(Worthwhile but not very cheerful reading, for the most part, I’m afraid)
“Progressives” as Minor Nobles of Exquisite Breeding and Dubious Character
Related: The New Class War
Ex-Muslims in America meeting in secret for reasons of safety
Bookworm links a carefully-reasoned Victor Davis Hanson about Trump and the accusations being made against him, and contrasts it with “the incoherent rage attack visited upon a conservative friend of mine via a series of text messages from one of the parents in his children’s community.”
American universities as assembly points for the anti-free-speech Left
Case in point: Student mob shrieks at professor and calls for his firing
Manchester and the lies we tell ourselves about terrorism. A good piece, though I would question to use of the word “we” in the title–the intellectual fallacies described in the post are held by a set of people comprising less than 50% of the population…but still, a set of people with considerable power and influence.
In Robert Heinlein’s 1952 story The Year of the Jackpot, a statistician observes many simultaneous indicators suggesting that the society is going totally insane. Young women are removing all their clothes in public, but can’t explain why they are doing it. A man has sued an entire state legislature for alienation of his wife’s affectionsand the judge is letting the suit be tried. In another state, a bill has been introduced to repeal the laws of atomic energynot the relevant statutes, but the natural laws concerning nuclear physics.
I was reminded again of Heinlein’s story by this post: Woman sues candy maker for it’s sugar-filled jelly beans and again by this piece of late-Weimar-level degeneracy.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post some more encouraging links for the next roundup…
The article linked as American universities as assembly points for the anti-free speech Left mentions an opinion survey by Morning Consult. I found a summary of the survey: it was not limited to campuses but sampled from among all registered voters. 41% of all Democrats believe that “universities should not allow guest speakers to appear on campus, if the guest’s words are considered to be hateful or offensive by some.” Among Democratic women, the proportion rises to 48%.
Even among Trump voters, 25% agreed with the proposition….as the WP article snarkily but correctly says, “This suggests a lot of his own voters might support banning President Trump from speaking at any colleges.” The article neglects to point out, however, that 38% of Hillary Clinton voters are effectively supporting banning her from campuses.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2017/05/03/lots-of-americans-not-just-college-students-favor-banning-offensive-speakers-from-campuses/?utm_term=.c4cf9b37f1ea
Minor Nobles of Exquisite Breeding and Dubious Character is dead on. Excellent.
Hey, I resemble that! I have a rather nice chain of overachievers going back to Mary Queen of Scots on one side and sheep thieves on the other.
I do my best to be dubious but I’m getting old. ;)
Celia Farber has suggested that the term Snowflake…”ephemeral, beautiful, delicate and of course harmless”…should be replaced by the term Pod: “a politically armored person who wears political correctness as a kind of sheath. In this way, they protect themselves from injury, and yet they can injure others”
“Mainstream media is the game reserve for pods, where they primarily live and breed. Universities. Student organizations, political organizations–basically anywhere there is a dearth of creativity, there will be high levels of “pod-think.””
http://truthbarrier.com/2017/04/30/what-do-i-mean-by-pod/
The “Jelly Belly” suit actually had a non-entirely-crazy basis: the manufacturer did not list sugar as an ingredient on the package (“evaporated cane juice” instead).
That was intentional deception, if rather feeble.