Monday, September 18, 2023

Links - 18th September 2023 (1 - General Wokeness)

Joel Kotkin: The left-wing racial agenda is a throwback to the racist days of old - "After steady progress towards “race-blind” governance, the notion of equal treatment is disappearing in a frenzy of ethnic self-assertion and white guilt.The new racialized politics sunders the basis for liberal societies, essentially diminishing the value of merit and hard work. Some advocates even support separate living places on college campuses, a chilling reprise of segregation. Elsewhere, grade schoolers are instructed that America is based on lies and its current systems and structures are irredeemable. There are cases of schools separating third-graders by race and asking them to rank their “privilege.”The wellspring for this movement lies on college campuses, where whiteness is sometimes treated like a social disease. Evergreen University’s “Day of Absence” instructed white students to leave campus, and the University of Florida’s “BIPOC Anthropology town hall” excluded whites. Canadian universities, like their American counterparts, have become enamoured with guilt-tripping whites, accusing them collectively for the damage done to First Nations, irrespective of when their families arrived or any traceable culpability.  The advocates of the emerging racial state generally dismiss the fundamentals of democracy — the rule of law, open debate, equal treatment — perceiving them to be subtle instruments of white supremacy. They often want to replace the ideal of merit with a regime in which decisions are largely shaped by race and gender. Sadly, the Biden administration has followed this approach while some blue states employed racial “qualifications” for vaccines, even though it was clearly the elderly, whatever their ethnicity, who were most vulnerable.   Race-centrism has become the modern equivalent of Catholic dogma, once a requirement at church-run colleges. Now some legal and medical establishments routinely publish pledges in support of an omnipresent diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda. DEI-related courses are now required of all students at the State University of New York; job applicants at Ohio State’s engineering school must sign a pledge to promote the progressive race agenda. A recent American Enterprise Institute study found that in a survey of 999 jobs, “19 per cent require diversity statements, while 68 per cent include the terms ‘diversity’ or ‘diverse’ in some fashion, often as a way of describing the university environment.”   Although racism has been a component of the human condition from time immemorial, race has often not been the primary motivation for human behaviour. Indeed, for most of history, even slavery was not based on race — instead, slaves were sourced from the ranks of subjugated war prisoners, conquered peoples and the destitute. Turkish slavers and other Muslim regimes bound over a million eastern Europeans for servants, concubines, soldiers and even administrators... Critically, National Socialism enjoyed strong support from within the academic and artistic community. Resentment about the past provided the essential fuel for racialism. Nazis blamed Jews and communists for Germany’s loss in the First World War and the economic catastrophe that followed. Today, we see this as even ancient past sins of racial oppression are not forgiven but used to justify exactions, financial and otherwise, from the white majority. Many Americans’ ancestors did not even get to the country before slavery was abolished in 1865... When minorities murder their own people — such as the killing of Tyre Nichols by Black policemen in Memphis or the Asians assaulted and killed by an Asian assailant in California — the perpetrators’ actions are routinely blamed on omnipresent white supremacy... Canada’s current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has backed an increasingly racialized public policy; there are even efforts to adjust criminal sentence by ethnicity. Some also want to impose climate reparations on western industrial countries and within the United States, given that minorities often live in environmentally hazardous areas...   California was never a slave state, so it seems like a strange place to lead on reparations, particularly for African-Americans. Slavery existed widely only before the U.S. seizure of the territory... Blacks were never an especially large group in California and constitute only about five per cent of the population today, less than half the national average. But they have left a powerful imprint well beyond their numbers... Yet despite this history, the racial statists in California have succeeded in passing a grade-school curriculum that categorizes all whites, no matter their origins, as enjoying “white privilege.”... This approach is ideal for fostering racial discord, particularly in a state with such a varied ethnic history, and in which Latinos make up nearly half the poverty population... African-Americans may favour reparations, but the proposal registers large disapproval ratings, notes Pew, not just among whites but also among Hispanics and Asians. Sadly, none of this is likely to address the real problems facing African-Americans, in California or elsewhere. The state, suffering a troubling budget deficit, clearly does not have the resources to fund a massive racial spoils system. It’s also evident that the state’s generally progressive policies are failing many African-Americans, whose percentage of the population has fallen consistently since 1980. In a recent study of minority success, the three worst regions for Black economic upward mobility are all in the Golden State, including San Francisco and Los Angeles... Sociologist John McWhorter, for example, suggests that a “true and healthy history of Black America” would also focus on the enormous cultural, political and economic successes of African-Americans since the end of slavery... What working-class minorities need is not more Maoist “struggle sessions” but pro-family and pro-growth policies that address the needs of the broad working class."

Where Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch keep finding common ground
Damn white supremacy!

Meme - "Edit: I don't care about Prager. I just think it's funny the "don't worry about what teachers choose to teach your kids" crowd is suddenly worried. It begins..."
"K-5 ELA Supplemental Book Opt-Out Form
I have reviewed this overview of the K-5-ELA text titles with my child. I'am aware of the texts that will be used as part of the carefully planned instructional program, but I would prefer that my child not participate in the reading of the titles listed in the space below:
My Child is Not Allowed to see, OR be exposed to ANY PragerU materials at all! Thank you!"
Dawn Wynn: "If you're in Florida, write one for your child. Opt out!!!"
What liberals mean is that kids can be taught as much liberal material as teachers want, but dangerous conservative ideas must be banned. Of course this doesn't count as book bans

Meme - "VALUES OF THE WOKE:
You are what your imagination says you are.
Obedience is strength.
Bravery is dangerous.
Victimizing yourself is powerful.
Self responsibility is someone elses responsibility.
Reality isn't real."

Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 on X - "Militant far-left protesters & #trans activists refused to disperse from an intersection in Los Angeles they occupied to try to violently stop a parental rights rally that was deemed "anti-LGBT." LAPD forcibly shoved them back. Video by @AnthonyCabassa_"

12-Year-Old Boy Removed From School Over 'Don't Tread on Me' Patch - "Jaiden is a 12-year-old boy who attends the Vanguard School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is the subject of a video that went viral on social media; it shows the boy and his mother confronting a school administrator who asserts that the Gadsden flag patch on his backpack violates district policy.  "The reason that we do not want the flag displayed is due to its origins with slavery and the slave trade," says the administrator...  it has its origins in the Revolutionary War and was intended as a symbol of resistance to British tyranny... "There is nothing inherently disruptive about a student displaying a Gadsden flag patch on his backpack," writes Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. "Public school administrators can't ban the expression of an idea, symbol, or viewpoint just because they personally dislike it."  Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also came to Jaiden's defense, describing the flag's message as "iconic" in a post on X... Polis reaffirmed his comment and noted that he also agreed with sentiments expressed by Rep. Ted Lieu (D–Calif.).  "I oppose banning the Gadsden flag in schools for the same reason I oppose conservative schools districts that ban LGBTQ flags in schools," wrote Lieu. "Let kids be their authentic selves and give them a world of information—students can figure out what's important to them.""

Meme - Normal Person: "I don't think people should be treated differently based on their skin color"
Liberal: "NAZI!!!"

Everyone 'Jaywalks,' But Black Pedestrians Are Disproportionately Cited. Will California 'Decriminalize Walking?' - "police in many U.S. cities — including Los Angeles — disproportionately stop and cite Black pedestrians for jaywalking. In L.A., nearly a third of pedestrians issued jaywalking tickets over the last decade were Black — in a city with a 9% Black population... Pedestrians who identified as Indigenous, Native Hawaiian, Native Alaskan or Pacific Islander were issued 25 tickets in total across those 11 years, representing 0.07% of citations. Combined, those communities represent about 0.9% of the city’s population... A recent study from UCLA found that Black residents are disproportionately hurt and killed in traffic crashes. Over five years of study, the data showed that one in every four people killed in a crash was either a Black or Latino pedestrian."
Clearly everyone jaywalks at the same rate and in the same contexts, so any racial disparity must be racism. Black pedestrians being more likely to be hurt and killed in traffic crashes must be due to racist drivers targeting them - it cannot be because they jaywalk more
Indigenous people are benefiting from anti-blackness. Time to challenge the biases in the system! Anti-indigenous racism is a lie!

Fresno Gunman Targeted 'as Many White Males as Possible,' Cops Say - "The California man accused of killing three men in a random shooting spree in Fresno on Tuesday is a hate-filled racist who'd planned "to kill as many white males as possible," the police chief said Wednesday.  Kori Ali Muhammad, 39, surrendered to police Tuesday after having fired 17 shots in less than a minute at four locations in an area near Fresno's office of Catholic Charities, police said... Muhammad is black, and all of Tuesday's victims were white. Social media accounts linked to Muhammad expressed anti-white and anti-government sentiments, Police Chief Jerry Dyer said, and he has advocated creation of a separate country for all of the United States' non-white residents. "Kori Muhammad is not a terrorist," Dyer said. "But he is a racist, and he is filled with hate."... In Muhammad's view, "white people were responsible for keeping the black people down," said Dyer, who described Muhammad as "callous and laughing" throughout the interview."
Obviously anti-white racism is a myth and we must continue to bang on about "white supremacy" and shaming white people
Weird. I thought only white people aren't deemed terrorists

Meme - *Baton Roue/Bike Fall*
Black person: "Fucking white people"
Black person: "White people pls help!"
White person: "Hey, that's my bike!"

Meme - The Rabbit Hole: "Equity is selectively applied
*3 white lawyers*. NPC: "Need more equity!"
*1 Indian, 2 Asian doctors*. NPC: "Need more equity!"
*3 black Basketball players*. NPC: "Perfect."

Fan ejected from US Open match after shouting former German national anthem phrase associated with Hitler - "A fan was ejected from a match at the US Open on Monday, organizers said, after German player Alexander Zverev complained about hearing the individual use a since-removed phrase from the German national anthem, which Germany reinterpreted as a call for Nazi superiority during World War II...   “He just said the most famous Hitler phrase there is in this world, it’s unacceptable,” Zverev said on-court at the time. “This is unbelievable.”  Zverev told reporters that he heard the individual singing the words “Deutschland über alles,” which translates to “Germany above all.”  The verse of the anthem was written as a call for unity in Germany in the 1800s. However, the lyrics took on new meaning as a rallying cry celebrating what Nazis believed was their superiority and was removed from the song after the war."
We will still be told that liberals don't hate their countries

Notre Dame students demand to read fewer white male scholars - "A group of students at the University of Notre Dame is demanding that courses be reworked to reduce the number of reading materials penned by white, male scholars in an effort to “eliminate the violence of only privileging white scholarship.”  It’s one of several demands the “End Hate at ND” group has put forth recently. The group describes itself as “an initiative for organizing civil action against racist, xenophobic, sexist, trans-exclusionary, & queer-phobic structures at Notre Dame.”   The protesters’ demands also include diversity trainings in dorms, an end to a longstanding campus policy that forbids students from spending the night in the dorms of the opposite sex, and calls for the university to work with local Native American tribes.  As for the demand labeled “Decolonize Academia,” the student activists argue “cultural competence is key in building empathy for marginalized folks.” With that, “no course or program of study should have a view limited to white, western, and/or male voices. We demand that people who are of Color, Indigenous, Black, queer, or not male are represented in the authorship of at least half course and major required readings,” the demand states.   “Diversifying the canon helps eliminate the violence of only privileging white scholarship,” it adds.  Meanwhile, “End Hate at ND” also held two protests this past week to challenge a dorm policy they say they believe enforces a “white, cis-heteronormative hegemony.”  Students of the opposite sex are not permitted to enter the living areas of all-female or all-male residence halls after midnight on weekdays and 2:00 a.m. on weekends — a policy known as parietals.  But this policy puts LGBTQ students in danger, the student activists allege.  “Parietals effectively erase the presence of queer folks on Notre Dame’s campus. They help enforce heteronormativity and gender norms that propagate homophobia in the form of microaggressions, slurs, and a spirit of exclusion,” said junior David Philllips... Three students who identified themselves as protesters in a column in the Observer are members of Notre Dame’s student government or judicial council. One of the leaders of the protest, Anne Jarrett, is director of gender relations in student government... Jarrett faced a controversial confirmation hearing in April for her student government position as a result of her comments: “men are gross and they don’t deserve opinions” and “Catholic marriage isn’t about love.”...   A graduate student who identifies as transgender and attended Notre Dame as an undergraduate wrote in to the Observer on Nov. 25 saying parietals “offered some of the most comforting environments for me.”"
Hating white men is good, of course

Meme - *Black man with Confederate flag and White man with Black Lives Matter flag*

Saira Khan claims Asian culture has held her back more than racism - "Saira Khan claims her Pakistani culture has been more restrictive to her progression than any racism she has encountered as an Asian woman in the United Kingdom.   The Loose Women panellist was born and raised in Derbyshire to working class immigrant parents from Pakistan administered Kashmir.   But University of Brighton educated Saira, 50, insists she encountered no significant social boundaries while growing up on a council estate and credited British society for helping her make something of herself... 'As a woman in a mixed marriage with a mixed race child, I can say from first hand experience, there is prejudice on both sides - it is not just White people hating on those of colour. 'The colour of my skin has not hindered my progress in this country. In fact right now, the world we live in, it’s an advantage to be a woman of colour, because there is a need from all institutions for better representation of our society.  'The focus on white people and their unconscious bias has been documented well.'  The presenter also urged minority groups to examine their own feelings towards other cultures, religions and skin colours... 'Being a victim is easy. Getting off your a**e and making it happen with the right attitude is bloody hard. But that’s what it takes.'... Saira previously announced she's no longer a practising Muslim after years of feeling 'guilty, caged and unhappy'."
Clearly internalised racism, Islamophobia and white supremacy!

Holocaust survivor Mayor Adams compared to a ‘plantation’ owner claps back - "Holocaust survivor Jeanie Dubnau, who Mayor Adams likened to a plantation owner earlier this week, struck back with her own comparison Friday — telling the Daily News in an interview that Adams’ remarks to her were “a little bit like Trump.”"

Hull pre-school withdraws book showing man in 'leather fetish gear' - "A nursery has withdrawn a book about a grandad and his memories of attending Pride marches with his partner.... Trustees agreed the images were "not age appropriate". The book was marked as suitable for age four plus.  Andy Train, chair of Hull's LGBT+ Forum, labelled the depiction of the gay man "stereotypical"... A "comprehensive audit of all other books" was also ordered.  Mr Taylor claimed the pre-school "tried to defend the images" when he first raised concerns.  He said: "They called me offensive for even raising the issue. I was having none of that because there's nothing offensive about raising a safeguarding concern.  "We have got two images in this book which are erotic and sexual in nature. I don't know what planet they're on but you do not show four-year-old children pictures of men in leather fetish gear."  Mr Taylor said he took offence at the pre-school's initial response to his complaint.  He said: "They did not use the word 'bigot'. But from their use of the word 'offensive' and their constant focus on the rest of the book, which was about celebration of Pride, they seemed to be heavily implying I was some kind of transphobe or homophobe. Mr Taylor said he had "a long, positive history" with the LGBT movement and had been a volunteer at Pride events in Hull and York.  He added: "I've been to gay bars and clubs more times than I can count."  Asked whether young children would necessarily see the images as erotic, Mr Taylor replied: "They [Genesis Pre-School] said, 'You know it's erotic, we know it's erotic. But that's just our opinion because we're grown-ups. A child would not understand it to be erotic'.  "Just because a child does not understand what is going on or what it means doesn't mean it's appropriate."  Mr Taylor said he had "lost all trust and confidence" in the nursery, leading to his decision to remove his daughter. In a statement, Andersen Press, which publishes Grandad's Pride, said it stood by its author and illustrator Harry Woodgate.  It added the illustrations were "a faithful representation of Pride celebrations"."
Parents remove their four-year-old daughter from pre-school after she was shown 'Grandad's Pride' book featuring men in bondage gear and trans 'top surgery' that was written by winner of Waterstones Children's Book Prize - "A couple have taken their four-year-old daughter out of a pre-school after they say they were branded bigots for complaining about a book featuring men in bondage and with trans 'top-surgery' scars... 'Grandad's Pride' is the creation of Waterstones children's book winning author and illustrator Harry Woodgate - who uses they/them pronouns... 'We identified two images of men who are partially naked in leather bondage gear. One has a leather cod-piece moulded tightly around his crotch along with garters running down his thighs. 'He also has a studded dog collar around his neck and knee-high boots. Both have various leather straps around their bodies and studs/spikes.  'The main and most immediate concern is that children have been exposed to at least two age-inappropriate sexual or erotic images of a man in what can only be reasonably described as 'bondage/fetish/BDSM' gear... The trustees says the book is widely available at bookstores and libraries in East Yorkshire and was a Waterstones children's prize book winner... 'We discussed the images of the Pride parade during our stringent and robust editorial process and decided collectively that we should show a true representation of what a Pride march looks like and what the many children who attend these events see.  'We consider accusations of 'hidden messages' to be baseless, deeply offensive and homophobic.'"
Weird. Schools sexualising children was supposed to be a paranoid right wing conspiracy theory
"This is not happening, and it's good that it is". If you don't expose your kids to sexualised Pride images, you're a homophobe
Damn book bans! We must show kids porn or it's censorship!

Sorcery-related violence should be thought of as profoundly modern - "Our team of researchers in Australia and PNG have just released some findings from our multi-year study of Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV) which help to better understand the phenomenon being reported, as well as correcting some of the many misunderstandings surrounding this form of violence. SARV is prevalent across PNG, even in Port Moresby. We have documented cases involving 156 victims of SARV just in the National Capital District (NCD) – the province where Port Moresby is located – over the past three-and-a-half years, including 14 deaths, 12 victims suffering permanent physical injury and 36 victims of major physical violence such as burning and cutting... SARV is frequently portrayed as being a “barbaric” practice from “ages past”, but in many ways it is a highly modern phenomenon.  The current ways SARV manifests are the result of poverty, inequality, normalisation of violence and precarity of lives and livelihoods. Modern social media and communication also facilitate the spread of contagious narratives about sorcery and the justification of use of violence against those accused... Globally, there have been 20,000 cases of harm related to beliefs in witchcraft and ritual attacks in the past decade, many of which occur in urban contexts, according to recent research.  SARV is better framed as a form of extreme violence closely associated with pressures created or exacerbated by modernity than as a barbaric relic from the past... The case reported involved two women, and the dominant stereotype of a victim of SARV is a woman. In fact, a roughly equal number of men and women are victims of these attacks in Port Moresby, although gendered patterns vary considerably across the country where some places predominantly have female victims and others male."
Cultural imperialism!
Clearly in the past no one got attacked for being a magic user, since that is the fault of modernity

'Indian students preferred': Discriminatory rental ads have people shying away from applying
Vancouver racist rental requirement is illegal: lawyer - "An online rental listing in Vancouver that specified “No Indian” would be illegal to enforce, but a lawyer says it could be tough for those it discriminates against to pursue legal action.  On Monday, a Craigslist listing was posted for a one-bedroom apartment near the PNE grounds that said “No Indian (because they don’t pay rent, and damaged my place),” along with a number of other stipulations...   A lawyer with the Tenant Resource Advisory Centre (TRAC), Robert Patterson, says not only is it illegal to refuse tenancy based on race, but it’s also against the law to do so on the basis of income as was also specified in the listing."
Racism is only bad when it's in one direction. There's no flurry of huffy media articles about the more prevalent phenomenon. And let's not even talk about sex discrimination

National Film Board Says 30% of Films It's Funding Will Be Made by Artists Identifying as Black, 'People of Colour' - "The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) says that by March 2025, more than 30 percent of its productions will be directed by filmmakers and artists who self-identify as black and “People of Colour.” The federal agency said it is delivering on its commitment to “equity, diversity and inclusion commitments”... The NFB released its fall line-up of programming, which includes a Residential Schools channel starting on Sept. 30 and a Representing Gender Equality and Diversity Channel."
Structural racism is good when it's anti-white

The Case Against Liberal Compassion - "All conservatives are painfully aware that liberal activists and publicists have successfully weaponized compassion...  if liberalism is the politics of kindness, it follows that its adversary, conservatism, is the politics of cruelty, greed, and callousness. Liberals have never been reluctant to connect those dots.. “I argue to my most liberal friends: ‘You ought to be the most offended of anybody if a dollar that could help a poor person is being squandered in some way.’ And,” the governor added slyly, “some of them actually agree.”  The clear implication—that many liberals are not especially troubled if government dollars that could help poor people are squandered—strikes me as true, interesting, and important. Given that liberals are people who: 1) have built a welfare state that is now the biggest thing government does in America; and 2) want to regard themselves and be regarded by others as compassionate empathizers determined to alleviate suffering, it should follow that nothing would preoccupy them more than making sure the welfare state machine is functioning at maximum efficiency. When it isn’t, after all, the sacred mission of alleviating preventable suffering is inevitably degraded.  In fact, however, liberals do not seem all that concerned about whether the machine they’ve built, and want to keep expanding, is running well. For inflation-adjusted, per capita federal welfare state spending to increase by 254 percent from 1977 to 2013, without a correspondingly dramatic reduction in poverty, and for liberals to react to this phenomenon by taking the position that our welfare state’s only real defect is that it is insufficiently generous, rather than insufficiently effective, suggests a basic problem... “There’s a lesson here that liberals apparently need to learn over and over: Good intentions without proper administration can undermine even the most noble of goals.” That such an elementary lesson is one liberals need to learn over and over suggests a fundamental defect in liberalism, however—something worse than careless or inept implementation of liberal policies.  That defect, I came to think, can be explained as follows: The problem with liberalism may be that no one knows how to get the government to do the benevolent things liberals want it to do. Or it may be, at least in some cases, that it just isn’t possible for the government to bring about what liberals want it to accomplish. As the leading writers in The Public Interest began demonstrating almost 50 years ago, the intended, beneficial consequences of social policies are routinely overwhelmed by the unintended, harmful consequences they trigger. It may also be, as conservatives have long argued, that achieving liberal goals, no matter how humane they sound, requires kinds and degrees of government coercion fundamentally incompatible with a government created to secure citizens’ inalienable rights, and deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed... I conclude that the machinery created by the politics of kindness doesn’t work very well—in the sense of being economical, adaptable, and above all effective—because the liberals who build, operate, defend, and seek to expand this machine don’t really care whether it works very well and are, on balance, happier when it fails than when it succeeds... The whole point of compassion is for empathizers to feel better when awareness of another’s suffering provokes unease. But this ultimate purpose does not guarantee that empathizees will fare better... The pathology of pathological altruism is not the failure to salve every wound. It is, rather, the indifference—blithe, heedless, smug, or solipsistic—to the fact and consequences of those failures, just as long as the empathizer is accruing compassion points that he and others will admire. As philosophy professor David Schmidtz has said, “If you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, it isn’t.”   Indeed, if you’re trying to prove your heart is in the right place, the failure of government programs to alleviate suffering is not only an acceptable outcome but in many ways the preferred one... the politics of kindness is about validating oneself rather than helping others, which means the proper response to suffering is always, “We need to do more,” and never, “We need to do what we’re already doing better and smarter.”"
Liberals like to confuse intentions and spending with outcomes. Which is why their "solution" is always to spend even more money
The perils of virtue signalling - it's more important to look good than to do good

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