Links - 21st January 2020 (1)

The appalling vanity of Western feminists who think Margaret Atwood writes about them | The Spectator - "Atwood has been hailed for prophesying the terrifying totalitarian age of Trump. Actress Elisabeth Moss, who plays Offred, said that she couldn’t help but recognise the similarities between Trump’s America and the brutal regime in the story. Wait, has Donald really frozen women’s bank accounts and enacted laws so they could be compulsorily raped and forced to give up their babies to the ruling class? Well, maybe not exactly, but, you know, ‘chilling parallels’, ‘frighteningly relevant’, blah blah. With no greater self-awareness than Kylie Jenner, feminists in the US co-opted the handmaid’s penitential costume of scarlet robe and white head-dress as a symbol of the #MeToo movement and of protest against the threat to reproductive rights. ‘I wish Handmaid’s Tale was insane Game of Thrones shit and pure fantasy,’ lamented Moss. ‘I wish that were true. But it’s not.’ She’s right, of course — just not in the way she thinks. For females in Saudi Arabia, Taleban-controlled Afghanistan and Islamic communities much closer to home, Gilead is not a reading at the National Theatre that makes you feel pleasantly indignant before you pick up an avocado and herb salad wrap at Pret. It’s the hateful, oppressive place where they live. How can it be that western feminists read The Handmaid’s Tale without looking at a woman in a burka walking down the street and thinking: ‘Hang on, that’s what those bastards do to girls in Gilead?’ While women in Iran are thrown in jail daily for daring to remove the veil, their sisters in Europe and the US continue to be useful idiots for the fundamentalist brutes who try to keep them in the dark. Atwood is far too great and wise a novelist not to grasp this contradiction. In The Testaments, she writes of the futility of a girl making a complaint of rape because her voice ‘counts for little or nothing… even with grown women, four female witnesses are the equivalent of one male’. What else is that but a reference to sharia law, where a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s? The new novel’s depiction of teenagers ‘present at school and then one day not present… disappeared from their former life’ is clearly about forced marriage. Last year, the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit gave support to 1,764 cases — a 47 per cent increase on the previous year. Summer is high season for Muslim schoolgirls being sent ‘home’ to marry whiskery old goats, which is why police and the border force launched Operation Limelight at Heathrow in July to scan flights from ‘countries of prevalence’ for ‘abuse, female genital mutilation and breast-ironing’. Cutting off clitorises isn’t Booker-nominated dystopian fiction; it’s excruciating fact for British girls from Bradford to Bristol. And just look at Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham which is still segregating boys and girls despite a 2017 court of appeal ruling that it was unlawful. (‘Society is best served by separate spheres for men and women,’ says Commander Judd in The Testaments.) In January, Ofsted inspectors found the school would not allow girls to eat lunch until the boys had finished. I admire Atwood, not just for the enchantment of her prose, but for the courage of her often unfashionable convictions. She will turn 80 in November and doesn’t take any rubbish from snowflakes, riding out a social media backlash after voicing concerns about the #MeToo movement, calling for due process in the case of a former professor accused of sexual misconduct. ‘Their ideology becomes a religion,’ she wrote of the feminists who started a witch-hunt against her. ‘Anyone who doesn’t puppet their views is seen as an apostate, a heretic, a traitor, and moderates in the middle are annihilated.’ It was the coolest, most lethal response yet heard to these hideously over-heated times. I only wish that Atwood would tell her fans that she is not writing, primarily at least, about the way that Trump’s America could go in the future, but about how things are right now for females in repressive Islamic societies. We are so blessed compared to them. To don a red dress and white bonnet, to pretend their suffering is ours, to talk of tyranny, is the most appalling moral vanity."

Handmaid’s Tale -- Hulu Series Does Not Depict ‘Trump’s America’ - "According to a recent article in The New Republic, lo, have mercy, for great woes have apparently befallen me, a wide-eyed, unsuspecting resident of the Lone Star State: “Texas is Gilead and Indiana is Gilead and now that Mike Pence is our vice president, the entire country will look more like Gilead, too.” Sheesh. You’d think that, as a woman, I would have noticed the collapse of the world around me, but hey, it’s been a busy spring. I’ve had a packed social schedule, and as the old saying goes, you never notice the brutal rise of a women-enslaving dystopia when you’re attending a gala celebrating successful women entrepreneurs just a few blocks down from a clinic that cheerfully offers almost-free government-subsidized IUDs!  Well, never mind. In wild-eyed national discussions like these, one could bring up several facts: the fact that Republicans, not Democrats, have championed over-the-counter birth control; the fact that Planned Parenthood could thrive on private funding if it lost the $500 million it finagles annually from taxpayers; or the fact that our new Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch, announced during confirmation hearings that he would “have walked out the door” if Trump had asked him to overturn Roe v. Wade.  These facts, of course, will promptly be ignored. The Handmaid’s Tale hysteria, in short, is simply not serious. There are many things to worry about in the Trump era — personally, I might choose the various nukes bouncing around North Korea, but you can pick your own poison. It’s telling, however, that much of the feminist hand-flapping bounces right over Trump, landing on . . . wait for it . . . the mild-mannered Mike Pence. “Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to have dinner with women who aren’t his wife, for example,” wrote Sophie Gilbert in The Atlantic, “smacks of the same kind of Puritanism that saw women condemned as witches and harlots just for the virtue of being born female.” Well. That escalated quickly. But there’s something infinitely more interesting going on beneath the surface of the great Handmaid’s Tale brouhaha, and it highlights one of the biggest, most baffling problems with modern feminism: the consistent insinuation that women have no personal agency.  It is a theme that quietly underscores almost every panicked article about The Handmaid’s Tale. But perhaps Atwood puts it best, suggesting to the Times that America — a country where minors can get IUDs without parental consent in 21 states, while Republicans earn mass panic for suggesting that Planned Parenthood, an organization that paid its CEO $957,952 in 2014, doesn’t need taxpayer help — is on the verge of a Ceausescu-like regime where women are “forced” to have babies. This would be very scary, I suppose, if one were detached from reality and also didn’t know how babies are made. In the feminist world, babies just seem to “happen” to women; it’s almost as quaint as the stork. It also all takes place in an imaginary world where modern birth control and individual agency don’t exist... Weirdly, for all of their talk about women needing to “control their own bodies,” feminists often act as if women are helpless and completely incapable of doing so on their own — unless, that is, they’re guided by a large, expansive, paternalistic government.  Good heavens. Forgive me, but for a moment, that almost sounded like The Handmaid’s Tale."

70% of M’sian Muslim women okay with men practising polygamy but not their own husbands - "Some 70 per cent of Muslim women in Malaysia are agreeable with men practising polygamy. However, only 32 per cent are agreeable to polygamy within their own marriage...
21 per cent of the respondents also agreed that a man could beat his wife on the grounds of nusyuz (disobedience). Grounds for beating that counted as disobedience, included:
    Leaving the house without the consent of one’s husband,
    Refusing to have sex with him,
    Refusing to move with him,
    Refusing to open the door for him,
    Refusing to answer his calling.
The survey revealed that 97 per cent of respondents felt that a woman should be obedient to her husband... 92 per cent of the respondents also agreed that a woman can divorce her husband under any circumstances.  Additionally, 57 per cent of respondents also saw the need to obey one’s husband as a challenge, especially if they were a mother...
With regard to the wearing of the hijab, The Malay Mail noted that the survey found contradictory results on the matter. These were:
    90 per cent of respondents agreeing that it was mandatory for Muslim women to wear one,
    62 per cent also believing that it was acceptable for a Muslim woman not to wear one, and
    83 per cent feeling they had the right to choose whether or not to wear one.
However, the survey also found that a majority of the respondents said that they faced pressure to socially conform.  On this matter, 80 per cent agreed that they faced challenges over social conformity, while 59 per cent stated that they had experienced moral policing and public shaming... Marina also noted that the interpretation of religion by the community has shifted to the right, FMT reported.  She highlighted that things that used to be considered extreme had now become the norm in Malaysian society, such as wearing the hijab, donning the niqab and polygamous marriages.  She further alleged that polygamous marriages had since become a status symbol for men in Malaysia and called out the politicisation of religion."
Actually this isn't inconsistent - it's like being pro-gay marriage without wanting to have a gay marriage yourself

In 'new Malaysia', race continues to cast a long shadow - "his government reversed its pledge to ratify a U.N. convention against racial discrimination following a backlash from groups who argued that it would dilute privileges Malays have enjoyed for decades."

Malaysia’s Halal Crisis - "The country’s Department of Islamic Development, known by its Malay acronym JAKIM, is the sole statutory halal certifier although it has neither fully operational forensic laboratories nor experienced staff, despite having enormous and mostly arbitrary power.Industry figures have told Asia Sentinel the agency is deeply corrupt, with bribes routinely charged to certify establishments and products as halal and with a long string of other problems that endanger the entire process of what should be serious attention to religious requirements but which has none of those characteristics... Traditionally in Malaysia, stalls, eateries, and restaurants were known to be halal through word of mouth. The surroundings and Islamic symbols on the walls with signs saying “bertanggung halal” were enough assurance. These businesses relied on community recognition. Any premises suspected of not being halal would just be boycotted by locals. It’s only been in the last decade that authorities have been pushing small businesses to seek halal registration. Today, only a small fraction of Malay sole proprietors and SMEs have gained halal certification. In addition, only a small proportion of international hotels and resorts have halal registration. SME owners and food and beverage managers of hotels say the major barrier to gaining halal registration is money. For many sole proprietors and SMEs who ran traditional businesses, the on-site infrastructure requirements were prohibitive and way beyond their financial means.A dark side to the halal certification process has cropped up, however, for a process millions of Malaysians take very seriously but know very little about. SME proprietors and F&B managers told Asia Sentinel that JAKIM officials routinely request cash payments above the statutory fees in order to guarantee registration.   In addition, they say, Municipal Councils and the fire department also request cash payments above statutory fees to issue the necessary documents required by JAKIM in halal product and premises applications. According to one F&B manager, this practice is not just carried out by a few rogue officers. It appears endemic. One officer, the manager said, brought out his immediate superior to negotiate the payment.   In another case, a Muslim Lebanese butcher from Australia was setting up a halal choice meat cut butchery in Kuala Lumpur for retail and distribution. A JAKIM official requested a RM50,000 payment for registration. Due to the company’s policy of not paying bribes due to the firm’s religious moral philosophy, investment in Malaysia was immediately aborted... bucking the system by complaining only leads to drastic consequences, like have their operating licenses suspended and being put out of business... JAKIM is using the halal certification system to impose its ideas and opinions on the Malaysian community. Just recently alcohol-free beer has been banned in Malaysia, even though these products are widely distributed and sold throughout the rest of the Muslim world. McDonalds Malaysia doesn’t allow customers to bring in cakes that have not been certified halal by JAKIM. Words like ‘chicken ham’, ‘beef bacon’, and ‘chicken char siew’ are not allowed to be used on products certified by JAKIM, even though similar culturally derived food names are certifiable in other countries... JAKIM’s certification lacks the supply chain tracking element that Thai exporters have perfected, called Hal-Q, and which leads the world with its Halal Science Centre at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, established in 1994.   The center focuses on developing standards, a haram (forbidden in Islam) ingredient detection system for certification purposes, halal food production system development with a Halal-GMP-HACCP framework, and developing consumer information systems through Apps, as well as general halal research. The Hal-Q system has not just been widely accepted by Muslim businesses in Thailand but has been taken onboard as an industry standard by many multinational food manufacturers in Thailand.   In addition, many Arab and European countries have also adopted this system and come to Thailand for training on Halal logistic management, putting Thailand more than a decade in advance of any system Malaysia has to offer. This has enabled Thailand to become one of the foremost Halal food manufacturers in the region today... halal certificate issued with a bribe involved under Islam is not halal."

Fuziah: Jakim yet to receive application for White Rabbit candy halal certification - "The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has yet to receive the application for halal certification of White Rabbit milk-flavoured candy imported from China.Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Fuziah Salleh said the importer of the popular candy should submit the application, which would eventually stop the debate over its halal status"
Strange, Halal certification is supposed to be optional

That Chinese Passport Story Sure Looks Like a Hoax [Update: It's Fake] - "Closer examination of the markings reveals that the "ink" remains constant in thickness. If you've ever dealt with MS Paint, these lines should be familiar."

Unpublished data from Stanley Milgram's experiments cast doubt on his claims about obedience - "many people were willing to engage in seemingly reprehensible behavior because they saw through the researchers’ cover story. Those who believed the cover story, on the other hand, tended to be more defiant... “Milgram publicly dismissed any suggestion that his subjects might have seen through the experimental deception and his work stresses his success in convincing his volunteers that the experiment was ‘real’ even though his unpublished research showed that this was not the case”"
Still nothing compared to Zimbardo's fraud
Also it has been replicated (qualified, but still), unlike Zimbardo

How millennials became a generation of homebodies - "The internet has given rise to a collective, public performance of solitude... even before the dawn of the self-care era, factors ranging from suburban sprawl to dual-income households contributed to a steep decline of community-minded activities in the US. As Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam explains in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, by 2000, Americans were already throwing fewer dinner parties and joining fewer bowling leagues and bands and church groups. Life has been getting more insular for a good while. There’s an obvious reason for millennials to take pleasure in being at home: They’re exhausted, and they need a break. In that sense, the trend is in keeping with a value that Danish philosopher Svend Brinkmann calls the joy of missing out. In a culture where, “if we miss out on anything in this life, it’s seen as a kind of existential failure,” Brinkmann said in a Vox interview, we can wind up too overstretched and overwhelmed to enjoy our lives at all.  He recommends opting out of the impulse to constantly seek out new experiences, and learning to find meaning in the mundane and routine."

The 'hearts' are the final straw: it's time to nationalise Twitter - "It’s infrastructure for basic communication, which is why people are so upset over the change to hearts: imagine if, instead of saying “OK” on the phone to a relative stranger, you were forced to say “I love you”. It’s that basic.Despite spinning the heart to existing users as a more “expressive” and “universal” symbol, Twitter has admitted the change is really about making the platform easier for new users... Like CB Radio, Twitter isn’t an end product. It’s infrastructure that plays too socially and politically useful a role to be left in the hands of investors and stockbrokers. Whether it’s through state nationalisation, some sort of global governance framework or a user maintained co-operative, it’s time to take Twitter out of the world of finance and put it firmly in the hands of the public – before it goes broke, or wrecks its user experience entirely, or both."
The Guardian never disappoints