Links - 9th August 2016

This Video Mocking Journalist Who Claimed AR-15 Gave Him PTSD is Going Viral

European Patriarch Meme: Kelsea Akelseaaamarieee - "kelsea @kelseaaamarieee
The Senate approved a bill to require women to register for the draft
1 the draft should be outlawed
2 l DONT WANT EQUAL RIGHTS LIKE THIS"
Ahh... feminism

'Footman' exposes Tupperware secret of the Queen's table - "In an effort to justify a photograph of a breakfast table laid for the Queen and Prince Philip, Parry explained: "It looks innocent, but I could have been a terrorist with plenty of time to poison it." Of rather more surprise will be the fact that the royal cornflakes and porridge oats were present on the table in Tupperware containers."

The Last Kingdom and Agincourt | Podcast | History Extra - "There's been a whole sort of revisionist thing recently. Which try to make out that the Vikings were actually some sort of peace-loving vegans. Which is equally totally nonsense... in many ways they're very similar to the Saxons. You could say that the whole of the period between the end of the Roman Occupation and 1066 is a period of Germanic-Scandinavian invasions of Britain"

The battle of Jutland and 1950s domestic dangers | Podcast | History Extra - "Liberating the woman from her drudgery... Hotpoint calls one of its washing machine you know The Liberator. There's this sense that women are having opportunities for freedom and so processed food becomes associated with that"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, 60th Anniversary Special - "One of the issues that comes up quite often that I frequently get asked is: is it more dangerous for female foreign correspondents than for men. And I think it's a really important question because on the whole I don't think that it is and I think that there is a sort of moral panic about this. There was a particular time in Egypt where there were some very nasty sexual assaults of women in Tahrir Square. Both journalist and activists as well. But I don't think that there's any empirical research that says it's more dangerous as a woman to be a foreign correspondent than to be a soldier or a firefighter or any other profession that we might choose...
The Israeli waiter is a living, alas living, living testimonial to the inapplicability of Milton's line that 'they also serve who only stand and wait'. The Israeli waiter stands and waits. Presumably for the end of the working day. He doesn't serve. Or at least he tries to avoid it...
'Humour, light touches, joy. Foreign news journalism tends not to do that stuff'
'I think there's quite a good reason for that. Because often people try it and it doesn't really work and I think tere's something about the tone of that broadcast itself. It's very patrician and kind of slightly sneery tone about other people which I think you have to be really careful of and I think one thing that has really changed. It's no longer a case of you have a middle class middle aged white man going abroad and pointing at people growing mangoes on trees and kind of finding that entertaining'...
I did a piece... about rediscovering the only grand piano in Gaza. What I found partly in the reaction was many people liked it exactly for the reason that it was personalising, humanising. But there was quite an assault from both sides as we know in that very very controversial Israel-Palestine, saying that by humanising, I depoliticised and that was wrong...
You can't be objective about genocide. It's not on the one hand, you know, the victims are good, on the other hand they're bad."

The invention that stops girls missing school every month - BBC News - "And then the answer that I somehow found saddest of all: "Do your mothers help you?" Their heads shake again: "No," says Benku's friend. "My mother asked my aunt to explain everything to me when I got my first period." Another girl was given an old chitenge and a lesson in what to do by a neighbour. A third was sent to her grandmother's for a week... girls often don't leave the house while they're bleeding"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, The Cupboard is Bare - "Xinjiang was a paradise until 2008, he continues. But since the terrorist attacks began, it's been so hard to live here. We're constantly stopped by the Chinese police, who go through our text messages to see if we have any symbols of independence or Islam in our phones. Their searches can last for hours. He shows me his second, secret mobile phone with a wink. They mainly look through our phones for corrupt reasons, he says. If they find anything they take you straight to jail and your family will have to pay big sums of money to get you out. Ali looks at my fairly short and tidy beard and adds, if I had a beard like that, they would take me to prison"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Drama for Dilma - "[On Norway] They gaze down on you glassy-eyed in every home. The ancestors, as far back as photography goes. Here are my grandparents, I'm told, my great grandparents, and the further we go down the line of stern, shoulder-to-shoulder couples, the longer the husbands' beards become... [This] led the Czech president to compare Norwegian social workers to Nazis. Partly this is just crude nationalism - don't you dare take a kid which is at least half ours. But it's not just that. These stories hit a particular nerve in former Communist countries, where many feel that the state tried to destroy the family as the main building block of society, partly by insisting that the authorities, not parents, were ultimately responsible for children's welfare. We overthrew that tyranny, protestors are saying, don't you - in the old democracies of the West now voluntarily submit to it. Children belong to parents - not the state...
When women do get into positions of power they're often accused of pulling up the ladder behind them and abandoning the concerns of the other women who got them into office...
[On Malawi] One parent of a 13 year old girl with HIV tells me that he simply doesn't know how to keep her safe from predators after she was abused by two men over different periods. One lured her to his home and then paid her 50 Kwacha, some 6 pence. Another threatened to slit her throat if she told anyone. He gave her 7 macadamia nuts...
Chief *something* has also managed to outlaw a practice called kusasa fumbi or cleansing. This, she says, involves girls as young as 7 being sent to camps and taught how to please men. It usually ends with the girls being forced to have sex with the teacher or, back at home, being forced to go with a so-called hyena. An older man who comes to the house to take the girl's virginity or make women pregnant...
[On Germany] If the nation that's always been at the forefront of tourism has passed the point of peak wanderlust, other countries will suffer. The traditional trade arrangement has been the Germans make plenty of money exporting great cars then they export themselves on foreign holidays to spend that cash. Now, they plan to spend more time at home with their Schlossies."

King Richard's Return, Imprisonment and Ransom - "Disguised as a Templar knight, or possibly as a merchant, Richard headed north into the heart of Europe, making for safe territory controlled by his brother-in-law Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony. However, after an icy, gruelling, dangerous journey on poor roads, the King was apprehended by Duke Leopold of Austria’s men. It was only a few days before Christmas, the weather was awful and the King was apparently sheltering in a ‘disreputable house’ or brothel in the outskirts of Vienna. Some stories suggest that it was his aristocratic habit of demanding roast chicken for dinner, rather than humbler fare, that led to his discovery; other tales say that it was his companions’ practice of calling him ‘Sire’ that somehow gave away his royal identity.

Affirmative Consent Is Still Confusing to College Students - "Fifty-four percent believed that nodding in agreement constituted consent, but 40 percent thought it did not, and 3 percent said it depended on the situation. Forty-seven percent of respondents believed that a person taking off their own clothes showed consent, while 49 percent did not. And 40 percent believed getting a condom showed consent, but 54 percent did not... As for affirmative consent—a standard adopted by some college campuses across the country—83 percent of students had heard of it and 69 percent felt it was very or at least somewhat realistic. About three in ten students thought it was the best standard for determining whether sexual activity was consensual while 42 percent preferred a “no means no” standard, and 23 percent thought there wasn’t rmuch difference.
Even college students can't agree on what constitutes affirmative consent, and more think it's a bad than good idea. Non-college students are undoubtedly even more opposed to it. I guess most people are rapists

The Incest Argument & Same-Sex Marriage - "Reflecting on incestuous marriage has, interestingly enough, given me some sympathy for people who have reflected on same-sex marriage and believe that there is something wrong about it. After all, I am against incestuous marriage and thinking of it makes me feel ill. However, I am at a loss for a truly compelling moral argument against it that would not also apply to non-related couples"

German ethics council calls for incest between siblings to be legalised by Government - "“They feel their fundamental freedoms have been violated and are forced into secrecy or to deny their love. “The Ethics Council has been told of cases where half-siblings did not grow up together and have only met in their adult lives”... In a statement outlining its recommendations, the Ethics Council said the law against incest “put couples in a tragic situation”. “The majority of the German Ethics Council is of the opinion that it is not appropriate for a criminal law to preserve a social taboo,” it added."

Incest a 'fundamental right', German committee says - Telegraph - "The Council said it based its recommendation on extensive research, in which it found many incestuous couples are forced to live in secret. In one case, it found a woman was being blackmailed by her father and ex-husband, who threatened to depive her of access to her children unless she ended a new relationship with her half-brother."

Incest Is 'Taboo' but Shouldn't Be Illegal, German Experts Say - "In its 90-page analysis [link in German], the council concluded that "the right of adult siblings to sexual self-determination in a consensual relationship weighs heavier in these cases than the abstract good of the family." It added that “neither the consequences for the family nor the possibility for descendants from such incestuous relationships can justify a ban under criminal law.” The panel's members include experts in "scientific, medical, theological, ethical, social, economic and legal concerns.""
The 90 page report is in German

Dangerous Love: German High Court Takes a Look at Incest - "Some 2-4 percent of the population have "incestuous experiences", according to an estimate by the Freiburg-based Max Planck Institute. There are fewer than 10 convictions for incestuous sex in Germany per year."

Do Women Really Want Equality? - "Another concern is how the merging of more traditionally feminine and masculine roles in women and men will affect gender identity and relationship success. The question remains whether or not women would still find their stay-at-home partner as attractive than if he were their stay-at-work partner. Thus far, it appears this kind of man, often referred to as a “beta male,” turns women off. For example, psychologist Lori Gottlieb found the risk of divorce is lowest when the husband earns 60 percent of the income and the wife does 60 percent of the housework, and women report higher levels of sexual satisfaction when there is a more traditional division of chores... Being a man and a stay-at-home partner is not seen as valuable and does not communicate alpha male behavior, which many women are attracted to. Indeed, even as women become more financially independent, they want an older and wealthier male partner... more often men have to pay their own way. The trend of parents spending more on their sons’ education in the 1970s not only equalized in the 1990s, but was reversed by the late 2000s; parents now spend about 25 percent more money on their daughter’s education than their son’s. In addition, there are plenty of scholarships offered to people of all sexes and ethnicities, but more scholarships — both academic and athletic — are offered exclusively to women than to men. For example, on scholarships.com — one of the most popular sites on which to find and apply for scholarships in the US — women’s scholarships outnumbered men’s four to one... You know what’s worse than catcalling? No one ever asking you out. Never feeling desirable. Always having to take the initiative sexually and getting rejected most of the time. One of the luxuries of being a woman is that we don’t have to ask for affirmative consent because we don’t have to take the initiative and therefore are not held responsible or accountable for anything that happens. Sure I am smaller and more physically vulnerable, but at any point I can accuse any man of saying something sexist or touching me in an inappropriate way and he could lose his job and family. He is guilty until proven innocent. Even if he’s found innocent, I would face no repercussions. Ultimately, if we actually wanted equality we would be asking men what life is really like for them. Because as long as male roles are limited, female roles will be limited, too. If we actually wanted equality, we would be talking about equal responsibilities alongside equal rights; we would be having honest conversations around biological differences and attraction. Until we do these things, we will find ourselves in a continual gridlock, complaining about such trivial things as manspreading and wondering why we can’t have it all while mistakenly believing men do"

Episode 28: “Christmas Pudding with Arsenic Sauce” - "Lee spent more time in meetings with British politicians, lobbying for support and seeking to build friendships and alliances, than he did meeting with his own delegation. Lee clearly had his own agenda, which was to promote himself to the British as a viable future collaborator, and to dispel any idea that he was a tool of the communists... The man who inherited the 1959 constitution, Lee Kuan Yew, would use the Internal Security Council as cover to detain his political opponents without trial while blaming it the British and Federation governments.

Episode 30: Pah Mata - "The Council subsequently dissolved the Singapore Farmers' Association and Singapore Wooden House Dwellers’ Association on 1 November... Lee Kuan Yew had stabbed a knife into the back of his allies. His message to the British was clear. He was saying that yes, my colleagues, the PAP left-wing are communists. And I am working with them, yes. Why? because I would rather support communists than colonialists. So I will fight you. But the moment colonialism ends, I will fight the communists. Therefore, you should hand me all the power of government, and then leave."

World War Two Spies and Alexander von Humboldt

World War Two spies and an extraordinary naturalist | Podcast | History Extra

"Germany as a whole under the Nazis made war incredibly incompetently. And an extraordinary almost paradox. Whereas on the Allied side, I've argued in my book that our successes with intelligence went quite a way to compensate for the fact that the British and American armies were frankly not as good as the German army... in the end it's having the hard power that is critical [not intelligence]...

Agent Max had told the Germans that Operation Mars was coming. And enabled them to move reinforcements up there to deal with it. And... the British said, absolutely nobody is gonna deliberately leak information and cost 77,000 lives just for a deception. But Stalin did... Stalin personally authorised the NKVD to leak through Agent Max who was the NKVD's agent... to deflect attention from Operation Uranus down south around Stalingrad. And only in Stalin's ghastly universe could such a stunt have been organised and all those lives lost, purely to sell the deception. So that was an intelligence operation that undoubtedly did make a difference at a critical moment

[He] couldn't drive a car... he suggested to OSA that they should inflict some disability on him to prevent him from being eligible for forced labour by the Germans... They said if they disabled him the government would be liable for paying the disability pension after the war...

It's a basic principle that you can't trust a word about anything to do with intelligence, and certainly not spies' memoirs. That you have to remember the basic nature of espionage. It's all about deception and treachery. And half these people, they lose track of whether they're telling the truth themselves and so you have to approach everybody's accounts and memoirs, and a lot of the reports in the archive with great skepticism because you can reckon that parts of it are true... but which parts?... you never believe a word any spy says. It's just the nature of the beast. Treachery is their business... I throw in the dustbin as soon as I see on the dust jacket of any new book the word definitive. This is the definitive account... Nothing any of us do can be definitive. We're all having a stab at working out what happened. But you have to be suitably modest...

When Hitler invaded Russia in June 41, absolute crisis, panic. He went to Beria, Stalin's spy chief. And he said we're desperately short of intelligence officers because nearly all the best ones have been sent to the gulag. We gotta get some of them out because otherwise, how are we gonna fight this war? And he said Beria never asked him whether they were innocent or guilty. He just said how badly do we need them? And Sudoplatov said very. And he did agree to let out several hundred. But the two aspects is Sudoplatov writes in his memoirs: after I had got the order for their release signed, unfortunately we discovered that some of the best had already been shot. He describes as though it was sort of everyday experience, but also he said again as a reflection of the madness of Soviet life.

He said after the war, he said I was very fortunate. I'd taken good care in 1941. I did not personally sign the release orders for these people. I got Merkulov, his superior, to do it. He said if I'd signed them, he said I'd probably have faced the firing squad as Merkulov did. Because of course in another of these twists, half of them were accused of being enemies of the state. And Sudoplatov spent 10 or 15 years in prison. But at least he kept his head.

And it's such a mad, monstrous world in which, I mean most of Stalin's best agents in Western Europe - when they went back to Russia in 1945, they were promptly sent to the gulag because they were assumed to have become tools of the capitalists. You can hardly believe it. And some of them were shot. It's an absolutely insane world and reading about it, you know we can read about being with the 8th Army in the desert and thinking it might've been fun to be there. Nobody in their right mind who reads about this mad world of espionage could believe it was fun to be there...

[On Alexander von Humboldt] She was, his mother was so emotionally cold and such an overbearing presence, I think, in his life, because she wanted both sons to be Prussian civil servants and was quite controlling over their education and what they had to do. And Humboldt always wanted to travel. He always wanted to go away. He wanted to be an explorer, and there was no way she was going to allow this. And when she dies in 1796, he immediately writes to his friends like basically: yay, my mom is dead. And then, because he inherits a lot of money, he brags something like: I am so rich, I can gild my nose and my mouth and my ears...

He is a polymath, so when he dies, which is the moment when scientists specialise, these expert scientists look down on someone who knows everything because it's almost like an amateur. So it becomes seen as
something negative"

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa | Podcast | History Extra

"This is rather underestimated by historians... the occupation of Ukraine by Field Marshal von Eichhorn in late 1918... Ukraine would be the breadbasket for the Germany in the future and prevent any repetition of the British blockade and the starvation which that caused to Germany during that particular period. So it was strategic as well as sort of visceral in his hatred of Bolshevism... [Hitler] justified his declaration of war on the United States on the grounds that this was one way to force Britain out of the war. I mean it's very very very very bizarre in thinking, but we know Hitler had this curious confusion. Certainly also a confusion of cause and effect as well...

He, ever since the Spanish Civil War was completely obsessed that anybody living abroad had been corrupted by abroad and therefore was somehow instinctively anti-Soviet. And that's why he rejected the warnings from Berlin. Even the fact that they had managed to send back a minature dictionary for German troops which they got hold of showing terms like, you know, take me to the collective farm chairman and hands up and all the terms that you'd expect for German troops to need in the event of an invasion. So I mean he had a whole raft of it. But he was convinced that this was all *something in Russian* i.e. an English provocation to force a fight with Germany to save Britain and that was why he a) rejected all the British ones but also as I say the ones coming from his own sources...

'So his suspicion of his own sources and of the, I suppose, capitalistic West, sort of overrode his suspicion of the Nazis then, in a way'...

'He even accepted the assurance of Hitler that the reason why so many troops were being moved... to the East, deployed in East Prussia, occupied Poland and further south, was to get them. out of the range of the bombing of the British... you'd have thought that he'd have done a little bit of research on the range of British bombers and all the rest of it. And also to know that the British bombing arm, Bomber Command at that particular stage was so weak and pathetic, I mean just Wellingtons and so forth, that they'd have been almost incapable of making any form of dent, if you like, into German forces...

As far as Churchill was concerned, you know, the moment that Pearl Harbor happened and America was brought into the war, Churchill knew from then on that the Allies could not lose. Obviously he had some very nasty nasty shocks. Fall of Singapore etc etc... that period of 1942 when one horror after another happened, you know. The British pushed... back virtually almost to the gates of Cairo and you've only got to look at the diaries of the time.

The danger of looking at history retrospectively. You've got to see how things were at the time and what they looked like... the British actually at that particular stage were even wondering: do we start destroying the Abidjan oil wells because they thought they were going to lose the whole of the Middle East. And they thought that the Germans were going to come down through the Caucasus and Rommel was going to charge through and link up and all the rest of it. And there was really a feeling that we've lost it completely. But that was not the case because what they had underestimated was this question of the cumulative point"

Links - 8th August 2016

NUS suspends freshmen Orientation Week after reports of inappropriate activities
This is why we can't have nice things. I hope people are happy now
"Why they never suspend NS during the Purple Light saga."
"I quote a friend's foreign colleague's diagnosis re Singapore: be ignorant and complacent when no one says anything, and when something happens overreact like it's the end of the world"
[On itai itai yamete] "Many cheers have no meaning and it just rhymes and easy to catch up with. E.g. Arts faculty T-house 6-7 minute cheer. R-house haka cheer... we have the fight, kill, fight, kill, fight kill fight kill fight kill [cheer]" (killing culture!)

Left-Wing Supporters Boo as Bernie Sanders Says 'We Must Elect Hillary Clinton' - "
If Clinton is corrupt and Sanders endorses her, does that mean he is corrupt too?

'White People to the Back!': Black Lives Matter Segregates Media by Race - "Black Lives Matter activists took to the streets in Philadelphia to protest police-involved shootings of African-Americans. During the demonstrations, protesters attempted to segregate members of the media based on their race. "White media get to the back! Black media come to the front!" one activist shouted into a megaphone. When white journalists didn't immediately comply, she singled one of them out. "Excuse me, sir!" she yelled. "Somebody needs to tell this person to get to the back. Go! Somebody needs to tell these folks to get to the back!" "We are not afraid to put people out! White people to the back! Black people to the front!""

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, How does the media shape propaganda in Putin's Russia? - "'Although during Soviet times, Russians rejected the propaganda or recognised it as such. they don't recognise what's going on now as propaganda'
'Well, this is the subtlety of it. Is the saving grace of the Soviet propaganda was that very few people believed it, because your everyday experience went against it. You were told on the radio or the television that the country's economy is booming, it's producing, it's much more successful than any capitalist economy. And then you went to the shop and you saw empty shelves. And that was a very good reality check on what was happening. Now the propaganda of today which is very much focused on the outside, on the experiences which people cannot check with their own lives, with their own eyes, this is the propaganda which people choose to believe. It's not just imposed on them. It's a much more subtle relationship. It's the state realising what are the weak points in people minds. What do they want to hear. And people choose to believe it. And it's playing on all sorts of things: on the humiliation after the Soviet collapse. On the craving for Russian greatness and empire. The horrible thing about this propaganda is that people want to believe it... the very first thing that Vladimir Putin did when he became President. Way before he got control of the oil and the gas and all the commanding heights of the economy. He took control of a television. And since then, television became the primary tool of his rule, basically"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Richard Dawkins on 40th anniversary of The Selfish Gene - "'If you breed for being good at the high jump, you'll find that you've bred for bad things at the same time. I don't know what they would be but a champion, a super champion high champion who could jump many feet higher than anybody can today would almost certainly be defective in other respects'
'On a much more prosaic level, though, if one wanted to change the genes so that one had a baby with blue eyes instead of brown eyes'
'You could do that. And a lot of people are very uneasy about that. Also uneasy about, say, breeding a mathematical genius. Or a musical genius. And again I think it's partly because that's what Hitler wanted to do and so obviously anything Hitler wanted to do, automatically suspicious of. It's in a way a little bit curious that we're more suspicious of trying to breed a brilliant musician than we are of forcing a child to do 5 finger exercises for many hours per day - and there are parents ambitious for their children who will do that. And so the environmental pressure on a child is not regarded with the same suspicion as the genetic pressure to breed a perfect musician.'
'Why not, you think?'
'I think partly because of Hitler. And there's a sort of feeling that breeding or genetic manipulation, you're doing something for the distant future, which is contrary to the precautionary principle in a way that merely training, forcing a child to be a brilliant musician - even against its will, that only lasts for one generation'"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Are 1 in 5 children reported to social services before the age of 5? - "We have this mantra which says it's everybody's job to safeguard children. Unfortunately, what we're doing doesn't safeguard children. Creating this huge number of referrals of concerns is like creating a huge extra big haystack in which we're trying to find the needle of the children who are really at risk

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Thursday's business with Rob Young - [On Tata Steel pensions] "We are getting rather carried away with ourselves. I believe in the cockup theory of government, rather than conspiracy theory of government. I don't believe... that people in (?) have actually been working on this for a long time. They haven't. They're making up on the hoof in response to events, which is never a good outcome"

The war in Malaya, 1948-60 - "Between 1948 and 1960 the British military fought what is conventionally called the “emergency” or “counter-insurgency” campaign in Malaya, a British colony until independence in 1957. The declassified files reveal that Britain resorted to very brutal measures in the war, including widespread aerial bombing and the use of a forerunner to modern cluster bombs. Britain also set up a grotesque “resettlement” programme that provided a model for the US’s horrific “strategic hamlet” programmes in Vietnam. It also used chemical agents from which the US may again have drawn lessons in its use of agent orange... Britain used the emergency, declared in 1948, not just to defeat the armed insurgency, but also to crack down on workers’ rights... Templer famously said in Malaya that “the answer lies not in pouring more troops into the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the people”. Despite this rhetoric, British policy succeeded because it was grossly repressive, and was really about establishing control over the Chinese population. The centrepiece of this was the “Briggs Plan”, begun in 1950 – a “resettlement” programme involving the removal of over half a million Chinese squatters into hundreds of “new villages”. The Colonial Office referred to the policy as “a great piece of social development”... Many complained both that the new villages lacked essential facilities and that they were no more than concentration camps... A government newsletter said that an essential aspect of “resettlement” was “to educate [the Chinese] into accepting the control of government” – control over them, that is, by the British and Malays. “We still have a long way to go in conditioning the [Chinese]”, the colonial government declared, “to accept policies which can easily be twisted by the opposition to appear as acts of colonial oppression”. But the task was made easier since “it must always be emphasised that the Chinese mind is schizophrenic and ever subject to the twin stimuli of racialism and self-interest”. A key British war measure was inflicting “collective punishments” on villages where people were deemed to be aiding the insurgents”"

Episode 26: The Lion of Singapore - "David also thought he’d bring in his friend S Rajaratnam and his friends, Goh Keng Swee, Kenny Byrne, Toh Chng Chye, and Lee Kuan Yew. All of them met in Lee’s home in Oxley Road in January 1954, but, as David wrote in his diary, the meeting left a “bitter taste”. Fundamentally, they were apart in matters of principle and attitude. Marshall focused on principles, what was right and wrong; Lee on power, what worked and didn’t work. Marshall saw Lee as disguistingly amoral; Lee saw Marshall as hopelessly idealistic. And most of all, Marshall and Thomas recalled, they could not stand how Lee looked down upon them. The elitist arrogance of the man. Years later, Lee confirmed this in his own autobiography, where he wrote very condescendingly about David Marshall and Francis Thomas"

One-armed athlete pleads guilty to child trafficking, recruiting women for prostitution - "National para-athlete Adam Kamis pleaded guilty on Monday (Jun 20) to 11 charges of recruiting women for prostitution and one count of child trafficking, for recruiting a 16-year-old girl with the intention of sexually exploiting her. Adam, also known as “Adam OneArmRunner”, lost his right arm in a motorcycle accident, which also left his left arm paralysed. The para-athlete, who represented Singapore at the Commonwealth Games and ASEAN Para Games, said he had started the social escort agency in early 2013 to get out of debt... Adam told the women to strip, so he could “inspect the condition of their bodies”. To prove that they were indeed willing to provide sexual services, Adam would “try out” the women by having sex with them... If the women did not perform satisfactorily, or were “awkward and lacking in skill and personality”, DPP Sripathy-Shanaz said, Adam would have sex with them again for “further verification”. Prosecutors said between early 2013 and October 2015, when he was arrested, Adam had recruited 15 women. His victims included several students, a dental assistant, childcare teacher and an accountant, and were aged between 16 and 38."
Why are 38 year old women also "victims"?

Para-athlete 'Adam Onearmrunner' convicted of vice charges - "Although Adam successfully recruited 15 women, he only managed to secure five customers as several women declined assignments for various reasons, the court was told. He has not received any commission to date."
FAIL!

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Thursday's business with Rob Young - "When Estonia was part of the Soviet Union, it was actually prohibited to have a private business. Yet I think the people during the Soviet times were very entrepreneurial because the only way you could get something is essentially if you built it yourself"

What’s the difference between dolls and action figures? - "The word “doll” is weirdly fraught for a very straightforward concept: Dictionary.com defines a doll as “a small figure representing a baby or other human being, especially for use as a child’s toy.” Which is to say that while not every doll is an action figure, every action figure is, by definition, a doll... Hasbro coined the phrase to market the earliest G.I. Joe figures to boys who considered dolls to be a “girl’s toy.” Today, an “action figure” is considered to be any poseable doll marketed to boys... Play patterns with dolls versus action figures also overlap considerably"

Loretta Lynch: 'Islam,' 'ISIS' to be Censored on Orlando 911 Tape - "She told Chuck Todd on NBC News’ Meet the Press that the “FBI is releasing a partial [printed] transcript of the killer’s calls with law enforcement, from inside the club,” but added: “What we’re not going to do is further proclaim this man’s pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda.” Todd responded, incredulously: “We’re not going to hear him talk about those things?” Lynch added: “We will hear him talk about some of those things, but we are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance and that.”"

Episode 27: “The Living Buddha” - "If you read only English language sources, like the official documents, the Straits Times, and Lee Kuan Yew’s autobiography, then you get an image of the David Marshall period as being really turbulent and unstable. Marshall’s government is called ‘weak’ and ‘soft’, capitulating to subversive elements, and allowing communists free rein. LKY, of course, takes this a step further. He linked Marshall’s principles of justice and democracy with chaos and instability. Look, Lee appears to say, if you want democracy, you also get instability. He uses the Marshall government as an instructive contrast to the relative peace and stability created by the repression and detentions of Lee’s own government. Lee accepts that Marshall established abstract principles, and demonstrated ideals and values, but argues he had little practical impact. Lee writes rather condescendingly of Marshall and describes him as, among other things, ‘naïve’. But of course, the English-language perspective is just one set of perspectives, and a minority one. If you look at the Chinese-language sources – and remember, those who spoke Chinese as a first language comprised over 70% of the island back then – if you look at the Chinese language sources, we see a very different Marshall. That’s the Marshall we will be talking about today... Nicoll refused to allocate a separate Chief Minister’s office, until Marshall threatened to set up his desk under a tree in front the secretariat. Then, miraculously, they managed to find a tiny office for Marshall. Like Harry Potter, they gave Marshall the office under the staircase. It was a tiny cubicle, 12 by 14 feet, but Marshall gave it dignity... During the riot, several students were arrested and three Chinese schools closed. The outraged students barricaded themselves in Chung Cheng High School. Nicoll warned that another climb-down could weaken the administration and offered to take full responsibility for the use of reserve powers to evict the students, but Marshall refused this deception, saying it would be dishonest on his part. This principle is, of course, in stark contrast to Lee Kuan Yew, who would later repeatedly use the British as cover, by publicly blaming them while privately ordering the detention without trial of his own comrades. But for Marshall, the issue was not just honesty but responsibility. If you make a decision, if you take up a policy, you take responsibility for it."

Ramsay Bolton actor Iwan Rheon: 'Game of Thrones writers joked that I would end up on the Iron Throne' - "Earlier this year, Rheon spoke to the Telegraph about the controversy the rape scene caused when it aired in 2015. “I was surprised by the outcry because I thought that they had handled it, creatively, very well,” he said. “They hadn’t oversexualised it or made it too gratuitous. They hadn’t trivialised it. I thought it moved the characters forward.” “I think maybe if people put more effort into the charities that help women in the world today deal with the horror of rape, and put less effort into social media about a fantasy show, then maybe things could change."

Wo-Hen Resurgence

Something a friend in California saw on Sunday:



WOO HOO

Make your way to Cache Creek Casino Resort on Saturday, September 17th 2016 to see Tuan Anh!

Links - 29th July 2016

Politically Correct Schoolgirls Cover Up Their Own Sex Attacks At Hands Of Migrants - "Pupils at the Herder school in Kassel, Germany have been subjected to months of sexual assault by “much older” migrant males on their way to and from school, dating back as far as September 2015. The three girls aged between 16 and 18 were repeatedly touched inappropriately and verbally abused, but they refused to report the incidents to the police or their school because the perpetrators were “refugees”. German newspaper the Hessian Niedersächsische Allgemeine reports the girls realised the “social-political” implications of their reporting their crimes, with the significant amount of press attention swirling around migrant sex assault, leading to them becoming what the paper identified as “paralysed by political correctness”... Breitbart London reported on the case of a young female no-borders activist who was gang raped by Sudanese migrants in the shower block of a camp on the French-Italian border in 2015. The other migrants in the camp were having a party and playing music, so her cries were unheard. Subsequently, after persuasion by other activists the woman decided not to report her rape because to do so would set back her dream of a borderless world. After she betrayed the political ideals of the other volunteers at the camp and reported the abuse, some of her fellow activists accused her of doing so out of “spite”."

Teen Male Dominates Girls Track And Field - "Haines senior Nattaphon Wangyot–who self-identifies as a girl–advanced to the state finals in the 100-meter and 200-meter events. He won fifth place in the 100-meter dash and third place in the 200-meter. In both events, he competed against girls as young as ninth grade."

19 Realities That Come With Having Big Boobs - 9GAG

In Defense of Denmark - "To characterize Denmark’s law, and others like it, as “targeting” migrants is misleading. Rather, with these laws, countries simply ask the same thing of newcomers as they do their native-born citizens. Danes are rightly proud of their social welfare system, one of the most generous in the world. “The welfare state is part of our DNA,” Lars Gert Lose, Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, told me in a recent interview. Danes, he said, “love paying their taxes.” But they don’t take kindly to those who abuse the jealously guarded welfare state... To most Danes, then, the asset seizure law is not an act of hostility toward migrants, but rather an extension of the Scandinavian principle of social egalitarianism... Anti-migration sentiments are thus channeled in a healthy way — the parliamentary process — and not onto the streets. In Germany, wrongheaded immigration policies have boosted the far right and fractured a political culture that was once the envy of Europe for its comity... the wages of irresponsibly liberal immigration policies are being seen across the continent in the rise of populist, anti-immigration, and anti-EU political parties that now threaten the political stability of Europe itself. For too long, European leaders ignored their constituents, brushing off concerns about migration and national identity as taboo... In his derisory piece about those overzealously liberal Danes, Eakin referred to the cartoon controversy as “an irresolvable conflict” between European societies and their Muslim populations. If that assertion is true — if a majority or even a plurality of Muslims cannot accept that the freedom of speech includes the right to blaspheme — then it’s an unintended argument in favor of more restrictive migration policies... Yes, Denmark may be “harsh” and “liberal,” but sometimes you have to emphasize the former to protect the latter"

Londoners accidentally pay for free Wi-Fi with a firstborn, because no one reads anymore - "people basically never read the things they agree to online -- because if we did, we'd spend about 76 days a year doing it."

Islam & Gays -- They Remain in Denial about the Threat - "most gay spokespeople continue to think that the political Right is the sole locale from which anti-gay sentiment can come. For many years Pat Robertson was their worst nightmare. But Pat Robertson just wanted to stop gays from marrying. He didn’t call for people to throw us off high buildings. Despite the growing awareness that this was precisely what the Islamists wanted, gay “spokespeople,” publications, and groups went through the 2000s sharing the old leftish delusions. These included the idea that, as a “minority,” gays only had things in common with other “minorities.” So gay people were meant to be the natural political and social bedfellows not just of other gays but of people with disabilities, racial and religious minorities, and even, perhaps, women. Of course it was ridiculous. Gay men don’t have much in common with lesbians. Why — even if they had a unanimous view and voice — would they inevitably share the concerns of “all” people with one leg? Or Sikhs? Or Muslims? For this worldview to make any sense at all, you have to believe that there is a dominant, “patriarchal” voice in society, that this is the only bloc capable of bigotry, and that all these mini-communities ought to unite against this fantasy mainstream... A poll released in Britain in April found that 52 percent of British Muslims want homosexuality to be made illegal in Britain. That’s not just “not on board with gay marriage” or “not entirely hot with civil partnerships.” It’s wanting gays to be locked up. In Britain. In 2016. When it comes to real, as opposed to cake-based, homophobia, we aren’t looking at a Muslim-minority problem. We’re looking at a Muslim-majority problem...
The only thing that is certain is that the frayings in the patchwork quilt of diversity are going to fray more in the years ahead. Not by our pointing them out, but by the inevitable assertion of realities such as those suffered by Orlando this past weekend"

The smart products we are stupid enough to buy - "As I brushed, the screen lit up telling me which bit of my mouth I was working on. This might have been smart, only I knew the answer already. It timed my brushing (a task my own electric toothbrush does efficiently) and while it did so distracted me from the job by telling me (incorrectly) what the weather was like outside, and what was happening in the world. "Impressive!" it said when I was done. Again, this might have been nice, only I'm an adult, and therefore no longer need congratulating on having brushed my teeth."

Banned & blocked: Facebook & Reddit censor users after Orlando massacre - "Thousands of Reddit users were censored this weekend, according to Vocativ, even though many of the posts did not appear to violate the site’s rules on what can be categorized as news. A post appealing for blood donations in the area after the shooting was removed, causing outrage among Reddit users. Outside of the US, the Swedish radio station Sveriges Radios Ekoredaktion censored a press conference by police in Orlando over fears they might reveal the name of the shooter."

Reddit Turns to ‘The Donald’ for News—In Record Numbers - "Claiming “censorship” and citing “PC” culture, a record number of Reddit users unsubscribed from one of the site’s largest communities and joined r/The_Donald instead, the largest subreddit for Donald Trump supporters on the site."

A huge international study of gun control finds strong evidence that it actually works - "Santaella-Tenorio's study (co-authored with Columbia professors Magdalena Cerdá and Sandro Galea, as well as the University of North Carolina's Andrés Villaveces) examined roughly 130 studies that had been conducted in 10 different countries. Each of those 130 studies had looked at some specific change in gun laws and its effect on homicide and/or suicide rates. Most of those 130 studies looked at law changes in the developed world, such as the US, Australia, and Austria. A few looked at gun laws in developing countries, specifically Brazil and South Africa."

Why do we indulge the crimes of the Left? - "Hobsbawm was an unrepentant supporter of a system that killed millions and, as Nick Cohen has pointed out, surely would have killed him. Laden with honours throughout his life by the liberal democratic system, he went to his grave believing that all the murder had been worth it in order to achieve this deluded fantasy of a worker’s paradise. So powerful is ideology that a man can be brilliant in his field, which is after all the study of the human condition, and yet at the same time totally blind to one form of evil. But then he was hardly alone, and many intelligent, well-informed people are still at best ambivalent about the crimes of the Soviet Union, Communist China and the other Marxist states. I hear there may even be one or two in politics today... 'there is the hopeful optimism, which genuinely expects that next time around communism will be different. Next time it will be without a Stalin. Next time – without a Pol Pot. These terrible men were the product of specific times and contingencies, so the argument goes, and it could all work if we behave well. But the Polish philosopher Leszek Kołakowski dismissed the possibility of a democratic communism as ‘contradictory as a fried snowball’... A-level Government and Politics syllabus, which he describes as ‘downright scandalous’. As well as ‘reform is preferable to revolution’ it defined conservatism as ‘fear of diversity’ and support for ‘social and state authoritarianism’. Conservatism views people as ‘limited, dependent and security-seeking creatures’ and supports ‘resurgent nationalism … insularity and xenophobia’. The entry on socialism describes it as defined ‘social stability and cohesion, social justice, happiness and personal development’"

Nonbinary: Army veteran legally not male or female, judge rules - "The lawyer said the standard form provided by the court clerk listed only male or female as options, so Perriguey inserted "nonbinary.""

Elastic band is found growing into the flesh of four-year-old boy's WRIST - "Doctors in China have removed a rubber band from a young boy after it had grown into the flesh of his wrist. The four-year-old child, named Longlong, came close to having his arm amputated at the wrist after doctors in Chengdu, south-west China made the discovery, reports the People's Daily Online. Doctors said that the object was affecting the boy's bone growth and was beginning to restrict movement of his arms."

Star Wars: JJ Abrams finally explains Kylo Ren's creepy table of ashes - "The backstory is, that that table has the ashes of the enemies he’s killed"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Murder in Bangladesh - "That largely American phenomenon - the school shooting. But it's not just a modern occurence. There've been gun attacks and deaths in US schools ever since the 1840s, with incidents in every decade since"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Death From Above - "[On Hiroshima] The genetic legacy in Hiroshima is not what people think either. Babies born to survivors have shown no statistically significant difference in abnormalities from other Japanese babies. The really dark side of the Hiroshima bombing, my guide tells me, is the social discrimination. Fear of contamination has meant that many survivors are still single. Or they kept it secret that they were here. There are families with grandchildren, he says, who are just discovering today that a grandparent was in Hiroshima when the bomb exploded"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Why is France being targeted with acts of terror? - "'What's the mood among policemen in France?'
'You know in France, policemen are very very tired and bored. But we are obliged to do our duty. In fact you follow, you forget to speak about the migrants in Calais. Every day we have a lot of riots. For example yesterday the riot police used among 200 grenades to spray the migrants'"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Birmingham pub bombings: Victim’s sister confronts ex-IRA boss - "Kieran Conway, former head of IRA intelligence: 'I don't view IRA volunteers as murderers. I view them as people who participated in a just war'"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, After Orlando: The battle against homophobia - "Northern Ireland... was a place that was divided by geography and politics as well as by religion, and more and more we're seeing a country where folks who don't go to church mostly live on the coasts. Folks who go to church a lot live in the South or the Midwest. In my state if you're a Democrat you live in the city and if you're a Republican you live in the rural areas. Those are divisions that we have not seen to the history of this country and I don't think it's a good sign for the Republic"

Sex rights for the disabled?

"The public discourse surrounding sex and severe disability over the past 40 years has largely focused on protecting vulnerable populations from abuse... far less attention has been devoted to the intimacy needs of the mentally impaired and inhabitants of institutions... As the ideals of competence and consent. came to dominate medical ethics in the 1970s, the sexual desires of persons of limited capacity raised vexing and often unpalatable questions. An easy solution was to view sex as off-limits for those with impaired IQs. However, an English mother's 3-year-long crusade has finally shattered this taboo. Lucy Baxter’s international campaign on behalf of her adopted son, Otto, has also made clear that the sexual needs of the severely disabled require specific exemptions from certain general ethical and legal principles...

Sexual liberty has increasingly come to be regarded as a basic human right. As the organisation Health, Empowerment, Rights and Accountability has written:

Sexual rights are a fundamental element of human rights. They encompass the right to experience a pleasurable sexuality, which is essential in and of itself and, at the same time, is a fundamental vehicle of communication and love between people. Sexual rights include the right to liberty and autonomy in the responsible exercise of sexuality

... Denying an individual the right to pursue sexual contact or even intercourse with his fellow human beings would not be excusable on the grounds that this individual might achieve comparable pleasure through self- stimulation, because social scientists and sexologists have long recognised that the pleasure achieved through two-party sexual contact is both greater than and distinct from that achieved through masturbation. As moral philosopher Eugene Schlossberger has persuasively written;

Studies of human sexuality show that manual stimulation of the genitals is generally a more effective method of producing the appropriate physical sensations than is intercourse (since manual stimulation allows for greater control). Thus, were those who desire sex primarily seeking the appropriate physical stimulations, manual stimulation would be preferable to intercourse. Thus the fact that most people prefer intercourse to masturbation shows that most people's sexual desires are value-laden. In short, even those who frequent prostitutes are generally more interested in the psychological aspects of sex than the purely physical ones....

Many individuals have physical limitations such as cerebral palsy and spinal cord injuries so extreme that self-stimulation is not possible. However, even for individuals who are physically capable of masturbation, the act of physical contact with another human being appears to provide a degree of pleasure and fulfilment entirely distinct from mere masturbation, even when that contact lacks emotional intimacy and is the product of a commercial transaction. Psychologists have long recognised this phenomenon, although they have never adequately explained the causes. What is clear is that millions of individuals do employ the services of prostitutes each year, choosing to spent (sic) limited financial resources on a form of pleasure not available through masturbation. If any right to sexual pleasure does exist—- and this paper is grounded on that premise-—then it must be a right to mutual contact, not merely self-stimulation...

If sexual pleasure is a fundamental right, as this author believes, then jurisdictions that prohibit prostitution should carve out narrow exceptions for individuals whose physical or mental disabilities make sexual relationships with non- compensated adults either impossible or highly unlikely...

A second area in which reform is desperately needed is the ‘no sex‘ policies that exist in American nursing facilities, mental hospitals and group homes. Many such facilities require the doors of patients‘ rooms to be open at all times, making intimacy all but impossible. The assumption underlying these restrictions is that anything short of clearly expressed wishes by a fully competent and rational individual does not fulfil a minimum standard to consent to sexual relations The principle advanced by this approach is that institutionalised individuals require a higher degree of protection than those living outside of institutions. In many matters, this is certainly the case. However, in regard to sexual relations, this ‘higher standard' often serves as an obstacle to meeting both the wishes and interests of individuals who cannot conform to ‘real world' standards of consent

l believe a far more fluid standard is called for in cases of long-term institutionalisation. Sexual relationships between institutionalised individuals ought to be encouraged, as are other forms of social relationships, to the degree that they are mutually rewarding to both partners... For example, a married couple in which one partner has descended into dementia might still take both pleasure and meaning from sexual intercourse. even if one partner cannot overtly consent in the manner that would be expected of a person without dementia...

To err too far on the side of caution, preventing all sexual pleasure and intimacy in the name of protecting the vulnerable, is itself a cruel violation of a patient's basic rights...

If we are going to have a national debate in the USA surrounding the definition of health care, we should seriously consider including sexual surrogacy. For the disabled in the basket of services that we provide. Already, we have made the choice to pay for other purely social and cosmetic services to help unfortunate individuals lead more pleasurable and productive lives—such as breast reconstruction for mastectomy patients and plastic surgery for children born with cleft lips... Sexual pleasure ought not be viewed any differently. Most western healthcare systems acknowledge this, to some degree, paying for medications to treat erectile dysfunction in men and subsidising birth control pills for women. Some American states even fund abortion services and assisted suicide. Any notion of healthcare broad enough to encompass cosmetic surgery ought to be generous enough to include funding for the sexual pleasure of the disabled"

--- Sex rights for the disabled? / Jacob M Appel in J Med Ethics

Links - 28th July 2016

NUSWhispers - "I would like to call out Arts Camp for their VERY CLEARLY rapey "itai itai yamete" cheer idgi lol just because it's in Japanese and some people might not understand the meaning of it doesn't mean it's ok and please dont bullshit that it means something else in a different context because what other context makes "IT HURTS, IT HURTS, STOP!!!" ok??"
Claiming that "itai itai yamete" promotes rape is like claiming "call me Daddy" promotes incest
Comment by a Japanese girl to the people denouncing it despite being admittedly ignorant of JAV conventions/the diversity of Japanese sexual practices: "I'm Japanese and it is very simple. A bunch a girls yelling itai itai yamete for a cheer does not indicate non-consensual sex. However, it is embarrassing to be used in a cheer. Use a different cheer that actually promotes progress in team building activities and leave the sex talk when in bed. I've said it hurts in bed and meant it in a good way. Just use a cheer that isn't so embarrassing for Japanese people to hear."

Games at NUS camps increasingly sexualised, say students - "A spokesman for the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) labelled such activities "alienating rather than bonding", and criminal lawyers said police reports should have been made"
Censorship is good when it comes to young adults taking part in voluntary orientation camps. Censorship is bad when it comes to gay penguins in the public library
Maybe next year the camps will need to be vetted by the university and these people will be complaining we restrict creativity, treat young adults like kids etc
If these should be restricted because peer pressure will compell people to take part, should be ban the hijab because Muslim women will feel compelled to wear it?

Melissa Chen - Please explain this to me in PLAIN english: "So... - "Please explain this to me in PLAIN english: "So it’s always this logic of how can we understand whiteness better, and that’s never been my politics. I’ve always been about occupying the margins and strengthening the margins and what that means is that, for a long time, whiteness has also occupied the margins. Like, people of color get in circles with no white people in the room and we see that whiteness still operates. So I think it’s kind of a shock for America that whiteness has dominant society already, it also seeps into the margins. What happens the one time when the margins seep into the whiteness and we encroach on their space? It’s like the sky is falling." Let that distill in your head for a moment. What on earth does the phrase "margins seep into the whiteness" mean? This is one consequence of majoring in things like english and sociology - you end up talking like you've been smoking crack or something."

May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way… - "“May the bridges I burn light the way”... Can I use my past failures, mistakes, missteps and fuck ups as guidelines of what not to do for the future, because that sounds like a fantastic idea. It would mean admitting to myself that there are some bridges and relationships that will never be rebuilt. It would mean taking a long, hard look at what I did that lead me to those situations and why I never want to be there again. And that’s not easy work. That is gut wrenching, heart hurting, headache inducing stuff."

5 of the Best Ways to Escape Enemies in Video Games - "Assassin’s Creed as a franchise has left tons of marks on the gaming world, some good, some bad. But for all the functions it pioneers — interactive environments, reactive combat — the one no one has appreciated fully is the coin bomb. Whether you’re using a handful of coins to cause a crowd to move erratically for fun, or filling a narrow alley with people to disguise your escape, or just being generous with the locals, it’s really no different: Make it rain, and they’ll come running."

Blonde Brazilian man Xiahn undergoes surgery to achieve Oriental look - "I put my fingers inside the eye and pulled. That was the way I wanted to have my eyes"

The "strong Independent Woman Aisle"...

Seattle gov bans racist terms like 'citizen' and 'brown bag' - "In the past, Seattle officials have tried to bowdlerize other potentially controversial terms, ranging from “Halloween” to “dinosaurs.”"

Refugee shelter burnt down in Germany after dispute among asylum seekers over Ramadan meals - "Ralf Herrenbrück, a senior public prosecutor in the city, said there had been disputes among Muslims living in the home over how to mark Ramadan before the fire broke out on Tuesday. “There are two groups - one group wants to follow it strictly and so only eat when it's dark while the other group wants to eat at normal times - for example because there are also pregnant women there,” he said."

How Social Justice Warriors Are Creating An Entire Generation Of Fascists - "SJWs – almost all of whom are white, upper-middle-class college students – picture themselves as persecuted, oppressed crusaders for peace and equality. But, upon any level of inspection, this claim immediately falls apart. I have been on the Internet since I was a small child and I have perused some of the most extreme and disturbing corners of the web. I have had personal encounters with every manner of vile cretin – the sorts of people who would make even Charles Manson himself blush. With that said, never have I encountered anyone who was so giddy about their hatred than the people who make up the SJW community. These are people who, on a regular basis, call for violence and genocide against “oppressors”, whether it’s white people, heterosexual people, thin people, or just anyone who even slightly disagrees with them. One favorite tactic that SJWs use to quash all opposition is doxxing – they will publish the personal information (real name, job, phone number, address, and so forth) of anyone that they deem to have committed an act of thoughtcrime, then they will usually encourage people to commit acts of violence against that person in real life and will do their best to have that person fired from wherever they work at... Stormfront is often held up as an example of “online hate”, but it must be noted that the white supremacists on Stormfront do not participate in organized harassment campaigns, do not send gruesome rape and death threats to people, do not regularly call for violence, and do not engage in doxxing. Compared to the people who claim to be on “the right side of history” and crusaders for “social justice”, Stormfront is a bastion of kindness and civility. What does that say about you, SJWs, when you make neo-Nazis look positively civilized by comparison?... These so-called advocates of “social justice” are the best gift that neo-Nazis could have possibly asked for: the most extreme and unpleasant aspects of the far-left amplified for all the world to see. The more absurd and outrageous SJWs become, the more the far-right gains support and sympathy. If SJWs think that they’re “oppressed” right now… well, they had better be prepared for the future that they’re helping to create"

Strange And Hateful Bedfellows: How Neo-Nazis And Social Justice Warriors Feed Off Of Each Other - "Nazis and SJWs both have a designated “oppressor group” that controls and dominates everything. For Nazis, it was the Jews; for SJWs, it’s whites/males/”cishets”/patriarchy. Both have an “oppressed group” that suffers horribly at the hands of this designated “oppressor group” or “privileged group”. For Nazis, it was white Europeans; for SJWs, it’s women, “People of Color” (“PoC”), gays, transsexuals, and other designated victim groups. Both subsist on feelings of hatred, inadequacy, fear, and a desire to be superior. Both have extreme paranoid persecution complexes and are eager to find (and invent) conspiracies everywhere. And, most of all, both firmly believe that all dissent and questioning of their ideologies must be immediately quashed with an iron fist... Ultimately, what unites both neo-Nazis and SJWs – and what this video has fueled in people of all sides – is what unites all of humanity: hate"

Protester dies after inhaling fumes from burning American flag - "Some 10,000 people rallied this week in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province, to protest the movie trailer that Muslims say insults Islam, according to the International Herald-Tribune. One participant, identified as Abdullah Ismail, died after being taken to an area hospital. Witnesses said he had complained of feeling sick from the smoke from American flags burnt at the rally. The rally was organized on the city's landmark mall by the Tehreek Hurmat-i-Rasool. Despite a ban on rallies on The Mall, local officials blocked off the road leading to it from noon to 6 p.m., apparently to facilitate the event"

'Calling out' the Holocaust is the logical end point of the Left's perverse victimhood Olympics - "at the annual nut-fest that is the NUS conference, delegates applauded speakers who argued against Holocaust commemoration. In response to a proposal that students’ unions should help organise events for Holocaust Memorial Day every year, one speaker said marking the Holocaust is not “inclusive”. “I am against the NUS ignoring and forgetting other mass genocides and prioritising others," said Darta Kaleja from Chester University. “When during my education was I taught about the genocides in Tibet or Rwanda? It is important to commemorate all of them”... The new discomfort with Jews, or “Zios”, springs partly from the nasty politics of identity, and especially the culture of competitive victimhood that it nurtures. What we saw at the NUS conference was a display of one of the weirdest trends of our time: Holocaust envy."

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, On Board Air Force One - "She had studied rural economics and would be going to Ethiopia to work on an agricultural developed. I thought she was much too sophisticated for such a life and asked her why she chose it. Li quickly informed me that young people in China do not get to choose what they study, or where they go. The choice was made for them, and China has a big interest in Africa"

Meet Mumble: How to Raise Baby Chicks with Special Needs - "When Mumble still didn’t grow well, Rebekah turned to the Disabled Hens Support Network, a Facebook group which formed in May of 2014 after a truck carrying thousands of ex-battery-cage hens crashed, killing and injuring hundreds of birds. The same people who rehabilitated and kept the surviving chickens as pets advised Rebekah to mash boiled egg yolk and to mix chick crumb with Mumble’s water so she would get a little nutrition when she drank."

Postwar Germany and medieval CSI | Podcast | History Extra - "By 1949, they're still saying that Nazism was a good idea, badly carried out. There are surveys at that time showing, I think, half the people in Germany saying that. But at the same time the Allies were bringing in hundreds of people, hundreds of Germans were forced to file past the camps and go inside them"

Johann Georg Elser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "'(the Gestapo) had tried to squeeze information out of him by feeding him very salty herring and exposing him to heat, and then depriving him of liquids'... three doctors had worked on Elser for twenty four hours, injecting him with ‘sizable quantities of Pervitin,’ but he continued to say the same thing. Four hypnotists were summoned. Only one could put Elser into a trance, but the prisoner stuck to the same story. The psychologist wrote in his report that Elser was a 'fanatic' and had a pathological desire for recognition. He concluded by saying pointedly: Elser had the "drive to achieve fame by eliminating Hitler and simultaneously liberating Germany from the ‘evil of Hitler’”... "He [Elser] responded to questioning only with reluctance but opened up when he was praised for his craftsmanship. Then he would comment on his reconstructed model in detail and with great enthusiasm." Elser’s reconstruction of his Bürgerbräukeller bomb was held in such high regard by the Gestapo, they adopted it into their field manuals for training purposes"

London’s Muslim Mayor To Ban Sexualised Images Of Women - "Sadiq Khan argued for the move by appropriating the language of feminism, claiming that alluring images of beautiful women could make them “ashamed of their bodies”. Ironically, the policy is likely to please both the misogynistic Islamist and prudish, third wave feminist, whose ends appear increasingly similar. The announcement comes five years after suspected Islamists began painting over images of bikini clad women in Tower Hamlets in East London, and last year after feminists began similarly defacing images of women in bikinis on London transport. Images of women are banned in public across large parts of the Muslim world, and the phenomenon is now spreading in the Western world. Germany’s ‘progressive’ Justice Minister, Heiko Maas, recently promised to ban ads which “reduce women or men to sexual objects” in an attempt to create a “modern gender image” following the mass sex attacks on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, committed by mostly Muslim migrants... the UK’s advertising watchdog announced an investigation into the “objectification and sexualisation of women in ads” because of an “increasing political and public debate” driven by “offended” feminists on social media."

Why I Quit My Job to Travel the World - "As a citizen of the world, I rarely get lonely. Everywhere I go, I meet such diverse groups of people. In hostels, I’ve shared beers with friendly British and Australian twenty-somethings. In hotels, I’ve sipped wine with friendly British and Australian forty-somethings. We all became lifelong friends, despite the language barriers."

The Malay Ideals: Attitudes to Success

"The Chinese for example had had to grapple with difficulty through their historical experience that their customary ideals were very much directed towards industriousness, efficiency, persistence, determination and strenuous efforts. Even their schools recognise the importance of this that their pupils are grounded with schoolwork so much so that a normal pupil of ordinary school would cringe in fear at the thought of it. But this is a necessity in their educational system and it is for the benefit of the pupils in the longer term, it disciplines them to become tough, to possess a resilient work ethic and to be enterprising in life generally.

The Chinese too always expect success. In contrast, to the Malays, success is a luxury. Mediocrity is expected. Therefore when a Malay achieves a certain feat, it shall be; surprise. To the Chinese, this is usual and failure would be a surprise. This expectation of success to the Chinese places positive pressure on their fellow people to strive harder because it is a communal expectation. The Japanese on the other hand place themselves the top of the hierarchy of Asian people. This places positive pressure on the Japanese to surpass others.

Every human being is born with a feeling of self-importance and self-pride. Pride can be productive in stimulating a people with a feeling of superiority that places positive pressure on them to excel. To the Malays however, the feelings of pride and superiority are usually taken to be negative, pride should be abhorred. This is because the Malays have placed humility to be the characteristic nature of their people. Therefore, they have not fully utilised the immense strength of pride which could impel them to greater heights...

Certain Malay values that may be suitable during the times prior to colonialism may have fallen out with the advent of the immigrant communities who were more entrepreneurial and competitive. The values of the Malays ought to also change to accommodate these changes and an adaptation has to take place to achieve a new equilibrium. If this were left to their own devices, the fittest and the most able would extinguish the weak. Peoples and races replace one after another. Languages become extinct as an everyday spoken language such as happened with Latin and Hebrew, only to be artificially revived later in the 19th century in the case of Hebrew. Animals and plants also meet the same fate. Human beings are not free from such dangers either. Bones of extinct ‘human’ races have been dug out by anthropologists. If the Malays are continuously left trailing behind in progress and subjugated, and refuse change, then, they too might become ‘extinct’, even if not literally but metaphorically...

Success is Seldom Valued

Another major reason for the Malays’ lack of academic achievements is the nature of the Malay people themselves and their attitude towards success. The Malay attitude does not contribute favourably towards being a successful student. For instance, the Malays do not usually view the successes of others as something to look up to. Success, to a Malay breeds contempt and jealousy. If a Malay person is successful, other Malays would frequently feel uneasy. They would then focus upon the less positive side of that person's character, in order to find fault.

If there are any Malay students who diligently go to their classes and sit in the front rows of lecture theatres, they are often accused of aspiring lecturers’ attention, seeking favouritism or trying to impress him or her, but not their real intention of wanting to listen clearly and or not to get easily distracted from the noisier back rows. If the diligent Malay students constantly frequent the library and are always found to be at work, he or she would be characterized as being "unfriendly", ”antisocial", trying to emulate the Chinese, being a book worm and taking leave of the Malays. In which case, they would customarily be isolated. To be intelligent, resourceful and hardworking is thought to be "un-Malay"."

--- The Malay Ideals / Asrul Zamani


Bonus: From the back cover:

THE MALAY IDEALS, basically revolves around the Malays, their religion, lifestyle, thoughts and their attitude and it focuses on, what the Malays have been, what they ought to be and what their influence would do to Malaysia, in directing its future development and progress. The actual and current situation of the Malays are seriously reviewed in this book. Some of the topics discussed in the book are on Islam, Judicial system, Malay Value, Education & etc. which could be a ‘food for thought’ for the readers.

The author Dr. Asrul Zamani bin Mohd Ismail, who is a medical practitioner by profession, had conducted an extensive research before expressing his views and opinions in this book.

The Malay Ideals will definitely be an ‘eye-opener’ and would inspire the readers to fulfill the aspirations of our Prime Minister..

Every Malaysian patriot should read this book, irrespective of their standings or political alignment.

Links - 25th July 2016

The Gulen Movement Is Not a Cult -- It's One of the Most Encouraging Faces of Islam Today - "Gulen arguably lacked even the capability to organize a serious coup in an army that, over decades, has rigorously weeded Hizmet followers out — indeed, any officers showing any religious beliefs. Turkish intelligence has also been all over the movement for years, amassing massive dossiers. Why would Gulen choose to attempt a coup that’s contrary to all his views and at a time of maximum weakness vis-a-vis Erdogan?... It beggars the imagination to believe that the now tens of thousands of people purged and arrested — police, army, judges, lawyers, teachers, bankers, journalists — are all terrorist enemies of the state. Clearly Erdogan is seizing the occasion to eliminate any and all opposition to his plans to create a new super-powerful presidency for himself. Erdogan will find many, even within his own party, who are dismayed at his reach for total power — but are cowed into silence. Once objective journalists now watch their words."

Tool to help police spot suspects engaging in extremism being developed - "A tool to help police detect individuals who may be engaged in online violent extremism early on is being developed by the Home Team Behavioural Science Centre (HTBSC), said Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Lee on Wednesday (Jul 13). He said the Online Violent Extremism Screening Tool is being developed so that interventions can be prioritised for these high-risk persons. The Senior Minister of State was speaking at the Asian Conference of Criminal and Operations Psychology (ACCOP) held here."
If you needed proof that Ah Kong is watching everything you do online...

Young women can’t cope with ANY ideas that challenge their 'right-on view of the world' - "I knew many wouldn’t agree with my stance, which was that Evans had completed his sentence and should be able to return to his profession. But during the final Q&A all hell broke loose. I dared suggest (as eminent feminists have before me) that rape wasn’t necessarily the worst thing a woman could experience. I expected robust discussion - not for them all to dissolve into outraged gasps of, ‘You can’t say that!’... It illustrated this generation’s almost belligerent sense of entitlement. They assume their emotional suffering takes precedence. Express a view they disagree with and you must immediately recant and apologise. But as I argue in my new book - I Find That Offensive! - Generation Snowflake believe it’s their right to be protected from anything they might find unpalatable. This mindset is particularly rife in universities. The examples are beyond parody... There’s a constant emphasis on [children's] vulnerability, which is proving toxic... a Leeds primary school banned games of tag as children had been getting upset and having clothes torn. There’s a campaign to stop tackling in school rugby, and to assess the safety of other contact sports such as hockey... the old motto ‘Sticks and stones . . .’ is now forgotten, as we teach children that words can indeed hurt them. Bullying has been redefined to include ordinary playground verbal tussles. I remember my niece telling me, aged 11, that she was being bullied at school. I feared she was being beaten up or viciously taunted. In fact, she was being ‘excluded from her friendship group’. I don’t doubt it was upsetting for her, but falling out with your chums is part of growing up. Through it you learn to handle the difficult interactions you will inevitably face as a grown-up... a look at the ‘evidence’ suggests an expansive definition of what constitutes sexual harassment. Is giving a compliment based on looks really ‘unsafe’ behaviour? If a boy pings a girl’s bra it may be unpleasant and annoying, but is it really assault? An ever-widening definition of abuse can incite a culture of fear and complaint: encouraging teachers and girls to name and shame could mean labelling sexually awkward teenage boys as sex pests... I am particularly concerned we are teaching girls to see themselves as victims. Recent research showing that fewer young people are going to nightclubs is revealing. It’s not because they can’t afford it. Rather, women cite reasons such as the fear of encountering drunken men who may try to take advantage of them. How sad that modern women are frightened enough to associate a night out with sexual assault. Many say they prefer to socialise on the internet. Not only is this retreat from the public sphere damaging - it’s not safe either. The Reclaim The Internet campaign, launched last month by MPs including Maria Miller and Labour’s Yvette Cooper, focuses on the impact sexist trolling has on young women - yet it only fuels stereotypes of them as weak and fragile... We need a younger generation that’s prepared to grow a backbone, go out into the world, take risks and make difficult decisions. Otherwise the future doesn’t bode well for any of us."




Professors, Stop Opining About Trump - NYTimes.com - "I’m not saying that this view of Mr. Trump is incorrect; nor am I saying that it is on target: only that it is a view, like anyone else’s. By dressing up their obviously partisan views as “the lessons of history,” the signatories to the letter present themselves as the impersonal transmitters of a truth that just happens to flow through them. In fact they are merely people with history degrees, which means that they have read certain books, taken and taught certain courses and written scholarly essays, often on topics of interest only to other practitioners in the field... Academic expertise is not a qualification for delivering political wisdom. Nor is it their job, although they seem to think it is: “It is all of our jobs to fill the voids exploited by the Trump campaign.” (I’m not sure that I understand what that grandiose sentence means.) No, it’s their job to teach students how to handle archival materials, how to distinguish between reliable and unreliable evidence, how to build a persuasive account of a disputed event, in short, how to perform as historians, not as seers or political gurus. I would have no problem with individuals, who also happened to be historians, disseminating their political conclusions in an op-ed or letter to the editor; but I do have a problem when a bunch of individuals claim for themselves a corporate identity and more than imply that they speak for the profession of history."

The Problem of “Social Justice Elitism” - "A recent piece by Amer F. Ahmed outlines a phenomenon he calls “social justice elitism.” Ahmed is the associate director of multi-ethnic student affairs at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He notes a tendency among certain students to “out social-justice” each other by denouncing the subtle prejudices of others... true discussion about social justice is conjunctive rather than disjunctive. That is, it creates connections by promoting an understanding of the experience of the other. By contrast, the rhetoric of social justice elitism divides people by assessing the degree to which they contribute to a system of injustice. Second, while sincere dialogue about social justice requires courage, social justice elitism rarely involves risk. Speaking truth to power is a frightening undertaking. So is talking about social justice in a way that leverages one’s privilege or runs the risk of being misunderstood. The rhetoric of social justice elitism generally occurs through channels in which there is no risk of being challenged: online comment sections, gossip, and seminars full of like-minded people. Ironically, I suspect that we engage in social justice elitism for the same reason an otherwise reasonable man became a Neo-Nazi: out of a desire to construct and perform an identity. While the SJWs really do care about social justice, they are also invested in constructing a heroic self-narrative... At its worst, the move to create villains where none exist can amount to “weaponizing” the values of social justice. I have even seen cases where undergraduates have used the rhetoric of tolerance to punish faculty for giving them low grades... When well-meaning students fear being attacked for their lack of sensitivity, the opportunity for a sincere dialogue or a teachable moment about structural injustice closes. A judgmental classroom environment also lends credence to the canard that higher education claims to promote critical thinking while actually enforcing “liberal brainwashing.” The most ironic consequence of these sorts of attacks is that untenured white male professors (i.e. professors like me) may feel discouraged from discussing those voices and traditions that have historically been neglected by academia"

"Scrutiny Instead of Silence" - "Sensoy and DiAngelo (2014) argue for alternative behavioral guidelines than those currently being used in many social justice courses. Their alternative is to silence or constrain privileged voices so that marginalized voices have ample space to be heard and taken seriously. This raises the concern that silencing any group of persons runs too great a risk of alienating them to the point where their mistrust of the “other” is exacerbated rather than assuaged. This response suggests that, instead of silencing or even constraining privileged voices in the classroom, we may want to move toward developing in students the attitude that all claims and assertions, especially those that society often accepts as true without question, must undergo critical scrutiny"

Press Release: Out with conspicuous consumption, in with virtue signalling, says new report - "Virtue signalling has made widely-held ideas like ‘keeping up with the Joneses' and conspicuous consumption completely outdated, according to a new paper from the Adam Smith Institute. Rather than trying to one-up one another by buying Bentleys, Rolexes and fur coats, the modern social climber is more likely to try and show their ‘authenticity’ with virtue signalling by having the correct opinions on music and politics and making sure their coffee is sourced ethically, the research says... individuals may pick extended study of essentially useless degrees in pursuit of status. This is enabled by an extensive system of subsidies, which actually, since the last reforms, made the terms for those expecting to earn very little—i.e. those pursuing degrees that barely enhanced their career potential—much more generous. Murphy’s analysis suggests these subsidies should be scaled back—we are only encouraging an endless arms race."

‘Unfriending’ Trump supporters is just another example of how we isolate ourselves online - "“Since the 16th century, we’ve figured out ways of going about disagreements that don’t involve killing each other,” said Mark Kingwell, a political philosopher at the University of Toronto. “It’s a basic liberal notion that when people disagree on something, they can’t just go their own way — there has to be a discourse.”In the era of News Feeds and content-blockers, however, avoiding discourse and dissent has never been so easy... On Facebook, the average user agrees with the politics of more than three-fourths of her friends. The social network has found that affinity is more pronounced among liberals than it is among conservatives... “I can imagine people installing these apps to ‘protect’ themselves from contrary opinions: global warming, women’s rights, gun-owner’s rights, vegetarianism, CrossFit, whatever it is that they don’t like,” said Julio Castillo, the (apparently regretful) creator of the Trump-blocking app Trump Trump. “It’s a little like everyone creating their own great firewall of China to censor everything that annoys them.” Castillo imagines religious cults that mandate members block information sources they disagree with, or loyalty programs that reward customers for blocking the competition... “This is basic to the fundamental liberal aspiration: to put yourself in the position of the other,” Kingwell said. “If we don’t do that, we’re not a community. We’re a bunch of micro-communities and … to me that’s quite dystopian”... Kingwell, the philosopher, has spent his career attempting to convince people that civility and discourse are political virtues worth aspiring to; lately, he’s had to make his message a little more doomsday, stressing that — without consensus and moderation — everyone basically stands to lose."

Why We Unfriend - "The ebb and flow of Facebook friendships has become fruitful territory for social scientists in recent years. At least 63 percent of people report having unfriended someone on Facebook, but what prompts these digital rejections can tell us a lot about both the nature of real-life friendship and about how we manage our online personalities. Past research by Christopher Sibona of the University of Colorado Denver found that the four most common reasons for unfriending on Facebook were: “frequent/unimportant posts, polarizing posts (politics and religion), inappropriate posts (sexist, racist remarks), and everyday life posts (child, spouse, eating habits, etc.) and in that order of frequency”... ex-friends were most likely to be a high-school buddy, a work colleague, a “friend of a friend,” or a category Sibona called “Other”: “didn’t know her,” “former student,” or, ominously, “enemy.”"

10 Ridiculous Fears People Had About New Technology - "Many thought staying up after the sun went down would cause everyone to catch colds, creating a serious health crisis. The Catholic Church believed staying up at night was an act of defiance against God, who obviously wanted them to sleep. I mean, don’t even get me started on all those damn Devil-worshipping nocturnal animals… And then there was Pope Gregory XVI, who actually banned gas lighting because he believed visibility at night would encourage rebellion against the church... anti-train propaganda spread warnings that man was not meant to reach incredible speeds like twenty miles an hour. Apparently, it would destroy the environment, cause us to asphyxiate, go insane, and our bodies would disintegrate under the stress... The humble telephone is a huge part of our daily lives, but it wasn’t long ago that it was scaring the bejesus out of us every time it rang. This is because the elderly – who have to be suspicious of anything new; it’s in their contract – thought they’d be electrocuted if they touched one. Husbands feared their wives would be on it all day, gossiping, while preachers believed it was the Devil’s instrument and a conduit for evil spirits."

How Feminism Screwed Up My Love Life - - "I have been angry and defensive for a big chunk of my life, and I’m not even sure why. I’ve worked so hard to be independent, thinking that, as the anti-chick, I would need nothing and no one–and that men would somehow love this. The very last thing on earth I ever wanted to be was a needy, awful girl. I figured if I needed nothing, I’d win. I just didn’t realize the cost of winning. I certainly don’t regret how feminism has served me: I’ve learned to be aggressive, tough, resilient, and have had many successes in my life as a result. I never have let a man get in my way–are you kidding? No one ever stood a chance. But now I’m trying to unlearn some of that–to learn what it means to soften, not weaken, and to expand, not constrict. To have power without the shiny, hard outer shell. This is incredibly fucking hard. The notion that some post-fem fallout is to blame, well, that makes sense to me. I swung really hard in one direction and am gradually finding my way back to a more balanced state. My understanding of feminism has evolved, too–in that you don’t have to hate men or beat them in order to be a powerful woman... my tendency to fight and compete and fear losing to men has made it incredibly hard for me to love the way I know I could. Even though marriage has never been a goal for me, how silly to think that you can–or should–get through life without loving, as often and as intensely as you can."

Hatred and Mass Movements

"Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents. It pulls and whirls the individual away from his own self, makes him oblivious of his weal and future, frees him of jealousies and self-seeking. He becomes an anonymous particle quivering with a craving to fuse and coalesce with his like into one flaming mass. Heine suggests that what Christian love cannot do is effected by a common hatred.

Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil. Usually the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil. When Hitler was asked whether he thought the Jew must be destroyed, he answered: “No…. We should have then to invent him. It is essential to have a tangible enemy, not merely an abstract one.” F. A. Voigt tells of a Japanese mission that arrived in Berlin in 1932 to study the National Socialist movement. Voigt asked a member of the mission what he thought of the movement. He replied: “It is magnificent. I wish we could have something like it in Japan, only we can’t, because we haven’t got any Jews.” It is perhaps true that the insight and shrewdness of the men who know how to set a mass movement in motion, or how to keep one going, manifest themselves as much in knowing how to pick a worthy enemy as in knowing what doctrine to embrace and what program to adopt. The theoreticians of the Kremlin hardly waited for the guns of the Second World War to cool before they picked the democratic West, and particularly America, as the chosen enemy...

Common hatred unites the most heterogeneous elements. To share a common hatred, with an enemy even, is to infect him with a feeling of kinship, and thus sap his powers of resistance. Hitler used anti-Semitism not only to unify his Germans but also to sap the resoluteness of Jew-hating Poland, Rumania, Hungary, and finally even France. He made a similar use of anti-communism.

It seems that, like the ideal deity, the ideal devil is one. We have it from Hitler—the foremost authority on devils—that the genius of a great leader consists in concentrating all hatred on a single foe, making “even adversaries far removed from one another seem to belong to a single category.” When Hitler picked the Jew as his devil, he peopled practically the whole world outside Germany with Jews or those who worked for them. “Behind England stands Israel, and behind France, and behind the United States.” Stalin, too, adheres to the monotheistic principle when picking a devil. Formerly this devil was a fascist; now he is an American plutocrat.

Again, like an ideal deity, the ideal devil is omnipotent and omnipresent. When Hitler was asked whether he was not attributing rather too much importance to the Jews, he exclaimed:

“No, no, no! … It is impossible to exaggerate the formidable quality of the Jew as an enemy.” Every difficulty and failure within the movement is the work of the devil, and every success is a triumph over his evil plotting.

We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate.

It is understandable that we should look for others to side with us when we have a just grievance and crave to retaliate against those who wronged us. The puzzling thing is that when our hatred does not spring from a visible grievance and does not seem justified, the desire for allies becomes more pressing. It is chiefly the unreasonable hatreds that drive us to merge with those who hate as we do, and it is this kind of hatred that serves as one of the most effective cementing agents...

Even in the case of a just grievance, our hatred comes less from a wrong done to us than from the consciousness of our helplessness, inadequacy and cowardice—in other words from self-contempt. When we feel superior to our tormentors, we are likely to despise them, even pity them, but not hate them. That the relation between grievance and hatred is not simple and direct is also seen from the fact that the released hatred is not always directed against those who wronged us. Often, when we are wronged by one person, we turn our hatred on a wholly unrelated person or group. Russians, bullied by Stalin’s secret police, are easily inflamed against “capitalist warmongers;” Germans, aggrieved by the Versailles treaty, avenged themselves by exterminating Jews; Zulus, oppressed by Boers, butcher Hindus; white trash, exploited by Dixiecrats, lynch Blacks.

Self-contempt produces in man “the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults”...

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.

Whether it is true or not as Pascal says that “all men by nature hate each other,” and that love and charity are only “a feint and a false image, for at bottom they are but hate,” one cannot escape the impression that hatred is an all-pervading ingredient in the compounds and combinations of our inner life. All our enthusiasms, devotions, passions and hopes, when they decompose, release hatred."

--- The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements / Eric Hoffer