Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

Merriam-Webster redefining 'racism' to fit BLM narrative turns the dictionary into an instrument of Orwellian thought control

black lives matter
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
A dictionary publisher is redefining "racism" and related words after a black college grad complained the existing definition didn't fit her experience. But sacrificing shared understanding to performative virtue helps no one.

Publisher Merriam-Webster has proudly waded into the culture wars, bending the knee to 22-year-old Drake University grad Kennedy Mitchum with a pledge not merely to redefine "racism" to reflect systemic oppression, but to "revise the entries of other words that are related to racism or have racial connotations."

Promising the newly-updated dictionary would be rolled out "in the coming months," editor Alex Chambers apologized for the "harm and offense we have caused in failing to address the issue sooner."

Bizarro Earth

'Mostly peaceful riots'? Mainstream media has given up any shred of objectivity over BLM violence. How thick do they think we are?

london police
© AFP / Daniel Leal-Olivas
Media outlets in the US and UK have been conducting mental gymnastics worthy of Cirque du Soleil to portray rioters as virtuous, non-violent freedom fighters even as they film them starting fires and ripping down statues.

You may have noticed the word "peaceful" being bandied about on your TV screens and appearing in headlines all over the internet a lot recently. "Peaceful" is an interesting adjective, because in most cases if something is peaceful, it is self-evident. For example, you'd only have to look at a photograph of a yoga retreat or a calm lake on a warm summer's day and your brain would instantly think, "peaceful". Likewise, with its opposite "violent"; normally if something is violent it is perfectly obvious: baying mobs, cage fighting, Quentin Tarantino movies - they're violent and you don't need to be told they are.

Which is why it is rather interesting that "peaceful" has crept into the headlines of countless stories about the recent protests following the tragic death of George Floyd. Virtually every news outlet, from CNN to MSNBC to the BBC and Sky News, even the Daily Mail, have insisted that all the demonstrations in his name have been mainly placid, well-mannered affairs. They seem to have forgotten, however, that the cameras are rolling.

Attention

Lockdown catastrophe points up the need for resilient local food supply systems

Gaza crops
© Unknown
There is no doubt that, contingent on World Bank aid to be given to poorer countries in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns, agrifood conglomerates will aim to further expand their influence.

It's a sector which demands the entrenchment of capitalist agriculture via deregulation and the corporate control of seeds, land, fertilisers, water, pesticides, food processing and retail - domination of the entire chain from seed to plate.

These firms have been integral to the consolidation of a global food regime that has emerged in recent decades based on chemical- and proprietary-input-dependent agriculture which incurs massive social, environmental and health costs picked up by taxpayers. As if to pour oil on the fire, the food crisis that could follow in the wake of the various lockdowns may serve to further strengthen the prevailing system.

Comment:


NPC

Shrill, hyper-liberal bullies dumb down every debate, and even yesterday's liberals now look like heretics

Black Lives Matter protest
© Reuters / Hannah McKay 83
Progessive thinkers of the recent past are starting to appear reactionary, as the emergent radical "liberals" use university campuses and social media to intolerantly shout down any dissent.

If we park Covid-19 for a moment, we will be able to identify another spreading virus that is just as damaging to us all and likely to have equally long-lasting consequences.

The shrill voices of those oh-so-liberal that they are now illiberal will attempt to drown out any dissent at the plinths and pedestals of historical statues and monuments. This is the new hyper-liberalism, and it's spreading rapidly.

If you disagree you are wrong. And if you continue to disagree then they will shout and shout and shout until you agree with them. In action, it might manifest itself in the decapitation of a bronze statue of some historic entrepreneur who profited from the once-fashionable business of slave trade. Or it might be the bullying of an avowed feminist who refuses to espouse the most radical ideas of the 'trans community'.

Red Pill

Meghan & Harry shift focus to BLM. Now, does anyone still believe the elite-backed movement challenges the establishment?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex
© Getty Images / Dominic Lipinski / PA Wire
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are perfect brand ambassadors for Black Lives Matter, which poses as a radical threat to the status quo, but, in reality, is one of the most elite-backed movements ever.

We recover from coronavirus to emerge blinking into the midst of protests, riots and statues tumbling. Police kneel before activists, JK Rowling has been cancelled, Gone With The Wind has been removed from HBO Max, comedy favourites have been pulled from Netflix. The world is where we left it before lockdown, but nothing is quite the same.

With such rapid social change, it's a relief when some things come as no surprise. News that the LA-based formerly royal duo, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, are "shifting their focus" and will be putting their energy into supporting the Black Lives Matter movement is so predictable it's positively reassuring.

Take 2

And the anti-racism Oscar goes to... the Hollywood celebrities producing this contrived, virtue-signaling video

celebrity virtue signaling
In response to America's racial unrest over George Floyd's murder, Hollywood actors once again feel the need to flex their me-first moralism with a nauseating, self-serving performance.

Unfortunately for us, Hollywood never lets a good crisis go to waste.

First there was the coronavirus pandemic.

Hollywood bravely responded to that calamity with Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, and a cavalcade of her clueless celebrity friends putting out a video of themselves "singing" John Lennon's saccharine anthem 'Imagine'.

The world responded by collectively throwing up in its mouth.

Bullseye

Most Americans think 'All Lives Matter' is a positive message. Yet why are we being told it's as good as a hate crime?

all lives matter
© AAP Image/James Gourley via REUTERS
Despite pushback from activists against the phrase "all lives matter" amidst George Floyd protests, a poll suggests the majority of people are not offended by the words and only a small, vocal minority are behind the outrage.

If you have spent even a little time looking through social media posts or reading media headlines in recent weeks, it's likely become obvious that "all lives matter" is one of many triggering phrases that has been pointed to by Black Lives Matter activists as simply not culturally acceptable to say.

According to a new poll, however, the majority of people appear to see the words as positive.

Red Flag

UCLA professor suspended after refusing leniency for black students

UCLA campus
© UCLA Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty ImagesRoyce Hall on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles
A professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, says he was suspended from his job after refusing a student's request to effectively cancel final exams for black students amid protests over the death of George Floyd.

"I have been placed on involuntary leave for three weeks, and it looks like it may end up being more than that," Gordon Klein, who teaches accounting at the school, told The Post.

Klein — whom students slammed as "racist" and "dismissive" — was also placed under police protection at his Malibu home after receiving threats from critics furious over the email exchange, the Free Beacon reported.

Comment: The clown show continues as people who are clearly not racist are being labelled as such. There is no reason for anyone, regardless of skin color, to receive special treatment in regards to academic requirements simply because ideologically possessed mobs are protesting. The professor did the right thing, and for that he will be punished.

See also:


Cupcake Choco

SOTT Focus: The Color Revolution is Finally Home


Comment: The following is an analysis of current events in the US from a Serbian perspective, originally published here and translated for Sott.net by Svetlana Maksovic.


BLM floyd protest white house
When pro-Western liberals think of the West, they typically think of democracy, freedom of speech and human rights. The East, on the other hand, makes them think of dictatorship and repression. They generate misconceptions on the basis of media reports and propaganda that have been spread by global media for decades. If you ask them what they think about the enforcement of democracy by bombs, they will not have an answer to that question.

Their favorite subject is Soviet gulags, although they know little about them. The symbol of communist dictatorship is Stalin, and if you ask them about the bloody Lenin, you will hear only good things about him.

They can't stand Putin and they immediately have a nervous breakdown when his name is mentioned. It is very difficult to talk to them, especially if they are overzealous, and in most cases they are.

They are particularly intolerant of straightforward arguments. American democracy is their undisputed model and should be implemented everywhere. However, nothing is going well there anymore as democracy has just exploded in America. In the literal sense of the word. That does not make me happy at all. I know that the American establishment, in addition to bombing half the world - including my country - has destroyed its own state. And all this under the slogan of the so-called struggle for human rights.

But doctrine is one thing, statistics quite another...

Megaphone

Finland renames 'Negro Island' amid global anti-racism protests

negro island Neekerisaari
© Google MapsThe offensive islet as seen from space.
Despite lacking a history of colonialism or slavery, Finland has nonetheless decided to do its bit in the anti-racism drive gripping the Western world, by changing the "racist" name of a small island.

The landmass in the Pyhaselka Lake in eastern Finland bore the name Neekerisaari - which translates as "Negro Island." It has been designated an "exceptional case" by the state-run Institute for the Language of Finland (Kotus) due to its "absolutely derogatory" name, as official maps must not contain "racist expressions."

The name is now being removed from maps, and the island will be marked under by its older name, Seppanen.

Comment: Was anyone actually asking for this? Was anyone actually offended? While changing the name of the island seems harmless in and of itself, one has to wonder where the virtue signaling ends.