Zack Ford Is A Grown Man

You can tell from his outpourings:

As someone who writes about Trump and his subordinates every day, I need every reprieve I can find from the ongoing toxic demise of our country, including in my personal social media. But my decision today to unfriend this individual was no simple purge; I am significantly emotionally wounded. 

It’s all terribly dramatic. Practically a miniature opera. You see, while browsing Facebook, Mr Ford saw a photo of an old high school friend celebrating the Fourth of July with her daughter and while wearing a Make America Great Again hat. The latter detail, the hat, being, for Mr Ford, “unacceptable,” a personal violation and source of deep trauma. Naturally, and not at all oddly, Zack decided to scold his old high school friend, as was his duty as a super-woke being: 

I gave my friend an ultimatum.

Always a sound opening gambit.

I told her I wouldn’t unfriend her so long as she apologised for wearing the hat and promised me I wouldn’t have to see it in my feed again. 

Terms of surrender. A bold choice.

When she claimed I was trying to police her beliefs, I corrected her, pointing out that my conditions only regarded the hat, not her position on any particular issue. 

Ooh. Terms of surrender with bonus sophistry. That’s bound to go down well. Let’s see:  

When asked to choose between a hat that embodies that evil and someone she’s known half her life,

Wait for it.

she chose the hat.

No laughing at the back.

It left me feeling like we’re so much worse off than I’d convinced myself we were.

Oh poor, put-upon Zack. Will his woes never end?  

My final words to her were: “Every time you wear the hat, you remember you lost a friendship over it. Every time.” I know for sure I’ll now think of her every time I see a MAGA hat, and I’ll fear its corrupting power even more than I used to.

Yes, a hat with corrupting power. An amulet of evil. 

So. If you’re celebrating the Fourth of July and wearing a patriotic hat – a hat supporting an incumbent President, as half the country generally does – then, according to Mr Ford, you must be an enthusiast of “hate,” of “oppression and injustice,” and must exult in the prospect of “firing trans people.” There being no other conceivable motives. Which is why our fearless, selfless hero must spend his time browsing Facebook and then baffling friends and acquaintances with ultimatums regarding their choice of clothing, and tearful threats of unfriending.

As grown men do.

This isn’t our first visit to Mr Ford’s strange mental landscape. Zack, you’ll recall, is a “proud SJW” who believes that when lone women are attacked by muggers, they shouldn’t attempt to defend themselves, lest they injure their attacker. Presumably on grounds that every mugger is a precious flower, even those who go mugging while on probation, and certainly more so than law-abiding women at bus stops.

It’s “social justice,” people.

Heavens, a button. I wonder what it does.

Comments

[Pogonip]

Dude be wack.

[Mags]

a hat that embodies that evil

Someone needs a nap.

[David]

Someone needs a nap.

I’ve spared you the full list of diabolical attributes assigned to said Evil Hat, but it’s worth noting that dastardly connotations are the only ones that Mr Ford can conceive of. There being no other possible reasons for wearing a patriotic hat on the Fourth of July.

It’s also worth noting that Mr Ford, our “proud SJW,” is something of a gay activist, to a near-monomaniacal degree. Apparently, he’s improving the perception of gay people by being an insufferably dramatic and cartoonish queen.

Progress!

[juliaeryn]

2 obvious alternatives to the corrupting power of the hat.
1. his friend was not choosing the 'hat' but was choosing to exit out of a 'friendship' where one party can dictate to the other what they wear/express.
2. his friend had been waiting on a opportunity to bail on this relationship and by gum she took the first opportunity she could.

[David]

1. his friend was not choosing the ‘hat’ but was choosing to exit out of a ‘friendship’ where one party can dictate to the other what they wear/express.

That is, I think, more likely. But Mr Ford seems oblivious to how his demands might seem to those outside of his vain little bubble. And so, proudly, he publishes what amounts a comical self-own.

[Hopp Singg]

And this, people, is how an ordinary hat becomes "my lucky hat."

[David]

There is, I think, an asymmetry here. I’ve managed to stay friends with people whose politics I don’t share - and for the most part without enormous fuss. That’s always been the case. And among non-leftists, I doubt I’m unusual in this regard. But social excommunication seems remarkably common among the woke. It’s a go-to solution, an obvious threat.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Just wait until these are more widespread.. they won’t know which way to turn:

https://www.amazon.com/Political-Made-Again-Embroidered-Baseball/dp/B07NF1RL8F

[Jacob]

a hat that embodies that evil

Wasn't that a Harry Potter book?

[David]

If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me and I’ll tickle the spam filter.

[Pogonip]

David, can your hamster climb trees?

[David]

can your hamster climb trees?

Never put it to the test. We don’t have many trees indoors. A six-foot cactus, but that’s about it.

[Ten]

Little man's moral, blame-casting stitcheroo uncoincidentally reminds one of the left in general when, during out-of-power setbacks, it adopts that familiar rubbish about how a Democratic Country with Rights and a Constitution and a Proud National Heritage, plus a Declaration and Two Hundred Years of Freedom, and Our Nation's Founding Principles and a Legacy of Free Speech and a Free Press (and Proud unicorns and Proud Standing-Up-For and Proud Standing-Alongside and Proud Standing-With and Proud Fighting-Back and We Shall Not Be Overcome and We Shall Overcome and We Will Not Be Silenced and something something nonsense nonsense and so on and so forth) has, mysteriously and even magically, lost all that when normals ever so mildly and belatedly and politically-impotently for the most part push back against the left's own onslaught of all sorts of Marxisms, its destruction of original rights, its institutions of takeover, its corruption of meaning - see above - its depravity of culture, its attack on regular civilization, its coveting of anything at all, its gross personal envy, and its semi-official religion of progressivism FOR STARTERS.

Rock-ribbed, full-throated, Proud leftist Americanism is the best kind, don't you know. Just ask them. All you sons of bitches and your hats need to start playing fair, dammit.

[Joan]

Apparently, he’s improving the perception of gay people by being an insufferably dramatic and cartoonish queen.

That. :-)

[David]

That.

According to his newsletters, Mr Ford is encouraging “respect,” challenging prejudice and “educating the world about queer identities.” And he’s doing this by indulging in overwrought dramas more typically associated with fourteen-year-old girls. Specifically, by spending his time policing what his friends and acquaintances wear on Facebook, and then being faintly hysterical about it.

Take that, stereotypes.

[Mark Matis]

Anyone wanna bet that Zack is tribe? "Reformed", of course...

[H]

When she claimed I was trying to police her beliefs, I corrected her,

Wow.

[pst314]

He sounds nice.™

[pst314]

Tribe??

[WTP]

Wow.

I'm reminded of those who make a big issue about how wrong, wrong, wrong it is to make judgements about other people. It is of course, a factor of the new puritanism. That nagging fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.

[Killer Marmot]

Acute emotional sensitivity is a sign of advanced political enlightenment, dontchano. Fantasizing about punching those they disagree with is another.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Tribe??

By the "Reformed" bit I think he is trying to insinuate that Ford is Jewish (12 tribes) and part of the Intergalactic Zionist Conspiracy or other such nonsense.

[Boatswain's Mate]

Peak mansplaining.

[JS]

That nagging fear that someone, somewhere may be happy.

There is the also related syndrome: "That nagging fear that someone, somewhere may be expressing an opinion with which I disagree."

Once upon a time you would have friends and acquaintances who had some opinions you thought were foolish or unpleasant but, if it was clear you weren't going to be able to change their mind, you just shrugged and managed to get along anyway.

I still do, and imagine most sane people do, but when it comes to the deranged "woke" they find it impossible.

[Eagle]

No laughing at the back.

Sorry. It just burst out.

[james]

There's nothing more offensive to a leftist than finding out not everyone agrees with them.

[SumDumGuy]

No laughing at the back.

I usually sit closer to the front, may I laugh?

[Squirrelfmradio]

What. A. Loser.

[Mazo]

Zack, you’ll recall, is a “proud SJW” who believes that when lone women are attacked by muggers, they shouldn’t attempt to defend themselves, lest they injure their attacker

That's incredible. I thought you were joking.

[Adam]

Her hat made his head look fat.

[David]

I thought you were joking.

Alas, no. According to Mr Ford, the lone woman being attacked shouldn’t have been allowed to own a gun and shouldn’t have defended herself - because, we’re told, “If she had let him rob her, even at gunpoint, both likely would have survived.” And apparently, the wellbeing of the mugger – who was armed, illegally, and mugging while on probation - trumps any desire for self-defence, even if the victim fears for her life. And even if this means, and it does, that more women get mugged by the same criminal.

“A gun death is a gun death,” says Mr Ford, casually flattening moral values, until the lives and wellbeing of the law-abiding barely equal those of the habitual violent criminal.

Again, “social justice.”

The moral analogue of bone cancer.

[Mecheng]

This “guy” is so offended by seeing a MAGA hat in his twitter feed that he has to unfriendly someone over it...yet this “guy” uses a stock photo of a MAGA hat as the lead in to his article and twitter post. The stupid is strong in this one....

[Boatswain's Mate]

Here's the funny/creepily narcissistic thing:

After being ratioed into oblivion with his initial tweet on July 5, the attention whore then retweeted it as an "ICYMI" on July 6. Predictably, the retweet also got ratioed Hiroshima-style.

I think he is/was taking immense pleasure in himself in getting all those comments, in a "See how I can rile up the deplorables, tee hee? Aren't I wonderful?" or a "See how oppressed and marginalised I am, getting all this 'hate'?" manner. Or both, more likely.

[Rafi]

Again, “social justice.”

Wears rainbow glasses. Wants women to be mugged.

[David]

Wears rainbow glasses. Wants women to be mugged.

Well, he evidently prefers women to be unable to defend themselves from violent predators, thereby resulting in more women being victims of the same violent predators, whose own wellbeing apparently takes precedence.

I believe the word is honk.

[Ron Butler]

...I’ll now think of her every time I see a MAGA hat, and I’ll fear its corrupting power even more...

Moral agency on the part of inanimate objects. Hats that corrupt. Handguns that shoot people. Pencils that misspell words.

[Alberto]

And he’s doing this by indulging in overwrought dramas more typically associated with fourteen-year-old girls.

Male indignation being problematic in so many ways, Numales like to show how good they are at expressing indignation in a female style. Being feminine is more difficult than they know, so it ends up as an emulation of the worst behavior of their female classmates in middle school, or a drag act of Lady Bracknell poking her umbrella at people she disapproves of.

The thought process seems to be - whatever a stoic would do, I'm going to do the opposite, and anyone who has any objections can be accused of toxic masculinity. If such a Numale writes an expose about going to the gun range with icky deplorables, he can't just report the reaction of a normal grown-up - that it was noisy environment that took some getting used to. He has to say the big bangs scared me and I think I broke a fingernail.

[jabrwok]

Hats that corrupt. Handguns that shoot people. Pencils that misspell words.

Don't forget utensils that make people fat!

[David]

The thought process seems to be - whatever a stoic would do, I’m going to do the opposite, and anyone who has any objections can be accused of toxic masculinity.

Pretty much. Not exactly a recipe for self-possession, or realism, or achievement, or any lasting contentment.

[Hippogryph]

Always, with these people, that certain mixture of moral vanity and sadism.

[The Phantom]

I particularly liked this part:

"When she claimed I was trying to police her beliefs, I corrected her, pointing out that my conditions only regarded the hat, not her position on any particular issue."

Ooh. Terms of surrender with bonus sophistry. That’s bound to go down well.

As usual with these worms, when presented with the truth about their behavior they attempt to nitpick their way to victory, as if life was some sort of arguing contest.

Otherwise known as troll arguing. The young lady made the right choice to jettison this piece of flotsam off her yacht.

Politics aside, that type of behavior can't be tolerated in polite society. Its repugnant.

[Sam]

What Alberto said.

[Alice]

Instalanche!

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/335376/

[Scott Hammond]

Yaaawwwn....stretch...scratch...sorry, just woke up. What I miss?

[David]

Instalanche!

Act casual. Say nothing.

Oh, and the spam filter’s still a little twitchy. If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me and poke around in there.

[Gretz]

I think it goes without saying that in spite of Zacky's claims, she didn't loose a friend. She never had one in Zack in the first place, and likely gained far more friends as a result of his public poo-flinging.

[MikeM_inMD]

His logic is so twisted, he doesn't realize the he is the one who chose between a hat and a friendship.

[Steve E]

The authoritarian claims, as his right, not only the ability to tell you how you should feel and think but also the ability to tell you what you are feeling and thinking. This extends to his prescient ability to tell others how they interpret various symbols.

So Zack tells his friend what the MAGA hat symbolizes as well as what the rainbow flag symbolizes.

Authoritarians, what would we do without them?

[Bill de Haan]

she chose the hat.

Good for her. The hat obviously has more value than a friendship with this nutter.

[Sam Duncan]

“His logic is so twisted, he doesn't realize the he is the one who chose between a hat and a friendship.”

That.

“Every time you wear the hat, you remember you lost a friendship over it. Every time.”

Oh, she will, Zack, she will. And she'll laugh.

[bgates]

I wonder if there was ever a time when, were it possible to go back Ghost of Christmas Future style to confront Ford about what he would become, he could have learned that one day he would in all seriousness write the words I told her I wouldn’t unfriend her so long as she apologised for wearing the hat, and repented.

[neal]

Even without the hat, there is the triggering MAGA hat hair.
Cannot unsee it.

[aelfheld]

You would think Mr. (?) Ford would be a steady consumer of chlorpromazine. Certainly it sounds as though he (?) should be.

[TANSTAAFL]

She didn't lose a friend, she lost a fascist thug who posed as a friend.

[Pogonip]

David, what species is your 6-foot cactus? How about a picture of it?

(I specified “of it” because I’ve been hanging around this joint long enough to know that if I didn’t, he’d seize the opportunity to put up a picture of Something Disgusting In A Jar.). 😊

[Daniel Ream]

I'm going to bet they haven't seen each other or spoken in person since high school, and that their "friendship", such as it is, extended solely to their connection on social media.

[David]

what species is your 6-foot cactus?

It’s Euphorbia ingens, I think. It looks like this, but bigger.

[Steve E]

It looks like this, but bigger.

...said the sailor to the young maid.

[Kenneth Mitchell]

“Gun control is the idea that it’s better to see a woman dead in an alley, strangled with her own pantyhose, than to see her with a gun in her hand.”—T.D. Melrose

This is the header at the top of L. Neil Smith's web page at https://ncc-1776.org/

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...said the sailor to the young maid.

To which the young maid replied, "But yours looks like one, only smaller".

[David]

...said the sailor to the young maid.

I’ve still not forgiven you for those bloody shoes.

[Kenneth Mitchell]

I strongly suspect that his friend didn't say anything like "I choose the MAGA hat over my friendship with you." I'd be willing to believe that she said something more on the order of "F*** you and the horse you rode in on."

Which is what _I_ would have said to such a ridiculous demand.

[Sam]

Narrator: On the heels of Meme War I, the resentment building from the God King's (PBUH) succession rose to a boiling point. Hand gestures, hats, and even clown noses were viciously fought over in the preliminary skirmishes of the greater conflict that was to come. The resulting war saw brother versus brother, facebook friend vs facebook friend, and twitter followers vs twitter followers. Among the darkest four hours in American history, the Second Civil War was the bloodiest conflict on US soil since 1865, and marks the...

From Ken Burns III Presents: American Civil War 2, Electric Boogaloo

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I’ve still not forgiven you for those bloody shoes.

Earth shoes - I had forgotten all about them, stupid footware based on the premise that because walking in sand leaves a big heel impression, walking around with your feet perpetually dorsiflexed was a good idea.

[David]

Earth shoes - I had forgotten all about them,

They’re an outrage against fashion. And walking upright.

[Baceseras]

feet perpetually dorsiflexed

They jush had one li'l drinky, honesh.

[Steve E]

They’re an outrage against fashion. And walking upright.

My father actually did own a pair. He was a service manager in a tire shop and was on his feet all day. He had horrible knee and lower back pain. Some genius foot specialist told him these would be the shoes for him. He was a size 13EEE (a big size back then). So they were a special order and cost him a small fortune for shoes in the early 70s. They did absolutely nothing for him. They probably made things worse.

[svh]

I gave my friend an ultimatum.

So men can now tell women what to wear? It's hard to keep up with the rules.

[Steve E]

So men can now tell women what to wear?

Gay male, any colour, SJW, trumps white, cis-gendered, conservative woman. I know, it's so tiring trying to keep up.

[Pogonip]

David, whyfore you want a 6-foot armed plant? Is it to throw at the burglar since you can’t shoot him?

[jabrwok]

Earth shoes - I had forgotten all about them,

They’re an outrage against fashion. And walking upright.

Hold my beer!

[Pogonip]

Coming next in GB: all houseplants must be 3” or less.

My best parin”/ peelin’/ general cookin’ knife is 4”. It’s also pink. I got it for $5 at the end of one of those breast-cancer promotions.

[David]

Hold my beer!

You’re ruining footwear for the rest of us.

Right, I’m off to resume re-watching season four of Bosch. Play nicely. Use coasters.

[Jeff Guinn]

Ten @10:06

That was well worth re-reading.

Several times.

[jabrwok]

You’re ruining footwear for the rest of us.

I do my humble best:-). If purple isn't your preferred shade, there's always the goth option.

Go ahead. You know you want to click on that link!

[Bandit Keena]

What a loss for her - LOLZ!

[David Longfellow]

Obviously when having to choose between the hat and her "friend", she made the choice based on their relative intelligence, with the hat winning by a landslide.

[Paul Nottingham]

I have a morbid fear of buttons

[Pogonip]

Our local fish wrap says the ice cream licker has been caught.

[Nate Whilk]

Just wait until these are more widespread.. they won’t know which way to turn

They'll just say it's code/dog whistle for MAGA.

[TimT]

My final words to her were: “Every time you wear the hat, you remember you lost a friendship over it. Every time.” I know for sure I’ll now think of her every time I see a MAGA hat, and I’ll fear its corrupting power even more than I used to.

And what a great friend, to lose his sh*t over a stupid bloody hat.

[Spiny Norman]

And what a great friend, to lose his sh*t over a stupid bloody hat.

'Tis the glory of being woke.

[David]

More hat-related trauma from the recreationally uptight.

[Pogonip]

Sounds like the phrase “going batshit” will soon become “going hatshit.”

I am trying to think of a good phrase for “going bugfuck” or “that guy’s batshit”. I want it to be colorful but not quite as, um, informal. Any ideas?

[JuliaM]

"More hat-related trauma from the recreationally uptight."

Good grief!

"Surely, there must be protocol when African-American professors—whose presence is scarce in most law schools—find their authority defiantly undermined by an insensitive student."

Or, by his hat.

[David]

Good grief!

The levels of dogmatic uniformity, paranoia and histrionic self-absorption are quite a thing. You sort of wish that these people might register, just briefly, the possibility that what should be of concern isn’t the wearing of an allegedly EVIL HAT with CORRUPTING POWERS, but the prevalence of narcissism and delusions of persecution among left-leaning educators. And those subject to their influence.

[Myrddin]

WOKISM IS A RELIGION

https://twitter.com/EPoe187/status/1148197824791814144

Seems appropriate for the discussion.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

More hat related trauma...

As the student sat there directly in front of me, his shiny red MAGA hat was like a siren spewing derogatory racial obscenities at me for the duration of the one hour and fifteen-minute class...

Shiny red, with a rotating amber warning light, no doubt, to go with the "...siren spewing derogatory racial obscenities..." as opposed to "a siren spewing complimentary racial obscenities". Professors are smrt. Why anyone would think this is actually profound is a mystery (if it even happened), but it is nice to see that the commenters are not buying the BS.

[pst314]

Wokism is a Religion

Any day now a descendant of Jonathan Edwards will write "Trumpers in the Hands of an Angry God".

And isn't the idea that white people are inherently sinful a heresy of Calvinism?

[David]

his shiny red MAGA hat was like a siren spewing derogatory racial obscenities at me for the duration of the one hour and fifteen-minute class...

And despite sounding like the ravings of someone with a mental health problem, it was published, approvingly and without challenge, in the premier journal of the American Bar Association. As if we should take it, and its author, seriously.

[WTP]

it was published, approvingly and without challenge, in the premier journal of the American Bar Association.

He's part of the guild. They can only be wrong in the context of one lawyer pitted against another in such a fashion or context where there can be only one answer. Which is why, you see if you study the guild closely, they use language to cut reality into the tiniest pieces such that nothing is sufficiently similar such that it can be understood by anyone outside the guild and thus everything, as much as possible, is a unique case requiring their oversight. Not that those inside the guild understand these on-the-fly laws either. But they don't really have to. It's how they have taken over our society and thus their wants and needs override those of voters and such. It's also why lawyers hardly ever, ever get disbarred.

[Cravvafurth]

"Hats that corrupt. Handguns that shoot people. Pencils that misspell words.
Don't forget utensils that make people fat!"
"More hat-related trauma from the recreationally uptight."

Hey isn't the above examples of an external locus of control?
Object XYZ did this or that or made me act in this way so I don't have to take responsibility for my own actions (and you can't blame me or enforce the consequences of my actions hahaha losers!)

It is all so very tiresome.

[David]

He’s part of the guild.

It’s like the countless Clown Quarter dissertations and so-called research papers that rely almost entirely on strained metaphors and bewildering hyperbole, unmoored from anything resembling evidence or plausibility. Apparently, no-one supervising these people, or editing them, or teaching them, sees fit to say, “Hang on a minute. Do you think this might be just a tiny bit over the top?”

[Sam]

Do you think this might be just a tiny bit over the top?

That assumes any incentive to moderate exists. The opposite is true. Like the standing ovations at Stalin's speeches - you don't want to be the first guy to stop clapping. Any wokeling who wants to stop or even slow down is immediately and unceremoniously thrown off the train as it speeds towards oblivion.

[David]

That assumes any incentive to moderate exists.

I’d settle for some vestigial capacity for shame. But hey ho.

[Sam]

Ah but they do feel shame, but it's only the shame in the eyes of their delusional peers.

[Governor Squid]

Professors are smrt. Why anyone would think this is actually profound is a mystery (if it even happened), but it is nice to see that the commenters are not buying the BS.

The commenters at Paul Caron's place, sure. The ABA Journal article he links has no comment section, just an e-mail to which one may send one's thoughts. I'm guessing that the chances of the word "codswallop" appearing in their next issue are inversely related to the number of e-mails filling up that poor sub-editor's inbox.

[Megaera]

Can't help wondering what the so-woke professor would do if he were to encounter a black student wearing a MAGA hat. Implode?

[Pogonip]

Ma’am, ur doin’ it wrong:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/woman-admits-killing-husband-dagger-foreplay-64209773?cid=clicksource_4380645_null_headlines_hed

[Adam]

Ford’s demands of his erstwhile friends are of a piece with the policy of knitting website Ravelry. They announced that members may not post approval of Trump (but they are allowed to post and sell “Fuck Trump” designs for throw pillows and such.)

You can still approve of Trump personally in the privacy of your own thoughts, but the group will not tolerate you saying so.

Kinda like the Chinese toleration of Christianity, as long as it is not practiced.