Resistance Is Futile

Via Neontaster comes news of an intriguing technological development. Apparently, the device “makes the patient feel comfortable,” while “the strong currents impact and rub.” Hey, I’m just reading what it says here.  

Oh, and yes, there is a more intimate video. 

Also, open thread.

Comments

[Darleen]

Holy crap, I almost miss Gov Moonbeam.

[David]

A prominent awards show for Indigenous music in Canada has been plunged into turmoil after a group of Inuit performers accused a Cree folk singer of cultural appropriation. Several well-known Inuit singers have cut ties with the Indigenous Music awards (IMA), an annual show due to held in Winnipeg on 17 May, over the nomination of Connie LeGrande, who they accuse of improperly using Inuit throat singing.

In recent years, Canada has started to grapple with the issue of cultural appropriation as Indigenous people publicly challenge white artists for the use of Indigenous iconography and stories in their own work. The current row, however, centres on an Indigenous artist, and raises questions over cultural borrowings between separate aboriginal groups.

Tim Worstall is reading the Guardian.

[TomJ]

The conservative philosopher Roger Scruton Haas been fired from an unpaid job on a government advisory panel on architecture because he made "unacceptable comments" in an interview with The New Statesman. One of the comments, widely tweeted by the piece's author George Eaton, was "Each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one and that is a very frightening thing." Seemingly slam dunk. However, Eaton later tweeted this in response to people questioning how quite were edited:

Edited for reasons of space in print edition: "They’re creating robots out of their own people by so constraining what can be done. Each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one and that is a very frightening thing."

With the context, it seems not to be a statement about the Chinese people, but rather about what the authoritarian Chinese government is trying to make the Chinese people into. Eaton, of course, was exultant at having claimed Scruton's scalp. He had also deleted the context providing tweet.

[David]

Eaton, of course, was exultant at having claimed Scruton’s scalp.

It’s worth pondering what kind of person publicly exults in his own dishonesty. As if it won’t be found out, within minutes, or when discovered, won’t matter to his readers.

Douglas Murray has more here.

[David]

Somewhat related.

Via Ben Sixsmith.

[pst314]

It's part of an agenda of poisoning the bonds between men as friends - indeed, any close relationship that doesn't include The State is suspect.

That makes sense for leftists, but I think there was also another motive behind this: They wanted to normalize homosexuality by finding it everywhere. "Look! Your heroes are gay. And you're gay too!"

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Holy crap, I almost miss Gov Moonbeam.

"There are some legitimate concerns… as you travel through to get from point A to point B, things can obviously flare up, there’s always exceptions, but there’s a completely different story there."

"However, enough about California, I'm here to talk about El Salvador", he added

...who they accuse of improperly using Inuit throat singing.

Not that throat singing is an Inuit only thing, for example, the Tuvans, who apparently enjoy it when an American culturally appropriates their singing. Paul Pena (who wrote "Jet Airliner", not that hack Steve Miller) actually won an award from them for it, so perhaps the Inuit need to lighten up and enjoy the fact that their music will reach a larger audience.

Somewhat related.

...Soros is the uncrowned king of eastern Europe..."

That would be news to the Hungarians, the Russians, the Poles, Macedonians, Slovakians, and Bulgarians.

The question is whether "New Stateman" writers are ignorant, just make stuff up, or both.

[pst314]

Eaton, of course, was exultant at having claimed Scruton’s scalp.

Does Roger Scruton have good grounds for a libel lawsuit under British law?

[WTP]

AIUI, Poles, Hungarians, Amy of the western side of the ex-Iron Curtain countries, resent being referred to as Eastern Europe. The prefer Central Europe. Eastern Europe is viewed as very corrupt and still under significant Russian influence.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I am hoping this is parody, otherwise insanity claims another.

[David]

I am hoping this is parody,

Apparently.

[Apalachicola]

The journalist didn't by himself draw the line of what people are allowed to say. He's a defender of the narrative, who knew where the line was and herded Scruton out of bounds. The question, as Murray says, is why conservatives have been so cowardly in allowing their enemies to define the limits of speech, so cowardly in never standing up for their own people.

There are no principles about where the line is drawn, except that it turns out to be consistently anti-white. You can discuss whether billionaires have too much influence, but you'd better consult with the SPLC about which billionaires you're allowed to name. You can discuss the conformity of white Americans but not the conformity of the Chinese. You can slander Christianity but only say good things about Islam.

In a borderless world, we're no longer encountering foreigners as just vacationers and arms-length trading partners whose dirty laundry we can politely ignore. Since we're inviting foreigners to make themselves at home in our cities and our institutions, it's all the more important that we're informed about the dysfunctions they might bring with them from their home cultures. Instead we're required to walk on eggshells and navigate ever-more-convoluted taboos about even noticing the foreignness of foreigners, let alone discussing their dark side.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Ever wonder where R’lyeh is ? Baby Cthulhu sleep in Herefordshire.

[jabrwok]

Baby Cthulhu

Bah. Where are the wings? The arms and legs? Just having tentacles doesn't make something "Cthuluesque". Sad:-(.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Bah. Where are the wings?

It is only 3cm, hence embryonic, they haven't developed yet, unbeliever.

[Darleen]

Another day, another struggle session.

[David]

Another day, another struggle session.

And so they invoke diversity as an excuse for imposing uniformity of thought.

[jabrwok]

http://libguides.blinn.edu/az.php?s=6761

We're through the looking glass here people!

And Humpty Dumpty takes another scalp.

[jabrwok]

D'oh! Ignore the LibGuide link. 'Twas supposed to be And so they invoke diversity as an excuse for imposing uniformity of thought.

[Alex]

jabrwok, I'm not sure where the Rachel shown there got her moniker; rather doubtful that she's going to be anyone's valentine. Unless maybe she got it from eating too much Valentine's Day chocolates.

[jabrwok]

@Alex: I think I'm missing some context on your comment.

[jabrwok]

Oh, now I realize what you're talking about! Yeah, the libguide link was a mistake and had nothing to do with anything hereabouts. Please ignore.

[David]

Please ignore.

Everybody stare at it, like a spot.

[jabrwok]

Everybody stare at it, like a spot.

Well, you're unlikely to gain any value from doing so, but whatever floats your respective boats.:-P

[David]

Well, you're unlikely to gain any value from doing so

Oh, an irrelevant link is nothing to blush about, really. Not when compared with Mr Sherman’s spectacular HTML dumpster fire of August 2016.

That’s real shame.

[Damian]

This seems like the sort of art that David looks forward to enjoying on weekends:

For a performance piece called The Trainee, the Finnish artist Pilvi Takala took a job at Deloitte just to stare into space at her empty desk and take the elevator up and down—to the consternation of her “coworkers.”

[David]

Right, niece’s birthday dinner looms. Be good.

Or at least clean up afterwards.

[pst314]

Be good.

Hey everybody, I've got a key to David's wine vault!

[TomJ]

Scruton has responded in his own inimitable style.

[Pst314]

Scruton has responded in his own inimitable style.

Indeed. But I would like to also see another style: a successful and ruinous lawsuit. Those who would destroy us deserve destruction.

[Steve E]

that makes it more important for the women in their lives to help nurture what male friendships their husband, fiance, boyfriend has.

Or, more importantly, not poison or negate the male friendships he may already have.

[jones]

"Or at least clean up afterwards."

Just who on earth do you think we are?....

[TomJ]

But I would like to also see another style: a successful and ruinous lawsuit. Those who would destroy us deserve destruction.

Apparently he is considering legal action.

https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1117846804177928192?s=19

[Stephen M. St. Onge]

“When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, there were about 60 million people living in the Americas, . . . .

“A century later there were only 6 million native Americans left: a 90% fatality rate. Yet at that time, there were still only about a quarter-million Europeans in the Americas. They clearly couldn’t have killed the other 54 million natives – but their diseases did.”

My commie friend Eric Flint, who almost became a professional historian, thinks this is figure is much too high.

But hey, whatever is best for The Narrative® trumps truth.