Links - 18th May 2024 (2)

Thailand’s ‘Real Cheese Burger’ is a surreal insult to food - "It’s always alarming when a fast-food chain says, “This is no joke.”  But, first, a message to all cardiologists in Thailand: Take your vitamins. Get some rest while you can. I fear you will be very busy in the months ahead.  In what may be the worst menu addition since Taco Bell unleashed bowel hell with its Waffle Taco, Burger King Thailand is now selling “The Real Cheese Burger.”  Yes, “cheeseburger” is usually one word. That’s when it contains meat, toppings, condiments, sauces. This “cheese burger” is two words: absolutely disgusting.  It seems the misanthropes at Burger King Thailand had a revelation: “What if we sold a cheeseburger that was an actual cheese burger? Forget the patty. Our customers will get 20 slices of processed cheese on a sesame seed bun. It could be magical!”... Cheese is delightful. It comes in a wide variety of tastes, textures and styles. An aged cheddar can make you feel young again. I was once dining with Frank D’Angelo at his bistro on King West and he said, “You gotta try the Parmigiana Reggiano.” Soon, a tiny barbershop quartet was harmonizing atop my tongue.  A nibble of brie or Camembert at a garden soirée? Wonderful. Trying to unhinge your jaws wide enough to choke down what looks like a stack of Kraft Singles the height of a garden shed? Revolting. Why not just tie off a vein and mainline Velveeta? An unscientific review this week of the early customer reviews for the Real Cheese Burger are in the ratings range of “Queen Cleopatra” on Rotten Tomatoes. Those who dared to order the Real Cheese Burger found it hard to red-line past three bites. It was described as weird, dry, gross, horrid, scary and, for one customer, nightmarish.  In other words, exactly what you might expect by looking at the revolting photo"

Summer’s war on taste buds starts with ketchup cotton candy - "Remember when ketchup was squirted on hot dogs and not molecularly engineered in a gustatory lab to flavour carnival treats? I miss those days. Condiments were condiments. Desserts were desserts. No menu item was revolting... Now food companies hire mad scientists who can devise ways to stir gummy worms into a Bouillabaisse. Big Food has gone Big Nuts.  And this time they have gone too far.  More proof of the empty-calorie apocalypse arrived this week. The press release would leave even an extreme eating champ feeling queasy. French’s, the sauce behemoth, has teamed up with Treats for Us, a Canadian confectionary... Their new gag reflex is called “French’s Ketchup Cotton Candy.”  Per the release, it features “100 per cent Canadian tomatoes,” a coveted ingredient in all sugary treats. It also promises to be “curiously delicious,” which is the semantic equivalent of “pleasantly terrifying.”... “Why are so many bizarre foods launched in summertime?”  Winter is the best grazing season. There is an evolutionary emphasis on hearty comfort food. When it’s minus 25, nobody wants tenderloin tiramisu. The cold helps our stomachs see straight. The hot makes us susceptible to culinary crimes against humanity such as Ghost Pepper Banana Splits or O. Henry Haggis... We need to take a stand against the bizarre foods foisted upon us every summer. Silence is palate violence. A milkshake should not contain rutabaga. A Neapolitan scoop should not be topped with dead crickets. This is not complicated. Improving cotton candy with a ketchup infusion is like trying to patch a bike tire with thumbtacks. You’re just making everything worse."

Singapore’s Disappearing Ice Cream Sandwiches Are Thriving in Vietnam - "“Ice cream? From Singapore, this one,” an employee materialised beside me, brandishing a laminated menu. Familiar flavours such as corn, taro, and durian greeted me. Besides the requisite wafers, the stall also offers the classic sweet rainbow bread to pair with the ice cream. Just like how it is at home... one of the stalls I’d seen in Hanoi—Hawker Star—is part of a chain founded by Vietnamese couple Thach Van Thang, 39, and Dang Thi Thanh Hoa, 38...   The business launched in May 2020, and they claim to be the first to bring the local dessert to their country. Not without some help from Singaporeans, though.  A team of three Singaporean entrepreneurs, Ng Shi Yang and Pang Daowei, both 36, and Lin Hansheng, 41, hatched the idea. The execution was a different matter. They needed someone with intimate knowledge of how things are run in Vietnam, along with connections to local suppliers.   The Singaporeans reached out to the importer of Magnolia ice cream in Vietnam, who happened to be Thang’s family friend. Thang had a background in engineering but had always wanted to start a business. The partnership took off from there.   To say it’s doing well would be an understatement. In just three years, the chain has grown to 23 outlets spread across Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, as well as smaller provinces such as Vĩnh Phúc and Kon Tum. They also deliver the ice cream sandwiches straight to doorsteps, GrabFood-style... Vietnam has their own version of the dessert: Ice cream banh mi, a delectable concoction of ice cream scooped into a banh mi baguette, topped with condensed milk and roasted peanuts.  On TikTok, Hawker Star calls the Singapore-style ice cream sandwich an “upgraded version” of ice cream banh mi with imported ice cream. Hoa tells me that they gravitated to the Singaporean ice cream sandwich as they loved the taste of ice cream banh mi as children but found the quality of their own local ice cream brands lacking... A Voice of Vietnam article spotlighting the trend says that locals are a fan as they are fruity and “not too sweet” (the quintessential compliment for any Asian dessert). In Singapore, on the other hand, the ice cream sandwich isn’t doing so well. A large factor is the dwindling number of ice cream street hawkers.  Over 20 years ago, there were 30 ice cream hawkers along Orchard Road. Now there are just seven.   New licenses aren’t being issued as the intention is to phase out street hawking, then Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said in 2016.  With the number of street hawkers whittling down as they retire or pass away, seeing an ice cream uncle around your neighbourhood is like striking the lottery...   I ask Thang and Hoa if they are aware of the dwindling ice cream hawker numbers in Singapore. They both nod, offering up wry smiles.   They obviously can’t do anything about the situation here. What they hope to do is keep the legacy alive in Vietnam, Hoa says.   Though they haven’t spent a significant amount of time in Singapore, they still feel an affinity for the country. And with ice cream banh mi becoming harder to find nowadays, they can relate to keeping a culinary tradition alive...   Keeping them as close to the original taste as possible is key. They import the exact same Magnolia ice cream that hawkers in Singapore use. They hunted far and wide in Vietnam for a supplier who’d be able to replicate the iconic rainbow bread... Setting up actual ice cream sandwich shops would definitely cost more than a hawker stand and might not be sustainable given the high overhead costs in Singapore.   It’s just sad because the ice cream sandwich is still well-loved here. Singaporeans were quick to jump to the dessert’s defence in 2016 when a Buzzfeed listicle dissed it...   It’s lamentable that a nostalgic Singaporean dessert might soon be more common on the streets of Vietnam. But at the same time, it’s comforting that ice cream sandwiches will live on in Vietnam, even if they disappear from our streets."
Vietnamese ice cream must be really shit for Singapore ice cream to be considered good quality

Meme - Mirax @miraxpath: "Think of the kind of mind that produces this filth. Joker  uses the word "becoming" as if kafir females have choice. We have #yazidi women & girl children who were enslaved in recent years as evidence of what kind of utter degenerates these people are."
Amaar ⚔️ @amaaralmadani: "Why becoming a concubine is the best thing to happen to a kāfir woman after a war with the Muslims.  ( a thread 🧵 )"

Meme - Hunter📈🌈 @StatisticUrban: "Wait the US Secret Service has a “take your kid to work” day and it’s actually really adorable. *kids dressed as agents*"

I Think Everybody Should Get Rich and Famous So They Can See That That’s Not the Answer – Quote Investigator® - "In December 2005 Canadian actor and comedian Jim Carrey spoke with journalist Jay Stone, and “The Ottawa Citizen” of Canada printed the following remarks from Carrey... 'He says that earlier in his career, he believed that making just one more film, getting one more hit, would be enough, but he got tired of being emotionally disappointed.      “You just go like, ‘Yeah, it was a fantastic hit, but what now?’” Carrey’s advice: “I think everybody should get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that that’s not the answer.”'... During subsequent years the phrasing of the quotation has been altered."

Meme - "THE 80'S. When you can have a cartoon that heavily features rainbows without people thinking the main character is gay. *Rainbow Brite*"

Meme - "sorry but I dont think this Is gonna work out our age gap makes me uncomfortable :/"
"? Im 21 and you're 20"
"wtf stop pressuring me into something i dont wanna do. youre literally a groomer *skull* i dont"

Meme - "Never forget what they did to her
Galadriel from Lord of the RIngs: "Needless were none of the deeds of Gandalf in life. We do not yet know his whole purpose."
Galadriel from Rings of Power: "tHerE iS a tEmPeSt iN mE!"

Meme - ROP Season 2 Galadriel - Scowling Black Woman with pink pussy hat: "There's a tampon in me!"

Thread by @JoshDaws on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Everyone who disagrees with me does so because they watch cable news 24/7 (the bad network) and can therefore be dismissed.  This one dedicated to @edstetzer & @philvischer The tribe I disagree with has turned the leaders on my side into villains so they can play the hero. They are villains and I am heroically warning you about them. Leaders who make decisions I disagree with are abusive. Organizations that aren’t run the way I want them to be run are toxic. Some people who disagree with me have been deceived by evil grifters and deserve my pity. I grieve for those rubes. Anyone that disagrees with me about how to best love their neighbor doesn't love their neighbor. Christians that disagree with me have never read their Bible and probably don’t go to church.  This one is dedicated to you, @DavidAFrench.  People who disagree with me prove my point. They also demonstrate how weak they are. The issues that concern me are gospel issues. The issues that concern the people I disagree with are distractions from the gospel. My arguments are irrefutable.  IR-RE-FU-TA-BLE...  I get amused when people disagree with me.  That's because it reminds me that I'm smarter than them.  I'm really smart... in case that wasn't clear. Everything you grew up believing about Christianity is a lie. I explain this in my new book which you can purchase for $120. Until you fork over the cash to read it, you should just assume I'm correct. Everything that concerns you is a boogeyman to distract people from what concerns me.  Congrats, @martyduren! You made the list! The comedy you find humorous is unfunny, hateful, and reveals your emotional baggage. It is nothing like the brilliant satire that makes me chuckle and speaks truth to power. The more people disagree with my argument the stronger it becomes. You only disagree with me because you don’t have any friends of a different ethnicity. I have lots and lots (well, a couple) of them and they all think the same… way I do. #satire It’s wrong to critique my friend based on what he’s said publicly. Everyone who does that is wicked, immoral, and foolish. The gentleness of Christ does not dwell within them and they can go jump in a lake for all I care. Make it a fiery one. People who rethink their opinions and come to agree with me have listened humbly and done the work to become educated.  People who rethink their opinions and come to disagree with me have become radicalized by dangerous misinformation peddled by extremists. Evangelical leaders who lend their platform to the administration I voted for are doing a public service and promoting the common good.  Evangelical leaders who lend their platform to the administration I voted against are dangerous Christian Nationalists who want theonomy. I’m not going to respond to your well-researched and thoughtful critique of me and my friends, but I will pray for you and encourage you to read my new TGC post about how to be nicer online."

Meme - sensei @seupo: "retweet if you have big npc energy"
"TOP DEFINITION
npc energy
When you only talk to people if they talk to you.
Person 1: why don't you ever start conversations
Person 2: because I have npc energy"

Meme - "When my parents take my phone away so now gotta text her on my fridge"
"bro how r u recording"
"Another fridge"

Song Ji-ah: The Perfect Korean Celebrity - "Many of her critics point out she used brand-name fashion to construct her persona as what Koreans call a 'gold spoon' (geumsujeo 금수저). They assert that she attempted to appear as something she isn't—a privileged child of high society—and is a fake.  It's a strange charge against her considering the country's current media landscape. 43 million people use YouTube in Korea, equalling more than 80 percent of the population. And 1 out of every 529 Koreans earns ad revenue from running a channel, at a ratio seen nowhere else in the world (other countries may have more YouTubers but also bigger populations).  With even many elementary school students saying online "creator" is their dream job, the competition to stand out on social media is cutthroat, and embellishment and deception by YouTuber make the news not infrequently. Abusing animals for a channel that advocates animal welfare, falsely claiming a delivery worker has eaten the food on the way, and not declaring sponsored contents are only a few recent high-profile examples. In 2020 a married YouTuber couple named Peter Park and Jenny had to apologize for "not correcting the viewers' impression that we are chaebol [members of rich entrepreneurial families]." They ran a channel focused on high-priced automobiles and had fueled the gossip that they had been early investors in Tesla and had connections to British high society (both appear to have ben untrue).  And just last year a minor celebrity named Ham So-won came under fire after her homes in China were revealed to be rentals contrary to her telling. Her Chinese husband in turn was accused of exaggerating the scale of his garment business, compelling her to say sorry.  What makes Song's crimes so worthy of condemnation from the Korean view is itself food for thought. To begin with, she represents a new breed of influencers nurtured and managed by specialist agencies, like Milanonna, a beloved 70-year-old YouTuber who was revealed only last fall to have been groomed into a star by Chosun Biz, the business arm of the country's biggest newspaper Chosun Ilbo... Showing off in Korea has reached such an absurd level that some kindergartens are doing craft projects making paper Gucci and Louis Vuitton handbags, and parents are reportedly buying imitation designer handbags for their preschool-age daughters so that they can post "couple looks" on social media.  One astute scholar of Korea, who asked to be anonymous, remarked while following the scandal, "Koreans hate Ji-ah because she reminds them of the parts of themselves they hate."  Song is an authentic representation of the fake life that's taken over contemporary Korea, and now Koreans want to take her down for it."
The memes mocking American kids for wanting to be Professional YouTubers always contrast them with Chinese wanting to be astronauts

The Secret Of The Bayeux Tapestry's 93 Penises - "The Bayeux Tapestry can arouse obsessiveness of many kinds in modern historians. One type involves tallying the number of images. There are, we are told, 626 humans, 190 horses, 35 dogs, 37 trees, 32 ships, 33 buildings, etc., in the tapestry. To the best of my knowledge, no-one has yet tallied the number of penises, except in the negative sense that the human ones were systematically edited out, and the equine ones shrunk to dimensions compatible with Victorian decency, when Elizabeth Wardle and her team of lady embroiderers produced an English replica of the whole tapestry in 1885. By my calculations there are 93 penises in what survives of the original tapestry. Four of these are attached to men, and what may be a fifth appears on a soldier’s corpse in the margin below a late stage in the battle of Hastings, as his chain mail is stripped from him. There is also what appears to be a pair of testicles, the penis itself being concealed by a discreetly positioned axe handle. All of these human male genitalia are confined to the upper or lower borders. Men shown wading in the sea in the main action do so with bared legs, presumably to save their clothes from getting wet, but all of them have taken the trouble to cover their modesty. There are 88 penises depicted on horses, all in the main action; and curiously, none on dogs, or on any of the other many creatures in the main frame or borders. With the possible exception of the dead soldier, all the human members are shown tumescent. A small minority of the equine ones are too... Does the profusion of penises reveal anything more than a male adolescent mentality on the part of the tapestry’s designer? It seems to me that it does. The penises depicted on certain stallions might be thought to demonstrate no more than the designer’s scrupulous anatomical accuracy. But it cannot be simply a coincidence that Earl Harold is first shown mounted on an exceptionally well-endowed steed. And the largest equine penis by far is that protruding from the horse presented by a groom to a figure who must be Duke William, just prior to the battle of Hastings... The clear implications are that the virility of the two leading protagonists is reflected in that of their respective mounts, and that William was in this respect much the more impressive of the two... The images in these borders have recently been the subject of an extremely important paper, by Professor Steve White. He has shown that three of them are not simply gratuitous erotica, but learned literary allusions to Phaedrus’s Latin versions of Æsop’s fables" Meme - "2017 Chevrolet Express 4500 Box Truck $29,990
Listed about a month ago - Punta Gorda, FL
*Woman's photo*" derek guy on X - "thinking about the time i showed my hairdresser the haircut i want and he said "derek, that's the same haircut i give you, that guy is just better looking". dude basically said "i only work with 1/5th of your head, i don't work with the rest of it"" Rebecca📖 on X - "I saw an idea recently that I thought was lovely…public libraries that are open late every night so ppl can socialize, as an alternative to bars or sitting alone at home. Would be especially perfect for introverts to socialize comfortably and for older people who are lonely."
Apex🌲🏴‍☠️ on X - "All of these places close early in no small part because they don’t want to attract the kinds of crowds that are milling around at 11pm or 1am. Until you solve *that* problem, we cannot have such nice things... Fundamentally, you either orient society around the 20% trying to take advantage of other people (thieves - whether in a boardroom or on the street, thugs, and worse) or the other 80% just trying their best to live decent lives  Compassion for wolves is damnation for lambs"
Dr. Rupert, Archbigot on X - "There are an awful lot of prog wish list items that would work with beefy authright grade despotism. But with shitlib governance and enforcement? Lololol no. It’s why we can’t even consider nice things."
President of Kansas on X - "There's an issue where relatively intelligent, well-behaved, well-educated people vastly overestimate the regular population's ability to self-regulate behavior"
Chad 🇺🇸 on X - "libraries already have problem keeping out troublemakers during the day you want a nice quiet library you can go to at night? make it private and charge a member fee oh wait, i think we just invented member clubs, im sure Rebecca is ok with those"
Wilfred Reilly on X - "The problem, when Chicago tried this, was bums and college kids having sex in the stacks. You need hard order for anything nice."
AlBooBoo on X - "City spent 15 million to remodel a library, that is mostly used by druggies and homeless. This is why."
Portland fentanyl hot spot moves outside Central Library - "Jordan McCormick, who is homeless and addicted to fentanyl, doesn’t have to go far to find his fix. When he needs fentanyl, he knows just where to go...   "It's out of control," said Sierra, who manages a store across the street from the library. "The library is a big resource for the houseless community, where they have a place to go to the bathroom, where they have shelter … People are just using this as a segue to deal drugs, to camp out and be strung out."... some of the business owners asked police for a stronger presence...   Voss said they are looking to improve lighting around the Central Library to disturb dealers, as well as sending outreach teams to connect with users." Chinese runner’s win invites suspicion after rivals appear to step aside - "Chinese runner He Jie’s victory Sunday in the Beijing Half Marathon is facing a probe after his win was called into question by Chinese internet users because a trio of African runners appeared to deliberately slow down to let him win.  A video clip of the finish to the race shows Kenya’s Willy Mnangat turn toward He and gesture him to move ahead as the four men run neck and neck just meters from the finish line.  Former 5km world record-holder Robert Keter, also of Kenya, then appears to wave at He to overtake the pack while signaling for his compatriot and Ethiopia’s Dejene Hailu to hang back.  The Chinese runner crossed the finish line in 1:03:44 to claim the $5,500 first prize, with the African trio just one second behind in joint-second place."
Maybe they didn't want to "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people" Meme - "My cousin texting this girl. apparently she on punishment so she got no phone. My cousin created a google doc and they talk by editing the doc. Don't ever say you can't talk to someone" Polish charity gets huge phone bill thanks to stork - "A Polish charity has received a huge phone bill after it lost a GPS tracker that it had placed on the back of a stork, it's reported.  According to official broadcaster Radio Poland, the environmental EcoLogic Group placed a tracker on the back of a white stork last year to track the bird's migratory habits.  It travelled some 3,700 miles (6,000kms), and was traced to the Blue Nile Valley in eastern Sudan before the charity lost contact.  EcoLogic told the Super Express newspaper that somebody found the tracker in Sudan, removed the sim card and put it in their own phone, where they then racked up 20 hours' worth of phone calls. Radio Poland says that the organisation has received a phone bill of over 10,000 Polish zloty ($2,700; £2,064), which it will have to pay." Shabani: The making of a metrosexual gorilla - "Since March, Japanese women have been swooning over a gorilla called Shabani in the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens. It's not the first time Japanese popular culture has fallen in love with a large inarticulate creature (see Godzilla)... Visitors began posting photos on social media back in March this year, commenting on his brooding good looks.  Since then, Shabani has been a regular in domestic news and social media and the words they have used are interesting... According to local media reports, many women who flock to see Shabani in action are using words of admiration often attributed to the likes of George Clooney or Hugh Jackman or Japan's own Ken Watanabe - "shibui" (meaning "bitter") and "nihiru" (derived from the English "nihilistic") both used to describe "dark and brooding" men. When Western media picked up the story this week, they posted multitudes of pictures of Shabani looking "handsome" and "thinking deep thoughts".  The words being used to describe him are "hunky" and "heartthrob" and "hot". He "flexes his muscles" and he stares broodily into the distance. Many Japanese would probably not object but the gorilla's "hunky" qualities are not what it's all about. It's not his metrosexual qualities but his "spornosexual" qualities that seem behind this coverage.  In any case, zoo spokesperson Takayuki Ishikawa says gorillas have always been popular among regular zoo visitors, with some elderly couples coming to visit almost every day. But with the recent rise of Shabani's popularity, the crowds around the gorilla enclosure have doubled with more young women." YANSS 157 – The psychology behind why people don’t speak out against, and even defend, norms they secretly despise – You Are Not So Smart - "pluralistic ignorance.  In a “Does anyone have any questions?” scenario like this, each confused individual waits to see if anyone else raises their hands, not wanting to be singled out as the only person falling behind. When no one does, each then assumes they must be the only person who has no idea what is going on and decides to remain silent. After a few seconds, the speaker moves on, and the result is a shared, inaccurate view of reality in which everyone thinks that everyone else has no questions. The speaker thinks the room is following along just fine, and everyone begins living a lie.   There are several ways to define pluralistic ignorance, and that’s because it’s kind of a brain twister when you try to put it into words. Psychologist Deborah Prentice says, it’s “a phenomenon in which you feel like you’re different from everyone else, but in fact you are exactly the same. It’s a kind of illusory deviance, a sense that you are not with the majority that everyone in the majority can have simultaneously.”  And this phenomenon scales up to the level of norms... Everyone in the group, at the same time, gets stuck following a norm that no one wants to follow... As sociologists Hubert J. O’Gorman and Stephen L. Garry once put it, in situations like these, people often “unintentionally serve as cultural carriers of cognitive error.”... Many scientists bring up the parable of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”" Poland's kids rejoice over new rules against homework. Teachers and parents aren't so sure DanielTech 📟🧭 on X - "hackernoon: RT @wakefield00: a lot of tech companies are just adult daycare at this point"
From Jul 2022, pre-layoffs Meme - Angel Eduardo @StrangelEdweird: "..who's going to tell him?"
Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan: "If you use Nazis and benign in the same sentence, any sentence, it's Nazi apologia."

10 things you're saying by ignoring pronouns / Mutilating genitals / Leaving kids alone

"10 things you're actually saying when you ignore someone's gender pronouns:
1. I know you better than you know yourself your actual gender, because it's inherently obvious.
2. I would rather hurt you repeatedly than change the way I speak about you be truthful, whether or not it hurts your feelings.
3. Your sense of safety is not important to me relevant to your pronouns. Disagreeing with you doesn't mean I'm going to harm you.
4. Your identity isn’t real and shouldn’t be acknowledged is a subjective, lived delusion, and I am not required to affir mit.
5. I want to teach everyone around me to disrespect you to know what mental illness looks like, and help those that are falling victim to it by being truthful.
6. Offending you is fine if it makes me feel more comfortable not my responsibility. You choose to be offended, and in doing so you're choosing to emotionally manipulate those around you.
7. I can hear you talking, but I’m not really listening and your deep voice makes your actual gender even more obvious.
8. Being who you truly are is an inconvenience to me would require you to be truthful with yourself, and acknowledge that how you're presenting yourself isn't accurate.
9. I would prefer it if you stopped being honest with me dishonest with yourself.
10. I am not an ally, a friend, or someone you can trust a true friend, because I will tell you uncomofrtable (sic) truths instead of comforting lies"

Keywords: a true friend, because I will tell you umconfortable truths instead of comforting lies

Original:

"1. I know you better than you know yourself
2. I would rather hurt you repeatedly than change the way I speak about you
3. Your sense of safety is not important to me
4. Your identity isn’t real and shouldn’t be acknowledged
5. I want to teach everyone around me to disrespect you
6. Offending you is fine if it makes me feel more comfortable
7. I can hear you talking, but I’m not really listening
8. Being who you truly are is an inconvenience to me
9. I would prefer it if you stopped being honest with me
10. I am not an ally, a friend, or someone you can trust"

"I can't believe mutilating my genitals didn't completely fulfill me! *trans person cheerfully rushing to noose*"

Parents' Rights Matter protestor: "Leave the kids alone"
Woke teacher: "No one is going after kids!"
Parents' Rights Matter protestors: "OK, then ban child transitioning"
Woke teacher: "Leave the kids alone!" *Protect trans kids shirt*

Links - 18th May 2024 (1 - Israel at Eurovision)

Israeli Eurovision singer Eden Golan is ordered to stay in her hotel room by her security team as thousands of pro-Palestine protesters including keffiyeh-wearing Greta Thunberg gather in Malmo, calling for her to be excluded - "Golan, who was born in Israel but grew up in Russia, has faced death threats ahead of her performances at the Malmo Arena... Protester Kasia Wiatrowska, from Malmo, wore a green T-shirt with the words 'Libre Palestine' on the back.  'I do like Eurovision,' Wiatrowska told Reuters. 'We all love music. But this year music is dividing people, and I don't like that,' she added. Another protester, Palestinian Amar, who only gave one name, said: 'I'm here today because I see the hypocrisy and double standards around the world.'"
More "mostly peaceful protests"
I like how you can make a political statement then complain that music is dividing people, and complain about double standards while vigorously upholding one yourself

Royal Vauxhall Tavern on X - "Royal Vauxhall Tavern will not be open for any event on Saturday night 11th May 2024."
Hen Mazzig on X - "Following a massive campaign, yet another LGBTQ venue in London will be shut down for a day to avoid airing Israeli singer at the Eurovision Song Contest.  LGBTQ spaces are supposed to be a safe space.  Queer spaces are not safe for me as a gay Jewish Israeli.  No other people are abused this way. Not Russian gays, not Chinese gays, not Syrian, Iranian, or Qatari gays, not even Palestinian gays from Gaza. Everyone is welcome to celebrate their identity at these spaces.  It is only us Israeli gays who are being targeted.  London is turning into a dark place."

BBC Newsnight on X - ""I've decided to join the boycott because of Israel's inclusion." Drag performer Crystal says she has cancelled her 800-person Eurovision viewing event because of the conflict in Gaza and Israel’s participation in the contest. #Newsnight"
Tamara 🎗 on X - "Peak Our BBC. Their two obsessions conjoined - drag queens and Israel."

Visegrád 24 on X - "BREAKING: 100+ Swedish policemen are transporting the Israeli singer Eden Golan to Malmo Arena in a very long convoy of police cars A police helicopter is flying above the convoy Eden is competing in the Eurovision Song Contest tonight in a city infamous for its antisemitism"
Gad Saad on X - "Who are they protecting her from?"

Hamas Atrocities on X - "Wanna lose any last residue of faith in the human race? Hear this! Greta Thunberg is in Malmö for the Eurovision song contest Today, to save the planet, she chanted with the crowds "Sinwar, we will not let you die" And "Jews, go back to Poland!""
It'd only "bullying" young people if the left don't hate them
Even if you pretend that the Jews really were from Poland, the left normally says it's racist and xenophobic to tell immigrants to go home. But as usual it's their double standards and racism at work

Julie Lenarz on X - "Greta Thunberg, who’s spoken many times about the systemic hatred and bullying she endured, was front and centre at the pro-Hamas protests in Malmö, Sweden today — trying to harass and bully Israeli singer Eden Golan."

Politics1.com on X - "Leftist activist Greta Thunberg joining protest in Sweden calling for Jewish Israeli singer Eden Golan to be barred from participating in the popular television Eurovision singing contest..."
AG on X - "How foolish do regular liberals have to feel for having promoted this ignorant clown as she joins a mob that was practically ready to lynch a 20 year old girl participating in a singing competition simply for her nationality?  Thing is that the cause was never about the environment, carbon emissions, or climate change. It was always about control. The environmentalism was just a vehicle through which to launder a Marxist restructuring of society. Hopefully more people see that now."

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "Can somebody explain to me why Greta and all these protesters didn’t rally against the inclusion of Azerbaijan in Eurovision considering Azerbaijan just carried out ethnic cleansing in Armenia. There must be some kind of explanation."

Wokal Distance on X - "Why is climate change activist Gretta Thunberg at a Palestine protest you ask? Because the issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution - and both climate change and Palestine are issues the left uses to build support for their revolution."

Meme - Visegrád 24 @visegrad24: "Some people are asking why Greta is attending the huge anti-Israel protest ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden today  The answer is that she was raised that way  This picture shows her & her parents wearing t-shirts of the militant far-left Antifa group  🇸🇪🇮🇱"

Meme - Visegrád 24 @visegrad24: "1500 Jews living in Malmö, Sweden are forced to leave town or shelter at home during the Eurovision Song Contest this week due to the rampant antisemitism in the city.  Meanwhile, the city’s mayor Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh is posting pictures on supporting anti-Israel protesters"

Meme - Abasine @Abasine_bosnae: "I'd rather see #Palestine on #Eurovision2024 than disgusting and illegal state #israel"
Adam Sellers: "We've seen what Palestinians do to music festivals, Abasine."

Meme - Israel at music festival: *Eden Golan*
Palestine at music festival: *Hamas attack*

Hen Mazzig on X - "20 years-old Israeli singer, Eden Golan, was dancing with Finish singer Käärijä today, the video got thousands of hateful comments to the point that the Finish singer had to apologize for being seen with this Israeli girl.  Can you think of any other country which an artist will have to apologize for being seen with another artist from that nation?  “Dancing with this British singer isn’t an endorsement of Rishi Sunak”  “Dancing with this Chinese singer isn’t a political statement”  “Dancing with this Russian singer isn’t a political statement”  “Dancing with this Palestinian singer isn’t a support for Hamas or the PA”   “Dancing with this American singer isn’t a political endorsement of Trump”  No, you can’t, because no other country and no other people have been dehumanized this way.  This isn’t about peace, it’s not even about love for Palestinians. It’s just about your hate to the only Jewish state."

Jerry Coyne on X - "Käärijä had to apologize and delete the video simply because she was Israeli. Hundreds of protestors--in SWEDEN!--boo her simply because of where she came from. (She's in the Eurovision song contest.) This is not a protest against the Israeli government; it's antisemitism."

Meme - Sophie Corcoran: "Look at the state of the Irish lot on Eurovision. Jesus"

Meme - Joel Berry @JoelWBerry: "Not even professional wrestling could come up with a more on-the-nose good vs. evil showdown" *Irish devil vs Israeli angel*
Of course the left were cheering the devil, e.g. on George Takei's page

Hen Mazzig on X - "In a classic act as if taken from Hamas’ textbook, Ireland’s Eurovision contest entrance, Bambie Thug, who launched non-stop attacks on Israelis, is now claiming to be the victim. Bambie says that an Israeli broadcaster insulted them and they now demand that Israel be removed from the Eurovision.
Recap: Ireland Eurovision representative, 31-year-old Bambie Thug who identifies as a “Goth-Gremlin-Goblin-Witch” and practices "neo-pagan blood magic" during their menstruation—said she cried Israel’s Eden Golan, 20, made it to the finals. She continually called to ban Israel and when the Dutch contestant Joost Klein was banned for beating up a Swedish photographer, Bambie said “I feel sad because Joost is pro-Palestine.”
Bambie Thug says a commentary made by Israeli broadcaster breached the rules of the Eurovision, and that Israel should no longer be allowed to participate in the competition.  "There’s a lot more anger and a lot more drive in me now," Bambie Thug said in an interview today.  On Tuesday, a commentator on Kan, the Israeli public service broadcaster, warned TV viewers with children that Bambie Thug’s performance of their song, *Doomsday Blue* would be "the most scary" of the night.  "There will be a lot of spells and black magic and dark clothing, Satanic symbols, and voodoo dolls, like we are at Cats Square in Jerusalem in the mid-90s," the commentator said, referring to a well-known public square in Jerusalem that was central to the city’s nightlife in the 1990s and synonymous with goth culture.  The commentator said there was "some controversy" in Ireland about the song, referencing a petition calling on RTÉ to disqualify Doomsday Blue as Ireland’s entry.  He also noted that Bambie Thug liked to "speak negatively about Israel". "But we can talk about that later. Prepare your curses," he said.  Now Bambie, who is usually proud to tell everyone about thisr  "neo-pagan menstruation blood magic” is upset that Israeli broadcaster told audience to “prepare their curses”  Give me a break."

Henry McKean on X - "“I cried with my team.” Ireland 🇮🇪 Eurovision finalist Bambie Thug is asked how they felt when Israel qualified for the #EUROVISION final."
Gareth Roberts on X - "It is striking that so much of the angsty cultural decay around formerly mass-popular, frothy confections - Eurovision, sci-fi, sports - comes from these things being colonised and soured by geeky mediocrities; people who need a grievance label to succeed, because in a system that rewarded merit and competence they’d get nowhere.   Of course, even worse are the silly old fools who enabled them to do it, in the hilarious belief that this was hip and groovy and would therefore make them look super cool.   Clearing this crap out of political public life and the law, etc is a tough task, but as some modest recent advances have shown, it is at least *possible*. Ridding the cultural and creative sector of it will be much"

Open Source Intel on X - "WATCH Irish Eurovision contestant Bambie Thug breaks down in tears after losing to Israel, expressing frustration in a shocking, profanity-laden rant. "It's been so horrible for us... Forget the EBU. I don't even care anymore. Forget them."
What a sore loser

Meme - Richard Hanania @RichardHanania: "I don't follow Eurovision closely enough to know if this generalizes, but from the clips I see all the attractive ones support Israel and the weirdos don't. Sort of like the rest of the world."
Oli London @OliLondonTV: "Georgian Eurovision contestant Nutsa Buzaladze sends love to her Israeli fans. love you guys so much. Thank you for the votes and thank you for your support. All my love.""

Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 on X - "Palestinian protesters in Sweden demanded that a reporter prove he’s not Jewish or Israeli. The reporter bravely announced that’s he’s both. So they hit him over the head with a blunt object."
Ynet reporter beaten by protesters in Malmo: 'A blunt object hit my head hard'

Links - 17th May 2024 (2 - Hamas Attack Oct 2023)

Wearing the keffiyeh honours Yasser Arafat's legacy of terrorism - "While Bedouin farmers in the Levant have indeed worn patterned scarves for centuries, the black-and-white fishnet pattern scarf favoured by protesters is synonymous with militant Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Arafat adopted the accessory as his personal emblem while scaling the ranks of the Palestinian liberation movement in the 1960s. The keffiyeh was, in fact, one of the few constants of Arafat’s notoriously mercurial five decades at the helm of the armed Palestinian resistance. He was rarely photographed without a checkered black-and-white scarf tied around his head, often secured with a black agal cord. He characteristically draped the scarf over his right shoulder, arranging it in a triangular shape resembling the borders of the territories claimed as Palestine. Arafat ultimately became so closely associated with the keffiyeh that, at one point, it was known interchangeably as an “Arafat scarf.” Arafat’s political legacy, of course, extends far beyond the sartorial. He did more than perhaps anyone to mould the Palestinian liberation movement into the genocidal death cult it is today... In 1974, Arafat told an Italian correspondent, “We don’t want peace, we want victory.” Adding, to remove any ambiguity, “Peace for us means the destruction of Israel and nothing else.” He also spoke frequently of his lifelong obsession to conquer Jerusalem on behalf of his Arab forefathers. Arafat would ultimately become one of the world’s most prolific architects of terror. Under his auspices, the PLO, and its affiliates, would carry out some of the 20th century’s most notorious acts of transnational terrorism, including the Feb. 1970 bombing of Swissair Flight 330 and the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Israeli and American intelligence indicates Arafat personally ordered the execution of three diplomats taken hostage during a spring 1973 raid of the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. A 2002 report submitted to the Israeli government concluded that Arafat was “personally involved in the planning and execution of terror attacks,” outlining further that he “encouraged them ideologically, authorized them financially and personally headed the Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades organization.” Arafat would deal one final (and perhaps fatal) blow to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 2000, walking away from a United States-brokered peace agreement that would have given Palestinians control of 92 per cent of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip. Then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak would later reflect, “(Arafat) did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own.” It’s impossible to say just how Arafat’s intransigence set back the cause of his fellow Palestinians. When they don a black-and-white patterned keffiyeh, professed supporters of the Palestinian cause are, knowingly or not, endorsing Arafat’s well-documented legacy of carnage and destruction. The “Arafat scarf” is unambiguously a fraught symbol of violence and intolerance... The Palestinian keffiyeh is less a garment of “cultural significance” than it is the cousin of a Che Guevara T-shirt: a trendy fashion accessory worn performatively by low-information activists who are mostly oblivious of its murderous origins. It wasn’t too long ago, in fact, that Che T-shirts and Arafat scarves could be found in adjacent aisles at your local Urban Outfitters — which should tell you a lot about the crowd both items appeal to."

The Queen’s Park keffiyeh kerfuffle proves the wisdom of keeping political symbols out of the legislature - "There is a showdown brewing in Ontario’s provincial parliament. The battle may be over a small piece of patterned cloth, but the principles at play are grand: free expression, cultural rights, and, most importantly, whether our relentless partisan divide leaves any room for reasoned political debate.  To recap, in mid-April, amid the Israel-Hamas war, Queen’s Park speaker Ted Arnott decided to ban the keffiyeh, the traditional patterned headdress worn by Arab people across the Middle East, from the Ontario legislature. Premier Doug Ford and the other party leaders all opposed the ban, but the effort to overturn the speaker’s order failed when a Progressive Conservative MPP refused to vote in favour of the unanimous consent motion. Days later, a second such motion failed again. And late last week, independent MPP Sarah Jama (previously of the NDP before being expelled from that caucus for her anti-Israel statements immediately after October 7th) was banned from the chamber for her refusal to remove the keffiyeh. The Ontario NDP leader, Marit Stiles, now says that if the premier does not push for a reversal of the keffiyeh ban, the NDP caucus will defy the rules.  While the politicking plays out in Queen’s Park, the culture warriors have taken to their usual corners and have begun to make the expected arguments.   Speaker Arnott reached his decision on the basis that “members’ attire” bearing “ logos, symbols, slogans, and other political messaging are not permitted,” a ban that has a long history in Ontario’s legislature. Naturally, those opposed to his decision then attempted to frame the keffiyeh as something other than political.  The federal Justice Minister Arif Virani took to X soon after the speaker’s decision and wrote “the [keffiyeh] is an important cultural symbol” and that wearing it indicates “pride in one’s heritage.” Former Amnesty International Canada president Alex Neve called the cloth an “iconic embodiment of Palestinian culture and identity,” thus emphasizing its cultural role. And Stiles linked the ban to “anti-Palestinian racism, hate, and division.”   The problem with this position is that it rings patently false to anyone with eyes, ears, and a cursory understanding of symbols. It is hard to deny that the explosion in the wearing of keffiyehs in North America in recent months correlates directly with growing anti-Israel protests. And the symbol is not being solely worn by those of Palestinian or Arab descent. (Just do a simple Google image search to see how many non-Arab students on campus encampments are sporting the keffiyeh.) Whatever its meaning at other times in history, wearing the keffiyeh in 2024 in Canada is not like wearing a lederhosen or a sari. In fact, those taking this absurd position themselves subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) concede the point. Neve, for example, writes that the Queen’s Park ban was put in place because the keffiyeh has become meaningful “to millions and millions of people in the desperate struggle to stand up for the survival of the Palestinian people and their culture.” You may agree or disagree with him that the survival of Palestinians and their culture is at stake, but “the desperate struggle to stand up” for those things sure sounds like a political endeavour. Jama drops the pretense altogether, saying “This is a political issue, my job is to be political, and so I will continue to wear this garment.”... the problem with the keffiyeh in the legislature isn’t that it promotes bad politics, but any politics at all.  The more principled reason to oppose the keffiyeh in the legislature is that in a liberal democratic society, our deliberative institutions should strive for more reasoned, civil debate. The introduction of signs and symbols in our law-making institutions diminishes and coarsens the public discourse at precisely the moment we can least afford it.       Regrettably, the space for reasoned debate in our society is shrinking alongside the space for non-political civic life. Every realm of public life is now infused with tribal political symbols. It is to our great detriment, and a sign of the ill health of our polity, that all things, from our beer and chicken sandwiches to the sports and comedy we watch, have become political battlegrounds.   In this climate, it is all more important that we preserve institutions that foster articulate, respectful, pluralistic political debate. The institutions designed for this purpose have been weakened lately. Our universities, for example, have increasingly taken on institutional political positions, undermining their role as a forum for rigorous intellectual inquiry. Our public broadcaster is increasingly seen by the Canadian public as having a clear ideological bias. Even the office of the governor general has not been spared, having recently hosted an event that critics allege promoted the Trudeau government’s controversial Online Harms Bill"

Charity under review after imam compared Hamas attack to Jews escaping Nazi camps - "A charity which runs a Leeds mosque is being looked at by the Charity Commission after its imam compared the Oct 7 attack to Jews breaking out of Nazi concentration camps and criticised Jordan for intercepting Iranian missiles bound for Israel. Sheikh Jaffer Ladak, the imam of the Baab-Ul-Ilm Centre, appeared to welcome Iran launching its attack and chided Gulf states for providing an “Arab Dome” for Israel.  The Baab-Ul-Ilm Centre is understood to be run by the trustees of Khoja Shia Ithnaasheri Muslim Community of Metro Leeds, which is a registered charity.  Its imam, Mr Ladak, has caused controversy with a number of his statements following the Oct 7 attack by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent military action in Gaza. In a video posted on Instagram in January, he complained about the media asking Muslims if they “condemn Hamas” for the attack on Oct 7. He said: “The answer is actually no, why should we condemn?"... In a statement, the Khoja Shia Ithnaasheri Muslim Community of Metro Leeds said: “The charity would be failing in its duty if it neglected to educate and inform its congregation. Sheikh Jaffer Ladak expressed indignation at the Arab states aiding and abetting the plausible genocide in Gaza as determined by the International Court of Justice. The charity and Sheikh Jaffer Ladak feel they have been gratuitously subjected to a sustained campaign of Islamophobia, harassment, intimidation and denied their right to freedom of speech.”"
We all know that in Nazi Germany, Jews proclaimed that they wanted to wipe out all Germans and kept trying to kill German civilians
Criticising Muslims for celebrating terrorism is Islamophobia

The Israel Defence Forces are the most moral soldiers in the world - "Just when coverage of Israel in much of the broadcast media couldn’t seem any more spiteful and misleading – the slippage into the mainstream of slurs like “genocide” and “famine”, for instance, neither of which are remotely accurate descriptions for what is going on in Gaza – a story breaks that destroys all my remaining confidence that such outlets will cover the war impartially.  It was reported last week that a “mass grave” had been discovered in Khan Younis. Few were willing to blame the Israelis directly, but the coverage – and the response from some politicians – heavily implied that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) must have been responsible. I listened and read with a now-familiar torpor; vaguely interested in whether anyone would question the story’s assumptions, while knowing that they wouldn’t.  The globally parroted suggestion that the IDF had tied Gazans’ hands behind their back before shooting them and dumping them in these graves (there is a deliberate resonance here: the SS often shot Jews in Eastern Europe into graves they’d forced them to dig) immediately struck me and most other sane Israel-watchers as almost certainly untrue. Israel, unlike Hamas, does not conduct warfare with freewheeling sadism; instances of any such foul play are investigated and punished, for which there are plenty of examples.  Of course, I could be wrong in this case, but I highly doubt it – especially given that geo-imaging now shows that the “mass graves” are actually on a site in hospital grounds in which Palestinians had previously buried dead bodies.  But there is a tendency to always assume the worst of the IDF. There is an ancient anti-Semitic trope of Jews drinking the blood of the innocents... I once interviewed Asa Kasher, the philosopher and linguist who wrote the IDF’s code of ethics... This code of ethics used to be handed out in paper format to all conscripts and is now disseminated in basic training. And it’s hardly surprising that the IDF seeks to inculcate such values in its troops. Israel is a democratic, free country, and many non-Jewish Israeli citizens serve in its armed forces. It also knows that it will face more scrutiny than perhaps any other army in the world.  And it’s not just theoretical: the IDF’s morality is seen in its actions. It is currently trying to dismantle probably the most extensive, cunning terrorist infrastructure ever known, one that is highly likely to have been built with the help of hundreds of millions of Western taxpayer money, UN and other “aid” funds. Hamas operates via an outstandingly well-constructed tunnel network bigger than the whole London Underground. Israel uses a great deal of precision technology to limit the bloodshed. But it’s difficult. There are booby traps and mines above, below, and fire all around. Hamas’s whole strategy revolves around using civilian shields and as many brutal tricks as possible, such as those that have resulted in IDF soldiers firing on their own and on aid workers.  And still journalists and Twitter armies lap up the idea that Israel is going after “women and children”, refusing to acknowledge how and why they end up stuck in the cross-hairs.  Despite this near-impossible battlefield, the IDF seems to have managed to keep its ratio of civilians to combatants killed lower than almost any other army ever has. The world eats up Hamas figures for the numbers who have been killed, naturally refusing to distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians. But according to one analysis earlier this year, even if we accept the terror group’s statistics, for every Hamas combatant eliminated, approximately 1.5 civilians have been tragically killed. Given that the UN says that civilians usually make up a shocking 90 per cent of casualties in war (a 1:9 ratio), this is impressive.  Unlike most, Israel drops leaflets and sends texts to people before any attacks so they can evacuate; in this war, it has sacrificed some of its objectives in order to limit civilian deaths.  No army gets this right all the time, but the IDF operates in a manner light years away from that of all the terror groups and militias that hate Israel, currently being cheered on college campuses.  It is the ultimate taboo but it is true: the IDF is the most moral army in the world, and its enemies not only know this, but also trade on it."

Letters: The Conservatives can't hide from their disastrous track record in government - "Zoe Strimpel (Comment, April 28) says the Israel Defence Forces are the most moral soldiers in the world, and my own professional experience suggests she is right. I have taught the law of armed conflict (otherwise called humanitarian law) to quite a few Israeli officers enrolled by the IDF on expensive, detailed and well-established courses, alongside military officers from all over the world, including Arab countries. These are complementary to their national “in-house” training on the subject.   It is a complex matter, little understood by most people outside the military, and an army’s inclination to learn and try to practise it hardly suggests a lack of morality.  The cynic in me asks: where are the worldwide demonstrations and campus sit-ins against Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and more than two years of mass destruction of civilian targets, with huge civilian casualties? This is clearly avoidable, and therefore deliberate and both immoral and illegal, because such targets in Ukraine are usually far away and clearly distinguishable from legitimate military objectives, unlike in Gaza.   But then, Russia is not the Jewish homeland."
The people protesting against Israel also hate the US, so they support Russia's invasion

Karol Markowicz on X - "A lot of Jewish friends, especially those who are finally awake after 10/7, say things like "how is this America?" or "It's so scary that this Jew-hatred is happening everywhere." But it's very much NOT "America" and it absolutely is NOT happening "everywhere." In south Florida, Jews wear the dinner plate Magen Davids and no one says one word. In rural Michigan, churches put "pray for Israel" on the signs outside. I'm not naive, obviously Jew-haters can and do live anywhere. But they're only thriving, open, proud, in blue areas and I'm not going to let people ignore that.  A lot of liberal Jews are trying to parse things right now. They imagine they are still of the left but just on this one tiny little thing, their right to exist, they disagree. No, my friends. It's a house of cards and you're pulling the one from the very bottom. The whole left ideology is corrupt and you're going to have to face it. You can't spread the blame around. The hatred, the rage, the violence, the dehumanization is all coming from one side: yours."
Al Tournas 🇺🇸🇮🇱⚓️🏌️‍♂️⛷ on X-  "And how many of them will march off to the polls in November and vote democrat up and down the ballot?"
XY_itsAguy on X - "Many who were pro-Democrat ideology (gender, BLM, affirmative action, “diversity”, anti-criminal justice) are now seeing the fruits of their labor turned back on them. If you support evil, even in the name of what you feel is good, evil will reign."
steveplotnicki on X - "In South Florida there are huge displays of the hostages Hamas is holding and no one dares to touch them."
Max on X - "Florida shows that our problems are solvable. New York State/New York City/Columbia could easily do what's necessary, but choose not to."

Dead Ferrets on X - "So they’re chanting about a fictitious Israeli genocide, whilst displaying a huge banner of Stalin (who was a massive genocidal maniac). Peak 2024."
How the left compensate for the lack of religion in their lives

HDSB staffer under investigation after keffiyeh incident - "A Halton District School Board staffer is on home assignment and is now under investigation after using "harmful and discriminatory anti-Palestinian racist language toward a student" who was wearing a keffiyeh, school officials say... In the video, a woman is seen telling a student "I want you to be careful … so you don't get judged by that," and says the checkered scarf typically worn in Arab cultures — which has come to symbolize solidarity with Palestinians — reminds her of Hamas. "But I didn't call you a terrorist," she said, adding that she also didn't treat him that way."
It is racist to advise minors that what they are doing may be associated with terrorism

Just one in four British Muslims believe Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel - "46 per cent of British Muslims said they sympathise with Hamas... just over half (52 per cent) of British Muslims want to make it illegal to show a picture of the Prophet Mohammed, compared to just 16 per cent of the public.  A third of British Muslims (32 per cent) want to see Shariah law implemented in the UK versus nine per cent of the public. Younger and well-educated Muslims were the most likely to think Hamas did not commit atrocities on Oct 7, with the proportions rising to 47 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds and 40 per cent among the university-educated...  almost half (46 per cent) of British Muslims say Jews have too much power over UK government policy, compared to 16 per cent of the general public.  Among British Muslims, 41 per cent said Jews have too much power in the media industry and 39 per cent said Jews have too much power in the UK’s financial system. Mr Mughal said: “The findings confirm that a lot of work needs to be done to inform, challenge, and address old anti-Semitic tropes that are still circulating among some of my co-religionists.  “The Government has got to provide better guidance for teachers, schools and education establishments. The investment needs to happen as soon as possible because we are at real risk of a social cohesion problem.”... Alan Mendoza, the executive director of HJS, said the findings show “the failure of counter-extremism policy over the years”.  He added: “What is probably going wrong is an unwillingness to tackle this kind of extremism for fear of being labelled Islamophobic or racist. There is a reluctance to call it out in the same way that people are very happy to call out far-Right extremism."
The left loves misinformation when it helps the left wing agenda
Time to jail Christians for Islamophobia, and trying to push Christian values in government, which is abhorrent in a secular democracy
Clearly, education is the way to enlighten the youth

Melissa Chen on X - "🚨Almost half of British Muslims sympathize with Hamas. Hamas, the terrorist group. We are not even talking about Palestine here. 🚨Three quarters of British Muslims do NOT believe Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel. Given demographic trends and an incoming Labor government, Britain is beyond screwed."
Philosopher Kin & Winston Smith returned from 1984 on X - "The irony is that British Jews have been very prominent in promoting mass immigration to this country, while complaining about how "hideously White" it is, or was, I suspect because many associated Whiteness with the Nazis, at whose hands they were so badly traumatised. Their fear of European/White antisemitism led them to seek safety in DIVERSITY, which has turned out to be far more of a threat, & all because Jewish academics fail to understand that antisemitism is basically just a tribal response to perceived Jewish tribalism, which forms a vicious circle that has become a mainstay of non-religious #JewishIdentity."

British police officer faces terror charge for showing support for Hamas on WhatsApp - "West Yorkshire constable Mohammed Adil shared images supporting Hamas, which is banned and designated a terror group in the U.K., the Independent Office for Police Conduct said.  Adil faces two counts of publishing an image in support of a proscribed organization in violation of the Terrorism Act."

Pro-Palestinian protesters in Vancouver praise Hamas, October 7 - "Anti-Israel protesters praised the October 7 massacre and several terrorist organizations at a Vancouver rally on Friday according to a video published by Free Palestine Tri-cities British Columbia, demanding that the groups be removed from Canada's list of terrorist entities. Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator for the allegedly Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-affiliated (PFLP) Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, led demonstrators in a chant proclaiming "Long live October 7."  "We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic brave action on October 7," Kates said in her speech on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. The events of October 7, according to Kates, indicated that Palestinians had almost achieved victory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea... In the terrorist organizations' stead, Kates demanded that Israel and those with financial relationships with the state be added to the Canadian list of terrorist entities... Kates shared her vision of a united liberation front around the world, connecting them with Iraq, Iran, Syria and Yemen. Kates said that Yemen was speaking for the activists by  "decolonizing the red sea" and shutting down shipping lanes.  "Yemen is leading the way," said Kates. "Yeman declared Israel and the united states to be terrorist entities and subjected to sanctions." Kates said that the role of the protesters in the united front was to boycott companies with business relations with Israel such as McDonalds and Indigo Books, and to conduct actions like the occupation of campuses in the fashion of the Columbia University encampment."
"This is not happening, and it's good that it is"
Once again, "pro-Palestinian" speech is supporting terrorism

Uighur Slaves Struggling To Keep Up With Demand For Palestinian Headscarves | Babylon Bee - "The traditional keffiyeh is the square cotton scarf that is being worn on liberal college campuses around the United States in solidarity with the Free Palestine resistance movement. Unfortunately, those headscarves aren't affordable to poor college students unless the manufacturing is outsourced to Uighur slaves in China."

Oli London on X- "Horrifying scenes in Athens, Greece as lynch mob hunt for group of Israeli tourists staying in a hotel. The mob have stormed the hotel and riot police are on the scene and have deployed the use of tear gas."
Visegrád 24 on X - "BREAKING: A lynch mob made up of Middle Eastern migrants and far-left activists is trying to break into a hotel in Athens, Greece where a large group of Israelis is staying at. 🇬🇷🇮🇱"
Hen Mazzig on X - "In Athens, Greece, a crowd of Pro-Palestinian protestors is combing the streets for Israelis who are staying at a nearby hotel. Many are even trying to break into the hotel to get to the Israelis inside.  A group of people is being hunted and attacked solely because of the country they come from because the dehumanization of Israelis has been allowed to escalate unchecked.  We said it was this bad and you refused to listen."

Hamas Clarifies They Meant To Start The Type Of War Where They Get To Do Whatever They Want And No One Fights Back | Babylon Bee - " "You should've seen the looks on their faces when we rolled in with our tanks," said one Israeli soldier. "It was almost as if they were under the impression they could viciously murder thousands of innocent people without any repercussions. We're just going to do a normal war, though. So, yeah."  Hamas continued to cry foul as Israel continued its retaliatory onslaught. "Our allies in the U.S. will hear about this!" shouted Al-Maalouf. "Someone get the Squad on the phone immediately!" At publishing time, Hamas leaders were last heard asking if they were allowed to call a timeout to regroup."

Meme - *Crowd carrying protest signs*
"Gazans rape Jewish girls only in self defense"
"Beheading is resistance"
"I <3 Hamas"
"Proud of our rapist martyrs"
*Dome of the Rock with rifle in front [?]*
"Free Gaza kill a Zionist"
"Cutting off Jewish breasts for Palestine"
"Murdering 1300 Jews isn't antisemitic"

Seth Frantzman on X - "What's awful about this is how many of these people were alive on October 8...and how little was done to save them...and I don't just mean by Israel...I mean by the international community, which instead of doing everything possible to save human life...basically backed Hamas...either directly or indirectly. The two closest allies of the West in the region; Doha and Ankara, both back Hamas, both could have returned all these people alive...but they didn't. Instead they prolonged the talks as a war dragged on...they used the hostages as tools to try to strengthen Hamas...and sadly Israel, the US and others allowed this to happen>  NOT ONE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION worked hard to get access to the hostages. Many of them also worked with Doha and basically sat on their hands, never put out statements, never even made demands on Hamas...never made an effort to get access...you have so many NGOs that work in Gaza...they even had medical personnel in Gaza at hospitals where some hostages were kept for a while...they did NOTHING to help the hostages or bring back information to families, or make sure there was access... It's a fact that the international community saw 250 people kidnapped by a brutal extremist organization...and instead of condemning it and making sure the people were released, via the western allies that back hamas...the international community did NOTHING.   You know only country I would say did something and that is Thailand..they worked hard from the beginning to get their people out...and when they got them out "Thailand's foreign minister met Thai hostages in an emotional welcome after their release by Hamas from seven weeks of captivity"...they showed emotions...their leaders loved their people and did everything possible for them.  The world could learn a lot from Thailand...which did more for its people to save thier lives than the entire world did for the other hostages.   We all know one phone call from the White House to Doha could have gotten all the hostages released on October 8..after all being a "major non-NATO ally" should mean getting them released after backing Hamas for a decade and a half.  Instead by empowering western allies to back Hamas it made it HARDER to free the hostages alive.  Why aren't the Bibas children home? Why? Why was nothing done on October 8?"

Richard Hanania on X - "“the international community saw 250 people kidnapped by a brutal extremist organization...and instead of condemning it and making sure the people were released..the international community did NOTHING.” We’ve learned a lot about the moral depravity of the human rights movement."

Thread by @S_Coughlin_DC on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "As you review this brazenly 'open communications' manual directed at planned violence inside America, against Americans, et al, it really becomes paramount that concerned citizens become self-aware that these hostile actors - in escalating levels of violence possibly designed to culminate in May and sustain through the election cycle - are PERMITTED, ALLOWED & FACILITATED to attack and disrupt American citizens inside the United States on behalf of foreign players by OUR (YOUR) leaders.  If you're not up to asking these types of questions, you may want to consider whether you're serious enough to ask them or, alternatively, whether you're a poser.
FREE PALESTINE DIRECT ACTION TOOLKIT
Alongside the "X" capable link "direct action" plan posted above, there is also this 53-page PDF, of which the first three pages are below.  Now, class, let's review what "direct action" means when Marxists execute a political warfare activity against the population (and elected leaders to allow it).  Why is this permitted against the citizenry?
It occurs to me that some may not understand the phrase "open communications." As used here, when an opposition openly communicates his C3 (command, control & communications in the open, he does so b/c the assessment's been made that they have achieved a level of information supremacy that they can do so KNOWING that those communications are protected.  Making such a determination is part of any assessment that sometimes must be explicit because it's so obvious that people can just skip past it and then fail to account for its consequences when assessing where we may be in the revolutionary cycle (aka on the insurgency pyramid). i.e., that such communications are openly permitted by the powers that be even as they are a direct assault on Title 18."
The same people who claim Trump is a traitor because he's a Russian agent are passionate about being manipulated to destroy their country

علي عادي | Ali Adi 🇮🇱 on X - "What's happening in Rafah is horrific. Because it happened before our eyes, step by step, very clearly. And it tells a story about Gazans that no human mind can comprehend.
Day 1: Twitter is flooded with videos and posts of the leaflets Israel dropped over Rafah, marking the dangerous area and showing the safe humanitarian zone very clearly.
Day 2: Palestinian activists with their regular accusations, linking those leaflets to Israel's intentions.
Day 3: photos of dead children in targeted buildings exactly in the areas that were marked in the leaflets.
If I were a Gazan living in Rafah, I'd be post traumatic. I'd see the footage from the rest of Gaza and feel like death is lurking behind every corner.  If I were a Gazan and found out Israel is about to bomb our neighbourhood, I'd run away, I don't care were. I'd sleep under a tree and hug my children very tight.   But the reality defies the worst of horrors.
Apparently, when Gazans see the warnings, they think "oh come on take it easy, it will not happen to us. We'll sleep in those dangerous areas and everything will be ok".  But there's a more horrible more plausible scenario: Gazans know that the probability of their children dying in those dangerous areas, that they where warned are going to be targeted, is very high - but they don't have the least bit of care for their own lives.  And I'm not even talking here about a heroic man who is willing to die in a war, but about a father who tucks his children in, look at their little sleepy faces, then think "I don't care if you die a horrible death".  We are fighting here against something beyond Hamas or islamic extremism. But against a mindset that contradicts what makes humans great."

Jake Wallis Simons on X - "Conflicting reports of this Hamas footage — they are either murdering Palestinians who stole aid or those from the rival Fatah faction. Either way, this is the people the intifada students are cheerleading for"

Allowed on Facebook: Retard

"u are a full retard"

Oddly, Facebook says that you're not allowed to post "Content targeting a person or group of people on the basis of their protected characteristic(s) (in written or visual form): Generalizations that state inferiority in the following ways: Mental characteristics are defined as those about:
Intellectual capacity, including but not limited to: dumb, stupid, idiots.
Mental health, including but not limited to: mentally ill, retarded, crazy, insane."

(It is interesting that "retarded" is classified as being about mental health rather than intellectual capacity)

Notably, many Facebook groups ban use of this word, claiming that it will get them zucced (when in reality it seems only admin violations trigger that). In any event, this comment above was not removed, so.

Links - 17th May 2024 (1 - General Wokeness)

Rihanna triggers Christians over 'sexy nun' photoshoot, Catholics ask her to 'do it in a hijab' - "Barbadose-born singer, businesswoman, actress and songwriter Rihanna has attracted the ire of netizens after she posed as a “sexy nun” for the popular American magazine “Interview.”  In bold pictures shared online, The ‘Diamonds’ star is dressed in a mock black and white nun’s habit complete with a defined headpiece. However, her top is open revealing a greasy and braless chest with ample cleavage on display as she strikes a provocative pose with bright red lipstick and heavy makeup on her face. She can be seen making suggestive gestures in a subsequent video... Internet personality Oli London slammed the celebrity and accused her of “selling her soul.” He commented, “Would you mock another religion, Rihanna? Would you wear a Hijab and do this? No, you absolutely wouldn’t. So why do you think it’s okay to mock Christians? You sold your soul.”The “Rude Boy” singer was challenged by YouTuber Lauren Chen to do the same while wearing a Hijab... Another individual asked the popstar to replicate the same wearing a hijab in order to encourage religious inclusivity. One user asked, “Don’t you guys get tired of making excuses for disrespecting religious garments,” and questioned if such acts are only permitted against Christianity. Journalist Amy Mek also slammed the singer for being a “hypocrite.” She charged, “Rihanna disrespects Christians and Hindus, yet begs for forgiveness of Muslims.” Notably, this is not the first time, the Grammy Award winner has courted controversy for disrespecting religion. She faced harsh criticism after lingerie models at her fashion show danced to a song that appeared to be a remix of an Islamic Hadith. The incident transpired in 2020 and the global star apologized for utilizing “Doom,” a song by Coucou Chloe which was released in 2016, in her Savage x Fenty fashion presentation... Interestingly, after apologising to Muslims, Rihanna insulted Hindus in 2021 by flaunting a Ganesha necklace as she posed semi-nude, but conveniently ignored to express any apology to the global minority even after she was repeatedly criticised for her derogatory gesture.   “While the singer is clearly promoting her new Savage x Fenty line, which just got $115 million in funding, I’m baffled by what made her think it’s OK to appropriate another culture. Rihanna was wearing a necklace of a god, which is incredibly sacred to Hindus. For those who don’t know, Ganesh is a Hindu god who is believed to be the Lord of Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles. I understand that many outside of the religion may not immediately understand what the big deal is, but once you learn the meaning, it’s easy to see that celebrities truly need to stop using other religious symbols as their aesthetic, because it’s getting old,” Nikita Charuza voiced in ‘PopSugar.’ She further slammed the pop icon in the piece for apologizing to Muslims for insulting their religion but not to Hindus."
Some animals are more equal than others

Meme - "When you out virtue signal the virtue signalers
Tara Xacum: I am complaining on behalf of our Muslim high schoo! students. My son just told me the class breakfasts for Sophomores and Juniors were Monday and Tuesday of this week - during Ramadan. You'd think our district would not be so damn tone deaf!
Rocco Rich: It's pretty abelist to insult by calling people deaf. It's offensive to truly disabled people.
that phrase is abilist and shouldnt be used. Deaf isn't an insult
tara xacum: I hadn't thought of that. I will stop using the phrase "tone deaf" as a way to mean a lack of understanding. I appreciate you calling me out on that. You're correct."

A brief era of rationality is ending - "I have long argued in these columns that the spasm of identity politics through which we have been passing since 2015, the Great Awokening, is a threat to the empirical and rationalist assumptions that underpin the modern world. To harrumph and call it “political correctness gone crazy” is to miss the dreadfulness of the menace. When we argue that lived experience trumps logic, that truth depends on perspective, that people are defined by their sex or color rather than by the validity of their arguments, we are rejecting modernity itself.  If that sounds far-fetched, look at the way our culture warriors are turning on the men who made the Enlightenment. David Hume... he wrote that civilization was an essentially white phenomenon, a proposition that we can now see to be false but which, given the technological disparities he observed, was perhaps not such a surprising inference to draw in the 18th century.  London’s Natural History Museum is reviewing its collections because Charles Darwin is offensive. The bearded sage thought that biological sex differences were big, saw savages as cruel and wretched rather than noble, and generally believed in the supremacy of Anglo-Saxon civilization.  If you think Darwin’s preeminence will save him from the mob, look at the scientists and philosophers who have already been canceled for holding the views of their own age rather than ours: Sir Francis Galton, Sir Ronald Fisher, H. C. Yarrow, and Carl Linnaeus. Voltaire is condemned because he saw Africans as “children,” Immanuel Kant because he ranked the races of the world, with whites at the top and indigenous Americans at the bottom.   Even John Locke, the grandfather of liberalism, is condemned for having owned shares in the Royal African Company, which traded in slaves, and because the constitution of Carolina, which he drafted on the orders of others, seems designed to allow for slave-holding.   To make an obvious point, we never honored these men because of their views on race, which were incidental to their achievements as scientists and philosophers. To anathematize them now is to condemn the system of thought that they upheld, which is, indeed, the goal of the postmodernist agitators stirring our current discontents.   According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the United States is permeated by “aspects of whiteness” that include “the scientific method,” “objective, rational linear thinking,” and “cause and effect relationships.” Imagine being told that if you are not white, the whole concept of science is alien to you. Here we see, stated openly, the philosophy behind the idea that “lived experience” trumps data and that your physiognomy counts for more than your argument.  We have come full circle. Many Enlightenment thinkers were condemned in their own time for challenging religious dogma. Hume was denied a post at Edinburgh in 1742 because of his alleged atheism. Darwin became a hate figure for many congregations. Now, once again, they are howled down for insisting that logic and evidence matter more than comfortable assumptions.   The worst of it is that the wokes, like the religious fundamentalists of earlier epochs, probably have the numbers on their side. The Enlightenment happened, in evolutionary terms, an eye-blink ago. We are far more attuned to notions of tribe, hierarchy, and absolute authority than we are to such flimsy concepts as experimentation and empiricism"

Pauline Hanson's legal team tenders video of her telling white senator to 'go back to New Zealand' in discrimination defence - "One Nation leader Pauline Hanson told a white senator to "go back to New Zealand", four years before she tweeted that Australia's first female Muslim senator should "piss off back to Pakistan", a court has heard.  The Federal Court has been hearing a racial discrimination case brought by Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi against Senator Hanson over the tweet, which was written in response to a tweet from the Senator Faruqi on the day Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022. On that day Senator Faruqi tweeted that she could not "mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples"... Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act states that it is unlawful for a person to commit a public act that is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group based on the race, colour, or ethnic origin of the other person... He said it was incorrect to believe that Senator Faruqi should have to "take it on the chin" because she was a federal politician.  "If anything that warrants a greater level of protection," he said, arguing it would otherwise deter other people from diverse backgrounds following in her footsteps... Senator Hanson's barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC had argued that Senator Faruqi's tweet was intended to offend and provoke a response.  Senator Hanson's legal team also argued their client's tweet fell within an exemption to the Racial Discrimination Act which allows a fair comment on a matter of public interest if it is an expression of a genuine belief held by the person."
"Minority" politicians must be protected from criticism, because "white fragility" means "minorities" won't go into politics if criticised
Of course, if you offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a person because he is white, you won't be prosecuted because that is "anti-racism". You will be celebrated instead

Video of Pauline Hanson telling white former senator to 'go back to New Zealand' used in racial discrimination defence : r/australian - "Foreigners: I moved here for a better life, because things at home are so awful.
Australians: OK?
Foreigners: I don't like the way your country works! It must be more like the country I had to leave to have a better life! You must do things my way!
Australians: Fuck off back home then? The way we do things is why you came here!?
Foreigners: OMG Racist!"

Video of Pauline Hanson telling white former senator to 'go back to New Zealand' used in racial discrimination defence : r/australian - "Would love for her to piss off out of the place she finds so stoked in colonialism and the land of thy stolen. If she don't like it then she should fuck off, off of it. I wasn't too keen on the Queen, but I respect The Monarchy, The Commonwealth, and most of all, our Australia. How dare she say that shit on that day."
Video of Pauline Hanson telling white former senator to 'go back to New Zealand' used in racial discrimination defence : r/australian - "I think the point that Hanson is trying to make is that Faruqi is a self serving hypocrite. If she actually believes Australia is "stolen land", her migrating here is participating in the occupation of said stolen land, in fact she's bought multiple properties on that land.  So it makes sense that Hanson questions her motives and if she really believes she's occupying stolen land she should do the right thing and leave, because to continue to remain in Australia would make her a hypocritical occupier wouldn't it?  How can you both believe Australia is stolen land and at the same time think its morally acceptable to migrate here and participate in the of theft via profiting from owning multiple properties?  If Faruqi believed in what she preached she would return to Pakistan where she is indigenous to."

Reflections on Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address - "It is now painfully clear that, as Solzhenitsyn was able to discern 42 years ago, the West has been gradually losing the will and intellectual ability to defend itself, not so much against foreign armies as it may have appeared in 1978, but against an army of internal critics determined to demolish everything the West used to stand for... A lot has been written lately about the Woke phenomenon, with excellent accounts of its ideology, genesis, and, though not yet complete, its long march through the institutions.  But I have still found myself at a loss to understand how this simplistic, tribalist, intellectually confused, petty, and terribly divisive ideology appears on the verge of displacing our old, magnificent worldview, anchored in the universal “unalienable Rights endowed by our Creator and secured by the Laws of Nature.”  I wrote this essay in the hope that revisiting what Solzhenitsyn had to say in 1978 may provide a clue to why we find ourselves so vulnerable today. I take from his text two important themes which I believe are relevant for this task. One is the growing imbalance between rights and individual obligations, the second is the loss of faith... The imbalance between rights and obligations in Western societies is constantly growing as the common understanding of rights is expanding, thus strongly undermining any remaining notions of individual obligations. The Left includes among what it calls “human rights” not only those guaranteed by the Constitution but also the rights to free health care, free education, free child care, the right to unrestricted and free abortions, and makes constant political demands in their name. Recently, one hears voices calling for a guaranteed “Universal Basic Income’’ as another human right. Whatever one thinks about the merits of these new rights, when put into practice through vast bureaucratic programs, they reduce personal responsibility and increase the power of the state. One may also ask whether there is any possible limit to this expansion? In Communist countries everybody had the right to work, guaranteed by the state, viewed as the most fundamental human right. In practice, it meant that everybody who was not penalized by the Party could get a wretched job with little hope for advancement. The state could implement such a policy because it controlled all the means of production. Are we heading in the same direction? This imbalance between rights and responsibilities is not only restricted to individuals, it is also affecting our governmental, societal, and cultural institutions. In a series of lectures at Princeton University two years ago, Yuval Levin decried how these institutions are neglecting their formative responsibilities in favor of performative actions. He provides a thorough analysis of how congressmen, journalists, judges, and university professors prefer to behave, often to the detriment of the institutions they represent, as independent actors on the larger stage provided by the irrepressible, omnipresent, and vastly irresponsible media. The result is an accelerating lack of trust in the institutions they represent and a decline of social capital, which is essential to the health of the republic. But it is not just that our basic institutions are declining by neglecting their essential responsibilities. Far more worrying is the fact that the liberal ideas underpinning these institutions are themselves collapsing under a constant barrage of criticism. In other words, people are losing faith in our foundational liberal values. This fact, barely visible in 1978, is an essential part of the present reality of Wokeness... Marxism has from its inception been very good at detecting and criticizing some of the more obvious deficiencies of capitalism—yet, as we know, terrible at offering any workable solutions. Marxists were obsessed with taking power, and whenever they did, by insurrection or conquest, their rule descended rapidly into some awful form of totalitarianism. But with the exception of the underdeveloped Russia, and later China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Cuba, capitalism turned out to be more enduring than the original Marxists envisioned, partly because of its remarkable ability to adapt and reform itself within the cultural traditions and democratic institutions that sit alongside it. That led to a new form of criticism, cultural Marxism, initiated by Gramsci, directed at the “hegemonic culture” through which capitalism maintains its power. The intense focus on criticizing all aspects of Western societies with the ultimate aim of weakening and eventually destroying them was continued by the Frankfurt School, under the name of Critical Theory, and brought to the US where it found a niche in American colleges and universities and from where it soon started its long march through America’s institutions... Take any possible identity group and you can find a critical theory dedicated to it... Critical pedagogy theory (CPT) criticizes the traditional relationship between teacher and student which, apparently, is like the relationship between a colonizer and the colonized. These theories provide road maps for liberation from the oppressive, dominant power structures. They are also connected to each other by the doctrine of intersectionality... Add to this a contempt for capitalism, an apocalyptic vision of climate change, and the neat trick of combining moral relativism in theory with a large dose of moral absolutism in practice, and you get the main contours of the so-called Woke phenomenon... Solzhenitsyn points out that humanism, divorced from its religious roots, is no match for the current materialism of the Left. In the same spirit as Hazony, he observes: 'Liberalism was inevitably displaced by radicalism; radicalism had to surrender to socialism; and socialism could never resist communism.'... Spiritual aspirations, manifested through organized religion, can also lead to cancellations of freedoms and terrible conflicts. The absence of religion, however, may be even more problematic, as people tend to fill the vacuum created by the disappearance of old religions with new ones, which are often more fanatical and are not constrained by fidelity to ancient, inspiring texts or anchored in tradition. Many observers have pointed out that the Woke phenomenon represents a new, postmodern religion... the philosophical conceit of modern rationalist thinkers, starting with Descartes, that truth ought to be discoverable by reason alone, has led instead to the opposite conclusion embodied in the radical relativism of postmodern thinkers such as Foucault and Derrida."

Antiracism, Anti-Semitism, and the False Problem of Jewish Success - "the New York Times published an op-ed celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Million Man March that neglected to mention the anti-Semitic history of its organizer, Louis Farrakhan. In response, former Times editorial board member Bari Weiss tweeted that the institution had adopted “a worldview in which Jew hate does not count.” The author of the Times op-ed, Howard University professor Natalie Hopkinson, replied that “ppl who have become white”—that is, Jews like Weiss—“should not be lecturing Black ppl about oppression.” Exposing and objecting to racial disparities became the purpose of the New York Times around August 2019, when executive editor Dean Baquet called a town hall meeting attended by the paper’s staff. He announced that, with the Mueller probe winding down, the paper needed to “regroup, and shift resources and emphasis” from Russiagate to the story of “race and class” and “what it means to be an American.” A few months later, the Times published “The 1619 Project” which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, and the paper’s editorial and ideological focus has been consistent ever since. When Weiss left the Times in July 2020, she published a resignation letter on her blog in which she claimed that management indifference to harassment from progressive staffers had created an intolerable work environment. She has since argued that progressive ideology is increasingly hostile to Jews and other successful minorities because they undermine the narrative of systemic racism pushed by antiracist activists.  Jews came to America, often as refugees fleeing persecution, and were able to flourish here precisely because opportunities weren’t closed off to them on the basis of identity. The story of minority immigrant success is inconsistent with the progressive narrative of the United States as a country founded upon and organized around racism. If it is true that oppressed groups have had historically unprecedented access to opportunity in modern, liberal societies then it cannot also be true that pervasive oppression explains lingering disparities. So progressives have become hostile to successful minorities, and have begun speaking about them in ways that echo the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the far-Right... For much of the last century, the liberal position on race in America was that we should eliminate discrimination and prejudice, treat everyone as an individual, and award opportunities on the basis of merit. Some groups, like Jews, Asian Americans, and other minority immigrant groups have flourished under this system, but black Americans continue to be represented in fractions of their societal proportions in many elite settings. In response, the progressive view has evolved. Today it holds that treating everyone the same without regard to race is actually racist because it fails to consider the impact of historic and systemic discrimination. In this way, systemic racism is preserved by judging members of historically marginalized groups as less worthy according to ostensibly race-neutral criteria (for instance, test scores)... To Kendi’s right, intellectuals like Jordan Peterson have offered a simple explanation for the disproportionate number of Jews in the upper echelons of various fields: There are a disproportionate number of very smart Jews. However, when New York Times columnist Bret Stephens argued in 2019 that Jewish success was mostly attributable to Jewish culture, values, and norms, he was denounced as a eugenicist. Even the empirical claim that high intelligence is unusually common among Jews was blasted in American Scientist as racist pseudoscience. If it is racist pseudoscience to suggest that Jewish families and communities are unusually adept at cultivating talent, then what explanation remains for Jews’ disproportionate success? On Twitter, Kendi has said that: “The only people who believe equality of outcome between racial GROUPS will never exist are the people who refuse to recognize that racist policy are behind the inequality of outcome between racial GROUPS.” In other words, if Jews are successful it is because they have shaped policy to benefit themselves at the expense of other groups. This is how Kendi and his antiracist disciples arrive—like the white nationalists before them—at the “JQ.” If we dismiss Jewish talent and culture as explanations for Jewish success then the only explanation left is that Jewish success is the result of Jewish mendacity... Whether you believe that power and wealth ought to be redistributed to create a white ethnostate or you want to reallocate power and wealth to facilitate equity by imposing antiracist policy, the road to your imagined utopia runs through or perhaps over the Jews. Kendi rarely discusses the implications of his “antiracist policies” on groups other than blacks and whites... many progressives seem to believe that white supremacy can be dismantled without examining minority success if we simply fold successful minorities into the overarching category of whiteness. You don’t have to deal with the Jewish Question if you don’t acknowledge that Jews exist...  Some Jews may consider themselves to be white people with white privilege who benefit from white supremacy, but that is unlikely to impress those on the radical Left and radical Right who dislike Jews for ideological reasons of their own. Progressives may try to define whiteness in a way that elides the existence of Jews, but theoretical jargon cannot alter reality. Jews still exist, and bigots still want to disappear us, and some of those bigots are pursuing their agendas under the guise of virtuous antiracism. Furthermore, when you dismantle a system that apportions opportunities to individuals on the basis of merit alone and replace it with a system that distributes those opportunities proportionately to groups in order to create equity, people will reconstruct their identities in order to qualify for benefits under the new system... a wildly disproportionate share of black students who gain admission to elite colleges are from immigrant backgrounds... And of course the success of Asian Americans remains a problem for the equity project... The unintended similarities between the memes produced by the alt-Right and the graphics produced by the New York Times expose the unexplored similarities between the ideologies and political missions of these two ostensibly opposed movements. Both ends of the political horseshoe are suspicious of Jews, along with Asian Americans and other successful minority groups. Antiracism went off the rails when its intellectual leaders decided they could use racial discrimination for positive purposes. That has evolved into the view, articulated by Kendi, that opposing discrimination is actually the real racist position."

Confessions of an Equity-Industry Propagandist - "It’s a shakedown, and some of the biggest and most prestigious organizations in the world are signing up. The people who do this work are kind and intelligent people. So are the people who buy it. But that almost makes it worse. It’s all about the money, a circle jerk just as corrupt, disingenuous and ego-riddled as the capitalist and institutional behemoths getting hustled. Except no corporation or government—in the West, anyway—perches atop its hoard while also claiming absolute moral authority and demonizing anyone who questions it. In college, we used to watch The Smurfs, and take a swig whenever we heard ‘smurf’ used as verb, noun or adjective. I’d have gotten drunk just as smurfin’ fast if I’d hauled on a bottle every time an equity consultant used the word ‘folks’ (spelled with an x for inclusivity) to enforce yet another radical over-correction and have it feel less threatening. Other popular favorites: “Do better” (as a critique of others’ insufficiently activist outlook), “Be in the circle” (an affectation of Indigenous rituals), “Shift the power,” “Stay in relationship to the work,” and the archvillain: “whiteness.” In the past few years, the phenomenon has escalated dramatically. I began to pull further and further away from what had started to feel like a soft-edged cult complete with chants, conspiracies and near-complete homogeneity of speech. Every client echoed the last, parroting rightspeak...  It’s one thing to write ad copy urging people to drink Pepsi instead of Coke. That’s benign. But I was being paid to mangle language, gaslight the public, and undo the fabric of things I believe in—free speech, open discourse, and the toxicity of narcissism as a cultural north star. That’s malignant... “You know what I’m going to ask, right?” my client whispered. “Please make this room look diverse, or else we can’t use it.”  Most attendees, despite being overwhelmingly white, seemed energetic and eager to participate in the training. But that was not enough. I passed the instruction to the photographer to shadow the “desirable” people of color, only some of whom were smiling and engaged. The photographer lurked obediently in their periphery. The others were bored and expressionless, which makes sense: Like me, they were regular people doing their jobs. Someone had made them come to equity training. They did not exist to be diversity models. And there we were, salivating over their presumed oppression like some sort of delicacy. Professional “change-makers” are so fixated on virtue signaling, the simple act of choosing an idea, interview, feature story, photo, or retweet is a minefield. For another client, I pitched that we highlight the work of a woman who does event facilitation on environmental issues. “Hmmm,” said the client, who happened to be white. “I dunno. She’s just… way too white.” No one in our entire state could possibly be more correctly oriented than this environmentalist. She wears vegan shoes and stands in the cold for reparations. Venting, I described her to my partner (the recipient of all my eye-rolling GIFs) as: No way that woman doesn’t do a land acknowledgement before she burps. But her deeply earnest commitment to fighting injustice was undeserving of credit because she has long blonde hair... For wokepreneurs, the more boxes ticked, the better—even when it’s fake. One client, a political candidate who’d recently moved to a rural area, bussed in a carload of hijab-wearing women from the closest city so the small town would look “less white,” and to lend urgency to her insistence that its citizens be “more race-aware.” The candidate was not successful in her bid to win the county’s seat, losing the election by a wide margin. Her campaign had profoundly misread and scolded the very people she had hoped to represent. The movement—progressivism, equity, wokeness—protects itself from examination by pointing at anyone who does not uncritically accede to its doctrines as evidence of the problem it claims to be solving. As a former progressive, this makes me angry. I first hit peak-intersectionalism thanks to the revelations of my young lesbian niece, including gender ideology’s effect on her socialization and mental health. After years of witnessing the movement from the inside, I began seeking nuance, as I should have done from the start. I haven’t been able to say any of this publicly, which is why I’ve written this piece under a pseudonym. If I spoke out about any of this, I’d jeopardize my career. So I am quietly and selectively withdrawing my talent. I am a conscientious objector... It’s almost impossible for anyone to feel valued from inside the equity hustle, or to trust its means or its ends. White people—especially straight “cis” men—are required to perform contrition, self-censorship and self-deprecation. Everyone else is tokenized and graded according to their intersectional score first, and the value of their contribution second. It should make all of us step back, skeptical. But it doesn’t. Not when this much money is up for grabs."

Dad who refuses to send son to school over LGBT lessons is facing jail - "A dad who has kept his son off school for months in a dispute over LGBT+ equality lessons has refused to back down despite authorities taking him to court.  Jabar ‘Jay’ Hussain, 51, faces a maximum £2,500 fine – and potentially a three-month jail sentence – for failing to ensure his nine-year-old attended Parkfield Community School in Alum Rock, Birmingham.  Mr Hussain has instructed lawyers to seek a judicial review over the issue if Birmingham City Council did not stop the prosecution, claiming the school’s No Outsiders equality programme was ‘incompatible’ with his rights and Muslim faith.  He alleged the lessons posed a ‘safeguarding risk’ and caused confusion for young pupils about their gender identity; and that the decision to prosecute him was unlawful and breached his human rights."

Candice Wiggins: I was bullied for being straight in '98% gay' WNBA - "“Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins told the Union-Tribune. “I would say 98% of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they [the other players] could apply. “There was a lot of jealousy and competition, and we’re all fighting for crumbs,” Wiggins added. “The way I looked, the way I played – those things contributed to the tension. “People were deliberately trying to hurt me all of the time. I had never been called the B-word so many times in my life than I was in my rookie season. I’d never been thrown to the ground so much. The message was: ‘We want you to know we don’t like you.’” “It comes to a point where you get compared so much to the men, you come to mirror the men,” she said. “So many people think you have to look like a man, play like a man to get respect. I was the opposite. I was proud to a be a woman, and it didn’t fit well in that culture.”... “Nobody cares about the WNBA,” Wiggins said. “Viewership is minimal. Ticket sales are very low. They give away tickets and people don’t come to the game.”"
Clearly, heterophobia is a homophobic myth