Page 50 of 53 [ 835 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53  Next

RetroGamer87
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Jul 2013
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 10,916
Location: Adelaide, Australia

28 May 2023, 7:36 pm

jimmy m wrote:
I read an interesting article by Bari Weiss about 10 steps a person can take to defend against the Woke Generation. He wrote:

I realize the faddish thing to say these days is that we live in the worst, most broken and backward country in the world and maybe in the history of civilization. It’s utter nonsense.

I know it's been two years but can there please be a source on the woke people saying you "live in the worst, most broken and backward country in the world and maybe in the history of civilization"?


_________________
The days are long, but the years are short


cyberdad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,015

28 May 2023, 8:19 pm

Bari Weiss's NY article is blocked in Australia

Weiss is playing the conservative narrative and injecting intellectual into the anti-woke movement

But the outcome she is seeking is book burning and re-writing of history. A return to vilification of marganilised groups (except perhaps upper class jewish community which Weiss belongs).

Santayana reminded us that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”



ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,123
Location: Long Island, New York

28 May 2023, 11:23 pm

cyberdad wrote:
Bari Weiss's NY article is blocked in Australia

Weiss is playing the conservative narrative and injecting intellectual into the anti-woke movement

But the outcome she is seeking is book burning and re-writing of history. A return to vilification of marganilised groups (except perhaps upper class jewish community which Weiss belongs).

Santayana reminded us that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Bari Weiss has never advocated for book burning and a return to the vilification of marginalized groups with one important exception.
Despite gaining success in her professional career as a crusader against censorship, as a student a Columbia she led a cancellation campaign against anti-zionist Arab proffessors.

Despite calling herself a liberal she is a neoconservative.


The remainder of the article posted in the OP
Quote:
1. Remind yourself, right now, of the following truth: You are free.
It’s true that we live in an upside-down time in which pressing the "like" button on the wrong thing can bring untold consequences. But giving in to those who seek to confine you only hurts you in the long run. Your loss of self is the most significant thing that could be taken away from you. Don’t give it up for anything.

2. Be honest.
Do not say anything about yourself or others that you know is false. Absolutely refuse to let your mind be colonized. The first crazy thing someone asks you to believe or to profess, refuse. If you can, do so out loud. There is a good chance it will inspire others to speak up, too.

3. Stick to your principles.
If you are a decent person, you know mob justice is never just. So never join a mob. Ever.

Even if you agree with the mob. If you are a decent person, you know betraying friends is wrong. So if a friend or a colleague does something you disagree with, write them a private note. Don’t be a snitch. Any mob that comes for them will come for you.

4. Set an example for your kids and your community.
That means being courageous. I understand that it’s hard. Really hard. But in other times and places, including in our own nation, people have made far greater sacrifices. (Think of those "honored dead" who "gave the last full measure of devotion.") If enough people make the leap, we will achieve something like herd immunity. Jump.

5. If you don’t like it, leave it.
A class in college, a job, anything. Get out and do your own thing. I fully understand the impulse to want to change things from within. And by all means: Try as hard as you can. But if the leopard is currently eating the face of the person at the cubicle next to yours, I promise it’s not going to refrain from eating yours if you post the black square on Instagram.

6. Become more self-reliant.
If you can learn to use a power drill, do it. If you’ve always wanted an outdoor solar hot tub, make one. Learn to poach an egg or shoot a gun. Most importantly: Get it in your head that platforms are not neutral. If you don’t believe me, look at Parler and look at Robinhood. To the extent that you can build your life to be self-reliant and not 100 percent reliant on the Web, it’s a good thing. It will make you feel competent and powerful. Which you are.

7. Worship God more than Yale.
In other words, do not lose sight of what is essential. Professional prestige is not essential. Being popular is not essential. Getting your child into an elite preschool is not essential. Doing the right thing is essential. Telling the truth is essential. Protecting your kids is essential.

8. Make like-minded friends.
Then stand up for them. Two good tests: Are they willing to tell the truth even if it hurts their own side? And do they think that humor should never be a casualty, no matter how bleak the circumstances? These people are increasingly rare. When you find them, hold on tight.

9. Trust your own eyes and ears.
Rely on firsthand information from people you trust rather than on media spin. When you hear someone making generalizations about a group of people, imagine they are talking about you and react accordingly. If people insist on spouting back headlines and talking points, make them prove it, in their own words.

10. Use your capital to build original, interesting and generative things right now. This minute.
Every day I hear from those with means with children at private schools who are being brainwashed; people who run companies where they are scared of their own employees; people who donate to their alma mater even though it betrays their principles. Enough.

You have the ability to build new things. If you don’t have the financial capital, you have the social or political capital. Or the ability to sweat.

The work of our lifetimes is the Great Build. Let’s go.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 29 May 2023, 1:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

cyberdad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,015

29 May 2023, 1:23 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
Despite calling herself a liberal she is a neoconservative.
\


Not the first though. Tulsi Gabbard called herself a democrat when in fact she's a Trump supporter. Lately she's chimed in and spouted same nonsense as Tucker Carlson on the great replacement theory. Not sure how white supremacy sits with her Samoan father or her hindu faith?



AngelRho
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Jan 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,366
Location: The Landmass between N.O. and Mobile

29 May 2023, 8:38 am

cyberdad wrote:
ASPartOfMe wrote:
Despite calling herself a liberal she is a neoconservative.
\


Not the first though. Tulsi Gabbard called herself a democrat when in fact she's a Trump supporter. Lately she's chimed in and spouted same nonsense as Tucker Carlson on the great replacement theory. Not sure how white supremacy sits with her Samoan father or her hindu faith?

That just demonstrates that conservativism is not one and the same as white supremacy. A little-known fact is there are liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats.

Tulsi Gabbard just doesn’t represent Democratic voters well. It’s just an example of how sometimes you only win elections by sticking a D or R next to your name. I got to know a few politicians in the Mississippi Delta. It turns out that there are quite a few black conservatives who don’t like identifying with Republicans because of the perception among black voters. And unlike Delta Republicans, Delta Democrats are faced with local party bosses, i.e. if you are a black democrat, you need permission to run for office.

The problem should be an obvious one—you HAVE to run as Democrat to get black votes in this region, but you can’t win any election without white votes. For that reason, very few Delta politicians actually declare a party. They run as undeclared or independent. You can make reasonable assumptions about these politicians and probably be right, you can listen to campaign speeches, but the main way you win elections there is by not associating with one party or the other. Politicians declare party at the state or national level, and that’s where the black vote begins to count for something. The Mississippi Delta is solidly blue for that reason—not enough blacks willing to vote Republican, and Democratic Party bosses controlling who gets to run. Those with real power in the Delta are not the ones actually in office. And I’m not talking about some weird shadow conspiracy. Get to know black politicians and community organizers in the Delta and they’ll tell you the same thing “off record.”

It’s the same thing with Gabbard. Republicans don’t do well in Hawaii, but Democrats do a poor job of representing her values. Gabbard is probably ACTUALLY a Republican in terms of values, but if you pay close attention she is no longer affiliated with either party. Just like with Delta politicians, it’s a smart move. She depends on Republican votes, but she can’t alienate her base, either. So she can represent liberals while still being a conservative herself and still win elections.



ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,123
Location: Long Island, New York

29 May 2023, 12:35 pm

Campus free speech champion Robert Zimmer dies at age 75

Quote:
Robert J. Zimmer, the former president of the University of Chicago who made the school a leader in free speech and academic freedom rights, died yesterday at the age of 75.

Zimmer, who became the 13th president of the University of Chicago in 2006 and served in that role until 2021, was a champion of free expression. “Fundamentally, people are very comfortable with free expression for those that they agree with. And for those that they find disagreeable or wrong, they’re not that eager to have people be able to hear them,” Zimmer said in a 2021 interview shortly before he stepped down as president of the university. “The whole point of education is focused around ongoing intellectual challenge and open discourse.”

Throughout his tenure as president, Zimmer embodied this value.

In 2014, he appointed the now-famous Committee on Freedom of Expression at the University of Chicago, and the resulting report — commonly known as the “Chicago Statement” or “Chicago Principles” — has since become a model free expression resolution for colleges and universities nationwide.

During Zimmer’s tenure, UChicago consistently put its free speech principles into practice. This includes resisting calls to “protect” students from offensive speech, instead trusting their ability to confront complex and difficult concepts with the intellectual rigor for which the institution is renowned.

In his keynote address for the 2021 FIRE Faculty Network Conference, Zimmer said, “We’re in a time of grave challenge for universities worldwide, namely the values of academic freedom, open discourse, free expression, deep questioning, broad intellectual challenge, and independent thought, are under significant attack.”

“Mediocrity is easy,” he continued, “and if mediocrity is the aspiration one can allow some erosion of these values. But excellence should be our aspiration — and excellence is not easy.”

For Zimmer, aiming for excellence meant protecting the right to freely speak, teach, and learn.

“[T]he excellence of the research in education at our institutions comes with the price of ensuring that the values of academic freedom, free expression, open discourse, and intellectual challenge are sustained and not eroded, are lived every day and not only when convenient, and are defended when attacked. As we know well from history this is not always simple, and can even become dangerous.”


He not only took on “woke” but MAGA cancel culture also.
Robert Zimmer, mathematician and former U. of C. president, dies at 75
Quote:
Toward the end of his tenure, free speech issues loomed large, particularly after former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon received an invitation by a business professor to speak on campus. The invite sparked protests from students and alumni. The following year, when Bannon’s former boss, Trump, floated requiring universities to promote free speech — particularly conservative speech — or face losing federal money, Zimmer spoke out in opposition.

“A committee in Washington passing judgment on the speech policies and activities of educational institutions, judgments that may change according to who is in power and what policies they wish to promulgate, would be a profound threat to open discourse on campus,” Zimmer wrote in a letter to campus.

“Bob Zimmer was the most important and influential academic advocate for free speech on campus at a time when many other university presidents failed to defend those core academic values,” said U. of C. law professor Geoffrey R. Stone, who was the university’s provost from 1994 until 2002.

With such consistent voices becoming fewer and fewer and more difficult to maintain his death is a particularly bad loss.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


cyberdad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,015

29 May 2023, 4:44 pm

AngelRho wrote:
]
Tulsi Gabbard just doesn’t represent Democratic voters well.
It’s the same thing with Gabbard. Republicans don’t do well in Hawaii, but Democrats do a poor job of representing her values. Gabbard is probably ACTUALLY a Republican in terms of values, but if you pay close attention she is no longer affiliated with either party. Just like with Delta politicians, it’s a smart move. She depends on Republican votes, but she can’t alienate her base, either. So she can represent liberals while still being a conservative herself and still win elections.


Interesting...I also wonder if she (Like Nikki Haley) also positions herself as "white adjacent". If she does hold republican values, then her stance on race in America puts her in the same spectrum as far righters.



AngelRho
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Jan 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,366
Location: The Landmass between N.O. and Mobile

29 May 2023, 7:30 pm

cyberdad wrote:
AngelRho wrote:
]
Tulsi Gabbard just doesn’t represent Democratic voters well.
It’s the same thing with Gabbard. Republicans don’t do well in Hawaii, but Democrats do a poor job of representing her values. Gabbard is probably ACTUALLY a Republican in terms of values, but if you pay close attention she is no longer affiliated with either party. Just like with Delta politicians, it’s a smart move. She depends on Republican votes, but she can’t alienate her base, either. So she can represent liberals while still being a conservative herself and still win elections.


Interesting...I also wonder if she (Like Nikki Haley) also positions herself as "white adjacent". If she does hold republican values, then her stance on race in America puts her in the same spectrum as far righters.

What did Gabbard actually say about replacement theory? You have a link to something I can read? I've been googling tulsi gabbard great replacement and can't find anything useful.

Also...what exactly ARE Republican values? Not all Republicans believe the same things. I vote Republican because Republican platforms more closely match my own values. But I don't think "Republican" or "libertarian" best match my own ideals. They just get in the neighborhood of what I think. I like Ayn Rand objectivism as a personal philosophy, but I have ideas about abortion and religion that keep me firmly out of the club. "Republican" and "Democratic" are just political parties. They aren't races, cults, or tribes. And the planks that make up their respective platforms evolve. Trump's Republicans are different from Teddy Roosevelt's Republicans. If you pigeonhole Republicans as this thing or that thing, then you might as well admit that Democrats of today are the same as the slaveowners before the civil war.



mrpieceofwork
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 May 2023
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Posts: 717
Location: Texas aka hell

29 May 2023, 8:45 pm

Both main parties in the US are corrupt to the core. Neither do anything substantial for the health of anything less the profits of the leisure class. Consider "Manufacturing Consent" for a primer into how the system is set up to fool you into thinking "this is fine". It is most certainly not.


_________________
EAT THE RICH
WPs Three Word Story (WIP)
http://mrpieceofwork.byethost33.com/wp3/
My text only website
https://rawtext.club/~mrpieceofwork/
"Imagine Life Without Money"


AngelRho
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Jan 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,366
Location: The Landmass between N.O. and Mobile

29 May 2023, 9:14 pm

mrpieceofwork wrote:
Both main parties in the US are corrupt to the core.

Agreed 100%.

I mainly vote Republican because that's the only way anything remotely resembling my values will be represented. Republicans have consistently done more to protect the rights of individuals over the tyranny of the collective. What bothers me most about the Republican Party is they are no less power hungry than Democrats. They have consistently turned on their own and stymied progress, whereas Democrats have made greater strides towards their own agenda through solidarity. Party politics has become a machine for keeping politicians in power. It accomplishes little else.



cyberdad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,015

30 May 2023, 1:57 am

AngelRho wrote:
What did Gabbard actually say about replacement theory? You have a link to something I can read? I've been googling tulsi gabbard great replacement and can't find anything useful.




Despite this, I agree 100% with her views on the US intervention in Ukraine.



ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,123
Location: Long Island, New York

30 May 2023, 2:25 am

cyberdad wrote:
AngelRho wrote:
What did Gabbard actually say about replacement theory? You have a link to something I can read? I've been googling tulsi gabbard great replacement and can't find anything useful.




Despite this, I agree 100% with her views on the US intervention in Ukraine.

I heard the elitist conspiracy theory, not the replacement one.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


cyberdad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,015

30 May 2023, 3:27 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
I heard the elitist conspiracy theory, not the replacement one.


Honestly what's the difference?



AngelRho
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Jan 2008
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,366
Location: The Landmass between N.O. and Mobile

30 May 2023, 3:31 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
AngelRho wrote:
What did Gabbard actually say about replacement theory? You have a link to something I can read? I've been googling tulsi gabbard great replacement and can't find anything useful.




Despite this, I agree 100% with her views on the US intervention in Ukraine.

I heard the elitist conspiracy theory, not the replacement one.

I didn’t listen to all the commentary. But Tulsi isn’t exactly wrong in the little bit she said. I didn’t really hear anything about Great Replacement, which is about white nationalism.

I think there is a sort of replacement happening. Not a conspiracy, just an evolution of ideas or a cultural shift. It’s true that, for example, church attendance is on the decline, that fewer Americans identify as Christian and more as spiritual, there’s a trend towards atheism, etc. etc.

But it’s not a secret that the Democratic Party has trended towards elitism. I have often referenced that in my posts.

I disagree with the commenter on a lot of things…he’s defending a sanitized view of wokeness that’s detached from reality. I also strongly disagree with CRT…something else I also frequently post about.

CRT takes a view of history that is not wrong but interprets it in a way that is itself racist against white people. What CRT gets right is that left-wing politicians and policies frame black civil rights in terms that reinforce existing power structures by creating a permanent victim class along racial lines. Is the commenter right that the Democratic Party has done nothing for black people? Absolutely. Is CRT the solution? No, because you can’t solve racism with more racism. CRT’s solution is convincing all white people that being white means you are racist, that something is wrong with you if you’re born the wrong color. There’s nothing wrong with being born any color.

I think CRT is useful in carefully examining history and looking for hidden racism. For example, do you ever say “Democratic voters” when what you actually mean is “black people”? Because some black people vote Republican. Rejecting CRT doesn’t mean ignoring history—systemic, institutional racism DID exist at one point in American history. That is no longer the case. So why do CRT proponents insist that it does? And that’s when you have to examine our current government and its policies. The Democratic Party really is extremely racist and has a long history of racism, yet it claims minorities as a voting base.



cyberdad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,015

30 May 2023, 5:34 am

Tulsi is accusing the democrats of "anti-white racism"



ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,123
Location: Long Island, New York

30 May 2023, 10:54 am

cyberdad wrote:
ASPartOfMe wrote:
I heard the elitist conspiracy theory, not the replacement one.


Honestly what's the difference?

The Great Replacement Theory is a subcategory of the Elitists conspiracy theory. Elitist Conspiracy Theory posits that elitists are conspiring to control the world. The Great Replacement Theory is specific about what type of control, conspiracy to replacing white people as the dominant race.

In the Great Replacement theory the conspirators are most often Jews. “Elitists” or “Globalists” are often dog whistles for Jews. Whether Tulsi Gabbard is anti Jewish only she knows.

cyberdad wrote:
Tulsi is accusing the democrats of "anti-white racism"

She is mistaken about the Democratic Party as a whole. It is the “woke” part of the progressive movement. We talk a lot about how due to their base and fear of being primaried Republican politicians while knowing better enable MAGA’s. Similar for the Democrates with their woke and socialist parts of their base but to a lesser degree. At this point the Republican party is the MAGA party. While the Democrats are not the “woke” party but there is too much enabling of wokes.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman