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Saturday, December 18, 2021

Links - 18th December 2021 (2 - Meghan & Harry)

Given that this topic has come up many times in the past on this blog (with several dedicated posts), and there will surely be material in the future due to the couple's predilections, I have started a new blog label to organise the posts: "meghan and harry".

Waterstones on Twitter - "Just announced: The first children's book from Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex - a heartwarming story capturing the special relationship between fathers and sons through a mother’s eyes"
She's just twisting the knife

Meme - "MILLIONAIRE ROYALS
BILLIONAIRE CELEBRITY
DISCUSSING OPPRESSION FROM AN IDEALIC VILLA"

Meghan and Diana Could Have Saved the Royal Family - The Atlantic - "Part of Meghan’s problem, it turned out, was her naïveté about the workings of the Royal Family, which she had assumed would be similar to the workings of celebrity culture. What was she, Meghan Markle, a simple girl from Los Angeles, to have understood about such an institution as the British? How was she to know that Her Royal Highness Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith was in any way different from the Lady of Gaga? One wonders whether her study of foreign service and international relations, her internship at the American embassy in Argentina, and her work with the UN might have clued her in to the fact that a whole world exists beyond the Jamba Juice on La Brea and the set of Deal or No Deal, on which she had once been one of the beautiful “suitcase girls.” Apparently, they had not. She told Oprah that she had never even Googled her future husband’s name—a remark that united the viewing world in hilarity, time zone by time zone. It was an assertion that strained credulity, but it was necessary to her contention that she’d had no idea that the Windsors had not, as we now say, “done the work” when it came to exploring their own racial biases. Had she herself done some work by punching her beloved’s name into a search engine, she would have understood that she was not marrying the most racially conscious person on the planet. She would have seen pictures of him dressed as a Nazi at a costume party (his great-granduncle—briefly Edward VIII—had palled around with Adolf Hitler) and a videotape of him introducing a fellow cadet as “our little Paki friend.” The Palace said that “Prince Harry used the term without any malice and as a nickname about a highly popular member of his platoon.” But the palace had no good explanation for why Harry introduced another cadet in the video by saying, “It’s Dan the Man. Fuck me, you look like a raghead.” But it was Markle’s piety regarding the British Commonwealth and her possible relationship to it that revealed the essential incoherence of her case against the monarchy. For some reason she seemed to think that representing the British monarchy to the countries it had colonized was valorous... Meghan had, in fact, realized the highest aspiration of many married people: She had convinced her spouse that his entire family was a bunch of losers"
Sadly there're still lots of credulous people who swallow it all

Prince William and Prince Harry 'speak for first time since Oprah interview' - "Prince William was photographed looking glum while driving in London today after Meghan Markle's friend Gayle King revealed Prince Harry had spoken to him and their father Charles for the first time following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's interview with Oprah Winfrey... Ms King, 66, who is also close friends with Oprah, failed to give any examples of the stories she was referring to, but added that Meghan has 'documents to back up everything that she said on Oprah's interview'.If Ms King is correct about the details of the chat, William and Charles are likely to be appalled at it being leaked to a US media personality - with royal experts pointing out that senior royals are unlikely to want to talk to the Sussexes if they just pass on information to a friend who then reveals it in the American media... The Queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter said today: 'Seems like the narrative is being driven by Gayle King of CBS. I don't think a continual play on American TV is quite what the Queen had in mind. Time for a cooling off period - best for everyone to put up and shut up.'Royal biographer Robert Jobson, whose new book Prince Philip's Century is out next month, told MailOnline: 'The Royal Family do not like providing a running commentary on the their personal lives and personal relationships.'So it's clearly not very helpful that every time there has been a development, in this case William talking to his brother, that it is immediately broadcast on Harry and Meghan's adopted pet US network CBS via the host, Meghan's friend Gayle King. 'I really cannot see how there will be any progress in building bridges and rebuilding broken relationships if when Prince William, or the Queen or Prince Charles telephones, the conversations they have with Harry are passed on to CBS and then broadcast to the world. That's not how the Royal Family works. There has to be trust and discretion.'... Reacting to the comments by Ms King, royal biographer Angela Levin added: 'That's why it's not a good idea to pass on any information to them including details about alleged bullying because it will be passed on to a friend and reach social media in the blink of an eye. Their sense of entitlement is extraordinary. They can't bear to be out of the spotlight.'She continued: 'The fact that Harry and Meghan say the talk with William was 'unproductive' makes me believe that Harry and Meghan aren't interested in compromising or working hard to mend the rift. Otherwise they wouldn't use such a negative, unpleasant word.' ITV royal correspondent Chris Ship added: 'Clearly, Gayle King would not have shared these comments with millions of viewers without Meghan's permission, so this marks a significant new approach. 'Private family dissuasions will now be made public if Meghan wants it out there. She has plenty of people who can do it for her.' And Daily Mail diary editor Richard Eden tweeted: 'This is extraordinary. Are we going to have a running commentary for years to come from Harry and Meghan's friends on their relations with the Royal Family? If so, the royals will be wary of speaking to them.'... Lawyers for the duchess have denied the bullying allegations. Harry was also accused of bullying, with the Times reporting earlier this month that a member of staff told a colleague the couple were 'outrageous bullies'... the rift between William and Harry was so deep that the brothers had not even been in touch to discuss the unveiling of their mother's statue this summer... Meanwhile a poll last week found public opinion of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is the worst it has ever been... the YouGov poll suggests it did not go down well with the public – with attitudes towards Harry now being more negative than positive for the first time.  The mid-week survey of 1,664 Britons shows 45 per cent have a positive opinion of Harry but 48 per cent regard him negatively, giving a net score of -3, a drop of 15 points on the week before.  Only 31 per cent have a positive opinion of Meghan, while 58 per cent view her negatively, giving her a net rating of -27, a drop from -14...
ITV was last night forced to edit part of Oprah Winfrey's explosive interview with the Sussexes after it was revealed that it included misleading and distorted headlines which portrayed British press coverage of the couple as racist.Headlines that were flashed on the screen during the controversial interview with the US chat show host were cynically manipulated to back up the couple's assertion that they were the victims of bigoted coverage."
Clearly the couple just want privacy!

Over two thirds of Britons have no interest in reading Prince Harry's memoir - "The majority of Britons are 'not interested at all' in reading Prince Harry's tell-all memoir about Megxit, a survey has found.  Just 14 per cent of people surveyed said they were 'very interested' or 'fairly interested' in the bombshell book, while 80 per cent were 'not very interested' or 'not interested at all'... It is believed Harry did not warn The Queen, Prince Charles or Prince William about the tell-all book until 'moments before it became public' in a press release by publisher Penguin Random House. His decision to write the book has been branded a 'moneymaking exercise at the expense of his blood family' by royal experts and insiders who predicted it would be 'a book by Harry, as written by Meghan.'   And in a poll of 5,808 adults in the UK, almost four in ten agreed that the decision to publish it was 'very inappropriate', and 15 per cent thought it was 'fairly inappropriate'... A source revealed that the announcement had provoked 'much eye-rolling', adding: 'I think everyone is just tired of being angry when it comes to those two. 'They have spent the last 18 months doing everything they promised Her Majesty they wouldn't do – making a living off their previous lives and status as members of the Royal Family. It's depressingly predictable, unfortunately.'   Prince Harry has signed up to the book deal despite issuing repeated calls for his family's privacy to be respected."
The quest for privacy continues

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding certificate that PROVES they got married at Windsor Castle - "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding certificate proving they did not get married three days before their Windsor Castle ceremony has been pictured.MailOnline has obtained the document which blows holes in the Sussexes' claims they were wed in a private hearing at Kensington Palace... Britons were left fuming as it raised questions why the £32million taxpayer-funded wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018 was necessary.Meanwhile it emerged earlier this week another of the Sussexes' right-hand women in the US is moving to another role after less than a year in her current job.'Chief of staff' Catherine St Laurent has left her post leading to reports the departure was unexpected... A spokesman for Harry and Meghan has now confirmed to the Sun their ceremony three days before their wedding was not a marriage... In the interview with Oprah, Meghan said: 'You know, three days before our wedding, we got married. No one knows that.'  She said the couple asked the Archbishop to marry them in private at Nottingham Cottage — their home in the grounds of Kensington Palace.  But the claim was blown apart earlier this week when the General Register Office revealed the couple's wedding certificate for the first time... Mr Borton said they could not have been married in the grounds of Nottingham Cottage because it is not an authorised venue.  He also added there were not enough witnesses to make it a valid ceremony... The official who drew up the licence says Meghan is 'obviously confused' and 'clearly misinformed' over the wedding."
No matter how much they're proven to have lied, those who buy the narrative won't care
If Meghan can't retain any staff, it clearly shows they're all racist and her staff need to do better

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry admit secret wedding never actually happened - "A spokesperson for the royals told the publication that “the couple exchanged personal vows a few days before their official/legal wedding on May 19.”Since such a service does not constitute a formal wedding, the royal pair’s secret union was not legitimate, as Markle had told Oprah in the March 7 interview, the website said."
Now that they've admitted they were lying, apologists will need to claim they were forced to admit it (and it wasn't true). Or that their lie was morally correct. Or some other nonsense

Archbishop of Canterbury destroys Harry and Meghan's wedding story - "Breaking his silence on what the couple told Oprah Winfrey three weeks ago, Justin Welby said he signed Harry and Meghan's wedding certificate on the day millions watched them marry... 'The legal wedding was on the Saturday. I signed the wedding certificate, which is a legal document, and I would have committed a serious criminal offence if I signed it knowing it was false... The Archbishop's comments yesterday, while not categorically denying a private ceremony, quash any doubts about when and where the couple legally tied the knot.  Previously, he had declined to speak out as pressure grew on him to debunk the claim. A spokesman for the Archbishop's office said last week he 'does not comment on personal or pastoral matters'. But other clerics became involved.  The Rev Mark Edwards said he contacted the Archbishop's office to 'get some clarity' in the wake of the claims.  Mr Edwards, vicar at St Matthew's Church in Dinnington and St Cuthbert's Church in Brunswick, Tyne and Wear, said he was told by a Lambeth Palace staff member: 'Justin does not do private weddings.  'Meghan is an American, she does not understand."
Obviously a lying racist!

TV movie about Harry and Meghan's split with Royal Family being developed - "Lifetime bosses in America are developing a project focused on the couple, titled Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace."
Cha ching!

Harry, prince of psychobabble - "The Duke of Sussex has landed himself a brand new job as ‘chief impact officer’ with a shiny Silicon Valley enterprise: BetterUp... At last the Prince of Woke will be able to fulfil his long-held ambition to ‘create impact in people’s lives’.So what does that mean exactly? Harry tries to help us out. His goal, he tells us, will be to ‘lift up critical dialogues around mental health, build supportive and compassionate communities and foster an environment for honest and vulnerable conversations’. Translated, this seems to mean Harry will earn more than most of us can dream of to be a brand ambassador for a kind of uber-woke Facebook. He will attend company events and perhaps the odd meeting, but mainly do exactly what he does best: spout meaningless platitudes about mental health. After all, who else but Harry can teach us lessons that come from ‘transforming pain into purpose’? And who can truly put a price on being taught that ‘self-optimisation is not about fixing something that’s broken'... Harry’s description of his new role is so clichéd and vacuous it barely resembles speech at all. Statements like, ‘Being attuned with your mind, and having a support structure around you, are critical to finding your own version of peak performance’, sound like they have been produced by a woke-meme generating machine rather than any actual human. We have been here before, of course. Back in December, the duke called on us to help heal the planet by asking: ‘What if every single one of us was a raindrop?’ The only sad thing about Harry’s penchant for indecipherable platitudes is that he is not in on the joke himself. Harry genuinely seems to believe that his life of unrivalled privilege qualifies him to offer advice to the rest of us – and that we’ll be grateful for his nuggets of wisdom. Perhaps this is not his fault. After all, the kinds of statements he comes out with adorn classroom walls and are made into pretty motivational posters to be sold on Etsy stalls... Writing in Ars Vitae, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn explores what happens when we ‘allow our modern therapeutic culture, with its elevation of personal desires into a secular religion of the self, to set the terms for how we make sense of life’. One consequence, she suggests, is the degradation of philosophy into soundbites for self-improvement... Today, every social and political issue from lockdown to unemployment to racism is interpreted as a potential source of trauma and a threat to our mental health. Life-coaching, self-care and professional therapeutic interventions are considered vital to our very survival. So it should hardly come as a surprise that Harry has not only internalised this message but is happy to profit from selling it back to us. The queen may be head of the Church of England but Harry is pitching to be head of the secular religion of the self. ‘I firmly believe that focusing on and prioritising our mental fitness unlocks potential and opportunity that we never knew we had inside of us’"
When everything you don't like is a threat to your "mental health", there's lots of money to be made by spouting meaningless platitudes

Prince Harry’s transformation into a Californian hippy is complete – pity no one knows what he’s on about - "I can’t help feeling that this story is yet more evidence of a growing cultural gulf between America and Britain. More than ever, we’re two nations divided by a common language.I thought as much a couple of weeks ago, when watching the Duke and his wife being interviewed, near their new Californian home, by Oprah Winfrey. All that talk about “speaking your truth”, “reaching out”, “what you’re sharing with us”, and the rest of it... Henry VIII did not break with Rome so that he could expand a global community of thought leadership. Well, I suppose he sort of did, in a way. But he probably wouldn’t have put it in so many words.While I was still trying to get my head around the Duke’s first job, news broke that he’d got a second. He’s been asked to join the “Commission on Information Disorder”, which has been set up by the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC to tackle the rise of fake news.That seemed clear enough – at least, until I read the Duke’s statement about it. He declared that the problem required “a multi-stakeholder response from advocacy voices”, and promised to work on “a solution-oriented approach”."

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle trashed their Hollywood dreams by dishing to Oprah | The Star - "by running their yaps to Oprah, Harry and Meghan cast a shadow over that mosaic. They created an enduring sideshow that is more powerful than the philanthropic blueprint of their foundation or their wish to make the world a better place. Of course, everyone should watch “Heart of Invictus.” Of course. But my guess is most viewers are still too preoccupied by the allegations raised by the Sussexes. Most viewers will only care that “Harry Will Appear on Camera!” if the scene involves an injured triathlete pinning the Duke under a Peloton and demanding to know which royal member fretted about Baby Archie coming out of the oven a little too dark. If a friend tells you their family is horribly racist and then wants to yammer about climate change, you’re going to say, “Hang on. Before we deal with carbon footprints, what’s this about your racist family?” I have no doubt Harry and Meghan believed the Oprah interview would provide closure. But all I see now is busted windows and kicked-open doors. The tabloid scrutiny they claim to abhor is amplified. Piers Morgan has all but put a fatwa on their heads. And they are now trapped in a purgatory where the nutritional value of their do-good intentions, in terms of public interest, is no match for the beans they could still spill.  The massive deal Harry and Meghan signed with Netflix last year is a blank slate of content freedom: documentaries, scripted fare, children’s programming. But this only makes sense if viewers are not more interested in the personal lives of the executive producers... The point is, Harry and Meghan screwed their Hollywood ambitions by dishing to Oprah because now that’s the storyline. Everything they do must have the promise of personal revelation.  There can be no future blockbuster that’s not about them."

Majority of Britons Think Woke Royals Should Be Stripped of Titles - "A Deltapoll study taken three weeks after the interview found that 58 per cent of Britons believe Meghan and Harry should have their royal titles removed. At a ratio of less than one to two, just 28 per cent disagree...   The findings are largely in line with other polling data"

Megxit revelation casts doubt on Prince Harry, Meghan Markle claim - "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle clashed with palace advisers a year before leaving their royal duties, contradicting a recent bombshell interview that they had no plan in place in the lead up to Megxit...  At the beginning of 2019, the couple was already planning their exit from royal duties, finalizing a deal to produce content for Quibi, a now-defunct video streaming service that was poised to rival YouTube... “The Netflix and the Spotify [deals]… that was never part of the plan,” Prince Harry told Winfrey. “We didn’t have a plan. That was suggested by somebody else by the point of where my family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford… security for us.”...   In addition to their behind-the-scenes planning during their time at the palace, Markle kept in regular communication with a group of close advisers in Los Angles even after she married into the royal family in 2018. That group included her lawyer Rick Genow, business manager Andrew Meyer and talent agent Nick Collins, according to reports. The Telegraph also reported that Markle relied on Keleigh Thomas Morgan of PR firm Sunshine Sachs, who helped the couple with their first charity, Sussex Royal."

TALK OF THE TOWN: Meghan Markle left furious at the pal who hated her emojis - "It has become the curse of modern communication: writing a scathing text message about someone and then accidentally sending it to them.  Now imagine compounding the horror by recording an uncomplimentary voice note about the Duchess of Sussex – and then pinging it to her phone by mistake.  Well, I've heard that this very thing happened to a chum of Meghan, a woman who apparently has a knack for falling out with friends over perceived slights at the best of times... Needless to say, the incident has allegedly soured relations with the Duchess, and I have been told that the pair have drifted apart... With this particular chum now seemingly off the Easter card list, Meghan and Harry's collection of close British pals seems to have been whittled down even further.  Who can forget how old friends such as Harry's former 'wing man' Tom Inskip were not invited to the evening reception at Frogmore House following the Royal Wedding in 2018, while the likes of Oprah Winfrey made the list, even though Harry barely knew her.  I also hear that the Sussexes no longer speak much to Jack Mann, one of Harry's oldest friends. At one stage Jack was being tipped to be the Prince's best man."
Looks like soon Meghan will have cut off everyone but her mother, since everyone else is "toxic"

Thou shalt not criticise St Meghan - "Hold on. In Britain in 2021 you can lose your job for criticising a member of the royal family? That appears to be the lesson of Piers Morgan’s parting of the ways with ITV. Morgan, morning TV’s biggest name, is out after 41,000 people complained to Ofcom about his recent comments on Meghan Markle. It’s official: diss this duchess and you will suffer. What century is this? I thought we had moved beyond all that medieval nonsense about treason and hounding people out of polite society if they blaspheme against royalty? Seems not. Morgan is famous for not being a fan of Ms Markle. But this week he apparently went ‘too far’ – who are these mysterious people who get to decide what is ‘too far’? – when he said he didn’t ‘believe a word’ of what Markle said to Oprah... what is indisputable is that a weird, unsettling and censorious atmosphere of religiosity now surrounds the Duchess of Sussex. The cultural elites have beatified her. They’ve made her the patron saint of critical race theory, the goddess of wokeness. To venture a criticism of this high priestess of correct thought is to risk cancellation. Questioning her ‘truth’ is to 2021 what questioning the truth of the Bible was to 1521. Okay, you won’t lose your head, but you might lose your job. The speed with which Meghan has been venerated by the new elites is terrifying. From the supposedly radical left (their claims to radicalism are becoming more hilarious by the day) to the broadsheet press and the liberal elites, Meghan has been elevated into the chief awareness-raiser of contemporary Britain. Institutions are falling over themselves to heed her sermon about the need to cleanse the nation of racism and ‘build compassion’. It’s creepy. And now it is becoming menacing. The atmosphere in the wake of that Oprah interview is taking a dark turn. It’s like the hysteria that followed the death of Princess Diana mashed together with the weird BLM events in the summer of last year. ‘Yes, Britain IS a racist country’, the Meghan cult dutifully intones. ‘Yes, the royals are racist. Yes, the media are racist. Yes, white people are racist.’ Meghan’s confessional has further empowered the self-hatreds and censorious vengeance of the woke elites, who will now see racism in more and more areas of life, even where it doesn’t exist, and cancel anyone who dares to say: ‘Isn’t it possible Meghan is talking shit?’  Thou shalt not criticise St Meghan Share Topics Culture Free Speech Politics UK  Hold on. In Britain in 2021 you can lose your job for criticising a member of the royal family? That appears to be the lesson of Piers Morgan’s parting of the ways with ITV. Morgan, morning TV’s biggest name, is out after 41,000 people complained to Ofcom about his recent comments on Meghan Markle. It’s official: diss this duchess and you will suffer.  What century is this? I thought we had moved beyond all that medieval nonsense about treason and hounding people out of polite society if they blaspheme against royalty? Seems not. Morgan is famous for not being a fan of Ms Markle. But this week he apparently went ‘too far’ – who are these mysterious people who get to decide what is ‘too far’? – when he said he didn’t ‘believe a word’ of what Markle said to Oprah.  On his show Good Morning Britain they aired a clip of Meghan saying she was depressed and even suicidal when cooped up in Kensington Palace. In response Morgan said: ‘I’m sorry, I don’t believe a word she says. I wouldn’t believe her if she read me a weather report.’ Cue meltdown among the Twitterati, the scalp-hungry cancel-culture mob and mental-health charities, all of whom wailed about Morgan disrespecting a suffering woman’s ‘truth’ as if he had just punched a statue of the Virgin Mary in 1930s Ireland.  Thousands of people grassed on Morgan to Ofcom. He then had an on-air falling-out with his black co-presenter, Alex Beresford, who accused Morgan of ‘trashing’ Markle. Which, as we now know, is sacrilege. Morgan flounced off set. And now ITV has said that, ‘following discussions’ – never a good sign – Morgan has decided to leave GMB. People suspect he was at least partly pushed out. It seems that way. Time will tell.  But what is indisputable is that a weird, unsettling and censorious atmosphere of religiosity now surrounds the Duchess of Sussex. The cultural elites have beatified her. They’ve made her the patron saint of critical race theory, the goddess of wokeness. To venture a criticism of this high priestess of correct thought is to risk cancellation. Questioning her ‘truth’ is to 2021 what questioning the truth of the Bible was to 1521. Okay, you won’t lose your head, but you might lose your job. ‘Lockdown is an assault on our humanity’ Podcast ‘Lockdown is an assault on our humanity’ spiked  The speed with which Meghan has been venerated by the new elites is terrifying. From the supposedly radical left (their claims to radicalism are becoming more hilarious by the day) to the broadsheet press and the liberal elites, Meghan has been elevated into the chief awareness-raiser of contemporary Britain. Institutions are falling over themselves to heed her sermon about the need to cleanse the nation of racism and ‘build compassion’. It’s creepy.  And now it is becoming menacing. The atmosphere in the wake of that Oprah interview is taking a dark turn. It’s like the hysteria that followed the death of Princess Diana mashed together with the weird BLM events in the summer of last year. ‘Yes, Britain IS a racist country’, the Meghan cult dutifully intones. ‘Yes, the royals are racist. Yes, the media are racist. Yes, white people are racist.’ Meghan’s confessional has further empowered the self-hatreds and censorious vengeance of the woke elites, who will now see racism in more and more areas of life, even where it doesn’t exist, and cancel anyone who dares to say: ‘Isn’t it possible Meghan is talking shit?’  It took a very long time for Brits to win the right to criticise royalty. To blaspheme against gods, to speak freely."

Prince Harry to return to US without speaking to Charles - "Prince Harry will fly home to the US without having “one-on-one” chats with either his father or brother — because neither trust him enough to speak with him alone...   Charles and William would only agree to talk to Harry if there were witnesses to what was said, because the heir to the throne and his elder son feared that a twisted account might leak out from Harry’s camp... When Charles and William reached out to Harry last month following the bombshell interview he and wife Meghan Markle gave to Oprah Winfrey, the news was quickly reported by Gayle King — who revealed the talks were “not productive.”"
Duh. If you want your private conversation to appear on Oprah...

William and Harry's tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh show just how far apart they are - "In days gone by, the royal brothers would have put out a joint statement commemorating such an important role model in both their lives. Yet with tensions between the two princes seemingly still bristling ahead of Prince Philip's funeral on Saturday, we were left to decipher the coded messages contained within."

DISLOYAL ROYAL? William, Charles reportedly no longer trust Harry - "Meanwhile, one author who has written numerous books on the Royal Family — including Meghan and Harry: The Real Story — doesn’t believe the marriage will last. Lady Colin Campbell told the Post “Me-Me-Meghan” and Harry were doomed from almost the start.  “She and Harry won’t last. Once she became the royal Duchess of Sussex, it was off with everyone’s head,” Campbell said.  “Disconnected from reality, she lost it. Since fallout from the Oprah piece, her name’s mud throughout the Commonwealth, even in the islands.”  Campbell continued: “This wrong-footed woman stated untruths. She couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Knowing some statements could not be massaged into reality, Harry went along. Not pleased, he knew they were not true.”  Campbell added: “She’s picked America and a communal property state (California) and has two children. She’s got him. Difficult for him to get out. He’s entrapped.”"
It's only a matter of time before the divorce

Why does Prince Harry always make Charles the villain - and never Diana? - "How devastating for Prince Charles to learn, from a podcast beamed to the world, that Harry left the UK to break the cycle of 'genetic pain and suffering' bequeathed to him by his supposedly dysfunctional father and grandparents.  Harry suggests he suffered so much at the hands of his family that he does not want to inflict similar anguish upon his own children.  The only way to do this has been to escape the torture of royal life, rush off to LA to make multi-million deals and denounce his father from afar.  What Harry seems to ignore, though, is that back in boring Blighty Charles loves his son dearly and always has.   He did everything he could to care for Harry after Diana's death; he helped fund Harry's extravagant lifestyle; he walked Meghan Markle down the aisle for their wedding in her father's absence. And was always trying to be the dad Harry needed. With his podcast, Harry has trashed all that paternal love in the most public and humiliating way. Yet what cuts most is that he criticises his father while exonerating his mother.  I am an unashamed fan of Diana, and was furious on her behalf when Charles betrayed her with Camilla. But even I accept Diana was no saint.   We lost count of the number of her lovers, many of them married — James Hewitt, James Gilbert, Oliver Hoare and Will Carling to name but a few. And while she was pursued by the paparazzi so loathed by Harry, she also relentlessly and calculatingly courted the media. We were all informed — certainly I was as a newspaper editor — as to when and where she would be so we could take a snap portraying 'poor abandoned Diana'.  And since Harry is criticising his royal grandparents, let's not forget that Diana Spencer was born into the most broken of aristocratic families. Her mother Frances was dubbed 'the bolter', after she scandalously left Earl Spencer for the wallpaper heir, Peter Shand Kydd. Custody of the children was granted to their father.  Nine-year-old Diana and her older brother Charles were shuffled between her parents and she later recalled the effect on her was 'devastating'... I can't understand why Harry so cruelly has his father and his family in his sights, but not his equally flawed mother and hers.  The fact is Harry had two unfaithful parents who sadly did not love each other. He is determined not to repeat mistakes and be the perfect dad.  But life is so much more complicated than he seems to think — and the tragedy is that, by rejecting his past, he is making his future so much more difficult. Of course, we're bound to hear lots more about it on Netflix."

In defence of Prince Charles, the misunderstood father - "One of the reasons that Prince Charles is often portrayed as the villain is that he does not defend himself. He prefers to stand back and take the blows. In her final years, his estranged wife rarely hesitated to criticise him.  Certainly, he was never as actively complicit in briefing – spinning – the media as Diana was. When he would visit a sick child in hospital, he did so entering quietly by a back door so as not to attract media attention. By contrast, Diana always made sure that her humanitarian visits were undertaken in a blaze of coverage, so the impression soon formed that she was the caring one and he was not.  While the Prince of Wales prefers to maintain a dignified silence, he is frequently beset by the resurrection of the Diana saga in books and on television. Most recently, he remained quiet over his wimpish portrayal in the latest series of The Crown, which appears to have swallowed Diana’s later promulgated version of him whole and without question. Now Prince Harry seems set on attacking his father at every turn...  it seems that Prince Harry is exploiting well-meant words by a caring father as a contributing factor to his mental health issues. It is one thing to address these issues as they should be, but very much another to do this so publicly."

The Me You Can’t See: Prince Harry says Prince Charles should have done more for his mental health - "Prince Harry has challenged his father, the Prince of Wales’ commitment to traditional royal parenting and believed he should have done for him following the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales.  Speaking his new series The Me You Can’t See, he gave a rare insight into his royal life and how the stereotypical stiff upper lip is maintained across the generations."

Prince Harry’s broadside leaves senior royals bemused over his ‘woeful lack of compassion' - "While there is a genuine desire to build bridges with the couple, aides noted that it was impossible to rebuild something while someone kept chopping it down... The repeated battering of the institution has also prompted questions about why the couple continue to style themselves as Duke and Duchess, titles bestowed on them by the Queen."

Prince Harry is 'selfish' for attacking Charles' parenting skills - "Prince Harry is “very self-indulged” and “selfish” for attacking father Prince Charles’ parenting skills so soon after grandfather Prince Philip’s death, a royal expert says.  On Thursday, the Duke of Sussex took his family beef to the next level, claiming his father handed down a “cycle” of “genetic pain and suffering” to him, which he and wife Meghan Markle moved to Los Angeles to sever.  “He treated me the way he was treated,” the 36-year-old said on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, effectively criticizing his grandparents — Queen Elizabeth II and the late Prince Philip.  Royal scribe Robert Jobson — whose latest book, “Prince Philip’s Century,” chronicles the life of the Duke of Edinburgh — was shocked that the royal renegade continued to take shots at the family so soon after the funeral.  “To start saying things within weeks of his grandfather’s funeral seems ungracious,” he told Page Six on Friday, adding, “I’m sure if he used his brain now and then … [he’d realize] it’s not helpful talking about his personal problems.  “He’s talking about his father, who’s just lost his own dad, going through his own traumas and mental health issues. Surely he should support Charles now more than ever and I don’t know why he’s done it.” “He is very self-indulged,” he continued. “He doesn’t seem to care about anybody’s feelings but himself.""

Prince Harry was 'afraid' that returning for Prince Philip's funeral would 'trigger' his trauma
How to make someone else's funeral about you. Disgusting.

Ridiculous Zuccs: Donkey

I am starting a new series on the most ridiculous Facebook bans (i.e. zuccs) I've seen.

Lots of people don't believe that Facebook zuccs people for ridiculous reasons, so this will be a place to document them.


Mentioning someone while mentioning "donkey"

Facebook seems to interpret this as calling someone a donkey.

This is why you should never mention someone in a comment, just in case you trigger the algorithm.

Ironically, this was in response to a comment that "calling someone donkey will get you banned in 2 seconds."

Even more ironically, it was on a thread where a SJW called someone else an ass and a donkey:


"Taylor Cork you are an ass
Your laugh reacts let me know you are a donkey have a great life because I will not continue to interact with a bigot, have a mediocre life at best"

Links - 18th December 2021 (1 - Trans Mania)

Wilfred Reilly on Twitter - "However you answer it, the relevant question as re trans athletic competition and such isn't "Are .2% of people inter-sex?" Sure. It is: "Should the 99.8% of self-ID'd trans-women who WERE born as biological males with penises always be treated as female?""

Meme - "Kumail Nanjiani @kumailn - Traditional masculinity is a disease."
"donna eldridge @fritkis - Testosterone is problematic in oh so many ways."
"Clemente @ClemenAlberto This is deeply transphobic"

B.C. father arrested, held in jail for repeatedly violating court orders over child's gender transition therapy - "A B.C. father who objects to his teenage child’s gender transition therapy was arrested on Tuesday and put in jail until at least Friday for repeatedly speaking publicly about aspects of the case... The case stems from C.D.’s battle to prevent his child — A.B., as the child is known — from receiving gender transition hormone therapy... At age 11, A.B. knew he was male and, at age 12, began to socially transition, says a 2020 court decision, “enrolling in school under a chosen male name and using male pronouns with his teachers and peers.”E.F. took him to a number of psychologist appointments when the teen was 13, when “persistent discomfort with his body led him to want to take steps to appear more masculine.” By August 2018, A.B. had met with an endocrinologist setting out a hormone treatment plan.C.D. objected. In December 2018, C.D. went before the Provincial Court of British Columbia to prevent the treatment without his consent. That application successfully prevented A.B. from seeking treatment. Further applications were made before the Supreme Court of British Columbia by A.B. — who wanted to be declared able to make his own health decisions — and C.D., who sought to prevent treatment and bar a variety of groups from counselling him regarding treatment. On Feb. 27, 2019, Justice Gregory Bowden ruled that A.B. was able to consent to medical treatment... the court issued a conduct order, saying the father couldn’t discuss his son’s medical treatment, mental health or treatments with anyone other than legal counsel, doctors or others allowed by the court. The father also must refer to A.B. by his preferred name and pronouns."
I remember when we were told that it was only right wing conspiracy theorists who believed that parents could have their children taken away from them for standing up to trans mania. This isn't too far off

The successful treatment of a gender dysphoric patient with pimozide - "There was an excellent response to pimozide 2 mg daily, with a cessation of both cross-dressing and the wish for sex reassignment. When, after 1 year, the dose was reduced to 1 mg daily, there was a rapid return of the cross-dressing and the wish for sex reassignment. An increase in the dose again led to a remission which has been maintained since then."
Transphobic and literally denying the existence of trans people! No wonder this was from 1996, a less enlightened time. No wonder now "conversion therapy" is banned!

Sports Illustrated featured a transgender black Asian person for its swimsuit edition and the media can barely contain its excitement - "This individual, "Leyna Bloom," also has black and Asian heritage, checking so many intersectionality boxes at once that the woke media's head exploded."

How common is intersex? a response to Anne Fausto-Sterling - "Anne Fausto-Sterling s suggestion that the prevalence of intersex might be as high as 1.7% has attracted wide attention in both the scholarly press and the popular media. Many reviewers are not aware that this figure includes conditions which most clinicians do not recognize as intersex, such as Klinefelter syndrome, Turner syndrome, and late-onset adrenal hyperplasia. If the term intersex is to retain any meaning, the term should be restricted to those conditions in which chromosomal sex is inconsistent with phenotypic sex, or in which the phenotype is not classifiable as either male or female. Applying this more precise definition, the true prevalence of intersex is seen to be about 0.018%, almost 100 times lower than Fausto-Sterling s estimate of 1.7%."
The trans squad should note that interex isn't even the same as trans

Instead Of Traditional Warfare, Chinese Military Will Now Be Trained To Shout Wrong Pronouns At American Troops | The Babylon Bee

/pol/ - Elliot Moose, is on the loose - Politically Incorrect - 4chan - ">mutilates body
>takes hormone reversing medicine
>grafts skin
>undergoes surgery to attach frankenstein penis
>body is in constant state of repair
>massive drain on cellular repair
>huge stress on youthfulness
>actually look like cancer patient without cancer
>intentional restrictive diet
>body in dire need of nutrients and calories
>gets positive reinforcement for this"

Gad Saad on Twitter - "Sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful for intersex and transgender people. Moving such designations below the line of demarcation would not compromise the birth certificate’s public health function but could avoid harm."
"@NEJM Yes! It is scientifically silly to classify people based on their biological sex for a sexually reproducing and sexually dimorphic species. Do you remember when you scoffed and mocked my testimony, dear @SenateCA members? I warned about this exact possibility. [Also retweeted.]"

Facebook - "No clinical utility?Like… None whatsoever? Men and women don’t react differently to various illnesses, medications, and don’t have specialized conditions that require special attention based on biology?Comrade Lysenko in someways is stronger than ever."
When the New England Journal of Medicine has fallen as well. So much for the "myth" of the slippery slope

Girl Rushed To Hospital For Emergency Gender Reassignment Surgery After Showing Up To School With A G.I. Joe | The Babylon Bee - "The school superintendent made it clear that once Abby returns to school as a boy, she will be allowed to play with the action figure again during recess.   When asked whether Abby's parents would be notified, the superintendent replied: "Goodness, no. Her parents don't need to hear about any of that. They're probably religious weirdos anyway. No, these decisions are best left to experts like us.""

Opinion: Animals Deserve Gender Pronouns, Too - "A group of more than 80 people with an interest in animal welfare, including Dr. Jane Goodall, have signed a letter calling on the editors of the Associated Press Stylebook to change their guidance so that animals in news stories would be identified as "she/her/hers and he/him/his when their sex is known, regardless of species, and the gender-neutral they, or he/she, or his/hers when their sex is unknown."  News organizations, including NPR, often follow the guidance of the AP Stylebook...   The proposed change might seem difficult to imagine right now. But consider how the care we take with personal pronouns for humans has changed over the past several years."
The "myth" of the slippery slope

Use transgender pronouns or face possible dismissal: new guidelines for NI’s 23,000 civil servants - "during the period when there was no government in Northern Ireland, the civil service altered its rule book to say that all workers must use whatever words transgender people want, or face disciplinary action – and possible dismissal.
Time to memory hole all the claims that using pronouns was a sign of respect and wasn't to be made mandatory, and those who claimed it was were "far right" conspiracy theorists

Cancel Mob Calls 'American Horror Story' Star Sarah Paulson 'B*tch, C*nt, Whore,' for Not Declaring Pronouns - "  The cancel mob descended after Sarah Paulson fired back at a random Twitter user who had ordered the Emmy-winning actress to declare her pronouns. Paulson replied that she didn’t like being told “what do do.”... Some even attacked Paulson’s partner, Two and a Half Men actress Holland Taylor... Sarah Paulson previously egged on a cancel mob that targeted author J.K. Rowling for her views on transgenderism. The actress told Rowling to “shut up” and supported calling the author a “transmisogynist.”"

New BC ruling makes it mandatory to share your pronouns in court

Prof who refused transgender student's pronouns wins in court - "An Ohio college professor who resisted his school’s orders to go along with transgender students’ preferred pronouns has won his First Amendment case before a federal appeals court.  In a unanimous ruling, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Shawnee State University violated Prof. Nicholas Meriwether’s rights of free speech and free exercise of religion by punishing him for resisting school rules that forced him to address students in the terms of their choosing...   “The First Amendment interests are especially strong here because Meriwether’s speech also relates to his core religious and philosophical beliefs,” Judge Amul Thapar wrote... “If professors lacked free-speech protections when teaching, a university would wield alarming power to compel ideological conformity”"

Here’s a thread about how “tree/treeself” are pronouns you MUST use... just in case you’re still on the fence about wokism. - "this Australian actor Keiynan Lonsdale, saying reporters need to stop misgendering him and use his preferred pronoun of "tree."... This actor, as you may have guessed, also has a fluid sexuality that changes every day"

Think you got an A on your UPenn nursing final? Think again. You forgot to ask your imaginary patient their preferred pronouns and announce yours as well, so now you're getting a B. - "the class is NURS 164: Integrated Human Anatomy, Physiology & Physical Assessment II—a class required for graduation... Keep in mind that this is a NURSING PROGRAM.  It's not Gender Studies, it's not Feminist Theory, and no, it's not even JoUrNaLiSm... using correct pronouns is now just as important in nursing as washing your hands and wearing gloves?!?!... You can get the entire "Neck & Thyroid" portion of the exam DEAD WRONG and you'll still not lose as many points as you would for botching the pronouns."

Canada’s gender identity rights Bill C-16 explained - "If someone refused to use a preferred pronoun — and it was determined to constitute discrimination or harassment — could that potentially result in jail time?  It is possible"
Addendum: The CBC needs to be deplatformed for spreading fake news, since liberals keep telling us that Jordan Peterson was wrong and spreading a right wing conspiracy theory when he said that you could be sent to jail for using the wrong pronouns.

Howard Levitt: Recognizing a person's pronouns is not an 'accommodation,' but a basic employer obligation - "As per the tribunal member’s decision, this is not an ‘accommodation’ but a legal obligation that every employer and co-worker holds towards people in their employment.   For many people the concept of gender‐neutral pronouns is new. Many attempt to undo the “habits of a lifetime” and, despite best intentions, make mistakes. Human rights law is concerned not with intentions, but rather with impact...   The issue remains open whether an employer or coworker could refer to the employee by their name rather than by these pronouns. It is likely that, if they referred to everyone else as he or her, but the cisgender employee by that person‘s name, they would still be liable. The psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson first became famous because of his refusal to use what he referred to as often “made up words” describing other genders. He predicted what has occurred. This is no longer merely a political debate but one enforced by law with punitive sanctions."
This will surely help gender non-conforming people get jobs

'I'm not a bigot' Meet the U of T prof who refuses to use genderless pronouns - "JP: The mere fact that professor Peet would like to be addressed by a particular pronoun does not mean that I am required to address him by that pronoun. That doesn't mean that I deny his existence or the existence of people who don't fit neatly in binary gender categories. I reserve the right to use my own language and I'm perfectly willing to take that to its conclusion. If it's the case that I can't use my language the way that I see fit, because I'm using my language to formulate and articulate the truth in the clearest manner I can possibly manage and if that lands me in legal trouble — well, so be it...
CO: A lot of people in the trans community have suffered a great deal because of discrimination, because of not being recognized. This is something that is one step, they believe, toward that recognition.
JP: Yes, well the mere fact that they believe it doesn't mean it's correct.
CO: But don't you have an interest in seeing them accommodated? Do you see the value in…
JP: It depends on the nature of the accommodation and at what price? I don't believe that it's reasonable for our society to undermine the entire concept of binary gender in order to hypothetically accommodate a tiny minority of people...
CO: Isn't it also the role of a society to make people feel included and to have inclusiveness?
JP: No. It's not the role of society to make people feel included. That's not the role of society. The role of society is to maintain a modicum of peace between people. It's not the role of society to make people feel comfortable. I think society is changing in many ways. I can tell you one thing that I'm very terrified of, and you can think about this. I think that the continual careless pushing of people by left wing radicals is dangerously waking up the right wing. So you can consider this a prophecy from me if you want. Inside the collective is a beast and the beast uses its fists. If you wake up the beast then violence emerges. I'm afraid that this continual pushing by radical left wingers is going to wake up the beast."
One of the articles from 2016 on Peterson's prescience. This is a great takedown of the nonsensical trans claim that refusing to use their newspeak means you're literally denying their existence

Chris Selley: Jordan Peterson, hero of the anti-PC crowd, just keeps winning - "“It does seem to me rather tacky that he has been posing as a victim of PC prejudice and representing himself as at risk of jail or dismissal from his job,” says Ronald de Sousa, an emeritus professor of philosophy at U of T. Lawyers’ opinions have convinced de Sousa that Peterson has nothing legitimate to fear from the law, and nothing except a “tut-tutting letter” — which he calls a “regrettable decision” — to fear from the university administration... If Peterson’s fundraising numbers are astounding, perhaps the astounded have underestimated the fury being inspired by modern preoccupations like white privilege and cultural appropriation, and by the marginalization, shouting down or outright cancellation of other viewpoints in polite society’s institutions... “History has shown that political correctness, and all that comes with it, is the first step on a very dark path,” says Philip Sibbering, a games designer in the U.K. who contributed to the Rebel-sponsored crowdfunding effort. Sibbering notes the intellectual intolerance of the Nazis, which all of society now rejects, and of the Marxists, which all of society does not. “Any research that could allow us to understand the root cause and effect that brings political correctness into being is vital.”... "Working in narrative film, I have a vested interest in any kind of remedy for politically correct thinking, which I see as among the most significant of threats to artistic expression""
So much for lawyers' opnions on Peterson having nothing legitimate to fear from the law. The BC Human Rights Tribunal disagrees

Pronouns Are No Joking Matter - "“At some point, this dame is going to say the snickerers are accessories to murder.” And sure enough!... True story: at one high school where a friend of mine’s kid went a couple of years ago, there was a biological female who considered herself “genderfluid,” and who would get mad at others if they called her by the wrong pronoun. She changed pronouns irregularly, and expected everybody to somehow know whether she was male or female or neuter that day. And the school accommodated this insanity!... What’s funny about this is the knots people twist themselves up into to avoid having to deal with the givenness of their bodies, and of the world — and, in turn, how spiteful they are towards people who don’t take their boutique problems as seriously as they themselves do... it is wrong to bully people who suffer from gender dysphoria. It is wrong to bully people period. But activists and their allies construe any and all opposition to their theories and practices as bullying and bigotry. This is madness, and if we can’t laugh at the rigid extremes that they’re trying to impose on society — if we can’t make fun of any kind of their bullying of the rest of us — then that tells you something about what these woke totalitarians have in store for the rest of us. Sometimes, humor is the best way to resist something dangerous. I think we can all agree that Nazism is in most cases not a joking matter, but a world in which Mel Brooks’s hysterical satirical number “Springtime For Hitler,” from The Producers, is verboten is not a world that any of us should want to live in. It is hilarious that the leader of a national political party cannot explain the difference between males and females, and says that to pose the question itself is bigoted. And it is also hilarious that her political party was wiped out in the election, and that she herself lost her seat in Parliament... The fanaticism of adults like Kat Jercich is driving radical changes in society, changes that destroy the lives of real people, and real families... The Washington Post has a fresh op-ed up from an autism activist who denounces critics of the 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is on the autism spectrum, as — surprise! — bigots... People call Greta Thunberg a child not because she’s autistic, but because she’s 16 years old... This is special pleading. It would certainly be cruel to mock Thunberg because of her autism, but Thunberg’s parents have chosen to allow her to take the world stage to advocate for her cause. She uses extreme rhetoric (e.g., in a co-bylined column a couple of weeks ago, she wrote “Colonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression have created and fueled [the climate crisis]. We need to dismantle them all.”) But nobody can legitimately criticize any of this, according to the Post contributor, because doing so makes you bigoted against autistic people and women."
Tellingly, authoritarians hate humour, since it undercuts them

Man Driving Alone In Carpool Lane Informs Officer His Preferred Pronoun Is 'They' | The Babylon Bee

MoD tells staff to state name, rank and gender pronoun | News | The Times - "Officials have been told to state their preferred gender pronouns in meetings at the Ministry of Defence, where a civil servant acts as a trustee of Stonewall. Dunni Alao was described as a “fierce proponent” of Stonewall’s agenda when she was announced as a trustee of the lobby group in June. She is understood to be a civil servant at the MoD, which published an “inclusive language” guide, advising all service personnel, staff and contractors how to discuss sensitive subjects such as gender identity. The MoD guidance, which appears to lift some sentences verbatim from Stonewall’s glossary of terms, claims that “not all women are biologically female” and advises MoD staff to be careful using the word “female”, in case it “erases gender non-conforming people and members of the trans community”. It also encouraged MoD personnel to publicise their preferred pronouns on their email signatures, on their social media profiles and at the start of meetings and presentations, in order to make their transgender and non-binary colleagues feel more comfortable... The MoD confirmed this week that it had paid Stonewall £80,312 over five years, mainly on fees for the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force to join Stonewall’s diversity champions programme."

Concerns We’re Heading For ‘Misgendering Crisis’ As 61% Of Brits Never Ask About Pronouns - "A further 86% of Brits do not understand one of the most likely impacts of misgendering someone is negatively affecting their mental health."
"Trans fragility" needs to be made a thing

ESL Students Learn New Gender Pronouns | We the Internet TV - YouTube

Thread by @ConceptualJames - "I got asked to explain the pronouns thing in DM...  The first thing is that it's about "acceptance" and "inclusion." As it stands, trans and gender nonconforming (GNC) people don't go by the pronouns they were born with. Everyone else does. So if EVERYBODY declares their pronouns, it makes it not weird to declare pronouns. In short, if trans/GNC people have to declare their pronouns, but no one else does, that marks them as "different," which under a Derridean understanding of power dynamics in language automatically implies "worse." (Butler tied in Foucault here too.) This is postmodernism. So... So, if EVERYONE declares their pronouns all the time, then trans/GNC people aren't forced to mark themselves as different (read: abnormal, read: less good) people. That's more or less the primary thing behind the push to make everyone declare their pronouns all the time. Does this make anyone feel particularly comfortable? No, it doesn't, but it makes everyone the same uncomfortable, which is better than only some people being put on the spot and made uncomfortable this way. That's not the point. The point isn't achieving good; it's "justice." Achieving a net-negative outcome for everyone is, to the Theorists and activists pushing the pronoun thing, preferable to some (certain) people having an "unjust" experience. That's really important. Most people being worse off is better than a few people having a tough break.  Then, there's that it's a validating thing. If EVERYONE uses announcements of pronouns, then announcing one's pronouns is validated as a normal thing to do, something we all do, so it's not weird that some people like GNC people feel like they have to do it while others don't. Everyone having to announce pronouns all the time "validates" the trans/GNC experience around pronoun use, which is otherwise "invalidated" by "cisnormative assumptions." And that "invalidation" is why they say that cisnormativity "literally" denies their humanity.  The theory says that dominant groups exercise power/privilege and marginalize/oppress other groups by mere virtue of that power/privilege (which is rooted naturally in their dominance). This thus confers a responsibility on the dominant group to take pains to undo those problems. Asking a minoritized group to shoulder their burden has lots of names depending on the circumstances, including exploitation and responsibilization. (You're not allowed to ask or tell a minoritized group to take responsibility for their own problems, as that's Theoretically BAD.) Here's the kicker. Getting everyone to announce their pronouns all the time won't solve the problem. It won't be good enough because once it's achieved, everyone will realize that most people are still cis (if that's even a word), and *that* will become the problem.  The fact that most people use cis pronouns will be a way that cis people "dominate" because it's most common, and it will be inappropriate for cis people to announce pronouns while also being required that they do so. So traditional pronouns will become the next object of attack. In Theory, the thing that is "problematic" is anything that can be construed to offend, "dominate," "oppress," or "marginalize," so the fact that most people get to use cis pronouns will become problematic, and them doing so will be billed as performative and false. Pro-tip: ANYTHING can be construed to offend, "dominate," "oppress," or "marginalize," so if the goal is to find offense or claim some kind of oppression, it's just a matter of crafting the right kind of complaint, no matter how tendentious or forced. Theory will allow it. In fact, if other objects in Theory are any guide (e.g., allyship, especially), cis pronoun use will be both required and problematic (performative, positioning oneself well, etc.) long before it would be universal. Cis people will not be allowed to do it right. That's Theory!"
Good explanation of virtue signalling and the slippery slope

Beware the proliferation of preferred pronouns - "Baron may be correct when he says that pronouns cannot be mandated from above. But this has not stopped the pronoun police from trying. Brighton and Hove City Council has a ‘my pronouns are’ campaign which encourages people to wear badges indicating their preferred pronouns, warning that ‘making assumptions can be hurtful and distressing’. Many universities’ student unions now distribute ‘pronoun badges’ for their students to wear. According to the police, failing to respect a person’s self-declared pronoun can be a form of abuse and may even be deemed a hate crime.  The main concern in the past was with the way pronouns could be used to disenfranchise a group of people from the right to vote and from employment, turning some into second-class citizens. Today’s campaigns have a more individualist focus; the intention is to achieve recognition as a unique and vulnerable individual, as can be seen in the smorgasbord of pronouns that are available to choose from, and how failure to use a person’s individual preference is said to be deeply hurtful to them. It is a demand for our feelings to be protected by the state. The public exhibition of one’s preferred pronouns is also intended to signify the moral sensibilities of the individual. Those who declare their pronouns are advertising their awareness, unlike the unenlightened mass of people who fail to declare. In this sense, the public presentation of pronouns is akin to the wearing of a crucifix in a more religious age, or the wearing of badges or ribbons in the current one. In each case, the intention is to signify adherence to the cause and demonstrate to the world your moral status. The pronoun is merely a means to an end.   Of course, just as people are free to wear the old religious symbols, so they should be free to advertise their commitment to contemporary orthodoxies. But when politics becomes focused on pronouns, this can only be because it has been stripped of any wider social, political or historical significance. Political action has been replaced with a demand for personal recognition."

“No, You Can’t Have My Pronouns!” - "Despite being promoted as a gesture of support and inclusion, Levin described several examples where the practice of asking a person’s pronouns had a contrary effect. It can force transgender students to choose between lying or publicly disclosing their transgender status to a roomful of strangers on the first day of a class. Or, it can imply to a transgender person that they’re not successfully presenting their gender in a way that’s consistent with their gender identity.  Others have written how the provision of gender pronouns highlight a person’s gender, often to the detriment of women. These examples show how even well-intended gestures of inclusion can have unintended harmful consequences... Requests to “give your pronouns” purport to be an inclusive gesture aimed at creating a more welcoming space for transgender and gender non-binary people. But they’re actually an exercise in power; a form of social coercion that only masquerades as inclusion. In linguistic terms, such requests “position” the recipient of the request against their will and without their permission.  Requests for pronouns offer those present three choices: respond honestly to the request; refuse to respond; or lie. I hope it’s clear that lying is neither ethical nor consistent with the creation of an inclusive or welcoming space where everyone is free to be their authentic selves. But refusing to respond or rejecting the request can come with potentially negative repercussions. That’s because requests for one’s pronouns often occur in social settings marked by an imbalance of power — the classroom, the workplace, community organizations, etc... Acceding to requests for one’s pronouns does not mitigate the imbalance of power that accompanies such requests. Nor does failing to recognize that pronoun requests can be coercive or making such requests with benevolent intents. Just because such requests are well intended doesn’t mean they don’t occur in social contexts marked by power inequity.  Thus, a request for “your pronouns” isn’t a request at all. It’s a subtle but powerful demand that effectively dis-ables the recipient of the request and threatens negative consequences for any questioning or resistance... The messy, personal, and ongoing quality of gender cannot be adequately captured by gender pronouns that imply our gender is stable, fixed, or constant. It is in this sense that all gender pronouns are, at best, provisional, and, at worst, lies. My gender now is not the same as my gender when I typed these words... Requiring people to give an account of themselves in terms of gender is a form of what trans legal scholar Dean Spade has termed “administrative violence”: the kinds of everyday violence committed by agents and agencies of the state that are “just” following the rules or doing their jobs.  Driver license applications, medical intake forms, college applications, etc. all routinely ask applicants to disclose their gender in terms provided by the requesting authority... Given that, why would those who argue that gender is fluid want to confine anyone within static gender boxes? Why would gender expansive people want to institutionalize the practice of demanding others give an account of themselves in terms of gender? Why would they want to amplify a system well known to oppress transgender and other gender-expansive people?... In the context of widespread demands that citizens make themselves legible to the state in terms of gender, refusing to give an account of oneself in those terms represents a kind of resistance to an oppressive gendered regime of knowledge. Institutionalizing a practice that coerces others to give an account of themselves in terms of gender seems contrary to that project... The solution to this conundrum would seem to be to stop thinking about people in terms of gender or making assumptions about a person’s gender identity (and their gender pronouns) based on their physical appearance. But that ignores the fact that gender isn’t only a personal trait, characteristic, or attribute.  Gender is a complex social institution reproduced through numerous social practices and communicated through vehicles of cultural expression like art, music, literature, mass media, and (most relevant here) language. If gendered pronouns didn’t exist in the language, the entire practice of “giving your pronouns” would have no need to exist. All pronouns would be gender-neutral. Everyone would always already know the appropriate pronouns to use when referring to others. But transforming oppressive conventions of gendered language and the salience of gender to individual social identity will not occur through coercive practices that require everyone give an account of themselves in (predetermined, insufficient, and inaccurate) terms of gender."

Teen Won't Change Name To Make Trans Classmate Comfortable: AITA - "“A guy (15-year-old male) at my (14-year-old female) school transitioned from female to male and goes by a different name now.”  “Last year, he went by a female name.”  It didn’t take long for OP to become heavily involved, whether she wanted to or not.  “I have a pretty common name, and my name is the same as what his dead name was.”  “He constantly complains and makes exaggerated cringing noises when people say my name in front of him.” What happened next surprised OP.   “He asked me if I could go by a common nickname that people with my name use while in class. Think along the lines of shortening Isabella to Bella.”  “I was like ‘are you kidding me?? No way.’ This is the name I’ve been called all my life, and I’m not changing it. And I also think nicknames are juvenile.”  But there was an impasse.   “He passive-aggressively said in class today ‘you can really sniff out the hidden bigots when they refuse to do something simple to make your existence more comfortable and safe. They always tell on themselves’.”"
As a famous SJW says, "A slur is a knife – You don’t get to decide how sharp it is but the person at its tip". What a bigot!

How Miley Cyrus' 'Preference' Remarks Show Underlying Transphobia - ""Girls are way hotter. We know this,” the 28-year-old bisexual said in an interview with Sirius XM’s Barstool Radio. “Everyone I think can agree that from ancient times d*cks makes wonderful sculptures. Other than that, I’m not as interested. I like d*cks as art pieces. And sculptural, I love the shape, I think it looks really good on a table."...   She dug in even deeper, adding, “everyone knows that tits are prettier than balls... That’s what ended up making female relationships make more sense to me."  I wish I could say this news makes me excited and proud to be a woman and a lesbian, but Cyrus' quote is littered with transphobia. This kind of gender essentialism was left behind by most of the queer community years ago. Genitals do not equal gender, and Miley should know this."
Maybe this is why most people don't care about the queer community

Shitlords United - Posts | Facebook - "This poor girl is being dragged for being transphobic when this guy messaged her talking sexual bullshit then accused her of being transphobic when she turned him down."

The Student Brexit Group - Posts | Facebook - "The University of Liverpool  are telling their students that “genital preferences are transphobic” Who knew it was transphobic to have a preference! "
Comment (elsewhere): "Remember when their argument was “it doesn’t effect you, you do you care?” Now apparently if I’m not willing to suck lady dick I’m pretty much alt right."
Suck the dick, bigot!

Meme - "@trutsle Remember like ten years ago when it was just about gays getting married.
Transgender book for TEENS includes account of 6-year-old performing oral sex and 'liking it'"

Transgender book for TEENS includes account of 6-year-old performing oral sex and 'liking it' - "A transgender book for teens which contains graphic descriptions of oral sex carried out by children as young as six is being promoted in the youth sections of local libraries, according to Kirralie Smith, director of Binary Australia.  The book, Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, tells the story of six young adults and their journey to embracing transgenderism. An excerpt of the book, shared by Binary Australia, gives a shocking account of a six-year-old performing oral sex on the “guys in the neighbourhood” and enjoying it, without any mention of it being illegal or harmful.

Friday, December 17, 2021

Links - 17th December 2021 (2 - Antisemitism)

Kirsten Gillibrand on Twitter - "As #YomHaShoah begins tonight, we remember and honor the lives of the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. We must fight the rising threats of anti-Semitism, white supremacy, and hate here and around the world.
#HolocaustRemembranceDay"
"You are referencing “white supremacy” whilst supposedly honouring the memory of the six million Jews exterminated?  Is your moral compass this broken? Are you this bereft of scale? You are truly vile. Your need to be woke is a pathology. [I’ll retweet.]"

Facebook - "When an "Anti-Zionist" *wink wink* tells on themselves.  What could a holiday that is thousands of years old that is celebrated by Jews all over the world have to do Israeli policy? The answer of course, is nothing.  And yet - the 'we're not anti-semitic' crowd is advocating boycotts and those who support them based on holiday greetings to not "Israelis", or "Zionists" - but Jews.   Don't fool yourself. "Anti-Zionism" has always primarily been motivated by anti-Jewish racism. People on the far left have heard it so normalized in an echo chamber for so many years they scarcely even recognize it, still imagining themselves genuinely 'not racist', even as they hope to persecute one of the most persecuted minorities in world history."
On Chanukah

Vox on Twitter - "Violent anti-Semitism spiked in America during the Israel-Hamas war. And we don’t know why."
HMM

UNRWA 'mistakenly' gave Palestinian kids textbooks calling for jihad - "The United Nations aid agency for Palestinians said it is “taking steps” to address the glorification of “martyrs” and calls for “jihad” in books it handed out to students... the books went to hundreds of thousands of students in the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. Many seem to be based on Palestinian Authority resources. Some mislabel Israel as “Palestine” or erase the country from maps of the Middle East. One Arabic grammar booklet features phrases like “Jihad is one of the doors to Paradise.” Another reads that “The Palestinians are lions in fighting the enemies.” One book has a poem about how “a raging fire awaits the Occupation,” while another states that “The motherland is worthy of any kind of sacrifice” and “the Enemy [committed] heinous offences against … the mujahideen,” Arabic for anyone fighting a jihad, or holy war. A ninth-grade social studies booklet accuses Israel of deliberately polluting Palestinian territories and spreading disease by dumping radioactive and toxic waste, the report said."
Of course this means nothing, given its long and questionable record

San Francisco State University Prof Says Jewish Pot is Making Black Men Gay - "Wesley Muhammad believes that the U.S. government and the Jews are using marijuana to make black men gay. The “Pot Plot” is a popular theory in Muhammad’s Nation of Islam cult...   "It is clear that the two most powerful lobbies in America - the Jewish and the Homosexual - are hellbent on the information in this lecture, 'How To Make A Homosexualm (sic)' NEVER makes it to the public's awareness," Muhammad complained on Facebook...   Wesley Muhammad's bio at the taxpayer-funded university notes that he is a lecturer in the Africana Studies Department of SFSU's College of Ethnic Studies. It mentions his publications in the Final Call newspaper of the Nation of Islam hate group, and his book, "Understanding the Assault on the Black Man, Black Manhood and Black Masculinity" which contains thoughtful chapters such as "Why Saggin is Faggin" and "Birth of the Black Man (God)".   It also notes that Muhammad is a "helper of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan" and a member of the executive council of the Nation of Islam hate group, and mentions his role in Tariq Nasheed's Buck Breaking documentary which claimed that black people were a master race and that white slave owners turned black men gay...   A course listing shows Muhammad teaching courses on “Black Religion” and “Malcolm X in the Context of Black Nationalism”. The courses are taught online which apparently allows Muhammad, a top official in the Nation of Islam, to teach remotely.  That the Nation of Islam killed Malcolm X only adds another layer to this obscene farce.   By describing the pandemic as a "pestilence from heaven", Muhammad echoed Farrakhan's remarks that the coronavirus was one of Allah's "great plagues". But Muhammad additionally claimed that "we've documented the first area codes that were devastated by coronavirus in America were Jewish area codes" implying that the virus was aimed by Allah at the Jews.   A lecturer celebrating the coronavirus for allowing him to teach remotely and claiming that black gay men are the products of a Jewish conspiracy may seem out of place on today’s college campuses where a Chinese composer was forced out of the classroom for showing an Othello movie and at Yale an American Indian student faced the threat of sanctions for a party invite touting fried chicken, but there are two sets of rules. And at SFSU, the bigots have always enjoyed the second set.   In the 90s, Khalid Muhammad, another Nation of Islam figure, was invited to deliver a speech by the Pan Afrikan Student Union which advertised tickets as being $7 for students and $15 for "Zionists, Uncle Toms and other white supremacists." During his speech Muhammad ranted about "hook-nosed, bagel-eating, lox-eating, perpetrating-a-fraud so-called Jews" and urged his racist audience to "use violence when necessary."   These days though Nation of Islam officials aren’t just SFSU campus speakers, but lecturers.  It’s all part of the ugly atmosphere of antisemitic hatred that has been mainstreamed at the public university where taxpayers pay the bills for the professors and groups that hate them.  SFSU was also where, more recently, Muhammad Hammad, the president of the General Union of Palestine Students, was investigated after making violent threats toward Jews."
Since it's racist to disagree with black people...

The Top Ten Schools Supporting Terrorists - "March 25, 2015: Anti-Semitic graffiti reading “Jews – root of all evil” was found in a men’s bathroom stall in the Brooklyn College library.  
2012-Present: Brooklyn College SJP members and their supporters at Brooklyn College expressed vehement Jew hatred and support for anti-Israel terrorism on social media. SJP member Ayah Aly tweeted such sentiments as “Anyone supporting Israel is living in a constant state of delusion. Exterminate yourselves” and “If you’re a zionist, you israeli the lowest piece of scum on earth.”  She also tweeted that “Jews” are one of the “top10thingsIhate” and claimed that the United States government was behind the 9⁄11 attacks, stating on twitter “NeverForget this day, 14 years ago,when the U.S Government conspired against its’ own Country and blamed it on Islam.”"

Gad Saad on Twitter - "Good morning. The only threat to democracy in the Middle East is Israel"
"@miakhalifa The only one? So all of the Arab countries in the Middle East are model democracies? As a former porn star, do you think that you’d be shown greater tolerance in Gaza or Tel Aviv? Greater women’s rights in Gaza or Tel Aviv?"

Sargon of Akkad - Posts | Facebook - "This SCREAMS concentration camp uniforms to us - shame on you Giorgio Armani! Design. Production. Branding. Quality Control.  NO ONE stopped for a moment and questioned this?!  Via Janet Rosenblatt (StandWithUs)"
"It screams "Beetlejuice" to me, but then I don't spend every waking moment of my day thinking about the atrocities of WWII."

WHEN THEY SAY... THEY MEAN
Globalist...JEW
Bankers...JEW
Zionist...JEW
Hollywood...JEW
Media...JEW
(((THEY)))...JEW"
Apparently we cannot criticise globalists, bankers, zionists, Hollywood or the media. I thought it was racist and anti-semitic to equate all of these to Jews
This was shared by
Stop Antisemitism and they got bashed by many people

Facebook - "One in custody after rabbi stabbed near Jewish day school in Boston"
"Khaled Awad attacked the rabbi.  We may never know his true motives but it's probably because he was protesting Zionism.

Israeli container ship remains moored in Seattle, after pro-Palestinian groups backed by Antifa target the port | The Post Millennial - "Antifa activists have allied with the Falastyniat group, a "grassroot collective of diasporic Palestinian feminists in Seattle living & organizing at the intersection of gender justice and Anti-colonialism." The irony appears to be lost on many considering that Israel is one of the only countries in the Middle East where women are allowed to hold public office, drive a car, or even simply leave their house alone. Israel is also the only country in the region where the LGBTQ community is welcomed and not persecuted, tortured, or imprisoned... Studies have show that the BDS movement has little to no effect on Israel but rather, adversely affects retailers in other countries that are attempting to sell the products, as well as Palestinians who work for Israeli companies... Antifa allied with antisemitic activist groups during the latest conflict between Hamas and Israel. The anarchist group helped publicize events across North America commemorating the attempted mass genocide of Jews across the Middle East by Arab countries in 1948.  Activists attempted to lure Jews and pro-Israel counter protesters to the events in order to assault them. Wanrnings of the plan were sent to Jewsh organizations across the US and Canada. Videos of antisemitic attacks at the events at the hands of Antifa and pro-Palestinian activists were shared across social media."

Linda Sarsour leaves Twitter over backlash from IDF tweet - "Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour has left Twitter following backlash over a tweet regarding the IDF’s presence in the Miami Surfside recuse mission. On July 5, Sarsour retweeted a post shared by political activist Rafael Shimunov, in which he wrote, “I really don’t understand the IDF’s involvement in rescue attempts of people tragically crushed under buildings in Miami. Their expertise is crushing buildings with people in them, not rescuing them.” Sarsour’s response, which she has since deleted, was simply two finger emojis pointing down at his tweet in agreement... In August 2015, Sarsour participated in a rally in support of terrorist Muhammad Alan, an Islamic Jihad activist who served three years in an Israeli prison for his involvement in a suicide bombing. She was forced to apologize in 2019 after saying: “Israel that is based on supremacy, is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else.”... “Shame on Linda Sarsour for this evil, heartless tweet, compounding the victims’ pain at a time when many Jewish people are still buried under rubble in Surfside, and while Israeli & American first responders work side by side to help them and their neighbors from all backgrounds.”"

Emily Wilder: unprofessional journalist, professional victim | The Post Millennial - "Emily Wilder no longer works for the Associated Press. After only three weeks on the job, the outlet fired her for violating the company's social media policy that took place after she became an employee. What she said or how she said it is irrelevant given that she should not have been hired in the first place... According to the Associated Press' stated position on journalistic ethics, a journalist's job is "to report the news fairly and accurately, uninfluenced by any person or action." Would Wilder's past activism have compromised her efforts as a journalist? The AP didn't wait to find out—nor would they have to wait for long.  On Saturday, Wilder released a lengthy statement on her firing from the Associated Press and expressed quite explicitly that she intended to use her platform as a journalist "hoping to channel righteous indignation or passion for justice into impactful storytelling." "Last Monday, the Stanford College Republicans launched a smear campaign against me, attempting to 'expose' my already-public history of activism for Palestinian human rights at Stanford University," she wrote.  If what they said about her was true, then how can it be a smear campaign? It's not a smear to use someone's own words against them, to paint them as exactly how they choose to portray themselves. Wilder herself says so, and yet expresses indignation toward being called out for being exactly who she says she is.  Wilder adds that she hoped for the support of her editors as she "received an onslaught of sexist, antisemitic, racist, and violent comments and messages." While online harassment is always deplorable, Wilder has not, to my knowledge, produced any evidence of these comments and messages... Being a journalist is a job like any other. The job of a journalist is to report the news fairly, critically, and without a political slant. Channeling "righteous indignation" into "impactful storytelling" is not part of the job description. To be fair, no one – besides Wilder herself – is saying that she isn't allowed to speak. She can be an activist online or anywhere else. If that's her calling, then she should feel free to answer it. She is not owed a platform by the Associated Press."

Head of Canada's progressive 'Anti-Hate' network warns of 'sick rumours of violence aimed at Jews' after recent antisemitic violence | The Post Millennial - "Analyzing 77 media reports of antisemitic incidents, CAM [Ed: Combat Antisemitism Movement] found that 43 of them (56 percent) were motivated by Islamism; 14 incidents (18 percent) came from the far left; 6 were from the far right (8), and 14 (18 percent) were unidentifiable. Numbers like these leave no room for equivocation on the sources of contemporary Jew hatred. European Jews have been exposed for decades to pathological hatred from what is known as the "red-green" alliance of Marxists and Islamists. In Canada, where hate incidents of any kind rarely involve physical assaults, we have been slow to understand that it was just a matter of time before this particularly virulent infection reached our shores... Every Jew I know is feeling anxiety and fear. But Bernie Farber, chair of the Canadian Anti-hate Network (Antihate.ca), mocked our concerns. Last Tuesday, Farber took to Facebook to scold those "[s]preading sick rumours of violence aimed at Jews" as "fearmongering" and "the worst kind of nonsense." He said advocacy groups for Jews, Palestinians and Muslims "should speak in one voice to condemn it." "It," to be clear, being Jewish fear-mongering... The name is misleading. It is not "hate groups" in general that Antihate.ca concerns itself with. It is hate from one source only—the far right which, as the CAM numbers show, is virtually irrelevant to the escalating crisis of global antisemitism. Antihate.ca does not hide their bias. Farber has admitted to website commenters and on Twitter that "we research all aspects of white supremacy," period, because "[w]hite supremacists pose the biggest threat in [North America]." Although erroneous, this is an article of faith amongst many aging leftists, for whom the Holocaust is the defining Jewish event of their lives. For them, Nazis—the historical brownshirt, goosestepping kind, flaunting swastikas and speaking German, along with their pathetic brotherhood of modern stooges—became the once, forever and only icon of genocidal antisemitism. They are frozen in time. They can't get their heads around the fact that neo-Nazis of that kind are low-hanging fruit for hate-bashing, because they have no credibility with any decent human being of any mainstream political persuasion. Nor do they hold any institutional power in any democracy. These Nazi-trackers seem not to—or perhaps have chosen not to, as Farber's post suggests—to grasp the reality  that the head office for genocidal hatred of Jews, whose rhetoric makes Hitler look ambivalent, has shifted from Berlin to Gaza, with branch offices all over the world, staffed by fellow Islamic supremacists and abetted by privileged white progressive BDS allies in academia. These useful idiots believe they are supporting a social-justice movement that is battling "colonialism" and "apartheid" and "racism," but in fact, as has been amply documented and affirmed, including by those best placed to understand systemic antisemitism when they see it, BDS is a movement inspired by and suffused with Judeophobia... Elghawaby excluded "antisemitism" from her list of hatreds that patients deserve to be free from, even though statistically, antisemitism far outstrips Islamophobia as a hate problem in Canada... "It has come to our attention that Jewish medical students and residents feel extremely isolated and scared in the context of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East."
Clearly, it's time to crack down on the "far right"

Minneapolis Cop Kills Unarmed Black Man; Palestinian Advocates Attack Jews - "Antisemitic Palestinian advocate Linda Sarsour has made the argument that the ADL — the nation’s most recognizable Jewish organization — is responsible for police killings in America before at least two significant audiences: the 2018 Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention, and during the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March on Washington that was organized by Louis Farrakhan.  “If you believe in the idea of ending police brutality and the misconduct of law enforcement officers across the country,” Sarsour said at the ISNA convention, “then you do not support an organization that takes police officers from America, funds their trips, takes them to Israel so they can be trained by the Israeli police and military, and then they come back here and do what? Stop and frisk, killing unarmed black people across the country.”"

Facebook - "Now that it's a Republican, the liberal press cares about blaming the Jews again."
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s space laser and the age-old problem of blaming the Jews

France top court confirms Sarah Halimi drugged murderer 'irresponsible' - "The murderer of Sarah Halimi was not responsible for his actions because he smoked marijuana prior to the crime, France’s Court of Cassation’s Supreme Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday. The Court began its deliberations on March 4 on whether or not to overrule the lower court’s decision not to try Kobili Traoré for killing Halimi in 2017 after that decision was appealed in 2019. France's lower court decided in December 2019 to excuse the antisemitic murderer of a Jewish woman from a criminal trial because heavy intake of cannabis supposedly compromised his “discernment,” or consciousness. At the time of the ruling, the judge cited psychiatric evaluations saying Traoré’s consumption of marijuana before the incident led to a “delirious episode” that made him not legally responsible for his actions. However, the judge also said that Traoré, who is in his 30s, killed Halimi because he is an antisemite. The lower court's decision sparked outrage among the French and international Jewish community. In April 2017, Traoré, a 27-year-old Muslim man, beat Halimi, his 65-year-old Jewish neighbor, while screaming "Allah Akbar" (God is great) and antisemitic slogans before throwing her out of the window of her third-floor apartment to her death.  The Wednesday verdict triggered a fresh round of outrage from Jewish organizations, upset that such a precedent would be set...  According to Dalloz, France’s prominent professional and university legal publisher, the main arguments of Halimi's lawyers were that "drug addiction is not a mental illness and does not fall within the scope of psychic or neuropsychic disorders covered by article 122-1 of the penal code. The voluntary act of drug consumption constitutes wrongful behavior which excludes irresponsibility. "Moreover, since the consumption of cannabis is intended to obtain a modification of the state of consciousness, Kobili Traoré must have been aware of the risks involved in this consumption," they said. "Therefore, the consumption of narcotics is an aggravating circumstance and may not at the same time constitute grounds for exemption from criminal liability."... "[this] potentially creates a precedent for all hate criminals to simply claim insanity – or decide to smoke, snort or inject drugs or even get drunk before committing their crimes.""

Damn far right!

NFL's DeSean Jackson Posts Actual Anti-Semitic Hitler Quote Twice, Gets Slap On Wrist - "The Philadelphia Eagles announced that DeSean Jackson would be “penalized” and made to apologize for “conduct detrimental to the team” after the wide receiver posted anti-Semitic Hitler quotes to Instagram"

French far-left leader accused of spreading antisemitic trope - "When journalist Apolline De Malherbe asked him if “the police should be like Jesus on the cross and not reply” during the demonstrations, the response of Mélenchon created controversy on social media. : “Listen, I don’t know if Jesus was on the cross. I know who put him there, it seems that it was his own compatriots”.Meyer Habib, a French MP for French nationals living abroad, replied directly to Melenchon on Twitter. “No Mr. Mélenchon! A bit of history: Jesus Christ was condemned to death by crucifixion by the Roman Ponce Pilate, not by his Jewish compatriots (21’32)! The temptation was perhaps too strong to recycle the age-old antisemitic deicide trope“."

Sanhedrin trial of Jesus - Wikipedia - "Jesus... is condemned by the Jewish authorities for various accusations: violating the Sabbath law (by healing on the Sabbath), threatening to destroy the Jewish Temple, sorcery, exorcising people by the power of demons, and claiming to be the Messiah. The Jewish leaders then take Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Roman Judaea, and ask that he be tried for claiming to be the King of the Jews."

Martin Luther King on Anti-Zionism - "When approached by a student who attacked Zionism, Dr. King responded: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism.”"

Anti-Semitism today: ‘Zionist’ is often a euphemism for ‘Jew’ - "On the left, I suggest, anti-Semitism is usually contentiously conflated with opposition to the policies of the Israeli government. Lipstadt does not fully accept this, pointing to anti-Semitic statements by Karl Marx and other left-wing figures, but she accepts that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the main locus, and argues that “Zionist” is often used as a euphemism for “Jew”, pointing out that Stalin used exactly the same formulation 70 years ago... “When there is a singular focus on Israel to the exclusion of all others it just raises questions.” For European Jews, the greatest sense of threat in recent years has come from jihadi terror attacks, but Lipstadt also points to surveys that reveal widespread anti-Semitism in Muslim communities across Europe... She’s highly critical of those, particularly on the progressive left, who downplay the effects of this sentiment. “It’s certainly not taken seriously by certain people in the political world. And here we are talking more about the left than the right.“If you do not present as a person of colour or as a poor person then you can’t be a victim of prejudice. Now of course the idea that the people on the left see Jews as white is ironic, because people on the far right see Jews as not white.”... an anti-Semite who truly hates you out of conviction is on some level at least honest about what he or she is feeling. But someone who just will use it because it’s efficacious is more disturbing."

David Baddiel vs woke anti-Semitism - "David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count is a short, sharp attack on ‘progressive’ attitudes towards anti-Semitism. As such, it makes for a compelling polemic. As Baddiel characterises them, progressives are a broadly left-leaning coalition who ‘define themselves as being on the right side of history’. You can find them on the one-time Corbynista wing of the Labour Party, or hash-tagging their support for Black Lives Matter, or maybe penning op-eds for the Guardian. They are not necessarily ‘classically left-wing’, as Baddiel puts it, given many are none too concerned with economics and the interests of ‘the working man’. Rather, they are interested in fighting what is best thought of as a cultural battle, promoting the ‘right’ attitudes and, above all, tackling all forms of prejudice.All except one, that is. And this prompts the question that fuels Baddiel’s anger. Why do progressives treat Jews differently to all other identity groups?... In 2019, actress Seyi Omooba was starring in a production of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, when some homophobic Facebook messages of hers from 2014 came to light. She defended them on the grounds that they were justified by the Bible. In 2017, Alice Walker herself published a poem, ‘To Study the Talmud’, which rehearsed old anti-Semitic tropes about Jews drinking Christian blood and promoting paedophilia. She could claim this was based on a reading of the Old Testament... Think, for example, of film director Ken Loach’s willingness to dismiss anti-Semitism as an understandable reaction to Israel’s actions, which, in the progressive lexicon, would surely qualify as a case of victim-blaming. Or Jenny Tonge, a one-time Lib Dem MP and now denizen of the House of Lords, who, in an attack on a Zionist tweeter asked rhetorically why it was that Jewish people have been persecuted throughout history. Again and again, Baddiel shows how Jews are the exception to the identitarian rule. Cultural appropriation is wrong, progressives contend. Except if it’s Jewish culture being appropriated, from bagels to salt beef. Minority actors must play minority roles, progressives assert. Except if it’s Italian American Al Pacino playing the Jewish lead in Hunters (2020) or Gary Oldman playing Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz in Mank (2020). That’s the same Gary Oldman who, in 2006, defended Mel Gibson after his infamous anti-Semitic rant, saying: ‘Mel Gibson is in a town that’s run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he’s actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him, and doesn’t need to feed him anymore because he’s got enough dough.’... progressives, at some level, always see Jews as privileged. Indeed, they are still presented, as per the old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, as close to, perhaps even manipulating, the powerful. And they are increasingly, as per the new right-on conspiracy theory, seen as white, and therefore part of the white-supremacist cabal ruling the world... ‘[F]uck off about money. Because money doesn’t protect you from racism. As I say, some Jews are rich. My grandparents were: they were industrialists in East Prussia. They owned a brick factory. They had servants. By the time they were fleeing to England with my mother as a baby in 1939, however, that had all been robbed from them. And by the end of the war, most of their family – and therefore a large section of mine – had been murdered. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, because the racists will smash in the door of your big house that they know you don’t deserve anyway and only own because you’re Jews.’... it is difficult to warm to Baddiel’s ultimate objective. Which is not to overcome the divisive and increasingly manichaean logic of identity politics, pitching identity groups into infernal battle with one another, but rather to win Jews a better position on the battlefield. Or as he puts it, ‘Jews should be understood as somewhere in the ME section of BAME’. Surely we all can do better than that."
Progressives treat Jews like whites

Natan Sharansky: Why BDS Fails My 3D Test on anti-Semitism | Opinion - "I came up with what I call "the 3D test for anti-Semitism"—the three Ds are demonization, delegitimization and double standards... when we use the 3D test for anti-Semitism we can easily distinguish between legitimate criticism and anti-Semitism. These 3Ds—demonization, delegitimization and double standards—are the three main tools that anti-Semites employed against Jews throughout history. For thousands of years, Jews were demonized, they were charged with blood libels, with poisoning wells, and, later, with controlling the global banking system. The Jewish faith and the Jewish claim to nationhood was delegitimized. And double standards were applied to Jews, either through the imposition of special laws—from the Middle Ages in Europe, to the Russian Empire and Nazi Germany— or through de -facto government policy discriminating against Jews, as I experienced in the Soviet Union.Throughout history, demonization of Jewish people, delegitimization of their faith or nationhood, and double standards applied to Jews created fertile soil for pogroms, expulsions and genocide... This week Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs released a report that provides great detail on the links between BDS and anti-Semitism. The report cites over 80 examples of leading BDS activists and organizations making statements or promoting content that is anti-Semitic."

Why even black and brown-skinned Jews are "white imperialists" - "In Britain and America, as we have seen over the past few weeks, a movement is under way to rewrite American and British history with the aim of changing the culture. The charge is that white society is endemically racist... Leave aside the fact that such demonization of white society is itself racist. Leave aside, too, the fact that Britain and the United States have long flagellated themselves over colonialism and slavery through their educational systems.It you listen carefully, you’ll hear something pulsating beneath the anger about “white privilege.” In the complaint that colonialism isn’t taught, there’s something much more distressed: the cry that black people can’t see themselves in the picture of western society that’s being taught. Back in the 1980s, it was claimed that black children couldn’t be expected to relate to education unless they saw themselves in the stories it told. So instead of teaching them about the unique institutions and events that had made Britain or America what it was, they would be taught about what was said to be their own history under British colonialism and American slavery.They wouldn’t be taught the truth that colonialism and slavery had been universal. They would be taught instead that these were the special sins of white society.In fact, this was the best way to keep black people marginalized. For to take their place as equals in British or American society, they needed to be taught first and foremost about the culture in which they were living. To succeed in a different culture requires being taught it. If that teaching is censored, such children will always be at a disadvantage... Jews (other than the ultra-orthodox) have never felt threatened by being taught western culture. While they are deeply concerned by the failure to stop antisemitism, they have never felt wounded to their very soul because their oppression isn’t sufficiently recognized in the British or American education curriculum.After all, if every antisemite was excised from western history or literature, there would be precious little western culture left at all. Diaspora Jews don’t need to be validated in that culture because Judaism places such high priority on constantly educating Jews themselves in their identity and purpose in life.In stark contrast, those most insistent that western society has to be reframed around the history of black enslavement and colonial oppression perhaps feel most adrift in the world.This gets translated into an intense resentment at the society whose culture is (or was) defined and confident. Worse still, in the vacuum created by an education system that repeatedly tells them they are victims of rapacious white society, their identity has become constructed around that resentment.Many factors are fueling this black sense of dislocation. First is the prevalence among African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans of shattered family backgrounds... children with fragmented family backgrounds suffer a range of lasting disadvantages and problems —one of which, especially among boys and young men, is an inchoate rage at the world.Which is why so many from such backgrounds, black and white, drift into educational failure, drugs and violent crime. Conversely, minorities such as the Jews, Indians or Chinese are most successful because of their strong, traditional family lives. The second factor is the absence of religion. Not only do religious rituals and observances provide a crucial structure of support, but no less important is the sense of purpose and meaning they bring to otherwise rootless lives.Third, those who define themselves as the descendants of slaves do not have a collective history in which they feel they can take pride.Last, but by no means least, is a particularly baleful phenomenon. In his book The Tyranny of Guilt, Pascal Bruckner pointed out that, while slavery has been practiced across the world, it was the west which abolished it. Yet as he asked, why is it only the west that is blamed for it while Africa and Asia are exonerated from all responsibility?The answer is white guilt, as Shelby Steele pointed out in his 2006 book of that name.Black rage, he wrote, seizes its opportunity from the perceived weakness of the white oppressor, even when there is no injustice. Black rage started rising in America after the great civil-rights victories were won in the ’60s. White guilt then made racism into “a valuable currency for black Americans”. It gave them a political identity with no real purpose, except the manipulation of white guilt. The subsequent Black Power movement articulated Marxist dogma, which went like this. Capitalism created power and oppression; white people were capitalists, so white people were powerful oppressors; Jews were behind capitalism, so Jews were oppressors; capitalism was bad because it was white; Jews were white because they were capitalists.This doctrine was then turned into a toxic cultural poison by the immensely influential Columbia University literature professor Edward Said. He fused American racism and European colonialism, and represented Palestinians as the essential darker-skinned “Orientals” who were its supposed victims. At a stroke, he thus transformed Israel into the every embodiment of white supremacy."

During the 1834 Peasants’ Revolt in Palestine, both sides attacked Jews - "The Peasants' Revolt was an 1834 rebellion against Egyptian conscription and taxation of Arabs in Palestine. Egyptian general Ibrahim Pasha attempted to take over all of Palestine, but at one point he went to Jaffa and the Arabs of Jerusalem started their revolt."
Clearly just anti-zionism

Labour's rot goes far deeper than Jeremy Corbyn - "For more than 30 years I have witnessed the hard-Left's anti-Semitism, intimidation and abuse firsthand – and it is still alive today... In 2006, I became part of a cross-party special select committee investigating anti-Semitism in the UK. Concerned as I had been about reports of anti-Semitism, I was nevertheless unprepared for some of our shocking findings, among them the conclusion that while anti-Semitism still infested the National Front-style groups on the far-Right it was on the Left of politics that it was growing fastest."

This is ridiculous. Apparently, the weenies at SNL got nothing left but anti-Semitic jokes. - "In order to do good comedy, you have to know what's true – something that's impossible if your baseline version of reality is based on Wokeism and #OrangeManBad.But what do you make fun of when Donald Trump is no longer around to be your comedic punching bag? Why, make fun of the Jews, of course!... See, their version of "truth" that makes the joke funny to them is that they believe Jews in Israel absolutely hate Palestinians and regularly try to kill their families with... democracy, due process, and civil rights?Their doctors even provide life-saving medical care to those who say they want their children to grow up to murder them."

Madonna Instagram post of Louis Farrakhan video racks up 700,000 views
Facebook - "In today’s world, Farrakhan is indeed a more dangerous messenger than almost any of the white nationalists who agree with him. Why? Because David Duke does not have the adoration, amplification, and normalization by celebrities and other mainstream figures that Farrakhan does.How many more black celebrities (and here white celebrities) must be seen openly celebrating this man before we realize this? In a country where anti-Semitism is still the number one hate crime, and disproportionately, most of those hate crimes aren’t being committed by far right groups, this is objectively more dangerous. White people and leftists care far more about canceling aunt Jemima and “racist“ packaging at Trader Joe’s then they do about a man who gets the adoration of celebrities while comparing Jews to insects.  Eerily similar to the shoulders that are shrugged when China puts Muslims in concentration camps. "

162 Democrats Vote Against Amendment to Protect Jewish Students from Antisemitism at School - "This GOP amendment was rejected by 164 members of the House, including over 70% of the Democratic members. That includes 13 of the 27 Jewish members of the House, as well as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who was voted ‘Antisemite of the Year’ in 2019 by The Jerusalem Post."
Liberals only care about anti-Semitism when they can use that to shit on white people

California ethnic studies course accuses Jews of 'racial privilege' - "“students will study the philosophy of the Nation of Islam,” the anti-Semitic cult led by Louis Farrakhan.The model curriculum also contains large sections exploring the Black Lives Matter movement, such as “Black Lives Matter and Resistance to The Prison Industrial Complex and the criminalization of youth in LA and across the country.”The full text of the ethnic studies model curriculum was posted to the California Department of Education website on August 13, 2020, for a 30-day period of public review, during which “members of the public are invited to submit comments.”Last month, Gov. Newsom signed into law a similar bill, AB-1460, which requires students at California State University to complete an ethnic studies course in order to graduate."

Antisemitism | UIC | Intersectionality | White Privilege - "Most of the hateful fliers disparaged American Jews as privileged whites and connected this alleged ‘Jewish privilege’ to social injustice in the U.S. Others drew on classic antisemitic tropes of Holocaust denial and the new form of Jew-hatred in which Israel is compared to Nazi Germany... An investigation could reveal that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax designed to make progressive faculty and student groups look bad. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened. In fact, there are many instances where progressive causes or products appear so outlandish that it’s hard to tell whether they’re real, or if someone is just trying to pull their leg. It’s so common we have a tag for it: Progressive or Parody?Still, if an investigation reveals that the fliers are a hoax, it’s a hoax that’s believable precisely because the UIC is a campus hotspot of virulently anti-Israel activity and the fliers closely parody intersectional theory... It’s just the latest example of what we’ve been highlighting in dozens of posts in recent years: antisemitic verbal, and even physical, assaults on Jews and Zionists happen on campuses with a hostile anti-Israel culture—typically due to the presence of active BDS campaigns, a strong and visible SJP group, and a coterie of pro-BDS faculty committed to advancing the theory of intersectionality.Intersectionality—a radical perspective that dominates in the humanities and the soft social sciences—creates a ‘safe space’ for the indoctrination of a biased and false view of Israel and the Middle East conflict. Intersectional analysis asserts that Israel is a colonial, apartheid state complicit in perpetuating, along with its U.S. ally, a global white power structure that oppresses people of color.Given such an ideology, it’s not such a stretch to go from depicting Israel as a racist state and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as racially-constructed to casting American Jewish supporters of Israel as privileged whites.So the distribution of these screeds of Jew-hatred is the logical end result of allowing anti-Israel intersectionality theory to take root across the UIC campus. In other words, it really doesn’t matter whether someone or some group of people on the hard-left or the hard-right created and distributed the fliers. Either way, this incident should compel a sober assessment of why antisemitism is being mobilized by the UIC campus culture."

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