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Thursday, December 28, 2017

Links - 28th December 2017 (2)

L'Oreal sacks first transgender model Munroe Bergdorf - "Munroe Bergdorf reportedly wrote "all white people" are racist in a Facebook post... The model has since responded, writing online: "Just know that in tearing me down, you are proving everything that I said to be true". Munroe Bergdorf, who is from London, was labelled "the face of modern diversity" when she was recruited as part of L'Oreal's #allworthit campaign... People supporting Munroe have been tweeting using the hashtag #boycottLOreal."
Anti-racism is racism. What does it say that diversity champions are often bigoted?
Apparently we should boycott L'Oreal for being against racism


L’Oreal dropping black trans model Munroe Bergdorf is a lesson for those who claim white supremacy isn’t a thing - "This entire episode, and in particular L’Oreal’s tone deaf response and failure to back Munroe, is part of a long media tradition of painting anti-racism activists, and particularly black women, as irrational anti-white furies... To suggest that all white people, and all people in general regardless of gender or creed, internalise the oppressive rhetoric and paradigms that dominate our society should be taken as a given."
A gem from the Independent

Hurricane Harvey: Linda Sarsour Uses Disaster to Fund Political Activist Group - "Sarsour recently requested donations for the Harvey Hurricane Relief Fund, which, on its face, sounds innocuous enough. But it turns out that this fund is, in fact, a thinly veiled front for leftist community organizing... not one cent of this money will be donated to people who have lost their cars, possessions, and even their entire homes. Instead it’ll be poured straight into the pockets of activists such as Sarsour as they continue their political posturing, dividing the country over race and “inequality” in the wake of Harvey’s devastation rather than focusing on the nonpartisan goal of helping Texans restore their community. This week, Sarsour has also actively discouraged people from donating to the Red Cross, suggesting instead that they contribute to sundry political-activist organizations. Sarsour has already shown her willingness to use disunity to turn a profit. Now we know she’s willing to exploit disaster in the same way."

Flood of Politics Pollutes Harvey Coverage - "First, there was the Joel Osteen “did he-or-didn’t he open the church to flood victims” saga. The megachurch pastor and televangelist was taken to task in the court of public opinion for reports that his Lakewood Church had shuttered its doors to Harvey victims. The reports turned out to be largely false, but they represent an important trend in American disaster response. Amidst all of the despair, we still endeavor to discredit an apparent charlatan whose popularity and ostentatious lifestyle has been a constant thorn in the side of the secular Left—and all this despite Osteen’s numerous departures from Christian orthodoxy. Of course, it wouldn’t be disaster coverage without scrutinizing every move of the president. And, with an exceptionally polarizing figure occupying the Oval Office this time around, scrutiny has indeed been intense. But for all the legitimate points of analysis that could be made, the story has instead turned towards the president’s choice of headwear... Predictably, ethics concerns have been (legitimately) raised about using a tragedy as free advertising for an overpriced hat. But such trivial concerns hardly merit the coverage they’ve received when compared to the real plight faced by those affected by the storm—unless, of course, attacking the president is the primary objective of storm coverage... Historically, one of the few silver linings of a disaster like Harvey has been its ability to foster national unity across political and ideological lines... When disaster response is considered fulfilled by firing off a tweet within a social media echo-chamber of the like-minded, or writing a check in response to a telethon from the comfort of the couch, politicization comes easy. But if we do the hard work of building local communities and relationships among neighbors across the political spectrum, we just might be able to see that more political activism is hardly the response Harvey victims need."

A Liberal Definition of the Alt-Left – Keri Smith - "When asked to define Alt-Left, I would describe it as a leftist but illiberal authoritarian ideology rooted in postmodernism and neo-Marxism that supports censorship, condones violence in response to speech, is obsessed with identity politics (much like the Alt-Right), and functions like a secular religion that gives its believers a sense of moral self-worth. It masquerades as a form of liberalism, but it has more in common with authoritarianism than its true believers can (or want to?) admit. It claims to speak for the marginalized, but it either ignores or attempts to hatefully shame members of marginalized groups who do not subscribe to the ideology. It is not simply Antifa; it is the ideology that undergirds Antifa, and it has swallowed much of BLM and intersectional third wave feminism. It wishes to swallow the whole of the left, the country, the world. It is rooted in nihilism, resentfulness, and arrogance, though it presents itself as being rooted in equality, justice and morality. It favors collectivism over individualism, statism over liberty, forced equality of outcome over freedom. Now…imagine if I had to say that mouthful every time I wished to talk about the Alt-Left because I bought into the notion that to give it a name it would be insulting to fellow liberals. No, to speak of it by name is to out it for what it is and to reduce some of its power... Like the parable of the slow boiling frog, if you had told me at the beginning that one day I’d be expected to perform mental gymnastics in order to defend censorship and violence in response to speech, I would have leapt from the pot. Instead, I was conditioned to accept as gospel each new tenet of SJWism over a period of twenty years. I believed in the essential goodness of the ideology, and in my own essential goodness in preaching it. When facts about the direction it was taking me made themselves known to me, I rejected them because they did not fit the frame. As the ideology became more noticeably toxic, hypocritical, and authoritarian, so too did the tactics of the true believers. Whether in academia, in the media, at Google, or online — the message is clear: dare to step out of line or express an independent thought, and a mob of zealous SJW zombies will come for you. The fear of losing one’s job, status, friends or personal safety is a strong motivator in forcing reasonable people to remain silent. I have received a lot of positive feedback about the sentiments expressed in my writing about SJWism from people all over the political spectrum. Most meaningful to me of these might be the messages I get from fellow liberals who are going through the same realization, confusion and fear. In addition to the public responses you can read yourself, I have received private messages from people in academia, journalism and entertainment — many of them liberals — expressing that the piece resonated with them, and that they were afraid to share it... If the Alt-Left doesn’t exist, why are so many liberals and centrists afraid of expressing themselves?... Ask yourself if it’s not odd that so many so-called liberals are now smearing people of color with whom they don’t agree as “white supremacists”"

No Madness Like American Madness – Scenes From A Debacle In Phoenix - "there were no neo-Nazis, at least not demonstrating or assembling in numbers. There were not, in fact, any armed right-wing attendees visible. In an unexpected reversal, it was the anti-Trump side that was louder, that was more confrontational, and among whose ranks there was a heavily armed militia. There was only one even vaguely threatening sign held by a Trump supporter. He sat most of the day at an outdoor café across from the convention center, his placard leaning against the table: “Don’t Start No Shit, Won’t Be No Shit.” Most of the protesters were there to confront the men, women, and children there to attend the rally"

Protesters at Trump's Phoenix rally used gas canisters, rocks to assault police - "A group of anti-Trump demonstrators used gas canisters, rocks and bottles to assault police Tuesday night and create havoc at what officials said was mostly a peaceful protest in Phoenix. Video captured by a local reporter also shows a smoking object being thrown at police while hundreds of officers attempted to keep order at a rally after President Trump's speech at the Phoenix Convention Center had ended."

Amazon lowering Whole Foods prices will hurt those who think they're better than you - "Whole Foods has long been a top grocery destination for shoppers eager to spend unnecessarily large amounts of money on food that makes them feel superior to others... I see one logical solution to the dilemma Amazon has created: If the masses can afford environmentally friendly and cruelty-free food, then environmentally reckless and cruelty-full food must be priced high and sought after by the elite."

Man Chokes To Death Swallowing A Fish - "A man choked to death Thursday after trying to swallow a live 5-inch fish on a dare... Police said it was unlikely charges would be filed against them. "If I dare you to jump off a bridge and you do it and you're 23 years of age, you're stupid," police Maj. Mike Matulavich said."

All-female Lord of The Flies remake faces backlash as it 'misses the point' and 'women wouldn't act like that' - "Others have slammed the remake for being written about women, but by two men... Feminist writer Roxane Gay commented that "the plot of that book wouldn't happen with all women". In the book, boys stranded on a desert island try to create order and peace while they wait to be rescued, but they eventually turn to violence and murder. Some have said the book is about "toxic masculinity" and therefore would not make sense with a female cast. One critic wrote: "The female-led Lord of the Flies wouldn't ever happen because women would just branch off into their own respective groups peacefully"."
Maybe someone will condemn this for showing violence against girls

Tinder Experiments II: Guys, unless you are really hot you are probably better off not wasting your… - "It was determined that the bottom 80% of men (in terms of attractiveness) are competing for the bottom 22% of women and the top 78% of women are competing for the top 20% of men. The Gini coefficient for the Tinder economy based on “like” percentages was calculated to be 0.58. This means that the Tinder economy has more inequality than 95.1% of all the world’s national economies"
Female hypergamy

Violence Doesn’t Work (Most of the Time) - "Political scientists have recently tried tallying the successes and failures of violent and nonviolent movements. The evidence is piling up that Gandhi was right—at least on average. In separate analyses, Audrey Cronin and Max Abrahms have shown that terrorist movements almost always fizzle out without achieving any of their strategic aims. Just think of the failed independence movements in Puerto Rico, Ulster, Quebec, Basque Country, Kurdistan, and Tamil Eelam. The success rate of terrorist movements is, at best, in the single digits. In their recent book, Why Civil Resistance Works, Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan found that about three-quarters of nonviolent movements get some or all of what they want, compared with only about a third of the violent ones. The Arab Spring bears this out: consider the more or less nonviolent movements that ousted the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen (together with the violent one needed in Libya). Even more encouraging, the success rate of nonviolent protest movements has steadily climbed since the 1940s, while that of violent movements has fallen since the 1980s."
For all the liberals supporting violence to suppress "Nazis"

'Slanted Screen' Rues The Absence Of Asians - "Gene Cajayon, the Filipino American director of the 2001 film "The Debut," the first Fil-Am movie to be released nationwide in the United States, talks about the revised ending for the action movie "Romeo Must Die," a retelling of "Romeo and Juliet" where the R&B star Aaliyah plays Juliet to the Chinese actor Jet Li's Romeo. The original ending had Aaliyah kissing Li, a scenario that didn't test well with an "urban audience." So the studio changed it. The new ending had Aaliyah giving Li a tight hug. Says Cajayon, "Mainstream America, for the most part, gets uncomfortable with seeing an Asian man portrayed in a sexual light."... veteran actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who was criticized by his fellow Asian Americans for playing roles such as the evil Shang Tsung in the movie version of the popular video game "Mortal Kombat," says: "In Hollywood . . . we had a choice of playing wimpy businessmen or evil bad guys. The worse thing I can do is play a bad guy and be a wimpy bad guy, which is what I grew up with. And my intention was, if I'm going to choose between wimpy businessman or playing a bad guy, I'm going to play a bad guy. Because . . . I want kids to grow up to know that Asian men got [guts].""
If urban audiences don't like certain scenarios, that suggests that "diversity" loses you money

Gamblers Take Note: The Odds in a Coin Flip Aren't Quite 50/50 - "most games of chance involving coins aren’t as even as you’d think. For example, even the 50/50 coin toss really isn’t 50/50 — it’s closer to 51/49, biased toward whatever side was up when the coin was thrown into the air. But more incredibly, as reported by Science News, spinning a penny, in this case one with the Lincoln Memorial on the back, gives even more pronounced odds — the penny will land tails side up roughly 80 percent of the time. The reason: the side with Lincoln’s head on it is a bit heavier than the flip side, causing the coin’s center of mass to lie slightly toward heads"

Are People With Extreme Political Views Just Bored? - "“One of the things boredom does is that it essentially wakes up people to the realization that what they are doing at the moment is utterly purposeless,” said Wijnand van Tilburg, a researcher from King’s College London who co-authored the new study. “And expressing political ideas or being connected to a particular political group is one way in which people gain a sense of purpose.”... boredom also has positive consequences. As many have suspected and research has shown, it leads to creativity, a more active way of creating new meaning"

Here's What Chicory Is, And Why It's In Your Coffee - "For most of our coffee-drinking past, the addictive caffeinated beverage has been expensive. There weren’t always Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts competing on every street corner. Sometimes coffee was scarce — especially if a major port was blocked for political reasons. No one is sure exactly when people began mixing chicory with coffee, but according to Antony Wild (author of ‘Coffee: A Dark History’), the use of chicory became popular in France during Napoleon’s ‘Continental Blockade’ Of 1808, which resulted in a major coffee shortage. Chicory is native to France, where it has long been loved for culinary reasons so it’s only natural that’s where the story began"

The super rich are injecting blood from teenagers to gain ‘immortality’ - "The new treatment comes on the back of several studies over the last 17 years in which Stanford researchers have shown the joining of circulatory systems (known as parabiosis) between old and young mice to be effective in rejuvenating organs, muscles and stem cells. Additionally, a study last year found that the plasma of young people itself had a rejuvenating effect when injected into older mice"

Unmasking the leftist Antifa movement - ""People put on the masks so that we can all become anonymous, right? And then, therefore, we are able to move more freely and do what we need to do, whether it is illegal or not," he said. And that means avoiding police, whom many Antifa members see as an enemy, as well as skirting the scrutiny Antifa activists often get from alt-right trolls on the Internet. Black bloc, one member told us, also unites the movement. "Even though it only takes one person to break a window, it doesn't matter because the bloc moves together," said a 26-year-old named Maura, who wouldn't give her last name...
"We cover our face because the Nazis will try to find out who we are. And that is a very bad thing because they harass people," he said. "We're trying to stop them from organizing. ... When they organize, they kill people, they hurt people, they fight people. And we're the ones who are fighting back." It's a position taken by many Antifa activists: "This is self-defense." Antifa activists often don't hesitate to destroy property, which many see as the incarnation of unfair wealth distribution. "Violence against windows -- there's no such thing as violence against windows," a masked Antifa member in Union Square told CNN. "Windows don't have -- they're not persons. And even when they are persons, the people we fight back against, they are evil. They are the living embodiment, they are the second coming of Hitler." Crow explained the ideology this way: "Don't confuse legality and morality. Laws are made of governments, not of men," echoing the words of John Adams... Antifa members also sometimes launch attacks against people who aren't physically attacking them. The movement, Crow said, sees alt-right hate speech as violent, and for that, its activists have opted to meet violence with violence.
Right or wrong, "that's for history to decide," he said... "We did seize a large number of weapons or things that could be used as weapons," Simpson said. "Everything from knives to brass knuckles to poles and sticks and bricks and bottles and road flares and chains."... In Portland, where the Rose City Antifa has been active for a decade, members focus on outing people they believe are neo-Nazis, even trying to get them fired and evicted from their homes."
No wonder the KKK avoid police and hide their faces
What if liberal hate speech is framed as violence?
If white supremacists coming to a protest armed shows they are violent...


Model That “Transitioned Into a Black Woman” and Has People Confused and Furious - "this German glamour model, Martina Big. Although she was born white, she claims that she is a black woman and has dedicated her life to “transitioning” through extensive tanning and cosmetic procedures"
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