The Woke Police

[Argus]

I think I'm going to start collecting examples of the lunacy and hysteria of the woke police here. They seem to be growing ever more shrill, ever more fanatical, and seizing on smaller and smaller errors of speech or behaviour to utterly condemn those who make them.

In today's example we have a guy called Chris Harrison, the longtime host of The Bachelor. Admittedly, I've never watched the show and never will. I'm too intelligent, mature and sophisticated compared to its fan base. I don't say that with any particular pride as it's a very low bar to surpass. Anyway, he's 'stepped away' from the show for a gross error of behaviour in that he did not properly condemn one of the contestants for having a picture of herself at a sorority party three years ago which took place at a former SLAVE plantation. That's it. That's his crime. He said he wasn't the 'woke police'. Which mightily pissed off the zealots.

Now to begin with, any reasonable person (and that excludes the politically correct) would not condemn a college girl for attending a sorority party without first checking the historical sins of the location to ensure they didn't soil her pristine image. So his response was entirely reasonable. But reasonable never enters the discussion when dealing with the frenzied mob of the politically correct. So her assumed guilt is now transferred to him. He's evil. That's all there is to it. And their grovelling apologies are insufficient. They must both be destroyed. The mob will settle for nothing less.

[Guest]

Hey, it's not all bad!  At least they stopped short of making after dinner conversation a source of hate crime in the UK.

Offensive comments made at private dinner tables will not be classed as hate crimes

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/10/offensive-comments-made-private-dinner-tables-will-not-classed/

Give it time and a Labour government though.

[Argus]

Well, it didn't take long to find another one. A distinguished science reporter for the formerly distinguished New York Times was forced out for using the N-word. However, he didn't use it at work and he didn't use it in a pejorative sense. It seems that three years ago during a trip by students to Peru one of them asked him a question.

“I was asked at dinner by a student whether I thought a classmate of hers should have been suspended for a video she had made as a 12-year-old in which she used a racial slur. To understand what was in the video, I asked if she had called someone else the slur or whether she was rapping or quoting a book title. In asking the question, I used the slur itself.”

That was more than enough, despite his 45 years with the Times, for them to declare him a horrible human being they did not wish to associate with any longer.

Among a significant and noisy number of Times writers and staff, however, Baquet’s denunciation of McNeil was far from sufficient. In effect, they demanded a new “trial” of the journalist, on the same charge. Some 150 staff signed a letter that complained that “we have given a prominent platform—a critical beat covering a pandemic disproportionately affecting people of color—to someone who chose to use language that is offensive and unacceptable by any newspaper’s standards.”

According to a report in the Guardian, among the complaints made against McNeil was that he did not agree with the use of the term “white privilege.” Furthermore, the letter insisted that the matter of racist intent was “irrelevant.” “[W]hat matters,” the letter went on, “is how an act makes victims feel; [McNeil’s] victims weren’t shy about decrying his conduct on the trip.”

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/12/mcne-f12.html

[Michael Hardner]

Important to note the news organization reporting this.

[Army Guy]

Comedian in court over a joke he told 10 years ago, forced to pay large fine to boy.

Quebec comedian Mike Ward heads to Supreme Court after making singer with disability the butt of joke | CTV News

[Shady]

Unfettered conversations!  The woke police is on it!

 

[Argus]

On 2/14/2021 at 4:13 PM, Michael Hardner said:

Important to note the news organization reporting this.

I found it on groundnews. There were a number of similar reports from various organizations. This seemed the most complete.

[Michael Hardner]

29 minutes ago, Argus said:

I found it on groundnews. There were a number of similar reports from various organizations. This seemed the most complete.

Sure, but it looks like an opinion piece, right ?  What I'm getting at is there's something strange happening here that isn't obvious to FOX news: identity politics isn't universally loved by "the left".  Or maybe there is something else happening, namely that certain political parties are using this topic as a branding mechanism for themselves pro- or con-.  And it's easier to brand yourself than actually make change too.

[Argus]

This is a slide from a mandatory diversity training seminar given to employees of Coca Cola.

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by Argus

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, Argus said:

This is a slide from a mandatory diversity training seminar given to employees of Coca Cola.

 

I must be black.  I scored 90%

I might be a bit defensive...

[Argus]

13 hours ago, bcsapper said:

I must be black.  I scored 90%

I might be a bit defensive...

Where do you think you score on the white oppressor color chart?

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by Argus

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Argus said:

Where do you think you score on the white oppressor color chart?

 

There's no "Barnor Hesse is a mindless prat" identity?

Edited February 21, 2021 by bcsapper

[Argus]

2 minutes ago, bcsapper said:

There's no "Barnor Hesse is a mindless prat" identity?

Your defensiveness is obviously an example of white fragility.

Educate yourself!

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Argus said:

Your defensiveness is obviously an example of white fragility.

Educate yourself!

I can't.  I'm watching the football.

[Guest]

You'd think that poet who spoke at the inauguration would be untouchable, but, apparently not.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/01/amanda-gorman-white-translator-quits-marieke-lucas-rijneveld

How does this work exactly?  She's young, black, female, and her choice was young, female, non-binary, but white.  One would figure enough boxes has been ticked. 

 

[Argus]

This is the hilarious story about the hilariously woke people at Twitch, a popular social media/messaging company.

Last week, the super woke at Twitch decided that from now on they would change 'women' to 'womxn' in all correspondence and messaging because a tiny group of man-hating lesbians don't like to use a word which has the word 'men' as a part of it. This is eye-rollingly stupid enough on its own to laugh in their faces. But they've had to hurriedly backtrack and issue a grovelling apology. Not because women were offended. Not because sane people were offended, but because trans activists were offended.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56251452

[Michael Hardner]

3 hours ago, Argus said:

This is the hilarious story about the hilariously woke people at Twitch, a popular social media/messaging company.

I guess it would be hilarious if you are against these types of discussions and you thought that this event would bring it all to a close.  Otherwise, I don't think it's very funny, nor does it make me feel that there's a way to quiet down these fights moving forward.

[Argus]

2 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

I guess it would be hilarious if you are against these types of discussions and you thought that this event would bring it all to a close.  Otherwise, I don't think it's very funny, nor does it make me feel that there's a way to quiet down these fights moving forward.

I'm never against intelligent discussion. But it's funny as another sign that no matter how desperately woke you try to be, no matter how hard you try to virtue signal,  you can always anger the mob.

But as to that discussion. If you can think of how to hold an intelligent discussion on why or how we should replace 'women' with 'womxn', I encourage you to have at it.  I can't think of a way, myself and the whole idea is pointless and appeals only to the woke.

[Michael Hardner]

3 hours ago, Argus said:

1. But it's funny as another sign that no matter how desperately woke you try to be, no matter how hard you try to virtue signal,  you can always anger the mob.

2. If you can think of how to hold an intelligent discussion on why or how we should replace 'women' with 'womxn', I encourage you to have at it. 

1. I get it, but I find it tiresome not funny.

2. Well it sounds like a discussion was had, and something came out of it.  I have a pretty high bar for intelligent conversation, so I doubt that this would qualify.  I just hope people are listening and being civil.  If they're getting angry, hopefully they can mitigate the emotionality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Argus]

Math, as anyone knows, is, of course, racist. And so it needs to be shifted, sifted and changed by the woke so that black kids no longer fail in greater numbers. Because the only reason they fail in greater numbers must be that math is racist. How is it racist, you might ask? I'm glad you asked me that!

1. a focus on getting the “right” answer is “perfectionism” or “either/or thinking;”

2. the idea that teachers are teachers and students are learners is wrong;

3. to think of it as a problem that the expectations you have of students are not met is racist;

4. to teach math in a linear fashion with skills taught in sequence is racist;

5. to value “procedural fluency” – i.e. knowing how to do the fractions, long division … -- over “conceptual knowledge” is racist. That is, black kids are brilliant to know what math is trying to do, to know “what it’s all about,” rather than to actually do the math, just as many of us read about what physics or astrophysics accomplishes without ever intending to master the math that led to the conclusions;

6. to require students to “show their work” is racist;

7. requiring students to raise their hand before speaking “can reinforce paternalism and powerhoarding, in addition to breaking the process of thinking, learning, and communicating.”

https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/is-it-racist-to-expect-black-kids?

[Argus]

You want to know what our universities are spending money on? The kind of absurdities which go on there in the name of wokeness? Brock University seems a pretty good example. Despite my low opinion of the woke, it's still a bit of an eye-opener about just how fanatical these people are whenever anyone dares to even mildly challenge them.

At around the same time, Bourgeois was among a number of Brock officials who were targeted by an anonymous Twitter account called @BrockCivis, which presented itself as being operated by members of the university community who were concerned about allegedly unethical behaviour. But relatively little attention was paid to the account until February 7, 2021, when @BrockCivis scathingly quote-tweeted the official university announcement of a forthcoming event to “remember the loss of thousands of Indigenous women…to colonial violence.” While the tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) is well-known among Canadians, having been the subject of a recent national inquiry, @BrockCivis expressed outrage that the official Brock University Twitter account was using MMIWG “to score ideological points” in a “stupid way.” The criticism was presumably related to the fact that about two-thirds of female Indigenous murder victims are killed by other Indigenous people, and not by “colonial violence” (a fact that is considered impolite to point out in Canadian media), though it is impossible to know with certainty exactly what @BrockCivis was getting at.

When the school’s Sexual Violence Prevention Committee subsequently issued a statement accusing @BrockCivis of promoting “racism,” and denouncing “ongoing settler-colonial violence,” @BrockCivis replied with a quote from historian Gerda Lerner to the effect that sexual violence against women has existed in all societies known to recorded history, and then added that university groups should stop exploiting “human tragedy.” A day later, @BrockCivis explained that it does “fully support” the activists memorializing MMIWG, but not the university’s “co-opting [of] the movement.” Shortly thereafter, the @BrockCivis account went dormant, allowing everyone to move on.

Except that Bourgeois couldn’t move on, having apparently come to believe that @BrockCivis’s ability to criticize her with impunity represented an existential threat to the Brock community, and to her professional role as its protector more particularly. In a public Facebook post, she asked: “How do we make Indigenous people feel safe at Brock when @BrockCivis is allowed to dehumanize the highest-ranking Indigenous person at Brock?” She also urged the Brock community to “take a stand” against this anonymous (and by now apparently defunct) account. Having already described Bourgeois as “inspirational,” university officials would find it hard to say no.

https://quillette.com/2021/03/06/how-a-single-anonymous-twitter-account-caused-an-indigenized-canadian-university-to-unravel/

[Argus]

This is a thoughtful column on the woke police. They never forget and they never forgive. Or at least, they never forget or forgive a wrong comment or thought. They're perfectly willing to earnestly explain to you why someone who committed violent crimes years ago should be given another chance, but not for thought crimes. And there are no allowances for being young, either.

As a purely hypothetical exercise, let’s consider what might have happened if incoming Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Alexi McCammond – who is the subject of protest from the magazine’s employees over racist and homophobic tweets she posted back in 2011 at the age of 17 – had channelled her angst into a physical crime, rather than a series of bigoted outbursts on social media. Let’s say aggravated assault with a weapon, to choose a totally random example for this entirely theoretical scenario.

 

Opinion: What is the statute of limitations on a teenager’s racist tweets? - The Globe and Mail

[Michael Hardner]

If the work police are just wrong, and not dangerous, do we need to talk about it ?  "We" being the larger community ?

I mean... the Brock U situation sounds kind of like any thread on here.  Let them work it out, why do we need to care ?

I am moving to a position of believing that there is something that needs to be talked about, ie. a macro trend about how identity politics are asserted, identified and resolved.  But there is always a filter to sort out low-heat discussions.

So far, the most egregious examples of unhealthy management of these issues was the Lindsay Shepherd incident (sp?) at Laurier, and the academic who was disinvited to Ryerson.  

 

[Argus]

21 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

So far, the most egregious examples of unhealthy management of these issues was the Lindsay Shepherd incident (sp?) at Laurier, and the academic who was disinvited to Ryerson. 

The only reason you consider that to be the most egregious case is that she (weirdly) recorded it and then gave the tape to the media. And a single academic is hardly the only person disinvited even to Ryerson, let alone other schools. But perhaps this story is more illustrative of what infuriates conservatives about the whole woke stuff. Because it's the story of indoctrination. In this case, the determination of the far left educational establishment to indoctrinate children with critical race theory and other divisive racial propaganda.

Because at its heart, this is all about dividing people along racial and ethic lines, and setting them against each other. Conservatives value traditions and institutions which have historically tied a nation and people together with a sense of shared identity and vision. The woke at all levels are determined to give the message "No, your nation is shit. Your history is full of violence and racism and homophobia and all the people who built your country are scum. Furthermore, there's nothing special about your nation and the people in it are no better or worse nor should they be treated any differently than people in other places."

Conservatives would say if the woke have their way, if people like Trudeau who say we're not even a nation and have no central identity and that's great, and they keep dividing us along racial and ethnic lines into separate hostile tribes what you inevitably are in for is civil war and extreme violence. Which has been the history of tribal groups living alongside each other for the entire history of humanity. If there's no nation then you don't feel anything much for the people around you because they're simply strangers and not members of any group you're a member of. There's no reason to particularly care about what happens to them, let alone make sacrifices for these people. How do you have loyalty to a nation when it's not a nation? Or as Trudeau says a 'post nation state'?

And in the world of ivory tower academia that's fine, except most of the rest of the world is not giving up the idea of nation states, not giving up the idea of nationalism. And there are growing numbers of warlord types out there pushing back against all that western liberal history stands against.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-birth-of-a-new-resistance-parents-mobilize-to-tackle-woke-ideology

 

[Michael Hardner]

20 minutes ago, Argus said:

1. The only reason you consider that to be the most egregious case is that she (weirdly) recorded it and then gave the tape to the media.

2. But perhaps this story is more illustrative of what infuriates conservatives about the whole woke stuff.  

3. Because at its heart, this is all about dividing people along racial and ethic lines, and setting them against each other.

4. Conservatives value traditions and institutions which have historically tied a nation and people together with a sense of shared identity and vision.

5. The woke at all levels are determined to give the message "No, your nation is shit. Your history is full of violence and racism and homophobia and all the people who built your country are scum. Furthermore, there's nothing special about your nation and the people in it are no better or worse nor should they be treated any differently than people in other places."

6. Conservatives would say if the woke have their way, if people like Trudeau who say we're not even a nation and have no central identity and that's great, and they keep dividing us along racial and ethnic lines into separate hostile tribes what you inevitably are in for is civil war and extreme violence.

7. How do you have loyalty to a nation when it's not a nation? Or as Trudeau says a 'post nation state'?

8. And in the world of ivory tower academia that's fine, except most of the rest of the world is not giving up the idea of nation states, not giving up the idea of nationalism.  

 

1. No - that's the reason it is the most egregious case.  
2. Sure - and the reasons that liberals are reluctant to pay attention is that conservatives overplay this card and cry wolf on it.
3. The 'setting them against each other' part is in your mind.  People can point things out - but personal reactions like guilt and anger are up to the individual to feel.
4. Yes, like academia, government and business.  These traditional institutions appear to be reflecting on things and changing their outlook.
5. This is a hysterical reframing of what they are saying.  Some individuals may say this and we can ignore them.
6. Trudeau's image is that he's a radical woke hero.  He's really a status quo guy.
7.  Nationalism is on its way back, don't you worry
8. Nationalism is not something that the powers that be are bought into either - and this doesn't just refer to politics.