Links - 25th June 2018 (2)

Racial Politics, A Malaysian Disease? - "“Indians are even more divided. To this day it matters to many people if you are Brahmin or Shudra, Tamil or Punjabi, Sri Lankan or a ‘real’ Indian.”... his wife is a Punjabi Hindu from Bangsar – for some Indian-Malaysians, practically an “interracial” marriage."

The occult shops of Singapore: talismans, corpse oil and witches - "Asked about Thai barangs containing corpse oil, which the store has advertised on its website and says was obtained from the bodies of recently deceased women, the shop owner instead directs us to oils made from flowers and herbs that are also said to have the power to attract the opposite sex. Pressed further, he admits: “I have [corpse oil] also, but if you don’t need it then you don’t need it.” Do they really contain oil extracted from dead people? “Yes.”... The New Paper in Singapore reported that a Thai spiritual master was illegally smuggling charms made from animal parts into the Lion City hidden inside soft toys. The master had told clients he could provide fragments of human skulls and dead fetuses for magical uses."

Facebook censors 30,000 year-old Venus of Willendorf as 'pornographic' - "An image of the work posted on Facebook by Laura Ghianda, a self-described “artivist”, was removed as inappropriate content despite four attempts to appeal the decision... A case on Facebook’s censorship of art was heard in a Paris court earlier this month. Frédéric Durand-Baïssas, a French teacher, has been trying to sue the social media giant since 2011 for closing his account after he posted a photograph of Gustave Courbet’s 1866 painting L’Origine du monde (Origin of the World), a realistic depiction of a woman’s genitals"

Understanding Libertarian Morality: The Psychological Dispositions of Self-Identified Libertarians - "Compared to self-identified liberals and conservatives, libertarians showed 1) stronger endorsement of individual liberty as their foremost guiding principle, and weaker endorsement of all other moral principles; 2) a relatively cerebral as opposed to emotional cognitive style; and 3) lower interdependence and social relatedness"
One could summarise this as libertarians being selfish

Amarillo Texas cops shoot man who took gun away from hostage-taker - "“I said: ‘Hey, hey, I got the gun. I took the gun away from him,’” Garces told KVII. “[The police] said throw it down. I wasn’t going to throw it down because it could have fired. It had bullets in it, you know. I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt. ... Then pop, pop, they shot me. ... I went down, then a puddle of blood. ... I thought I was a goner.”"
So much for framing this as the police shooting a hero

BREAKING: Armed Teacher Taken Into Custody After Report Of Shots Fired At Georgia High School - "police in Dalton, Georgia responded to reports of gunfire at a local high school. They found a man barricaded in a classroom who they believed to be a teacher and they took that teacher into custody."
“The only thing that can stop a teacher with a gun is students with rocket launchers.”

Merkel says Germany has ‘no-go areas;’ gov’t won’t say where - The Washington Post - "German officials have been left speechless by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s comment that there are “no-go areas” in the country. The notion there are places in Germany outsiders — including police — can’t visit has previously been dismissed by officials... Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth likewise declined to identify no-go areas, saying security was a matter for local not federal authorities"
It's only fake news and something that exists only in the imaginations of paranoid Nazis - until it isn't
Keywords: No-go zones

South Africa parliament votes to confiscate land from white farmers - "The motion was brought by Julius Malema, leader of the radical Marxist opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters, and passed overwhelmingly by 241 votes to 83 against... “The time for reconciliation is over. Now is the time for justice,” Mr Malema was quoted by News24 as telling parliament. “We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land”... Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said there was a “danger that those who think equality in our lifetime equates that we must dominate whites”, News24 reported. Mr Malema has been leading calls for land confiscation, forcing the ANC to follow suit out of fear of losing the support of poorer black voters. In 2016, he told supporters he was “not calling for the slaughter of white people‚ at least for now”. Civil rights groups have accused the EFF and ANC of inciting an ongoing spate of attacks on white farmers characterised by extreme brutality, rape and torture — last year, more than 70 people were killed in more than 340 such attacks. Ernst Roets, deputy chief executive of civil rights group Afriforum, said the parliamentary motion was a violation of the 1994 agreement in which the ANC promised minority interests would be protected post-apartheid. “This motion is based on a distorted image of the past,” Mr Roets said in a statement. “The term ‘expropriation without compensation’ is a form of semantic fraud. It is nothing more than racist theft.”"
Evidently they didn't learn from Zimbabwe

South Africa: Peter Dutton’s ‘white farmer’ comments anger Pretoria - "AUSTRALIA insisted its humanitarian program was non-discriminatory after South Africa reacted furiously to suggestions “persecuted” white farmers could be fast-tracked into the country, as the minister involved was called a racist... “That threat does not exist,” the South African foreign ministry in Pretoria said. “There is no reason for any government in the world to suspect that a section of South Africans is under danger from their own democratically elected government.”... Mr Dutton’s comments come amid a South African parliamentary decision which earlier this month voted to allow the seizure of land from white farmers without compensation... he’s also been accused of inciting hate speech and inflaming attacks on South Africa’s white minority. At a rally earlier this month he called for Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip to be removed just because he “is a white man”."

Why Men Will Always Be More Disgusting Than Women - "Disgust researchers (not to be confused with disgusting researchers) such as Josh Tybur (link is external) believe that we experience three distinct types of disgust (link is external): disgust that helps us to avoid disease, disgust that revolves around mate choice, and moral disgust over things that violate cultural or religious standards that we hold dear. There does not appear to be a large difference between men and women when it comes to moral disgust, but research confirms (link is external) that women set a much lower bar for feeling sickened by stimuli related to potential pathogens and stuff related to sexual activity. Consequently, women are less likely to work at jobs such as waste-water treatment, pest control, and janitorial work - and they find insects, incest, open sores, feces, and dirty clothing to be more revolting than do men (link is external)... Bachelor pads have 15 times as many germs (link is external) as women’s apartments—featuring specific yuck factors such as fecal material on their coffee tables—and men also have more bacteria on their hands and in their offices (link is external), which have been documented to be akin to giant Petri dishes... Fortunately, sexual arousal dampens women’s disgust response (link is external), keeping men in the game. And men are not just dirtier—they are more ill-mannered and foul as well."

The "Crazy Bastard" Hypothesis - "the daredevil was perceived to be taller, stronger, and generally more physically formidable than the cautious individual. Their "Crazy Bastard Hypothesis" gives us a fun and more complete way of thinking about risky male behavior. Now, it is no longer just about advertizing genetic quality, but it is also about advertizing how one might behave as an adversary or an ally"

College physics course requires 'Decolonization' project - "Students enrolled in a physics course at Pomona College were required to complete a project addressing issues such as “implicit bias” and “microaggressions.”... This assignment comes on the heels of the integration of social justice issues into the Introduction to Statistics curriculum at Pomona College."
The poison spreads. Whoever said STEM would be immune was... misinformed

5-year-old was killed over candy - "Five-year-old Eric Morse was dangled outside a 14th-floor window and dropped to his death because he was doing the right thing: refusing to steal candy from a store... two neighborhood boys, ages 10 and 11, hatched a murder plot as they walked home from grammar school. They were angry because Eric had refused to steal for them"

Extremists should have kids taken away says terror expert - "Violent Islamists should be treated like paedophiles and have their children taken away from them, Britain’s top counter terrorist officer said last night. Mark Rowley called for police, social workers and family court judges to step in and protect the vulnerable families of twisted extremists... Mr Rowley also warned against underestimating the threat of the Far Right"
If everyone right of the far left is a Nazi, everyone's children can be taken away

China bans letter 'N' and George Orwell's Animal Farm as President Xi JinPing extends grip on power - "The Chinese government has banned the letter 'N' and George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 in a major online censorship clampdown. Experts believe the crackdown is part of leader Xi Jinping's plans to become a dictator for life... a list of proposals made by Beijing's National People's Conference includes the letter 'n', George Orwell's novels 'Animal Farm' and '1984', and the phrase 'Xi Zedong', a combination of Mr Xi and former dictator Chairman Mao Zedong's names... Censors also banned images of Winnie the Pooh after dissenters shared images of the cartoon bear hugging a jar of honey alongside the quote: "Find the thing you love and stick with it." The Disney bear's image has been compared to President Xi Jinping, prompting periodic blocks on the use of Pooh pictures online. Mr Xi's rule has been characterised by a relentless crackdown on critics and independent civil society"

In ending presidential term limits, ‘Xi Jinping is thinking global and acting local’ - "The proposed scrapping of the presidential term limit has sparked concerns among observers that China is leaning back towards the one-man rule seen during Mao’s era, whose arbitrary and unpredictable nature repeatedly led to perilous succession crises."

Judge tells colleagues to not say 'postman' or 'immigrant' - "They have been banned from using phrases and words including ‘ethnic minority’; ‘afro-Caribbean’ and ‘transsexual’ – while a postman should become a ‘postal operative’. The new guidance for judges and magistrates says real equality means favouring women and minorities to make up for the disadvantage they suffer... ‘True equal treatment may not always mean treating everyone in the same way'... If a prison sentence for a woman was really necessary, judges should consider suspending it, the guidance says."
War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength
Happily, not all of the "Equal Treatment Bench Book" is bad. For example page 212 (8-33) notes that "The word 'Zionist' (or worse, 'Zio') as a term of abuse... has no place in a civilised society. It has been tarnished by its repeated use in antisemitic and aggressive contexts. Antisemites frequently use the word 'Zionist' when they are in fact referring to Jews... "Zionist" or "Zio" in an accusatory or abusive context should be considered inflammatory and potentially antisemitic"

The Purge: YouTube Mass-Censors Conservatives, New Right, Classical Liberals - "Independent journalist Mike Cernovich reported earlier today that a video he uploaded of left-wing Antifa activists chanting death threats had been taken down by YouTube. The video shows Antifa shouting violent threats at attendees of Cernovich’s Night for Freedom event in Washington DC, which took place on Saturday. Cernovich commented to Breitbart News on YouTube’s removal, saying, “YouTube is censoring honest, unedited reporting about ANTIFA’s actions. This can mean only one thing — they endorse far left wing violence.” Google, which owns YouTube, has also banned political YouTube star and classical liberal Carl Benjamin, better known by his online pseudonym “Sargon of Akkad.”... “Google’s active suppression of individualist ideas within its own ranks has caused classical liberal and conservative commentators to be considered as far-right as Nazis, and are being treated with the same kind of prejudice and ruthlessness.” Earlier this week, we reported on the censorship of Ashton Whitty, a conservative vlogger and Berkeley student. After Whitty uploaded a video criticizing CNN over their coverage of the Parkland shootings, YouTube took down her video and issued her channel with a “strike.”... Cruz told a YouTube representative that if the platform did not remain politically neutral, they could lose legal immunity for user content under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Without this protection, social media companies would be legally liable for all content posted on their platforms – an existential threat to their business model."

Isabel Robeson on Twitter" - "1) The #Oxfam prostitution scandal does not surprise me. I was raised all over the world by frontline aid workers and am used to the humanitarian industry being staffed by bizarre, narcissistic people.
2) I think the sector attracts damaged people. It is not normal to run towards war and famine and the most degenerate aspects of human behaviour , yet this is precisely what they do. Run towards it, devote their lives to it and gorge themselves on the spectacle.
3) And they live absurd, rootless lifestyles – moving country every few years and/or always willing to rush off to the next headline disaster area. Normal, healthy people put down roots. They invest in a place, in people, in a community, in a culture.
4) The Canadian psychologist @GadSaad if aid workers have a form of the mental illness, Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy – that they feed of other’s people pain to make themselves look good.
5) See, what a good person I am? Helping all these poor people? See? See me? Me? Me Me Me? It is the ultimate virtue signaller’s mask...
13) It is, for example, the people from the humanitarian and human rights sectors that prioritise the human rights of a returning ISIS volunteer...
15) It is also, for example, the people from the humanitarian and human rights sectors who are assisting with the trafficking of hundreds of thousand of people into Europe."

Higher Education Is Drowning in BS - "BS is a tenure system that provides guaranteed lifetime employment to faculty who are lousy teachers and inactive scholars, not because they espouse unpopular viewpoints that need the protection of "academic freedom," but only because years ago they somehow were granted tenure"

Exclusive -- Twitter Leaks: Employees Describe Extreme Social Justice Warrior Climate at Tech Giant - "former employees of the company reveal a company dependent on celebrities, hostile to free speech, and silently fuming at President Trump’s continued dominance on the platform. It corroborates the recent Project Veritas exposé of a platform that is hopelessly biased and committed to censoring non-progressive voices. Our first source, who, like the others, wishes to remain anonymous, described how the company rapidly abandoned its commitment to free speech after former CEO Dick Costolo was replaced by Jack Dorsey, who the source described as “the definition of a social justice warrior.” The majority of Twitter’s management, says the source, believes the leftist idea that “hate speech is violence.” They “absolutely” believe in the idea that “abuse scares people off the platform,” and that certain types of speech “silence” other speech... “Notions like ‘dog whistles’ are basically Rorschach blots,” says the source. “People see what they want to see, and they can make even the most innocuous actions or words into something completely sinister through their own bias and projection.” According to the source, a surefire path to a Twitter permaban is for a user to get on the wrong side of a celebrity who has more power to damage the company than they do, and who has the support of “Social Justice Warrior brigades” both inside and outside the company. In other words, left-wing celebrities... Google... allowed someone who “identifies” as a “yellow-scaled wingless dragonkin” give a presentation on “living as a plural being.” Once confined to the crazyhouses of Tumblr and college campuses, the bizarre culture of left-wing millennial identity politics can now be found at the most powerful tech companies in the world... senior executives were reportedly “on the verge of tears” after the election of Donald Trump... there is also ceaseless agitation from employees to ban President Trump from the platform, but management has thus far ignored it. This corroborates the strong anti-Trump sentiment at the company acknowledged by Twitter employee Clay Haynes, who confessed to an undercover Project Veritas journalist that he and others at Twitter wanted to “get rid” of Trump."

Why the Creeps at Twitter Think Google and Facebook Are Creepier - "Facebook revealed that through the use of third-party cookies, like buttons and various other embedded Facebook elements in web pages, the company would even be tracking internet users that didn’t have Facebook accounts."

Twitter Engineer Admits to Banning Accounts that Express Interest in God, Guns, and America - "Other former and current Twitter employees also revealed Twitter’s censorship tools and tactics during the Project Veritas investigation, with several individuals admitting to “shadow banning” pro-Trump accounts, conservatives, and “shitty people.”"

Veritas Video: Twitter Employees Say 'We Make Most of Our Money' Selling Data from 'Everything' You Post — Even Private Messages

Twitter Responds to Conservative Censorship Exposé by Attacking Project Veritas for Obtaining Footage