davidthompson

They’re Stealing Our Black Essence

Meanwhile, in the world of deep thoughts and scholarly devotion:

A new video has surfaced of students this past week at Evergreen State College yelling and ranting about everything from “racist white teachers” and “white-ass administrators” to “black power!” during a so-called “meeting” with President George Bridges and other college administrators. Apparently, the activists are not pleased that this recording made its way to the internet at large. One of the demands listed by Evergreen students… is that something be done to resolve the “theft” of the video: “We demand that the video created for Day of Absence and Day of Presence that was stolen by white supremacists and edited to expose and ridicule the students and staff be taken down by the administration by this Friday.”

That’s this video here. 

A Gathering Of The Pious

Lifted from the comments because… well, just watch: 

The video begins with [filmmaker, Ami] Horowitz interviewing a number of white people at a so-called “White Privilege Conference” in Kansas City, Missouri, and asking them if they believe that every white person is a beneficiary of “white privilege.” The white leftists say yes, with one lady saying that she feels “super guilty all the time.” In fact, a number of the white leftists Horowitz interviewed claimed that all whites in America are racist. Then Horowitz asked the same people if it was “wrong to judge people collectively.” They all answered yes, seemingly unaware of the obvious contradiction.

Mr Horowitz then visits a Harlem housing project to ask black residents their thoughts on the subject.

Via Jen.

Friday Ephemera

Blondie. (h/t, Obo) // Subtle dildo, a can-you-spot-it game for all the family. It’s harder than you think. // At last, artisanal meat grinding. // Always respect the media. // Passing maglevs. // How rural people pass the time. (h/t, Matthew) // He does this better than you do. // Howling at the effect while ignoring the cause. // Jordan Peterson holds court at Harvard. // I think that’s probably close enough. // Ladybird mechanics. // Using bamboo. // Admit it, they’re better behaved than your kids. // That’s not wisteria, this is wisteria. // Webslinger. // You want one and you know it. // Odd-looking dog is fond of water. // Done with mirrors. // Kouhei Nakama’s Makin’ Moves. // This. // 1,000,000 lbs of force. // And finally, unfortunately, when your bee beard malfunctions.

And Who Are We Today?

I’m not entirely sure how one might go about interacting with someone – say, a police officer, a supposed authority figure - whose identity is apparently so unstable that on any given day they could turn up for work, or to court, as a man or a woman, complete with different names. At some point, “diversity” becomes a Two Ronnies comedy sketch.

Via I Sneeze In Threes.

And The Wonders You Can Do

“As a queer artist I seek to create a temporal historical rupture,” says Texas-based performance artist Sarah Hill, while describing her - sorry, their - 2014 opus They Wonder. “During the performance,” we’re told, “I repeatedly spin around and around in circles.” The reason being that, as an artist and worker of profundity, Ms Hill is “interested in the continuous action of spinning and getting no-where, falling down and getting back up.”

Inevitably, Ms Hill tells us that she – sorry, they - disdains “the pressures of commodification,” and rejects “the populist template of art as a form of leisure or entertainment.” Yes, I know, a fearless and terribly radical decision, the effects of which may become apparent in the following video, recorded at the Waterloo Centre for the Arts, Iowa.

See, now you realise you were all starved of art and its enrichments. And indeed still are.

Elsewhere (233)

Glenn Reynolds on when crime doesn’t count: 

Black Lives Matter might more accurately be named White Killers Matter, because it only seems to care about black lives that are ended by white people. And that, of course, is because Black Lives Matter isn’t about justice, but about racial agitation.

Heather Mac Donald on the conceits and inversions of modern academia: 

If ever there were a narrative worthy of being subjected to “stubborn scepticism,” in [Yale president, Peter] Salovey’s words, the claim [by Salovey] that Yale was the home of “hatred and discrimination” is it... Yale has been obsessed with what the academy calls “diversity,” trying to admit and hire as many “underrepresented minorities” as it possibly can without totally eviscerating academic standards. There has never been a more tolerant social environment in human history than Yale (and every other American college) — at least if you don’t challenge the reigning political orthodoxies.

And utterly unrelated to anything above: 

Harvard senior submits rap album as thesis, gets an A.

It would appear that Harvard’s English department is now intersecting with the even loftier department of hip-hop racial caricatures. The thrillingly original opus in question – which can be savoured here - is “a dark and moody take on what it means to be black in America… tackling topics ranging from police violence to slavery.” But of course.

As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.

Friday Ephemera

Early bird. (h/t, Damian) // Hardcore bee porn. // Don’t stare, it’s what they do. // Star Trek: The Motion Picture – the re-scored, much shorter, 22 minute cut. // Meanwhile, in Korea. // Duck vacuuming. // She makes things with cardboard better than you do. // His carved wooden lion is way better than yours. // Another day at the office. // Night bus. // Because some people really want to analyse the complexity of pop lyrics. // Prosthetic ovaries. // One for the ladies. // Click farm. // Clouds and rock. // Get low-slung and groovy with Nuthin’ But An Alien. // “The woman has a weapon and appears to be mentally unstable.” // Back when TV logos were physical objects. // Terrarium lamps. // An athlete in action. // And finally, a modern twist on when hubris meets nemesis.

Insert Ideology Here

And maybe the parents won’t notice.

So, apparently, there’s an “intersection of mathematics and social justice.” In fact, there’s an entire six-week teacher-training course devoted to this hitherto unrecognised intersection and its propagation among middle-school children, i.e., the young and unsuspecting. Especially, of course, the “social justice” part:

Do you ask students to think deeply about global and local social justice issues within your mathematics classroom? This education and teacher training course will help you blend secondary math instruction with topics such as inequity, poverty, and privilege to transform students into global thinkers and mathematicians.

Yes, students will be transformed.

As Campus Reform’s Toni Airaksinen reports, 

Participants in the online course are given sample ideas for lessons they could create, such as using math to teach students about “Unpaid Work Hours in the Home by Gender” and “Race and Imprisonment Rates in the United States.”

Loaded insinuations are so much easier to get away with when you’re dealing with impressionable youngsters.

The module also identifies five main themes of “intersectional mathematics,” including “mathematical ethics,” which refers to the notion that math is often used as a tool of oppression, according to the instructors. “For centuries, mathematics has been used as a dehumanising tool,” they write, citing the example of how IQ can be used against people who score in the lower half of the distribution.

And so children - other people’s children - must be taught to “subvert power, question normalcy, and change society as we understand it.” When, strictly speaking, they should be learning about more humdrum things, like geometry, trigonometry and spatial reasoning.

And if you assume that shame alone will stop such people, or give them pause, even momentarily, I very much think you’re wrong.

Elsewhere (232)

Ian Tuttle on leftism and thuggery: 

It is clear that, for Antifa, the purpose [of their language] is to cloak reality. Antifa’s reason for describing something or someone as “fascist” is not that it is actually fascist… but that describing it that way is politically advantageous. Likewise with any number of other slurs. Antifa are in effect claiming to oppose everything that is bad — and, of course, it is Antifa who decide what is bad. Hence the organisers of the Inauguration Day protests could write, as their mission statement, that “#DisruptJ20 rejects all forms of domination and oppression.” That is a good monopoly if you can get it… They are, in the final analysis, simply claiming that people who think like them should be exempt from the law’s constraints, and that people who do not think like them should not receive the law’s protections.

When your political worldview is premised on the coercion of others, and on pathological self-flattery, it’s not too much of a stretch.

Heather Mac Donald on a real “rape culture” that’s oddly unacknowledged by campus feminists: 

In March, a 15-year-old girl in Chicago was lured into a basement and gang-raped by five to six males. The girl was threatened with a pit bull if she tried to flee… One of the participants live-streamed the rape on Facebook. So far, two boys, 15- and 14-years-old, have been arrested for the attack… Up to 40 people watched the rape live; none reported it to the police or to Facebook. Since then, threats, taunts, social-media bullying, and physical assaults have been directed at… the victim and her family, not at the rapists. A group of girls beat the victim’s twelve-year-old sister last week, reports DNA Info Chicago. One of the girl’s attackers said: “Why [did] you send my brother to jail,” according to her mother. You want to see an example of “blaming the victim?” This is it.

Tim Newman on attempts to glamorise polyamory: 

Ah, this old chestnut: ‘traditional marriages often fail so polyamorous ones are worth considering.’ What nobody ever does is closely examine the rate at which polyamorous relationships fail, the mental state of the people involved in them, and the effect on any children unfortunate enough to be caught up in them.

Related, in two contrasting parts, the views of Laurie Penny and Brad Wilcox, only one of whom uses data.

And Dominic Mancini on a grave threat to the wellbeing of minority students at the University of Michigan:  

Anna Wibbelman, former president of Building a Better Michigan, an organisation that voices student concerns about university development, stated at a student government meeting in late March that “minority students felt marginalised by quiet, imposing, masculine [wood] panelling” found throughout the 100-year-old building, the meeting’s minutes state.

As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.

Friday Ephemera

“The customer’s hair is covered in flammable powder and then set on fire with a lighter.” (h/t, Matthew) // Magnetic spherical chess board. // This is a thing now. // Dog names in New York. // For snack lovers with no self-control. // Busted, baby. // Brazilian caves. // “How to kick ass in high heeled boots,” 1983. // An extensive library of miniature bottles. // Blade Runner 2049. // I too have had this niche problem. // A cappella extraction, a work in progress. // What the pilot sees. // This. (h/t, Damian) // Look at all the humans. // Make your own horror film soundtrack. // Assorted science fiction interfaces. // A feast of quality acting. // Why sci-fi alien planets often look the same. // Six marimbas. // Coming through. // And finally, how to change a car’s ignition coils.

Reheated (50)

Or, So Empowered, Yet Oppressed By Everything. 

Faced as we are with the news that Everyday Feminism may soon flicker out of existence, leaving a gaping void in our intellectual lives, perhaps it’s time to revisit some of the many offerings to have entertained us, albeit inadvertently:  

Lofty Beings. 

Feminist “creative” and “multi-dimensional creature” Katherine Garcia attempts to justify her sub-optimal life choices. Things go badly wrong.

The Mouthing Of Bollocks. 

Rachel Kuo tells us how to order takeaway in a suitably fretful and intersectional manner.

Undone By Her Radical ‘Do.

A “white grrl with dreadlocks” atones for her “whiteness” and “appropriated” hair.

An Intellectual Being. 

Melissa Fabello is a feminist intellectual and therefore terribly oppressed. How dare you question her?

Fat We Can Fix, The Excuses Are Trickier. 

An empowered feminist of girth says not being fat makes you complicit in her oppression.

Poverty And How To Get There. 

“Social justice” devotee describes herself to employers as “a political troublemaker,” and wonders why employment is hard to find.

Do Not Date Bedlamites. 

Melissa Fabello shares her interracial dating advice with those less enlightened. Naturally, it’s complicated.

Unseen Energies. 

“As a witch,” says Kris Nelson, “it is my responsibility to engage in radical politics.” She’s also clairvoyant and sells magic sea shells.

Oh, you laugh now, but who will scold us when they’re gone?

Elsewhere (231)

Katherine Timpf on the latest cause of campus outrage: 

According to an article in the University of California–Los Angeles publication The Rival, people who are kind of into activism but not totally into activism are guilty of “activist appropriation.”

Katie Clancy and Justin Haskins on fake education at Butler University:

In the course’s description, students are told they’ll be taught the real reason Trump won the 2016 election and they’ll be provided “strategies for resistance” to the Trump administration’s evil agenda. “Donald J. Trump won the U.S. Presidency despite perpetuating sexism, white supremacy, xenophobia, nationalism, nativism, and imperialism,” the course description reads. “This course explores why and how this happened, how Trump’s rhetoric is contrary to the foundation of the U.S. democracy, and what his win means for the future. The course will also discuss, and potentially engage in, strategies for resistance.”

Malhar Mali on the dogmatic rot of the humanities: 

Activist professors incapable of surviving in the more arduous disciplines… are the most vociferous in limiting the academic freedom of others. 

Related: The Heterodox Academy Guide to Colleges. 

And Kevin Williamson on the psychology of the feckless and chronically disorganised: 

The passivity and subjectlessness of these narratives is striking, and strikingly consistent. Domestic events happen. Cheques come or don’t come. (Mostly they don’t.) Husbands are sent to jail, children are taken away by the clipboard-toting minions of Authority, disease descends. The money isn’t there. And, in the end, they are evicted. Bad things just happen, and, today, I am the bad thing that is just happening to one of these luckless and unhappy children of God… They’d had years and years to prepare for this moment, and, of course, they hadn’t… They very much wanted to stay in the house, though not enough to offer to rent it or buy it. But certainly enough to sit tight and hope that the situation would somehow just resolve itself in their favour.

As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.