Thursday, February 10, 2022

Links - 10th February 2022 (General Wokeness)

When Rosie met Jim: the anti-racism picture that wasn’t - "a heart-warming picture emerged on the internet. A kind-faced, suit-clad, elderly white man with a sign saying, ‘Racism is a virus, we are the vaccine’, sat deep in thoughtful conversation with a young Black woman. The image went viral on Facebook and Twitter garnering millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes and shares. An apparent beacon of hope against racism. One minor issue. That kindly, elderly man? His name is Jim Curran, an Irish nationalist and regular attendee at meetings of the Far Right/Left crossover group, Keep Talking. This extremist organisation was recently exposed by the CST and Hope Not Hate. They detailed how extremists from across the political spectrum (ex-Labour members Elleanne Green and Peter Gregson, Gill Kaffash and Tony Gratrex formerly of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and convicted Holocaust Denier Alison Chabloz and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke compatriot, James Thring) met to obsess over antisemitic conspiracy theories: from the ‘Jews did 9/11’ to outright Holocaust denial... Curran’s identity been brought to my attention by antisemitism researcher, David Collier, I tweeted at two top accounts who were sharing the picture to explain Jim Curran’s background.  Their response? To block me. And not just me, but everyone raising the issue.  Meanwhile, when I tweeted the woman in the picture, Rosie Smith, she said: “He is an activist and a beautiful man. Spoke some real deep truths”. And then – chillingly – “His words brought me to tears. He said the genocide the news [sic] went through, was nothing on slavery and what black people endured and are still enduring”.  It seems Jim Curran had literally been dripping Holocaust denial into her ear, at an anti-racism rally. Ms Smith went on to say: “I…judge him on our convo and from his vibe and his work. The jews are not innocent, #israelosnotinnocent they deal with mad racism!”. And also blocked me. Despite the fact that concerns about Mr Curran were now flowing around social media, a series of prominent media and social justice organisations were more interesting in promoting the romantic narrative that than the messy truth. The Labour group, Momentum, posted the picture on their Facebook page with the caption “more of this please” and a leading figure in Amnesty UK shared it. Pro-Europe organisation, Best for Britain, defended their decision to promote the image on their Facebook page (to my utterly jaw-dropping disbelief) saying: “Some people have identified that the old gentleman in the photo is a holocaust denier. We believe that this fact makes it even more important to share this image. It is worth applauding the fact that these two people from different generations have found common ground, and had a friendly conversation in the middle of a day of violent protests.” (My italics).
A common ground of Holocaust denial and antisemitism? No. I don’t think that’s to be applauded, Best for Britain, not really, no. And, even more worryingly, over 24-hours after details of Mr Curran has been brought to light, ITV News hosted Mr Curran and Ms Smith on their “and finally” segment. ITV News are deleting comments on their Facebook page raising the concerns.  At a time when there is so much positivity about tackling racism in this country, this whole series of events shows something deeply rotten. We’re at the stage where actual Holocaust Denial is dismissed or downplayed for ‘the greater good’ or because it’s inconvenient to ‘the narrative’"
Don't they know that you're supposed to punch "Nazis"?

Indulekshmi on Twitter - "I have no idea who created the modern Singaporean Chinese wedding banquet but it combines all the worst elements of weddings from everywhere
- expensive
- a lot of guests
- food that comes in courses (so you can’t eat quickly & leave)
- awful food
- boring as hell
- no dancing"
Imagine what would happen if a Chinese said Malay and/or Indian weddings had awful food

When seeing stigma creates paternalism: Learning about disadvantage leads to perceptions of incompetence - "The present research examines the conditions under which educating non-stigmatized individuals about the experiences of members of stigmatized groups leads to paternalistic or more respectful views of the target. We propose that when these efforts ask members of non-stigmatized groups to focus only on the difficulties experienced by stigmatized targets, they will lead to more paternalistic views of targets because they portray targets as being in need of help. In contrast, we propose that when these efforts take a broader focus on stigmatized targets and include their resilience in the face of their difficulties, they will lead to more respectful views of targets. Four studies supported these predictions. Across studies, White participants who focused only on a Black target’s difficulties subsequently perceived the target as more helpless and less competent than controls. Participants who focused on the target’s resilience in the face of difficulties perceived him as more competent."
"Educating" the "majority" about the "oppression" of "minorities" makes the former more patronising towards the latter. Grievance mongering perpetuates the problem

I Work as a 'Human Table' at Indian Weddings Because I'm a White Girl - "Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of "White Girl Jobs" in India. Every backpacker who's wandered the pavements of Mumbai will have encountered the overly friendly young men lurking round the Leopold Cafe trying to scout random travelers for “starring roles" in upcoming Bollywood blockbusters. This is already kind of old hat. Watch any recent Bollywood film and in almost every dance, club, or party scene there will be a group of white men or women inexplicably placed amid the pros, looking lost and bewildered.  But now there is a new trend growing among India's middle classes. They've started to employ white Western girls to hang out at weddings, doing various weird things purely because they—we—are white and Western. Jobs can include anything from greeting guests while dressed as a London Beefeater, to leading the bride and groom's wedding procession on the back of a horse, to being a human statue... it pays well, and in many senses this is the whole point. It is impossible to ignore the uncomfortable racial and post-colonial undertones at play in my situation. For whatever reason, affluent Indians seem to place a premium on pale skin, and anyone rich enough to pay for ethnically white people to work as living furniture at their weddings is seen as kind of a big deal."
Maybe Indians just want to objectify white people. So liberals should cheer at becoming paid help

The silence of the anti-fascists - "Anti-fascists are incredibly quiet about the fascist in France who cut off a man’s head because he displayed some cartoons in a classroom. It is two days since the gruesome Islamist murder of schoolteacher Samuel Paty for the supposed crime of showing caricatures of Muhammad to his pupils during a classroom discussion about freedom of speech. And yet the self-styled anti-fascists of the European and American left have said barely a word. There have been no big protests outside of France, no angry rallies, no Twitterstorms, no knee-taking or fist-raising, no promises by ‘Antifa’ to face down these extremists who slaughter schoolteachers for talking about liberty. Their craven, cowardly silence is as revealing as it is depressing... Imagine if, following an act of far-right violence carried out by a white man, someone said ‘Let’s not get too angry about this because we might alienate white people and put them at risk’...   Their instinct is always to hush and chill discussion of radical Islam. They have developed numerous strategies for doing this. The first, as described above, is to imply that there could be violence against Muslims if we get too angry or heated about an Islamist attack – a form of moral blackmail designed to stymie frank discussion of Islamist violence. Another is to promiscuously deploy the insult of ‘Islamophobe’ against anybody who raises awkward questions about the frequency and bloodiness of Islamist attacks in Europe, or who even uses that i-word at all (Islamist) to describe these acts of violence. Indeed, in mainstream institutions there have been efforts to expunge words like ‘Islamist’ from the discussion about Islamist terrorism. Police forces in the UK have seriously considered replacing terms like ‘Islamist terrorism’ and ‘jihadis’ with ‘faith-claimed terrorism’ and ‘terrorists abusing religious motivations’. This warped impulse to deny that these acts are motivated by Islamism is designed to disorientate the public response to terrorism and ensure there is no deep or focused discussion about its causes and ideologies. The left continually parrot this institutionalised cowardice by obsessively policing the language that people use and the emotions we express in the wake of Islamist attacks... Consider the response of the National Education Union in the UK. When George Floyd was killed by cops in Minneapolis, the NEU issued a strongly worded, highly political statement, condemning ‘the systemic racism that caused his killing’. But in response to the murder of Paty, a teacher, the NEU put out a lame, half-hearted tweet which said this is a ‘sad day’ for France. No mention of Paty’s name, no mention of what was done to him, no mention of why it was done to him – because he was teaching his pupils to think critically. No, just a perfunctory, probably begrudged tweet essentially saying the killing was a bit sad. This sums up the moral cowardice of sections of the left when it comes to Islamist violence. They just don’t want to talk about it. They want things to be forgotten as quickly as possible... This glaring disparity between the left’s fury over far-right violence and their snivelling silence in response to Islamist violence was painfully illustrated in August 2017. On 12 August, when a far-right activist used a car to plough into left-wing protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one, there was global condemnation and agitation from the left. Fascism is back, they claimed, and we have to defeat it. Yet when, just five days later, an Islamist terrorist used a van to slaughter 13 people in Barcelona, there was silence... among left-leaning millennials in particular, the memory of the events of Charlottesville is probably quite strong, whereas the slaughter in Barcelona will have been all but forgotten.   What’s this about, this silence of the anti-fascists in response to certain forms of neo-fascism? There is a mix of regressive fears and ideas in the left’s stark hypocrisy over extremist violence. There is an element of racial paternalism, where the left feels it must protect Muslim communities from open, frank debate about radical Islam, lest they feel offended. There is the influence of identity politics, too, which dictates that white people are privileged (ie, bad) and brown people are oppressed (ie, good), and the radical Islamist problem just muddies this identitarian narrative too much. There is a calculated cowardice to it too, where the left is reluctant to dig down into the role of institutional multiculturalism in fostering the ethnic and religious tensions in Western countries that have helped to nurture Islamist violence. And then there is the censorious instinct – the urge, now institutionalised in the modern left, to protect Islam from any kind of criticism or ridicule. This is where we get to the darkest reason why the murder of Samuel Paty hasn’t caused the fury that it ought to have – because there are many people in mainstream political and cultural circles who actually agree that it is wicked to criticise Islam... so-called anti-fascists share in common with radical Islamists an impulse to censor public discussion and to condemn critics of Islam. The anti-fascists are largely silent on the murder of Mr Paty because they are genuinely not sure which side they are on in this existential battle between regressive Islamists and people who believe in freedom of speech and the right to offend. In short, because they are not anti-fascist at all."

New York elementary school bans 'Jingle Bells' due to song's possible blackface origins - "Council Rock Primary School in Brighton decided to exclude the festive song due to the possible blackface connection"

Meme - GBDaniello: "This is the kind of stuff they give to grace school kids. A deeply concerned parent showed this to me.. Her sister may look to sue the school if the board does nor respond"
"This is the visual I'd been picturing... *gay blowjob*...
Fast-forward: we've been dating for two months, we've made out, we've had sex, we've moved on to sexting at work...
I can't wait to have your cock in my mouth - I'm going to give you the blow job of your life. then I want you inside me"

There’s No Such Thing as a Dangerous Neighborhood - "In Chicago, a city often used in the media and elsewhere as an example of the worst of American urban violence, researchers found that a social network with only 6 percent of the city’s population accounted for 70 percent of nonfatal gunshot victimizations. Violent crime isn’t waiting to happen on any given block of a poorer neighborhood, nor is it likely to arise from just anyone who happens to live in one."
Apparently your neighbor being shot to death doesn't hurt you. Maybe some people don't mind being questioned by the police every day

Meme - "Any "culture" that holds is wrong and will, sooner or later, reap the rewards of being wrong."
"Binomial Jim here spent the past few months attacking educators, Mostly Women or People of Colour who dared to question the status quo. He is a harassment influencer. Watch the replies here, and directed to me. Fragile people who are threatened when asked to share power."
""Asked to share power". That's what it's all about with the left. Power. All of this social justice stuff is simply something the left uses to gain power. They don't really care about these people. They just convince the useful idiots to fight the culture war to gain power."
"Yup. Power. Some people have none. Some have lots. Enough to share. Why does that threaten you?"

Meme - Candace Owens: "White liberals hate black conservatives because we don't see ourselves as oppressed. Fundamentally, because we view ourselves as their equals. That's the issue."
Melissa Tate: ""You'll always be a black woman" White liberals say with disdain as if being black is a disability that makes me inferior. No ma'am I am your equal. I am not oppressed & no I don't need a white liberal savior. That make you mad doesn't it? Because you are the racists white libs"

Meme - "Cicely Belle: Interesting that white folks went wild buying from Black businesses to the point where ppl had to close shop and work overtime to meet demand. somehow we still the ones doing the most work and end up exhausted"
Clearly the solution is just to give black people money. But I look forward to how that will be "Racist" too

Blake Masters on Twitter - "Anyway, the most surefire way to prevent white men from embracing reactionary conservative politics is for them to graduate college. So this story is very depressing on a few levels to me."
"Pulling back the curtain: Leftists admit that they want everyone to go to college in order to receive left-wing programming"

Meme - "Twitter: We're starting with a set of words we want to move away from using in favor of more inclusive language, such as:
Avoid non-inclusive language, Prefer inclusive versions
Whitelist -> Allowlist
Blacklist -> Denylist
Master/Slave -> Leader/follower, primary/replica, primary/standby
Grandfathered -> Legacy status
Gendered pronouns (e.g. guys) -> Folks, people, you all, y'all
Gendered pronouns (e.g. he/him/his) -> They, them, their
Man hours -> Person hours, engineer hours
Sanity check -> Quick check, confidence check, coherence check
Dummy value -> Placeholder value, sample value"
When will the euphemism treadmill move again?

Mastercard Changes Name To Equalitycard | The Babylon Bee

Texas realtor group says it will no longer use the word "master" to describe bedrooms and bathrooms in its listings - "The Houston Association of Realtors will use "primary" to describe bedrooms and bathrooms on its listing service and replace the word "master."... The Court of Master Sommeliers, which grants wine stewards the sought-after "master sommelier" title following the passage of an exam, said it will no longer use the term before a sommelier's last name."

Court Threatens to Take Child from Mother over Confederate Symbol - "The Woke Gestapo will now take your children away from you if your politics are not “correct.”  This is not the State threatening to take away a foster child or adopted child. This is the State of New York threatening to take away a woman’s very own child over a rock in her driveway painted with a Confederate symbol... not only is this fascist court threatening to take away a woman’s own child over her political beliefs, this fascist court is saying the mother “must encourage and teach the child to embrace her mixed race identity!” In other words, the mother will not be allowed to teach her child that being mixed race is meaningless and has nothing to do with character or identity. No, she must teach the child to EMBRACE her mixed race identity, to be proud of it, and to assume it has something to do with her value as a human being.  So now the courts are telling parents what politics they must practice or risk losing their own children and that they must poison their children with identity politics."

Katie Herzog on Twitter - "Instead of spending money on diversity trainers the NYT should hire me to explain normal people
My qualifications are that I grew up in Appalachia, I went to B- state schools, I don’t get offended by gay jokes, and I’m not scared when I see people in red baseball hats"

Meme - "Why don't all the oppressed people in the red states move to the blue states?"
"Because they're hypnotized by the white gaze."

Turkey Leg Hut responds to backlash over new dress code policy - "The Turkey Leg Hut is standing firm after its recent dress code changes were met with strong but mixed reactions on social media."
It is racist against blacks for a black-owned business to implement a dress code

vegantrans on Twitter - "Pansexual comedian Sofie Hagen says it doesn’t make them any less queer that they've only slept with cis men"
"Vegan comedian Sofie Hagen says it doesn’t make her any less vegan that she still eats meat."
Maybe she's a comedian because she's a joke

Jesus Seineke Complains To Cops After Vigilantes Attack Him Over Nazi Flag
All the liberals on George Takei's Facebook were cheering this. Weird. I thought violence against people you disagreed with was what a "Nazi" would do

Facebook - "Opinion: The Texas Rangers' team name must go. Members of the Texas Rangers force were violent agents of white supremacy"
"White Sox will soon be Sox of Color.  And certainly the Pirates have got to go, since historically, some pirates were involved in the slave trade. Actually whilst we’re at it, perhaps the entire game of baseball should be defunded and abolished since it only broke the color barrier in 1947, normalizes violence (use of bats and “striking”) and upholds competency and skill in a hierarchical way, thus perpetuating white supremacy culture."

The Lumps and Bumps of Aesthetic Labor: Rethinking Fat Talk in Plus-Size Retail: Fat Studies: Vol 9, No 2 - "Fat scholar’s studying the lives of fat individuals are often perceived as biased further excluding fat people’s experiences from the production of knowledge. However, it is our social standpoint and social location as fat researchers that make it possible for us to offer a more critical perspective regarding presupposed “facts,” giving voice to a marginalized population. In this paper, I use autoethnography and standpoint theory to reflect on my own social location and experiences as a young, fat woman finding my voice in fat activism while working in the plus-size retail store, Equally Plus. I, like many of my fat coworkers, was disappointed in the extensive diet talk and fat talk used by customers and fellow coworkers at Equally Plus. We found ourselves taking on emotion work to manage our own nagging commitments to fat talk, in addition to aesthetic and emotional labor. To combat internalized fat phobia, I show how emotional and aesthetic labor can be used as an act of resistance by “flipping the script” on fat talk by acknowledging and accepting fat in a way that challenges diet talk and fat-shaming in a more concrete and personally meaningful way. My insider and outsider positionality and social location enabled me to place fat individuals at the center of my activism by engaging in subversive behavior that raised awareness, yet still benefited the corporation."
The state of "fat studies". Narcissism masquerading as scholarship

Meme - "Language that shows how SJWs/ commies are closet bigots:
You're an in-cel! -> Sexual ableism.
You're a neckbeard! -> Body shaming.
Your wife is a mail- order bride! -> Attack on interracial marriage.
You just want a submissive wife! -> Racial stereotyping that Asian women must be submissive.
You are fetishizing Asian women! -> Prejudice against people for appreciating their wives.
You have a small P P! -> Body shaming.
You're exploiting them! -> Prejudice by assumption that Asian women cannot possibly be independent and choose their mates."
Feminists love to call men incels because having sex is the only unit of value they know

Meme - " @ #warren2020 Jewish Feminist. Vote for Biden.: Please report Gad Saad for antisemitic trivialization of the Shoah."
"Gad Saad @GadSaad: Yes, yes. Please report a Lebanese Jew who escaped death in the Middle East to the proper authorities for he is a "vile antisemite" who probably leads the KKK. These are the people who get you cancelled. And she does it behind a wall of anonymity. What a dreadful human being."

Gad Saad - Posts | Facebook - "Exactly as I predicted less than 30 minutes ago, horrible human being @M_Lipshutz accuses a Lebanese Jew of being a Nazi-sympathizing vile antisemite. When the heat is turned on her, she BLOCKS me. Imagine how cancerous of a human being this person is."

Meme - "Daily reminder after SJWs complained about Angel, SNK responded by making her boobs bigger."

Gad Saad on Twitter - "While @DwayneFields found solace in the landscapes of the UK and beyond, many in Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups see the countryside as being a white environment #countryfile"
"I’ve always thought that nature is racist. #DecolonizeNature"

Clay Travis on Twitter - "Despite LeBron James shutting up & dribbling for Chairman Xi, China still won’t allow Space Jam 2 to air, meaning the movie is likely to lose several hundred million dollars. Should be a massive story. LeBron bent the knee & China still spurned him. Yet media isn’t covering it.
Space Jam 2 cost $200 million to make and market and will likely only make $60-70 million without China. Meaning LeBron’s movie will lose over a hundred million dollars, at least. China blocking the movie is a huge story. But no one is even discussing it in media. Strange. LeBron ripped the first amendment in the US, declined to speak up for basic human rights in China, & shut up and dribbled for Chairman Xi all to get Space Jam 2 on in China. And now LeBron won’t even talk about his movie being banned. Because he’s still afraid of upsetting China.""

Facebook - "You should see the amount of unbridled hate that I’ve received from Noble People of Color for daring to criticize @KingJames.  A classically liberal war refugee from the Middle East and social commentator should NOT question a black man who is a billionaire EVER. Racism!"

Meme - "UNDERSTANDING RACISM
FAQ #17: Why is it wrong to call a black person a monkey?
Answer: Nobody likes being called a monkey, but because black people have so many glaringly similar features, it is particularly hurtful."

Matt Walsh on Twitter - "Jamaicans protest pride flag at the US embassy. They call it cultural imperialism and accuse the US of imposing its values on them. They're exactly right, of course."

Meme - "F(18) with a really embarrassing kink
I have a kink I'm embarrassed about. In real life I'm a leftist. I support BLM, I'm socialist, ACAB, etc. But I've recently developed a kink for being fucked by far right republicans... the super rough, misogynistic sex sounds amazing. I think it goes on with my life-ruining kink, I want them to force me to be a MAGA slut... I know it's weird and I truly am a leftist, but god it sounds so hot... if you're interested please message me..."
"I totally relate to this. I've been a leftist pretty much my entire life, but recently really beefy misogynistic dudes make me weak in my knees. I just know that they'd treat me like a total slut and I love it Imao!"

Auschwitz or Sinai? - "Should Auschwitz or Sinai be the orienting category shaping our understanding of the rebirth of the State of Israel? There are important differences resulting from the relative emphasis we place on these two models... I believe it is destructive to make the Holocaust the dominant organizing category of modern Jewish history and of our national renewal and rebirth. It is both politically and morally dangerous for our nation to perceive itself essentially as the suffering remnant of the Holocaust. It is childish and often vulgar to attempt to demonstrate how the Jewish people’s suffering is unique in history.   Our bodies have painfully tasted man’s indifference and inhumanity to his fellow man. We have witnessed in our own flesh the moral evil present in human society. But this should not tempt us to become morally arrogant. Our suffering should not lead us to self-righteous postures, but to an increased sensitivity about all human suffering.  Nonetheless, there are individuals obsessed with the trauma of the Holocaust who proclaim that no one can judge the Jewish people. “No nation has the right to call us to moral judgment. We need not take the moral criticism of the world seriously because the uniqueness of our suffering places us above the moral judgment of an immoral world”.   Those who make such statements judge others, but refuse to be judged. In so doing, a basic Judaic principle is violated: no one may judge if he refuses to be judged himself.  Although it is right to appreciate the dignity that comes with power and statehood, with freedom from the inconsistent and fragile goodwill of the nations of the world, it is a serious mistake to allow the trauma of Jewish suffering to be the exclusive frame of reference for understanding our national renaissance.  Israel is not only a response to modern anti-Semitism, but is above all a modern expression of the eternal Sinai covenant that has shaped Jewish consciousness throughout the millennia. It was not Hitler who brought us back to Zion, but rather belief in the eternal validity of the Sinai covenant. One need not visit Yad Vashem in order to understand our love for Jerusalem. It is dangerous to our growth as a healthy people if the memory of Auschwitz becomes a substitute for Sinai. The model of Sinai awakens the Jewish people to the awesome responsibility of becoming a holy people... Sinai creates humility and openness to the demands of self-transcendence. In this respect, it is the antithesis of the moral narcissism that can result from suffering and from viewing oneself as a victim...   It is important to remember that the Jewish people did not go from the suffering conditions of Egypt directly into the land. We first went to Sinai, made a covenant with God, and pledged absolute allegiance to the commandments. We spent years in the desert casting off the mantle of the suffering slave.  After we overcome the humiliating memory of slavery and persecution and understood that we were called to bear witness to God’s kingdom in history, only than did we enter the land. The memory of suffering in Egypt was absorbed by the conventional normative demands of Sinai. We were taught not to focus on suffering outside of its normative and moral implications.  Because of Sinai, Jewish suffering did not create self-pity but moral sensitivity: “And you shall love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”.   Auschwitz, like all Jewish suffering of the past, must be absorbed and understood within the normative framework of Sinai. We will mourn forever because of the memory of Auschwitz. We will build a healthy new society because of the memory of Sinai."
Meanwhile, SJWs who are obsessed with victimhood...

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