Links - 28th September 2022 (2 - Cancel Culture)

The woke counter-Enlightenment - "The quasi-religious dogma that drives cancel culture is not only directed at contemporary, living people but also against historical figures and the intellectual legacy of the past. Its latest target is one of 19th-century Britain’s most influential scientists, Thomas Henry Huxley.   Imperial College has been told to remove a bust of Huxley and to rename its Huxley Building because some of his views fall ‘far short of Imperial’s modern values’. The fact that Huxley was an active and vociferous supporter of abolishing slavery is of no importance to the zealous academic inquisitors charged with cleansing academic life of its Western intellectual heritage.  Academics used to be more interested in studying the past than policing it. But in recent times, groups of academics, university administrators and student activists have joined together to launch a cultural revolution against the legacy of Western intellectual achievements...   Imperial’s Inquisition, led by Nilay Shah, a professor of process-systems engineering, concluded that Huxley’s theories ‘might now be called racist’ because he used ‘racial divisions and hierarchical categorisation in his attempt to understand their origins in his studies of human evolution’. The phrase ‘might now be called a racist’ is telling. It speaks to a mindset that is obsessively searching for the slightest trace of anything offensive. This can then be used as evidence to condemn historical figures who cannot reply to their accusers. It is no secret that Huxley, like virtually every major thinker of his time, interpreted human evolution through the prism of racial divisions. But unlike most proponents of racial hierarchies, he played an active role in fighting for the liberation of slaves. By any objective standard, history’s verdict on Huxley should recognise that his association with the prejudices of his time is greatly outweighed by his role as an abolitionist and as a man of science. Indeed, Huxley famously possessed an open mind and a determination to question the views and prejudices of his time. For Huxley, scepticism was ‘the highest duty and blind faith the one unpardonable sin’. Huxley was the ultimate anti-dogmatist...   If he were alive today, Huxley would understand why cancel culture is coming for him. He would recognise the dogmatism of his inquisitors.  The demand to remove all traces of Huxley from Imperial College represents another triumph of what is sometimes called ‘accusatory history’. The aim of accusatory history is not to deepen our understanding of the past, but rather to vindicate and validate the identities and dogmas of the woke in the present, while discrediting those of its opponents.   The goal of accusatory history is about far more than spoiling the reputations of important historical figures like Huxley. It represents an important symbolic victory for identity politics and its crusade against the intellectual legacy of Western civilisation, and in particular of the Enlightenment.  Virtually every great thinker who contributed to the development of the ideals of tolerance and freedom has become a target of the offence archaeologists promoting this new Inquisition. According to this accusatory version of history, John Locke, whose philosophy developed the idea of tolerance, is little more than a 17th-century racist. Adam Smith, a towering figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, is also a racist apparently. According to one 21st-century critic of Smith, his sin was to make a distinction between ‘savage’ and ‘civilised’ nations. Immanuel Kant, arguably the most influential thinker of the Enlightenment, and John Stuart Mill, the most important philosophical advocate of liberalism, are today casually dismissed as racists, too. Huxley’s colleague, Charles Darwin, has become a target of the new Inquisition too"
Wokeness is a dogma after all

Kmele 🖐 on Twitter - "What a striking contrast: BYU: Conduct a thorough investigation. Details the lack of corroborating evidence. Exonerate and apologize to the falsely accused. DUKE: "We believe." That's it."

Man Banned from BYU Game Does Not Appear to Have Said Racial Slur, Authorities Say - "A man who was banned during a volleyball game between Brigham Young University and Duke University last week for allegedly yelling the N-word at a player does not appear to have actually said a slur after all...   The investigation comes after Richardson said she “very distinctly” heard a “very strong and negative racial slur” during Friday’s game... The student paper reported that it has been unable to find a source in the student section who heard the racial slurs. The outlet spoke with several students who attended the game who said they did not hear the slurs. However, Richardson’s claims, including a statement where she said the racial slurs escalated throughout the match and ultimately “grew into threats which caused [her] to feel unsafe,” were picked up by several national media outlets, including the New York Times, NPR, CNN, and The Hill.   The Atlantic‘s Jemele Hill suggested Duke should have canceled the rest of the series of games against BYU in support of Richardson, while USA Today’s sports race and inequality editor wrote a column arguing that Richardson is a “victim” but also a “hero surrounded by a lot of people who failed her.”"

Opinion | McCarthyism is back. This time, it’s woke. - The Washington Post - "The intellectually intolerant mob claimed two high-profile victims Tuesday with the resignations of New York Times editor Bari Weiss and New York Magazine journalist Andrew Sullivan. These are just two examples of the deadly virus spreading through our public life: McCarthyism of the woke... Today’s “cancel culture” is nothing more than McCarthyism in a woke costume. It stems from a noble goal — ending racial discrimination. Like its discredited cousin, however, it has transmogrified into something sinister and inimical to freedom. Battling racism is good and necessary; trying to suppress voices that one disagrees with is not. Woke McCarthyism goes wrong when it seeks to do the one thing that America has always sworn not to do: enforce uniformity of thought. Indeed, this principle, enshrined in the First Amendment, is so central to American national identity that it is one of the five quotes inscribed in the Jefferson Memorial: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”... Do you now or have you ever thought that Donald Trump might make a good president? Congratulations, president of Goya Foods: Your company is boycotted. Are you now or have you ever been willing to publish works from a conservative U.S. senator that infuriated liberal Twitter? Former New York Times editor James Bennet, the bell tolls for thee.The mob even sacrifices people whose only crime is familial connection on its altar. The stepmother of the Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, Melissa Rolfe, was fired from her job at a mortgage lender because some employees felt uncomfortable working with her. Such tactics work best when they force people to confess to seek repentance for the crimes they may or may not have committed. McCarthy knew this, and so he always offered lenience to suspected communists who would “name names” and turn in other supposed conspirators. The woke inquisition uses the same tactic, forcing those caught in its maw to renounce prior statements they find objectionable. NFL quarterback Drew Brees surrendered to the roar while noted leftists such as J.K. Rowling and Noam Chomsky are being pilloried for their defense of free speech. McCarthy was enabled by a frightened and compliant center-right. They knew he was wrong, but they also knew the anti-communist cause was right and were unsure how to embrace the just cause and excise the zealous overreach. It wasn’t until McCarthy attacked the U.S. Army that one man, attorney Joseph Welch, had the courage to speak up. “Have you no decency, sir?” he said as McCarthy tried to slander a colleague. The bubble burst, and people found the inquisitorial emperor had no clothes. The Senate censured him in 1954, and McCarthy died in 1957, a broken man.It won’t be as easy to defeat the woke movement. There isn’t one person whose humiliation will break the spell. This movement is deep, decentralized and widespread. But it can be beaten if someone’s courage can awaken the center-left as Welch’s did for the 1950s center-right."

BACKFIRE: Customers Buy Goya Foods After Leftists Pledge Boycott Over CEO’s Trump Support - "a GoFundMe was launched to raise money to feed the hungry using Goya Food products; it has since amassed over $43,000 dollars... “You’re allowed to talk good or to praise one president but you’re not allowed — when I was called to be part of this commission to aid in economic and educational prosperity, and you make a positive comment, all of the sudden that’s not acceptable”"

Fundraiser by Casey Harper : Buy GOYA - Stop Cancel Culture & Feed the Hungry - "$331,332 USD raised"

'Cancel Hamilton' Erupts on Twitter After Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hit Musical Debuts on Disney Plus - "Disney’s debut on its streaming service of the award-winning Broadway musical Hamilton over the weekend ignited renewed ire with the Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and the plays co-creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, who locked his Twitter account just as leftists pushed “Cancel Hamilton” on the social media site.Hamilton became a breakout hit after its Broadway debut in January 2015, as it portrayed America’s Founders — from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson — as great, brave, and courageous men. President Obama and Michelle Obama famously saw the hip-hop show, about the life of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, for date night. The musical was used to raise money for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Miranda introduced Clinton as “the forty-fifth president of the United States” at a $100,000 per ticket event, which all occurred just three months before her defeat to Donald Trump. What was once a must-see stage show drawing celebrities and fans from around the world is now the latest target of a woke mob of leftists hellbent on castigating America’s founding and its founders as nothing more than bigots and slave owners. On Saturday, Hollywood actor-director Michael Rapaport asked his half a million Twitter followers “Is it time to discuss canceling #hamiltonmusical? Celebrating a singing George Washington? #CancelHamilton.” Doubling down, Rapaport — a raging left-wing Trump hater — tweeted “Singing slave owners.”... former Fox News and NBC host Megyn Kelly tweeted to her 2.4 million followers “Can Hamilton – a show that celebrates America and her founders – survive cancel culture?”... Miranda and Hamilton co-creator Jeffrey Seller apologized in two separate hostage-style videos for not endorsing Black Lives Matter years ago... Lin-Manuel Miranda committed is Democratic Party ally. He fought hard to elect Hillary Clinton. He’s been a loud critic of President Trump. He’s a proven pro-gun control campaigner. And amid the left-wing effort to demonize and defund police in America, Miranda has endorsed the radical Black Lives Matter movement that is smearing those police."
So much for the "myth" of the slippery slope. The leftist circular firing squad must constantly find new targets

The ‘cancel’ crowd should be gunning for ‘Hamilton’ - "In our hyper-woke moment, leftists would find much to criticize in it. It isn’t hard to imagine their criticisms leading to the show’s cancellation. Miranda had previously described actors of color portraying the white Founders as a way of “pulling you into the story and allowing you to leave whatever cultural baggage you have about the Founding Fathers at the door.”... Miranda is a good liberal. He made a valiant attempt to turn the pro-American Revolution Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette into an “immigrant” in the show (he was an immigrant technically, but not in the sense that the contemporary left frames that figure). Miranda’s Twitter feed is filled with calls to defund the police and support Black Lives Matter.Yet he is suspiciously quiet on the movement to erase any positive remembrances of the Founding. Does Miranda support tearing down Washington or Jefferson statues? It would be awkward for him to approve yet continue to celebrate the men in his show.In “Hamilton,” Washington isn’t just portrayed as a good man — he’s portrayed as a great one: a strategic genius, a thoughtful leader, a self-sacrificing hero. The scene of his decision to exit the presidency after two terms leaves not a dry eye in the house. “I wasn’t aware that was something a person could do,” sings the character of King George on Washington stepping away. It wasn’t — until President George Washington did it.“Hamilton” is a love letter to America and a profound appreciation of its Founding. Is that even allowed anymore?Americans love patriotism, and “Hamilton” is a very patriotic show. When polls in 2016 found that Americans largely opposed kneeling during the national anthem, it wasn’t because our people didn’t believe that black lives matter. Black lives do matter to us. We opposed kneeling during the anthem because we love our flag and our country, and the song is a moment to reflect on that. “Hamilton” feeds into that same love. Our country was born in struggle. We have “made every mistake,” as the show’s Hamilton says, but emerged free and strong, just like our Founders wanted us to. They created a free country, and they laid a “strong enough foundation” and passed it on to us. We are left to improve on their vision.“Hamilton” brought together left and right in love of American history and exceptionalism. But that was before the national mania to rewrite history in the image of our contemporary ideologies.Can the show pull it off again? Or will actors from the show end up apologizing in tearful Instagram videos about the “normalization” of slave owners in which they participated?Will Miranda eventually give in to the left and pretend America isn’t a “great unfinished symphony,” but a terrible place of oppression and white supremacy?If “Hamilton” manages to dodge the woke police, maybe the show can remind us about nuance and how very few people are all good or all bad."

Disney+ Displays Warning That 'Hamilton' May Contain Positive Depictions Of Founding Fathers | The Babylon Bee - "" We think it's important for families to see and discuss old, outdated ideas, like in this progressive musical from five years ago where they thought America was still a pretty good place to live."Eventually, though, Disney agrees that Hamilton will need to be remade, possibly with all the characters just screaming at the sky over how bad America is."

‘Hamilton’ Loses Its Snob Appeal - WSJ - "now the show is being criticized for its portrayal of the American Founding by many of the same people who once gushed about it. Is it a coincidence that affluent people loved “Hamilton” when tickets were prohibitively expensive, but they disparage it now that ordinary people can see it?... A New York Times art critic recently urged that the Mona Lisa be taken down from the Louvre. Too many proles had seen it, undermining its ability to confer status on the well-to-do.A friend of mine recently told me that he didn’t enjoy “Hamilton” but never told anyone because everybody at Yale loved it. Once something becomes fashionable among the upper class, aspiring elites know they must go along to have any hope of joining the higher ranks. But once it becomes fashionable among the hoi polloi, the elites update their tastes. The upper classes are driven to distinguish themselves from the little people even beyond art. This explains the ever-evolving standards of wokeness. To become acculturated into the elite requires knowing the habits, customs and manners of the upper class. Ideological purity tests now exist to indicate social class and block upward social mobility. Your opinion about social issues is the new powdered wig. In universities and in professional jobs, political correctness is a weapon used by white-collar professionals to weed out those who didn’t marinate in elite mores. These are luxury beliefs—or ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class while taking a toll on lower class. They are evolving so rapidly, it’s hard to keep up. To stay on top of it, you need to have lots of free time or the kind of job that allows you to spend hours on Twitter. Working-class people don’t have time to accrue such cultural capital.To understand the neologisms and practices of social justice, you need a bachelor’s degree from an expensive college. A common refrain to those who are not fully up to date on the latest fashions is “Educate yourself.” This is a way of keeping down people who work multiple jobs, have children to care for, and don’t have the time or means to read the latest woke bestseller.The winds will have shifted by the time the proletariat catches up, and that’s the point. Affluent people keep their positions secure by allowing only those who go to the right colleges, listen to the right podcasts, and read the right books to join their inner circle. But just as today’s fashionable art will soon be out-of-date, so will today’s fashionable moral opinions."

Rowan Atkinson says ‘every joke has a victim’ while criticising cancel culture in comedy - "“Every joke has a victim. That’s the definition of a joke. Someone or something or an idea is made to look ridiculous.”... “You’ve always got to kick up? Really? What if there’s someone extremely smug, arrogant, aggressive, self-satisfied, who happens to be below in society? They’re not all in houses of parliament or in monarchies.”... “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”"

‘Horrifying’: Third-Generation Hollywood Actress Slams Cancel Culture, Says You Can’t Cancel ‘A Human Being’ Like ‘An Appointment’ - "Third-generation Hollywood star Dakota Johnson labeled cancel culture “horrifying” and said you can’t cancel “a human being” like they’re “an appointment.”... “No person will not make mistakes in their life.”... "Twitter makes up like, what, 12 percent of the world? I mean, some of these people can’t even spell.”"

Op-Ed: Anyone Who Claims Cancel Culture Is Real Is A Bigot Who Should Lose His Job | Babylon Bee

Howard University students want Phylicia Rashad fired for Cosby tweet - "Outraged Howard University students and alumni are calling for actress Phylicia Rashad to be fired as dean of its College of Fine Arts in the wake of her enthusiastic support of Bill Cosby’s release from prison.  The hashtag #ByePhylicia — a play on “Bye Felicia” — started trending this week after the actress celebrated her former “Cosby Show” co-star’s release with a jubilant, “FINALLY!!!!”   “A terrible wrong is being righted — a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” the actress tweeted along with a photo of Cosby, whose sex assault conviction was overturned Wednesday on a legal technicality."
When liberals claim that "no one is above the law", they mean that the law should only be respected when it is used to persecute those they don't like

Maureen Lipman: Cancel culture could wipe out comedy - "Many comedians say their industry is in fine - and funny - form. Nobody is being censored, they claim. And in the end, it is audiences who decide what's funny and what's offensive.  Take comedian Russell Kane, who knows a thing or two about cancellation. He presents Radio 4's Evil Genius, which each week takes a different figure from history and decides, based on their actions, whether they should be saved or cancelled. He told me it's "complete nonsense" that comedians are sacrificing being funny because they don't want to be cancelled... However, he does think he and his fellow comedians worry about being cancelled for things they might have said in the past which have since become less acceptable. "I signed up for a website called TweetDelete and all my posts that are older than six months have gone. It's a bit of self-protection."... London's Old Vic theatre announced it would not be staging a planned production of Sondheim's Into the Woods, co-directed by Terry Gilliam.  The former Monty Python star claimed on social media that the Old Vic was "intimidated" into cancelling the show by what he called "a small group of closed-minded, humour averse ideologues" because, he said, he recommended his Facebook followers watch a show by the comedian Dave Chappelle... According to those polled by YouGov, nearly a third (29%) of people who hold gender critical views said they always or mostly don't say what they really think when they are talking about this controversial topic.  Other difficult areas where the people polled said they don't speak freely are those who believe immigration has been a bad thing for the UK (one third - 33% - of people who held that view said they keep quiet about it). A fifth of people who believe women have things as good as men in the UK feel they can't say it.  I asked Russell Kane specifically about the poll's findings.  "I don't believe freedom of speech is under threat," he said. "Why would we want to use hateful language? Why should we tolerate it? I think there's a lot of people with much more extreme views, illegal views, hate crime provoking views, who are driving this narrative that those with moderate concerns about immigration, for example, can't say it."... YouGov's poll suggests younger generations particularly prioritise preventing hateful offensive speech over being able to say what you want... Comedian Ricky Gervais recently said: "I want to live long enough to see the younger generation not be woke enough for the next generation. It's going to happen. Don't they realise that, it's like, they're next. That's what's funny."  The YouGov poll shared with the BBC suggests younger people are more confident their views won't age than older respondents." SPOING

Meme - Amanda Duarte @duarteamanda: "I said something insanely awful and stupid on twitter last night. The intent does not matter so I will not attempt to defend or explain it. It was racist and has had racist impact. I am terribly sorry to anyone and everyone who read it, and who were hurt by it." Amanda Duarte @duarteamanda: "Nice try, you rotted onion of a person. Your sickening tweet has gone viral. Let's see if your God can save your job." SOPMODrespecter: "Ratio'd with her own words, god damn."
The actress who said "white supremacist lawmakers" should have "their little white daughters... raped and impregnated by black men"

We Got Here Because of Cowardice. We Get Out With Courage - "A lot of people want to convince you that you need a Ph.D. or a law degree or dozens of hours of free time to read dense texts about critical theory to understand the woke movement and its worldview. You do not. You simply need to believe your own eyes and ears. Let me offer the briefest overview of the core beliefs of the Woke Revolution... the forces of justice and progress are in a war against backwardness and tyranny. And in a war, the normal rules of the game must be suspended. Indeed, this ideology would argue that those rules are not just obstacles to justice, but tools of oppression. They are the master’s tools.  And the master’s tools cannot dismantle the master’s house. So the tools themselves are not just replaced but repudiated. And in so doing, persuasion—the purpose of argument—is replaced with public shaming. Moral complexity is replaced with moral certainty. Facts are replaced with feelings. Ideas are replaced with identity. Forgiveness is replaced with punishment. Debate is replaced with de-platforming. Diversity is replaced with homogeneity of thought. Inclusion, with exclusion. In this ideology, speech is violence. But violence, when carried out by the right people in pursuit of a just cause, is not violence at all. In this ideology, bullying is wrong, unless you are bullying the right people, in which case it’s very, very good. In this ideology, education is not about teaching people how to think, it’s about reeducating them in what to think. In this ideology, the need to feel safe trumps the need to speak truthfully. In this ideology, if you do not tweet the right tweet or share the right slogan, your whole life can be ruined. Just ask Tiffany Riley, a Vermont school principal who was fired—fired—because she said she supports black lives but not the organization Black Lives Matter... Racism has been redefined. It is no longer about discrimination based on the color of someone’s skin. Racism is any system that allows for disparate outcomes between racial groups. If disparity is present, as the high priest of this ideology, Ibram X. Kendi, has explained, racism is present. According to this totalizing new view, we are all either racist or anti-racist. To be a Good Person and not a Bad Person, you must be an “anti-racist.” There is no neutrality. There is no such thing as “not racist.” Most important: In this revolution, skeptics of any part of this radical ideology are recast as heretics. Those who do not abide by every single aspect of its creed are tarnished as bigots, subjected to boycotts and their work to political litmus tests. The Enlightenment, as the critic Edward Rothstein has put it, has been replaced by the exorcism. What we call “cancel culture” is really the justice system of this revolution. And the goal of the cancellations is not merely to punish the person being cancelled. The goal is to send a message to everyone else: Step out of line and you are next.  It has worked. A recent CATO study found that 62 percent of Americans are afraid to voice their true views. Nearly a quarter of American academics endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences. And nearly 70 percent of students favor reporting professors if the professor says something that students find offensive, according to a Challey Institute for Global Innovation survey. Why are so many, especially so many young people, drawn to this ideology? It’s not because they are dumb. Or because they are snowflakes, or whatever Fox talking points would have you believe. All of this has taken place against the backdrop of major changes in American life—the tearing apart of our social fabric; the loss of religion and the decline of civic organizations; the opioid crisis; the collapse of American industries; the rise of big tech; successive financial crises; a toxic public discourse; crushing student debt. An epidemic of loneliness. A crisis of meaning. A pandemic of distrust. It has taken place against the backdrop of the American dream’s decline into what feels like a punchline, the inequalities of our supposedly fair, liberal meritocracy clearly rigged in favor of some people and against others. And so on. “I became converted because I was ripe for it and lived in a disintegrating society thirsting for faith.” That was Arthur Koestler writing in 1949 about his love affair with Communism. The same might be said of this new revolutionary faith. And like other religions at their inception, this one has lit on fire the souls of true believers, eager to burn down anything or anyone that stands in its way.  If you have ever tried to build something, even something small, you know how hard it is. It takes time. It takes tremendous effort. But tearing things down? That’s quick work. The Woke Revolution has been exceptionally effective. It has successfully captured the most important sense-making institutions of American life: our newspapers. Our magazines. Our Hollywood studios. Our publishing houses. Many of our tech companies. And, increasingly, corporate America.  Just as in China under Chairman Mao, the seeds of our own cultural revolution can be traced to the academy, the first of our institutions to be overtaken by it. And our schools—public, private, parochial—are increasingly the recruiting grounds for this ideological army... there is one word we should linger on, because every moment of radical victory turned on it. The word is cowardice. The revolution has been met with almost no resistance by those who have the title CEO or leader or president or principal in front of their names. The refusal of the adults in the room to speak the truth, their refusal to say no to efforts to undermine the mission of their institutions, their fear of being called a bad name and that fear trumping their responsibility—that is how we got here. Allan Bloom had the radicals of the 1960s in mind when he wrote that “a few students discovered that pompous teachers who catechized them about academic freedom could, with a little shove, be made into dancing bears.” Now, a half-century later, those dancing bears hold named chairs at every important elite, sense-making institution in the country... George Orwell said that “the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” In an age of lies, telling the truth is high risk. It comes with a cost. But it is our moral obligation."

SDG&E Worker Fired Over Alleged Racist Gesture Says He Was Cracking Knuckles
Former SDG&E worker sues utility for firing him after White supremacy accusation went viral - "A former utility worker who says he was a victim of “cancel culture” has sued San Diego Gas & Electric, claiming he was defamed by the company after he was accused on social media of being a White supremacist.  Emmanuel Cafferty alleges in a San Diego Superior Court lawsuit that SDG&E fired him in response to a barrage of complaints posted on Twitter last June, as millions of people across the nation responded to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.  The 22-page defamation complaint describes Cafferty as an Hispanic blue-collar worker of Mexican descent who grew up in National City and supports social-justice causes such as the Black Lives Matter movement... Cafferty was wrapping up his work shift on June 3, 2020, when he was photographed allegedly making an OK sign with his left hand after driving an SDG&E truck in the vicinity of a Black Lives Matter protest that had just ended.  The hand gesture is considered by many to be a non-verbal signal of support for White supremacy. The picture was posted on Twitter with a demand that the employee be fired, and it quickly went viral... The complaint also notes that the man who posted the original photo withdrew his accusation against Cafferty within days."
Every moral panic has innocent victims

Dr Jordan B Peterson on Twitter - “Certain elements of our community are threatening to get people fired. Even if someone just poses a question, or expresses a conflicting view, you’re immediately labeled a problem, a white supremacist, and people will say, ‘Find out where they work.’”
"Would it be picayune to point out just how much the once-admirable Atlantic Magazine has helped develop this insanely bullying and self-righteous culture?"

Facebook - "I lived in Washington Heights at various points. The population is overwhelmingly Dominican, and Dominicans tend to have a lighter shade of brown skin than the author is alleging. But why let Lin-Manuel Miranda portray this accurately?  I think it’s hilarious how now even he is not safe, and how Hamilton, which was the wokest thing in town for a long time, fell from grace."
Nolte: Lin-Manuel Miranda Grovels to Woke Gestapo over ‘Colorism’ Following ‘In the Heights’ Casting Backlash -  "some people on Twitter are still complaining over the movie’s lack of darker-skinned blacks and Hispanics. Naturally, Lin-Manuel Miranda (or is it Lin-Miranda Manuel?) responded with an estrogen-filled grovel loaded with so many woketard terms it reads like satire…"
Woke Cancel Mob Attacks Oscar-Winner Rita Moreno After She Defended Lin-Manuel Miranda - "The 89-year-old star is being accused of harboring prejudice against dark-skinned Latinos and having “white adjacency supremacy.” She is also facing accusations of hypocrisy, with people noting her skin was darkened for her Oscar-winning role in West Wide Story... criticism of In the Heights “really upsets me.”  “You can never do right, it seems,” Moreno said. “This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn’t do it. I mean, I would love to say I did, but I couldn’t. Lin-Manuel has done that, really single-handedly. And I’m thrilled to pieces and I’m proud that he produced my documentary. They’re really attacking the wrong person.”  She added: “I’m simply saying, can’t you just wait awhile and leave it alone?” Her comments have provoked outrage from left-wing journalists and activists, some of whom have labelled her “white” and accused her of being part of the “white latinx media establishment.”"
You either die a liberal or live long enough to see yourself become a bigot

Liz Wolfe on Twitter - "Yes, a small minority of people who get canceled have already cultivated a loyal audience for themselves & can easily survive it (via Substack, Patreon). For every one of them, I guarantee you there are 50 others who are chronically miserable, suicidal, unhirable, abandoned."

The War on Whimsy - "Wolfe pointed to this (evolving) cancellations database.   Even though I’ve covered this beat for years and have been on the receiving end myself, the number of people on that list of whom I’d never heard is stupendous. Yet, when searching their names, the extent of their post-cancellation radioactivity is clear. No aspect of life is free of the hectoring control of the Elect. To claim everyone who gets cancelled later turns the experience into money is to evince a weapons-grade case of survivorship bias.   Leunig has never been an ‘edgelord’ and his humour is not cruel. He just has a talent - as all good editorial cartoonists do - for punching bruises across the political spectrum.   Two things fall out from this. Leunig’s treatment is part of wokery’s War on Whimsy, whimsy being a type of humour, humour being wokery’s most effective critic. “We are not allowed to laugh in there,” Adso of Melk (Christian Slater) says to Brother William (Sean Connery) as they flee the monastery library in Name of the Rose. The satirist or comedian commits a kind of blasphemy, you see.   And it’s also a reminder that freedom of speech isn’t just for upper-middle-class Shire Tories with property."

Sweet voice: The role of voice quality in a Japanese feminine style

(via readings for Linguistics 156: Language and Gender)

Sweet voice: The role of voice quality in a Japanese feminine style

"As observed by Lise Skov and Brian Moeran in Women, media, and consumption in Japan, Japanese public life is saturated with female voices.

We hear women everywhere. So audible that we hardly listen to their carefully enunciated voices greeting us at the end of almost every telephone line, and on every visit to every commercial building in every city in Japan.... Female are the voices of instruction, warning mothers and children to mind their hands and feet on the escalator, reminding passengers not to forget their belongings on the train, recommending consumers to purchase this detergent, that wine, those contact lenses, cleansing creams or leopard-spotted leotards. Anonymous images, anonymous voices, yet ever present. (Skov & Moeran 1995b:1–2)

The ubiquity of these voices, however, is not their only distinctive quality. The voices sound extraordinarily similar, as if one determined woman were following you around the city of Tokyo with a megaphone. But there is something else, as well: the voices sound oddly alien, and completely unlike announcement voices in other countries. Visitors to Japan often remark that they sound ‘high’ (Miller 2004:151). What they are attempting to describe has, in fact, little to do with pitch—rather, these voices are all produced using a distinctive voice quality, resulting in a vocal style I refer to here as ‘sweet voice’...

The voices of Japanese women have been persistent targets of popular interest and generalization, particularly in the area of pitch, which is closely intertwined with voice quality both in physical and perceptual terms. The current common wisdom on Japanese women’s pitch was codified in 1995 by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who declared that certain enlightened Japanese women were rebelling against squeaky-high pitch norms in a piece entitled, ‘Japan’s feminine falsetto falls right out of favor’ (Kristof 1995). In the Kristofian view, traditional Japanese femininity requires high pitch, and women who do not use high pitch are therefore challenging the status quo. This view appeared once again on the front page of the New York Times in Hiroko Tabuchi’s (2013) article about the All-Japan Phone Answering Competition, titled ‘Japan’s top voice: high, polite and on the phone’. She reports that ‘some experts explicitly tell women to speak in a higher voice than usual to sound feminine and energetic’ (A1), and portrays women who reject high pitch as modern and untraditional (Tabuchi 2013). In the following analysis, I suggest that the characterization of traditional feminine voices as ‘high’ is problematic in a few respects: most crucially, the confusion of voice quality and pitch has led to a broader conflation of distinct Japanese feminine styles that index different social meanings...

Sweet voice is an example of a stylized, professional voice. In other words, sweet voice is largely the province of professional announcers and voice actors, and is rarely if ever produced by ‘ordinary’ women. Addressed later in the discussion of the voice’s physiological properties, the absence of sweet voice in nonprofessional speech is not merely a matter of convention, but of physical limitation; the sweet voice is difficult to produce, and only those who have trained extensively are able to consistently replicate it. Native Japanese listeners exposed to sweet voice are immediately able to recognize it as a professional voice, often describing it as anime no koe, ‘voice from Japanese animation’. As a result, issues of exaggeration or fakeness that apply to other vocal styles that are used by real women, such as the cute burikko vocal style described in Miller (2004), do not apply here—the sweet voice is always ‘fake’ in some sense. Nonetheless, I argue here that sweet voice plays a crucial role in establishing authenticity within the frame of the fictional world in which it occurs...

The sweet voice can be heard in a vast array of contexts—from video games, to television commercials, to public announcements. This analysis, however, focuses on the role of sweet voice in anime (Japanese animated films and television programs). Anime is a particularly suitable format in which to examine the sweet voice style for a number of reasons. From a practical perspective, it is difficult to acquire a large amount of high-quality data from other sources, such as public announcements. Anime has the advantage of not only providing a lot of speech data, but also data from many different speakers, and data from the same speakers using different styles as they portray different characters. Moreover, many of the professional voice actresses, or seiyuu, who perform in anime are also involved in producing sweet voice in other contexts; Ouhara Sayaka, for example, performs one of the voices included in the present anime study, does announcements for multiple train lines, and works as a radio DJ (Haikyou 2008)...

The voice acting industry in Japan is highly developed, and seiyuu can achieve a level of prominence comparable to ‘live’ actors or pop idols. Seiyuu are involved in voiceover work of all types, including dubbing for foreign films and the adult entertainment industry, but the heart of the profession lies in performing voices for anime; it is their association with particular anime characters that leads to a seiyuu’s popularity. While seiyuu can follow multiple paths to entering the profession, they are generally the products of two years at a specialized training school followed by another few years of apprenticeship at their talent agency. This extensive, centralized training may account for how the sweet voice has emerged as a distinctive and uniform style...

From a perceptual perspective, the sweet voice style is dramatically distinctive. It has a light timbre and the tense resonance of a singing voice; the speaker sounds as though she is smiling. While speakers shift between different levels of breathiness, a unifying voice quality is retained throughout the performance...

Rather than only comparing the pitch of these sweet voice characters to the pitch of ordinary Japanese women, it seems most relevant to first interpret them in relation to the other voice types that commonly appear in anime. In Teshigawara’s (2003) study of the voices of anime heroes and villains, she finds two groups of pitch targets for female heroic characters: 320 Hz and 400 Hz. As shown in Figure 3, the pitch of sweet voice characters is generally lower than both of these targets. Removing the exceptionally high Touma Yumi and Satou Ai, who average at 307.92 Hz, the mean pitch of the sweet voice characters is 262.7 Hz. This finding is consistent with the intuition that, while sweet voice can occur at a range of pitches, it is most often distinctively low by female anime voice standards. As discussed in the following section on the function of sweet voice within the anime setting, sweet voice characters are not heroines but rather are used to portray older-sister types; this lower pitch target helps distinguish them from main characters and establishes their relative maturity.

In comparison to the speech of ordinary Japanese women, sweet voice is relatively high: Masataka (1992) finds that Japanese mothers have an average pitch of 177 Hz when speaking to adults. When addressing children, however, their pitch increases gradually from 175 Hz to 252 Hz as they produce more utterances trying to elicit a child response. By contrast, Ohara (1999) finds a much higher average pitch for adult women, with her population of five female university students using an average F0 of 261.6 Hz when addressing a professor and 253.2 Hz when addressing friends...

Female characters with sweet voices appear in various genres of anime, including both male-oriented (shounen) and female-oriented (shoujo) programs, targeting multiple age ranges. In spite of this, certain commonalities exist among the characters who have sweet voices. Four general principles concerning sweet voice character traits can be outlined as follows.

i. Sweet voice characters are primarily (relatively) older women in positions of traditional female authority...

ii. Sweet voice characters are extraordinarily beautiful...

iii. Sweet voice characters are neither villainesses nor heroines...

iv. Sweet voice characters are sexualized yet ladylike...

Readers familiar with anime tropes will recognize that the character qualities described above are not representative of the average female anime character...

In addition to the distinctive behaviors and character traits associated with the sweet voice, the use of sweet voice in anime is accompanied by a set of linguistic features known as Japanese Women’s Language (JWL). Contrary to what its name suggests, scholars agree that JWL is not commonly used today by most Japanese women, but rather only by a subset, and only in certain contexts (Okamoto & Shibamoto Smith 2004:3). Nevertheless, JWL continues to be associated with women’s speech in Japan, and carries pragmatic implications of supposedly traditional Japanese feminine features including softness and nonassertiveness (Inoue 2006:12)...

As described in Okamoto & Shibamoto Smith (2008), two discourses are relevant in the discussion of JWL: norms dictating that women should use ‘polite, gentle, and refined’ speech and norms regarding which linguistic features index these traits (Okamoto & Shibamoto Smith 2008:88). Within this framework, the authors observe that various linguistic features may be identified as contributing to a feminine style: for example, while many linguistic norms for JWL relate to using features from standard Japanese, viewed as more refined than dialects, feminine styles can also be indexed using certain regional dialects. Specifically, the authors observe cases in which polite forms of the Kyoto dialect are used to con- struct a feminine style on television dramas (Okamoto & Shibamoto Smith 2008:102)...

The use of JWL in anime is particularly significant in that it introduces these features to young viewers who do not necessarily hear JWL from speakers in their everyday lives. In her account of her own experiences with JWL, for example, Inoue (2006:8) identifies particular television characters, including a teacher and an older-sister character, as the earliest speakers of JWL she ever encountered. Thus, JWL’s function in anime is not merely interesting as a reflection of societal patterns, but may be crucial in the creation and perpetuation of second-order indices that connect linguistic features with particular feminine traits in Japanese society...

Characters who use JWL but lack a sweet voice often fall into the category of the spoiled oujousama, or princess. The spoiled princess is a comedic villain, a girl with money to burn on expensive feminine clothing and a fancy education, who seeks to portray herself as proper and refined, but is inevitably revealed to have violent, unladylike tendencies under the surface...

The sexual appeal of the older woman in Japan was noted by Clammer (1995:210) in his study of men’s magazines, in which he observed a contrast between cute younger girls and the ‘true sensuality’ embodied by more mature women. This opposition of cuteness and mature beauty is one of the central distinctions that forms the structure of classification of sexually attractive women negotiated in the discourse of moe...

 The phenomenon of categorizing the sexual appeal of women is hardly exclusive to anime fans, but moetic discourse is part of a distinctive subculture that engages in extensive quantification and standardization of the consumption of female characters, to the point of developing notions such as the zettai ryouiki, ‘absolute area’, meaning the distance of bare skin between the hem of the skirt and the top of the socks, for which the ideal ratio has been calculated to be 4:1:2.5 with a margin of error of ±25% (Dark Mirage 2008)...

 While not all successful seiyuu become big stars, some of them are able to parlay their success in performing particular roles into personal fame, moving from voice acting into recording music and making personal appearances. One seiyuu who has managed this feat particularly well is Inoue Kikuko, who has carved a successful niche for herself based on her sweet voice performances. Accounts of Inoue’s voice written by fans commonly include both perceptual descriptors (e.g. ‘soft’, ‘sweet’) and descriptors which reference typical sweet voice roles (e.g. ‘motherly’, ‘angelic’)...

It is no accident that fans draw this association between Inoue and the roles she performs; Inoue has deliberately created a public persona for herself that evokes the qualities of the sweet voice characters she has portrayed. As noted in the Seiyuu Directory quote above, Inoue has adopted the nickname onee-chan, a familiar term for older sister. She also, with much tongue-in-cheek fanfare, claims to be only seventeen years old, although she has been a professional seiyuu for longer than that (Manbow 2008). Like her characters, Inoue wears her hair long and dresses conservatively, preferring long skirts and long sleeves. The voice she uses for public events and interviews is not the sweet voice, but it is extremely breathy; we might call it a real-world approximation of the sweet voice...

 While it is far more rare than the female sweet voice, a male version of sweet voice does appear in certain settings. One notable use of male sweet voice in anime is in the series Death note (2006), in which the main character, Yagami Light (voiced by actor Mamoru Miyano), has a sweet voice. While most anime featuring male protagonists tell the tales of average young men who are marked for greatness, Death note tells the story of a boy who is far from average, and the use of sweet voice contributes crucially to viewers’ understanding of his character...

What happens to a sweet voice when it is dubbed into another language? In the case of English, at least, dubbers are faced with a dilemma; on the one hand, the sweet voice or anything resembling it would sound exaggerated and bizarre in English, but on the other hand, dubbing with a less stylized voice often results in a loss of characterization and emotional intensity. Dubbers generally opt for the latter of these two options, resulting in English versions with relatively lackluster vocal performances that compare poorly with the originals. (This is one of the reasons why non-Japanese-speaking fans prefer subtitles to dubbing."

Links - 28th September 2022 (1 - Left Wing Economics)

Conor 🇮🇪 on Twitter - "Ireland launched a campaign against greedy landlords with rent control, 52% tax, no deductions, no evictions. They succeeded & landlords left the market in droves Now there are 716 homes available to rent in the entire country and 150 queued for this one bed yesterday. #VanRe
If you want to make rentals readily available, make rental income tax free. It's unpalatable, but do we want readily available and affordable housing or do we want to crush greedy landlords."
Conor 🇮🇪 on Twitter - "Lots of people asking why landlords selling up would reduce stock. Just means people were able to buy cheap! No, because a rental may have 4+ tenants, while owner occupied houses usually have just two occupants. Occupancy is reduced with a heavy home ownership ratio"

Budget support for tenants and landlords being considered, Varadkar says - "The Daft.ie report found there were just 716 homes available to rent nationwide on August 1st, down from almost 2,500 a year ago. The national landlords representative organisation said the stark increases in numbers of landlords leaving the rental sector was not surprising.  Susan Clancy, development officer at the Irish Property Owners’ Association (IPOA), said this was the result of “excessive and ever-changing regulation, punitive taxation and the vilification of landlords”. “Increased supply of accommodation is the only solution to the housing crisis, rent control reduces the supply of available accommodation, the evidence is clear; with increasing landlords leaving the sector since its introduction,” she said.  The State needed to move away from housing policies that discriminate against private landlords and gave them “little incentive to participate in the rental market,” she said. “If private landlords continue to exit the market, the situation is going to get much worse,” she said.  Focus Ireland said it was calling for “urgent Government action” to help stop the “exodus of landlords” from the private rental market... People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the housing and rental crisis had “reached a new low”.  Mr Murphy said the Government had “sat on its hands” and had failed to address the deepening crisis. “What we need are radical measures including the declaration by the Government of a housing emergency”"

‘The house was a mess, and the bill came to €9,000. It broke me’: Life as a small landlord - "The Residential Tenancies Board is there solely to defend tenants. We had a tenant absolutely trash the house; we got the deposit back, but the damage extended to more than €10,000, and we couldn’t claim tax relief on the repair work. The tax rate means it costs me a fortune to keep the house. Now that it is back close to the values we paid, we most likely will sell. We have really lovely tenants at the moment, but we can’t keep subsidising ownership in a market where we have no rights."
"I’m a benign landlord, with two properties, who is tired of every Government action that automatically assumes I am trying to screw my tenant."
"We had some horrendous experiences in the past, with people not paying rent or wrecking the property, and us having to clean up afterwards or deal with antisocial behaviour and subsequent complaints from neighbours, etc. During the recession it was extremely difficult to let and impossible to sell, and we were hounded by the bank. Thankfully, we eventually paid off our arrears, but it was a hard slog. Property owners have few rights and all the responsibilities. Now we only let for a maximum of six months and use it for house exchanges (and as a result have met some lovely people from other countries). We would rather leave it vacant for some time than have to deal with unsuitable tenants. Many people believe that owning a rental property is very lucrative. We put aside 60 per cent of the rent to pay for tax, PRSI, accountants’ fees, RTB registration, repairs and advertising, etc, not to mention the exorbitant €1,500 annual fee charged by the property-management company. The balance goes toward the mortgage, which we top up every month. Before we switched to six-month lets we had callouts from tenants at all hours for ridiculous things, such as a blown bulb at 11pm, a “floater” in the toilet at 7am, the toaster smoking as a result of being stuffed with a thick slice of bread at 8am, a cracked full-length mirror at 10pm — and we never not returned deposits, not because it wasn’t warranted but simply because usually when there was a problem we were so glad to see the back of those tenants we’d happily suffer the loss."
"I worked hard and built this house with my own hands — I’m a carpenter. I have been renting it out for a number of years, and have had all sorts of trouble, from the rent always coming up short to neighbours complaining about noise and parties. The RTB is tenant-oriented — and now it has another law where I must register annually. It’s another tax to pay their wages. The tenant pays nothing, because the landlord is a softer touch. I have to pay an accountant each year to do my tax, which is 52 per cent of profit plus a preliminary tax for next year. So what’s the point? It’s more trouble than it’s worth. People my age, in their mid-60s, have the mortgage paid. This was supposed to be a retirement pension. Instead it’s a retirement black hole."
"the biggest issue is the Residential Tenancies Board, which provides zero value for the fees it requires landlords to pay. Landlords have no rights: everything is set up around the tenant. As a landlord I have been able to rent slightly below market value, and I invest in the property annually to maintain its condition. I am fortunate to be in that position. I have experienced tenants request replacements for items they have broken, which is really difficult to justify. In general my experience has been good, but with a monthly management fee of 11 per cent, in addition to taxes, maintenance, unplanned expenditure and having no rights, I can see why private landlords are exiting. The media only advertises the tenants’ story. The full picture is never shared."
"we’ve rented it out for the past five years — and have been unlucky with some of our tenants. We have had to have it painted and decorated at least twice, as well as having to replace furniture. Add the mortgage repayment and the 53 per cent tax rate on any rental income and we’ve decided to leave it empty. It’s sad, as we have been inundated with requests to rent it."
"Having recently spent €12,000 on putting a second shower in my property, we are not entitled to increase the rent as we didn’t move a wall or make any other structural change."
"When your accountant tells you every year to sell the property, as it’s loss making, you wonder why you ever got involved. When young investors ask me should they invest in property, I advise them to avoid at all costs."
"Our tenant took advantage of the RTB loophole and stayed at the property for 16 months without paying rent. It took us years of civil and criminal courts to get it back, at a cost of more than €100,000 and our health. The damage he caused was horrendous. We will never, ever rent out a house again."
"the tenants stopped paying rent. I tried to reach out, the agency reached out, but no response. We filled in rent-supplement forms for them and sent them to the tenants. Complete silence. I opened a dispute with the RTB. It took about four months for the RTB to have a sitting. A week before it, the tenants moved out and left the key in the porch. Then the RTB informed me that unless I could find the tenants’ new address, it would be unable to go ahead with the hearing. So I was forced to close the dispute. The house was a mess, and the total loss, including repairs, came to €9,000. For some people this is not a lot of money, but it broke me. I have now a family member living in the house and helping with the mortgage. If this wasn’t my only property I would have sold it. I got no support, no justice. I feel sorry for the small landlords who are stuck in the system. The small “profit” you get after tax and repairs isn’t worth the damage and stress."
"I’m forced to increase the rent by 2 per cent each year when I’d prefer to leave the rent at same level if the tenants are good. By forced I mean that if I don’t increase rent, when a new tenant signs up I can only increase rent by 2 per cent on the previous year. So, as I have to put the rent up every year, the current tenants get screwed for an increase that would normally be passed on to the next tenants... a low-rent property that is sold is very likely to leave the rental market"

Landlords set to get tax break to stop them from leaving Ireland's rental market - "Landlords are set to get a tax break to stop them from leaving the rental market.  The tax breaks, which will form part of a €1 billion cost of living package and will be announced in next month’s Budget, will likely spark controversy as rents have hit an all-time high across the country.  Last week, a report by property website Daft.ie revealed tenants in Dublin saw accommodation costs were 12.7% higher in the second quarter of 2022 than at the same time last year."

Ireland's largest landlord says rents are 16% above its €1,688 average   - "With an occupancy rate of 99.3%, all the property firm’s apartments are all but permanently rented even after accounting for short term tenancies"

Termination notices by landlords rise by 58% in six months - "The number of termination notices issued by landlords to tenants, as notified to the Residential Tenancies Board, rose by 58 per cent in the first six months of 2022 compared to the previous six months... Some 55 per cent of those were for the purposes of sale of the property. Sinn Féin spokesman on housing Eoin Ó Broin has called on the Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to convene an “urgent meeting” on the rental crisis following a rise in the number of landlords choosing to leave the rental market... Landlords leaving the private rental market was “contributing to the absence of options for those wanting to leave homelessness and driving too many others into homelessness”, said Wayne Stanley, head of policy and communications at the Simon Communities of Ireland.  “The homeless crisis in Ireland will only deepen if we don’t see further actions taken to make affordable homes available ... With enough ambition this can secure the homes that can see homelessness start to fall again”... The Government has extended rent pressure zones until the end of 2024 and has prohibited any rent increase in a rent pressure zone from exceeding general inflation or 2 per cent, whichever is lower."
Clearly the solution is to ban landlords from selling and force them to rent out their properties

Conor 🇮🇪 on Twitter - "#NewYork condo is rent controlled at $1,725. The Broker then engages in some rental arbitrage and sets his fee at $20k to balance things out. The owner gets screwed, the tenant gets screwed. the Realtor gets rich #RentControl in practise"
Broker's fee hits nearly $20K for one-bedroom NYC apartment - "The one-bedroom unit was initially advertised for $3,750 a month on StreetEasy, but the agent told prospective tenants that it was actually rent stabilized and would be a steal — just $1,725. That is well below Manhattan’s median rent, which hit a record $4,150 a month in July. And any future rent increases on the apartment would be limited by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board — which this year approved a 3.25% increase for one-year leases... The hunt for a New York City apartment has become so grueling that prospective tenants are standing on long lines to secure tiny spaces...   Another agent at City Wide Apartments also asked a sky-high fee for an Upper East Side railroad flat, which was also rent stabilized, with a monthly rent of $2,250...   The prospective tenant declined to pay the reported $10,000"

'There won't be any small landlords left by next year' - "Landlords are preparing to sell up in the wake of housing secretary Michael Gove’s sweeping measures to shake-up the private rental sector.   “No-fault” evictions will be scrapped and all private rental sector properties will also have to meet new minimum standards, with tenants able to reclaim rent if homes fall short, under the plans outlined in the new Private Rental Sector Reform white paper.   Landlords will also be banned from discriminating against tenants with pets or those receiving benefits...   Small-scale buy-to-let investors say the new plans make their business models unviable and they will have to sell up for good.   Amy Jones*, 50, who manages a portfolio of five buy-to-lets in Wales, said scrapping “no-fault” evictions means that many tenancies will be too risky for landlords to consider... “I’m appalled at the Government’s constant interference in the private rented sector. Landlords own the properties, not the Government. We have paid for these properties and they are our pension. It is a big assault on our property rights.  “I have many allergies and my husband is allergic to dogs, in no circumstance can we allow tenants with pets. We wouldn’t be able to enter the house to do any checks.”...   David Carter*, 60, who has a portfolio of 13 properties in the South West, said the Government’s plans will backfire because they mean he will no longer let properties to renters on benefits if he cannot easily evict them.  Mr Carter has a long track record of letting to low income renters. He offers leases at the local housing allowance rates and in the past has run a house share as a “dry house” for recovering addicts. But losing “no-fault” evictions means he will have to stop"
This won't stop leftists bashing the Conservatives as evil - they need an enemy after all

Meme - David Hogg: "It's interesting to think about how so much airport security is the physical manifestation of surveillance capitalism- it's terrifying when you realize how that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the actual total information collected on us every day."
Anything a leftist hates is due to "capitalism"

Meme - Aaron Rupar @atrupar: "White House adviser Kevin Hassett: "Our human capital stock is ready to go back to work." #HumanCapitalStock"
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "Human Capital Stock. An ugly term w ugly history, but for many powerful ppl it's their most honest view of workers: human stock. By their logic, the moment a person stops being useful to profit motive (retirement, health, etc) they are a liability. That's the system we live in."
Being Classically Liberal - Posts | Facebook - "Human capital stock is a well-established concept in economics which refers to things like knowledge, education, creativity, and social attributes which makes a population productive.  Economists of all ideological persuasions study and understand the importance of Human Capital. In the profession, the term is not the slightest bit controversial. You would think AOC would know this, since she allegedly has an economics degree. But instead she chooses to virtue signal..."
Of course, if you mock AOC that just shows you are ignorant, sexist and racist

Entitlement Britain is becoming a poor country and too many people don’t care - "If you want to know why Britain is in such trouble, consider the disgraceful over-reaction to an old recording of Liz Truss arguing that British workers aren’t sufficiently productive, and that some people don’t work hard enough. She was stating the obvious, and yet her comments were dismissed as a “gotcha” moment by half of Twitter and as “grossly offensive” by Labour Party demagogues.  When did we become so entitled, so self-satisfied, so allergic to any kind of constructive criticism? What hope is there for Britain if it is now politically incorrect to explain that hard graft at school and at work is a crucial route out of poverty? Why isn’t it obvious that we need to massively and urgently do whatever it takes to improve Britain’s dire productivity rate?  For years, Tory and Labour politicians alike have taken the easy way out, obsessing about “sharing the proceeds of growth” and green social engineering, taking prosperity for granted, all the while slowly poisoning the economy with tax hikes, regulatory assaults, an increasingly insane housing and infrastructure planning system and injections of monetary crack cocaine. It has been a disaster: real wages, the ultimate measure of a country’s economy, haven’t gone up, on average, since 2006, the year before Northern Rock went bust. Output per worker hasn’t risen, and given that what we earn is usually related to what we produce, pay has stagnated. This is a disgrace, and requires us to undergo a period of brutally honest self-reflection of the sort Truss is proposing... Recent immigrants to Britain are often taken aback by our poor work ethic, lack of entrepreneurialism or respect for education, and the widespread sense of victimhood, in which people blame their problems on others rather than take personal responsibility for self-betterment. But they are also stunned by how high our taxes are, the wastage at the heart of the public sector, and the fact it is so hard to build anything or get anything done... One of the biggest barriers to change is the prevalence of middle-class Nimbyism, or at least the idea that things are good enough as they are, and that all new development – of homes, airports, power plants or water reservoirs – must be stopped."

Meme - "If my rent money is paying for my landlord's mortgage, shouldn't I be part owner?"
"This reminds of the time when I bought a Big Mac and became CEO of McDonald's"

Meme - "The student debt "crisis" solved:"
"1. You loaned $100k to a jobless teen
2. Take the L and learn some financial responsibility"
A lot of leftists were sharing this approvingly. Of course they'll get very upset if student debt is totally abolished, i.e. no more student loans are given out

Environmentalism among poor and rich countries: using natural language processing to handle perfunctory support and rising powers - "In international politics, is environmental protection largely a “rich-country” priority? We perceive four reasons why, although individual exceptions are possible, the answer would be yes: as a country meets more of its basic economic needs, it can better take on environmental policy’s long-term thinking, policy expenses, collective action problems, and quality-of-life issues. To cut through lip service paid by governments that are not serious about environmental protection, and the fact that the “BASIC” countries (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) occupy a gray area between rich and poor, we employ computer-assisted textual analyses on all 3,774 paragraphs of statements made by national governments between 1995–2012 in the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) within the World Trade Organization (WTO). Controlling for other factors, we find a general pattern of environmental discussions increasing as development level increases. This contributes substantively and methodologically to the literatures on the environment/development nexus and rising powers."
Of course, this doesn't stop the leftists from hating on capitalism and claiming that it's destroying the environment

Meme - "When you think that an employer making a profit is 'stealing the surplus value' created by the workers, but your ideology is literally built around the idea of people working to their full ability, but only receiving what they need to survive.
*Credit Card*: "Daddy's Money""
This leftist actually claimed that under capitalism, workers pay their employers to work - because employers capture surplus value

This new cafe in Toronto is proudly anti-capitalist - "The Anarchist Cafe has opened up at 190 Jarvis St. and strives to be a worker-owned, anti-capitalist, anti-colonial cafe, shop, and radical community space on stolen land.   Formerly Pop Coffee Works, the cafe opened by Gabriel Sims-Fewer was the result of what he says was the disconnect between his radical leftist politics and the person he had to be for 40+ hours a week...   Currently, he's the only employee but hopes to grow the business into a worker-owned and operated co-op where every single person (himself included) is paid the same with all operational business decisions being made by consensus-based democracy free of managers or institutional hierarchy."
So you don't need to pay?

Anti-Capitalist Teens Are Sharing Shoplifting Tips on TikTok - "The borrowing community is mainly US-based – Lucy and Destiny are both Americans – with teens from wealthier countries like the UK and Australia joining in. They exclusively steal from large chain stores, an act they encourage with the community catchphrase: “If it’s a chain, it’s free reign.” “We have so many companies that don’t care about their customers, only making money,” says Destiny. “If we can punish the corporation, we feel we have done our best.” They evaluate a company’s politics when deciding whether to steal from them... Although Lucy tells me that the anti-capitalism aspect is just an added benefit for her, it’s the whole point for some. Destiny tells me that she “borrowed” pet supplies from a chain pet store thought to mistreat animals and donated them to a local shelter just the other week... Terrence Shulman, an ex-shoplifter who runs a treatment centre in Michigan for shoplifting addiction, says that he understands the premise of stealing to get back at the system, but explains that stores generally bump up the prices of all items to account for shoplifting losses... The mindset growing on TikTok reflects real generational change. A 2020 YouGov report revealed that stealing from large businesses is viewed as more acceptable, and that two in five young people say “deliberate shoplifting is acceptable under certain circumstances”. For sociology lecturer Dan Mercea, what stands out about the TikTok community is their offline activity, in contrast to most online-only clicktivism"
Crime as "activism"

Erin Ryan @ @morninggloria - in personally if it were the early 1990s and i were a dartmouth-educated attorney and knew that my elderly mother was still working as a waitress in order to pay off student loans... i would help her not have to do that. but maybe that's just me! @ Laura Ingraham @ingrahamAngle My mom worked as a waitress until she was 73 to help pay for our college, even helped with loan repayment. Loan forgiveness just another insult to those who play by the rules. O wa tl 2216 26.9K - ) - "

Meme - TRUDY @thetrudz: ""Do you work well under pressure?" Needs the response "is this job one that regularly engages actual emergencies (e.g. an ER, a fire department) or do you fabricate urgency through poor management, uneven distribution of duties and an inflated sense of self for upper management?""
The only jobs that should have pressure are the ones where people's lives are at stake. No wonder these people can't find jobs

Lick the Rich: Brooklyn Liberals Spend $10 To Eat ‘Anti-Capitalist’ Ice Cream - "For $10 each, customers enjoyed frozen creations shaped like Tesla and SpaceX mogul Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Chinese business magnate Jack Ma, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg... Similar ice cream treats cost between one and four dollars...   The group responsible for the stunt is MSCHF, a social justice-oriented artist collective."

Meme - Harley & @HarleyandNikki Replying to @rsansonesmith and @MichaelRapaport: "It really doesn't. They have insurance. Nobody is going to risk their life over cheap ass clothing. Management tells you straight up to stay out the way. You know what makes the price go up? Greed." THAT dude @the_wizzrd: "Tell us you have no idea how running a business works without saying you have no idea how a business works."
Leftist logic: shoplifting doesn't raise prices because of insurance. It's just greed. Then again, they also blame corporate greed for inflation

Facebook - "Part of the reconciliation bill going through congress is tax reform designed to undo elements of the TCJA The left is claiming this is about fairness, but ironically, the parts of TCJA they are repealing is gonna cut taxes on the rich and raise taxes on everyone else Democrats have constantly criticized Republicans for supposed "trickle down" economics, but they're the one doing it now"
"SALT Cap Repeal Could Mean Net Tax Cut for Rich"

Stephen L. Miller on Twitter - Bernie Sanders: "Super-large yachts have become the status symbol of the billionaire class. And Russian oligarchs are not the only people who own them. While half of our people work paycheck to paycheck, members of the American oligarchy spend hundreds of millions to build their very own yachts."
"You own three houses."

Meme - George @GeorgeTakei: "We already redistribute wealth: from the many to the few, from the poor and middle class to the rich. Time to flip the script."
George Takei @GeorgeTakei: "Americans: We can endure higher prices for food and gas if it means putting the screws to Putin. Consider it a patriotic donation in the fight for freedom over tyranny."

Scandinavian Airline SAS Files for Bankruptcy After Pilot Strike - "The strike comes after failed negotiations over pilot pay and working conditions"
"Companies that can't afford to pay a living wage should go out of business."
The dream is for everyone to be employed by the state
Comment: "The corollary of this statement is "People whose labour is not worth a living wage should not be allowed to work""

Meme - *Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk* Communist: "Ew! It's the 1%!!!"
*Kim Jong Un, Stalin, Xi Jinping* Communist: "OMG! It's the 1%!!!"

TheFIcouple on Twitter - "There's approximately 12 million landlords in the United States. On average, 88% own just 2 rental units. Most investors are regular, middle class people, looking to make a better life. NOT real estate tycoons portrayed by the media. Proud to be the average landlords🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️"

The Meme Policeman - Posts | Facebook - James Mercer: "9-5 is bullshit. unpaid lunch breaks are bullshit. working all day to go home and have 2 hours of free time before bed is bullshit. 5 day work week is bullshit. working yourself to death is bullshit. retiring at 65 (unlikely) is bullshit. starting your adult life in debt from student loans is bullshit. giving kids 7 hours of school and then homework to ready them for the neverending grind is bullshit. it is so frustrating that we have one chance at life on this earth and humanity chose taxes and credit scores and pollution instead of floating in the ocean and eating fruit and hanging out."
"This almost reads like a caricature, but it’s serious. There really is this notion for some that, but for capitalism, we could just be lounging and relaxing, munching fruit all day. It’s a surprisingly common viewpoint, particularly among the young, that’s sort of a fusion between the Garden of Eden and Rousseau’s idea of the noble savage. Indeed, both old and new-age Marxists often romanticized the noble savage myth; that man was good and uncorrupted before civilization, and that the modern economy turned everything and everyone into miserable, soulless automatons. Thus, if we just abolished capitalism we’d naturally return to a more fulfilled and happy world. Of course, Rousseau, like the Marxists who followed, knew little about how primitive man actually lived, or anything else about them. It was just a myth that appealed to them. In reality, what drove Rousseau was intense hatred of the world. As a young man, he went to Paris believing he’d be a great musician or poet, and was crushed when he failed, resorting to copying sheet music to pay the bills, the most menial of tasks. He developed a profound hatred of modern life.  Later in life, he demanded his mistress abandon all 5 of their children at orphanages, which were notably abhorrent at the time, while his ideas went on to foment the bloody French Revolution. This meme has similar vibes of hating life while fantasizing about a world which doesn’t exist. One of the more interesting modern shows is Alone, where you get to see gung-ho, trained survivalists become noble savages. There are triumphs and happy moments to be sure, but the drudgery and harshness of nature takes its toll on nearly every participant.  There is no sitting around eating fruit, it’s a constant battle just to stay fed and alive, and after a few weeks most are fantasizing about donuts or their life back home, only the hope of winning a bunch of cash keeps them going. Not getting paid for the plug, but give the show a watch if you haven’t already!"

Meme - "I SAW YOU LEAVE WITH CHET LAST NIGHT, BUT YOU DIDN'T HOOK UP WITH HIM?"
"OH, THERE WERE TOO MANY RED FLAGS"
"HOW ABOUT YOU SEIZE THE MEANS OF THIS DICK AND REDISTRIBUTE IT TO YOUR ASS, COMRADE?"
graunchocomies

The three despicable myths that are dooming Britain to eternal mediocrity - "What is behind this crisis of conservatism? Partly, it reflects the rise of a technocratic ruling class that is in charge whichever party is in power – an elite that is as intellectually insipid as it is devoid of principle. But it is also the result of the Conservative Party’s embrace of an unholy trinity of despicable myths that have become baked into conventional wisdom.  The first is that an ageing population inevitably heralds an ever-growing welfare state... It assumes, in part, that people will automatically become dependent once they reach an arbitrary age, when many older people are quite capable of continuing working if they need to. It also ignores that it is only the very oldest people who rely intensively on the healthcare system. Studies suggest that technological innovations – as we discover and roll out new treatments for disease – may be a more significant driver of future healthcare spending. So is poor management of costs, epitomised by our chaotic procurement processes for everything from loo rolls to light bulbs... In many countries, patients make co-payments for services, in an effort to create a fairer system in which people contribute more to what they use – and yet no politician dares to suggest that British patients might fork out for anything other than prescription drugs. All talk of raising the retirement age has gone suspiciously quiet.  The second despicable myth, however, is that average earners won’t need to pay for any of this largesse. The bill can be settled solely by taxing “the rich”.  After the grim experiments of the 1970s, it seemed that Britain had finally learned the lesson that “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”. But around the time of the financial crisis – amid the public’s desire for vengeance against the bankers held responsible – the seed was again planted that it is not just practically feasible but morally imperative to bail out the masses by squeezing those with money, never mind the risk that they might flee to a more hospitable jurisdiction... the Tories have become hopelessly lazy about making the arguments for tax cuts in general. They have permitted the Left to frame the debate as an ideologically-driven one, as if there is no body of empirical evidence showing that reducing the tax burden can over time lead to a stronger and more dynamic economy to the benefit of everyone...   The final myth is potentially the most dangerous. It is that the challenges Western societies face are so huge and so complex that they can only be addressed through a combination of collective sacrifice and state intervention. We saw this most strikingly in the response to the pandemic, and the lockdowns that have now catalysed the cost-of-living crisis. But it is creeping into policy everywhere. What drives the hubristic push for net zero other than a belief that the environmental cause is so important that the interests of the individual can be justifiably overridden in order to address it?  The truth, however, is quite different. To tackle big problems, we need more freedom, not less. Only world-leading innovation by entrepreneurs and businesses can stimulate the new discoveries and technologies that will enable us to deal with supercatastrophic risks...   The tragedy of Boris Johnson is that, with all his unbounded optimism, he was well placed to challenge the zero-sum pessimism that underpins all three of the myths that are turning Britain into a middling, despondent country. His failure to do so is bitterly disappointing. Still, it is merely the latest twist in a longer tale of Conservative failure"

Links - 26th September 2022 (2 - Migrants)

VIDEO: Finnish Interpretative Tik-Tok Dance Aims To Help Girls Deter Migrant Rapists - "A very cringe-worthy interpretive dance video supposedly created to protect underage girls from being raped on Tiktok, has now gone viral on social media after commentators and pundits ripped the video apart.In 2018, a migrant-led rape gang scandal broke in the Northern Finland city of Oulu, with girls as young as 10 years old being subjected to heinous acts of sexual depravity. The bulk of the perpetrators were foreign-born men–many of whom surfed the wave of immigration following the 2015-16 migrant crisis.The short Tiktok video, which has garnered almost a million views on Twitter alone, depicts five stern-faced adults–three women, two men–performing a Macarena-esque dance encouraging young girls to deter rapists by standing their ground. Finnish pundit, Tiina Wiik, who tweeted the viral video, wrote: “My home town has launched a 2,5 million euro project called Safe Oulu that aims at combating the (migrant) rape crisis.“This is where the money goes... Explaining the video’s purpose, Wiik explains, “So the idea is, that if you’re a 10 yo girl trapped in an apartment with 10 horny Iraqis, just say: “Stop, don’t touch me there, this is my no-no square”, and it’ll be fine. I have no words.”... “And if the rape macarena isn’t enough to stop them, there’s always the oldie-but-goodie advice from our public news network: just stretch your arm out in front of you with the palm facing the attacker, and the rapist will go away.”... National File reported on a spike of migrant sex crimes following on from the grooming gang scandal which ran similar parallels to the ones experienced in the UK."
Apparently "victim-blaming" is good when the rapists are brown

Finland: Millennial Govt to 'Help' Greece By Helping Migrants Claim Asylum - "Danish personnel operating in Greek waters with Frontex, the European Union Border and Coast Guard Agency, have already boasted of having defied orders from Greek senior officers to turn back illegal migrants arriving in Greek territorial waters by sea, instead bringing them to the Greek island of Kos."

Aylan Kurdi and the death of truth - "Aylan was not in “harm’s way”. He was not a refugee. His family was not fleeing danger... Aylan’s family, while originally from the Syrian border town of Kobani, recently besieged by IS, had actually been living in safety in Turkey for three years. Their Facebook page shows them in Istanbul, feeding pigeons by the great New Mosque. Aylan’s father, Abdullah, worked on construction sites. No wonder, perhaps, that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would not recognise the family as refugees. But Abdullah Kurdi had a sister in Canada, Tima Kurdi, who sent money to help pay the rent. Tima Kurdi applied to Canadian immigration officials to bring in another brother as a refugee, and was asked to supply more information. She planned to later sponsor Abdullah Kurdi’s family, too. So ... what exactly was he “fleeing” when he paid a people smuggler thousands of dollars to bring his family — without safety vests — to Greece, to join that irresistible army of illegal immigrants now smashing through Europe’s borders? Tima Kurdi explained... “The situation is that Abdullah does not have any teeth... “So I been trying to help him fix his teeth. But is gonna cost me 14,000 and up to do it … “Actually my dad, he come up with the idea, he said to me, ‘I think if they go to Europe for his case and for our future, I think he should do that, and then we’ll see if he can fix his teeth’. “And that’s what I did three weeks ago.” She sent her brother the money for people smugglers. Now, it is terrible to have no teeth. Awful to be poor. A misery to have your children denied chances. But can the West really take in not just real refugees, but the Third World’s poor as well, including those in search of better dentistry?"
Of course, those who point out the dental treatment point got slammed

Paul Barry defends the false story of poor Aylan Kurdi - "All initial reports by journalists who interviewed Abdullah Kurdi reported the family had lived in Turkey for three years. The Daily Mail has probably done the best job of reconstructing the family's movements, talking to former neighbors, a landlord and friends of the family...
'‘They were having a good life here in Turkey, I don’t know why they left,’ their landlady Mushreff Terregy, 66, said... ‘When they moved out on August 6, they said they were going back to Kobane to tend to olive trees they own there...’ But Mr Kurdi, speaking from Kobane, where he returned to bury his family said: ‘The house was in a worse situation than my previous house back home... I couldn’t handle working in Turkey because it was too hard to get by. I love Turkey as a system and Istanbul as a city, but I couldn’t afford it...''
Yes, a hard life. Yes, it is understandable that the Kurdi family would want to go to Europe. But were they refugees fleeing death when they got on the boat? And why did Barry omit the details which confirm that the decision to leave for Europe was primarily an economic one? And why has Barry not mentioned that Kurdi has returned to live in Kobane, the town Barry claims " has now been all but destroyed... Kurdi was a people smugger"
If the Daily Mail says the earth is round, that means it's flat

Aylan Kurdi: How a single image transformed the debate on immigration - "For most of 2015, the use of the words migrants and refugees was head to head in public conversation, accounting for pretty much the same volume over nine months – 5.2 million tweets versus 5.3 million tweets. From September 2 onward this radically flipped. The numbers swing dramatically towards a clear focus on refugees – 2.9 million tweets and 6.5 million tweets"
The power of fake news. But people don't question fake news which supports their biases

Tests Reveal 'Child' Migrant, 17, Is Actually 47 Years Old - "Two men recently attempted to claim asylum stating that they were both minors until fingerprint tests revealed that they were not even close to being under 18.The two men presented themselves to officers at a police station in the commune of Angoulême in south-west France earlier this week with both claiming that they were 16-years-old in order to take advantage of measures aimed at helping underage asylum seekers... One of the men, who claimed to be from the African nation of Mali, was revealed to be 21 years old, while the other man, who presented police with a birth certificate from Guinea, was revealed to be 47 years old, after his fingerprints were connected to a passport he had used to enter Spain... The problem of fake underage migrants in France was highlighted last year when police in Montpellier managed to bust a network from the Ivory Coast who were forging documents in order to help adult migrants claim asylum as minors... the migrants who used the forged documents were able to defraud French taxpayers to the sum of nearly a million euros in benefits they were not qualified for."

Almost Half Of 'Underage' Migrants In Hamburg Are Adults - "49 per cent of the migrants who have claimed to be underage in the city of Hamburg this year are actually adults, according to a new report from the Social Security Board... Across Germany this year there have been a total of 55,890 asylum seekers claiming to be under the age of 18 but according to the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, 24,116, or 43 percent, were officially adults... Many asylum seekers have claimed to be underage because it is much harder for the German government to deport underage asylum seekers and many get preferential treatment. According to Afghan asylum seeker Hussein K., the suspected murderer of German student Maria Ladenburger, he lied about his age to receive better benefits saying, “if you’re a minor, the situation in Germany is better.” Germany is not the only country facing a large number of asylum seekers lying about their age. In Austria last year, authorities found almost 1,000 asylum seekers had lied about being under eighteen. An Austrian policeman commented on the issue at the time, saying: “It is absurd for us to see grown men with beards and greying hair that claim to be 17 years of age.”"

French Department Reveals 80 Percent of Minor Migrants Are Really Adults - "The French department of Côte-d’Or has revealed that of the over 500 migrants claiming to be minors who arrived at the department in 2019, just 20 per cent of them were actually underage... President of the departmental council of Côte-d’Or François Sauvadet, along with secretary-general of the prefecture of Côte-d’Or Christophe Marot and Dijon public prosecutor Eric Mathais, signed a new agreement that will see all future migrants who claim to be underage subjected to tests that will have their fingerprints and photographs collected... Figures released by the Assembly of French Departments (ADF) in September revealed the cost of unaccompanied minor migrants to the French taxpayer, stating that the French pay two billion euros a year for the estimated 41,000 minors currently living in France, with each migrant costing the state 50,000 euros."

'Europe is nicer': migrants head west after Turkey opens border - "Hundreds of migrants in Turkey started arriving on the borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday after a senior Turkish official said Ankara would no longer abide by a 2016 EU deal and stop refugees from reaching Europe.Greece and Bulgaria, both European Union member states, said they were beefing up frontier controls to prevent the migrants crossing illegally.Bulgaria said it was sending 1,000 extra troops to its border with Turkey... Syrians boarding buses for the border in Istanbul’s Fatih district complained of economic difficulties in Turkey and said they hoped to build a better life in Europe.“There is no work here. Turkey is not nice at all, Europe is nicer,” said Muhammed Abdullah, 25, adding that he wanted to go to Germany."
I guess Turkey is the mouth of a shark
How odd that they would rather go to an infidel country

Greek Security Forces Attacked by Tear Gas at Turkish Border - "The Greek-Turkish border at Kastanies on the Evros river resembled a war zone on Friday morning as the Greek security forces deployed to prevent thousands of migrants storming into the country came under attack by smoke bombs and tear gas. A Greek Reporter correspondent at Kastanies says that it was an attack apparently coordinated by drones deployed by the Turkish police to help migrants cross the fence along the border... members of the Turkish security forces were seen distributing wire cutters to migrants to cut through the border fence... there are small fires reported on the Turkish side of the border, probably caused by people on Turkish territory... The tension at Evros follows Turkey’s decision to no longer abide by the terms of a 2016 deal with the European Union to halt illegal migration to Europe in return for billions of euros in aid.Since then, thousands of migrants have rushed to the Turkish border with Greece in hopes of crossing into Europe."

Turkey Is Sending Special Forces to Help Refugees Enter Europe

Detention, torture and killing … how the EU outsourced migration policy | Kenan Malik | Opinion | The Guardian
So Europe needs to let the whole world in, apparently. And I like how Turkey and Libya are conflated in a bait and switch

Germany tied up in knots by influx of migrant child brides | World | The Sunday Times - "The return of child marriage is one of a multitude of challenges confronting Germany as it struggles to integrate the 1.2m migrants — most of them Muslims — who have streamed into the country since last year under the “welcome” policy of Angela Merkel, the chancellor.There are an estimated 1,000 child brides registered among Germany’s migrants, but the true figure is thought to be considerably higher... Many of the marriages have been conducted by clerics in accordance with sharia, the Islamic legal code. Attention has been focused on the issue since June, when a court in Bamberg, Bavaria, accepted the marriage of a Syrian man of 21 and his 14-year-old cousin. The youth welfare service had separated the pair, who settled in nearby Aschaffenburg, and made the girl a ward of court. The couple then challenged the decision.The court ruled the marriage was valid because it had been carried out in accordance with Syrian law. Authorities have appealed to the constitutional court in Karlsruhe. Under German child welfare laws, anyone under the age of 16 must have a legal guardian.In an attempt to find a solution to such cases, some officials have resorted to a controversial practice in which the husband is made legal guardian of an underage girl.Campaigners are appalled. “A husband cannot be the legal guardian of a child bride because he is involved in a sexual relationship with her — a very obvious conflict of interests,” said Monika Michell of Terre des Femmes, a women’s rights group that campaigns against child marriage... Many of the girls are involved in polygamous relationships and flee their marriages after having experienced abuse from older wives. They then face pressure to return to their husbands, often from their families through social media... Some in Germany argue that the religious and cultural practices of the newcomers should be respected as part of their right to asylum.“If those ways of life are common elsewhere and such people legally migrate to here, it would mean denying them protection and robbing them of their rights,” said Hans Michael Heinig, a law professor... The ruling by the Bavarian court has been criticised by British groups that campaign against forced marriages.“This is an appalling decision,” said Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of Karma Nirvana, a charity helping children, girls and women to escape forced marriage and abuse.“My worry is that this sets a precedent and it could happen in other countries, too. Recognising cultural traditions does not mean accepting the unacceptable. These are children and this is paedophilia.”"

Underage, married, separated | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft - "Tellenbach sees it as problematic, however, to automatically categorise a marriage registered abroad as invalid if one of the parties was younger than 16 at the time of the wedding. For affected young women from the Middle East, this could mean “a shock and the loss of marital protection ... if their marriage is simply categorized as a non-marriage.” That is why Tellenbach is demanding the option to recognize marriages that were concluded abroad under the age of 16 on an individual case basis.The legal experts at the MPG are not alone in their opinion. During the legislative process, numerous expert associations, such as Familiengerichtstag, Deutscher Juristinnenbund and Kinderhilfswerk, expressed their criticisms of the automatic nature of the Child Marriage Act.In December 2018, the German Federal Court (BGH) followed suit. In its review, it was required to rule on the case of the Syrian couple from Aschaffenburg. According to the new law, the BGH would only have been able to confirm the invalidity of the marriage. But the judges ruled that the legislator's strict new regulation was in breach of the Federal Constitution, and particularly against its requirement of child welfare. This would dictate an examination of each situation individually. It was also in violation of the protection of marriage, the BGH stated"
i.e. Banning child marriage is unconstitutional

Refusal to give married same-sex Hong Kong couple public housing ‘unconstitutional’, rules High Court - "The Hong Kong government’s policy of denying legally married same-sex couples the right to apply for public housing is unlawful and unconstitutional, the High Court has declared.The court on Wednesday allowed a judicial review mounted by permanent resident Nick Infinger over the Housing Authority’s decision to bar him and his husband from renting a public housing flat.Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming acknowledged the government was pursuing a legitimate aim of supporting traditional family formations through providing for their housing needs, and that public flats were highly limited.But the judge also concluded that the authority had failed to justify its differential treatment that had “resulted in an unacceptably harsh burden on same-sex couples lawfully married overseas, including the applicant”... It was put forward by the same lawyers – Michael Vidler and barrister Timothy Parker – who in 2018 successfully challenged the city’s immigration policy to grant same-sex partners spousal visas previously available only to heterosexual couples, in a case mounted by a British citizen, known in court as QT... Abraham Chan Lok-shung SC, for the authority, said the government was entitled to deny public housing to same-sex couples because there were not enough flats to meet the demand of the city’s low-income residents."
So they need to recognise polygamous and child marriages performed abroad too

Sweden suffers surge in bomb attacks as gang violence rises - "A surge in drug-linked gang-violence in Sweden led to a 60% increase in bomb blasts in 2019... Sweden has been hit by a wave of shootings and bombings over the past couple of years which police have linked to gang conflicts in major cities, shocking Swedes, who have long considered their country one of the safest in the world... Some 257 bomb attacks were reported to police last year, up from 162 the previous year"
Someone claimed the Netherlands had a similar problem - but they had 117 incidents with illegal hand grenades. In 11 years.

Statistics Sweden: new statistics on how different immigrant groups manage in the Nordics - "Producing statistic for different kinds of immigrant groups has been, and in certain cases remains, controversial. The Nordic statistics agencies stand out in terms of how far they are willing to go. The risk is that the statistics are so detailed and certain immigrant groups are so small that it becomes possible to identify individuals. Some also argue that the statistics could stigmatise certain groups, especially when it is presented in a more popularised form.Statistics Denmark has its own editorial office – Behind the numbers – which popularises the statistics. As early as in 2002 they published an article called “Immigrants are more often criminal”.“The crime rate among first and second generation immigrants is considerably higher than for the population as a whole, shows a report from Statistics Denmark which looks at the link between crime and national origin,” wrote Behind the numbers.“Crime amongst men with foreign heritage was 38 percent higher than for all men in Denmark in 2000, and for women with foreign heritage the number was 27 percent.” The article discussed the reasons behind the difference. Immigrants are for instance younger than the average population, and receive more social support. These groups are linked to a higher level of crime generally. If you take that into account, crime rates are seven percent higher among men with foreign heritage, but one percent lower for women with foreign heritage... [there was a] large flow of refugees in 2015. New groups entered into the country, at the same time as the Sweden Democrats presented numbers for what they believed could be saved by shutting the borders. This made Joakim Ruist aware there was a need to present the facts. Just looking at previous immigration would be wrong, he believes: “Solely looking at an historic average would give you a far too positive image, since the historical average is so dominated by former Yugoslavs, who have done better in the Swedish labour market than most other refugee groups."

Sweden Yes | Know Your Meme - "Sweden has been known for being positive towards non-european immigration, and being the EU member state that accepts the most political refugees. A poll made in January 2015 showed that more than the 70% of the Swedish population was positive towards non-european immigration, 23% of which were very positive towards it"
Sweden in 2015 was the only country in the EU where over half the population was positive towards non-European immigration. Of course, liberals who complain that modern democracies are really oligarchies because they don't reflect common people's preferences think it's a good thing that non-European immigration is encouraged despite popular opinion

Swedish girl, 17, was decapitated 'by Iraqi-born boyfriend' - "Wilma Andersson vanished on November 14 last year and police found a 'body part' two weeks later - which was later revealed to be her head.Her ex-boyfriend Tishko Ahmed Shabaz was arrested at the time and has now been charged with her murder, which he denies.Shabaz is accused of decapitating Wilma when she went to collect her belongings before wrapping her head in foil and hiding it at his home... Prosecutors claim that he murdered Wilma by subjecting her to 'repeated violence'.The rest of Wilma's body has never been found, and relatives have urged people to continue their search... Relatives say that Wilma had gone to her ex-boyfriend's house to pick up her things after ending the relationship.It is also claimed that neighbours heard screaming from the apartment and that Shabaz lied to Wilma's parents by claiming she had left the flat alive.However, Wilma's coat and handbag were allegedly still hanging in the closet, raising doubts over Shabaz's claims"

Rioters who turned Stuttgart into 'a battlefield' chanted 'Allahu Akbar' - "Looters shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as they ransacked shops in Stuttgart on Saturday night and most of those arrested came from a 'migrant background', it has emerged... Hans-Jürgen Kirstein, the head of a police union, told Bild that 'young people with a migration background were at the front of the riots'.German chancellor Angela Merkel today condemned the violence as 'abhorrent' after even paramedics were attacked with bottles while trying to help an injured person."

Swedish Muslims chant about killing Jews at Malmo protest - "Demonstrations by Muslims in the Swedish city of Malmo against a far-right lawmaker turned violent and included chants in Arabic about killing Jews. Some protesters attending at least one of the rallies staged against a plan by Rasmus Paludan, the leader of Denmark’s far-right anti-immigration Hard Line party, to burn a copy of the Quran in Malmo chanted “Khaybar Khaybar oh, Jews, Muhammad’s army will return.”The chants reference a massacre of the Jews in the town of Khaybar, in northwestern Arabia, in 628 C.E. In the rioting, several cars were set ablaze and at least 10 people were arrested."
According to intersectionality, the answer is to blame white people

Funeral of Sudanese asylum seeker, 28, shot dead by police in Glasgow is delayed by an hour - "A Sudanese asylum seeker shot dead after stabbing six people in Glasgow has been buried an hour late after more than a hundred mourners arrived at his funeral.Badreddin Abadlla Adam, 28, was due to be buried at Linn Cemetery in Glasgow at 2pm this afternoon.He was shot by armed officers last month after injuring six people, including police constable David Whyte, 42, during an attack at the Park Inn Hotel in the city."
Another victim of "racism"!

Critical Spectator - Posts | Facebook - "This is how low-wage migrants live in the West. Nobody forced them to. They have happily agreed to these conditions, with 7 living in a windowless basement. Why? To save as much money as they can to afford a new house where they came from. Do you think they suffer badly and complain? Not really - they have their eyes on the prize.The most hysterical complainers make shows of compassion without having the faintest idea how life looks like. Their loud cries in supposed support of who they see as "underprivileged" show how spoiled and out of touch with reality they are... I've never heard anybody say - "I wish I hadn't done that, the bunk bed was terrible! Oh and the smell in the toilet!". Not once.Unless they went abroad to settle down, they would go back to their bunks, to their tiny rooms, to their basements - just to bring back as much as they could. It's natural, it's understandable, it's logical. That's how people climb the social ladder... So, frankly, when I hear all the whining about how bad some migrants have living in crowded dorms I see it as a sign of entitlement of the spoiled middle class who either never knew or have already forgotten how the social ladder is climbed... Let me add this, though - because some people mentioned dishonest employers who cheat these workers or force them into squalid living conditions - that no breach of laws or trust is acceptable. And anybody - any company, any person - found guilty of short-changing or otherwise abusing these hardworking people, should be bankrupted into oblivion and put away behind the bars for 20 years.As long as everything is fair and mutually agreed, however, nobody has any right to interfere with decisions made by free, independent individuals. And the future prosperity of the country cannot be put in harm's way by a bunch of spoiled, self-loathing complainers, who want to feel better about themselves without actually doing anything."

Darren McCaffrey on Twitter - "DENMARK 🇩🇰 will limit number of 'non-Western' residents in neighbourhoods up to 30% within 10 years 'reduce the risk of religious and cultural parallel societies' Interior Minister said term 'ghetto', used to designate disadvantaged areas, would be removed from new legislation"

Southport hotel to host 150 asylum seekers during Covid-19 pandemic
Man rushed to hospital after stabbing at Southport hotel

Meme - "Dawit (22) is born in a body with the wrong nationality. He is what doctors call a transmigrant. ’l’m born in a Sudanese body but I've always known I'm a German!"

Meme - "PLEASE LET US IN SO WE CAN BE VICTIMS OF SYSTEMIC RACISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY"
This liberal claimed that the places people migrated from were even worse, and even conceded that they could be called shithole countries. He didn't reply when I pointed out that China, India and the Philippines were the top sources of migrants to the US in 2019, and asked if he thought they were shitholes where people were at risk of being murdered every day

Facebook - "This is my sister. On Monday night she was attacked by her 15 year old neighbor. He stabbed her in the head and face with a screw driver. She fought him off and was able to escape to a neighbors house to call the police. The boy was taken into police custody and brought to juvenile detention center. No clear motive was ever established... “KEVIN” is a 15 year old refugee from Somalia who lives with his family. He is 6’ and approx 175lbs, much larger than my sister. He has broken into Alicia’s car 3 different times and broken into another neighbors house. The police were involved every single time and reported that nothing could be done since he was a minor. Surely this time would be different, though... On arrival, we learned from that same patient advocate that “KEVIN’S” IQ is 49. This makes him incompetent to aid in his own defense, therefore all charges were formally dismissed by the prosecutor, Sakina Ahmad. We never entered a courtroom, saw a judge, nothing. “KEVIN” was able to go home with a family member. He likely left the building as a free person before we even learned all the above information. The prosecutor sympathized with our frustration and explained that because he is a mentally handicapped, juvenile refugee, every safeguard available is to his benefit and to Alicia’s detriment. She went on to tell us, VERBATIM, that even if alicia had been KILLED, the outcome would be the same and that this case would be dismissed. Now, Go ahead and read that last sentence again. Right!!! She said the best option for Alicia’s safety is to get a restraining order. Luckily for us, alicia initiated that process the day after the attack. When asked what would happen if he violates the protection order, she explained the following scenario:
1. Call the police
2. He will be taken into custody
3. He will be released promptly and the cycle will perpetuate...
Addendum #6
1. Turns out it only took the kid 4 days to violate the restraining order.
2. Tonight (2/26) SLMPD and SWAT stormed his house and took him back into custody.
3. Let’s see how the prosecutors office handles this gift of a second chance they’ve just been given."

St. Louis woman suffers brutal attack by teen, charges dropped - "A St. Louis woman feels like the judicial system failed her, after she said her teenage neighbor attacked her and walked away free. Alicia Clarke said exactly a week ago she went for a quick run outside her south city home. When she came back, she noticed her shoes had been moved to a different spot and her cell phone was gone... Clarke said as he was on her back, he stabbed her in the head and face with a metal rod. She was able to get the weapon out of his hand and ran inside. He ran away again, taking her second cell phone this time. Police arrested the teen on charges of first-degree robbery, second-degree burglary and third-degree assault. Clarke thought the fight was over. But when she went to juvenile court a few days later, she learned his case was dismissed. "The most hurtful thing of all of this, is the dropped charges. That was much more hurtful than the physical assault," Clarke said. A juvenile court official said a staff attorney dropped the case before even going to the judge. The courts weren't able to comment specifically on this incident, since it involves a juvenile. Clarke said she was told her accused attacker was found incompetent to aid in his own defense because he has an IQ of 49. A spokeswoman said in general, circumstances like these leave the court with few options when it comes to a criminal case... Another neighbor who didn't want to go on camera said the teen has also broken into her home and believes he needs to be held accountable. Clarke said the teen has broken into her car three times, but this has been the worst of it. She has a great support system, so she isn't forced to continue living where she said she was attacked."

African Refugees Drown after Mistaking Fishing Ship for Coast Guard and Sinking own Boats (Mirror) - YouTube - "This amateur footage, taken by a Tunisian crewman of a fishing ship, shows the disastrous consequences of the EU's open border policy that permits and encourages the continued scam of illegal African immigrants that deliberately sink their own boats near coast guard vessels to receive a shuttle service to Europe under the disguise of so-called "Syrian refugees". As the African males approach the ship, they capsize their own boats, pretending to be in distress at sea because they assume the ship is equipped to pick up refugees. Is it only after they realize the crew atop the fishing boat is physically unable to provide help that the situation escalates and the Africans start screaming for their life as they drown. The sailor repeatedly shouts "calma" (stay calm) in Italian in the hope that the immigrants heading for Italy prepared with some basic Italian and understand him. The crew were reluctant to help since letting them on board would have been a serious security risk as it would have them outnumbered 10 to 1. There is also the risk of piracy with hijackers posing as refugees as camouflage. They also appear to only have two lifeboats, so throwing one down just so the migrants would sink it would have made no sense for the crew. The only way to help would be individuals of the crew rappelling down to to the sea line, which would most likely result in their own death as the immigrants would drag them down. The EU politicians and all the Leftists supporting the human traffickers and mass invasion of African males by sea are directly responsible for every single death by drowning. If the EU were to pursue a "NO WAY" policy that denies citizenship to anybody illegally approaching the country b boat, such as Australia has done, Europe could successfully reduce the total amount of illegal immigrants coming by sea to zero."
People respond to incentives
Trying to be kind can mean you're being even more cruel (then again, if the migrants drown because they sink their own boat it's not your fault, though of course to liberals it will be)

Refugee says life in hull 'is same as in Iraq' as she struggles to get a home - "her landlord said the house was ‘immaculate’ when they arrived and the tenants had denied access for maintenance workers to assess the mold since 2017. Hull City Council said its environmental health team had also been denied access."
Guess she should go back to Iraq

‘I felt like I was born again’: first non-binary person granted UK refugee status - "The judgment, in the upper tribunal, was decided in the case of Arthur Britney Joestar from El Salvador after concluding that they would face persecution for their identity if they returned to their home country."
Guess the UK is going to see a surge in "non binary" "refugees"