Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam' - "Richard Dawkins has denied using “abusive speech against Islam” after a California radio station cancelled a book event with the scientist, citing his comments on Islam, which it said had “offended and hurt … so many people”... “While KPFA emphatically supports serious free speech, we do not support abusive speech. We apologise for not having had broader knowledge of Dawkins’s views much earlier. We also apologise to all those inconvenienced by this cancellation.”... Dawkins said that he had “never used abusive speech against Islam”, adding that while he has called Islamism “vile”, Islamism is not the same as Islam. “I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief. Far from attacking Muslims, I understand – as perhaps you do not – that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women,” wrote the author in his response. “I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?” He called on the radio station to find examples of abuse, and said that when it “fail[ed] to discover any”, he would expect a public apology. Harvard professor and author Steven Pinker came out in support of Dawkins, writing to KPFA that their decision was “intolerant, ill-reasoned, and ignorant”. “Dawkins is one of the great thinkers of the 20th and 21st century. He has criticised doctrines of Islam, together with doctrines of other religions, but criticism is not ‘abuse’,” said Pinker. “People may get offended and hurt by honest criticism, but that cannot possibly be a justification for censoring the critic, or KPFA would be shut down because of all the people it has hurt and offended over the decades.” Pinker said that the move “handed a precious gift to the political right, who can say that left-leaning media outlets enforce mindless conformity to narrow dogma, and are no longer capable of thinking through basic intellectual distinctions”. The Center for Inquiry, which merged with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science last year, and on whose board of directors Dawkins sits, called the cancellation “unconscionable [and] baseless”. KPFA responded to the Center on Twitter and said that it “exercises its free-speech right not to participate with anyone who uses hateful language against a community already under attack”. In a report about the cancellation, KPFA said it had been contacted by activists who had described Dawkins as “a very well-known Islamophobe” who had vilified Muslims. The radio station cited tweets from Dawkins including one that read: “I think Islam is the greatest force for evil in the world today” and pointed to a recent Telegraph article in which Dawkins was quoted as saying that “if you look at the actual impact that different religions have on the world it’s quite apparent that at present the most evil religion in the world has to be Islam”. The station did not include the Telegraph quote in its entirety, in which Dawkins continues: “It’s terribly important to modify that because of course that doesn’t mean all Muslims are evil, very far from it. Individual Muslims suffer more from Islam than anyone else.”"
From 2017. You're only allowed to criticise one religion
Man Who Doesn't Read The Bible Also Chief Authority On What Jesus Would Do Today | Babylon Bee - ""Just take it from me-- Jesus was all about love and he was never angry or divisive," explained Bivens while adjusting his tortoise-shell glasses. "In fact, if he were here today I'm certain he wouldn't be rebuking people. Instead, he'd celebrate them for being their true selves!" Bivens added, "Jesus would have never been caught dead speaking to the oppressor class either. And he most certainly wouldn't offer salvation to powerful religious leaders, tax collectors, or Roman centurions!""
CBC unveils social justice-themed TV shows for next programming year - "CBC announced its 2023-2024 programming slate for television and CBC Gem, with some shows emphasizing identity politics. “As we announce our new slate of remarkable storytelling, we remain focused on serving Canadians on the platform of their choice and offering what no other media company in this country can: the essential information audiences rely on each and every day, and authentic entertainment that reflects the changing face of Canada,” said CBC Executive Vice-President Barbara Williams in a press release... One More Time — a workplace comedy about hearing-impaired secondhand sporting goods store manager DJ and the team of employees he leads — will be joining the lineup in winter 2024. It added DJ’s positive outlook on life is challenged at every turn, as his team and him struggle to keep the store alive. Allegiance — a drama show about police officer Sabrina Singh finding herself caught between her loyalties to her job, her family, and Canada after her father’s arrest — will launch in winter 2024. This show is a character-driven police procedural about identity and belonging, policing and politics, and finding new paths to truth and justice. Black Life: Untold Stories — an eight-part documentary series which reframes black history in Canada to dispel myths and celebrates these people — will come out in 2023. Telling Our Story — a documentary about 11 indigenous people from Quebec explaining who they are, their world views, and their connections to Canada — will come out in 2023. It is a celebration of indigenous people’s resistance, resilience, and revival. How to Fail as a Popstar — a comedy show adaptation of the book by author Vivek Shraya — will be released in 2023. Following the journey of Shraya as she grew up as a young South Asian queer person in Edmonton, it examines her attempts to achieve pop stardom and what went right and wrong along the way. I Hate People, People Hate Me — a comedy about two friends navigating life as outsiders in Toronto’s queer community — will premiere in 2023. This show explores queer identity at a time when it has been mainstreamed and commodified... CBC launched Lido TV — a children’s show about social justice ideas — in September. “Actual segment from a new CBC children's show called ‘LIDO TV,’ in which ‘host Lido Pimienta … tackles themes ranging from feminism and privilege to colonialism’”"
Angry Twitter Mob Attempts To Cancel 'X-Men' Creator Chris Claremont Over Comments Allegedly Made At Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo - "Most of the information on the panel came from Twitter account ComicsXF, which posted several out-of-context quotes that successfully managed to get an internet mob angry with the X-Men legend’s dry sense of humor... many fans and creators from the #ComicsGate movement, a group that resists extreme identity politics in the mainstream industry and creates comics more in line with mainstream tastes, came to Claremont’s defense; echoing Claremont’s comments lamenting the direction MCU films and X-Men comics have taken due to Disney and Marvel’s woke agenda... YouTuber, Comics by Perch, shared a much more level-headed take on the situation, asserting Claremont’s comments were “the same jokes he’s been telling for twenty years, but hey, it turns out people do not pay attention.”"
Chuck Dixon Rebukes Claims That The X-Men And Comics Have Always Been Woke - "Legendary comic book writer Chuck Dixon known for his runs on Batman, Punisher, Conan, Robin, Birds of Prey, and more recently rebuked claims that the X-Men have always been woke. As part of his on-going Ask Chuck Dixon series, Rising Star Comics queried Dixon, “What do you think when people use X-Men as an example of how ‘comics were always woke/political’? The questioner added, “To me, personally, I always thought that was a weak argument that had no basis in actual fact, because in X-Men up until the aughts, the ‘racism’ angle wasn’t even that core to the X-Men as a whole. It was an action adventure superhero sci-fi fantasy romantic soap opera with everything and the kitchen sink, that had an outsider theme on top of it. Plus, X-Men was often very un-PC, definitely NOT woke, as evident when the same people who parrot that line tried to cancel Chris Claremont last year.” Dixon responded, “It’s funny isn’t it. The thing about wokeism, and political correctness, and all the rest of it is the goalposts are always moving.” “I don’t know Chris Claremont’s politics, but I’ll be you he was pretty much in line with the woke crowd until whatever it was he said or did made them turn on him,” Dixon said. “When you take the X-Men, the original X-Men, in particular, who I saw as a pack of whiners and now you make them victims like professional victims,” he continued. “And I agree with you that the outsider element is cool, but the outsider element is part of every superhero story isn’t it? They have a secret identity. They have an alter-ego. Of course, they are an outsider.” “But taking it this far and then saying the comics are always political. They may have dealt with the issues of the day,” he stated. “I was on a podcast with John Bauer recently and he brought up the fact that the X-Men would often have discussion about religious faith because Kitty Pryde was a Jew, Colossus was an atheist, Kurt was a Catholic, and they would have discussions about these things.” “And it wasn’t trying to tell the reader what to think on those subjects. It was simply the characters exploring these issues and it made them seem deeper, more relatable, more real that they had thoughts like this. That these were independently thinking characters instead of just people on paper,” Dixon elaborated. “And the thing is I’ll hear the argument, ‘Well, Superman was political. Superman, he was a big FDR liberal because he would harass abusive, greedy landlords.’ That’s positing the argument that there’s someone who likes greedy landlords. How is that political? Who likes greedy landlords? Nobody does,” Dixon asserted. “So that’s not political,” he said. “That’s Superman being a vigilante crime fighter. Standing for truth, justice, and the American way. The American way certainly isn’t high rents and throwing orphans into the street. That ain’t the American way. So there’s nothing really political.” “And maybe politics are part of a story, but that doesn’t excuse you injecting your agenda, your political agenda, your personal point of view into superhero stories, and telling the reader what to think or shaming the reader, or literally shaming the reader,” he added. “Telling readers that if you don’t agree with my political stance or the political stance that I’ve put in the mouth of Wolverine or Batman then I don’t want you reading my comics. It’s divisive,” he said. “Comics were never meant to be divisive, they have universal themes. And there are characters you agree with and characters you don’t.” He then provided examples, “Daredevil’s always been the bleeding heart liberal. Frank Castle has always been the direct opposite. “You can argue about Batman’s politics or Ben Grimm’s politics, but in the end it’s about escapist fiction,” Dixon concluded."
Left-Wing Antisemitism Part of Broader Hatreds - "Over the past three weeks, a lot of crazy sh** has been said about the Jews. Following the October 7 onset of hostilities between the nation of Israel and the terrorist group Hamas (sometimes billed as the “nation of Palestine”), a group of tens of thousands of recent migrants to Australia, university students, and others gathered in scenic downtown Sydney and quite literally chanted “Gas the Jews!”... In response to such open and gleeful hatred, more than a few conventional liberals — from comedienne Amy Schumer to the admittedly more heterodox Bill Maher — seem to have had their eyes fully opened as to who their keffiyeh-wearing “allies” truly are . . . at least when it comes specifically to Jewish people. But there is a deeper point, rarely made outside of the hard right, that lurks just beyond the mainstream’s discovery of rampant hard-left antisemitism: The same campus radicals and general hipster fauna quite regularly say worse things about a whole range of other groups than they do about Jews. Whites — regular ol’ Caucasian Americans — represent probably the largest and most obvious such target group. As right-leaning but quite popular figures, such as the various Daily Wire personalities, are beginning to note, open hatred of white people has become something of a pillar of modern leftism. A Google search for the phrase “the problem is white men” turns up an astonishing 2,140,000,000 mostly on-point (at least as per the first 20 pages) results — including such gems as the former CNN feature piece titled “There’s Nothing More Frightening in America Today Than an Angry White Man.” Quite prominent figures regularly say completely insane things about the suntan-challenged. Tenured Rutgers University academic “Professor Crunk” — still flatteringly described on the place’s website as an “unapologetic Black feminist” focused on “accelerating the pace of change” — recently described all Caucasians as villainous monsters on national television, and argued frankly for “taking the motherf***ers out.” Around the same time, massively popular Wild ’N Out TV host Nick Cannon received considerable heat for some antisemitic comments he made on the air . . . but essentially none for saying that white people are “savages” and “a little less” than black people and other so-called people of color. Far further toward the true fringe, of course, the recently released written manifesto of Nashville’s Covenant Christian school shooter focused largely on hate for the white national majority. The shooter at one point actually noted “white privilege” as a motivating factor behind her murder spree. Speaking as a conservative black man, I will note that whites hardly stand alone as a target group for modern leftist rhetoric. A few high-school scuffles aside, almost literally the only people ever to call me a “n*****” or a “coon” have been left-bloc activists — mostly white — accusing me of somehow betraying my tribe. More prominent black conservatives, such as Larry Elder, have faced Chappelle’s Show–level accusations of being “black white supremacists” and “black faces of white supremacy.” A short list of other groups that fairly regularly experience get-on-the-train-style rhetoric might include the rich (“Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist”), gender-critical women (“Punch/Kill TERFS!”), practicing traditional Christians, and in some real sense all non-Indigenous Westerners (“Decolonize NOW!”). I recommend a radical approach to all of this facially vile speech: Sane, armed conservatives should believe what the speakers are saying, and take it seriously. At present, pervasive upper-middle-class postmodernism has significantly influenced even the Western Right, to such an extent that we regularly see serious editorialists and TV men treating things like a full soccer stadium chanting “Kill the Boer . . . kill the white farmer . . . bang bang!!!” as some sort of amusing metaphor — perhaps referencing South Africa’s ongoing spate of lawsuits over land rights. Against this tortured reading, I — not being an idiot — suggest an alternative explanation: When intelligent adult humans say that they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them, I propose that they mean they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them. When citizens say that all American whites are privileged lairds who should lose most of the positions they currently hold, or that minorities can never be effectively racist (unless they’re conservative), or that “the only cure for past discrimination is present discrimination,” or that we need a federal Department of Antiracism with the ability to regulate every business in the U.S., or that borrowing ideas from other cultures should be socially toxic or even illegal, or that “colonizers” should be killed . . . they mean it. So, what to do about all of this, once it is taken seriously? A simple answer would seem to be: React the way that any sane person would to an opponent saying that they hate or wish to kill him. In the wake of the pro-Hamas statements emanating not merely from Harvard but also quite a few other universities following the atrocities of October 7, many donors closed their wallets for good or emphatically threatened to — and this makes hard sense as a form of punishment. At least a dozen major firms are publicly refusing to hire students from any of the Harvard 34, and — whether you approve of this development or not — we seem to be moving toward a sort of “mutually assured destruction” re: cancel culture, which should eventually result in true free speech for all or a return to some damned manners. All of this (and quite a bit more that is yet to come) is good, proper, and sorely overdue. A third or so of the country has been telling us exactly who they are for the past 50 years. It is long past time that we started listening to them — and responding appropriately."
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." - Maya Angelou. But of course it's always out of context or justified when it supports the liberal agenda
Meme - "STAY OUT OF ouR BEDROOM!"
"Pssst... hey, kid"
Meme - Emily Yahr @EmilyYahr: "As Luke Combs's hit cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" dominates the country charts, it's bringing up some complicated emotions in fans & singers who know that Chapman, as a queer Black woman, would have an almost zero chance at that achievement herself"
"Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman was nominated for 3 Grammy Awards including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. She won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best New Artist. She has 7 other nominations for Grammy Awards and two wins."
Meme - "You think our grandparents had it better because they had affordable housing, high religiosity, low divorce rate, low suicide rates, low obesity rates, could easily find jobs and start a happy family? Then how do you explain my made up meme where I imagine your grandma being a child rape victim and your grandpa a closeted transvestite addicted to morphine?"
Meme - "Meet Fatima. She is a Muslim woman who is breaking stereotypes. Fatima makes and sells Heroin and Crystal Meth.
FATIMA: "I wanted to show the world that muslim women are empowered- That muslim women can also be drug dealers."
Zahra: "This is awesome!"
Abdul: "I'm glad to see such an independent muslim woman!"
Aisha: "So happy she's breaking stereotypes!"
German kindergartens promote 'sexual exploration rooms' where children are encouraged to masturbate and touch each other - "Daycare centers in Germany are under fire for promoting the use of “sexual exploration rooms” where young children are encouraged to touch themselves and engage in sexual games with other children. In the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, at least two nurseries are entertaining the idea of safe spaces where young children can retreat to masturbate, or as one daycare center in Kerpen puts it, “discover and satisfy themselves physically.” German newspaper Die Welt reports how the nursery claims to offer “children freedom to try out childish sexuality,” insisting that “masturbation is something normal” and that the establishment considers allowing sexual self-gratification on its premises to be “of great importance.” In another daycare center in the state, this time in the town of Rheinberg, “doctor games” are prepared in adjoining rooms for children to explore the bodies of others, the German newspaper reports. The rules issued by the nursery encourage children to pick those they wish to “explore” and urge them to do so “carefully,” telling them that “no objects are to be introduced into body orifices.” Earlier this year in June, the German tabloid newspaper Bild reported on similar practices being encouraged in a daycare center in Hanover, which came to light after an email was sent to parents. In a 10-point guidance note, the center told parents about its intention to introduce “doctor games” in which children can “pet and examine” themselves and others. “All children, especially preschoolers, are aware of the places in the facility where nudity and body exploration can take place,” the guidance read. “Each child decides for themselves whether and with whom they want to play physical and sexual games. Girls and boys pet and examine each other only as much as is comfortable for themselves and other children.” The concept appeared to be supported by Pro Familia, the leading professional association on sexuality and partnership in Germany, which recently published recommendations to daycare centers encouraging the practice. Following a public backlash, the Awo-Kita kindergarten in Hanover canceled the project after a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education in the Lower Saxony state capital said “the educational concept in this form endangers the well-being of the child.” The CEO of the nursery group’s management company later claimed that the letter to parents had not been approved by the head office, Der Spiegel reported in July. In North Rhine-Westphalia, however, the local government does not appear to be fazed by the practice. When asked by Die Welt about the idea of children being encouraged to masturbate and touch each other sexually, the state’s children’s ministry, led by Green Josefine Paul, claimed that “sexual behavior by children” could “not be prevented” and insisted it had no plans to contact the daycare centers within its remit to discuss the matter."
‘Body exploration rooms’ banned at German nurseries - "A chain of German kindergartens has been banned from setting up “body exploration rooms” for young children to undress and play games. The “doctor game”, in which children under the age of six examine or touch each other’s naked body parts, has been formally regulated in a growing number of nurseries around the country over the past decade. Some German childcare professionals and psychologists argue that if children are taught to play the game within certain boundaries they will have a healthier relationship with their bodies in later life. However, the phenomenon has prompted a wave of moral outrage in recent weeks after at least two kindergartens were revealed to have created dedicated spaces for pre-schoolers to “explore their physicality”. First the Queen Maria Catholic nursery in the southwest German village of Tennenbronn told parents it was setting up a “safe room” for children to embark on a “journey to their bodies” under adult supervision, subject to parental consent. One local newspaper columnist denounced the concept as a “paradise for paedophiles” and other critics said it amounted to sexualising children, before the kindergarten beat a hasty retreat. Then another daycare centre run by the Workers’ Welfare Association in Hanover announced a similar scheme. In a letter to parents it said the children were naturally playing the doctor game in bathrooms or “bushes” anyway, and it would be more sensible to encourage them to play it with adult guidance and fixed rules. Such rules include that “boys and girls will only stroke or examine one another as much as they themselves and the other children are comfortable with” and “no child will put any object in another child’s bodily orifices”. The youth office for the surrounding state of Lower Saxony swiftly prohibited the practice, which it said posed a danger to child welfare. It is reviewing training manuals distributed to daycare centres by ProFamilia, one of Germany’s largest sex education charities. ProFamilia’s representatives have been promoting the concept since at least as far back as 2013, when two of its counsellors told a national newspaper that small children were already “sexual creatures” and carefully supervised “body exploration games” with clear rules were a healthy part of child development. The organisation went further in a detailed report published the following year, which was endorsed by theminister for labour and social affairs in the southwest state of Baden-Württemberg. It set a template for rules, which appear to have been adopted almost word for word by the two nurseries facing criticism now. ProFamilia advised against policing too strictly: “You can’t set the boundaries on the doctor game so narrowly that no child can cross them. Otherwise the effect would be a total restriction of [the child’s] pleasure experience and curious exploration.”"
Meme - "Hey, this thing happened to me"
"It's never happened to me, I don't think it happens."
"I'm telling you it does"
"It's happened to me too" - many people
"It's never happened to me, I don't think it happens."
"Replace "this thing" with "aliens abducted" or "God spoke to me in a dream" or "I saw Bigfoot" and then suddenly the point of this cartoon is lost on me."
"Vague as hell, but this reminds me of a feminist group where the woman said she had two babies at the same time from different fathers ("superfundication") One person said it basically never happens, but there were at least a dozen women who all had "friends that happened to" in the comments. Mind you for that group there might be like 15 unique commenters on an average post so it was most of the comments. Then I google it and it happens globally like 15 times per year. Must be a huuuuuuuge coincidence."
"So... All the people who claim covid vaccines are dangerous are right?"
Lived experience is only valid when it affirms liberal ends