Off-Topic and Low-Effort CW Thread for the Week of July 13, 2020

rwkasten · 2020-07-14T00:54:58+00:00

Cross-link to this week's OT/LE on reddit

the_nybbler · 2020-07-17T23:20:16+00:00

Classical music is too white, you say? Must be those biased people hiring the musicians. I know, we'll institute blind auditions. Wait... we did that. Decades ago. Still not too many black or Latino musicians around. Well fuck blind auditions, how about we go for straight-up quotas?

mo-ming-qi-miao · 2020-07-17T21:04:43+00:00

Boy, 16, was given estrogen for behavioral disorder while in L.A. juvenile hall, suit alleges

After taking approximately 13 daily doses of the hormone, the teen was diagnosed with gynecomastia, defined as the enlargement or swelling of breast tissue in males whose estrogen level is too high, medical records show.

ODD, a behavioral condition that is sometimes suffered by patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is normally treated with therapy, said James McGough, a professor of clinical psychiatry at UCLA.

“Estrogen is not a treatment for ODD. I can’t be more emphatic about that,” McGough said. “You won’t find a reference anywhere that supports the use of estrogen for ODD.”

The lawsuit described the treatment as “experimental.” The doctor who prescribed the estrogen, Danny Wang, could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles County’s juvenile detention facilities are overseen by the Probation Department. Medical needs are provided by Juvenile Court Health Services, which falls under the county Department of Health Services. In an e-mail, a Department of Health Services representative confirmed that Wang has been employed by the county since 2012 but declined to comment on his current status with the agency, describing it as a “confidential personnel matter.” The department declined to comment on the lawsuit.

If Alex Jones was wrong it was only because he didn't go far enough.

WickedWitchOfTheWest · 2020-07-17T16:45:24+00:00

Student says university imposed 'Soviet-style' punishment over his Instagram posts

A rising senior at Fordham University has provided Campus Reform with letters he allegedly received from the school's dean of students notifying him that two of his posts shared on his personal social media violated the university's student conduct code and that he has been placed on probation as a result.

Austin Tong provided Campus Reform with two letters he said he received from Fordham University Dean of Students Keith Eldredge. The first letter, dated June 8, allegedly informed Tong that the university had launched an investigation to determine whether two of his Instagram posts violated university policy.

The first post, shared on Tong's personal Instagram account on June 3, shows a picture of David Dorn, the retired African-American police captain who was fatally shot while defending a friend’s pawn shop amid violent protests in St. Louis, and includes the caption, “Y’all a bunch of hypocrites.”

[...]

Tong's second post shows him holding a firearm, which he says he purchased legally, pointed toward the ground. The post contains the caption, “Don’t tread on me. #198964.” The hashtag references the Tiananmen Square Incident, which occurred on June 4, 1989.

Tong told Campus Reform with regard to this post, “I want to honor the memory of an important Chinese Democracy Movement and the appreciation of the right to bear arms in America.” He said, “As an immigrant, a big beauty of America to me is the right it gives its citizens to bear arms, not only to protect themselves but also to keep the government in check."

Tong said he received a letter from Eldredge informing him that an investigation into his actions had been opened. The letter, dated June 8, cited possible violations of "regulations relating to bias and/or hate crimes," "threats/intimidation," and "disorderly conduct."

The letter, which was provided to Campus Reform, invited Tong to participate in a "disciplinary" hearing to further discuss the matter.

In a second letter dated July 14, a copy of which was also provided to Campus Reform, Eldredge allegedly informed Tong that he had been found in violation of "regulations relating to bias and/or hate crimes" and for "threats/intimidation."

mo-ming-qi-miao · 2020-07-16T16:30:36+00:00

San Francisco reporter details 'disaster' of city's 'hotels for homeless' program: 'It is pandemonium'

"It's solving exactly nothing and as a matter of fact, it's making all the problems worse," said Sandberg, who described the scene inside the hotels as "about as bad as you can imagine, only exponentially worse."

"You are talking drug-fueled parties, overdoses, deaths, people are being assaulted. You have sexual assaults going on, it is pandemonium," she said. "It is extremely bad and it needs to stop."

WickedWitchOfTheWest · 2020-07-16T08:19:58+00:00

"Critical Race Theory" is invading even the Treasury Department now.

Last week, a whistleblower sent me a trove of documents about a divisive "diversity training" at the Treasury Department. What I discovered is deeply disturbing—and an affront to equality.

Buckle up. 🧵

lord-kril · 2020-07-15T17:25:32+00:00

It's time for everyone's favorite game: Stormfront or SJW? (The answer is at the bottom of the infographic)

WickedWitchOfTheWest · 2020-07-15T17:12:46+00:00

The historical amnesia of culture warriors

The phrase “cancel culture” might have been coined by the Devil to ensure maximum rancour and confusion. It is currently both ubiquitous and uselessly vague. The offences under its rickety umbrella range from an unguarded line in an interview to serial sexual assault; the punishments stretch from a rough week on Twitter to career annihilation; the prosecutors might be a powerful institution or a few powerless tweeters.

As if that weren’t muddled enough, the current debate is largely taking place in a state of historical amnesia, as if the issues were as novel as the terminology. The sociologist Jib Fowles called this fallacy chronocentrism: “the belief that one’s own times are paramount, that other periods pale in comparison”. The author and academic Philip Seargeant suggests “the narcissism of the present”.

For many progressives, this unknowing is indeed a kind of generational vanity: only we, in the early 21st century, have the moral clear-sightedness and mettle to reprimand behaviour that our predecessors let slide. There is a whole click-friendly genre of journalism dedicated to scolding “of its time” art in the tone of a disappointed schoolteacher, while oblivious to the fact that many of their points were made at the time.

For their opponents, meanwhile, chronocentrism magnifies the danger of current challenges to free speech: the mob is at the gates, the clock is ticking and the survival of liberalism itself hangs in the balance. Novelty inspires urgency. It doesn’t help them to point out that conservative writers were routinely warning against “liberal fascism” and “a new McCarthyism” 30 years ago, nor that some of them simultaneously endorsed censorship of work that offended them. Both versions of the fallacy imply that, roughly between the peak of the Enlightenment and the launch of Twitter, it was plain sailing.

mo-ming-qi-miao · 2020-07-15T13:08:23+00:00

Something people requested a few weeks back: job listings for "unwoke" companies".

WickedWitchOfTheWest · 2020-07-15T03:37:35+00:00

Federal Investigation: Trans Bathroom Enabled Alleged Sexual Assault Of Kindergartener

Perhaps as troubling as the district’s non-response to the sexual assault complaints of Thomas and others was its actively misleading communications with other alarmed parents and the entire school community.

The district’s problematic bathroom policy was grounded in deception from the beginning. The superintendent conceived and implemented the policy in the dark, with no formal notice to parents and no public discussion or vote by the local school board. OCR found that when the alleged kindergarten assault occurred and parents demanded answers about their children’s safety, the district continued to mislead.

One parent was told “the rumors regarding an assault were not true.” Another parent, who was so concerned she checked her daughter out of school, was told “the ‘event’ had been investigated and ‘found to not have taken place.’” But as OCR concluded, no one — especially no school official — had even investigated the incident, much less determined it had never taken place.

The school principal’s public statement to the school community continued the mendacity. “Although an incident was alleged,” the principal wrote, “a thorough investigation involving [school] administrators, central office staff, law enforcement, and social service agencies led us to confidently determine that the allegation was unfounded.” This statement was flatly untrue.

Reacting to the OCR findings, the district still clings to its dangerous bathroom policy by saying OCR failed to substantiate the claims of the young victim. OCR never said this, however. Instead, OCR cited conflicts in determining the precise date of the incident, which it could not resolve given that the assailant’s parents could not be contacted and the incident was never investigated at the time it happened.

OCR was sufficiently persuaded of the mess in district schools, however, and mandated the district thoroughly investigate and document all “alleged incidents of sexual harassment of students in School bathrooms, including any allegations of harassment associated with the Policy” during the two-year period including and following the incident.

I hope they go back and double-check because I've been assured repeatedly by the trans cult that That Sort Of Thing Never Happens.

blockchain_lifeboat · 2020-07-14T17:50:14+00:00

What would your thoughts be if this hit your work inbox?

Don't want to color others' reactions, so pausing my own comments for some time.

WickedWitchOfTheWest · 2020-07-14T15:27:27+00:00

Reading 'White Fragility' and canceling your friends won't make you an anti-racist

This dynamic, writes al-Gharbi, isn't visible to white progressives because of "moral credentialing": their anti-racist liturgies convince them they're the "right sort" and thus couldn't be acting from base motives: “Conversely, blaming or criticizing ‘others’ for a particular moral failing reduces one’s own sense of guilt for that same moral failing.” This attitude is reciprocally reinforced within progressive social circles — think of it as contagious blindness. As al-Gharbi explains, “for whites who inhabit social circles where people go around denouncing racism to one another constantly — painting themselves as staunch advocates for social justice — it would become almost impossible for these people to see the role that they play in perpetuating systemic inequality.”

This dynamic is so entrenched because it operates to justify the power of white elites over working class white people as well. Here, Musa explains how white people are significantly more "woke" on race than non-white people. White elites drive the discourse and promote an endlessly broadening definition of racism, which requires education and, more importantly, enculturation to understand. Working class white people who can't keep up with shifting norms are labeled racist by the gatekeepers of those norms, who thereby safeguard their own class privilege.

“Charges of ‘racism,’” writes al-Gharbi, “are primarily deployed against the political opponents of upwardly-mobile, highly-educated progressive white people.” Mainstream anti-racist discourse can then end up functioning like social control. It is effective at protecting the neoliberal status quo and worse than useless for achieving a more just world. The managerial class sustains and reproduces itself by maintaining structural inequality.

mo-ming-qi-miao · 2020-07-14T13:24:08+00:00

#MeToo to “Me Who?”: US media has turned off the sexual witch-hunt for the moment

It may well be that the immediate electoral concerns of the Democrats, once Weinstein was disposed of, loom large in this. The charges of sexual misconduct leveled by former staffer Tara Reade in March against Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential candidate, were received coldly by the Times and the media generally (except for its openly pro-Trump wing). Unquestionably, in that case the #MeToo campaign and its slogan of “believe women” cut across the plans and politics of the Times, the New Yorker, Time and the sections of the American ruling elite for whom they speak.

Reade’s claims have been treated with skepticism, as they may well deserve, and she has more or less disappeared from the headlines.

Alyssa Milano, Jessica Valenti and other #MeToo promoters have made clear that whether they believe Reade or not, that will not stand in the way of their supporting Biden. Valenti’s comments on Medium (“The Importance of Believing Women—Even When It’s Politically Inconvenient”) were remarkable for their sophistry and anti-democratic spirit.

[...]

Farrow too presumably belongs to this #MeToo/pro-Biden camp. His silence may in part be self-censorship: “Let’s keep everything under wraps until after November.” Or he may simply have been given the word to keep his mouth shut.

The Jeffrey Epstein case, with its far-reaching ramifications, has also created considerable nervousness. His “black book” includes the names of many prominent New York Democrats and entertainment figures in particular.

Is the Times concerned that one or more of its leading figures may show up in the headlines at some point? The #MeToo campaign may be proving too much of a minefield.

For the time being at least, the Times and the media generally have staked everything on race. The need to block the development of a unified, multi-racial movement of the working class is a life-and-death priority for the ruling elite and its media representatives. The Times and its allies are treating every issue that arises first and foremost as a racial question.

In any event, the dropping of the #MeToo campaign is a further indication of its manipulated and fraudulent character. Never a deeply popular effort, it can be switched off and on as the Times and the Democrats require. Hollywood, or some equally amenable and abundant sphere, can always be relied upon to cough up a scandal, more or less to order. The American media is associated with endless conspiracy against the rights and conditions of the population.

WickedWitchOfTheWest · 2020-07-14T05:15:54+00:00

NBA Bans Custom Jerseys With ‘FreeHongKong,’ But Allows ‘Burn Jews’ And ‘Kill Cops’

Through its online store, the league has long let fans create jerseys with personalized messages on the back. In fact, the feature recently become a key part of the NBA’s push to allow players to sport activist statements on their jerseys. Today, however, it became clear the NBA doesn’t love all protests equally.

As first pointed out by Twitter users, the NBA store is blocking any fans from making jerseys with popular protester slogan “FreeHongKong.” This happens despite the site allowing numerous antisemitic and anti-police slogans. Right now, you can make a custom NBA jersey with “Kill Cops,””‘F-ck Police,” and “Burn Jews” among many other objectionable phrases. It appears that supporting a pro-democracy movement, however, is too extreme.

“F-ckHongKong,” which contains the same number of letters as “FreeHongKong,” is also allowed, meaning the ban seems only to extend to statements affirming the pro-democracy movement.

WickedWitchOfTheWest · 2020-07-14T05:04:39+00:00

Professor: Term ‘low-hanging fruit’ is a microaggression because it reminds blacks of lynching

The official definition of the term low-hanging fruit is “a thing or person that can be won, obtained, or persuaded with little effort,” according to the Oxford dictionary.

But according to one business professor, it’s a racial microaggression.

“For African-Americans, if you say ‘low-hanging fruit,’ we think lynching,” said Mae Hicks-Jones, an adjunct faculty member of Elgin Community College.

The scholar and consultant’s reasoning was that the term reminds her and other people of color of Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit.” In the song, released in the 1950s, Holiday compares the bodies of lynching victims to fruit hanging from trees.

Hicks-Jones made the comments during an online discussion hosted Thursday by the college’s Multicultural and Global Initiatives Committee, or MAGIC.

Hicks-Jones, along with other members of the Elgin community, shared “examples of implicit biases and microaggressions, which happen in our communities,” the college’s Facebook event page states.

The title of the event was “Black Lives Matter: Being ‘Not Racist’ is NOT enough!”

Also objectionable to Hicks-Jones was the phrase “grandfathered in,” because she said it is reminiscent of a grandfather clause, which privileged white people’s right to vote over that of black people during the Jim Crow South.

(Reposting since we moved subs)

sflicht · 2020-07-14T01:26:50+00:00

Is it still the case that saidit has no iOS app? (I know, I know, the app was the first step on the road to the perdition that is New Reddit. But I'd still use the app if it existed.)

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