Day: July 4, 2019

Bret Stephens is the only person worth reading any more in the Times:

In the proverbial land of the free, people live in mortal fear of a moral faux pas. Opinions that were considered reasonable and normal a few years ago are increasingly delivered in whispers. Professors fear their students. Publishers drop books at the slightest whiff of social-media controversy. Twitter and other similar platforms have delivered the tools of reputational annihilation (without means of petition or redress) into the hands of millions, so that no comment except the most private is entirely safe from the possibility of instantaneous mass denunciation.

It will be deeply disappointing to see comments about how Stephens is a Nazi who said something objectionable at some point in his life. Because people who leave such comments are stupid. And it pains me to think that I somehow attracted a stupid person to the blog when there’s the entirety of Facebook for such individuals.

Another good quote:

“Armed with the ‘truth,’ Jacobins could brand any individuals who dared to disagree with them traitors or fanatics,” historian Susan Dunn wrote of the French Revolution. “Any distinction between their own political adversaries and the people’s ‘enemies’ was obliterated.”

Rashida Tlaib reminds us, through a retweet of some dumb creature’s tweet, that

“Our founding fathers were not living gods, they were fallible human beings.” The Declaration of Independence “did not condemn slavery, protect the rights of women or include Native Americans.”

[No link because I’m boycotting FB and Twitter. I got this quote from a blog that makes itself nearly impossible to quote]

I have to agree with Tlaib and remind everybody that the Founders were such bastards that they didn’t condemn neoliberalism, speak out for digital freedom, and said absolutely nothing about Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. How enormously fallible of them to say nothing about these vital issues. Worst of all, they never condemned Stalin, Hitler or Mao! They must have been in favor of Communism-Nazism-Cultural Revolution.

Music to my ears:

South Dakota lawmakers are spearheading an effort to dig into campus diversity offices, suggesting they are too big and cost too much money. In a letter to the South Dakota Board of Regents dated June 12 and obtained by Campus Reform, seven members of the South Dakota House and Senate describe how campus diversity offices often have very pointed political agendas… “It is our belief that the taxpayers of South Dakota would not approve of this type of activity being funded with tax dollars,” the letter says.

These Soviet-type hubs of idiocy should be banned from public schools immediately. There is no reason why taxpayers should pay for the dissemination of the exotic political views of a tiny, deranged and rabid group of ignorant fanatics.

I’m against doxxing, obviously, but everybody knows that I am and I don’t want to rehash all this now. What I want to say is, what the everlasting fuck were the kid’s parents thinking? Why the fuck did this child even know who AOC is, let alone why is she posting political videos?

I have a 9-year-old niece. She doesn’t know any of this crap. Because her parents want her to have a childhood. She’s into normal 9-year-old girl stuff. Bead bracelets, dancing, drawing, sleepovers with friends. Her parents somehow managed to make a living without exploiting her, imagine that.

There are tons of disturbed people out there. Thrusting a child into a clearly political context that she is constitutionally incapable of comprehending or caring about is beyond wrong. Exposing her to danger to make some dumb political point is, I don’t know, I have no words.

I’m a news junkie, as we all know. But I’d have to have 99% of my brain amputated to discuss AOC or anything political with my 9-year-old niece. Or any child.

P.S. Happy fourth of July, though. Today is 21 years I’ve lived on this continent. August 6 will be 15 years that I’ve lived in the US. I’m really into dates.