a desperate smear? and what went on against Kavanaugh was not? who cares if he drank during hs and college. back then most kids did. and he couldn't have been drunk all the time and be as successful in his grades as he was. so focused on all the wrong things.
Mary Edgerton Houston 58m agoI remember a poly I took 40 years ago to work at a convenience store. The tight cuff immediately said "heart rate". So I intermittently calmed down and sped my heart to play a game with the examiner. I passed and remain convinced it's all voodoo.
mike atlanta 1h agoSo it is one thing to tell someone that during a lie detector test your vital signs will be monitored as you are asked questions, starting with control questions that have established true or false answers. My Mother told me so at least, and I would not say that she advised me how to take a polygraph examination. There is on the other hand a technique in which people who are to submit to a polygraph examination learn how to raise their blood pressure or breathing rate while being asked control questions that they answer to truthfully. This adjusts your baseline vital signs to a level that would be too close to your vital signs while lying such that the changes in vital signs from truth to lie state are not statistically significant. I would say that training someone to do that is teaching someone how to take (and pass) a polygraph examination. Her boyfriend did not describe this being the case, so I think he and the Republican Senators are making a mountain out of a molehill. Also, I was molested as a child in a movie theater. I did not talk about it until forty years later, not to my serious boyfriends along the way, nor to my first husband. I only spoke about it to my second husband when we began taking our own little girls to the movies and I realized how terrified I was that they would be molested. I could hardly watch the movie, and wanted my husband to bracket them with me. He never understood that, but then he supports Trump (and we are divorced).
DZ Banned from NYT 3h ago@Joan In California
"manly individuals who think this issue will go away after the dust settles better hope their behavior has always been above reproach."and how many women have lives that are "beyond reproach"? Notice the goal post moving. Now its not only men who have sexually assaulted women who are the enemy its all men if the don't adhere to every single accusation made by any and every woman on the planet. How can any sane person think a gender war is the answer?
and will you only carry female babies to full term? because if one day your son doesn't believe just one woman on the planet (or think that she is mistaken) will you stand in line to scorch his earth too and betray your own motherhood?
Gerwick New York 3h ago@Brookhawk
They were in a relationship for 6 years and lived together. That doesn't make the boyfriend's account true, but it does explain how selectively the NYT chooses to inform its readers these days. The death of the media is a suicide.
Gerwick New York 3h ago@rosa Stalin's Russia also sent and punished without any regard for evidence or proof which is the exactly what the left is doing to Kavanaugh right now. Ford's claim has no corroboration, is convieniently dropped 2 days before senate vote, Fienstein recommended lawyers, now exposed lies about fear of flying, polygraph etc...yet Kavanaugh can not demand the basic courtesy of being treated "innocent until proven guilty" from the public and the media? Stalin would be proud right now of this pitch fork mob culture we got going I tell you that much.
Gaspipe Casso Brooklyn 3h ago@Henry She lied about fear of flying, lied about polygraph, no corroboration, she was with merrick for 5+ years yet never mentioned this "assault", allegations 2 days before senate vote?
How can anyone not be atleast suspicious?
Reply 2 Recommend@JenD My mother, my wife, my sister and my daughter's rage boiled over last week too...but at the thought that their father, brother, son and husband could face an uncorroborated charge and have his life ruined without due process.
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Nov 04, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
LP: You've recently highlighted that this is a tricky time for historians and those who want to examine the past, like filmmakers. Well-intentioned people who want to confront the injustices of history may end up replacing one set of myths for another. You point out the distortion of history in films like "Selma" which offer uplifting narratives about black experiences but tend to leave out or alter meaningful facts, such as the ways in which blacks and whites have worked together. This is ostensibly done to avoid a "white savior" narrative but you indicate that it may serve to support other ideas that are also troubling.
AR: Exactly, and in ways that are completely compatible with neoliberalism as a style of contemporary governance. It boils down to the extent to which the notion that group disparities have come to exhaust the ways that people think and talk about inequality and injustice in America now.
It's entirely possible to resolve disparities without challenging the fundamental structures that reproduce inequalities more broadly. As my friend Walter Benn Michaels and I have been saying for at least a decade, by the standard of disparity as the norm or the ideal of social justice, a society in which 1% of the population controls more than 90% of the resources would be just, so long as the 1% is made up non-whites, non-straight people, women, and so on in proportions that roughly match their representation in the general population.
It completely rationalizes neoliberalism. You see this in contemporary discussions about gentrification, for example. What ends up being called for is something like showing respect for the aboriginal habitus and practices and involving the community in the process. But what does it mean to involve the community in the process? It means opening up spaces for contractors, black and Latino in particular, in the gentrified areas who purport to represent the interests of the populations that are being displaced. But that has no impact on the logic of displacement. It just expands access to the trough, basically.
I've gotten close to some young people who are nonetheless old school type leftists in the revitalized Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and I've been struck to see that the identitarian tendency in DSA has been actively opposing participation in the Medicare for All campaign that the national organization adopted. The argument is that it's bad because there are disparities that it doesn't address. In the first place, that's not as true as they think it might be, but there's also the fact that they can't or won't see how a struggle for universal health care could be the most effective context for trying to struggle against structural disparities. It's just mind-boggling.
LP: If politicians continue to focus on issues like race, xenophobia, and homophobia without delivering practical solutions to the economic problems working people face, from health care costs to the retirement crisis to student debt, could we end up continuing to move in the direction of fascism? I don't use the word lightly.
AR: I don't either. And I really agree with you. I was a kid in a basically red household in the McCarthy era. I have no illusions about what the right is capable of, what the bourgeoisie is capable of, and what the liberals are capable of. In the heyday of the New Left, when people were inclined to throw the fascist label around, I couldn't get into it. But for the first time in my life, I think it's not crazy to talk about it. You have to wonder if Obama, who never really offered us a thing in the way of a new politics except his race, after having done that twice, had set the stage for Trump and whatever else might be coming.
hemeantwell , November 3, 2018 at 7:27 am
Thanks, Yves. For decades now Reed has set the standard for integrating class-based politics with anti-racism. I only wish Barbara Fields, whom he mentions, could get as much air time.
Doug , November 3, 2018 at 7:33 am
Thank you for posting this outstanding interview.
Those who argue for identity-based tests of fairness (e.g. all categories of folks are proportionately represented in the 1%) fail to think through means and ends. They advocate the ends of such proportionality. They don't get that broad measures to seriously reduce income and wealth inequality (that is, a class approach) are powerful means to the very end they wish for. If, e.g., the bottom 50% actually had half (heck, even 30 to 40%) of income and wealth, the proportionality of different groups in any socioeconomic tier would be much higher than it is today.
There are other means as well. But the point is that identity-driven folks strip their own objective of it's most useful tools for it's own accomplishment.
flora , November 3, 2018 at 6:54 pm
+1.
Thanks to NC for posting this interview.The Rev Kev , November 3, 2018 at 9:18 am
In reading this, my mind was drawn back to an article that was in links recently about a Tea Party politician that ended up being sent to the slammer. He was outraged to learn that at the prison that he was at, the blacks and the whites were deliberately set against each other in order to make it easier for the guards to rule the prison.
It is a bit like this in this article when you see people being unable to get past the black/white thing and realize that the real struggle is against the elite class that rules them all. I am willing to bet that if more than a few forgot the whole Trump-supporters-are-racists meme and saw the economic conditions that pushed them to vote the way that they did, then they would find common cause with people that others would write off as deplorable and therefore unsalvageable.Jim Thomson , November 3, 2018 at 11:21 am
Howard Zinn, in " A Peoples' History of the United States" makes a similar argument about the origins of racism in southern colonial America. The plantation owners and slave owners promoted racism among the working class whites towards blacks to prevent them ( the working class blacks and whites) from making common cause against the aristocratic economic system that oppressed both whites and blacks who did not own property.
The origin of militias was to organize lower class whites to protect the plantation owners from slave revolts.
The entire book is an eye-opening story of class struggle throughout US history.JBird4049 , November 3, 2018 at 2:24 pm
The origin of militias was to organize lower class whites to protect the plantation owners from slave revolts.
The militias were the bulk of the military, if the not the military, for large periods of time for all of the British American Colonies for centuries. The colonists were in fairly isolated, often backwater, places for much of the time. Between the constant small scale warfare with the natives and the various threats from the French and Spanish military, there was a need for some form of local (semi) organized military. It was the British government's understandable belief that the colonists should pay at least some of the expensive costs of the soldiers and forts that were put in place to protect them during and after the Seven Years War that was the starting step to the revolution; the origins of modern American policing especially in the South has its genesis in the Slave Patrols although there was some form of police from the start throughout the Colonies form the very beginning even if it was just a local sheriff. The constant theme of the police's murderous brutality is a legacy of that. The Second Amendment is a result of both the colonists/revolutionarie's loathing, even hatred, of a potentially dictatorial standing army of any size and the slave holders' essential need to control the slaves and to a lesser degree the poor whites.
jrs , November 3, 2018 at 2:10 pm
people gang up (in racial groups – maybe that's just easiest though it seems to have systematic encouragement) in prison for protection I think. The protection is not purely from guards. There are riots in which one could get seriously injured (stabbed), one could get attacked otherwise etc.. Because basic physical safety of one's person is not something they provide in prison, maybe quite deliberately so.
"I am willing to bet that if more than a few forgot the whole Trump-supporters-are-racists meme and saw the economic conditions that pushed them to vote the way that they did, then they would find common cause with people that others would write off as deplorable and therefore unsalvageable."
In those for whom poverty caused them to vote for Trump. But some voted for Trump due to wealth. And whites overall have more wealth than blacks and so overall (not every individual) are the beneficiaries of unearned wealth and privilege and that too influences their view of the world (it causes them to side more with the status quo). Blacks are the most economically liberal group in America. The thing is can one really try simultaneously to understand even some of say the black experience in America and try hard to understand the Trump voter at the same time? Because if a minority perceives those who voted for Trump as a personal threat to them are they wrong? If they perceive Republican economic policies (and many have not changed under Trump such as cutting government) as a personal threat to them are they wrong? So some whites find it easier to sympathize with Trump voters, well they would wouldn't they, as the problems of poor whites more directly relate to problems they can understand. But so what?
Todde , November 4, 2018 at 7:21 am
Lol. He went to a minimum security federal prison, or daycare as we call it.
Ots tax cheats and drug dealers, not a lot of racial activity goes on there.
Livius Drusus , November 3, 2018 at 9:50 am
I am glad that Reed mentioned the quasi-religious nature of identity politics, especially in its liberal form. Michael Lind made a similar observation:
As a lapsed Methodist myself, I think there is also a strong undercurrent of Protestantism in American identity politics, particularly where questions of how to promote social justice in a post-racist society are concerned. Brazil and the United States are both former slave societies, with large black populations that have been frozen out of wealth and economic opportunity. In the United States, much of the discussion about how to repair the damage done by slavery and white supremacy involves calls on whites to examine themselves and confess their moral flaws -- a very Protestant approach, which assumes that the way to establish a good society is to ensure that everybody has the right moral attitude. It is my impression that the left in Brazil, lacking the Protestant puritan tradition, is concerned more with practical programs, like the bolsa familia -- a cash grant to poor families -- than with attitudinal reforms among the privileged.
https://thesmartset.com/what-politics-isnt/
Many white liberals are mainline Protestants or former Protestants and I think they bring their religious sensibilities to their particular brand of liberalism. You can see it in the way that many liberals claim that we cannot have economic justice until we eliminate racist attitudes as when Hillary Clinton stated that breaking up the big banks won't end racism. Of course, if we define racism as a sinful attitude it is almost impossible to know if we have eliminated it or if we can even eliminate it at all.
Clinton and liberals like her make essentially the same argument that conservatives make when they say that we cannot have big economic reforms because the problem is really greed. Once you define the problem as one of sin then you can't really do anything to legislate against it. Framing political problems as attitudinal is a useful way to protect powerful interests. How do you regulate attitudes? How do you break up a sinful mind? How can you even know if a person has racism on the brain but not economic anxiety? Can you even separate the two? Politicians need to take voters as they are and not insist that they justify themselves before voting for them.
Sparkling , November 3, 2018 at 1:16 pm
As a former Catholic, this post is absolutely correct on every possible level. Salvation by works or salvation by faith alone?
flora , November 3, 2018 at 9:54 pm
I thought this reference to the Protestant way of self-justification or absolving oneself without talking about class in the US is true but was perhaps the weakest point. The financial elites justify their position and excuse current inequalities and injustices visiting on the 99% by whatever is the current dominate culturally approved steps in whatever country. In the US – Protestant heritage; in India – not Protestant heritage; in Italy – Catholic heritage, etc. Well, of course they do. This isn't surprising in the least. Each country's elites excuse themselves in a way that prevents change by whatever excuses are culturally accepted.
I think talking about the Protestant heritage in the US is a culturing interesting artifact of this time and this place, but runs the danger of creating another "identity" issue in place of class and financial issues if the wider world's elite and similar self excuse by non-Protestant cultures aren't included in the example. Think of all the ways the various religions have been and are used to justify economic inequality. Without the wider scope the religious/cultural point risks becoming reduced to another "identity" argument; whereas, his overall argument is that "identity" is a distraction from class and economic inequality issues. my 2 cents.Left in Wisconsin , November 3, 2018 at 10:10 am
The key point is that it is all about shutting down/shouting over class-based analysis. It is negative identity politics – "anti-intersectionality."
J Sterling , November 3, 2018 at 11:15 am
Yes. I'm convinced the reason for all the different flavors of privilege was to drown the original privilege–class privilege.
Carey , November 3, 2018 at 6:11 pm
Yes, as the dissemblings in the Paul Krugman column linked within this essay show so well.
Norb , November 3, 2018 at 11:20 am
Chris Hedges has been warning about the rise of American Fascism for years, and his warnings are coming to fruition- and still, the general population fails to recognize the danger. The evils and violence that are the hallmarks of fascist rule are for other people, not Americans. The terms America and Freedom are so ingrained in the minds of citizens that the terms are synonymous. Reality is understood and interpreted through this distorted lens. People want and need to believe this falsehood and resist any messenger trying to enlighten them to a different interpretation of reality- the true view is just to painful to contemplate.
The horrors of racism offer a nugget of truth that can misdirect any effort to bring about systemic change. Like the flow of water finding the path of least resistance, racist explanations for current social problems creates a channel of thought that is difficult to alter. This simple single mindedness prevents a more holistic and complicated interpretation to take hold in the public mind. It is the easy solution for all sides- the tragedy is that violence, in the end, sorts out the "winners". The world becomes a place where competing cultures are constantly at each others throats.
Falling in the racism/ identity politics trap offers the elite many avenues to leverage their power, not the least of which is that when all else fails, extreme violence can be resorted to. The left/progressives have become powerless because they fail to understand this use of ultimate force and have not prepared their followers to deal with it. Compromise has been the strategy for decades and as time has proven, only leads to more exploitation. Life becomes a personal choice between exploiting others, or being exploited. The whole system reeks of hypocrisy because the real class divisions are never discussed or understood for what they are. This seems to be a cyclical process, where the real leaders of revolutionary change are exterminated or compromised, then the dissatisfaction in the working classes is left to build until the next crisis point is reached.
WWIII is already under way and the only thing left is to see if the imperialist ideology will survive or not. True class struggle should lead to world peace- not world domination. Fascists are those that seek war as a means of violent expansion and extermination to suit their own ends. Hope for humanity rests in the idea of a multipolar world- the end of imperialism.
Agressive war is the problem, both on the small social scale and the larger stage between nations. The main question is if citizens will allow themselves to be swept up into the deceptions that make war possible, or defend themselves and whatever community they can form to ensure that mass destruction can be brought under control.
The real crisis point for America will be brought about by the loss of foreign wars- which seem inevitable. The citizenry will be forced to accept a doubling down on the existing failures or will show the fortitude to accept failure and defeat and rebuild our country. Seeking a mythic greatness is not the answer- only a true and sober evaluation will suffice- it must be a broader accommodation that accepts responsibility for past wrongs but does not get caught up in narrow, petty solutions that racist recriminations are hallmark. What is needed is a framework for a truth and reconciliation process- but such a process is only possible by a free people, not a conquered one. It is only on this foundation that an American culture can survive.
This will take a new enlightenment that seems questionable, at least in the heart of American Empire. It entails a reexamination of what freedom means and the will to dedicate oneself to building something worth defending with ones life. It has nothing to do with wanting to kill others or making others accept a particular view.
It is finding ones place in the world, and defending it, and cultivating it. It is the opposite of conquest. It is the resistance to hostility. In a word, Peace.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 4:53 pm
I don't disagree with many of your assertions and their warrants but I am growing disturbed by the many uses of the word 'Fascism'. What does the word mean exactly beyond its pejorative uses? Searching the web I am only confused by the proliferation of meanings. I believe it's time for some political or sociological analyst to cast off the words 'fascism' and 'totalitarianism' and further the work that Hannah Arendt started. We need a richer vocabulary and a deeper analysis of the political, social, philosophical, and human contents of the concepts of fascism and of totalitarianism. World War II was half-a-century ago. We have many more examples called fascism and totalitarianism to study and must study to further refine exactly what kinds of Evil we are discussing and hope to fight. What purpose is served sparring with the ghosts as new more virulent Evils proliferate.
redleg , November 3, 2018 at 7:10 pm
Fascism?
Start with Umberto Eco and mull it over for a minute or two.Norb , November 4, 2018 at 9:52 am
You have brought up a very important point. The meaning of words and their common usage. But I have to disagree that "new more virulent Evils" require a new terminology. To my mind, that plays right into the hand of Evil. The first step in the advancement of evil is the debasement of language- the spreading of lies and obfuscating true meaning. George Orwell's doublespeak.
I don't think its a matter of casting off the usage of words, or the creative search to coin new ones, but to reclaim words. Now the argument can be made that once a word is debased, it looses its descriptive force- its moral force- and that is what I take as your concern, however, words are used by people to communicate meaning, and this is where the easy abandonment of words to their true meaning becomes a danger for the common good. You cannot let someone hijack your language. A communities strength depends on its common use and understanding of language.
Where to find that common meaning? Without the perspective of class struggle taken into account- to orientate the view- this search will be fruitless. Without a true grounding, words can mean anything. I believe, in America, this is where the citizenry is currently, in a state of disorientation that has been building for decades. This disorientation is caused by DoubleSpeak undermining common understanding that is brought about by class consciousness/ solidarity/ community. In a consumerist society, citizens take for granted that they are lied to constantly- words and images have no real meaning- or multiple meanings playing on the persons sensibilities at any given moment- all communication becomes fundamentally marketing and advertising BS.
This sloppiness is then transferred into the political realm of social communication which then transforms the social dialog into a meaningless exercise because there is really no communication going on- only posturing and manipulation. Public figures have both private and public views. They are illegitimate public servants not because they withhold certain information, but because they hold contradictory positions expressed in each realm. They are liars and deceivers in the true sense of the word, and don't deserve to be followed or believed- let alone given any elevated social standing or privilege.
Your oppressor describes himself as your benefactor- or savior- and you believe them, only to realize later that you have been duped. Repeat the cycle down through the ages.
DoubleSpeak and controlling the interpretation of History are the tools of exercising power. It allows this cycle to continue.
Breaking this cycle will require an honesty and sense of empathy that directs action.
Fighting evil directly is a loosing game. You more often than not become that which you fight against. Directly confronting evil requires a person to perform evil deeds. Perpetuation of War is the perfect example. It must be done indirectly by not performing evil actions or deeds. Your society takes on a defensive posture, not an aggressive one. Defense and preservation are the motivating principles.
Speaking the truth, and working toward peace is the only way forward. A new language and modes of communication can build themselves up around those principles.
Protecting oneself against evil seems to be the human condition. How evil is defined determines the class structure of any given society.
So much energy is wasted on trying to convince evil people not to act maliciously, which will never happen. It is what makes them evil- it is who they are. And too much time is wasted listening to evil people trying to convince others that they are not evil- or their true intensions are beneficent- which is a lie.
"Sparing with ghosts", is a good way of describing the reclaiming of historical fact. Of belief in the study of history as a means to improve society and all of humankind thru reflection and reevaluation. The exact opposite desire of an elite class- hell bent on self preservation as their key motivating factor in life. If you never spar with ghosts, you have no reference to evaluate the person standing before you- which can prove deadly- as must be constantly relearned by generations of people exploited by the strong and powerful.
The breaking point of any society is how much falsehood is tolerated- and in the West today- that is an awful lot.
Summer , November 3, 2018 at 11:22 am
"I've gotten close to some young people who are nonetheless old school type leftists in the revitalized Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and I've been struck to see that the identitarian tendency in DSA has been actively opposing participation in the Medicare for All campaign that the national organization adopted "
Check to see how their parents or other relatives made or make their money.
Left in Wisconsin , November 3, 2018 at 12:00 pm
This is quite the challenge. I know a large number of upper middle class young people who are amenable to the socialist message but don't really get (or don't get at all) what it means. (I'm convinced they make up a large portion of that percentage that identifies as socialist or has a positive image of socialism.) But it would be wrong to write them off.
A related point that I make here from time to time: all these UMC kids have been inculcated with a hyper-competitive world view. We need a systemic re-education program to break them free.
Louis Fyne , November 3, 2018 at 12:48 pm
as a complementary anecdote, i know of economically bottom 50% people who are devout anti-socialists, because they deal with "micro-triggers" of free-riders, cheaters, petty theft in their everyday life.
To them, the academic/ivory tower/abstract idea of equality in class, equality in income is an idealistic pipe dream versus the dog-eat-dog reality of the world.
Stratos , November 3, 2018 at 2:16 pm
Interesting that you mention "economically bottom 50% people who are devout anti-socialists, because they deal with "micro-triggers" of [low income?] free-riders, cheaters, petty theft in their everyday life."
I read a lot of their snarling against alleged low income "moochers" in the local media. What I find disturbing is their near total blindness to the for-profit businesses, millionaires and billionaires who raid public treasuries and other resources on a regular basis.
Just recently, I read a news story about the local baseball franchise that got $135 million dollars (they asked for $180 million) and the local tourism industry complaining about their reduction in public subsidies because money had to be diverted to homeless services.
No one seems to ever question why profitable, private businesses are on the dole. The fact that these private entities complain about reductions in handouts shows how entitled they feel to feed from the public trough. Moreover, they do so at a time of a locally declared "homeless emergency".
Yet, it is the middle class precariat that condemn those below them as 'moochers and cheaters', while ignoring the free-riders, cheaters and grand larceny above them.
Norb , November 4, 2018 at 10:11 am
There is no class consciousness. The working stiffs admire their owners so the only people left to blame for their difficult life conditions are the poor below them on the social hierarchy. Or they blame themselves, which is just as destructive. In the interim, they enjoy the camaraderie that sporting events provide, so give the owners a pass. Bread and Circuses.
A capitalist critique is the only way to change this situation, but that would require learning Marxist arguments and discussing their validity.
There is that, or Charity for the poor, which only aggravates the class conflict that plagues our society.
The third way is actually building community that functions on a less abusive manner, which takes effort, time, and will power.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 5:37 pm
I homed in on your phrase "they deal with 'micro-triggers' of free-riders, cheaters, petty theft in their everyday life" and it landed on fertile [I claim!] ground in my imagination. I have often argued with my sister about this. She used to handle claims for welfare, and now found more hospitable areas of civil service employment. I am gratified that her attitudes seem to have changed over time. Many of the people she worked with in social services shared the common attitudes of disparagement toward their suppliants -- and enjoyed the positions of power it offered them.
I think the turning point came when my sister did the math and saw that the direct costs for placing a homeless person or family into appallingly substandard 'housing' in her area ran in the area of $90K per year. Someone not one of the "free-riders, cheaters, [or villains of] petty theft in their everyday life" was clearly benefiting. I am very lazy but I might try to find out who and advertise their 'excellence' in helping the poor.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 5:54 pm
A "re-education" program? That usage resurrects some very most unhappy recollections from the past. Couldn't you coin a more happy phrase? Our young are not entirely without the ability to learn without what is called a "re-education" program.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 6:30 pm
The comments in this post are all over the map. I'll focus on the comments regarding statues commemorating Confederate heroes.
I recall the way the issue of Confederate statues created a schism in the NC commentarient. I still believe in retaining 'art' in whatever form it takes since there is so little art in our lives. BUT I also believe that rather than tear down the Confederate statues of Confederate 'heroes' it were far better to add a plaque comemorating just what sorts of heroism these 'heroes' performed for this country. That too serves Art.
Tearing the statues down only serves forgetting something which should never be forgotten.
This was intended as a separate comment to stand alone. I believe Art should not forget but should remember the horrors of our past lest we not forget.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 9:49 pm
" which we should not forget." -- to replace the end of the closing sentence.
Darius , November 3, 2018 at 1:41 pm
It occurred to me that centrists demonize the left as unelectable based entirely on tokens of identity. Long haired hippies. The other. It works because the political debate in America is structured entirely around identity politics. Nancy Pelosi is a San Francisco liberal so of course white people in Mississippi will never vote for the Democrats. Someone like Bernie Sanders has a message that will appeal to them but he is presented as to the left of even Pelosi or alternately a traitor to the liberal identity siding with racists and sexists. Actually, all of these oppressions are rooted in working class oppression. But that is inconsistent with the framing of ascriptive identity.
Susan the other , November 3, 2018 at 1:58 pm
This was a great post. Didn't know about Adolph Reed. He gets straight to the point – we have only 2 options. Either change neoliberal capitalism structurally or modify its structure to achieve equality. Identity politics is a distraction. There will always be differences between us and so what? As long as society itself is equitable. As far as the fear of fascism goes, I think maybe fascism is in the goal of fascism. If it is oppressive then its bad. If it is in the service of democracy and equality the its good. If our bloated corporatism could see its clear, using AR's option #2, to adjusting their turbo neoliberal capitalism, then fine. More power to them. It isn't racism preventing them from doing this – it is the system. It is structural. Unfortunately we face far greater dangers, existential dangers, today than in 1940. We not only have an overpopulated planet of human inequality, but also environmental inequality. Big mess. And neither capitalism nor socialism has the answer – because the answer is eclectic. We need all hands on deck and every practical measure we can conjure. And FWIW I'd like to compare our present delusions to all the others – denial. The statue of Robert E. Lee, imo, is beautiful in its conveyance of defeat with deep regret. The acceptance is visible and powerful. What will the postmortem statue of neoliberalism look like?
tegnost , November 3, 2018 at 3:22 pm
What will the postmortem statue of neoliberalism look like?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gollum#/media/File:Gollum_s_journey_commences_by_Frederic_Bennett.jpg
Smeagol ?
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 5:42 pm
Smeagol is dead! Gollum lives!
Just a moment let me adjust my palantír.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 5:18 pm
Do you really want 'equality' however you might define it? We are not born equal. Each of us is different and I believe each of us is therefore very special. [I suppose I echo the retort of the French regarding the equality of the sexes: "Vive la Difference!".] I believe we should celebrate our inequalities -- while we maintain vigilance in maintaining the equal chance to try and succeed or fail. The problem isn't inequality but the extreme inequalities in life and sustenance our society has built -- here and more abroad. I don't mind being beaten in a fair race. An unfair race lightens my laurels when I win. But our societies run an unfair competition and the laurels far too heavily grace the brows of those who win. And worse still, 'inequality' -- the word I'll use for the completely disproportionate rewards to the winners to the undeserving in-excellent 'winners' is not a matter solved by a quest for 'equality'. The race for laurels has no meaning when the winners are chosen before the race and the 'laurels' cost the welfare and sustenance for the losers and their unrelated kin who never ran in the race. And 'laurels' were once but honors and there is too far little honor in this world.
workingclasshero , November 3, 2018 at 8:34 pm
Nothing denotes a naive idealistic "progressive" than the demand for near absolute equality in terms of money and status in their future society.all or nothing i guess.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 9:42 pm
I have read and appreciated many comments by 'Susan the other'. I would not ever characterize her comments as those of a naive idealistic "progressive" demanding absolute equality I should and must apologize if that is how you read my comment. I intended to suggest equality is not something truly desirable in-itself. But re-reading her comment I find much greater depth than I commented to --
'Susan the other' notes: "The statue of Robert E. Lee, imo, is beautiful in its conveyance of defeat with deep regret." In answer to her question: "What will the postmortem statue of neoliberalism look like?" I very much doubt that the post mortem statue of Neoliberalism will show regret for anything save that all the profits were not accrued before those holding the reins, the Elite of Neoliberalism, might gracefully die without care for any children they may have had.
tegnost , November 3, 2018 at 9:56 pm
STO is a real gem
freedomny , November 3, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Thanks for this post. I am really surprised these days by black "liberal" media folks who insist that racism be addressed before inequality/class issues. They are almost vehement in their discussions about this. Are they protecting neoliberalism because it benefits them .???
JBird4049 , November 4, 2018 at 12:52 pm
My previous admittedly overlong reply has yet to show. Darn.
But this question is an important one.
Yes, they do very much.
One of the reasons the Civil Rights struggle died was the co-option of the Black elites, especially of the Civil Rights Movement, by the American elites. After Martin Luther King's assassination, his Poor People's Campaign slowly died. A quiet quid pro quo was offered. Ignore all the various social, economic, political and legal wrongs done to all Americans, and yes blacks in particular, and just focusing on black identity and social "equality" or at least the illusion of campaigning for it, and in you will be given a guaranteed, albeit constrained, place at the money trough. Thus the Black Misleadership Class was born.
All the great movements in past hundred plus years have had their inclusivity removed. Suffragism/Feminism, the Union Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, even the Environmental Movement all had strong cross cultural, class, and racial membership and concerns. Every single of these movements had the usually white upper class strip out everyone else and focusing only on very narrow concerns. Aside from the Civil Rights Movement, black participation was removed, sometimes forcefully. They all dropped any focus on poor people of any race.
A lot of money, time, and effort by the powerful went into doing this. Often just by financially supporting the appropriate leaders which gave them the ability to push aside the less financially secure ones.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 6:44 pm
Reading this post in its entirety I feel the author must become more direct in critique. Old jargon of class or race or a "struggle against structural disparities" should be replaced by the languages of such assertions as: " the larger objective was to eliminate the threat that the insurgency had posed to planter-merchant class rule" or "It just expands access to the trough, basically". Why mince words when there are such horrors as are poised against the common humanity of all?
witters , November 3, 2018 at 7:19 pm
Jeremy, I think Adolf is doing just fine.
Jeremy Grimm , November 3, 2018 at 9:23 pm
Your comment is too brief and too enigmatic. If by Adolf you mean Adolf H. -- he is dead. New potentially more dangerous creatures roam the Earth these days beware.
tegnost , November 3, 2018 at 10:25 pm
Adolph Reed is a power unto himself
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-trouble-with-uplift-reed
I consider currently one of our great intellectuals in that he understands and can use language to make his case in a layman not necessarily friendly but accessible .
and as a southern born white male I think maybe I should watch Glory I remember a '67 show and tell when a black classmate had a civil war sword come up in their sugar cane field, and when I and a friend found a (disinterred yuck) civil war grave just out in the woods in north florida. People seem to have forgotten that times were chaotic in our country's checkered past I was in massive race riots and massive anti war protests as a child of the '60s, but since I was in the single digits at the time no one payed me any mind as a for instance my dad somehow got the counselors apartment in a dorm at florida state in 68′ and I remember people in the the dorms throwing eggs at the protesters. It was nuts.
Tomonthebeach , November 3, 2018 at 8:56 pm
Ferguson's INET paper got me thinking about what triggers racism in us. As a kid, ethnic pejoratives were usually a reaction to some injury. "You stupid Wap, you just scratched my car. That dirty Mick tripped me when I wasn't looking." I tend to agree with the premise that bailing out Wall Street and letting Main Street lose out offers a powerful trigger for a racist reaction. People might have been softening on their lifelong covert racism when they succumbed to Obama's charm. But when you lose your job, then your house, and wind up earning a third of what you did before the GR, that is the sort of thing that triggers pejorative/racist reactions. That [N-word] SOB is just like them other Jew-boy globalists who are sending our jobs to Chinamen and whatnot. Screw him and all the damned Democrat libtards. Then, when a MAGA-hatted Trump echoes those sentiments over a PA system, the ghost of Goebbels is beaming.
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Nov 03, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
A Kentucky woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of rape has been referred to the Department of Justice after she admitted that she lied .
The woman, Judy Munro-Leighton, took credit for contacting the office of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) as "Jane Doe" from Oceanside, California. Jane Doe claimed - without naming a time or place - that Kavanaugh and a friend raped her "several times each" in the backseat of a car. Harris referred the letter to the committee for investigation.
"They forced me to go into the backseat and took 2 turns raping me several times each. They dropped me off 3 two blocks from my home," wrote Munro-Leighton, claiming that the pair told her "No one will believe if you tell. Be a good girl."
Kavanaugh was questioned on September 26 about the allegation, to which he unequivocally stated: "[T]he whole thing is ridiculous. Nothing ever -- anything like that, nothing... [T]he whole thing is just a crock, farce, wrong, didn't happen, not anything close ."
The next week, Munro-Leighton sent an email to the Judiciary committee claiming to be Jane Doe from Oceanside, California - reiterating her claims of a "vicious assault" which she said she knew "will get no media attention."
Upon investigation, the Judiciary Committee investigators found that Munro-Leighton was a left wing activist who is decades older than Judge Kavanaugh , who lives in Kentucky. When Committee investigators contacted her, she backpedaled on her claim of being the original Jane Doe - and said she emailed the committee "as a way to grab attention."
"I am not Jane Doe . . . but I did read Jane Doe's letter. I read the transcript of the call to your Committee. . . . I saw it online. It was news." claimed Munro-Leighton.
Grassley has also asked the DOJ to investigate Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick, who claimed through her attorney, Michael Avenatti, that Kavanaguh orchestrated a date-rape gang-bang scheme in the early 1980s.
President Trump chimed in Saturday morning, Tweeting: "A vicious accuser of Justice Kavanaugh has just admitted that she was lying, her story was totally made up, or FAKE! Can you imagine if he didn't become a Justice of the Supreme Court because of her disgusting False Statements. What about the others? Where are the Dems on this?"
... ... ...
In a Friday letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wrote:
on November 1, 2018, Committee investigators connected with Ms. Munro-Leighton by phone and spoke with her about the sexual-assault allegations against Judge Kavanaugh she had made to the Committee. Under questioning by Committee investigators, Ms. Munro-Leighton admitted, contrary to her prior claims, that she had not been sexually assaulted by Judge Kavanaugh and was not the author of the original "Jane Doe" letter .
When directly asked by Committee investigators if she was, as she had claimed, the "Jane Doe" from Oceanside California who had sent the letter to Senator Harris, she admitted: "No, no, no. I did that as a way to grab attention. I am not Jane Doe . . . but I did read Jane Doe's letter. I read the transcript of the call to your Committee. . . . I saw it online. It was news."
She further confessed to Committee investigators that (1) she "just wanted to get attention"; (2) "it was a tactic"; and (3) "that was just a ploy." She told Committee investigators that she had called Congress multiple times during the Kavanaugh hearing process – including prior to the time Dr. Ford's allegations surfaced – to oppose his nomination. Regarding the false sexual-assault allegation she made via her email to the Committee, she said: "I was angry, and I sent it out." When asked by Committee investigators whether she had ever met Judge Kavanaugh, she said: "Oh Lord, no."
Read Grassley's letter below:
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Nov 02, 2018 | www.rt.com
The FBI is looking into claims that women have been asked to make false accusations of sexual harassment against Special Counsel Robert Mueller in exchange for money -- but all may not be as it seems. The alleged scheme aimed at Mueller, who has been investigating unproven ties between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, came to the attention of his office after several journalists and news outlets, including RT, were contacted by a woman claiming that she had been approached by a man offering money if she would fabricate claims against him.
13 days ago I received this tip alleging an attempt to pay off women to make up accusations of sexual misconduct against Special Counsel Bob Mueller. Other reporters received the same email. Now the Special Counsel's office is telling us they've referred the matter to the FBI pic.twitter.com/oqh4Fnel5u
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Nov 02, 2018 | www.wsws.org
Following the press and television news in the US on Wednesday might lead one to believe that a kind of madness has seized hold of the American media, along with sections of the affluent petty-bourgeoisie.
The media generated new geysers of filth in regard to the controversy surrounding the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's candidate for the US Supreme Court. On the same day, the degrading impact of its #MeToo campaign could be seen in the hysterical, semi-fascistic tone of the response to the sentencing of comedian Bill Cosby.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear Thursday from Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when both were high school students. But newer allegations against Kavanaugh bumped up against one another on Wednesday. Before the population had time to digest the claim by Deborah Ramirez (reported by the New Yorker magazine September 23) that Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her at a Yale University party 35 years ago, a third woman came forward with even more sensational charges.
Michael Avenatti, best known as the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels in her legal case against Trump, tweeted a sworn statement by Julie Swetnick, 55, claiming that Kavanaugh and others, while in high school, spiked the drinks of girls at house parties so that they might more easily "gang-rape" them.
Swetnick went on to allege that she herself became the victim of one of these "gang rapes where [Kavanaugh's friend] Mark Judge and Brett Kavanaugh were present."
Avenatti's tweet became the occasion, in the bland phrase of the New York Times , for "immediate, blanket coverage across social media and cable news." The cable news channels did indeed bombard their viewers non-stop with the story -- if they weren't reporting on Cosby's being sent to jail.
MSNBC correspondent Kate Snow, for instance, read the most graphic portions of Swetnick's statement. The other cable channels followed suit, along with the Times , the Washington Post and the rest. CNN anchor John King asked correspondent Sara Sidner to "walk us through" the allegations, which she obliged by providing every salacious detail. Afterward, King expressed appreciation for the "live reporting" on "a very sensitive and dramatic issue."
The Times set the stage for the day's torrent of media smut in its morning edition, which plastered across its front page two lead articles on the Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations and a third on the Cosby sentencing. The report on Trump's fascistic and war-mongering rant at the United Nations was relegated to a subordinate spot. The opinion pages featured a lengthy editorial ("Questions Mr. Kavanaugh Needs to Answer") listing detailed questions for senators to ask about his sexual activities.
The American media lowers and demeans itself further with every new scandal.
It is impossible for us to determine the truth of the claims against Kavanaugh. It is certain , however, that the Democratic Party campaign against Trump's nominee is a reactionary diversion and an effort to bury the most pressing issues. Kavanaugh is a zealous right-winger and enemy of democratic rights. But no Democrat on the Judiciary Committee will ask him, "What was your role in the attempted coup d'état, known as the Starr investigation, against Bill Clinton?" or "Why did you support torture and illegal detention as part of the Bush administration?"
None of the Democrats, the supposed defenders of women, will even forthrightly denounce him for his attacks on abortion rights. They've all but dropped the issue.
Speaking on CNN, the Times' Michael Shear inadvertently alluded to the anti-democratic character of the campaign against Kavanaugh: "One of the dynamics that we've seen throughout this entire #MeToo movement is that accusations that start out as a single, a solitary accusation against a man in power, often don't pick up the kind of steam that ultimately forces action until there's a second allegation, and a third allegation, and beyond. And that's what creates often the kind of pressure -- overwhelming pressure that forces some action."
Five, ten or twenty accusations do not amount to proof. Kavanaugh may have been guilty of sexual misconduct, but Shear and the rest apparently need to be reminded that every witch-hunt in history has also operated on the principle of "numbers."
The repressive, right-wing character of the middle-class outrage over sexual misconduct, whipped up by the #MeToo campaign, is on view in the frothing reaction to Cosby's sentencing. The comedian was convicted of sexually assaulting a Temple University employee at his home in 2004 while she was under the influence of a sedative.
The comments on the outcome of the Cosby case in the Times from readers of its article "Bill Cosby, Once a Model of Fatherhood, Is Sentenced to Prison," are overwhelmingly vengeful and vindictive:
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Oct 29, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Marriage is in decline. This fact is by now so familiar to conservatives that they may be tempted to gloss over an interesting shift in the manner of marriage's decline.
Thirty years ago, Americans were getting married but not staying that way . Today divorce rates are down but wedding bells are also in less demand. Growing numbers of young people are simply staying single. There's evidence they're becoming less interested even in casual sex .
Are men and women giving up on each other? It's starting to feel that way. In the vitriol of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, the #MeToo movement, and our ongoing discussions of " incels , " " NEETs , " and absent fathers , we see rising levels of frustration and rage, often directed indiscriminately from one sex towards the other. Making relationships work has always been a challenge -- even casual human interactions can sometimes be a challenge. So what if people decide that it's just not worth it anymore?
A few years back, I became aware of that countercultural strain of identity politics known as the "men's rights movement." I first encountered it on social media, of course, and in a quest to grasp its red-pilled logic, I spent some time wandering the fever swamps of male grievance, noting the many interesting parallels between virulent masculinism and the more radical strains of feminism. It added an interesting layer to my perspective on our ongoing war of sexes.
It's well worth noting that both masculinism and feminism, at least in their more extreme forms, are fundamentally materialist in their logic. Feminism draws regularly on Marxist ideologies, reducing complex social relations to an endless war of classes vying for power. For masculinists, sociobiology is the more defining influence, as huge swaths of culture and custom are reduced to mere expressions of the Darwinian imperative to procreate. It all makes sense, on reflection. Aggrieved women, resenting the natural vulnerability of their bodies, are attracted to political theories that call for the leveling of power disparities. Aggrieved men, by contrast, hope to find in the male body a kind of warrant for dominance, which is bestowed by biology and ostensibly crucial to the survival of the species. Peeling back the layers, it seems that gender crusaders of both types are intensely fixated on brute corporeal realities: the strength of man and the comparative neediness of woman.
I noticed something else, too, in my journey through the manosphere. I'd had occasion to note before that militant feminists tended to be disagreeably female in their mannerisms, exemplifying many of the vices that are most characteristic of women. This is particularly obvious in the more misandrist corners of the feminist world (for instance, where people debate whether non-exploitative heterosexual sex is in principle impossible, or whether it might theoretically happen in a radically different sort of society where the patriarchy has truly been defanged). The women in these circles seemed morbidly emotional, catty, and a mess of hair-trigger sensitivities. You couldn't possibly mistake them for men, but calling them "feminine" felt like a disservice to my sex.
Sizing up militant man advocates, I saw a fascinating mirror image. They seemed boorish, rage-prone, and obsessed with one-upping each other. They were everything women find most noxious in men. Girls would never exhibit such behavior, but it surely did not qualify as "manly."
These sad cross-sections of society give us a glimpse of a significant truth about the sexes. We're better off together. Even the apparent exceptions, examined closely, usually aren't. The men of Mount Athos or the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration may appear to live in single-sex worlds. But the former regard themselves as the special servants of Christ's Mother, while the latter see themselves as his Brides. Their methods may be idiosyncratic, but in their own way they do enthusiastically embrace the opposite sex. This is dramatically different from what we see with our resentful gender warriors.
Marriage Takes a Village Sex is Cheap and It's a Buyer's Market -- If You're a ManHowever we go about it, men and women seem happiest when we are balanced by our sexual complements. Healthy things can still be difficult though. Men and women readily misunderstand one another, and the fact that we do need one another opens the door to many types of exploitation and abuse. Avoiding these pitfalls takes work. Too often nowadays, I hear young people describing family life as a hazard more than a blessing, wondering not "what can I do to be worthy of another's love and commitment?" but rather "what can marriage really do for me? "
Love doesn't easily grow in such a stony soil.
I myself had the good fortune of growing up in the Mormon Church, where teenagers are given extensive instruction in preparing themselves for marriage. There are elements of that teaching I would modify a bit, just based on my own marital experience. Two commonsense lessons still stand out in my mind though.
First, you can't possibly be a good spouse unless you're willing to work on yourself. Your partner will surely have some irritating qualities, but so do you. Also, sometimes marriage will call for things that are not fully congenial to your comfortable, satisfied, long-developed individual self. This can be a problem in a society that is constantly urging us to self-actualize. But be willing to bend a little instead of always insisting that "this is how I am."
For women, I see this manifested in a stubborn reluctance to do things that remind them too much of domestic stereotypes. They're so worried about being pigeonholed as domestic that they don't consider how much the occasional homemade stew or fresh-baked cookie might do to help the men in their lives feel cared for and at home. Is avoiding Donna Reed associations really more important than making your men feel loved?
On the men's side, I often hear gripes about how "commercial America" has made women unreasonably greedy for compliments and ego-stroking. Let's assume this is true (though personally I'm skeptical because I think women have always craved compliments). How hard is it, really, to say some nice things to the women in your life? To me it often seems that resentful men are so allergic to "sensitivity" (which they associate with distasteful images of modern, metrosexual girly-men) that they can hardly be bothered to be kind.
The second point is that living together inevitably involves some putting-up-with and I-can-live-with-that. This is expected, and not a violation of your human rights. If men and women always got along easily, we wouldn't be so good for one another.
The #MeToo movement has given us a remarkable illustration of just how ungenerous men and women can be towards one another. Aggrieved women, in their zeal to punish the patriarchy, sometimes act as though any unwanted expression of interest is an outrageous insult. To be sure, some overtures are improper and deserving of censure. But men and women will never find happiness together if the latter aren't willing to assume any responsibility for attracting and encouraging attention in appropriate ways, or for deflecting it graciously when it is unwanted. If women are unable to distinguish between sexual predation and normal sexual attraction, Cupid will find it exceedingly difficult to find his mark.
On the male side, some men resent women's "invasion" of once-masculine spaces to the point that almost any accommodation feels like a personal affront. The truth is, women do feel more vulnerable than men, in public, at work, or in social gatherings. That's because, in a very real sense, we are. We shouldn't treat all men as likely aggressors, but men should be expected to conform to behavioral standards that serve, among other things, to help women feel safe. That's always been a major function of gentlemanly behavior, without which men and women rarely find one another bearable for very long.
In their better moments, both feminists and masculinists raise worthwhile points. At the same time, the posture of each may be inimical to the happiness of both. For the sake of our children, but even just for our own sakes, men and women need to remember what we used to like about each other. We used to think human society was worth it. Maybe it still is.
Rachel Lu is a senior contributor at The Federalist and a Robert Novak Fellow.
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Oct 26, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
The crown jewel of California's Progressive-feminist policy this year was Senate Bill 826 which mandates publicly-held corporations to put women on their boards. It was passed and signed by Governor Jerry Brown. California now proudly leads the nation in identity politics. The law requires a minimum of one woman board member by 2019, and by 2020, two for boards with five members and three with boards of six or more.
The law's goal is gender parity, but it is couched in financial terms suggesting that companies with women on their boards do better than those that don't. Several studies are cited to back this claim (UC Cal, Credit Suisse, and McKinsey). Catalyst , a nonprofit that promotes women in the workplace, did a widely quoted study that claimed:
- Return on Equity: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 53% .
- Return on Sales: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 42% .
- Return on Invested Capital: On average, companies with the highest percentages of women board directors outperformed those with the least by 66%.
This claim doesn't meet the smell test and the overwhelming conclusion of scientific research in the field says that women directors have little or no effect on corporate performance. Much of the data supporting the feminist theory lacks empirical rigor and is coincidental ( A happened and then B happened, thus A caused B ).
Professor Alice H. Eagly , a fellow at Northwestern's Institute of Policy Research, and an expert on issues related to women in leadership roles, commented on this issue in the Journal of Social Issues :
Despite advocates' insistence that women on boards enhance corporate performance and that diversity of task groups enhances their performance, research findings are mixed, and repeated meta‐analyses have yielded average correlational findings that are null or extremely small.
Rather than ignoring or furthering distortions of scientific knowledge to fit advocacy goals, scientists should serve as honest brokers who communicate consensus scientific findings to advocates and policy makers in an effort to encourage exploration of evidence-based policy options. [Emphasis added]
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Oct 25, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
Attorney Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick have been referred to the Justice Department for criminal investigation for a "potential conspiracy to provide materially false statements to Congress and obstruct a congressional committee investigation, three separate crimes, in the course of considering Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States," according to a statement released by the Judiciary Committee.
While the Committee was in the middle of its extensive investigation of the late-breaking sexual-assault allegations made by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Avenatti publicized his client's allegations of drug- and alcohol-fueled gang rapes in the 1980s. The obvious, subsequent contradictions along with the suspicious timing of the allegations necessitate a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.
"When a well-meaning citizen comes forward with information relevant to the committee's work, I take it seriously. It takes courage to come forward, especially with allegations of sexual misconduct or personal trauma. I'm grateful for those who find that courage," Grassley said. " But in the heat of partisan moments, some do try to knowingly mislead the committee . That's unfair to my colleagues, the nominees and others providing information who are seeking the truth. It stifles our ability to work on legitimate lines of inquiry. It also wastes time and resources for destructive reasons. Thankfully, the law prohibits such false statements to Congress and obstruction of congressional committee investigations. For the law to work, we can't just brush aside potential violations. I don't take lightly making a referral of this nature, but ignoring this behavior will just invite more of it in the future."
Grassley referred Swetnick and Avenatti for investigation in a letter sent today to the Attorney General of the United States and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The letter notes potential violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1001 and 1505, which respectively define the federal criminal offenses of conspiracy, false statements and obstruction of Congress. The referral seeks further investigation only, and is not intended to be an allegation of a crime . - Senate Judiciary Committee
The referral has an entire section entitled: "issues with Mr. Avenatti's credibility," which starts out highlighting a 2012 dispute with a former business partner over a coffee chain investment in which accuser Patrick Dempsey said that Avenatti lied to him, while the company was also "reportedly involved in additional litigation implicating his credibility, including one case in which a judge sanctioned his company for misconduct."
Swetnick - whose checkered past has called her character into question, alleges that Kavanaugh and a friend, Mark Judge, ran a date-rape "gang bang" operation at 10 high school parties she attended as an adult (yet never reported to the authorities).
The allegations were posted by Avenatti over Twitter, asserting that Kavanaugh and Judge made efforts to cause girls " to become inebriated and disoriented so they could then be "gang raped" in a side room or bedroom by a "train" of numerous boys ."
To try and corroborate the story, the Wall Street Journal contacted "dozens of former classmates and colleagues," yet couldn't find anyone who knew about the rape parties.
The Wall Street Journal has attempted to corroborate Ms. Swetnick's account, contacting dozens of former classmates and colleagues, but couldn't reach anyone with knowledge of her allegations . No friends have come forward to publicly support her claims. - WSJ
Read the referral below:
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Oct 25, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
BDBlue , October 23, 2018 at 8:31 pm
Sorry, but this is going to be a long one. Because I've become increasingly frustrated by the little asides in Water Cooler related to MeToo. So buckle up, buttercup.
Justice for Emmett Till and #Believewomen are only in conflict if you want to pit groups of victims against each other. I'm not surprised to see a GOPer do it, but I'm disappointed it's going on here. What Emmett Till and women of sexual assault (and men and children of sexual assault) have in common is that there is no justice for them. This idea that we need "due process" for the MeToo stuff is all well and good, but where exactly is it supposed to come from? What #Believewomen and #MeToo (which includes men and boys, see, e.g. Terry Crews for a famous example) are really about are holding the powerful accountable and telling the world that the current system does not work for women (or anyone else who has been sexually assaulted). How is that a bad thing? Unless you want to read #Believewomen as meaning that you should literally never doubt a woman, regardless of any other facts. That's like saying Black Lives Matter doesn't care about non-black lives, when everyone knows that's right-wing crap. BLM focuses on a failing of the system. MeToo focuses on a failing system. As for due process -- Larry Nassar, the largest known pedophile in sports history (that we know of) -- was repeatedly reported to the authorities. At one point, a police department made a victim sit down with him so he could explain how she had "misinterpreted" his treatment for abuse. It literally took a victim of his growing up, becoming a lawyer and studying how to prove sexual assault cases, then building evidence and turning it over to the Indianapolis Star to get anyone to do anything. And in the meantime, hundreds of women and girls were assaulted, including most of the last two women's Olympic teams. That's not due process, it is a system that protects the powerful at the expense of the powerless. Not exactly an unknown or rare phenomenon limited to women.
So if people really care about "due process"* for MeToo, then it would be nice to see as much time spent on discussing what that process might look like than just taking potshots at people, many of whom are sexual assault victims, who are demanding society listen to them and believe them instead of naturally lining up to defend the person in power. And that's what #Believewomen really means – the word of the powerless should have as much credibility as the powerful. Nothing about that would not deny justice to Emmett Till. A movement is not defined by its twitter hashtag.
* Spoiler alert, they don't. Or, rather, I think lambert does, but most do not. It's just another way to avoid accountability. After all, most of the more notable MeToo allegations are employment or similar situations, where due process does not apply in any other context, but now suddenly bosses want to invoke it for themselves. Please don't try to invoke it when they fire you because you won't work a last-minute Saturday shift. Because you can't. But report the boss for sexual harassment and be prepared for a lot of process. So much process, you may never get through it all. Which is the other joke, companies have tons of process re sexual harassment complaints, almost all of which is designed to protect the harasser.
Which brings me to class. I've seen a lot of picking at #MeToo for being focused on women ("identity") instead of class. This confuses me since, while any woman can be a victim, poor and working class women (and men) have even fewer options of redress (I won't even get into incarcerated men and women). See the recent McDonalds' strike over sexual harassment, a labor action which shouldn't be surprising since as many as 40% of women in the fast food industry experience sexual harassment . Moreover, institutional sexism -- like racism -- has roots in capital accumulation and labor exploitation. For an interesting read on this, see The Caliban and the Witch . Which is not to say it's all about class, it isn't. Racism and sexism exist, they exist for everyone regardless of class, but the effects of them are greatly exacerbated by poor and working class people's material conditions and they are tied directly to the system that creates those conditions. To the extent people want to discuss due process, it should be about creating systems that hold the powerful accountable for their abuse of power, a challenge that extends across society.
Oregoncharles , October 24, 2018 at 2:10 am
"And that's what #Believewomen really means – the word of the powerless should have as much credibility as the powerful."
It is wise, when starting a movement, to say what you "really mean." As it stands, #Believewomen MEANS convicting defendants on the sole word of one person – the victim. If we really start doing that, women will be among the victims, along with other powerless people.
" only in conflict if you want to pit groups of victims against each other." What do you mean, "want"? That's a classic straw man. The slogan you're defending pits them against each other – that's Lambert's point.
You also say that enforcement against either assault or sexual harassment is nightmarish and often ineffective. That I'll believe, and it's a necessary point. Actually, law enforcement and "justice" generally are pretty nightmarish. Tangle sex up in that and it only gets worse. The point of #Metoo was to convince us that we have a problem, and it accomplished that. Slogans that mean what you don't mean only detract from the accomplishment.
Yves Smith , October 24, 2018 at 2:42 am
It is simply disingenuous to say that #MeToo has taken up the cause of lower class women. The restaurant industry is one of the biggest employers in America and harassment of women is pervasive. How many #MeToo luminaries have talked up the problems they face? An article IIRC in the Nation by a restaurant worker specifically discussed how #MeToo had ignored waitresses and there was no change in behavior.
And that protest was NOT promoted by the loose #MeToo movement. See this from USA Today:
Hundreds of McDonald's employees, emboldened by the #MeToo movement, demonstrated outside company headquarters in Chicago on Tuesday to draw attention to alleged sexual harassment at work
McDonald's employees only. No show of solidarity by other women. As a result, look how small the protest was. I rest my case.
Lambert Strether Post author , October 24, 2018 at 3:32 am
Most of my thoughts (which are evolving) on #MeToo are summed up in this post on the McDonalds strikers : I think the movement, for both ethical and pragmatic reasons, should and must center working class women. I'm not seeing that. I would be very happy indeed to see it.
My 2015 post on the wonderful Caliban and the Witch is here . I concluded:
However, if one takes the view that "Now is the time" -- however defined -- in the present day, it also behooves one to do the math; it has always seemed to me that a bare majority, 50% plus one, as sought by the legacy parties, is insufficient to do much but perpetuate, among other things, the legacy parties. It also seems to me that sintering together demographics based on identity politics -- Christian, Black, White, Hispanic, Young, Old, Male, Female, Rural, Urban -- can only produce these bare majorities. It also seems to me that a focus on "economic class" can't give an account of the sort of events that Federici describes here. Hence, to bend history's arc, some sort of grand unified field theory that goes beyond 50%, to 80%, is needed (along with the proposed provision of concrete material benefits[1]). Work like Federici's is a step toward such a theory, and so I applaud it.
Setting aside the lack of a unified field theory, it seems to me that without centering working class women, #MeToo remains very much in 50% plus one territory.
Let me address your conclusion:
To the extent people want to discuss due process, it should be about creating systems that hold the powerful accountable for their abuse of power, a challenge that extends across society.
I think that's exactly what due process is for, or at least should be for :
Fundamental to all civilised systems of criminal law is the doctrine nulla poena sine lege -- no punishment without a law. There are hundreds of offenses on the criminal statute books. Assault, sexual assault and indecent assault are serious criminal offenses, attracting heavy sentences upon a conviction.
"Inappropriate behavior," is not a category of conduct known to the criminal law. Nor, for that matter, is making a person feel uncomfortable. Awkward advances without a guilty mind is also not a criminal offense.
Due process rights were hard won over many centuries. If we are to abandon, even with the best of intentions, nulla poena sine lege for one set of behaviors, we'd best believe it will be abandoned for other behaviors, and for purposes less benevolent. Have we thought that through?
That said, if we think back to the Dred Scott case and its fate, it's clear that movements can change law; we will have to see what happens with #MeToo. Feminist legal scholar Catherine MacKinnon urges[2]:
Sexual harassment law can grow with #MeToo. Taking #MeToo's changing norms into the law could -- and predictably will -- transform the law as well. Some practical steps could help capture this moment. Institutional or statutory changes could include prohibitions or limits on various forms of secrecy and nontransparency that hide the extent of sexual abuse and enforce survivor isolation, such as forced arbitration, silencing nondisclosure agreements even in cases of physical attacks and multiple perpetration, and confidential settlements. A realistic statute of limitations for all forms of discrimination, including sexual harassment, is essential. Being able to sue individual perpetrators and their enablers, jointly with institutions, could shift perceived incentives for this behavior.
However, it's clear that the criminal justice system in which due process rights are embedded isn't a justice system at all for this category of offenses. I wrote : " [W]e as a society have no way of adjudicating sexual assault claims that treats the assaulted with a level of dignity sufficient for them to come forward at the time " (The backlog of unprocessed rape kits pointed to by Tarana Burke shows this clearly, even if nothing else did.) I'm personally acquainted both with someone who was sexually assaulted, and someone who was falsely accused of "inappropriate behavior," and I've wracked my brains trying to imagine a system of adjudication under which either could have received justice -- the first never did, the second was ultimately cleared -- but without success. I can't see how MacKinnon's fixes would have helped either one.
I'd certainly welcome different and parallel forms of adjudication that would have achieved justice for my friends; nobody said "due process" had to be achieved only through the court sytem, after all. For example, although this is a limited solution that applies to neither of my friends, an alternative adjudication system that puts the burden of proof on the male if the other party is female and both are drunk would probably brake a lot of bad behavior on campus; this of course speaks to my priors, since I loathe party culture, exactly because it encourages assault.
NOTE
[1] For example, a Jobs Guarantee would make it easier for a woman to leave an abusive workplace. A Post Office Bank, by giving every woman her own checking account as a matter of right, would make it easier for women to leave abusive relationships. Sometimes it's more effective to be indirect.
[2] One way to redress power imbalances in the workplace -- building union power, say through card check -- does not appear on MacKinnon's list of legal transformations. A second way also does not appear: Wages for restaurant workers such that they don't have to depend on potentially abusive customers for tips. A third way also does not appear: Encouraging cooperatives . So the question of whose and which norms are to be transformed remains salient.
UPDATE You write:
And that's what #Believewomen really means – the word of the powerless should have as much credibility as the powerful. Nothing about that would not deny justice to Emmett Till. A movement is not defined by its twitter hashtag.
If that's what it really means, that's not what it really says. The hash tag isn't #BelieveThePowerless, after all. I think it's simpler to take the movement at its word. If the organizers wish to change the slogan because it's sending the wrong message, then they will. If they don't, then the hash tag is sending the message they want.
I agree that movements don't totally define themselves by the choices they make with their slogans. But those choices matter. The Bolsheviks won the day under the slogan "Peace, Land, Bread." "Less War, Gentler Serfdom, Access to Bread" just wouldn't have had the same impact.
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Oct 22, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
Carol53 , 2 hours ago link
AUD , 1 hour ago linkGotta say this out loud ZH people- seeing first hand what the Democrats did 2011-2016, getting way to close to government operations in my state, pushed me from left to the right in absolute disgust with the left. Seemed like maybe the right is different and better nowadays. However, general gay bashing and blatant racism on websites like this one scares some and puts some moderates and Independents off the right. I'm all for #hetoo and Corey Booker reaping what he sowed. What they did to Kavenaugh was despicable. A conservative party that disavows racism, gaybashing and misogyny is highly appealing nowadays over the left. I'm a card carrying member of the NRA, but when you start that gaybashing you all get scary and make some reconsider voting red for fear of devolving. Want to change your gender? Knock yourself out; none of my friggen business. But to force the taxpayer to pay for "gender reassignment", and then claim there's no money for stopping and repairing the landslides in Pennsylvania's red counties, and blame it on Trump? That's the insanity of the leftist governor in my state. All you do when you attack a group over race, being gay or being women is create a new class dependent victims for the left to "protect" and give a free ride in exchange for votes. Hope this makes sense. Not as articulate as some here but hope I got the point across.
Carol53 , 1 hour ago linkYou don't find "Lousy fudge packing deviant..." at all funny?
Carol53 , 2 minutes ago linkThe right was looking pretty good after Kavenaugh. Maybe this whole post and many of its comments is a ploy to draw in the stupid and the trolls. This post and comments like yours are making the right look like apes last minute before the midterms. Its working. You all could have handled this news with some decency and some class and some tolerance and sealed it for the republicans in the upcoming elections. But no. You let yourselves be drawn into posts like this, for all the world to see that maybe nothing at all has changed about the right. SMH.
Harvey's-Rabbi , 3 hours ago linkSome of us who wanted to vote red might have a family member who is gay. Coworkers and neighbors and friends who are black. Now we have to worry, after reading posts like yours, that we'll be plunging loved ones back into a world of discrimination and maybe violence by voting red. Thought all this crap was in the past. Nope. Still raging strong I see after reading posts like these
Peter41 , 7 hours ago linkI should think that there ought to be a change in American law wherein someone making a sexual accusation without proof can be held liable financially and possibly criminally.
Revolver2019 , 9 hours ago linkBooker must be sweating bullets now that his secret is out. Maybe he and the anointed one, Obama, can get it on in a steam room in somewhere in D.C. together, with the Wookie looking the other way.
Unless there is a smoking gun in regards to evidence, I do think we should stoop to their lowness - play their game. Kill them with the rule of law. Be sympathetic to the gay man and tell him if there is real evidence they will follow-up, but if not they have no grounds to go anywhere with it. Show them what they SHOULD have done. Then let the rumors and paranoia of potential evidence do the job on Booker. It will eat him up. Mean time, we move forward and ride the Red Wave.
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Oct 16, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
There's an older episode of The Green Room with Paul Provenza when the late Patrice O'Neal, arguably one of the best stand-up comics in recent history, gets serious for a moment, saying: "I love being able to say anything I want. I had to learn how to stop caring about people not laughing. Because the idea of comedy, really, is not everybody should be laughing. It should be about 50 people laughing and 50 people horrified. There should be people who get it and people who don't get it."
O'Neal gets right to the chaotic, trickster heart of comedy with that statement. Comedy at its best balances humor against shock–not necessarily vulgarity, mind you, but a sort of unsettling surprise. It's a topsy-turvy glimpse at an uncanny, upside-down world, which, if the joke lands, provides a bulwark against torpor and complacency. Great comedy inhabits the absurdity of the world. It makes itself into a vantage point from which everything seems delightfully ridiculous, including (often especially) the comedians themselves. We wouldn't need comedy in a world that wasn't absurd. Perhaps that's why Dante only included humor in his Inferno . There is no absurdity in paradise.
Unfortunately, Hannah Gadsby's Nanette , a comedy special recently released on Netflix, only embraces the non-laughter half of O'Neal's dictum. It's the very epitome of self-serious, brittle, didactic, SJW "comedy." It's not funny. And worse, it's not meant to be.
Gadsby, a queer Australian comedian, uses her "stand-up special" as a way to destroy the very medium she pretends to be professionally engaged in. Her basic argument is that, since comedy is by its very nature self-deprecating (true), people who define themselves as members of an oppressed minority shouldn't engage in comedy because they're only participating in the violence already being done to them by society at large.
Arthur Sido October 16, 2018 at 8:21 am
We have allowed "social justice" types, a tiny fringe minority of unhappy and often unstable people, rewrite the rules of our entire civilization and culture.David J. White , says: October 16, 2018 at 10:19 amAll the way back to Aristophanes comedy has often included a political component or an effort to "educate" audiences or at least make them think about things. But the actual comedy part is essential. Otherwise it's just a lecture.JimDandy , says: October 16, 2018 at 2:23 pmWe might just be witnessing the death of Art. As the SJW furies brutally and effectively enforce The Narrative in literary fiction, film, TV, comedy, etc. they destroy the potential for creative genius in these mediums and kill off most of the audience. It was already hard enough for those arts to compete with new media forms. The SJW's hostile takeover of Art just makes the triumph of Real Life As Entertainment all the more complete.Whereas twenty years ago I might be spending my free time reading a novel and attempting to write a short story, today I'm reading articles on The American Conservative and posting this comment.
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Oct 13, 2018 | www.wsws.org
On October 2, Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian published an article titled "Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship," incorporating the results of a year-long effort to publish hoax articles, deliberately comprised of bunk facts and irrational and reactionary conclusions, in academic journals associated with gender, racial and identity studies.
The results expose the intellectual bankruptcy of identity politics and postmodernist philosophy. Their proponents, who dominate university humanities departments worldwide, are charlatans who have published or given favorable "revise and resubmit" comments to the most absurd and vulgar pseudo-scientific arguments.
These include: a purported 1,000-hour study of dog "humping" patterns at dog parks that concludes by calling for human males to be "trained" like dogs to prevent rape culture; a long-form poem produced through a teenage angst poetry generator about women holding spiritual-sexual "moon meetings" in a secret "womb room" and praying to a "vulva shrine;" a proposal to develop feminist robots, trained to think irrationally, to control humanity and subjugate white men; and additional articles relating to male masturbation. Another proposal, which was praised by reviewers in a paper that was ultimately rejected, encouraged teachers to place white students in chains to be shamed for their "white privilege."
There is an element of humor in the fact that such drivel could win accolades from academics and journals. The "dog park" article was even selected as one of the most influential contributions in the history of the Gender, Place and Culture journal!
But the implications of the study are deadly serious. Pluckrose, Lindsay and Boghossian have confirmed the right-wing political essence of identity politics and postmodernist thought, based on anti-Marxism, irrationalism and the rejection of the Enlightenment and objective truth.
Most chillingly, the authors also submitted a re-write of a chapter from Hitler's Mein Kampf , with language altered to reference female identity and feminism. The paper, titled "Our struggle is my struggle: solidarity feminism as an intersectional reply to neoliberal and choice feminism," was accepted for publication and greeted with favorable reviews.
"I am extremely sympathetic to this article's argument and its political positioning," one academic wrote. Another said, "I am very sympathetic to the core arguments of the paper."
In the wake of their public disclosure, Pluckrose, Lindsay and Boghossian have come under attack by the proponents of postmodernism and identity politics, who claim the hoax is a right-wing attack on "social justice" disciplines.
Typical is the argument of Daniel Engber, who wrote in Slate : "How timely, too, that this secret project should be published in the midst of the Kavanaugh imbroglio -- a time when the anger and the horror of male anxiety is so resplendent in the news. 'It's a very scary time for young men,' Trump told reporters on the very day that Pluckrose, Lindsay, and Boghossian went public with their hoax. Both express a fear of false attacks on men, whether levied by regretful sluts, lefty liberals, radical academics, or whoever else."
In reality, the hoax has exposed the fact that it is the proponents of identity politics who are advancing views parallel to the far right. While they are enraged with those who voice concern about the elimination of due process and the presumption of innocence for the targets of the #MeToo campaign, they are unbothered by the fact that the writings of Adolf Hitler are published and praised in feminist academic circles.
Pluckrose, Lindsay and Boghossian are self-described liberals who are concerned that the present identity hysteria is "pushing the culture war to ever more toxic and existential polarization," by fanning the flames of the far right. As a result, identitarians are "affecting activism on behalf of women and racial and sexual minorities in a way which is counterproductive to equality aims by feeding into right-wing reactionary opposition to those equality objectives."
In contrast, the authors' aim is to "give people -- especially those who believe in liberalism, progress, modernity, open inquiry, and social justice -- a clear reason to look at the identitarian madness coming out of the academic and activist left and say, 'No, I will not go along with that. You do not speak for me.'"
The hoax's authors are correct to link the identity politics proponents' hostility to equality with their opposition to rationalism, scientific analysis and the progressive gains of the Enlightenment. But the roots of this right-wing, irrationalist, anti-egalitarian degeneration are to be found in the economic structure of capitalist society.
The academic architects of postmodernism and identity politics occupy well-paid positions in academia, often with salaries upwards of $100,000–$300,000 or more. As a social layer, the theoreticians of what the World Socialist Web Site refers to as the "pseudo-left" are in the wealthiest 10 percent of American society. Their political and philosophical views express their social interests.
The obsession with "privilege," sex, and racial and gender identity is a mechanism by which members and groups within this layer fight among themselves for income, social status and positions of privilege, using degrees of "oppression" to one up each other in the fight for tenure track jobs, positions on corporate or non-profit boards, or election to public office. A chief purpose of the #MeToo campaign, for example, is to replace male executives and male politicians with women, while ignoring the social needs of the vast majority of working class women.
The weaponization of identity politics is directed down the social ladder as well. By advancing the lie that white workers benefit from "white privilege," for example, the proponents of identity politics argue: the spoils of Wall Street should not go to meeting the social needs of the working class, including white workers, who face record rates of alcoholism, poverty, opioid addiction, police violence and other indices of social misery. Instead, the world's resources should go to me . It is this visceral class hatred that serves as the basis for absurd and reactionary arguments like those advanced in the hoax papers.
Nor have the politics of racial identity improved the material conditions for the vast majority of minority workers. Inequality within racial minorities has increased alongside the introduction of affirmative action programs and the increasing dominance of identity politics in academia and bourgeois politics. In 2016, the top 1 percent of Latinos owned 45 percent of all Latino wealth, while the top 1 percent of African-Americans owned 40.5 percent and the richest whites owned 36.5 percent of white wealth.
The influence of postmodernism in academia exploded in the aftermath of the mass protests of the 1960s and early 1970s. Based explicitly on a rejection of the revolutionary role of the working class and opposition to the "meta narrative" of socialist revolution, it is not accidental that identity politics and postmodernism have now been adopted as official ideological mechanisms of bourgeois rule.
In recent decades, a massive identity politics industry has been erected, with billions of dollars available from corporate funds and trusts for journals, non-profits, publications, fellowships and political groups advancing racial or gender politics. Identity politics has come to form a central component of the Democratic Party's electoral strategy. Imperialist wars are justified on the grounds that the US is intervening to protect women, LGBT people and other minorities.
The growing movement of the working class, broadening strikes across industries and widespread interest in socialism on college campuses pose an existential threat to the domination of postmodernism. Pluckrose, Lindsay and Boghossian have struck a well-timed blow against this reactionary obstacle to the development of scientific socialist consciousness.
Eric London
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Oct 16, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
grumpy realist October 15, 2018 at 2:56 pm
This is the liberal arts equivalent of what happened in Soviet Russia with its "revealed truth" ideas.GuyGisbourne , says: October 15, 2018 at 3:03 pmI suspect it will die at some point as the revolutionaries turn on each other. It will also die off with further exposure to reality. You can deconstruct the use of gender in the German language as much as you want and scream loudly about the use of "der, die, das" and so forth. But you know what? People are going to continue using them.
(In fact, if I wanted to blow up the whole silly mess from the inside, that's what I would do. Start a movement to "get rid of gender" in the gendered languages and turn all po-mo arguments into total jokes.)
Identity politics has jumped the shark. SJW's are a minority who wish to perpetuate identity politics as an end all, be all substitute for the hard work of framing actual policy. The whole undertaking is flailing -- and backlash to PC culture had much to do with how Trump got elected. So let the Ivy League schools continue down the path toward irrelevance.connecticut farmer , says: October 15, 2018 at 3:04 pmAlthough the ID of the university was withheld, while I was reading this piece–and at the risk of being unnecessarily coy–there was one word used which jumped off the screen, so I think I have a pretty good idea which school it is. Then again, does it really matter? This kind of soft-core bolshevism has, to one degree or another, infected all of the Ivies as well as most, if not all, of the Forbes Top 50.Positivethinker , says: October 15, 2018 at 3:09 pmI have no idea who this gentleman is about whom Rod is writing but it is clear that he is quite intelligent and is trying to bring something of value to the table. If he has reached the end of his tether and feels the necessity to bail, then it'll be the university's loss, not his.
If you are a conservative – student/staff/faculty in an ivy league university. Be careful what you sayOld West , says: October 15, 2018 at 3:11 pm
Your thoughts are not welcome. And everybody knows that.Back in Soviet times, scientific positions were frequently filled with incompetent but politically connected people. STEM can be corrupted–although the resultant failings are much more clearly noticeable.Back in the Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October" (the book, not the movie, where this was scrubbed out), what sets off Marko Ramius was that his wife died in a botched surgery performed by an incompetent doctor who was in his job because of his political connections. Clancy based this event on numerous stories reported by Soviets of the time.
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Oct 15, 2018 | science.slashdot.org
At a workshop organized by CERN, Prof Alessandro Strumia of Pisa University said that "physics was invented and built by men, it's not by invitation", BBC reported Monday . Strumia's presentation [Google Drive link] that supports the idea that "physics is not sexist against women[...], however the truth does not matter, because it is part of a political battle coming from outside" has already received a lot of criticism, with one female physicist defining Strumia's analysis as "simplistic, drawing on ideas that had long been discredited."
In a statement on Sunday, CERN said , "It is unfortunate that one of the 38 presentations, by a scientist from one of the collaborating universities, risks overshadowing the important message and achievements of the event. CERN, like many members of the community, considers that the presentation, with its attacks on individuals, was unacceptable in any professional context and was contrary to the CERN Code of Conduct. It, therefore, decided to remove the slides from the online repository."
On Monday, CERN said it has suspended the scientist from any activity at CERN with immediate effect, pending investigation into last week's event.
Thud457 ( 234763 ) writes:
Timewave divide by zero 2018 A.D. ( Score: 2 )alvinrod ( 889928 ) writes:I've just gotta know has the world always been this batshit crazy and I've just been to self-absorbed to notice?
Re: ( Score: 2 )iMadeGhostzilla ( 1851560 ) writes:Yes to both. However, the exact way in which the world was batshit crazy has varied greatly. At one point, suggesting that the earth wasn't the center of the universe was enough to be burned at the stake, figuratively speaking. Before then, questioning the nature of anything and pissing off the powers that be might well have gotten you literally burned at the stake.
Re: ( Score: 2 )bobstreo ( 1320787 ) writes:Batshit crazy goes in cycles. Last peak was during WW1/2 and this one is hopefully less destructive. Blame it this time around on the social media that makes everyone's private thoughts available for inspection by everyone else.
Sorry, I cannot do a presentation ( Score: 2 , Insightful)gweihir ( 88907 ) writes:It's better to just keep your mouth shut sometimes, even if your teeth grind, and your lips go blue, and you get cobwebs in your mouth.
Re: ( Score: 3 )Anonymous Coward , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:37PM ( #57404756 )Truth is not welcome in politics of any kind. It invariably makes a lot of the politicians look really bad.
Follow the Scientific Method ( Score: 5 , Insightful)sjbe ( 173966 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:40PM ( #57404796 )one female physicist defining Strumia's analysis as "simplistic, drawing on ideas that had long been discredited."If it really has been discredited, then quote the research that discredits it. Strumia has provided evidence to support his claims, and evidence is needed to dismiss those claims.
Correct ( Score: 3 , Insightful)WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:08PM ( #57405022 )physics is not sexist against womenThis is true. Physics has no opinion on the matter. Many physicists however are definitely sexist against women. Not all but enough to be a real problem.
Re:Real problem ( Score: 5 , Insightful)gweihir ( 88907 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @02:08PM ( #57405606 )It's not opinion and the facts are not hard to find for anyone who can be bothered to look for even 20 seconds on Google. Sexism is quite real and it is distressingly common in the field of physics and many other branches of science. It's ironic that you ask for evidence of sexism in an article about a guy who was fired because he (apparently) exhibited sexism publicly. If that isn't evidence I'm not quite sure you understand the meaning of the term.His presentation provided data to support his position. In contrast you are offering nothing. You didn't even bother to read his presentation. Had you have bothered to do so you would have noticed the sentence cited in the headline occurs under the heading "discrimination against women". BTW the very next slide includes the heading "discrimination against men".
Re:Real problem ( Score: 5 , Interesting)rsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:I know a few female PhDs in engineering subjects. When asked, all of them said that gender discrimination was not an issue in their studies or their research, except for the very rare "conservative old professor" that was easily avoided. Gender discrimination in the hard sciences is at worst a myth and at best irrelevant. The rare cases were it happens get blown all out of proportion to fuel an utterly sexist and misandrist movement.
I don't think the trouble is gender discrimination ( Score: 3 )arth1 ( 260657 ) writes:it's "Locker room talk" and a generally unfriendly work environment.
The nerds I know have very, very little tact. The few who do know what tact is have to try really, really hard to avoid saying incredibly off color crap. There are entire books about dead baby jokes and enough jokes about dead hookers and pedophiles to fill several books over. Being a nerd and spending a lifetime around other nerds I can tell you they'll cheerfully spout these gags along with harmless Monty Python jokes and be completel
Re: ( Score: 2 )Etcetera ( 14711 ) writes:It's ironic that you ask for evidence of sexism in an article about a guy who was fired because he (apparently) exhibited sexism publicly. If that isn't evidence I'm not quite sure you understand the meaning of the term.You're begging the question. He may well be a sexist - I don't know, but you can't justify the claim using the claim itself as evidence.
Re: ( Score: 3 )cyberchondriac ( 456626 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:40PM ( #57405328 ) Journalphysics is not sexist against womenThis is true. Physics has no opinion on the matter. Many physicists however are definitely sexist against women. Not all but enough to be a real problem. You might have missed the new hotness in intersectionality: the redefinition of -isms and -ists to refer to outcomes, not intent.
If an insufficient number of XYZ are not present, then "the system" (not specific people) is XYZ-ist and must be corrected. And if you are not XYZ, then you are a receiving a benefit of an XYZ-ist system and are thus XYZ-ist yourself. (Note: Denying your inherent XYZ-ist nature shall be taken as strong additional evidence that you are XYZ-ist.)
QED.
Re:good riddance. ( Score: 5 , Insightful)GuB-42 ( 2483988 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:44PM ( #57405378 )Perhaps you missed the part that one of the official subjects of the conference was gender in the field. It was relevant to the discussion. See AC's post about 4 or 5 below with the part in bold.
Re:good riddance. ( Score: 5 , Insightful)gosand ( 234100 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:14PM ( #57405072 )Why is there a conference about gender in CERN? Did CERN open a sociology branch? Only two things can happen in such a conference. Either it turns into a politically correct echo chamber with nothing worthwhile coming out of it. Or it turns into a massive controversy that is equally unproductive. Do you ask sociologists to do quantum physics? No, because if you do, all you are going to get are time travelling cats or whatever bullshit people tend to think of when quantum physics is mentioned. So why would you ask particle physicists to do a conference about gender roles in society?
Physicists are free to discuss gender between themselves, and sociologists are free to talk about quantum physics, but to organize a conference in a reputable scientific institution, one would expect experts in their fields.
Re:good riddance. ( Score: 4 , Insightful)jythie ( 914043 ) writes:Way too many conferences already have one guy, or girl, who decides to bring a pot of shit to stir instead of any actual contribution to the conference.Disagreeing with the status quo is not "bring[ing] a pot of shit to stir". Strumia provided evidence to support his claims. If he is wrong, then provide evidence that he is wrong. Evidence huh? Did you actually read his presentation? Seriously, there is a link to it right there in the summary. Go through the whole thing. Evidence indeed. If I didn't know it came from a professor (with an obvious axe to grind) I would have guessed it was done by a 9th grader. (with an axe to grind)
Re: ( Score: 2 )BrookHarty ( 9119 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:45PM ( #57404850 ) JournalAt best a lot of his 'evidence' pretty much comes down to 'it isn't sexism, women really are just worse, otherwise they would be doing better in physics because we only care about merit!'
He talked about the taboo subject, gender. ( Score: 5 , Insightful)cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:46PM ( #57404856 )Looking at the pdf presentation in the OP's link, he went somewhere that some people do not want to be discussed, Gender differences and gender preferences.
Instead of refuting his argument, it's easier to call him a sexist bigot and just discredit him that way.
Appears he's making the statement, historically men did dominate the field, but didn't primarily exclude women, and when women started joining they won Nobels. But many fields of study appears to have gender differences, and that sexism wasn't the cause, but gender preference.
He states his theory, cultural Marxism re-writing history to promote oppression as the reason women did not contribute. Along the same lines of re-shaping history to push the narative that exploration and advancements were performed by men who raped, murdered, stole land and murdered indigenous people.
truth spoken ( Score: 5 , Interesting)rsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:Truth spoken, world goes nuts. As is the norm now. As far as whether it's appropriate - he's reacting to a huge political movement that's been going on for years now. He didn't just come out of nowhere and decide to do this.
In fact I'd say it's almost inevitable that highly analytical minds are going to react against this identity politics at some point. It's more surprising how rare it is to see reactions.
It's not a political movement, it's economic ( Score: 3 )byteherder ( 722785 ) writes:Physicists are expensive. Get women into physics and they become significantly less so. It's the same across all STEM fields. It's got nothing to do with diversity and everything to do with wages. As an added bonus men and women are fighting among themselves over gender issues, making a nice skism in the working class.
So Sad ( Score: 2 )jythie ( 914043 ) writes:He is wrong, "physics was invented and built by physicists ." But he was right, "it's not by invitation". It is not a social club. You don't get a invitation in the mail. You join by achievement, by accomplishment. All this gender talk is a distraction from real physics.
Re: ( Score: 2 )drinkypoo ( 153816 ) writes: < [email protected] > on Monday October 01, 2018 @05:31PM ( #57407218 ) Homepage JournalAnyone who thinks physics, esp historically, was not a social club has never worked in the field. Who you know, who you worked with, who will vouch for you, all critical things in the field. Very invitation only.
Re:So Sad ( Score: 5 , Insightful)argStyopa ( 232550 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:08PM ( #57405024 ) JournalYou don't get a invitation in the mail. You join by achievement, by accomplishment. All this gender talk is a distraction from real physics.Well, no. You join by recognition of achievement, which came more readily for men than for women throughout most of history.
He's not wrong, but is just being a dick about it ( Score: 5 , Interesting)alvinrod ( 889928 ) writes:The primary assertions:
- physics was largely invented and advanced by men
- meritocracies are based on results, not on your sex, no matter what society "wants" to see
...are largely indisputable. Interesting Ted talk by a feminist activist who was making a documentary about 'men who hate women' and came to realize that in some ways men are marginalized: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] - the point that resonates with this thread is where she said "you can look around and say that every single person was born of a woman, and nobody will doubt or criticize that.... but if you say look around and nearly every single building you see was built pretty much by men and you get immediately attacked"
That said, in no particular order:
- there's no reason women can't participate in physics going forward. None.
- there's a HUGE amount of base sexism in the field today
- it's never been a pure meritocracy anyway
- there IS a cultural/social pressure from people who have this silly notion that half the participants in every field must be female. This is frankly stupid, and should be resisted. However, acting like an ass and flinging shit at a conference like this is simply not productive in the larger scope.If you have SPECIFIC instances where A was promoted over B because A had a vagina and B had clearly better work, then let's talk.
To me it seems he's actually just butthurt because HE didn't get a promotion he wanted, and has been seething about it for a while.
Re: ( Score: 3 )Cito ( 1725214 ) writes:You may want to look at the slides linked in the summary. The phrase "Physics invented and built by men, it's not by invitation." occurs on a slide (titled "Discrimination against women") seemingly pointing out sexist notions against women in physics. He's not making that claim himself, but pointing to such a claim as an example of sexism.
Maybe you should be strummed out for not doing any basic research as well.
Fired for telling the truth? ( Score: 2 )DatbeDank ( 4580343 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:19PM ( #57405112 )That's Strange
The Overton Window Pushback ( Score: 5 , Insightful)FeelGood314 ( 2516288 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:46PM ( #57405394 )The more and more this small but loud group keeps pushing this nonsense, the sooner there will be a massive pushback against them and this agenda. Which is a shame because the snapback AWLAYS will undo what was previously accomplished.
What these idiots fail to realize is that it is OK to stop with progressive ideas once you reach a certain point. The people who used to push equality of the sexes have now transitioned into female subjugation of men at the expense of everything else. As someone who totally signed on for equality, this is NOT ok.
If you are a physicist, board member etc, were placed into that position by merit, and happen to be a woman good for you! We should be at a point in history where we don't look at sex as a determining factor but ignore it in favor of a list of successful options.
But no, we aren't and can't focus on more important things because these loud nitwits have a hammer and see everything as a nail.
Hope he sues the BBC for the article title ( Score: 3 , Interesting)DRJlaw ( 946416 ) writes:They took the title out of context and did so on purpose. I'm pretty sure that's slander in the UK.
Re: ( Score: 3 )shaitand ( 626655 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:30PM ( #57404706 ) JournalThey took the title out of context and did so on purpose. I'm pretty sure that's slander in the UK.He literally said it as one of two sentences on slide 17, and they linked to his entire slide presentation in the article. Pretty sure that that's not slander. Feel free to describe how it is "out of context," however. I'm sure that this will be good...
Re:And just like that... ( Score: 5 , Interesting)Anonymous Coward , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:35PM ( #57404744 )Sexism fired him, I don't see anything sexist in his presented material. On the contrary, he is attacking a persistent agenda distracting from physics and that lacks sound logical support.
Re: And just like that... ( Score: 5 , Insightful)Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) writes:A physicist just wanting to do physics without politics injected.... imagine that.
Re: ( Score: 3 )Presence Eternal ( 56763 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:40PM ( #57404800 )A physicist just wanting to do physics without politics injectedIf he had really been wanting to do just that why would he go to a workshop titled "High Energy Physics Theory and Gender" instead of one just on physics without the gender? The difference is that if you go to a physics conference and say something stupid you will be shown to be stupid by use of logic and data. If you go to a gender conference and say something stupid you are burnt at the stake as a heretic. Only one of these approaches teaches you why you are wrong and lets you, and others, learn from you
I admit I'm curious ( Score: 4 , Insightful)Anonymous Coward writes:One of the slides amounted to: "No one is seeking gender equality in jobs that get you killed." Is that true? I suspect the military and law enforcement may be an exceptions since there's a lot of social prestige, but I don't hate myself enough to read jezebel.
Re: ( Score: 3 , Insightful)WhoEvrIwant2b ( 1165497 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:12PM ( #57405060 )You don't even need to look at jobs that get you killed. No one is seeking gender equality in jobs that women dominate.
Women dominate teaching below the college level, veterinarian jobs, and nursing, just to name a few. Yet there are no efforts to increase the number of men in those fields. You also never see a push for more women construction workers or farm workers or garbage collectors. It's only well-paying jobs where a high percentage of men is a problem. Low paying jobs? No one cares. Jobs where women
Re:I admit I'm curious ( Score: 5 , Informative)sjames ( 1099 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @02:42PM ( #57405938 ) Homepage JournalAs someone that works at an Ivy league veterinary school I just have to point out that there are actually programs to help men enter the field due to the current imbalance. There are also similar programs for men in nursing. They vary from everything including better work balance, family time off and mentoring.
Re:I admit I'm curious ( Score: 5 , Insightful)Anonymous Coward writes:When is the last time you have heard of a protest that women are just as good at picking up garbage or mining coal as men. Or that a woman can dig a ditch just as well as a man? Where are the complaints that women are just as good at cleaning out sewers as men?
There may well be discrimination in those fields, and there may be individual women who fave a just complaint about it, but if so, they aren't getting a lot of support from other feminists.
Re: ( Score: 2 , Insightful)shaitand ( 626655 ) writes:I think only the one slide got him fired. Maybe the way he presented as well, I haven't seen that. The quote about physics' invention is very easy to misread, I can't blame CERN for reacting to that slide. Everything else... he's just attempting to analyze the issue. Nothing wrong with that.
Re: ( Score: 2 )Etcetera ( 14711 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:32PM ( #57405250 ) HomepageI mean, his data does show women are being hired into positions with fewer citations particularly since the mid 2000's but with a massive and dramatic disparity shifting in around 2015.
Re:And just like that... ( Score: 5 , Insightful)cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) writes:His being a dumb ass got him fired. Why do idiots like this feel entitled to bring up their backwards politics at non-political events?If I'm working a job and presenting for my company and I go off on a rant about something political guess what will happen to me?
If you guess I probably will get fired you win. I'm tired of all these over privileged cry babies feeling like they have a right to throw out their politics on company time.
It's worth pointing out that the opposite would almost certainly not be the case though. If he had done a presentation on "Gender Diversity in Physics" that reached the opposite conclusions, the complaints wouldn't be made. And if you haven't noticed, the trend by the SJW crowd is to insert politics at ALL events, because "there is no such thing as a non-political event", and "being able to ignore politics is a white male privilege" and if you disagree, you're a bigot.
I'd be all for keeping these events non-political. Too bad one side has already decided that bridge must be crossed.
Re: ( Score: 3 )Mashiki ( 184564 ) writes: < mashiki@@@gmail...com > on Monday October 01, 2018 @12:42PM ( #57404820 ) HomepageIt's worth pointing out that the opposite would almost certainly not be the case though. If he had done a presentation on "Gender Diversity in Physics" that reached the opposite conclusions, the complaints wouldn't be made.Yes, precisely. For an example more close to home for most of us, consider pretty much every non-political online discussion forum ever.
If someone posts something that's political but trendy, that's fine. But if somebody reacts to it, posts the opposite point of view or even just tries to be balanced or put it in perspective, he'll get taken to the woodshed for "being political", "flaming", etc.
Re:And just like that... ( Score: 5 , Interesting)ISayWeOnlyToBePolite ( 721679 ) writes:It's a witch hunt, the person who made this into an issue went out of their way to make it an issue. They're part of a extremist feminist group that has a history of getting offended because they want to be. Behold the piece of shit [twitter.com]. An archive just in case. [archive.is] And enjoy the witch hunt in action. [twitter.com]
This is everything that hasn't been scrubbed by CERN [google.com] and may be incomplete. It's another Tim Hunt, Mat Taylor, donglegate in action. But remember, SJW's really aren't the problem...no no, they're just misunderstood, really out for the best, trying to make the world a better place by stomping on your face.
Re: ( Score: 2 , Informative)Mashiki ( 184564 ) writes:Mashiki wrote:
It's a witch hunt, the person who made this into an issue went out of their way to make it an issue. They're part of a extremist feminist group that has a history of getting offended because they want to be. Behold the piece of shit [twitter.com]. An archive just in case. [archive.is] And enjoy the witch hunt in action. [twitter.com]This is everything that hasn't been scrubbed by CERN [google.com] and may be incomplete. It's another Tim Hunt, Mat Taylor, donglegate in action. But remember, SJW's really aren't the problem...no no, they're just misunderstood, really out for the best, trying to make the world a better place by stomping on your face.
The twitter post you're calling "piece of shit" is @jesswade:
"When people in positions of power in academia behave like this and retain their status they don't only push one generation of underrepresented groups out of science, but train others that it's ok to propagate this ideology for years to come."The "witch hunt in action" link shows a collage of Kavanaugh headlines by the poster @BeastOfWood with lines like "white male entitlement", and "white male supremacy" marked, it's not evident to me how the poster or the collage is relevant. The last link is just the same slides as posted in the summary.
Re: ( Score: 3 )Anonymous Coward , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:31PM ( #57404712 )This is how Mashiki's mind works. He gets triggered easily because he believes in a vast conspiracy of feminists trying to destroy the world with Cultural Marxism, and so whenever anyone says anything he disagrees with in the slightest he assumes they are part of it and the embodiment of pure evil.So why don't you prove me wrong. Go out, publicly, in front of the media and take ads out in the paper with the two following subjects: "The wage gap is a myth." "No, the US rate of sexual assaults is not higher then the Congo."
I'll wait. Enjoy the public lynch mob by the way.
Re:Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Insightful)sycodon ( 149926 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:40PM ( #57405350 )The greatest minds were never immune. Read up on the biographies of Newton, Tesla, etc. Humans have always been flawed. That was the single greatest achievement of the Scientific Method: making progress in the great game in spite of its flawed players.
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Insightful)Miser ( 36591 ) writes:Yep.
Maybe the folks at CERN should have done the Scientific thing and refuted his paper using facts.
The statement, "physics is not sexist against women[...], however the truth does not matter, because it is part of a political battle coming from outside" shouldn't be that hard to refute, no? Then they make a presentation the next time and shame that guy into a career at Starbucks.But they didn't that, did they. All they did was spout platitudes designed to placate the SJW crowd.
Re: ( Score: 3 , Insightful)pseudofrog ( 570061 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @02:43PM ( #57405942 )100% this.
If you're a scientist, instead of shutting someone up to mollify the SJW's, bust his ass up with FACTS. Then, it's a win-win, double smackdown for Strumia if he is proven wrong, again, with FACTS.
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Informative)OYAHHH ( 322809 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @03:55PM ( #57406526 ) HomepageAre any of you folks whining about SJWs actually reading his presentation and CERN's statement? On slide 15, he makes a dumbass little chart to whine about someone he calls a "commisar" hiring a woman instead of him. You can't pull shit like that at any conference in any field, and that's exactly what CERN's statement points out.
If you want to prop him up as a martyr for the red-pill crowd, that's your choice. But I wouldn't recommend picking a guy who torpedoed his reputation with a shit-tier analysis of gender issues because a woman got a job instead of him.
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 4 , Insightful)peppepz ( 1311345 ) writes:Personally I don't think you or I are in any position to evaluate his claims of reverse bias in hiring. Unless we knew ALL of the details he account might be 100 percent accurate. Or perhaps not.
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 3 , Informative)shilly ( 142940 ) writes:Yes, because talking about "cultural marxism" in front of a slide with a silly alt-right cartoon is science and fact. He denounces "victimocracy" before declaring himself a martyr in the very next slide.
Re: ( Score: 3 , Insightful)Merk42 ( 1906718 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @03:04PM ( #57406142 )A lack of insight coupled with shamelessness is the defining characteristic of the bitter modern misogynist.
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Funny)bistromath007 ( 1253428 ) writes:But they didn't that, did they. All they did was spout platitudes designed to placate the SJW crowd.In the current uber-politically-correct world, placating the SJW crowd is pretty much the only thing that matters anymore. Don't do that and you are automatically a racist, sexist, xenophobe, and other sassy words that end in "ist" and "phobe."
Like scient ist ???
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 3 )arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) writes:The very existence of Gender Studies is predicated on the idea that Gender Studies "experts" need the right to give unsolicited Gender Studies talks at events related to everything that isn't Gender Studies. You're the fucking government. Go away.
Re: ( Score: 3 )Anonymous Coward , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:32PM ( #57404722 )Yes, he was talking about genders and science, but his talk wasn't scientific. Where's his data?His talk was almost entirely analysis of data. Lots of it. He's a physicist, that's what he does. Sorry if this interferes with your SJW agenda.
A telling quote from the BBC article:
"There were young women and men exchanging ideas and their experiences on how to encourage more women into the subject and to combat discrimination in their careers. Then this man gets up, saying all this horrible stuff."He said all these horrible things! Facts, data, analysis, all disagreeing with our established dogma! It was horrible! If we weren't so busy chanting "lalalalala we're not listening" then we'd almost be forced to rethink our ideas! Oh the SJW-ity!
Re:Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Insightful)Anonymous Coward , Monday October 01, 2018 @02:06PM ( #57405582 )Instead you'd rather these great minds ignore the truth and bow down to political correctness and pretend that everything that is not true really is? All in the name of making marginalized people feel better about themselves... That is absurd.
Re:Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Insightful)WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:40PM ( #57404792 )A woman I know recently applied to a PhD position. She already had a master's in the topic, from a school pretty strong in the subject area, doing some pretty difficult work, plus a fair amount of science communication & outreach on the side, and was looking to go further. She got rejected from a well funded position (with several openings), and later, she made the mistake of looking at the student roster to see who had gotten in. All male, seemingly straight out of undergrad, none of whom had a master's. She was kind of pissed, because while she couldn't prove that was a result of sexism, it sure looks like it, you know? And that's ridiculous, we shouldn't be dismissing anyone based on their sex, but this is definitely happening in science and academia.
Funny thing though, while that story is true, I lied about the sexes. I swapped them. Still feel the same way?
I have a hard time dismissing claims that there is political bias against men when I can see it happen. And before some moron accuses me of being sexist, I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of very competent female scientists out there, there are. And I'm not saying that there isn't real sexism against women in science, there is, I've seen it, and anyone who denies that or covers for it is part of the problem. That doesn't change the fact that screwing over men is also happening, and that it is not the way to go about fixing anything.
Re:Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Informative)Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) writes:I really wish I'd live long enough to see our species evolve past all the tendency to violence, racism, sexism, bigotry, wilful ignorance, superstitiousI would say "willful ignorance" is not having even bothered to read the presentation.
nonsense, and all the other stupid crap that we, as a species, seem to be infected with, but as-is I'm not even so sure the human species will manage to survive to see the year 2100, when even the greatest minds among us aren't immune to all the above.LOL you are being played by outraged fueled media simply to make money.
Re: ( Score: 2 , Flamebait)BlueStrat ( 756137 ) writes:tendency to violence, racism, sexism, bigotry, wilful ignorance, superstitious nonsenseThat might be true.. if I had anything to do with 'outrage(d) fueled media', which I don't. It's my observation of the human species, formulated over all the decades of my life. That's okay, I don't expect most people to be honest enough with themselves to admit what I'm saying is true, the truth hurts too much for most people, and to be quite honest it hurts me deeply because I know I'm fundamentally no better, even if I try to be. Admitting I'm right is admitting you're just a caveman with high-tech toys;
Re: ( Score: 3 )registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @12:54PM ( #57404922 )It's an interesting talk but I absolutely can't understand why a physicist would hold such a talk at a physics conference at CERN.Simple. Because it is negatively affecting a physics conference at CERN, not some random gender-studies organization's conference.
Why is CERN engaging in Post-Modern anti-Enlightenment political correctness when it should only be concerned with *scientific* correctness? Post Modernism is anathema to science. Science is a Meritocracy or else you're not engaged in science but rather politics.
Strat
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Interesting)dbialac ( 320955 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @02:43PM ( #57405948 )I would like to see us evolve beyond punishing people for stating views with which one may disagree.
Re: Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 4 , Interesting)Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) writes:We had. It's part of the basis of having the first amendment in the US. We're regressing, though.
Re: ( Score: 2 )Anonymous Coward , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:44PM ( #57405380 )I really wish I'd live long enough to see our species evolve past all the tendency to violence, racism, sexism, bigotry, wilful ignorance, superstitious nonsense, and all the other stupid crap that we, as a species, seem to be infected with.Human bigotry in it's many forms won't end until the last of humanity does. I don't believe it can be done and I don't believe there is one person on this planet that doesn't harbour at least a little bigotry in one form or another. That doesn't mean we should ignore it and say it's inevitable- we need to limit it as much as possible... but it will never end.
Re:Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Informative)kbonin ( 58917 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @02:11PM ( #57405626 ) HomepageThe relevant slide is number 17 titled "Discrimination against women."
The text:
Physics invented and built by men, it's not by invitation.Curie etc. welcomed after showing what they can do, got Nobels...
It's followed by "Discrimination against men" with cited examples such as women-only scholarships, extended STEM exam times only for women. Clearly the two slides were intended to explore discriminatory practices. This conference took even the concept of exploring those ides as verboten, heresy, banned the witch and did the modern version of burning books.
Re:Our species needs to evolve ( Score: 5 , Interesting)pseudofrog ( 570061 ) writes:He broke one of the cardinal rules about slide decks on controversial subjects - make sure no sentence may be pulled out of context and used against you. Some interesting analysis and infographics in the paper. His conclusions are probably what pissed the most people off - that people screaming about how unfair STEM fields are to females may play a significant role in discouraging females from the field, which in my small sample survey (of STEM females) was strongly agreed with. But that puts part of the blame back on SJWs who are more interested in virtue signaling than being constructive, so of course he must pay. SNAFU...
Re: ( Score: 3 , Informative)Mr307 ( 49185 ) writes:Nope, the relevant slide is actually number 15, where he attacks a named "commisar" who hired a woman instead of him. He made a dumbass little chart and everything. It's kind of hilarious. CERN's statement points out that such personal attacks are unacceptable. It's just plain not okay pull shit like this.
Re: ( Score: 2 , Insightful)Anonymous Coward writes:Unless i'm missing some irony here: False dichotomy, we can all simultaneously reject the grossly absurdly evil machinations of post modern identity politics and one of is main weapons political correctness, and reject all those things you mentioned. No one would be happier because one of the first of many casualties of that way of thinking is the loss of free will.
Re: ( Score: 2 , Interesting)mikael ( 484 ) writes:Never mind that women having the right to property and self determination is something that only happened over the last century or so. In other words, they weren't invited to the "invention" of physics.
Re: ( Score: 2 )arth1 ( 260657 ) writes:Many of these biggest minds were actually labelled as "problem students" by the mainstream schools and teachers of the day. They had to be home-schooled by tutors. Other times, home schooling by tutors was the only way of getting an education. Either way, that kind of intensive teaching going at the speed of one student rather than the average speed of a class would have accelerated their learning.
Re: ( Score: 2 )Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) writes:He was not wrong in that "Physics was invented and built by men". By and large, this is undoubtedly true, with a few outliers. That observation in itself is valid science. What would have been wrong if he had said that this needs to continue.
Science and physics should be blind. Whether you're a man, woman, hermaphrodite, black, white, green or invisible is irrelevant for producing theorems and testable hypotheses, and moving science forward.
Ever stopped to wonder why? ( Score: 3 , Insightful)mlyle ( 148697 ) writes:Well, he's not wrong. Almost all the biggest minds in physics and math were menTrue but have you ever stopped to wonder why? This is NOT evidence that men are better at physics but evidence of the extremely sexist society which has existed for centuries. Yes, things are a lot better now than they used to be but you have to be a monumental idiot to not realize that sexism in the past was directly responsible for the lack of women in physics or indeed any science.
This is what should have been pointed out to him by someone in the audience. This is the way that you fix idiotic thinkin
Re: ( Score: 2 )butchersong ( 1222796 ) writes:Yah-- everyone needs to have the opportunity. But it may not be "fair" in numbers afterwards. Testosterone seems to cause *increased variability* in outcomes. Women appear to be slightly smarter on average than men (depending on the metric you choose), but men have a greater variability in intelligence and performance. That is, men are over-represented at the very dumb and brilliant ends of the spectrum.
Equal opportunity may still result in an excess of men at the very top of many professions... (And again
Re: ( Score: 3 )WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) writes:Eh, fascination with systems and ideas are traits that skew to males. This will lead to imbalances in scientific disciplines.... Attempts to artificially adjust these for equity will only lead to injustices against more qualified individuals. I don't understand how people can continue to pretend that biological differences between the sexes stop at the brain. There are really great female physicists but not of an equal number to males. Unless you have some sort of agenda this shouldn't be seen as bad t
Re: ( Score: 2 )rossdee ( 243626 ) writes:the inflection MEN or MAN? I can't tell from the context.It's "men" under a slide with heading "discrimination against women". The very next slide has heading "discrimination against men".
People publishing media accounts of this crap with intentionally misleading exerts simply to stoke public outrage in order to rack up views for profit are the ones we should all be "outraged" at and demanding resignations from.
Re: ( Score: 3 )GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) writes:I am sure that Marie Curie's Nobel Prize was in Chemistry.
Re: ( Score: 3 )gweihir ( 88907 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @02:01PM ( #57405546 )She had one in physics (1903) shared with her husband. When I read the headline my first thought was "A certain Madame Curie would like to have a word with this guy..."
Re:Mme Curie ? ( Score: 4 , Insightful)Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) , Monday October 01, 2018 @01:02PM ( #57404972 )A single instance does not make a statistic. The great women on STEM do exist, but they are few. Far too few for this to be a measurement error.
Re:Fool! ( Score: 5 , Informative)arth1 ( 260657 ) writes:Does he not even recognize that ideas and discoveries by women were almost unanimously dismissed and women even prohibited from participating in scientific fields or hell, any academic field until recently?It's very disappointing that some scientists fail to realize how drastically the world has changed in the last 100 years.
There were probably a lot of discoveries by women that were posted secretly under a man's name with the credit given to a male relative or a male employer. Look how many female novelists in the old days used to post under male pseudonyms... and that was for something as harmless as a novel.
Re: ( Score: 2 )arth1 ( 260657 ) writes:Look how many female novelists in the old days used to post under male pseudonyms... and that was for something as harmless as a novel.For that, the pendulum has swung back pretty radically. Near 80% of new novels are now written by women.
Re: ( Score: 3 )It is no coincidence, then, that 85% of new novels are absolute shit.That has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with Sturgeon's Law [wikipedia.org].
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Oct 15, 2018 | www.counterpunch.org
October 12, 2018 Identity Politics and the Ruling Class by James Munson
Reagan ditched the Fairness Doctrine. Now his youth complain they're shunned by the politically-correct media. Clinton's Telecommunications Act let mergers trample the free press. Now it pains his wing that we read rants and conspiracy, instead of news.
So much that Hillary employed teams of fact-checkers in 2016, figuring we couldn't trust our own minds to parse reality from clown-babble. Then–contrarily–she blamed her loss on hopeless cases. If one or the other were true, democracy would be a lost cause, and perhaps that's crossed her mind since losing, despite a majority of votes. But it can't explain why close to half of us had the common sense to not vote for either hopeless party.
Yet, to hear either speak, tribal privileges are fracturing America. Not the top .001%'s privilege to half the wealth, nor the military's to the bulk of our taxes. Rather, half of the poor's designation, versus the other half's. Somehow, minorities -the lowest rung in terms of media ownership- bully the mainstream press, and rednecks -the next-lowest- bully the rest. (Hourly-waged Russians command any overlap.) And since, according to the Right (and much of the Left), 'political-correctness' stifles all other manner of free speech, elites are powerless to restore order to their own, private empires, or prevent the hordes tearing us up over what bathroom to use.
Really? Have we lost our pussy-grabbing Executive and Judiciary branches to the wanton touch of #MeToo? Can our founding, 'self-evident truths' not outwit pc's chauvinism? On the other hand, how is it 'deplorables' are blind to exploding class inequality, yet so attuned to the nuances of race, gender, and their nomenclature?
'Identity-politics' explain everything recently, from Trump and Kavanaugh, to Crazy Rich Asians . Francis Fukuyama has a new book out (I've read only part), regarding its tension with liberalism–group versus individual rights, etc., tepidly joining him to more-hawkish mouth-pieces like Sam Harris and Ben Shapiro (and some Left doom-sayers) who warn its steam-rolling our democracy. Their over-arching fear is that identity politics suppress rational–though not always politically-correct–thought, giving extremists on both sides the floor, who don't mind confronting 'identity' on racist (and sexist, etc) terms. Ergo, more than an analytical device or a school of (not always congruent) ideas, a movement. A juggernaut, if you read and believe the hype.
But if so, whose? Saying 'first respect my uniqueness, then treat me as equal' provides snares that 'first treat me as equal, then respect my uniqueness' does not. The Left has a long history with -and can tie most of its successes- to the latter. The labor movement, for instance, united presumed-cultural rivals and coordinated dozens of languages. Ergo, the Left , by definition -the many against the privileged few- would have to be amnesiac, or -more likely- not the Left, to think a plan that tries to establish the differences first would better serve their goals.
Perhaps the cultural wins (like marriage equality) and sizable, politico-economic losses (demise of Unions, etc.) of the past few decades have inspired reorientation. There's evidence, so long as we define the 'Left' as ruling, Neoliberal Democrats. Certainly their Wall Street financiers can accept women CEOs and gay marriage more-readily than Union wages and universal healthcare. (After all, the point of capitalism is to pocket the most one can without sparking an insurrection.) BUT an elite-run party -paid for by Wall Street–doesn't constitute a Left. Nor is it able to absorb popular will. Proven, since they lose most of their elections.
Also, that leftists would demand censorship when most everyone of them believe the Right is in control, and when they're silenced within their own party, seems farce. Again there's evidence, college students sometimes dis-invite conservative speakers, and we figure, as Reagan did, they're taught to (so he hiked tuition). But I doubt censorship exists as agenda, nor even as sentiment on any grand scale. Think, whenever something explodes multiple parties besides the bomber take credit. Where are the professors claiming this attack? If 18% are communists (as the American Enterprise Institute warns), what sort of communist links class to 'identity', not labor?
The other 'fear' is that over-zealous freshman are taking control, like in the Princeton and Evergreen incidents. Perhaps but it contradicts the wisdom of Occupy!, which refused the collaborative financial, political, educative, and other aligned powers from pigeon-holling their complaints. -Wisdom that we credit to the young of the movement.
There's also a notion that dis-investment has engendered a new 'tribalism'. But even though 'color-blindness', for example, has excused softening equal-opportunity legislation (welfare reform, voting law, etc.), which baits 'identity', as minorities are often dis-empowered under the ruse of equality, color-blindness came out of the neoliberal play-book and expanded Leftward from think-tanks on the Right. In other words, while it's hard to gauge its impact, it marks a very separate program from the Left-academia or 'bottom-up' narratives.
Furthermore, most every poll finds 'economic inequality', not racial, gender, or other inequalities to be the #1 problem with America. So, while it's not unreasonable that our decline in wealth and status might see us retreat toward other than liberal identities (Fukuyama's point), unless someone's peddling those narratives, one plainly sees more leverage in class-solidarity.
As for the Right, what should be 'self-evident' is that complaining minority recognition is unfair to the majority rests on the same argument it decries; that your privilege impedes my privilege (instead of the reverse). Evident, at least to a Harvard-educated lawyer like Ben Shapiro. Yet you find all that fallacious, 'populist' reaction in his books. Do they speak to him or he to them? Does he speak for them?
Of course, identity politics aren't new. The Spanish liberal-philosopher, Jose Ortega y Gasset wrestled with it a century ago, when his homeland's empire was crumbling, and came up with a lot better answers (though it didn't save Spain from its fascist clown). Spain even had, in his words, 'a common past, language, and race, yet had split into mainly-regional factions because it had failed to invent a sufficiently-attractive collective program for the future' . [i]
Isn't he right? Rather than hell-bent on forcing this or that culture on the rest of us, aren't the 'extreme' Left, Right, and clusters of us in between are just figuring out that, increasingly, being 'American' means losing ground to the .001% and their top brass? The opening passage to the Combahee River Collective's manifesto says as much: ' focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics . We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else's oppression.'
Last week Gary Younge revived that notion in a piece titled ' It comes as no shock that the powerful hate identity politics ' [ii] , reminding that without 'women', 'blacks', and other self-referential vanguards we wouldn't have democracy, anyway. It's an important point, and I agree, but is his over-arching theme–that the powerful hate it–also true?
Whether 'identity-politics' raise tensions or awareness among the crowd might be a secondary matter. First is whom they neglect. For all the media's naval-gazing, the system, itself gets rare attention. Mind, all political strategies shoulder contradictions. But it's odd that cultural issues (not to say there's no overlap) would hold the foreground right when fraudulent wars, torture, bank crime, rigged elections, police violence, tax-breaks for the rich, willful habitat destruction, and a widely-evident and growing gap between rich and poor and state and population have laid the political, economic, and judicial systems bare. Matters such as environmental or foreign policy are largely out of public reach, except with massive, boots on the ground confrontation. In which case, atomizing class politics seems counter-intuitive to the extreme.
Unless it's not us preaching it. It bears saying, in an oligarchy, oligarchs speak in order to make their actions less–not more–clear. That's what a shill like Ben Shapiro (Hillary does the work herself on the Left) laments when his talks get ignored (or Ocasio-Cortes ignores him). Shapiro's a cause-celeb for saying identity politics threatens our democracy, because it censors Right voices. Yet it appears complaining gets him more, not less, airtime. In fact, I've heard too little substance in his' speeches (or Hillary's of late) to warrant an interview, otherwise. Thus I suspect its the opposite of censorship; hyping the market, that threatens our democracy. Threatens for real, like the Telecom Act, not just prescriptively, like 'Russo-bots' and 'terrorism'.
Notes.
[i] Invertebrate Spain , 1921, p.37
[ii] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/05/no-shock-powerful-hate-identity-politics Join the debate on Facebook
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Oct 11, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
get real October 10, 2018 at 10:47 pm
Wow. This is an extremely one-sided, black-and-white view of a complex issue. I don't understand how you could prepare to write on this subject and not realize that the #BelieveWomen was, for MANY NOT ALL women, a call to NOT DISBELIEVE the woman right off the bat. The immediate disbelief and victim blaming and shaming which has been standard treatment of victims for a very long time is the primary reason that sexual crimes are not reported.Jennifer , says: October 11, 2018 at 8:54 amSure, give the man the "innocent until proven guilty" but do the same for the woman too. Don't start in with the "what was she wearing" and the rest. Don't make drinking be an excuse for him and a reason for condemnation for her. In the many discussions I had on this subject with other women, what the vast majority wanted was a full and complete investigation. They didn't get it.
And you don't get it either. You are welcome to your opinions but you don't get to put the words and beliefs into other people's mouths and minds as though you somehow know it all. You are dead wrong about what I think and believe and about the vast majority of the women with whom I have discussed this either in person or via text online.
It is easy to write against a straw man that isn't true. Try writing against a real argument instead of simplifying the other person's position to the point that it is ridiculous.
This conundrum is what convinced me to abandon the Democrats, registering as an Independent for the first time: "It holds them to a different legal standard than men and turns the clock back on women's rights. Equality before the law was a major demand of feminists from previous eras; today it seems like 'believing' takes precedence over equality."mrscracker , says: October 11, 2018 at 9:39 amI am married to a man who has been loyal, works long hours to support our family, and happens to be a white. I am raising a young man and young woman, and my experience has been that, although they differ vastly in temperament and aptitude, they a both valuable to society. The sexism and racism of the Leftist Democrats goes against my conscience and experience.
get real ,
I think the issue with #MeToo isn't about speaking out on sexual abuse in general, it's about publically naming, accusing & convicting men of sexual abuse sans law enforcement, & any legal due process. That's character defamation & slander, not justice.If women have legitimate grievances they need to go about addressing them the way every other type of victim does through law enforcement & the courts. Women are adults & should behave with maturity & prudence. Not expecting special considerations just because of gender.
Currently, men accused of sexual crimes are named in the media but their accusers are not. Even when found innocent, that notoriety will haunt the accused men for the rest of their lives. That seems like a double standard to me.
There absolutely were obstacles for some sexual abuse victims in the past & it could be difficult to find justice. We had a case like that in our community & it took years to get a prosecution & conviction. But we've swung way too far in the other direction. Now men are presumed guilty until proven innocent & they & their families are publically shamed, hounded, & humiliated.
Women don't need to drag down men in order to find equality.
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Oct 11, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
In justifying her decision , Collins went to great pains to stress her support for all victims of sexual assault and for Ford in particular. "Every person, man or woman, who makes a charge of sexual assault deserves to be heard and treated with respect," she said. "The #MeToo movement is real. It matters. It is needed. And it is long overdue." But, she concluded, "In evaluating any given claim of misconduct we will be ill-served in the long run if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, tempting though it may be."
Collins is absolutely correct to defend these important principles. The mantra of #MeToo and the Kavanaugh hearings has been "I believe." But the idea that women should be believed without question or evidence presents them as naive innocents who never lie or misremember. It holds them to a different legal standard than men and turns the clock back on women's rights. Equality before the law was a major demand of feminists from previous eras; today it seems like "believing" takes precedence over equality.
For her cool-headed defense of long-held legal principles, Collins stands accused of betrayal. She "betrayed the interests of the women and sexual-assault survivors she professed to support" according to Lisa Ryan at The Cut . Diane Russell , an activist for the Democrats, was more specific: she argued that Collins voted to "betray Maine women and Maine survivors" by ignoring their stories. "There is a special place in hell for women who cover for rapists," Russell continued. Presumably she has privileged insight into exactly what happened between Ford and Kavanaugh 36 years ago that allows her to circumvent trials and juries and find Kavanaugh summarily guilty all by herself.
Bizarrely, some activists seem to have more loathing for Collins than Kavanaugh. Lawyer and "social entrepreneur" Kat Calvin tweeted: "Never let Collins have a moment of peace in public again." This has since been shared well over 33,000 times. The hatred for Collins has even given rise to a crowd-funder to get her replaced as senator from Maine. A cool $2 million was raised before Collins made her speech; the site crashed as she was speaking.
Feminist commentators and activists are clearly furious that Collins could " vote against believing women ." They are nonplussed that she could express support for victims of sexual assault and yet back Kavanaugh. The only explanation for Collins' volte-face is, we're told, hypocrisy . But it's perfectly possible to feel sympathy and endeavor to support women who claim to have been sexually assaulted while at the same time maintaining the important presumption of innocent until proven guilty. There is no logical reason why women should be unconditionally believed any more than men. Feminists might not like it but, as Collins argued, evidence and proof are the basis of justice.
Yet rather than trying to understand the reason for Collins' vote, activists have only extended the net of hatred further. Over at the New York Times , Alexis Grenell moves deftly from disdain for Collins to fury at "all the women in the Republican conference" before eventually focusing her anger on the category of "white women." White women, Grenell opines, "will defend their privilege to the death." In the eyes of Grenell, women think and act according to the dictates of their race. There is a "blood pact between white men and white women," she tells us, though how this ties in with Ford's whiteness is anyone's guess. Apparently, all white women are "gender traitors" who have "made standing by the patriarchy a full-time job."
Fourth-Wave Feminism: Why No One Escapes The Kavanaugh Kangaroo Court is Revictimizing VictimsSo there we have it. The show trial of Kavanaugh shows us exactly where feminism is heading in the #MeToo era. Women are not to be considered rational beings equal to men before the law but as emotional creatures who deserve special treatment. Women's political views are, apparently, determined by their race. And it's legitimate now to make explicitly sexist and racist arguments in the pages of respectable national newspapers -- as long as "white women" are the target.
Today's feminism divides the world into "good" women and "bad" women. Good women suffer, empathize, and believe other women without question or criticism. Bad women, on the other hand, raise awkward questions about evidence and principles of justice. As Grenell demands to know, come November, "Which one of these two women are you?"
Joanna Williams is the author of Women vs. Feminism: Why We All Need Liberating from the Gender Wars .
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Oct 11, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Another dissatisfied Social Justice Warrior, at Trump's inauguration ( ODN screengrab ) Here's a genuinely fascinating essay in The Atlantic , by Yascha Mounk, who writes about research showing that overwhelming majorities of Americans hate political correctness.It starts like this:
On social media, the country seems to divide into two neat camps: Call them the woke and the resentful. Team Resentment is manned -- pun very much intended -- by people who are predominantly old and almost exclusively white. Team Woke is young, likely to be female, and predominantly black, brown, or Asian (though white "allies" do their dutiful part). These teams are roughly equal in number, and they disagree most vehemently, as well as most routinely, about the catchall known as political correctness.
Reality is nothing like this. As scholars Stephen Hawkins, Daniel Yudkin, Miriam Juan-Torres, and Tim Dixon argue in a report published Wednesday, " Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape ," most Americans don't fit into either of these camps. They also share more common ground than the daily fights on social media might suggest -- including a general aversion to PC culture.
You don't say. More:
If you look at what Americans have to say on issues such as immigration, the extent of white privilege, and the prevalence of sexual harassment, the authors argue, seven distinct clusters emerge: progressive activists, traditional liberals, passive liberals, the politically disengaged, moderates, traditional conservatives, and devoted conservatives.
According to the report, 25 percent of Americans are traditional or devoted conservatives, and their views are far outside the American mainstream. Some 8 percent of Americans are progressive activists, and their views are even less typical. By contrast, the two-thirds of Americans who don't belong to either extreme constitute an "exhausted majority." Their members "share a sense of fatigue with our polarized national conversation, a willingness to be flexible in their political viewpoints, and a lack of voice in the national conversation."
Hmm. If one out of four people believe something, are they really "far" out of the American mainstream? In the report, "Traditional Liberals" and "Passive Liberals" make up 26 percent of the population. Aren't they part of the mainstream too? Or am I reading this wrong? Here's a graphic from the "Hidden Tribes" report that shows how they sort us:
How do the authors define these groups? Here:
Anyway, the story goes on to say that r ace and youth are not indicators of openness to PC. Black Americans are the minority group most accepting of PC, but even then, 75 percent of them think it's a problem. More:
If age and race do not predict support for political correctness, what does? Income and education.
While 83 percent of respondents who make less than $50,000 dislike political correctness, just 70 percent of those who make more than $100,000 are skeptical about it. And while 87 percent who have never attended college think that political correctness has grown to be a problem, only 66 percent of those with a postgraduate degree share that sentiment.
Political tribe -- as defined by the authors -- is an even better predictor of views on political correctness. Among devoted conservatives, 97 percent believe that political correctness is a problem. Among traditional liberals, 61 percent do. Progressive activists are the only group that strongly backs political correctness: Only 30 percent see it as a problem.
Here's the heart of it:
So what does this group look like? Compared with the rest of the (nationally representative) polling sample, progressive activists are much more likely to be rich, highly educated -- and white. They are nearly twice as likely as the average to make more than $100,000 a year. They are nearly three times as likely to have a postgraduate degree. And while 12 percent of the overall sample in the study is African American, only 3 percent of progressive activists are. With the exception of the small tribe of devoted conservatives, progressive activists are the most racially homogeneous group in the country.
This, a thousand times:
As one 57- year-old woman in Mississippi fretted:
The way you have to term everything just right. And if you don't term it right you discriminate them. It's like everybody is going to be in the know of what people call themselves now and some of us just don't know. But if you don't know then there is something seriously wrong with you.
Seriously, read the whole thing. It's encouraging news.
So, guess who runs most of the institutions in this country: academia, media, entertainment, corporations? Educated, rich white liberals (and minorities who come out of those institutions, and who agree with their PC ideology). They have created a social space in which they lord their ideology over everybody else, and have intimidated everyone into going along with it, out of fear of harsh consequences, and stigma, for dissenters.
Mounk points out that it's not that majorities believe racism and bigotry aren't things to be concerned about. They do! It's that they believe that PC is the wrong way to address those problems.
If you have the time, read the whole "Hidden Tribes" report on which Mounk bases his essay. They reveal something that has actually been brought out by Pew Research studies in the past: that US political conversation is entirely driven by the extremes, while most people in the middle are more open to compromise. It's not that most of these people are moderates, are centrists. It's that they aren't driven by a strong sense of tribalism.
The authors call these "hidden tribes" because they are defined not by race, sex, and the usual tribal markers, but rather by a shared agreement on how the world works, whether they're aware of it or not. Where individuals come down on these points generally determines where they'll come down on hot button political and cultural issues (e.g., immigration, feminism):
You shouldn't assume that most Americans share the same basic values. As the report indicates, there are substantive differences among us. It's simply not accurate to blame tension over these divisions on extremists of the right or the left who exaggerate them. Though the differences are real, what seems to set the majority-middle apart is their general unwillingness to push those differences to the breaking point.
I want to point out one aspect of the analysis that means a lot to me, as a religious conservative. It's on page 81 of the report. Here's a graph recording answers to the question, "How important is religious faith to you?"
Religion is important to almost two-thirds of Americans. The only tribe in which a majority finds it unimportant are Progressive Activists. According to the study:
Strong identification with religious belief appears to be a strong tribal marker for the Devoted and Traditional Conservatives, and an absence of religious belief appears to be a marker for Progressive Activists.
Guess which tribe runs the culture-making institutions in our society (e.g., major media, universities, entertainment)?
I am reminded of something one of you readers, a conservative academic, wrote to me once: that you feel safe because your department is run by traditional liberals, who don't agree with you, but who value free and open exchange of ideas. You are very worried about what happens when those people -- who are Baby Boomers -- retire, because the generational cohort behind them are hardcore left-wing ideologues who do not share the traditional liberal view.
Hollywood has been at the forefront of the political resistance to President Donald Trump, using awards shows, social media and donations to promote progressive positions on issues from immigration to gun control.
Now, the entertainment industry is using its star power and creativity to support down-ballot candidates in the Nov. 6 elections. Down-ballot races are typically state and local positions that are listed on voting ballots below national posts.
This approach is part of the way Hollywood is rewriting its script for political action following Trump's shock election in 2016.
I can't blame anyone for advocating for their political beliefs in the public square. But these are among the most privileged people on the planet. They are Progressive Activists -- and they are massively out of touch with the rest of the country, though they have massively more cultural power to define the narrative than their adversaries.
Here's another interesting factoid from the report:
Progressive Activists are unique in seeing the world as a much less dangerous place than other Americans. For other tribes, the differences are much smaller. On average, 14 percent of Americans view the world as generally safe and nonthreatening, while among Progressive Activists almost three times as many people hold this view (40 percent). This figure is especially striking in light of Progressive Activists' deep pessimism about the direction of the country (98 percent say it is going in the wrong direction) and their emotions toward the country (45 percent say they currently feel "very" scared about the country's direction).
Think of the psychology of this! How can they feel that the world is "generally safe and nonthreatening" while at the same time be "very" scared about the direction of the US? The answer, I think, is that in their own lives , they feel secure. And why not? Remember this from Yascha Mounk's essay on this study:
So what does this group look like? Compared with the rest of the (nationally representative) polling sample, progressive activists are much more likely to be rich, highly educated -- and white. They are nearly twice as likely as the average to make more than $100,000 a year. They are nearly three times as likely to have a postgraduate degree.
Economically, educationally, and racially, Progressive Activists are the most elite group in the country.
Look at this amazing factoid:
First, notice that one out of three African Americans think that people are too sensitive about race, the same percentage of Traditional Liberals who do. A solid majority of Hispanic Americans believe that, and nearly three out of four Asian Americans believe that. Sixty percent of Americans overall agree with this viewpoint. Who rejects it overwhelmingly? Progressive Activists -- the rich, educated white people who control academia and media.
Note well that majorities are not saying that racism isn't a problem (81 percent agree that we have serious problems with racism), only that there is too much emphasis on it. Do you get that? They're saying that racism is a serious issue, but it has been disproportionately emphasized relative to other serious issues. On bread-and-butter issues like college admissions, Progressive Activists are far, far removed from everybody else, even Traditional Liberals:
The numbers are similar on gender issues. Progressive Activists are radically far apart from the views of most Americans. No wonder the media can't understand why everybody doesn't agree with them that Brett Kavanaugh is a sexist monster.
Finally, the last chapter of the study focuses on what its authors call the "Exhausted Majority" -- Traditional Liberals, Passive Liberals, Politically Disengaged and Moderates:
The four segments in the Exhausted Majority have many differences, but they share four main attributes:
– They are more ideologically flexible
– They support finding political compromise
– They are fatigued by US politics today
– They feel forgotten in political debate
Importantly, the Traditional Conservatives do not belong to the Exhausted Majority, while the Traditional Liberals do. The key difference lies in their mood towards the country's politics. While the Exhausted Majority express disillusionment, frustration, and anger at the current state of US politics, Traditional Conservatives are far more likely to express confidence, excitement and optimism. As such, the Traditional Conservatives hold a meaningfully different emotional disposition towards the country that aligns them more with the Devoted Conservatives.
That's really interesting. Having read the detailed descriptions of the various tribes, I fall more into the Traditional Conservative camp, but I am much more pessimistic about the country's politics than TCs in this study. What accounts for that? Is it:
a) I spend a lot of time looking at the cultural fundamentals and trends, especially regarding religion, and believe that the optimism of Traditional Conservatives is irrational; or
b) I spend a lot of time reading and analyzing the mainstream media, including social media, and therefore overestimate the power and influence of Progressive Activists
I'd say the answer is probably 80 percent a) and 20 percent b). I believe my fellow Traditional Conservatives (like the Devoted Conservatives to our right) believe that things are more stable than they actually are.
Anyway, if you have the time, I encourage you to read the entire report. It's basic point is that neither extreme of left and right speak for the majority of Americans, though their stridency, and the nature of media to emphasize conflict, conditions most of us to think that things are far more polarized than they actually are.
For me, the best news in the entire report is learning how sick and tired most Americans are of political correctness. It's not that most people believe there aren't serious problems in the country having to do with race, sex, immigration, and so forth. It's that people are tired of the Progressive Speech Police stalking around like Saudi imams with sticks in hand, whacking anyone who fails to observe strict pieties. As Yascha Mounk says in his piece about the report:
The gap between the progressive perception and the reality of public views on this issue could do damage to the institutions that the woke elite collectively run. A publication whose editors think they represent the views of a majority of Americans when they actually speak to a small minority of the country may eventually see its influence wane and its readership decline. And a political candidate who believes she is speaking for half of the population when she is actually voicing the opinions of one-fifth is likely to lose the next election.
Yes. And -- drums please -- that has a lot to do with how we got Trump.
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Oct 10, 2018 | www.unz.com
Ludwig Watzal , says: Website October 9, 2018 at 7:27 am GMT
Mr. Buchanan, you forgot the "treacherous" work of porn lawyer Michael Avenatti who offered the straw that broke the camel's back by presenting such an abysmal "witness" such as Julie Swetnick. Ms. Ramirez' alleged allegations also came down to nothing. Even the so-called Me too movement suffered a big blow. They turned a fundamental democratic principle upside down: The accused is innocent until proven guilty. They insisted instead that the accuser is right because she is a woman!Realist , says: October 9, 2018 at 10:21 am GMTI watched the whole confirmation circus on CNN. When Dr. Ford started talking my first thought was; this entire testimony is a charade initiated by the Dems. As a journalist, I was appalled by the CNN "colleagues." During the recesses, they held tribunals that were 95 percent staffed by anti-Trumpets. Fairness looks different.
For me, the Democratic Party and the Me too movement lost much of its credibility. To regain it, they have to get rid of the demons of the Clinton's and their ilk. Anyone who is acquainted with the history of the Clinton's knows that they belong to the most politically corrupt politicians in the US.
anonymous [340] Disclaimer , says: October 9, 2018 at 11:19 am GMTSo where are we going now?
This country is on a shit slide to hell. No turning back ..to many god damn idiots in this country.
What people in this country better understand is Trump is part of the Deep State and he means harm to all non elites.
@utu You're thinking of Justice Kennedy, another Republican choice for whom young Mr. Kavanaugh clerked before helping President Cheney with the Patriot Act to earn his first robe on the Swampville Circuit. Chief Justice Roberts was the one who nailed down Big Sickness for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.Jon Baptist , says: October 9, 2018 at 12:38 pm GMTLike the "federal" elections held every November in even-numbered years and the 5-4 decrees of the Court, these nailbiting confirmation hearings are another part of the show that keeps people gulled into accepting that so many things in life are to be run by people in Washington. Mr. Buchanan for years has been proclaiming each The Most Important Ever.
I'm still inclined to the notion that the Constitution was intended, at least by some of its authors and supporters, to create a limited national government. But even by the time of Marbury, those entrusted with the powers have arrogated the authority to redefine them. In my lifetime, the Court exists to deal with hot potato social issues in lieu of the invertebrate Congress, to forebear (along with the invertebrate Congress) the warmongering and other "foreign policy" waged under auspices of the President, and to dignify the Establishment's shepherding and fleecing of the people.
Why should a robed, unelected politician be redefining marriage? Entrusted to enforce the Constitutional limitations on the others? Sure, questions like these are posed from time to time in a dissenting Justice's opinion, but that ends the discussion other than in the context of replacing old Justice X with middle-aged Justice Y, as exemplified in this cliche' column from Mr. Buchanan. Those of us outside the Beltway are told to tune in and root Red. And there are pom pom shakers and color commentators just like him for Team Blue.
Puppet show.
Many people here still don't get it. This fake left vs right paradigm is just a show and is no different than either professional football or wrestling. The public cheer on their teams and engage in meaningless battle while the controllers pilfer everything of value. Buchanan knows this but is too afraid to tell "the other half of the story."36 ulster , says: October 9, 2018 at 12:57 pm GMT@verylongaccountnameprefer anon , says: October 9, 2018 at 1:13 pm GMTIt was a costly victory, but not a Pyrrhic one. The Left will no doubt raise the decibel and octave levels, but if they incur a richly-deserved defeat a month from now, they won't even make it to the peanut gallery for at least the next two years.
Peter Hitchens has remarked that demonstrations are actually indicators of weakness rather than power or authority (something that seems to have eluded Flake and Murkowski), however shrill and enraged that they may be. Should the Left choose to up the ante, to REALLY take it to the streets well as the English ditty goes: We have the Maxim Gun/And they have not.
Pat, you are one of the few thinkers with real common sense.I'm an aging New Deal Democrat. I have not changed but my former party changed with the tenure of the immoral and ethically challenged rapist, Bill Clinton and his enabler wife. In their previous lives, both were Goldwater Republicans. They switched to the Democrat Party to win elections but they never strayed too far from teats of the the Bushes and their destructive political roots. I"m willing to bet thousands of dollars that if given a fair chance at a quiz about the Clintons, most of the young SJW's, rabid homo's and the poor suckers who follow them know very little about the real Clintons.
The Democrat party today is less a party than it is a mob of homosexuals and rabid social justice warriors duped into believing they are oppressed by the extremist college courses in Social Justice. Yet, what they have offer the world is not justice. They offer chaos and anarchy as we saw with the mob of racists black and stupid white kids attacking a man who looked lost and confused, and as it turns out, rightfully frightened by the crowd of social justice terrorists from the Alt-Left.
They all slept through the Obama disaster thinking the globalist open borders would make the world Shang Ri La instead of crime ridden, diseased, and under attack from Muslims and their twisted ides about God and Sharia Law. Look at the Imam who proclaimed yesterday they Sharia is the law of Britain and that Muslims are at war with the British government. Yet, Tommy Robinson gets jailed for pointing out their sated intentions. Messed up. We cannot let this happen in America.
They ignore the fact that the emasculated Obama failed to fight to pick a Supreme Court Justice. Even though he was going to choose Neil Gorsuch, not a leftist, the Alt-Left no doubt would have remained silent if he had. Why? Because Obama was black. But the Alt-Left is shallow and they could not see that the oreo president was black on the outside but rich and creamy white on the inside. No doubt, Obama was more like a 1980′s Republican than he was a Democrat as I understood them to be for decades.
The Democrat Party is gonzo, the same as Hillary and Bill Clinton's speaking tour is destined to be.
Si1ver1ock , says: October 9, 2018 at 2:17 pm GMT
@prefer anon I agree. These parties get hijacked by the worst sort. The Neocons are still riding high in the Republican party.SolontoCroesus , says: October 9, 2018 at 2:44 pm GMT@Tiny DuckSvigor , says: October 9, 2018 at 3:22 pm GMTYou wanted a fight? You are going to get one and just like the Nazis and confederates we will thrash you
Hold up a sec, pal.
Your lot has painted a target on Russia, claiming Russians collusioned with Trump. Right?
But it was Russians who "thrashed" the Nazis.
Goes without saying you hate the Nazis and extend that epithet to include Germans. Right?
But German mercenaries provided a great deal of the fighting force that "thrashed" the confederates.
Looks like you've made enemies of most of the fighting force you are counting on to thrash the GOP, pal.
Ooops.
@Ludwig Watzal Vis-a-vis #PayAttentionToMeToo, it really was a win-win. Rightists successfully defended the firewall and kept it contained to the left. Perfect. As far as leftists are concerned, it's still perfectly legitimate – the leftist circular firing squads will continue.Realist , says: October 9, 2018 at 7:09 pm GMT@Jon Baptistprefer anon , says: October 9, 2018 at 9:10 pm GMTMany people here still don't get it. This fake left vs right paradigm is just a show and is no different than either professional football or wrestling.
Well I get it and have been saying so. Trump knows damn well that the people he has surrounded himself with are Deep Staters Trump is a part of the Deep State. Trump has done nothing of significance for the 99%. Trump hasn't prosecuted anyone for criminal activity 'against' his campaign or administration. Trump hasn't built a wall (he won't either). Instead of reducing conflict and war Trump has been belligerent in his actions toward Russia, China, Syria and Iran .risking all out war. All these things are being done to increase the wealth and power of the Deep State. For the past ten years Republican House members have been promising investigations and prosecutions of Democrats for criminal activities .not one god damn thing changed. Kabuki theater is the name of the game. With such inane bullshit as Dancing With The Stars on TV and the fake Republicans v Democrats game, it is all meant to keep the proles from knowing how they are being screwed .a rather easy task at that.
@Si1ver1ock @S1ver1ockRichard Wicks , says: October 9, 2018 at 9:21 pm GMTThey are in the Democrat party too. In fact, their only allegiance is to Israel. The
Neocons are anti-USA – same as the communists in antifa and the mobs of idiots in the Damnedcrat party.
@utu Same sex marriage is basically irrelevant. Less than 10% of homosexuals co-habitate with a partner. Perhaps 10% of the general population is openly homosexual (and that's definitely an over-estimation.).Richard Wicks , says: October 9, 2018 at 9:31 pm GMTThis means that if all homosexuals that cohabitate with a partner are married, it's less than 1% of the population we're talking about.
This is a "who really cares?" situation. There's more important things to worry about when the nation has been at war for 16 years straight, started over a bunch of lies starting with George W. Bush and continuing with Barak Obama. We have lost the moral high ground because of those two, identical in any important way, scumbags.
@Tiny DuckHyperion , says: October 9, 2018 at 9:45 pm GMTDemocrats are enraged and have seen the GOP for the white supremacist evil institution that it is
This from a group of people that have been endlessly complaining that the Butcher of Libya, who voted for the Authorization to Use Force in Iraq (what you know as the 2nd Iraq War) wasn't elected president just because she was running a fraudulent charity, was storing classified information on an unsecured and compromised server illegally, and is telling you absolutely morally bankrupt and unprincipled individuals that you have the moral high ground because she's a woman after all, not just another war criminal like George W. Bush is, and Obama is.
Caligula's horse would have beaten Hillary Clinton, if the voter base had any sense. Clinton was the worst possible candidate ever. Anybody, and I mean anybody, that voted for the Iraq War should be in prison, not in government. They are all traitors.
@Realist Agree Big money interets have broguht us Trump not only for the tax cuts but to destroy America's hemegomony. to start the final leg of the shift from west to east. A traitor of the highest order Pat Buchanan has led the grievence brigade of angry white men for decades distracted and deluded over the social issues meanwhile the Everyman/woman has lost ground economically or stayed static no improvement.SamAdams , says: October 10, 2018 at 2:20 am GMT@Jon Baptist You can just about guarantee that the losers in the false 'Right' versus 'Left' circus will be We The People.Big Government/Big Insider Corporations/Big Banks feed parasitically off the population. The role of the lawyers wearing black dresses on the SC, is to help hide the theft. They use legal mumbo jumbo. The economists at the Fed use economics & mathematical mumbo jumbo.
Much of current Western society is made up of bullsh*t.
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Oct 09, 2018 | www.unz.com
Because that is precisely how the smear game works.
The way it works is, the smearers bait the smearee into defending himself against the defamatory content of the smears. Once the smearee has done that, the smearers have him. From then on, the focus of the debate becomes whether or not the smears are accurate, rather than why he's being smeared, how he's being smeared, and who is smearing him. This is the smearers' primary objective, i.e., to establish the boundaries of the debate, and to trap the target of the smears within them.
If you've followed the fake "Labour Anti-Semitism" scandal, you've witnessed this tactic deployed against Corbyn , who unfortunately fell right into the trap and gave the smearers the upper hand. No, the only way to effectively counter a smear campaign (whether large-scale or small-scale), is to resist the temptation to profess your innocence, and, instead, focus as much attention on the tactics and the motives of the smearers as possible . It is difficult to resist this temptation, especially when the people smearing you have significantly more power and influence than you do, and are calling you a racist and an anti-Semite, but, trust me, the moment you start defending yourself, the game is over, and the smearers have won.
Carroll Price says: October 1, 2018 at 3:52 pm GMT @Dorian I agree. The me-too crown demanding Brett Kavanagh's head on a platter should have been shown the door rather than given a worldwide stage from which to spew their hateful venom.
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Oct 09, 2018 | www.unz.com
If there is one thing that still unites Americans across the ever more intellectually suffocating and bitterly polarized political spectrum our imaginations have been crammed into like rush hour commute
