Our Betters In Distress

From the Times, a tale of evil seen, if you tilt your head and squint:

The three wise monkeys have been a cultural trope throughout the world for centuries as a symbol of seeing, hearing and speaking no evil. Academics at the University of York have decided that they could be seen as an oppressive racial stereotype, and pulled an image of the animals from their website to avoid offence.

Organisers of a forthcoming art history conference apologised for using the picture in their call for submissions. “Upon reflection, we strongly believe that our first poster is not appropriate as its iconology promulgates a longstanding visual legacy of oppression and exploits racist stereotypes,” they wrote. “We bring this to your attention, so that we may be held accountable for our actions and, in our privileges, do and be better.”

I doubt that doing better is on the cards, somehow. Just more of the same.

The fretful academics - who deploy the words “Orality, Aurality, Opticality and Hapticity” and then applaud themselves - claim to be concerned for the feelings of others – others who may, hypothetically, be offended, indeed oppressed, by a seventeenth century Buddhist figurine showing three helpers of the divine, and whose monkey form is a phonetic pun to speakers of Japanese. 

Readers may note that the agonising – in which any depiction of a monkey immediately conjures thoughts of black people - does rather speak to the weirdly dogmatic assumptions of the agonised, rather than the object being agonised about, or how said object is generally understood. It must be those intersectional lenses we hear so much about. Which is to say, lefties project.

Via Mr Muldoon.

Comments

[Liz]

It must be those intersectional lenses we hear so much about.

That.

[Joan]

Remind me who the racists are again.

[David]

Remind me who the racists are again.

Well, quite. I must’ve seen the three wise monkeys more times than I could count, but I don’t recall ever construing them as a caricature of black people.

Because, well, that would be slightly weird.

[Nikw211]

Remind me who the racists are again.

Dear White people ...

Oh, no ...

What are you doing to make sure that you're raising children who won't kill mine?

There is a certain skill in leveraging the simple lie stated boldly, with which the more complex discussion struggles to compete for attention.

That much of the force of such brazen untruths relies on the material body of the person who speaks them is depressing to the point of despair.

The responses, incidentally, are just as remarkable - this being just one of many examples in the same tone.

While the idea of having "ongoing discussions" with a four year-old about the death of George Floyd lack credibility, you do have to ponder what such a conversation might have looked like if actually attempted.

[Karl]

"We bring this to your attention, so that we may be held accountable for our actions..."

[David]

I suspect that to be a lie of sorts

Heh. For some people, it’s like breathing.

[Karl]

What are you doing to make sure that you're raising children who won't kill mine?

Trying to discourage your children from taking Fentanyl.

[David]

Trying to discourage your children from taking Fentanyl.

[ Rolls crudely-shaped ball of pâté across bar to Karl. Fluff accumulates. ]

[asiaseen]

What are you doing to make sure that you're raising children who won't kill mine?

An enquiry more appropriately addressed to the questioner, methinks.

[pst314]

It seems to me that universities would be better run, and would do a better job of educating, if those with the power to hire and fire and punish were high school graduates--carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, electricians, gardeners.

[Ted S, Catskill Mtns, NY, USA]

[ Rolls crudely-shaped ball of pâté across bar to Karl. Fluff accumulates. ]

Is this pâté the inverted pork rectums from the previous thread?

[David]

Is this pâté the inverted pork rectums from the previous thread?

[ Whistles nonchalantly, wipes bar. ]

[Karl]

crudely-shaped ball of pâté

Got you covered:

[pst314]

Got you covered:

[replaces mouse with worn out scroll wheel]

Ahem:

[pst314]

So, Karl, have you considered converting the vacant massage parlor next door into a restaurant?

[semi retired conservative]

What are you doing to make sure that you're raising children who won't kill mine?

Statistically speaking, your children are more likely to be the murderers. And of children who look like them.

What are you therefore doing, Madam, about your homicidal little goblins ?

[pst314]

What are you therefore doing, Madam, about your homicidal little goblins?

"Orc" is more commonly used to refer to these feral creatures, as it has greater more one-syllable verbal punch and because with Peter Jackson's adaptations of the Lord of the Rings everybody has a gut feeling for just how repulsively evil orcs are.

But have you seen the SJW satires in which orcs are portrayed as innocent victims of a racist conspiracy by elves, dwarves, and the very-white Men of the West?

[Karl]

So, Karl, have you considered converting the vacant massage parlor next door into a restaurant?

Hmmm, as you can see perhaps I could cater to the same, er, discerning clientele?

Ahem

What, you didn't really need to see it in its full-sized glory?

[David]

What, you didn’t really need to see it in its full-sized glory?

I knew I should’ve done a food-porn blog instead.

[ Fondles cheesecake. ]

[Steve E]

What, you didn't really need to see it in its full-sized glory?

Thanks. I can't keep the cat away from the computer screen now.

[Burnsie]

Got you covered:

Ah yes, I see them. Inverted pork rectums. Many, many, many inverted pork rectums.

On the other hand, it does look freshly made. That's a step up from the usual fare here.

[Steve E]

Many, many, many inverted pork rectums.

From reference.com:

Boneless pork rectums or pork bungs are used in dry sausages, smoked sausage and liverwurst. Bungs can also be used as imitation calamari because, despite the differences in origin, they both share a basic rubbery texture. However, as of 2015 there is no evidence that they are actually being served in this manner.

I'll never be able to eat calamari again.

[Mike]

Does this mean the York University sees black people as monkeys? I believe they are finally seeing "truth to power" in real time. Thank you for your wisdom academia.

[Runcie Balspune]

What are you doing to make sure that you're raising children who won't kill mine?

I raised my children the same way my great-grandparents raised my grandfathers, who went and risked their lives to confront _real_ fascists, so that people of all creeds can live together as equals, because that's what they believed in.

As you were asking ...

[Runcie Balspune]

Lord of the Rings

Orc and goblin are interchangeable in Tolkien fantasy.

Orcs are Elves corrupted by Morgorth, so it's really about whether you see them as separate races or not.

[pst314]

Orc and goblin are interchangeable in Tolkien fantasy.

Yes, but as I said "orc", having only one syllable and ending with a strong consonant, has more punch than does "goblin". Thus "orc" is preferable in that context.

And to get really geeky, I vaguely recall Tolkien saying that "goblin" and "orc" were not truly interchangeable--maybe that goblins were the older, less fearsome variety and orcs were later, bigger, more deadly varieties--but I am relying on decades-old memories.

Orcs are Elves corrupted by Morgorth

Ah, I'd forgotten that and thought it was Sauron. But maybe Sauron created some later varieties of orc? And there seemed to be some differences in the variety that served Saruman.

[Darleen]

What are you doing to make sure that you're raising children who won't kill mine?

Another notable response. How those kids feel in about ten years about mom is pretty predictable.

[Ivy]

Better to autodenounce and have some control over it than to give their so-called friends or academic colleagues an easy shot.

I didn't know the three monkeys was Japanese. I thought it might have been popularized by the badthinker Kipling to reinforce the trope of oriental inscrutability. Then again in the current game, nothing is permitted to be scrutable to whites, not even their own internal life and motivations.

Via Tim Newman, a thread about trans athletes in prairies, canyons or other sublime and oppressive landscapes.

[John Lewis]

The trans athletes issue will almost certainly be the first of many car crashes we will be encouraged to believe aren’t actually happening,

The “She believes” cup, so beloved by the bbc, may prove to have been aptly named. Recent political events have shown the way forward. If you believe you have been cheated them you’re the problem,

[Joan]

The trans athletes issue will almost certainly be the first of many car crashes we will be encouraged to believe aren’t actually happening,

https://twitter.com/whitesundesert/status/1352980634399109125

Nothing to see here.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

The trans athletes issue...

How could I forget poor Lindsay Hecox?

Either an apt name, or trolling...

[Darleen]

The return of Soviet psychiatry.

[pst314]

The return of Soviet psychiatry.

It was never far away, if you pay close attention to what Progressive Bien Pensants have said to each other.

[Pooklord]

I'm old enough to remember when Scientific American was about science.

[Karl]

The return of Soviet psychiatry.

Christ on a bike. The Scientific American used to be a weighty intellectual tome bringing a wonder and joy of science in articles that impressed the hell out of me.

Now look at it. "How Science Explains Trump’s Grip on White Males". "Twitter Bots Are a Major Source of Climate Disinformation". "When Our Gaze Is a Physical Force". "The Science of Spiritual Narcissism". And of course "The ‘Shared Psychosis’ of Donald Trump and His Loyalists"

It's a fucking clown show. What the hell happened?

[pst314]

I'm old enough to remember when Scientific American was about science.

As am I. It is terrible to see what a degraded Pravda it has become. But the left cannot allow anything--especially anything good--to remain uncorrupted.

[pst314]

What the hell happened?

We were excessively tolerant of Marxists?

[dcardno]

The Scientific American used to be a weighty intellectual tome...

Well... SciAm was always a science popularizer, more than an intellectual tome, but it was serious. The rot goes back quite a ways, though - at least 30 years, and maybe close to 40. The went all-in on global warming: any questioning of "the science" (such as it was) let alone the policy response was beyond the pale. I let my 16-year subscription lapse in 1986, and honestly haven't missed it.

[pst314]

OT: I'm surprised nobody reacted to my comment in the previous thread about a film adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Troll Bridge, as I have seen many comments here indicating a liking for his stories. I just found out that at least two biographies of Terry have been published: Terry Pratchett by Craig Cabell, and The Magic of Terry Pratchett by Marc Burrows. I do not know their quality but thought it worth a mention.

[pst314]

The went all-in on global warming...

They treated Nuclear Winter and antimissile defense the same way.

[WTP]

I'm old enough to remember when Scientific American was about science.

You guys must be mighty f'ng old. Or not been paying attention for decades,

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

You guys must be mighty f'ng old. Or not been paying attention for decades,

They are not mutually exclusive, many of us can remember when it was about science, and then quit paying attention to it when it ceased to be.

The author of the linked dog's breakfast, which falls under the heading of "Ivy League grade stupidity", evidently has been called out by the APA for her armchair shrinkology, so one must consider the source.

[Richard Cranium]

I'm surprised nobody reacted to my comment in the previous thread about a film adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Troll Bridge, as I have seen many comments here indicating a liking for his stories.

I did watch it. I don't know Terry Pratchett from my dead cat, so I am as close to an uninvolved viewer as you might get.

It was OK. Not great. Not horrible. Not mind-blowing. Not I-saw-THAT-a-mile-away.

In my case, it was unworthy of comment without your puzzled comment that nobody commented.

[anon a mouse]

I let my 16-year subscription lapse in 1986,

Well, let's see - SA was sold off in ... 1986! Now we know who to blame!

Heh.

[pst314]

I don't know Terry Pratchett from my dead cat

It was a nice slice of the Terry universe, one tiny glimpse of one of the many themes running through his stories, but Terry's words are better than any dramatization.

[WTP]

Oh, I stuck with it into the early 1990's but the leftism was there going back into the early 80's (when I first encountered it) at the least. Sure there were real science articles,but the social science and the "silent spring" slant were there even then. I liked their physics and math stuff and there was the occasional social science article, usually of dubious sources, that may have been light on the politics, but it was there.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Not a cult, nope, nosireebob.

[Daniel Ream]

I'm surprised nobody reacted to my comment in the previous thread about a film adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Troll Bridge

Hal was the biggest and most vocal fan, so perhaps that accounts for your perception.

I find Pratchett pretentious and smug, myself, and not terribly original even for a satirist. But chacun son gout and all that.

Also my posts are still getting eaten somewhere along the line. I've had three go missing from this thread alone. They show up in my browser after I post. Perhaps Brave is breaking something on the client side?

[Felicity]

Not a cult, nope, nosireebob.

https://twitter.com/HollyBriden/status/1353503819322118144?s=20

[NTSOG]

@ Felicity: Not a pretty sight, but most 'humans' of the Antifa/BLM/Alphabet/socialist persuasion seem to be lacking when it comes to looking even half decent and clean.

[David]

It’s a fucking clown show. What the hell happened?

Like many supposedly non-political but decidedly leftist publications, Scientific American has been reputationally sinking, and losing its audience, for quite some time; though in the last few years its decline has accelerated fairly dramatically. The current editor-in-chief, formerly of the Washington Post and – wait for it - Slate - has gargled the woke Kool-Aid, is triumphantly partisan, and mouths every sickly platitude about “diversity and inclusion.” And so, we get articles repeating obvious woke dishonesties and denouncing “white supremacy,” written by self-styled activists who think the word “crapitalism” is very, very clever.

As Instapundit often quips, “I’m beginning to think that the past 50 years or so of letting our children be educated by the enemies of our civilisation may have been a mistake.”

[JuliaM]

Well, at least the monkeys aren’t counting....

http://twitter.com/kareem_carr/status/1353051242293915648

[Richard Cranium]

As a young man, Scientific American provided some quite wonderful articles as well as their Amateur Scientist articles.

I learned how to brew mead from SA from an AS article; my father (long gone now) and I brewed some wonderful mead back then. I learned how to create and use a sling from SA (http://www.imperium-romana.org/uploads/5/9/3/3/5933147/scientificamerican1073-34.pdf). Hell, I learned about the game of NIM and George Conway's "Game of Life" from SA (something older computer weasels coded a couple of generations ago).

When I was young, I thought the arrow of entropy pointed in a different direction than it does now. Silly me.

[GandelFish]

Further to the SciAm / Dr Lee embarrassment, I can assure the assembled masses that those of us trained before the fall of the USSR would never have diagnosed any public figure with anything but ‘ being a politician’.

[David]

Incidentally, if you poke through Ms Helmuth’s Twitter feed, and those of her colleagues, you’ll find plenty of the same fawning over Democrat politicians, as if they were glamorous celebrities, akin to film stars, and not just shifty, power-hungry creeps, as is more typically the case. It’s quite weird to see, as if the fawners and cooers had never quite grown up.

For supposed science journalists, there’s quite a lot of fan-girling.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

From a comment at Julia's link:

My daughter is taking a “Rehumanizing Mathematics” course for her high school senior year math elective where these issues are front and center. Certainly the most engaging math class she has had in her student career to date

If that is the most engaging, it doesn't exactly speak well for either the daughter or the school. Wait, you say, what is "Rehumanizing Mathematics" ?

Behold the glory and academic rigor of "Rehumanizing Mathematics"

Center Black and Indigenous people, esp.womxn, queer folx, and other oppressed identities

If that isn't worth a Nobel Prize, nothing is.

[Karl]

If that isn't worth a Nobel Prize

I think you mean "Nobxl Prix"?

From Kareening Carr Crash's twits:
"You can trace a lot of the cultural norms of mathematics back to various European cultural quirks for instance the British gentleman's love of frivolous pursuits."

Sure, that and wanting stuff to not break or fall down.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

"You can trace a lot of the cultural norms of mathematics back to various European cultural quirks for instance the British gentleman's love of frivolous pursuits."

Pythagoras and Lobachevsky were twitting about this just the other day.

[Karl]

Scientific American provided some quite wonderful articles

The edition I particularly remember contained an article by Douglas R. Hofstadter (author of "Gödel, Escher, Bach") in his "Metamagical Themas" series on the application of Group Theory to solving the Rubik's Cube. If you look through its Table of Contents it's nothing but thoughtful, intelligent, intellectual, scientific curiosity.

Sigh.

[anon a mouse]

Pythagoras and Lobachevsky were twitting about this just the other day.

Looking for an angle, apparently...

[WTP]

As Instapundit often quips, “I’m beginning to think that the past 50 years or so of letting our children be educated by the enemies of our civilisation may have been a mistake.

"May have been"? Seems like it continues, on steroids, and nobody cares to lift a finger to stop it because if someone did try, our society might laugh at them. And that would be simply unbearable.

[asiaseen]

Rehumanizing Mathematics

OK, x appears as a spelling mistake but what happened to + - and the other one?

[Jon]

The "academics" believe there are 133.50 genders, so anything's possible these days

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

OK, x appears as a spelling mistake...

If you are referring to "folx", no mistake, it is hip, trendy, and most importantly woke to spell "folks" in the same style as "latinx", "folks" being the yte way of spelling. Besides, "fols" would make no sense - not that anything else in that rubbish does.

Looking for an angle, apparently...

Now you are just being obtuse.

[anon a mouse]

"Now you are just being obtuse."

Let's not go off on a tangent here...

[David]

Let’s not go off on a tangent here...

[ Summons henchlesbians. ]

Bring the clamps.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Bring the clamps.

I hear they were expensive and you had to have someone cosine a loan to get them.

[anon a mouse]

Well, this has taken a new arc...

[WTP]

I see acute puns are becoming increasingly integral to this discussion. Point being I was out of line earlier. Please return to commenting in German.

[Steve E]

I particularly remember contained an article by Douglas R. Hofstadter

A distant relative of Leonard Leakey Hofstadter no doubt.

[anon a mouse]

Bitte sprechen Sie langsamer...

[pst314]

Mein...Hovercraft...ist...voll...von...Aalen.

[semi retired conservative]

Herr Fawlty sprechen: "Well let me tell you something – this is exactly how Nazi Germany started. A lot of layabouts with nothing better to do than to cause trouble. Well I’ve had fifteen years of pandering to the likes of you, and I’ve had enough. I’ve had it. Come on, pack your bags and get out."

[pst314]

"Come on, pack your bags and get out."

I only wanted a Waldorf salad.

[Karl]

ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!
Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.

[pst314]

I will not buy this comment thread. It is scratched.

[Governor Squid]

We have a distracting Christmas decoration that I've called Das Blinkenlichten for nigh on 20 years now. Its official title is the "Tacky Twinkle Light," so I don't feel as though I'm being unfair with my renaming. What's worse is that I spent an hour in December rewiring the damn thing because it wasn't blinking "properly."

[Joe Ego]

It's probably dumb, but I've long been fond of saying: Projection ain't just a river in Egypt.

[Cloudbuster]

What are you doing to make sure that you're raising children who won't kill mine?

I guess I could teach them to stay out of black neighborhoods, so they don't get attacked, have to defend themselves and maybe end up killing your children who are attacking them.

[Daniel Ream]

A distant relative of Leonard Leakey Hofstadter no doubt.

There are a lot of Easter Eggs in that show.

[Karl]

There are a lot of Easter Eggs in that show.

It used to be funny too. Before they let all the womanly types in. Now its just "Neighbours" with nerds.

[anon a mouse]

"ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!"

Achtung! Jetzt wir singen zusammen die Geschichte über den Schweinköpfigen Hund und den lieben Red Baron

[Karl]

Oh look! The Scientific Americans made a movie!

[pst314]

Scottish butcher marks Burns Night by sending haggis to edge of space ... where it belongs.
Meanwhile, disgusted space aliens say to each other, "one hundred kilometers higher and we drop another asteroid on those buggers."

[pst314]

Oh look! The Scientific Americans made a movie!

Because their ambition is to be both Pravda and Izvestia.

[Karl]

I shall just leave these here...

[NTSOG]

Scottish butcher launches haggis into space - but why?

As someone who enjoys a plate of fried lambs' brains and bacon and other meals of prime offal [liver, kidneys, tripe, etc.] I have never tried haggis. What does it taste like?

[pst314]

I shall just leave these here...

[begins slapping hand with truncheon]

[David]

where it belongs.

I found haggis to be surprisingly tasty. Spicy, sweet and quite delicate. Not at all what I expected.

[pst314]

[begins researching how large a balloon would have to be to take David to the edge of space]

[David]

[begins researching how large a balloon would have to be to take David to the edge of space]

I am quite svelte.

It’s not the kind of thing that would normally appeal – and as a rule I detest liver, one of the typical ingredients. But it was much more agreeable than I’d feared, surprisingly delicate, and a pleasing texture.

Though I was halfway through a good red at the time.

[pst314]

Though I was halfway through a good red at the time.

That is a mildly extenuating circumstance. Sufficient to offer you another chance. Now, old blogger, you have one last chance. Confess the heinous sin of heresy, reject the works of the ungodly, and you shall be free. Refuse to confess and we will poke you with soft cushions and force you to drink Boones Farm box wine.

[semi retired conservative]

It’s not the kind of thing that would normally appeal...

My darling wife is a bit of a gourmet and quite enjoys well prepared faggots... and whatever else is on the womens channel.

Me, I stick to liver.

[Karl]

What does it taste like?

A well-flavoured meat porridge in which the astringent coppery liver tones are balanced by the earthy notes of nutmeg and mace, with just a hint of spice to give it some lift.

And hide the taste of the minced pork recta.

[NTSOG]

Karl [obviously schooled in Latin grammar and declensions]: "And hide the taste of the minced pork recta."

There seems to be an unusual preoccupation on this site with pigs' bums. Very strange.

Otherwise thanks for describing the flavour of haggis. I will have to find an Antipodean supplier and try some.

[a different james]

thanks for describing the flavour of haggis

Its not too unlike a white pudding, although looser in texture. I have only eaten it once, in a pub in Edinburgh, and liked it very much

https://www.meatsandsausages.com/sausage-recipes/pudding-white

I hope that helps rather than confuses you

[NTSOG]

Thankyou for the recipe 'a different james'. I'll have to give it a go, though I suspect my US-born wife might object - she turned her nose up when I brought home black pudding once and lambs' brains caused her to gag.

Jim.

[pst314]

I think that's enough about offal. Any other topics?

[Karl]

schooled in Latin grammar and declensions

Indeed.
I believe it was Hadrian who famously said "recti, rectu, rectum" - I came, I ate, I got the shits.

[pst314]

Would posting this meme get me a knock on the door from the police if I lived in the UK?