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Monday, September 30, 2019

Links - 30th September 2019 (2)

Hitler and the socialist dream - "It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that Hitler and his associates believed they were socialists, and that others, including democratic socialists, thought so too. The title of National Socialism was not hypocritical. The evidence before 1945 was more private than public, which is perhaps significant in itself. In public Hitler was always anti-Marxist, and in an age in which the Soviet Union was the only socialist state on earth, and with anti-Bolshevism a large part of his popular appeal, he may have been understandably reluctant to speak openly of his sources. His megalomania, in any case, would have prevented him from calling himself anyone's disciple. That led to an odd and paradoxical alliance between modern historians and the mind of a dead dictator... His private conversations, however, though they do not overturn his reputation as an anti-Communist, qualify it heavily. Hermann Rauschning, for example, a Danzig Nazi who knew Hitler before and after his accession to power in 1933, tells how in private Hitler acknowledged his profound debt to the Marxian tradition. "I have learned a great deal from Marxism" he once remarked, "as I do not hesitate to admit". He was proud of a knowledge of Marxist texts... His differences with the communists, he explained, were less ideological than tactical. German communists he had known before he took power, he told Rauschning, thought politics meant talking and writing. They were mere pamphleteers, whereas "I have put into practice what these peddlers and pen pushers have timidly begun", adding revealingly that "the whole of National Socialism" was based on Marx. That is a devastating remark and it is blunter than anything in his speeches or in Mein Kampf.; though even in the autobiography he observes that his own doctrine was fundamentally distinguished from the Marxist by reason that it recognised the significance of race - implying, perhaps, that it might otherwise easily look like a derivative. Without race, he went on, National Socialism "would really do nothing more than compete with Marxism on its own ground". Marxism was internationalist. The proletariat, as the famous slogan goes, has no fatherland. Hitler had a fatherland, and it was everything to him... in numerous ways National Socialism was based on Marxism. It was a theory of history and not, like liberalism or social democracy, a mere agenda of legislative proposals. And it was a theory of human, not just of German, history, a heady vision that claimed to understand the whole past and future of mankind. Hitler's discovery was that socialism could be national as well as international. There could be a national socialism. That is how he reportedly talked to his fellow Nazi Otto Wagener in the early 1930s. The socialism of the future would lie in "the community of the volk", not in internationalism, he claimed, and his task was to "convert the German volk to socialism without simply killing off the old individualists", meaning the entrepreneurial and managerial classes left from the age of liberalism. They should be used, not destroyed. The state could control, after all, without owning, guided by a single party, the economy could be planned and directed without dispossessing the propertied classes... By the outbreak of civil war in Spain, in 1936, sides had been taken, and by then most western intellectuals were certain that Stalin was left and Hitler was right. That sudden shift of view has not been explained, and perhaps cannot be explained, except on grounds of argumentative convenience. Single binary oppositions - cops-and-robbers or cowboys-and-indians - are always satisfying... On 16 June 1941, five days before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, Goebbels exulted, in the privacy of his diary, in the victory over Bolshevism that he believed would quickly follow. There would be no restoration of the tsars, he remarked to himself, after Russia had been conquered. But Jewish Bolshevism would be uprooted in Russia and "real socialism" planted in its place - "Der echte Sozialismus"

Pierce College Student Wins 'Free Speech Zone' Lawsuit Against School - "Pierce College has been forced to abandon its “free speech zone” policy after losing a lawsuit that was sparked after a student was told he couldn’t hand out copies of the Constitution on campus.In November 2016, Pierce College student Kevin Shaw was told that he was not permitted to hand out copies of the U.S. Constitution on campus. Shaw was told that he would only be permitted to hand out copies of the Constitution inside the campus’ tiny “free speech zone,” a 616-square foot area which makes up only .003 percent of the total area of the campus."

Someone Attacks Comic Book Cover Artist For Drawing Generously Proportioned Woman, Gets Called Out By The Author - "We all know the classic idiom ‘never judge a book by its cover.’ Sadly, many people choose to ignore this sage piece of advice and make snap assumptions based purely on appearance, only to end up looking pretty stupid.This was the case recently for Twitter user Anita Cox, who reached some quite astonishing conclusions from a cover pic for Everglade Angels, an upcoming graphic novel by Blake Northcott, Scott Lobdell and Roc Upchurch.The picture in question is one of Blake’s characters, a woman of, ahem, generous proportions in the chest area, wielding a baseball bat. Blake commissioned the super talented Leila Leiz to do the cover because “she illustrates the female figure so beautifully, and I wanted a fun, sexy, 90s vibe for Everglade Angels.” From this image alone, Cox managed to speculate on Blake and Leila’s gender, nationality, location of beard, sexual activity, education and voting preference. Pretty impressive levels of projecting really, especially considering that her Twitter bio says things like “never hate, Anti comicHATE  and “here to love + educate.”...
">has a gay pride flag in profile name
>misgenders a writer as an insult
Someone take this person's flag away!"...
"This phobia to big boobs is getting pathetic"
"Sorry, I stop listening when someone unironically drops "incel" in a sentence""

7 subtle sales techniques Don Don Donki outlets in Singapore use to get you to spend more - "open concept kitchens not only provide a form of entertainment for customers, but also much needed 'transparency'. Customers have more faith in a product when they witness firsthand how their food is handled - so now you know why you tend to grab a box of takoyaki before you leave...
there is a strong effect of free samples on immediate consumer purchase. The reciprocity principle is observed when consumers who accepted free samples are likely to feel obliged to reciprocate by making a purchase, or at least be open to consider it...
Earworms can ruin your concentration and drive you to absolute distraction. Therefore, when you hear the Don Don Donki music, you can't stop thinking about it, even after leaving the store for a while. You will also tend to shop for more items because you are so distracted by the music.
Walking around Don Don Donki can be like walking through a maze. While queuing at the counter, you might realise that certain outlets, such as the one at City Square Mall, has a zig-zag layout, with shelves at the side packed to the brim with snacks.When a store has a confusing layout, the Gruen effect sets in. This is the moment where you lose track of your original intentions (e.g. "I came to Don Don Donki just to buy melons"). The complicated layout is a manipulative technique that makes you more susceptible to impulse buys."

Tafida Raqeeb, Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans: Anscombe Bioethics Center helps to explain cases - "A London hospital has declared that it is in the “best interests” of five-year-old Tafida Raqeeb to be allowed to die, and is refusing to let her leave despite her parents’ wish to take her to Genoa, Italy, where a children’s hospital has offered to continue treating her.In a similar fashion to the Alfie Evans case of last year, her parents have now launched a legal challenge before the High Court...
'In the Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases, however, we saw that the High Court decisions were motivated in part by the suggestion that Charlie’s and Alfie’s lives were no longer worth living.'...
'Why do these cases seem to be increasingly common in the UK, where parents’ wishes are overridden by doctors?'
'In the case of fully competent adults, the principle of autonomy allows patients to refuse treatment thought to be in their best interests and seek an alternative treatment plan elsewhere if wished. But in the case of children, because they lack competence and therefore cannot make autonomous decisions properly speaking, in England the practice of doctors and the courts is to make decisions about their medical care based primarily on their best interests'"
Of course you have all the Americans who claim that this is because of socialised healthcare
If courts can override parents about the best interests of a child, presumably they can also override individuals about their own best interests


Sky Islamic channel Peace TV faces ban for saying gay people are worse than pigs - "An Islamic TV station that said gay people are worse than pigs and magicians should be executed faces being stripped of its UK broadcasting licence.Peace TV, based in Dubai, was found to have shown four programmes which breached Ofcom regulations on inciting crime, hate speech and abuse.The channel, which is broadcast on Sky and also airs in the US, said the programmes were based on Islamic teachings... Ofcom recorded two further breaches: one where a programme said those who left Islam should be punished by death and a second where it was said women under 18 getting married was 'no problem at all', even if local laws forbid it."
Is it Islamophobic to ban a TV station broadcasting programmes based on Islamic teachings?

Large Chinese presence in Cambodian city clashes with local culture - "almost 90 per cent of business operations in the city, ranging from hotels, casinos, restaurants to massage parlors, are run by Chinese.Among the 71 casinos, 48 of them are operated by Chinese, and some 90 per cent of 436 restaurants in the province are managed by Chinese nationals, he added.Currently, there are nearly 200 hotels and guesthouses in the province, of which 150 are run by Chinese... the lack of Cambodian-ness is clearly evident in Sihanoukville.The signboards are mostly in red, with some feature misspelled Khmer characters that shop-owners seemingly took directly from Google Translate... The local authorities are not denying the fact that due to the rapid influx of foreign arrivals and investments, especially Chinese, they are facing a lot of challenges including water and electricity shortages.The collapse of a Chinese-owned building under construction in Sihanoukville last month that claimed 28 lives had led to calls for the Cambodian government to look into rumors of shoddy and illegal construction... There are nearly 200 projects under construction in the city, mainly built by Chinese.In relation to security and social order, traffic police are reportedly tending to stop more Chinese nationals than Cambodians who break traffic laws in the town these days.In the meantime, more than 400 Chinese nationals, so far, have been arrested in the city and deported to China, mostly for involvement in online scams.

Dubai tourists can now buy alcohol from shops - "Tourists in Dubai are able to buy alcohol from shops for the first time, thanks to new measures introduced to make the city more visitor-friendly.Holidaymakers could previously only purchase and consume drinks at licensed venues like hotels and restaurants... Although this represents a relaxation of the rules on buying booze, the United Arab Emirates still has strict laws when it comes to alcohol consumption. The Foreign Office advice states: “You should be aware that it is a punishable offence under UAE law to drink or be under the influence of alcohol in public... “Passengers in transit through the UAE under the influence of alcohol may also be arrested.”The British consulate issued a warning on its Facebook page last year, stating that British travellers are at risk of arrest if they are found with alcohol in their blood when transiting through the United Arab Emirates. It followed the case of Dr Ellie Holman, who was detained in Dubai with her daughter in August 2018 for allegedly drinking a complimentary glass of wine on a flight from London. After landing in the UAE, the 44-year-old says she was questioned about her visa and asked if she had consumed alcohol, before being taken into custody. She was released a month later."

Immigration advocate killed in a crash by Salvadoran living in the US illegally - "A staunch supporter of the rights of immigrants - and a married father of five - was killed last week when an illegal immigrant from El Salvador facing deportation crashed into his motorcycle in Colorado... Valiente, an undocumented immigrant who was slated for deportation eight months earlier, was charged with misdemeanor careless driving with a revoked license in the deadly accident.In an ironic twist, [Sean] Buchanan was known among friends a passionate advocate for all immigrants... Valiente has a criminal record in Colorado that includes a 2018 conviction for a DUI charge, which earned him a year's probation and the revocation of his license, and a guilty plea to a charge of reckless endangerment in a child neglect case.On August 1, less than 24 hours before the deadly crash that killed Buchanan, Valiente's probation was extended because he had failed to complete his court-ordered treatment program and community service"

Immigration Activist Stabbed to Death By Immigrant She Was Housing - "Medical Student, Audrey Coignard, 27, was stabbed to death on September 16th allegedly by a man believed to be an immigrant and ex-partner who was staying at her home. Coignard was brutally stabbed fourteen times and found in a pool of her own blood at her home in Saint-Ouen, near Paris. Coignard, a medical student in Caen, volunteered for activist causes, offering assistance to migrants at different locations in Normandy, Northern France... Aside from providing direct assistance to migrants, Coignard had also worked for causes opposing deportations.Sadly, this isn’t the first time a pro-immigrant activist in the Western World paid dearly for the causes they support."

Norwegian rape survivor 'feels guilty' the man who assaulted him was deported - "A Norwegian man who was raped by a migrant has said he felt “guilt” after his attacker was deported.Karsten Nordal Hauken, who describes himself as feminist and anti-racist, was sexually attacked five years ago.He said that although the incident caused a spiral of depression and substance abuse, he felt bad about the fact the man had been deported to Somalia when he had already served his prison sentence... "I also got a strong sense of guilt and responsibility. I was the reason why he should not be left in Norway, but rather to face a very uncertain future in Somalia.“He had already served his sentence in prison. Should he now be punished again? And this time much harder?”... “I am afraid that no girls want me and that other men laugh at me. Afraid that I'll be perceived as anti-feminist when I say that young men who are struggling should get more attention.
Feminism means you engage in victim blaming
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