Links - 17th November 2023 (2 - Trans Mania)

The cluelessness of Neil deGrasse Tyson - "There is a particular kind of American science populariser or (to use Tyson’s preferred term) ‘educator’ that seems particularly prone to fall into this trap. They can often be identified by a waistcoat, or a quirky bow tie. A few years ago, it was Bill Nye the Science Guy. His Netflix series, Bill Nye Saves the World, featured a cringe segment about the gender ‘spectrum’, in which he insisted that sex is not binary (it really is). Even worse was the rap it included about ‘sex junk’ that precipitated a spike in eye-bleach sales that could be seen from the moon.  Prior to the Triggernometry episode, Tyson had previously suggested that gender is largely a matter of how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Tomorrow, he suggested, he might feel ‘80 per cent male’. It’s also about how you choose to express that feeling to the world, such as through long hair and make-up, or by wearing a ‘muscle shirt’. I certainly know how confusing I find it when my wife wears one of those.  This is all fine of course. One can disagree, but it’s simply a question of re-defining the word ‘gender’ to refer to cultural semiotics rather than biological reality. It’s wordplay.  The issue is whether this meaning of gender – as essentially signifying an inner feeling and mode of expression – should be regarded as the decisive one when using words like ‘woman’. This then determines who has access to certain spaces, events, dressing rooms, shortlists or sporting world records that relate to that category.   My sense is that, as always, Britain was for many years operating a perfectly workable fudge on the trans issue, which was as invisible on a day-to-day basis, as was appropriate given the tiny number of individuals to whom it applied. A polite fiction was observed and, in return, no one pushed their luck. There would be the occasional person in a ladies’ lavatory with unusually large hands, but no one was getting hurt.  The trouble started when someone decided to break cover and dash for the goal line, hoping to decisively touch down the idea that ‘transwomen are women’ once and for all... He then gave his answer to the ‘bathroom’ conundrum, which involved removing the issue of gender altogether and for all bathrooms to become omni-gender. Ta-ra! Efficient, certainly. And I am sure this would work every bit as well as the ongoing project to eliminate shoplifting in many American cities by decriminalising it. (Another US innovation we seem keen to roll out in the UK.)  It was Tyson’s reaction to biological men competing in women’s sporting events that I thought most inventive, and which drew the most online attention. Here, he went the other way entirely. His solution was again to remove separation by gender, but instead ‘slice the athletic universe’ into any number of other intersectional categories. These might be based on hormone ratios, weight, age… shoe size, etc – almost anything but the one proven, easily identified and workable binary distinction between adults that has served us so well until now... you might very quickly salami-slice ‘the athletic universe’ into a discontinuous arrangement of individual events, winking in and out of existence, from which no sense of an actual sport would be discernible at all. One could have a series of swimming events, like boxing matches, substituting ‘wingspan’ for weight. Cyclists could be arranged into categories depending on the size of their hearts and their tolerance for pain. Rowers by just how boring they are in what remains of their social life. And so on.   The truth is we have perfectly good ways of categorising elite sports already. By sex, age and, when appropriate, weight. But that’s pretty much all we need. It’s the minimum number of slices that could be applied to sport to make competition meaningful, and to minimise fractures and concussions."

Biological sex is far from binary − this college course examines the science of sex diversity in people, fungi and across the animal kingdom - "I am a behavioral neurobiologist who has been teaching human physiology since 1998. Over the past several years, I have focused my reading and writing on the biology of sex. It struck me that many of my students had misguided assumptions about sex characteristics, including that all people are physically either 100% male or 100% female."
Weird. Some people still claim no biologists - or even scientists - are saying sex isn't binary

Zachary Elliott on X - "The biological sciences overwhelmingly support the claim that there are precisely two sexes (no more, no less) in almost all complex multicellular life. Here are 40 peer-reviewed journal articles from biologists on the evolution of sex and why there are only two sexes."
The Du Boisian Biologist on X - "Hi, I’m a transgender biologist, specifically an evolutionary geneticist who studies humans. In humans there are 6 common sex karyotypes: XX, XY, XXY, XXXY, & XYYY. & there are 4 rare sex karyotypes: XO, XO/XX mosaicism, XY/XXY mosacism, XXY/XXXY/XXXXY mosaicism."

Sex Chromosome Variants Are Not Their Own Unique Sexes - "The list of bad arguments forwarded by activists designed to undermine the reality of there being two and only two sexes is very long and constantly growing... McLean, who prominently lists five degrees after his name and claims to be a human evolutionary geneticist, took issue with that claim and forwarded a very common—and very wrong—portrayal of biological sex: that different sex chromosome compositions beyond the standard XX and XY each represent their own unique sex. In fact, Dr. McLean appears to suggest in his tweet that there may be as many as 10 biological sexes!  Such extreme misinformation would be concerning coming from anyone, but especially so coming from someone with a PhD in human evolutionary genetics who. The 4000+ retweets his tweet received demonstrate just how fast misinformation can spread. However, a glance at his Google Scholar reveals he has authored several papers on racism and only one paper that discusses some topics in genetics yet contains no actual genetic analyses whatsoever. His claim to being a geneticist (of any kind) is therefore dubious... The argument that individuals with sex chromosomes that deviate from the typical (46, XX and 46, XY) arrangements, such as those with Klinefelter syndrome (47, XXY) or Turner syndrome (45, X0), is common and usually used to argue that there are 6 sexes, though other numbers are frequently thrown around as well... This argument results from a fundamental misunderstanding about what distinguishes males and females biologically, which is the size of the gametes (sex cells) they produce. Males produce small gametes (sperm) and females produce large gametes (ova). But on an individual level (since not all individuals may be able to produce gametes) an organism’s sex corresponds to the type of primary sex organs (testes vs ovaries) and individual has developed... these different chromosomal compositions are not new sexes, but rather represent natural variation within males and females. To illustrate by way of analogy, a person with Klinefelter syndrome (47, XXY) isn't a new sex in the same way that a person with Down's syndrome (who have 3 instead of 2 copies of chromosome 21) isn't a new species."
So much for advanced biology telling us that there're more than two sexes, as that leftist meme goes
Addendum: Disorders of sexual development, chromosonal variants, are not new sexes, are not their own sex

Is there such a thing as “intersex genitalia”? - "Okay, let’s talk about “intersex genitalia”, or using its proper term, ambiguous genitalia and how sex is determined. First of all, it is not some doctor, rubbing their chin, doing a sharp intake of breath and writing down a question mark, or a “best guess”, with a shrug. This really minimises the experience that parents of intersex babies go through and the advances we have made in identifying and treating DSDs.  Before we begin, let’s address what we mean by ambiguous genitalia. Many people think we mean genitalia that cannot be categorised as male or female at all. This is a common misconception. What we’re actually talking about is genitalia that cannot be easily classified as male or female upon initial observation... when a midwife sees ambiguous genitalia, a whole raft of experts become involved. This includes, but is not limited to, specialists from endocrinology (hormones), urology/gynaecology (kidneys, bladders, genitals) and psychology. Other team members may include nurses, geneticists, neonatologists, and people who work in the labs. Some smaller hospitals may not have these specialist teams, so the baby may need to be moved to a larger hospital that can offer the required services in one place.  These specialists will carry out a number of investigations and tests. Doctors examine the baby and ask about their family’s medical history. They also check the baby’s chromosome pattern with a blood test. The chromosome pattern (aka karyotype) helps doctors understand the background to the child’s development and consider which direction to take the further tests. The initial karyotype result usually takes 2-3 working days to come back. That’s a long time for a new parent.  Many babies are kept in hospital for the first few days so that salt levels in the blood can be monitored. Doctors will also measure hormone levels in the blood, and possibly in the urine, to see how the adrenal glands and gonads are working. Ultrasound tests and scans can sometimes show the internal sex organs (such as the womb/uterus). Again, these are best performed in specialist centres and can sometimes be difficult to interpret. Doctors take their time; they do not shrug and guess. Doctors might rarely look at the bladder and opening of the vagina with a special cystoscope and very rarely they might look at the gonads with a laparoscope and examine tissue samples (biopsies) from them. All of this may be part of the diagnostic process."

'the Last of Us': Bella Ramsey Wore Chest Binder While Filming
The health consequences will be due to discrimination and stigma

CAMPUS WATCH: University of Waterloo “Equity Committee” must be 50% non-male & non-white - "The Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW) says its “Equity Committee” must be at least 50% non-male and 50% non-white in order to have “gender and racial parity.”... “EDI initiatives and EDI ideology are fundamentally anti-academic. They don’t embody academic values and they don’t serve academic goals,” said Mercer in an interview with True North earlier this year.  Mercer added “what we want as professors are the people who combine teaching and research to the highest degree. So by bringing in something irrelevant, such as ethnicity or race, the university is cutting itself off from potentially the best scholars.”"
Jonathan Kay on X - "“seeks applications from women, nonbinary, and trans folks in order to maintain gender parity” ???? but the best part is the last paragraph, where they rank their preferred races—with black and indigenous on top, white at the bottom, and misc. in the middle"
We are still told that quotas are about getting the best people for the job, because they correct discrimination

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ on X - "Gender theorist Judith Butler claims that queer theory is not a totalitarian "cult" because "every women's studies class" is full of "debate" and "differences of point of view." This is false: faculty in gender/interdisciplinary studies are ~100:0 left vs. right—an echo chamber."

Only ONE girl gamer featured in esports 'Game Changer' competition promo for 'women' or 'marginalized genders' - "Featured in the video were biological males going by the gamer names "Shapeshift," "Shysept," and "Heloisia" from the team Serenity, "Rhyle" from the team Arcana, and "Billy Worth" from the team Astrocats. The only biological woman featured in the video was "Avril," from the team Astrocats."

Meme - WolfJLupus Z: "Since I'm trans-species, every human I've had sex with has engaged in interspecies sex. I guess they're all zoos. Also, if I were to have sex with another canid that's not zoo. If you disagree, then I guess you're transphobic? Sorry, I don't make the rules."

Michael Shermer on X - "Left-Wing authoritarianism: Talk by @eweissunburied  "Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology" for AAA & CASCA canceled. Why? Because it will "cause harm to members represented by the Trans and LGBTQI of the anthropological community" This is utterly absurd blank slate denial of human nature & sexuality in, of all places, the science that studies these subjects. Shameful."
Weird. We get told that sex and gender are different and that only ignorant people don't know that

'Jeopardy!' champ Amy Schneider becomes show's top female earner
Weird. I thought female was sex and woman was gender. Also I thought only incels use the term "female"

Independent Women's Forum on X - "📢 Say it with us: Bodies play sports, not identities‼️ Allowing biological men to compete in women's sports is not just unfair, but also unsafe. Join us in the fight to keep women's sports female 👇"

More Say Birth Gender Should Dictate Sports Participation - "A larger majority of Americans now (69%) than in 2021 (62%) say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their birth gender"
Strange. I thought sex was "assigned" at birth, not gender. It's almost as if sex and gender are synonyms and everyone knew this (and most still know this) until the last 5 years when TRAs decided to gaslight everyone
If sex and gender are really different, why are transwomen allowed in female sports?

Meme - "can't change my gender huh. well excuse me while i change around some definitions. now you're wrong hahah sex is different than gender. go to college"

Most US voters in favour of introducing more LGBTQ+ protections
Some liberal posted this claiming that "anti lgbtq" people were anomalies. Too bad the poll was by "Data for Progress", the actual poll question was about protecting them "from discrimination and violence" and an even larger majority of Americans are TERFs who literally support genocide (as per the sports question above)

A/Prof Holly Lawford-Smith on X - "the victorian government is consulting about women's health, in a survey open to males that doesn't ask for demographic information about whether participants are male or female. healthcare for gender identities. h/t @gentledismiss"

Hundreds of trans teens under 18 have had breasts removed in Canada, new data show - "Hospitalizations and day surgery visits for bilateral mastectomies for gender reassignment surgery have risen sharply, from 536 in 2018-19, to 985 in fiscal 2022-23, according to data compiled for National Post by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.  Of the 4,071 visits in total involving gender-affirming mastectomies or breast reductions reported since 2018, 602 involved youth 18 and under.  Of those, 303 involved teens 17 and younger. The youngest age was 14. The numbers tell only part of the story. The CIHI data exclude Quebec hospitals as well as surgeries performed in private clinics like the McLean Clinic in Mississauga, which describes its surgeons as “industry pioneers” for top surgery — mastectomies and breast reductions in those assigned female at birth, and breast augmentation for those born male transitioning to female.  One specialist in transgender health issues said that, when applying for OHIP funding for people seeking top surgery, “50 to 70 per cent will go to McLean.”... Last week thousands gathered in cities across the country for duelling protests over gender policies in schools. Earlier this month delegates to the federal Conservative party’s policy convention voted 69 per cent in favour of prohibiting “life altering medicinal or surgical interventions” on minors under 18 to treat gender confusion or dysphoria.  Sweden, the world’s first country to authorize legal gender transitions in 1972, last year began limiting mastectomies for teenage girls to research settings. “The uncertain state of knowledge calls for caution,” the head of Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare said...   “The fact that you can’t get the numbers from private clinics…. It’s very cloak-and-dagger,” the doctor said. “They’re still billing OHIP. That’s tax dollars. That should be publicly accessible information. We need to see these numbers and ask questions,” the doctor said...   “What we do know is that regret does take place, and it does take place later on in life,” said one trans medicine specialist, who also agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of being labelled “transphobic.”...   For such a permanent decision as the removal of healthy breasts, “I’m always looking at the why, and because that hasn’t been answered yet, that’s what leads to my ambivalence,” the specialist said."
More trans teens are seeking irreversible breast removal surgery - "plastic surgeons in Canada have performed “top surgery” on teenagers as young as 14...   A Montreal surgeon at the the forefront of gender reassignment surgery and his colleagues acknowledge, in a paper published ahead of print, that data documenting the effects of gender-affirming mastectomies on minors are severely lacking, raising concerns over whether providers can truly fully inform youth about the risks and benefits of removing their breasts to better align their physical body with their gender identity...   “It’s certainly a big experiment to be performing on 14-year-old children with no evidence behind it.”  Delegates to last weekend’s federal Conservative party policy convention voted in favour of a future Conservative government prohibiting “life-altering medicinal or surgical interventions” to treat “gender confusion and dysphoria” in under 18s, a policy the Liberals swiftly attacked as “far right” American-style politics... Ontario requires that people seeking OHIP-covered chest surgery have one assessment from a qualified doctor or nurse practitioner confirming a diagnosis of “persistent” gender dysphoria. The province’s health ministry didn’t respond, however, when asked about minimum age requirements.  Many clinics and surgeons the National Post reached out to also did not respond to questions about age cut-offs, or the proportion of top surgeries being performed in minors. Others said they had no one available to comment... Behind the controversy is a remarkable surge in the number of children and youth being referred for care, especially children born female. According to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), adolescents assigned female at birth are initiating care 2.5 to seven times more frequently compared to teens born male. It’s not clear what’s driving the starkly uneven sex ratios, considered one of the most important developments in the field over the past 15 years...   In Ottawa, CHEO, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, said that, like other pediatric hospitals, “surgical services may be arranged for 16-to-18-year-old patients following years of assessment and treatment.”... Buffone is concerned that mental health assessments are being phased out at many gender identity clinics. Some have called pre-treatment assessments and referral letters for those seeking publicly funded surgery stigmatizing and unjustified. “We’re moving to an informed consent model where the child sits in the decision-maker seat”... Buffone was contacted last year by a Saskatchewan family whose daughter socially transitioned at 15, went on hormones at 16 and then had her breasts removed at 19. “At 21 she realized, ‘this is not what I want, this is not who I am,’” Buffone said. The family has been unable to find a surgeon in Saskatchewan willing to do breast implant surgery."
Tons of people were claiming that children were not getting surgery and that only paranoid far right conspiracy theorists were claiming that. Someone who provided this evidence that it was happening got downvoted, of course
So many liberals were pretending that the 20 September protests were homophobic. Ironic, given that trans mania undermines gay rights

Thousands gather at rallies and counter-protests about gender identity policies in schools : canada - "New laws are being passed to erode their protections. When provinces can force a teacher to out a trans kid to their, potentially transphobic parents, then no, there isn't enough to deal with these sorts of things."
"Should we stop sending home report cards because a parent may be abusive? I knew kids whose parents would punish them for failing classes. How is this different?"

Crowd for protest going on at City Hall (posted 20 minutes ago) : barrie
Many people were mocking those who wanted to protect children for protesting during office hours because only losers can afford to do that. But of course, when it's a left wing cause, protesting during office hours is good

Meme - "1) Not being Islamophobic
2) Joining the Genderwang cult
Progressives need to choose *one*."
Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) @MACNational: "Statement by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) on Statements by Canadian Leaders and School Boards on Recent Protests"
Statement by MAC on Statements by Canadian Leaders and School Boards on Recent Protests - "The Muslim Association of Canada strongly condemns remarks on recent protests made by certain politicians, including our Prime Minister, as well as statements from school boards, unions, and reports from some media outlets.   By characterizing the peaceful protests of thousands of concerned parents as hateful, Canadian leaders and school boards are setting a dangerous precedent of using their position of influence to unjustly demonize families, and alienate countless students.   On Wednesday September 20th, thousands of Muslims, joined by other faith-based groups, protested to raise their concerns, calling for their rights as parents in relation to their children’s education. Their intent was to be heard, not to sow division. Parents should have the absolute right to advocate for the wellbeing of their children.   The statements from Canadian leaders and school boards increase the potential for Muslim children to face increased bullying and harassment in schools, both by educators and peers, a trend that’s already distressingly escalating. Civil rights organizations and Muslim organizations across the country have documented numerous validated accounts detailing situations where children have been coerced into activities that contradict their faith, or where parents teaching religious values to their offspring have been unfairly attacked.  We call on politicians and school boards, beginning with Prime Minister Trudeau, to retract their deeply inflammatory and divisive comments and issue an apology to the thousands of Canadian parents hurt by these comments."

Florence Nightingale on Women

Here is a meme that I saw:

""Women Arent Capable of Love" by Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910)

Women crave for being loved, not for loving. They scream out at you for sympathy all day long, they are incapable of giving any in return, for they cannot remember your affairs long enough to do so. They cannot state a fact accurately to another, nor can that other woman attend to it accurately enough for it to become information. Now is not all this the result of want of sympathy?

I am sick with indignation at what wives and mothers will do of the most shocking selfishness. And people call it all maternal or conjugal affection, and think it pretty to say so. No, no, let each person tell the truth from their own experience.

They really dont have sympathy or the ability to empathize, because they are always judging everyone and every thing as a product on a social value scale that relates to their own egos and bounces off of themselves. There is no capability for genuine feeling.

This is what I have experienced with women, there is no capability for genuine feeling for other humans, or really in general, except when those feelings are for themselves and the other people are just proxies to bounce ideas off of." 

 

Intrigued, I decided to look it up. It turns out the first 2 paragraphs are real - but the third and fourth are made up.

 

Here is the original quote in context:

"13 December [1861]
I have read half your book through and am immensely charmed by it. But some things I disagree with and more I do not understand. This does not apply to the characters but to your conclusions, e.g., you say ‘‘women are more sympathetic than men.’’ Now if I were to write aI have read half your book through and am immensely charmed by it. But some things I disagree with and more I do not understand. This does not apply to the characters but to your conclusions, e.g., you say ‘‘women are more sympathetic than men.’’ Now if I were to write a book out of my experience, I should begin, Women have no sympathy. Yours is the tradition. Mine is the conviction of experience. I have never found one woman who has altered her life by one iota for me or my opinions. Now look at my experience of men. A statesman [Sidney Her- bert], past middle age, absorbed in politics for a quarter of a century, out of sympathy with me remodels his whole life in policy, learns a science, the driest, the most technical, the most difficult, that of administration, as far as it concerns the lives of men, not, as I learnt it, in the field from stirring experience, but by writing dry regulations in a London room by my sofa with me. This is what I call real sympathy. Another (Alexander, whom I made director-general) does very nearly the same thing. He is dead too. Clough, a poet born if ever there was one, takes to nursing administration in the same way, for me. I only mention three whose whole lives were remodelled by sympathy for me. But I could mention ver y many others—Farr, McNeill, Tulloch, Storks, Martin, who in a lesser degree have altered their work by my opinions. And, the most wonderful of all, a man born without a soul, like Undine, all these elderly men.

Now just look at the degree in which women have sympathy—as far as my experience is concerned. And my experience of women is almost as large as Europe. And it is so intimate too. I have lived and slept in the same bed with English countesses and Prussian Bäuerin- nen [farm women]. No Roman Catholic supérieure has ever had charge of women of the different creeds that I have had. No woman has excited ‘‘passions’’ among women more than I have. Yet I leave no school behind me. My doctrines have taken no hold among women. Not one of my Crimean following learnt anything from me or gave herself for one moment after she came home to carry out the lesson of that war or of those hospitals. . . . No woman that I know has ever appris à apprendre [learned to learn]. And I attribute this to want of sympathy.

Nothing makes me so impatient as people complaining of their want of memory. How can you remember what you have never heard? . . . It makes me mad, the women’s rights talk about ‘‘the want of a field’’ for them—when I know that I would gladly give £500 a year for a woman secretar y. And two English lady superintendents have told me the same thing. And we can’t get one. They don’t know the names of the Cabinet ministers. They don’t know the offices at the Horse Guards. They don’t know who of the men of the day is dead and who is alive. They don’t know which of the churches has bishops and which not. Now I’m sure I did not know these things. When I went to the Crimea I did not know a colonel from a corporal. But there are such things as army lists and almanacs. Yet I never could find a woman who, out of sympathy, would consult one, for my work. The only woman I ever influenced by sympathy was one of those lady superin- tendents I have named. Yet she is like me, overwhelmed with her own business. . . .

In one sense, I do believe I am sure that my contemporaries, Parthe, Hilar y, Marianne, Lady Dunsany, were all cleverer than I was, and sev- eral of them more unselfish. But not one had a bit of work for her hus- band (which I have had to do without) out of pure sympathy. She did not understand his policy. Yet she could write his letters for him ‘‘like a man.’’ I should think Mme Récamier was another specimen of pure sympathy. . . . Women crave for being loved, not for loving. They scream out at you for sympathy all day long, they are incapable of giving any in return, for they cannot remember your affairs long enough to do so. . . . They cannot state a fact accurately to another, nor can that other attend to it accurately enough for it to become information. Now is not all this the result of want of sympathy? . . .

You say [of] Mme Récamier that her existence was ‘‘empty but bril- liant.’’ And you attribute it to want of family. Oh, dear friend, don’t give me into that sort of tradition. People often say to me, You don’t know what a wife and mother feels. No, I say, I don’t and I’m very glad I don’t. And they don’t know what I feel. . . . I am sick with indignation at what wives and mothers will do of the most egregious selfishness. And people call it all maternal or conjugal affection, and think it pretty to say so. No, no, let each person tell the truth from his own experience. Ezekiel went running about naked, ‘‘for a sign.’’ I can’t run about naked because it is not the custom of the country. But I would mount three widows’ caps on my head ‘‘for a sign.’’ And I would cry, This is for Sidney Her- bert, this is for Arthur Clough, and this, the biggest widow’s cap of all, is for the loss of all sympathy on the part of my dearest and nearest. . . .

I cannot understand how Mme Récamier could give ‘‘advice and sympathy’’ to such opposite people as, e.g., Mme Salvage and Château- briand. Neither can I understand how she could give ‘‘support’’ with- out recommending a distinct line of policy, by merely keeping up the tone to a high one. It is as if I had said to Sidney Herbert, be a states- man, be a statesman, instead of indicating to him a definite course of statesmanship to follow. Also I am sure I never could have given ‘‘advice and sympathy’’ to Gladstone and S. Herbert, men pursuing opposite lines of policy. Also I am sure I never could have been the friend and adviser of Sidney Herbert, of Alexander, and of others, by simply keeping up the tone of general conversation on promiscuous matters. We debated and settled measures together. That is the way we did it. Adieu, dear friend. . . . I have had two consultations. They say that all this worry has brought on congestion of the spine which leads straight to paralysis."

Source: From a letter to Mary Clarke Mohl, in E.T. Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale 2:13-16 (ellipses in printed letter)

--- Florence Nightingale on Women, Medicine, Midwifery and Prostitution. Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, Volume 8 / Lynn McDonald

Links - 17th November 2023 (1 - MCU: The Marvels)

Meme - Ryan Long: "Enormous win went to treat myself to marvels and have the entire theatre to myself - San Jose Wednesday!"

‘The Marvels’ struggles at box office on opening weekend - "“The Marvels” finished No. 1 at the box office in its opening weekend but grossed just $47 million in domestic sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday.  According to data from Comscore, the latest Marvel project is also the studio’s lowest-performing one. It finished below 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” the previous record-holder, which opened at just over $55 million...  “The Marvels” is only the third Marvel movie to make less than $60 million during its opening weekend, and the first since “Ant-Man” opened with $57 million in 2015...  Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, said the movie’s performance can serve as a moment of reckoning and reflection for the superhero genre.  “It may be time to take stock and learn lessons from other genres (such as horror) and some of the notable risk-taking superhero films (Logan, Deadpool, even Joker) that enjoyed both critical and financial success,” Dergarabedian said. “It may be not so much superhero fatigue, but more an issue of audiences who are looking for a more unique take on this tried-and-true genre.”  The movie also tries to build on storylines and characters from the slew of Marvel television offshoots and miniseries on Disney+, such as “WandaVision” and “Ms. Marvel.” The catalog of shows, which Disney+ began churning out in 2020, “have backfired on the goal to expand the brand,” said Robbins."

'The Marvels' Review: Brie Larson Leads Sequel Loaded With MCU Baggage - "an energized if rather nondescript kick-ass fight. (There are a lot of those in “The Marvels.”)... The three “came into direct contact with some malfunctioning jump points.” (There are a lot of explanations like that in “The Marvels”; you may feel like you’re flashing back to the excitement of eleventh-grade chemistry class.)... Aladna, the planet where Carol has acquired a husband of convenience, Prince Yan (Park See-joon), and everyone speaks in musical numbers as if they were in a Bollywood version of “The Wizard of Oz” shot inside the multiverse’s largest Hilton Hotel atrium.  As Taika Waititi established in his “Thor” films, there’s a place in the MCU for wackjob silliness. But in “The Marvels,” the bits of absurd comedy tend to feel strained, because they clash with the movie’s mostly utilitarian tone... The leaps in tone would be less jarring if “The Marvels” weren’t so skittery and episodic. You can weave the plot together in your head, but you may have a harder time pretending to know why it matters — not within the metastasizing mythos of the MCU, but simply on its own. This summer, “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” became the first occasion for the collective bashing of a Marvel movie that felt like something larger: a questioning of whether the MCU was dissolving into spare parts. The movie was way too jam-packed with CGI psychedelia, but, in its (mild) defense, it always gave you something to look at, and you never lost sight of what Ant-Man was up against.  “The Marvel,” in its busy way, comes closer to feeling like a sequel mired in entropy... Dar-Benn feels like the generic version of Cate Blanchett’s Hela in “Thor: Ragnarok.” The movie is short enough not to overstay its welcome, though it’s still padded with too many of those fight scenes that make you think, “If these characters have such singular and extraordinary powers, why does it always come down to two of them bashing each other?”"

The Marvels is not that bad. Unfortunately, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is - "Media monsters usually come in cycles. Like a fashion trend, they'll often ride the wave of some totemic smash before diminishing returns and bored audiences relegate them to another period of obscurity.  For vampires and zombies, Twilight and The Walking Dead franchises led to a box office and TV-scape littered with the ghouls, before they recently started to fade. But when it comes to the current Dr. Frankenstein of Marvel Studios, and its latest creation, The Marvels, it's hard to miss the difference.  Instead of drifting off naturally, this mad scientist is harnessing some lightning — by pulling the strings behind virtually all the biggest productions propping up its superhero trend, Marvel can artificially extend the life of what would otherwise have died a long time ago.  And when it comes to the doctor's eponymous monster, the chopped up, stitched-together creature is really starting to reek.  For The Marvels, it's not that the movie is an outright failure. Instead, the buddy film space-romp following uber-hero Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), friendly neighbourhood "hard light"-manipulator Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and WandaVision's Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) is — much like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 before it — actually a bit of a course correction.  And in it director Nia DaCosta, a relative newcomer to Hollywood, was impressively able to solve one of the problems most endemic to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's now 15-year reign: the bloat.  But the way DaCosta and co-screenwriters Megan McDonnell, Zeb Wells and Elissa Karasik sidestep that problem proves just how completely lost the once-exciting franchise has become... Vellani continues to prove herself the MCU's secret weapon and defacto Spider-Man replacement. Her undeniable onscreen presence, fantastic acting chops and always on-target comedic timing shine as she struggles not to embarrass herself in front of her idol, Captain Marvel. But this chemistry is far from balanced. While past Marvel productions like Eternals struggled to provide interesting character arcs for each member of its team, The Marvels takes the easy route. Danvers far overshadows the other two in terms of narrative, and her redemption journey reduces Rambeau to little more than a foil — a pathos machine designed to highlight the saddest parts of Danvers' arc. Virtually all opportunities to develop Khan's character are stripped away; no traces of the satisfyingly deep journey she went on in Ms. Marvel remain. Instead, the most interesting of the three Marvels is turned into an (incredibly competent) comic relief character on the outskirts of the action. Hauling her family along for an almost entirely unrelated B-plot shows how The Marvels is plotted more like a TV show than a movie."

The Marvels director Nia DaCosta becomes the first black woman to helm a film in MCU history - "Nia DaCosta, who made history as the youngest director ever to helm an MCU film after her success with Candyman."
Maybe no one dared to criticise her

'The Marvels' Review - The MCU's Formula Has Run Dry - "Perhaps the biggest problem with this movie is that it can’t determine what it wants to be. Written by DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik, The Marvels is meant to be both a sequel to Captain Marvel and the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series while also picking up very important threads from WandaVision. To no surprise, this doesn’t work at all... take into consideration just how much homework is needed before starting this film. General audiences who only saw Captain Marvel cannot walk into this sequel without having watched two separate TV shows, and that disconnect is immediately felt. Viewers are rushed into the story in such a poor way that they are expected to already know every piece of lore and background information. And when the plot is already too complicated for its own good, this makes The Marvels a very tedious watch. Casual Marvel fans will have a rough time keeping up, leaving only the diehard fanatics as the ones who can enjoy the movie stress-free, and even then there are more hurdles to get over. There’s no other way to say this, but the screenplay is so butchered and the editing is so hazardous to the point where studio interference is just way too obvious. The first two acts of The Marvels are merely a string of scenes barely tied together by a loose thread. One can’t even tell when the first act ends and the second begins with there being no consistent flow whatsoever. The three leads aren’t given the proper time to grow as a team in this discombobulated edit, making it more disappointing for fans who have waited a long time to see this trio on the big screen together. The dynamic between Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris feels especially undercut given that Carol has known Monica since she was a child in the first movie. Iman Vellani is doing a lot of the heavy lifting with her natural charisma, though the script doesn’t offer her much growth when she isn’t playing the comedic relief by fangirling over superheroes... The villain is among the weakest of the entire MCU franchise, it’s hard to even remember their name throughout the movie because the role is written so by the books. Zawe Ashton’s talents are wasted... There hasn’t been an MCU film that feels this tampered with since the early days of phases one and two... Since Kamala doesn’t get much of a true arc that is more than just what’s on the surface with her powers, The Marvels doesn’t really work as a sequel to her show either. Monica’s character also doesn’t get presented with an interesting challenge until the very end. The switching places element with the three heroes is merely a gimmick for action overload (cinematographer Sean Bobbitt putting in some real work) rather than being thematically relevant too. There’s obvious turmoil running from the top to bottom of Marvel Studios right now, and it’s going to take a lot more than a cuteness overload with CGI cats to make these projects watchable. At this moment, things aren’t looking good for the future of Marvel films, yet there could still be time for Kevin Feige and his team to apply any lessons learned. Will that actually happen though, after all the continuous disappointments of phase 5? Who knows, but after sitting through the credits of The Marvels, I can say with certainty that any changes will come far later down the road as things might just be looking to get bleaker in the immediate future."

The Marvels - "In 1981, it took a misguided superpowered Rogue to drain the life force from Captain Marvel. In 2023, it was Brie Larson and The Marvels... No aspect of The Marvels is immune from either a complete lack of attention to detail or talent and often both. In a trend that seems to have started with Disney’s Star Wars: Ahsoka and continued to The Marvels, the film’s ill-fitting and occasionally garish costumes appear to be cosplay rather than something crafted by a multi-billion dollar studio. The practical sets, too, have a plastic and artificial feel that are unaided by CGI establishing shots that appear to have been generated in the year 2000.  Regrettably, the CGI panoramas are not the only digital effects wanting. The Marvels is peppered with moments of laughable greenscreen and a host of poorly rendered scenes. Teyonah Parris’ first flight as Monica Rambeau looks like a homemade fan film lovingly made in someone’s garage. This subpar quality was the soup du jour, with nearly every special effects-laden shot (of which there were many) suffering by varying degrees, though admittedly without reaching The Flash level of incompetence.  That said, the film’s utter lack of technical excellence is far from its greatest weakness. That honor falls to its story and main storyteller, director and head writer, Nia DaCosta, whose directorial feature-length film resume is limited to 2021’s poorly reviewed Candyman reboot. DaCosta seems to lack the most basic understanding of visual storytelling. In Captain Marvel’s first scene, the camera repeatedly and jarringly switches from steady cam to shaky cam and back again from one cut/angle to the next, giving the impression that each angle was shot with a different style in mind. When one wasn’t settled upon, the editor likely had no choice but to stitch it together with catgut and Scotch Tape. Were bizarre camera decisions the limit of DaCosta’s incompetence, we could all breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, they are not. DaCosta’s script makes her direction look like Fellini in comparison. Mundane and underwhelming, if well-paced, action sequences are almost always bookended by the film’s leading trio standing around and talking about their feelings for minutes so long they still haven’t ended.  Furthermore, every revelation that moves the story along comes to the group and secondary characters not from perseverance and organic discovery but via sudden and inexplicable understanding of the situation garnered by… you guessed it – more talking or by deus ex machina. The best example of this is the film’s finale (one that was unquestionably pulled out of DaCosta’s rectum). ***SPOILER In it, Parris’ Rambeau is able to look at a colossal space anomaly for a few seconds (without the aid of tools, superpowers, or experience) and completely diagnoses what it is, what has caused it, and what will fix it. Then, she becomes a magic MacGuffin in order to fix it, doing things she’s never done, thought of doing, or should have any clue how to do. ***END SPOILER***  All in all, the film feels like a ten-year-old girl’s fan fiction and is filled with slumber parties, girl-talk, debutante balls, a handsome prince who is in love with the lead, who is also a princess now… because. Oh, and a five-minute musical scene so dumb and out of place that Taika Waititi must have consulted. Even this hackneyed storytelling could be overlooked if the film’s characters were compelling or even remotely interesting. Iman Vellani, who plays Kamala Khan (aka Ms. Marvel), is both a delightful ball of energy and the only actor in The Marvels having any fun or who has anything approaching a sense of comedic timing or delivery, which could have come in handy had not most of the film’s characters attempted be its comic relief (think lady Ghostbusters). It’s a shame that DaCosta appears to be as clueless about comedy as she is about nearly every other aspect of filmmaking because Vellani’s comedic strengths are quickly mutated into the cinematic undead stumbling around looking for laughs as the rest of the cast clumsily does a bad impression of a charmingly befuddled 90s Hugh Grant character. Of the rest of the main trio, Teyonah Parris is serviceable as Monica Rambeau, which is high praise when you consider the material she was working with. This leaves us Brie Larson, who gives the weakest performance of the three. Apparently only capable of two facial expressions, blank and surprised confused concern, Larson is a black hole of charisma that sucks the energy, joy, and drama from the marrow of every scene... Captain Marvel is virtually invulnerable, and the other two are so accidentally good at what they do that neither gets so much as a bruise. There is never a sense of impending doom that the trio won’t be able to handle.  In fact, their most significant hurdle to overcome, their switching places when they use their powers (except, of course, tje times that they don’t for no given reason), is easily overcome in a three-minute montage, in which the trio learns to gel while tossing a ball back and forth and playing jump rope... Ashton’s Dar-Benn is an underdeveloped goober who looks like a homeless witch and is performed with all of the imposing gravitas and presence of butter... DaCosta is the single biggest weakness of the film. So, one has to ask why a studio that has been hemorrhaging money over the last few years would put an inexperienced virtual unknown with a track record as questionable as it is limited at the head of an almost $300 million film."

Wilfred Reilly on X - "How could an action movie led by three strong different-race women, VERY CONSISTENTLY pitching a feminist and anti-establishment message, have failed? The Patriarchy, is my guess."

Meme - iamyesyouareno: "I wonder why Marvel Studios keeps losing money...
"Monica, you gotta fly."
"I don't know how"
"Use Black Girl Magic."
Actual dialogue from The Marvels"

Meme - "YES, BUT
"Don't Buy My Book"
Kelly Sue DeConnick: "PS Go see The Marvels, and do it this weekend if you can.""

‘The Marvels’ Highlights The Problems Plaguing The MCU - "Already, Marvel seems to have hit its nostalgia era; the final trailer for The Marvels featured vintage clips of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America, who do not appear in the film.   The film’s post-credits scene even teases a character from Fox’s X-Men franchise, now rendered in uncanny CGI, devoid of texture...   Marvel’s attempts to create a new team from more obscure comic book characters seem to have fallen flat, as fans still seem far more invested in the original characters...   Anecdotally, when I take my kids to see a Marvel movie they tend to have fun, but they don’t express any interest in seeing these characters again. The movie evaporates from their memory the moment they leave the cinema, like pasta water draining through a colander. Frankly, I feel the same... The Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown so cluttered that Disney is expected to wipe the slate clean with the help of the popular, R-rated character Deadpool, using the upcoming Deadpool 3 as a cameo-filled nostalgia-fest and a timeline cleanse that resets the story back to simplicity... Kang is a relatively obscure villain who can die and respawn endlessly, because he has infinite variants. Which leads us to the next problem … The MCU Multiverse Was A Mistake...   Marvel then tried to build on what came before by hiring Rick and Morty writers, but the MCU could never emulate what the animated series preached; that infinite realities lead to despair, nihilism and existential angst.  Instead, Marvel used the multiverse to heighten the stakes—now the entire multiverse was at risk, instead of the universe, but the twist had the opposite effect; nothing seemed to mean anything, because there was always another variant, or another universe to take the place of the last."

Disney Marvel to reportedly fire "woke" writers as writers strike changes industry dynamics - "The new WGA deal has introduced clauses that could significantly impact hiring practices in the industry. The Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) now clearly states that a showrunner must be a union writer. Subsequently, it gives them more authority in selecting the writing staff. This transformation, along with the requirement for company approval of selected writers, could lead to a more merit-based hiring system. As a result, diversity hiring may take a back seat."

Woke Is Just Part of the Problem Plaguing the MCU Now - "It’s undeniable that woke plays a role in the franchise downgrade, but it’s hardly the only reason for the MCU’s stumbles.  You could blame less familiar characters for the downturn. Few people outside the Comic-Con crowd could name a single Eternal character before that film dropped. Yet the equally obscure “Shang Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings” earned better reviews and out-muscled “Eternals” at the box office.  And the most recent MCU films featured fan favorites like Doctor Strange and Thor, still played by the original, beloved stars. Still, MCU maestro Kevin Feige put a heavy emphasis on woke for the fourth chapter in the superhero saga. And he’s delivered on his pledge.  “Eternals” took a diverse superhero lineup and made it even more inclusive. “Love and Thunder” gives lip service to not one but two same-sex themes. “Multiverse of Madness” similarly adds a same-sex couple into the storytelling mix.  None of this should matter, on paper.  It’s notable that many woke projects either fail or fail to live up to the hype. Think “Charlie’s Angels,” “Men in Black: International,” “Terminator: Dark Fate” and “Lightyear” to name a few examples.  Diversity can be both healthy and beneficial to a film franchise. The “Fast & Furious” franchise remains aggressively inclusive, but almost no one complains because the saga delivers on his high-octane formula. Nor does it draw attention to its casting choices.  It’s diverse, not woke...   It’s also obvious that Phase 4 lacks a cohesive spirit, let alone a prime directive. The earlier MCU films were building up to the Thanos challenge. They also cleverly overlapped to reinforce the “universe” in play.   A cameo here, a post-credit sequence there, and the big picture slow came into focus.  The Phase 4 films are all over the cultural map.  “Black Widow” felt like a Jason Bourne adventure. “Thor: Love and Thunder” flirted with Adam West’s “Pow! Bam!” brand of superheroics. “Shang Chi” delivered the most traditional MCU thrills with a slick Eastern flourish.   The less we think about the dour “Eternals,” the better.  Where’s the master plan, the villain lurking in the shadows who can take the baton from Thanos? The quest to create more, more more content in our streaming age isn’t helping the MCU, either. We’re given a new “Star Wars” series every few months, and something similar applies to the MCU. There’s too much product right now, and none of it is particularly spellbinding.  “WandaVision” proved bold and original, no doubt, but it lacks the addictive nature of a “Captain America: Civil War” or “Guardians of the Galaxy.”  Bottom line?  The MCU is no longer special. Fans don’t expect greatness from each new product, and they spend most of their energy debating all the super-flaws on YouTube and social media.  The franchise hasn’t fallen as dramatically as the “Star Wars” theatrical model, now in dry dock seeking extensive repairs.  The days of huge, de facto opening weekends for new MCU projects may soon be over."

Box Office: The Marvels $47M Lowest for MCU – What Went Wrong - “I can’t imagine that the complete absence of Brie Larson on The Marvels campaign tour has cost the sequel $106M in its opening from the first film. Surely, there’s something else going on.”

Meme - Stephen King @Stephenking: "Some of the rejection of THE MARVELS may be adolescent fanboy hate. You know, "Yuck! GIRLS!""
ThatUmbrellaGuy @ThatUmbrella: "Since you don't go to MCU movies and don't care for them, that means you rejected The Marvels, right? Does that mean you hate women?"
Stephen King: "I don't go to MCU movies, don't care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for THE MARVELS very unpleasant. Why gloat over failure?"

Woke Stephen King Mocked for 'Marvels' Defense - "King genuflects to the woke crowd, apologizing for saying talent should matter more than diversity when it comes to art. Rowling refuses to back down after sharing her opinions on the trans movement.  He went woke. She stood up for free expression. Now, King knows he must continue appeasing the far-Left mob lest it turn on him in a New York minute.  That explains why he ran to “The Marvels” defense on X... Whenever a mediocre (or worse) Comic-Con style project fails it’s always the fans’ fault. Remember how the Left and the media (but we repeat ourselves) reacted to the Lady Ghostbusters film?  King’s comment is merely a variation on that theme, ignoring the fact that “Barbie” remains the year’s highest-grossing film. And it had many “yucky girls” in it. So did recent hits like “Wonder Woman” and, of course, the 2019 “Captain Marvel” blockbuster... exit polling showed 65 percent of the people who actually saw the film over the weekend were men."

Nolte: Survey Shows Women Failed to Turn Out for ‘The Marvels’ - "Now that the Disney Grooming Syndicate’s The Marvels is a bonafide box office catastrophe, we can expect the usual-usual lies about how this is all the fault of racist Trump supporters, all the fault of everything except a lousy movie with unappealing stars running around pointing at terrible CGI in a spent franchise that has worked overtime to alienate fans by taking a dump on everything they once loved about that franchise.  Except.  The science does not back that up... even though women outnumber men in the American population by a point or two, it is men — men! — who overwhelmingly went to see The Marvels while the ladies stayed at home. There are nearly 170 million women in this country; had just ten percent of them gone to see The Marvels, it would have been a smash hit.  Men are necessary to keep the lights on, fill our bellies, ensure our safety, and kill barbarians, but we are not needed to turn a movie into a box office hit.  Think about that… The audience for The Marvels, a movie sold as a female-empowerment superhero flick, was only 35 percent female.   Hollywood continues to ignore human nature. Girls are girls. They like girly stuff like, oh, say, Barbie. They also like badass women who are women. Ripley from Aliens, Sarah Connor from Terminator 2, The Bride from Kill Bill, Pam Grier from Jackie Brown… These characters are iconic because they are 1) tough, 2) smart, 3) flawed, and 4) women! They behave like women. And when women behave like women, what happens, class? That’s right, women can relate to those characters, and when the audience relates to the characters, the audience becomes invested in the movie, and the movie becomes a hit. But… When you have women running around behaving like men, only female gym teachers can relate to them, and there are not enough of those to break even.  And I hope that the Woke Gestapo can forgive me for what I’m about to say…  Women who behave like women, even when they are killing aliens, whitey, and Bill, also appeal to men. Ripley, Sarah, The Bride, Pam, Diana Prince, and Alice are sexy… Listen, I know men are worthless… All we do is fight the wars, dig the coal, harvest the food, pave the roads, and keep everything running, but we do enjoy a little va-va-voom. Why not throw us a bone, especially when it improves your bottom line?   What I’m trying to say is this…  Normal people of both sexes cannot relate to this anti-human-nature content. Flying through space shooting CGI’d light out of your hands will never replace the wish-fulfillment that comes with watching two beautiful people fall in love… But thanks to the Woke Gestapo, romance and sex are now verboten (unless it’s gay romance and sex, which no one wants to watch). The New Puritanism reigns."
It's all racism and misogyny, which is why woman and minority-led Wakanda Forever failed

Meme - "Marvel Studio's
Thanos: Reality can be whatever I want.
THE CIRCLE OF ENTERTAINMENT
Find a beloved IP
Put a chick in it, make her gay and make her lame.
Product flops
Blame the "fans""

Meme - ""The Virgin
NIA DECOSTA
Director Nia DaCosta Says 'The Marvels' Haters Are "Virulent And Violent And Racist And Sexist And Homophobic"
Grosses
Domestic
$51,784,180
Worldwide
$114,702,018
THE CHAD
EMMA TAMMI
"Everyone knew they were stepping into something the fans were really excited
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S
Grosses
Domestic
$128,314,475
Worldwide
$255,720,021"

Director Nia DaCosta Says ‘The Marvels’ Haters Are “Virulent And Violent And Racist And Sexist And Homophobic” - "Popular YouTuber, Ryan Kinel, reacted to DaCosta’s comments saying, “Those fans, in large part, it’s people that have legitimate criticisms of where the MCU has been going for the past several years. That’s what we’ve seen. That is exactly what they do time after time.”  He added, “So you can continue to virtue signal people that are critical of your movie with those buzzwords that mean nothing anymore in the grand scheme of things, but the reality is people can see right through this.”  “The Marvels” bombed at the box-office over the weekend, so it wasn’t just “racists” who didn’t want to support this movie."

Meme - "How Kelly Sue DeConnick Made 'C-List' Captain Marvel the Most Powerful Superhero in Hollywood"
"After 'The Marvels' Bombs at the Box Office, What's Next for the MCU?"
I find it interesting that there was a lot of cope about The Little Mermaid being a success, but there's none of it here

Age of Marvel Is Not Over, Even After The Marvels Bomb - "For all the flaws of Marvel’s Infinity Saga, it felt more focused. There was a set number of characters, whose stories all played out in films. Post-Avengers: Endgame, we’ve been introduced to a host of new characters who, for the most part, don’t interact with each other, whose projects all set up different storylines yet to converge, and who aren’t seen for years in between projects, making it hard for audiences to latch on to them as they did with the OG Avengers.  The fact that there has been no New Avengers movie feels like a massive oversight. An Avengers film prior to The Marvels would likely have benefited the film, just as Captain Marvel greatly benefited from coming out between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Yet, Marvel seems intent on saving the Avengers for its Multiverse Saga conclusion with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, in a bid to create the next Infinity War and Endgame.   But that was never the point of the Avengers. The point was to bring new characters together and solidify who they are amid their peers and global threats...   Marvel Studios has also cannibalized projects that would have made great films in order to make “content” for Disney+. Secret Invasion, the ill-received Samuel L. Jackson series from earlier this year, could’ve easily been akin to Captain America: Civil War and played on the big screen, instead of becoming a haphazardly put-together show that disposed of valuable characters, didn’t share any similarities to the popular comic event by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu, and actively damaged the MCU with a last-minute character power-up."

Why 'The Marvels' bombed at the box office and what it means for the future of the once-mighty MCU - "The box office wasn't the only bad news for the super-trio of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel and Teyonah Parris's yet-to-be-monikered Monica Rambeau. Critics were divided in their reaction to The Marvels, and the movie's B-level CinemaScore pointed to a lack of fan enthusiasm as well... The Marvels was already flying into strong headwinds due to reports of behind-the-scenes troubles. Earlier this month, Variety reported that the $250 million movie went through four weeks of reshoots and noted that DaCosta moved to England during the lengthy post-production phase to begin work on her next movie Hedda, starring Tessa Thompson, while editing The Marvels remotely... several reviews noted that the film's abbreviated 105-minute runtime suggested editing room tinkering, with certain characters and storylines feeling shortchanged... While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Loki Season 2 provided much-needed bright spots, both also represent farewells to popular characters that Marvel maybe can't afford to lose right now."
The critics are racist and sexist too

Why 'The Marvels' Flopped at Box Office and What's Next for MCU - "Marvel has been showing recent signs of wear and tear, but “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Eternals” weren’t labeled as disappointments until the end of their theatrical runs. “The Marvels” is concerning because it’s the rare misfire out of the gate for the MCU. Even in pandemic times, “Black Widow” ($80 million while landing simultaneously on Disney+), “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” ($75 million) and “Eternals” ($71 million) landed far better starts even as the world grappled with a global health crisis.   A disastrous liftoff is problematic because Marvel movies have become increasingly front-loaded, meaning these tentpoles tend to earn the bulk of their money in the first weekend of release. Fans want to be among the first to see them to avoid plot twists, cameos and other spoilers. With all the bad buzz, the $220 million-budgeted “The Marvels” may struggle to rebound as the holiday season picks up with the openings of “The Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and Disney’s animated “Wish.”...   It didn’t help that actors like Larson and her co-stars Teyonah Parris (as Monica Rambeau) and Iman Vellani (as Ms. Marvel) were unable to promote the film due to the SAG strike (which finally ended on Friday). But analysts believe that may have cut off only a few million in initial ticket sales. It doesn’t explain a $100 million difference from the first film...   Does this mean that superhero fatigue has officially plagued the globe? Not yet. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845 million in total) and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($690 million) were hits over the summer, and 2022’s “The Batman” ($770 million) and 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.9 billion) were saviors the two prior years. But it’s been clear for the first time that fans aren’t necessarily going to reliably show up no matter what’s (or who’s) on screen. It points to a future where Marvel can no longer spotlight any ol’ superhero and expect a blockbuster smash in return.   Disney, too, has proven its mortality after a remarkable stretch of sheer box-office domination. “The Marvels” joins a list of underperforming big-budget tentpoles in 2023, such as “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “The Haunted Mansion” remake, “The Little Mermaid” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”"

Links - 16th November 2023 (2 - General Wokeness)

Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam' - "Richard Dawkins has denied using “abusive speech against Islam” after a California radio station cancelled a book event with the scientist, citing his comments on Islam, which it said had “offended and hurt … so many people”... “While KPFA emphatically supports serious free speech, we do not support abusive speech. We apologise for not having had broader knowledge of Dawkins’s views much earlier. We also apologise to all those inconvenienced by this cancellation.”... Dawkins said that he had “never used abusive speech against Islam”, adding that while he has called Islamism “vile”, Islamism is not the same as Islam.  “I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief. Far from attacking Muslims, I understand – as perhaps you do not – that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women,” wrote the author in his response. “I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?”  He called on the radio station to find examples of abuse, and said that when it “fail[ed] to discover any”, he would expect a public apology.  Harvard professor and author Steven Pinker came out in support of Dawkins, writing to KPFA that their decision was “intolerant, ill-reasoned, and ignorant”. “Dawkins is one of the great thinkers of the 20th and 21st century. He has criticised doctrines of Islam, together with doctrines of other religions, but criticism is not ‘abuse’,” said Pinker. “People may get offended and hurt by honest criticism, but that cannot possibly be a justification for censoring the critic, or KPFA would be shut down because of all the people it has hurt and offended over the decades.”  Pinker said that the move “handed a precious gift to the political right, who can say that left-leaning media outlets enforce mindless conformity to narrow dogma, and are no longer capable of thinking through basic intellectual distinctions”. The Center for Inquiry, which merged with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science last year, and on whose board of directors Dawkins sits, called the cancellation “unconscionable [and] baseless”. KPFA responded to the Center on Twitter and said that it “exercises its free-speech right not to participate with anyone who uses hateful language against a community already under attack”. In a report about the cancellation, KPFA said it had been contacted by activists who had described Dawkins as “a very well-known Islamophobe” who had vilified Muslims. The radio station cited tweets from Dawkins including one that read: “I think Islam is the greatest force for evil in the world today” and pointed to a recent Telegraph article in which Dawkins was quoted as saying that “if you look at the actual impact that different religions have on the world it’s quite apparent that at present the most evil religion in the world has to be Islam”.  The station did not include the Telegraph quote in its entirety, in which Dawkins continues: “It’s terribly important to modify that because of course that doesn’t mean all Muslims are evil, very far from it. Individual Muslims suffer more from Islam than anyone else.”"
From 2017. You're only allowed to criticise one religion

Man Who Doesn't Read The Bible Also Chief Authority On What Jesus Would Do Today | Babylon Bee - ""Just take it from me-- Jesus was all about love and he was never angry or divisive," explained Bivens while adjusting his tortoise-shell glasses. "In fact, if he were here today I'm certain he wouldn't be rebuking people. Instead, he'd celebrate them for being their true selves!"   Bivens added, "Jesus would have never been caught dead speaking to the oppressor class either. And he most certainly wouldn't offer salvation to powerful religious leaders, tax collectors, or Roman centurions!""

CBC unveils social justice-themed TV shows for next programming year - "CBC announced its 2023-2024 programming slate for television and CBC Gem, with some shows emphasizing identity politics. “As we announce our new slate of remarkable storytelling, we remain focused on serving Canadians on the platform of their choice and offering what no other media company in this country can: the essential information audiences rely on each and every day, and authentic entertainment that reflects the changing face of Canada,” said CBC Executive Vice-President Barbara Williams in a press release... One More Time — a workplace comedy about hearing-impaired secondhand sporting goods store manager DJ and the team of employees he leads — will be joining the lineup in winter 2024. It added DJ’s positive outlook on life is challenged at every turn, as his team and him struggle to keep the store alive.  Allegiance — a drama show about police officer Sabrina Singh finding herself caught between her loyalties to her job, her family, and Canada after her father’s arrest — will launch in winter 2024. This show is a character-driven police procedural about identity and belonging, policing and politics, and finding new paths to truth and justice.  Black Life: Untold Stories — an eight-part documentary series which reframes black history in Canada to dispel myths and celebrates these people — will come out in 2023. Telling Our Story — a documentary about 11 indigenous people from Quebec explaining who they are, their world views, and their connections to Canada — will come out in 2023. It is a celebration of indigenous people’s resistance, resilience, and revival. How to Fail as a Popstar — a comedy show adaptation of the book by author Vivek Shraya — will be released in 2023. Following the journey of Shraya as she grew up as a young South Asian queer person in Edmonton, it examines her attempts to achieve pop stardom and what went right and wrong along the way.  I Hate People, People Hate Me — a comedy about two friends navigating life as outsiders in Toronto’s queer community — will premiere in 2023. This show explores queer identity at a time when it has been mainstreamed and commodified... CBC launched Lido TV — a children’s show about social justice ideas — in September. “Actual segment from a new CBC children's show called ‘LIDO TV,’  in which ‘host Lido Pimienta … tackles themes ranging from feminism and privilege to colonialism’”"

Angry Twitter Mob Attempts To Cancel 'X-Men' Creator Chris Claremont Over Comments Allegedly Made At Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo - "Most of the information on the panel came from Twitter account ComicsXF, which posted several out-of-context quotes that successfully managed to get an internet mob angry with the X-Men legend’s dry sense of humor... many fans and creators from the #ComicsGate movement, a group that resists extreme identity politics in the mainstream industry and creates comics more in line with mainstream tastes, came to Claremont’s defense; echoing Claremont’s comments lamenting the direction MCU films and X-Men comics have taken due to Disney and Marvel’s woke agenda... YouTuber, Comics by Perch, shared a much more level-headed take on the situation, asserting Claremont’s comments were “the same jokes he’s been telling for twenty years, but hey, it turns out people do not pay attention.”"

Chuck Dixon Rebukes Claims That The X-Men And Comics Have Always Been Woke - "Legendary comic book writer Chuck Dixon known for his runs on Batman, Punisher, Conan, Robin, Birds of Prey, and more recently rebuked claims that the X-Men have always been woke. As part of his on-going Ask Chuck Dixon series, Rising Star Comics queried Dixon, “What do you think when people use X-Men as an example of how ‘comics were always woke/political’?  The questioner added, “To me, personally, I always thought that was a weak argument that had no basis in actual fact, because in X-Men up until the aughts, the ‘racism’ angle wasn’t even that core to the X-Men as a whole. It was an action adventure superhero sci-fi fantasy romantic soap opera with everything and the kitchen sink, that had an outsider theme on top of it. Plus, X-Men was often very un-PC, definitely NOT woke, as evident when the same people who parrot that line tried to cancel Chris Claremont last year.” Dixon responded, “It’s funny isn’t it. The thing about wokeism, and political correctness, and all the rest of it is the goalposts are always moving.”  “I don’t know Chris Claremont’s politics, but I’ll be you he was pretty much in line with the woke crowd until whatever it was he said or did made them turn on him,” Dixon said. “When you take the X-Men, the original X-Men, in particular, who I saw as a pack of whiners and now you make them victims like professional victims,” he continued. “And I agree with you that the outsider element is cool, but the outsider element is part of every superhero story isn’t it? They have a secret identity. They have an alter-ego. Of course, they are an outsider.” “But taking it this far and then saying the comics are always political. They may have dealt with the issues of the day,” he stated. “I was on a podcast with John Bauer recently and he brought up the fact that the X-Men would often have discussion about religious faith because Kitty Pryde was a Jew, Colossus was an atheist, Kurt was a Catholic, and they would have discussions about these things.”  “And it wasn’t trying to tell the reader what to think on those subjects. It was simply the characters exploring these issues and it made them seem deeper, more relatable, more real that they had thoughts like this. That these were independently thinking characters instead of just people on paper,” Dixon elaborated. “And the thing is I’ll hear the argument, ‘Well, Superman was political. Superman, he was a big FDR liberal because he would harass abusive, greedy landlords.’ That’s positing the argument that there’s someone who likes greedy landlords. How is that political? Who likes greedy landlords? Nobody does,” Dixon asserted. “So that’s not political,” he said. “That’s Superman being a vigilante crime fighter. Standing for truth, justice, and the American way. The American way certainly isn’t high rents and throwing orphans into the street. That ain’t the American way. So there’s nothing really political.” “And maybe politics are part of a story, but that doesn’t excuse you injecting your agenda, your political agenda, your personal point of view into superhero stories, and telling the reader what to think or shaming the reader, or literally shaming the reader,” he added. “Telling readers that if you don’t agree with my political stance or the political stance that I’ve put in the mouth of Wolverine or Batman then I don’t want you reading my comics. It’s divisive,” he said. “Comics were never meant to be divisive, they have universal themes. And there are characters you agree with and characters you don’t.” He then provided examples, “Daredevil’s always been the bleeding heart liberal. Frank Castle has always been the direct opposite.  “You can argue about Batman’s politics or Ben Grimm’s politics, but in the end it’s about escapist fiction,” Dixon concluded."

Left-Wing Antisemitism Part of Broader Hatreds - "Over the past three weeks, a lot of crazy sh** has been said about the Jews. Following the October 7 onset of hostilities between the nation of Israel and the terrorist group Hamas (sometimes billed as the “nation of Palestine”), a group of tens of thousands of recent migrants to Australia, university students, and others gathered in scenic downtown Sydney and quite literally chanted “Gas the Jews!”...   In response to such open and gleeful hatred, more than a few conventional liberals — from comedienne Amy Schumer to the admittedly more heterodox Bill Maher — seem to have had their eyes fully opened as to who their keffiyeh-wearing “allies” truly are . . . at least when it comes specifically to Jewish people. But there is a deeper point, rarely made outside of the hard right, that lurks just beyond the mainstream’s discovery of rampant hard-left antisemitism: The same campus radicals and general hipster fauna quite regularly say worse things about a whole range of other groups than they do about Jews. Whites — regular ol’ Caucasian Americans — represent probably the largest and most obvious such target group. As right-leaning but quite popular figures, such as the various Daily Wire personalities, are beginning to note, open hatred of white people has become something of a pillar of modern leftism. A Google search for the phrase “the problem is white men” turns up an astonishing 2,140,000,000 mostly on-point (at least as per the first 20 pages) results — including such gems as the former CNN feature piece titled “There’s Nothing More Frightening in America Today Than an Angry White Man.”  Quite prominent figures regularly say completely insane things about the suntan-challenged. Tenured Rutgers University academic “Professor Crunk” — still flatteringly described on the place’s website as an “unapologetic Black feminist” focused on “accelerating the pace of change” — recently described all Caucasians as villainous monsters on national television, and argued frankly for “taking the motherf***ers out.” Around the same time, massively popular Wild ’N Out TV host Nick Cannon received considerable heat for some antisemitic comments he made on the air . . . but essentially none for saying that white people are “savages” and “a little less” than black people and other so-called people of color. Far further toward the true fringe, of course, the recently released written manifesto of Nashville’s Covenant Christian school shooter focused largely on hate for the white national majority. The shooter at one point actually noted “white privilege” as a motivating factor behind her murder spree.  Speaking as a conservative black man, I will note that whites hardly stand alone as a target group for modern leftist rhetoric. A few high-school scuffles aside, almost literally the only people ever to call me a “n*****” or a “coon” have been left-bloc activists — mostly white — accusing me of somehow betraying my tribe. More prominent black conservatives, such as Larry Elder, have faced Chappelle’s Show–level accusations of being “black white supremacists” and “black faces of white supremacy.” A short list of other groups that fairly regularly experience get-on-the-train-style rhetoric might include the rich (“Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist”), gender-critical women (“Punch/Kill TERFS!”), practicing traditional Christians, and in some real sense all non-Indigenous Westerners (“Decolonize NOW!”).   I recommend a radical approach to all of this facially vile speech: Sane, armed conservatives should believe what the speakers are saying, and take it seriously. At present, pervasive upper-middle-class postmodernism has significantly influenced even the Western Right, to such an extent that we regularly see serious editorialists and TV men treating things like a full soccer stadium chanting “Kill the Boer . . . kill the white farmer . . . bang bang!!!” as some sort of amusing metaphor — perhaps referencing South Africa’s ongoing spate of lawsuits over land rights.   Against this tortured reading, I — not being an idiot — suggest an alternative explanation: When intelligent adult humans say that they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them, I propose that they mean they do not like whites, or Jews, or wealthy blacks, and want to kill them. When citizens say that all American whites are privileged lairds who should lose most of the positions they currently hold, or that minorities can never be effectively racist (unless they’re conservative), or that “the only cure for past discrimination is present discrimination,” or that we need a federal Department of Antiracism with the ability to regulate every business in the U.S., or that borrowing ideas from other cultures should be socially toxic or even illegal, or that “colonizers” should be killed . . . they mean it.  So, what to do about all of this, once it is taken seriously? A simple answer would seem to be: React the way that any sane person would to an opponent saying that they hate or wish to kill him. In the wake of the pro-Hamas statements emanating not merely from Harvard but also quite a few other universities following the atrocities of October 7, many donors closed their wallets for good or emphatically threatened to — and this makes hard sense as a form of punishment. At least a dozen major firms are publicly refusing to hire students from any of the Harvard 34, and — whether you approve of this development or not — we seem to be moving toward a sort of “mutually assured destruction” re: cancel culture, which should eventually result in true free speech for all or a return to some damned manners.  All of this (and quite a bit more that is yet to come) is good, proper, and sorely overdue. A third or so of the country has been telling us exactly who they are for the past 50 years. It is long past time that we started listening to them — and responding appropriately."
"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." - Maya Angelou. But of course it's always out of context or justified when it supports the liberal agenda

Meme - "STAY OUT OF ouR BEDROOM!"
"Pssst... hey, kid"

Meme - Emily Yahr @EmilyYahr: "As Luke Combs's hit cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" dominates the country charts, it's bringing up some complicated emotions in fans & singers who know that Chapman, as a queer Black woman, would have an almost zero chance at that achievement herself"
"Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman was nominated for 3 Grammy Awards including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. She won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best New Artist. She has 7 other nominations for Grammy Awards and two wins."

Meme - "You think our grandparents had it better because they had affordable housing, high religiosity, low divorce rate, low suicide rates, low obesity rates, could easily find jobs and start a happy family? Then how do you explain my made up meme where I imagine your grandma being a child rape victim and your grandpa a closeted transvestite addicted to morphine?"

Meme - "Meet Fatima. She is a Muslim woman who is breaking stereotypes. Fatima makes and sells Heroin and Crystal Meth.
FATIMA: "I wanted to show the world that muslim women are empowered- That muslim women can also be drug dealers."
Zahra: "This is awesome!"
Abdul: "I'm glad to see such an independent muslim woman!"
 Aisha: "So happy she's breaking stereotypes!"

German kindergartens promote 'sexual exploration rooms' where children are encouraged to masturbate and touch each other - "Daycare centers in Germany are under fire for promoting the use of “sexual exploration rooms” where young children are encouraged to touch themselves and engage in sexual games with other children.  In the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, at least two nurseries are entertaining the idea of safe spaces where young children can retreat to masturbate, or as one daycare center in Kerpen puts it, “discover and satisfy themselves physically.”  German newspaper Die Welt reports how the nursery claims to offer “children freedom to try out childish sexuality,” insisting that “masturbation is something normal” and that the establishment considers allowing sexual self-gratification on its premises to be “of great importance.”  In another daycare center in the state, this time in the town of Rheinberg, “doctor games” are prepared in adjoining rooms for children to explore the bodies of others, the German newspaper reports. The rules issued by the nursery encourage children to pick those they wish to “explore” and urge them to do so “carefully,” telling them that “no objects are to be introduced into body orifices.”  Earlier this year in June, the German tabloid newspaper Bild reported on similar practices being encouraged in a daycare center in Hanover, which came to light after an email was sent to parents.  In a 10-point guidance note, the center told parents about its intention to introduce “doctor games” in which children can “pet and examine” themselves and others.  “All children, especially preschoolers, are aware of the places in the facility where nudity and body exploration can take place,” the guidance read.  “Each child decides for themselves whether and with whom they want to play physical and sexual games. Girls and boys pet and examine each other only as much as is comfortable for themselves and other children.”  The concept appeared to be supported by Pro Familia, the leading professional association on sexuality and partnership in Germany, which recently published recommendations to daycare centers encouraging the practice.  Following a public backlash, the Awo-Kita kindergarten in Hanover canceled the project after a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education in the Lower Saxony state capital said “the educational concept in this form endangers the well-being of the child.”  The CEO of the nursery group’s management company later claimed that the letter to parents had not been approved by the head office, Der Spiegel reported in July. In North Rhine-Westphalia, however, the local government does not appear to be fazed by the practice. When asked by Die Welt about the idea of children being encouraged to masturbate and touch each other sexually, the state’s children’s ministry, led by Green Josefine Paul, claimed that “sexual behavior by children” could “not be prevented” and insisted it had no plans to contact the daycare centers within its remit to discuss the matter."

‘Body exploration rooms’ banned at German nurseries - "A chain of German kindergartens has been banned from setting up “body exploration rooms” for young children to undress and play games.  The “doctor game”, in which children under the age of six examine or touch each other’s naked body parts, has been formally regulated in a growing number of nurseries around the country over the past decade.  Some German childcare professionals and psychologists argue that if children are taught to play the game within certain boundaries they will have a healthier relationship with their bodies in later life.  However, the phenomenon has prompted a wave of moral outrage in recent weeks after at least two kindergartens were revealed to have created dedicated spaces for pre-schoolers to “explore their physicality”. First the Queen Maria Catholic nursery in the southwest German village of Tennenbronn told parents it was setting up a “safe room” for children to embark on a “journey to their bodies” under adult supervision, subject to parental consent. One local newspaper columnist denounced the concept as a “paradise for paedophiles” and other critics said it amounted to sexualising children, before the kindergarten beat a hasty retreat. Then another daycare centre run by the Workers’ Welfare Association in Hanover announced a similar scheme. In a letter to parents it said the children were naturally playing the doctor game in bathrooms or “bushes” anyway, and it would be more sensible to encourage them to play it with adult guidance and fixed rules. Such rules include that “boys and girls will only stroke or examine one another as much as they themselves and the other children are comfortable with” and “no child will put any object in another child’s bodily orifices”. The youth office for the surrounding state of Lower Saxony swiftly prohibited the practice, which it said posed a danger to child welfare. It is reviewing training manuals distributed to daycare centres by ProFamilia, one of Germany’s largest sex education charities. ProFamilia’s representatives have been promoting the concept since at least as far back as 2013, when two of its counsellors told a national newspaper that small children were already “sexual creatures” and carefully supervised “body exploration games” with clear rules were a healthy part of child development. The organisation went further in a detailed report published the following year, which was endorsed by theminister for labour and social affairs in the southwest state of Baden-Württemberg. It set a template for rules, which appear to have been adopted almost word for word by the two nurseries facing criticism now. ProFamilia advised against policing too strictly: “You can’t set the boundaries on the doctor game so narrowly that no child can cross them. Otherwise the effect would be a total restriction of [the child’s] pleasure experience and curious exploration.”"

Meme - "Hey, this thing happened to me"
"It's never happened to me, I don't think it happens."
"I'm telling you it does"
"It's happened to me too" - many people
"It's never happened to me, I don't think it happens."
"Replace "this thing" with "aliens abducted" or "God spoke to me in a dream" or "I saw Bigfoot" and then suddenly the point of this cartoon is lost on me."
"Vague as hell, but this reminds me of a feminist group where the woman said she had two babies at the same time from different fathers ("superfundication") One person said it basically never happens, but there were at least a dozen women who all had "friends that happened to" in the comments. Mind you for that group there might be like 15 unique commenters on an average post so it was most of the comments. Then I google it and it happens globally like 15 times per year. Must be a huuuuuuuge coincidence."
"So... All the people who claim covid vaccines are dangerous are right?"
Lived experience is only valid when it affirms liberal ends

Law Students for Hamas

Law Students for Hamas

"In its own telling, Yale Law School’s Schell Center for International Human Rights seeks to “equip lawyers and other professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to advance the cause of international human rights.”

The center has educated students and human rights professionals on atrocities large and small, issuing a detailed report last year on ethnic cleansing in Myanmar and proposing a framework in mid-September to moderate “indirect hate speech online”—whatever that means.

But six days after Hamas’ October 7 massacre over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapping of 240 more, the center was silent.

On October 13, a Jewish law student implored the center to speak out.

“Don’t stay silent in the face of this genocide,” the student wrote in an email—reviewed by The Washington Free Beacon and The Free Press—to James Silk, a Yale Law School professor and the co-director of the Schell Center. “Be a leader for human rights.”

Silk replied that the center was still deciding whether to address the massacre. The situation, he said, was “complex.”...

This need to appreciate the complexity of human rights atrocities—and the idea that those experiencing them secondhand can’t see the larger picture—seems to be a recent development for the Schell Center. Last year, the center sponsored an event on Israeli “apartheid” with Omar Shakir, a pro-Palestinian activist, as its sole speaker. “There is consensus today in the global human rights movement, spanning the major Israeli, Palestinian, and international organizations, that Israeli authorities are committing the crime against humanity of apartheid against millions of Palestinians,” materials advertising the event read.

In fact, the relationship between Israel and the West Bank is considerably more “complex” than the October 7 massacre, which has been condemned as a war crime by all major human rights groups, including those critical of Israel. The Schell Center’s willingness to address one issue but not the other rankled some Jewish students, who slammed the double standard in an open letter to alumni of Yale Law School.

“What kind of ‘Center for International Human Rights’ would refuse to host an event condemning the largest pogrom since the Holocaust?” the students wrote on October 20. “Does the Schell Center not think that Israelis are entitled to human rights, too? Or is it perhaps because they were Jewish?”...

Some students have blamed Israel for the attacks and singled out their Jewish peers for ridicule on a student-wide listserv, according to posts reviewed by the Free Beacon and The Free Press. Others have endorsed terrorism while denying that Hamas or Hezbollah qualify as terror groups. And still others promoted a rally—held two days after the massacre—that celebrated “Palestinian resistance” to “colonial oppression.”

“Breaking out of a prison,” posters for the rally declared, “requires force.”

The militancy has shocked Jewish alumni of Yale Law School, who say that the bloodthirsty rhetoric—and the reluctance of administrators to address it—indicate a festering moral rot...

Shlomo Klapper, a 2020 alumnus, argued that the school’s passivity was not just a moral mistake but a pedagogical one. “Under no theory of law is killing innocents in the name of decolonization justified,” Klapper said. “It’s a war crime. To have students openly celebrate that and not to have the school correct that is a huge educational failure.” ...

It’s far from the only elite incubator with a blind spot around Jews. A member of the Harvard Law Review and others were captured on video—published over two weeks ago by the Free Beacon—accosting an Israeli Harvard Business School student. Harvard has yet to address the incident beyond a statement from Srikant Datar, the dean of the business school, lamenting both “Islamophobia” and antisemitism. It did, however, create a task force for the “doxxed students” who signed an open letter blaming Israel for Hamas’s atrocities.

What kind of message, exactly, are these schools sending to future leaders, who have for weeks now watched their classmates cheer terrorists and jeer Jews with no administrative pushback? Yale Law School’s budding attorneys aced the LSAT, sure, but they were also admitted because they can read rooms and climb greasy poles.

When, in so many other instances, every microaggression is policed, every alleged trauma met with concern, and every act of horror denounced with an official statement, what other lesson will they draw from the past month than that Jews matter less than other groups?

“I think some Jewish students feel deeply uncomfortable being at the law school right now, knowing that their peers would likely condone and maybe even celebrate their murder by terrorists,” said one Jewish law student, who, like almost every other student interviewed for this story, requested anonymity. “And the law school’s silence—when it is so often quick to jump to a moment of moral clarity—suggests that there is something wrong with Yale Law School.”...

When Yale Law student Trent Colbert invited classmates to his “trap house,” a term some claimed had racist associations with crack houses, in 2021, it took exactly 12 hours for administrators to process nine discrimination complaints, haul Colbert in for a meeting, and suggest his career was on the line if he didn’t sign an apology they penned on his behalf. Gerken, the law school’s dean, also authorized a schoolwide message condemning Colbert’s language.

But when Jewish students appealed to Gerken almost two weeks after the Hamas attacks, describing the antisemitic vitriol in their inboxes, they got a rote reply from her deputy, Debra Kroszner, who directed them to student support services...

Kroszner told the Free Beacon and The Free Press that the law school had policies in place to “address complaints made by members of this community” and that it did not tolerate “harassment or discrimination.”

Alumni aren’t taking Yale’s word for it. Last Friday over 100 of them sent a petition to Gerken that asks Yale to report “student endorsements of terrorism to state bar committees on character and fitness,” and calls on the school to adopt a “zero-tolerance policy toward antisemitic threats or harassment,” including toward students who express support for Israel.

“The failure to make these and other changes swiftly and substantially would be a betrayal of the law school’s history and values, as well as of the Jewish community,” the petition says. “This climate—and what the administration does or does not do—will undoubtedly cause many alumni, of all religions and political views, to think hard about their continuing connection to Yale Law School.”

Jewish law students say the silence has been “crushing.”

“The silence in the law school from all those who proclaim the mantle of justice, human rights, and rule of law is deafening,” one student wrote to the listserv. “For a school filled with self-assured outrage at evils across the globe, the absence of any response is crushing.”

Jewish undergraduates, meanwhile, who had their newspaper columns stealth edited to remove references to Hamas’s atrocities, were locked out of an anti-Israel event this week sponsored by several Yale academic departments, in which panelists declared that Israel “cannot remain the state of the Jewish people.”"