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Monday, February 15, 2021

The Maoist State of America


Silverfiddle Rant!

Another day, another un-woke celebrity cancelled by the Red Guard...
The persecution of Gina Carano
Her sacking perfectly illustrates the hypocrisy and intolerance of the woke elites.

So far, she has not opted for a self-flagellating Maoist Struggle Session, which seems to be all the rage lately.  She must be smart enough to realize you cannot appease the baying mob.  

"The guillotine's thirst for blood is never slaked."

These theatrical self-shaming debasements all hit the same notes.  You could play word bingo with them: Systemic racism, inexcusable, painful, white privilege, people of color, etc...

...but the most disturbing aspects of the public self-accusations are the admissions of "ignorance," and the promise to "learn" (be reeducated).  This ends in a dark place.  I leave you with a few examples that could have been taken directly from historical accounts of Mao's Cultural Revolution:

NY Times food critic offered this obsequious self-mortification for criticizing a woman of color:
“I’m a white woman who has and will continue to benefit from white privilege and I recognize that makes what I said even more inexcusable and hurtful. The fact that it didn’t occur to me that I had singled out two Asian women is one hundred percent a function of my privilege (being blind to racial insensitivities is a discriminatory luxury).
My favorite, a florid burst of self-censure from the Poetry Foundation:
“To our community of contributors, subscribers, partners, and visitors which includes,” it noted, “but is not limited to, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, Asian, trans, non-binary, and queer people, undocumented and other immigrants, people with disabilities, and those struggling financially: we apologize for our silence in the face of crisis amid the call to dismantle institutional racism.”
The host of "The Bachelor" fell afoul of the Social Control Ministers at Ingsoc when he did not collapse into an attack of vapors and immediately organize the horsewhipping of a woman contestant who attended an antebellum themed party when she was in high school. 

His groveling self-rebuke hits all the required notes with an economy of words:
“What I now realize I have done is cause harm by wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism, and for that I am so sorry.”
"By excusing historical racism, I defended it. I invoked the term ‘woke police,’ which is unacceptable. I am ashamed over how uninformed I was. I was wrong,”
Here are quotes from a college professor's particularly operatic apology for the crime of extolling the virtues of college football: 
"I am sorry for the hurt, sadness, frustration, fatigue, exhaustion and pain this article has caused anyone, but specifically Black students in the higher education community and beyond," writes the Ohio State University professor. "I am struggling to find the words to communicate the deep ache for the damage I have done."

My center is as a learner, so movement for me will involve unlearning and relearning by listening, reading, dialoguing, reflecting and writing as a means for increasing my awareness and knowledge about systemic racism and the experiences of people of color and people who hold marginalized identities different from my own."

I am just beginning to understand how I have harmed communities of color with my words. I am learning that my words—my uninformed, careless words—often express an ideology wrought in whiteness and privilege. I am learning that my commitment to diversity has been performative, ignoring the pain the Black community and other communities of color have endured in this country. I am learning that I am not as knowledgeable as I thought I was, not as antiracist that thought I was, not as careful as I thought I was. For all of these, I sincerely apologize.

I know it's not anyone's job to forgive me, but I ask for it—another burden of a white person haunted by his ignorance.
In this last sad example, a former fighter pilot and Boeing executive apologizes for writing an article opposing women in combat.  33 years ago:
In an apology upon leaving the company for an article he wrote in 1987 opposing women in combat, then-Boeing executive Niel Golightly said the article was “painful because it is wrong. Painful because it is offensive to women. Painful because it reminds me of the sharp and embarrassing education the uninformed and unformed ‘me’ of that time received as soon as the piece appeared.”
This will not end well.

Links:
Jonathan Chait and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Take Friendly Fire for Defending Fired Star Wars Actor Gina Carano: ‘Stop This Bullsh*t’

26 comments:

  1. You highlight a very real problem, with respect to Carano and others....but what's the solution? Nationalize social media so that it falls under the 1st Amendment?

    It'd be nice if people would embargo social media, bankrupting it out of existence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no solution. When you are your own problem, the only direction is down.

      Delete
    2. There is a solution. As C I said, if we all voted with our eyeballs and our dollars and boycotted this crap and people who support it.

      Delete
    3. I canceled Amazon and Netflix.
      I got curious and looked in my phon for the Kindle books I paid for.
      Gone.

      Delete
    4. Silverfiddle
      If anywhere near a majority of us was capable of voting in that fashion the problem would not have arisen. The lack of that ability is what created the problem, which makes it insoluble.

      Delete
    5. Ed and Jayhawk,

      Wise words from both of you. I confess I am part of the problem.

      Delete
  2. The Woke "Mea Culpa" is the Dionysian Chorus of Plato's "Laws"...w/o the booze or the rhythmic motion. As such the "charm" in the "apology" is never accepted and retained/incorporated, it remains "outside" the psyche, "resented". :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At least the Maoist Red Guard made their victims "sing" of their crimes.

      Delete
  3. In June 2020, the Navy created Task Force Navy One, which was "established to combat discrimination in the Navy." The recently released findings of the task force include the TF1N Pledge, in which members of the task force take a pledge to inclusivity and self-reflection.
    The pledge reads: "As a key member of Task Force One Navy I will invest the time, attention and empathy required to analyze and evaluate Navywide issues related to racism, sexism, ableism and other structural and interpersonal biases.

    "I pledge to be actively inclusive in the public and private spheres where I live and work, and proactively encourage others to do the same.

    "I pledge to advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every Sailor in the Navy.

    https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jan/26/2002570959/-1/-1/1/TASK%20FORCE%20ONE%20NAVY%20FINAL%20REPORT.PDF

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. I read that. I served in USN diesel submarine force. This was a force that comprised 3% of the manpower of the US Navy and sank 51% of all Japanese shipping sunk during WW2. Now it has turned into a nursery school harboring the likes of TF1N. Made me weep.

      Delete
    2. My son has been in subs for over 25 yrs.
      He is getting out.
      Force readiness is no longer the goal.

      Delete
  4. I like the college football masterpiece, sorry, persynnpiece. Of course the Red Guards may not have caught the humor. Well, they're a serious crew.

    And everyone hates them.

    I don't see how this ends well in the short term.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is all a bit counter-productive. If we want more people to engage in self-reflection (I think we should) we need a lighter touch. This is so heavy handed, people will respond defensively by doubling down. The truth is, everybody makes mistakes, so let's not make it such a big deal to admit that. That's not to undermine my earlier comments concerning the signficant impact of institutional racism; it's important stuff but I reserve the right to admit to my (hopefully decreasingly) frequent clumsiness and mistakes without writing myself off entirely, and I extend the same to everyone else.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The people who are advocating "diversity" will not admit error because they do not think they are committing an error. They actually believe in what they are doing. They actually do believe that the white race is evil, and that the shooting of black criminals is evidence of that evilness.

      White criminals should be shot, by black cops as well as white ones, but black criminals should not be shot. When white criminals are NOT shot we need more police, and when black criminals ARE shot we need to eliminate the police.

      None of this is just badly worded or error. It is core belief, and not subject to evidence or proof. Thei stance is not our fault. It does not lie in the manner in which we speak to them. Whether we address it with soft words or harsh ones, they will not change their core beliefs.

      Delete
    2. Jayhawk,
      All of what you said is the hideous truth.

      Delete
    3. If you ask me, the police are supposed to apprehend criminals, not shoot them.

      Delete
    4. Jez, yes. Focus on the behavior, and not the person, and don't make the behavior determine the person. Just because you've done something clumsy, doesn't make you a clumsy oaf

      Delete
    5. To the hardcore critical theorist, this is all by Design, not an accident.

      See new discourses podcast for February 8th of this year. Critical theorists as Grand inquisitor's

      Delete
    6. Jez, you have said some pretty ignorant things, but that may be the most supremely ignorant thing than ANYONE has ever said.

      Delete
    7. 1. parade your gleeful misunderstanding of opposing views
      2. accuse me of ignorance
      3. ?
      4. profit!

      lol.

      Delete
    8. @ Jez

      In the first six months of 2020, 65 police officers were killed in the line of duty. These were men and women who attempted to enforce the law using the least amount of force necessary. I didn't expect you to know that, of course. A little sensitivity to the issue would be appropriate, I think. Most people who are shot by police either fired the first shot or endangered the lives of innocents.

      Delete
    9. Nothing inappropriate or incensitive IMO about reminding Jayhawk (or Jayhawk's parody straw-man opponent) that police are supposed to apprehend rather than shoot.

      Delete
    10. Jez - the concept of due process is apparently ignorant to some.....

      Delete
  6. Is it just modern tribalism? The sword of unity: cuts both ways, just ask the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. I'm of the opinion that public service places keep their opinions to themselves- actors, restaurants, physicians, teachers, Wall Street. Friendly dialog has gone the way of
    the horse and buggy. Me too- born before Pearl Harbor, Dad
    had a gray '37 Plymouth, had to walk a mile uphill (both ways) to school and people argued about the weather...

    ReplyDelete
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