Facebook, Oh Facebook: L’Origine du monde. (NSFW)

L'Origine du monde, Gustave Courbet, 1866.

L’Origine du monde, Gustave Courbet, 1866.

L’Origine du Monde, The Origin of the World, is a famous and well known painting by Courbet. It’s a beautiful work, and housed at Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Facebook France decided that a small thumbnail of this work was deserving of censorship.

The dispute around Gustave Courbet‘s graphic 1866 oil painting “L’Origine du Monde” (The Origin of the World), has escalated with teacher is taking Facebook to a Parisian court over allegations of censorship. Frédéric Durand-Baïssas says the social media network blocked his account without notice when he posted a thumbnail with footage and information about the painting.

The incident took place in 2011 but it has taken years of wrangling to establish whether or not Facebook is liable to French law, as it regards itself as a U.S. company. The art-lover posted a clip of the Courbet work after the account of Danish sculptor Frode Steinicke went down for a similar violation of the website’s rules on nudity. The company reactivated Steinicke’s account, although without the allegedly offending piece.

“On the one hand, Facebook shows a total permissiveness regarding violence and ideas conveyed on the social network,” the teacher’s lawyer, Stéphane Cottineau, told the Associated Press in 2016. “And on the other hand, [it] shows an extreme prudishness regarding the body and nudity.”

I would think, at this point, with Facebook being up to their neck in unethical and questionable activities they refuse to do anything about might have given them a bit of a wake up call over their astonishing prudery. They don’t care about threats. They don’t care about people being harassed. They don’t care about people using their service to steal. They don’t care about fakery of any kind. Oh, but if there is even an implied nipple, they are on the case, you betcha! There isn’t even an attempt to understand that the rest of the world does not have such puritanical views. There is nothing wrong with the human body, and it’s past time Facebook stopped acting like it’s the biggest shame of all.

Via Raw Story.

Asshole vs Asshole: “Bloodsports”.

Screencap, Right Wing Watch.

The Nazis have a new gig on youtube, “bloodsports”, their um, rebranding of debates.

Over the past month, prominent alt-right personalities on YouTube have carved out platforms for themselves on a handful of popular livestreamed political debate channels, where they’ve engaged in debates against “classical liberal,” libertarian and “anti-social justice warrior” YouTube talkers.

The series of debates, which have been affectionately dubbed “bloodsports” by their participants, have provided the white nationalist alt-right with its latest chance to thrust itself into the political consciousness of young people and to appeal to members of some of the subcultures that have splintered from the movement in recent months.

The “bloodsports” phenomenon grew out of a fight about “race realism,” which is how some white supremacists refer to their pseudoscientific claims about racial superiority.

[…]

When the feuding between various pundits reached critical mass, alt-right figures who promote “race realism” and white nationalist advocates for the creation of ethnostates offered themselves up for debates with YouTube personalities who have channels much larger than their own. Taking advantage of the attention that the feud was providing, alt-right figures were able to secure spots on YouTube channels that boast hundreds of thousands of followers and to go up against some of YouTube’s biggest political commentators, such as Carl Benjamin (“Sargon of Akkad”), who were eager to inject themselves into the public hype.

One of the most prominent channels hosting these debates belongs to Andy Warski, a YouTube personality who has grown increasingly sympathetic to the alt-right.

[…]

In the last few weeks, Warski has hosted debates featuring nearly every popular white nationalist YouTube figure, including J.F. Gariepy, Tara McCarthy, Richard Spencer, Colin Robertson (“Millennial Woes”), Greg Johnson, Peinovich, James Allsup, Nick Fuentes and Tim Gionet (“Baked Alaska”). More often than not, these white nationalist personalities have been paired against conservative opponents who offer incredibly weak pushback to their arguments. On only a few occasions have they faced true, strong counter-arguments. One of these debates—featuring Sargon of Akkad and Tarl Warwick (“Styxhexenhammer666”) debating Spencer and Gariepy—became the highest-trending live video on YouTube during its broadcast. Afterward, Spencer declared that he had “destroyed” in the debate.

Oh yes, Richard Punch My Face Spencer declared he destroyed skepticism. So, I guess no one can be skeptical about anything ever from now one. Right Wing Watch has the full rundown on the deepening youtube cesspit, it’s quite involved. You can read all about it here.

The Memo.

Screengrab.

Curious about all the republican upset over “The Memo”? Aaron Rupar at Think Progress has the answers. It all boils down to bullshit, but there’s little the rethugs love more than a pot of shit to stir about.

House Republicans and right-wing media outlets are up in arms about a classified memo purportedly detailing misconduct related to the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia.

After reviewing it on Thursday, a number of Trump-supporting Republicans flooded the airwaves on Fox News. On Hannity, Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) called for Mueller to be fired, with Gaetz characterizing the special counsel’s investigation as “a lie built on corruption” and akin to “a palace coup.” On Friday morning, Fox & Friends spun the story as “worse than Watergate.”

The truth about the new ‘top secret’ memo Republicans can’t stop talking about.

That Ol’ White Magic.

If you know who to credit, say so.

Mike Cernovich, nazi, is all concerned about nefarious black magic, in Hollywood of course. And elsewhere, I suppose. But he has the secret! White magic, it’s the only good magic.

Mike Cernovich, the self-appointed leader of a movement he calls the “New Right” and a promoter of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, told viewers last night that he believed “dark magic” was to blame for what he claimed is rampant pedophilia among political, Hollywood and “deep state” elites.

In the middle of the stream, Cernovich went a tangent to discuss the magical forces he believes to be at work in the world, as well as his personal magical practice.

“Everything I do is alchemy. That’s why I believe in magic. Not black magic, not the satanic magic that they practice in Hollywood and that the deep state practices and that the media practice. I believe in good magic, light magic, alchametic magic,” Cernovich said. “Alchametic magic is ‘How do I create something out of nothing purely through manifesting my will through power and light, which is value.’ That’s white magic. That’s alchametic magic.”

Okay, dude, alchametic is not a word. Alchemistic is a word. So, right from the start, you’re making up words, pulling shit right outta your arse. As for ‘creating something through manifesting your will through power and light’, yeah, I hate to break this to you, but that doesn’t mean one damn thing. It certainly doesn’t have any value whatsoever, outside your own head. If your “white” magic is so grand, why does it have zero effect? You’re going to have to have something much more solid than power and light. I have power and light too, it’s called electricity. Wonderful stuff, that.

Cernovich went on to explain that he believed the turn of phrase “emotional vampire,” which refers to people that others perceive to be emotionally draining or unpleasant to those around them, is a form of “black magic and that is the magic that is taught by our culture.”

“Whether you know it or not, you’re practicing magic,” Cernovich said, “but you’re practicing the dark, demonic magic—the parasitic magic.”

Oh FFS. Y’know, Mike, some people are just plain assholes. I’d think you, of all people, would know that. Assholes tend to accentuate the negative, true enough. Other people are assholes magnified, abusive, using, manipulative, lots of people like that walking about. And yet other people are dysfunctional in some way, which tends to have a stressful effect on those around them. That’s part and parcel of life, and it doesn’t have one thing to do with magic. Anyone can make the decision to cut ties with toxic people, that’s not magic, but it tends to really make your life better. You could be described as an “emotional vampire”, Mike, given what a toxic fucking asshole you are, inciting people, encouraging bigotry and hatred, lying, and inciting violence.

He went on to tell listeners that this same “black magic” was the motivation behind the supposed “deep state,” an unseen government apparatus that controls the country, and its supposed obsession with pedophilia.

“People go, ‘Well why are there so many pedophiles in deep state? Why are there so many pedophiles in politics and Hollywood?’ Because that’s the darkest magic you can ever practice. Torturing children, as many people in Hollywood do, is how you practice the highest levels of dark magic,” Cernovich said.

A fine example of you being a manipulative, toxic liar. The reason you nasty assholes constantly parrot ‘pedophilia!’ is because that, more than anything else, is likely to get people to pay attention and get upset. People get very emotional about that subject, and rightly so, but it can’t be stated enough how wrong what you are doing is, just screeching ‘pedophiles!’ with absolutely no basis for doing so. There are enough crimes committed against children as it is, every moment of every day, and you spend all your time making people get worked up about non-existent acts. So, you’re adding to damage and crimes committed against children, because you distract and detract from those who actually do such things. You never manage to mention how many children in “good christian” families are being raped by a family member. No, it’s always these nebulous “elite” characters, who, despite having tons of money and powerful positions, just can’t manage without practicing “the darkest of dark magic, oooogabooooga”. No.

Why don’t you start working on “alchameticing” yourself into a decent person, Mike? That ought to keep you busy.

You can read the full mess at RWW.

Sunday Facepalm: Trump Is NOT An Artist.

Ground views of different Border Wall Prototypes as they take shape during the Wall Prototype Construction Project near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry (photo by Mani Albrecht via US Customs and Border Protection/Flickr).

Ground views of different Border Wall Prototypes as they take shape during the Wall Prototype Construction Project near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry (photo by Mani Albrecht via US Customs and Border Protection/Flickr).

Jesus Fucking Christ, some people…

…The paper [NYT] published Michael Walker’s “Is Donald Trump, Wall-Builder-in-Chief, a Conceptual Artist?,” a clickbait headline for a piece about Swiss-Icelandic conceptual artist Christoph Büchel’s “nonprofit” MAGA which has created an online petition to have the prototypes for Trump’s border wall declared National Monuments. This aligns with a broader effort by Büchel/MAGA to frame the models as Land Art: since December 2018 they’ve been offering onsite tours of the prototypes, which a press release claimed “have significant cultural value.”  Value, of course, is not the same as meaning. The broad-strokes inferences of a facile transference of historical meaning into cultural value are obviously both political and artistic; in both contexts their implications are pretty toxic.

Politically, with its arch tone and conceptual trappings, Büchel’s project normalizes and sanitizes the man stoking tensions about nuclear war via Twitter (it’s reminiscent of Jimmy Fallon petting his hair) and actively threatening the livelihoods and futures of DACA recipients while undermining the US’s longstanding diplomatic relationship with Mexico (also: undermining all Mexicans as human beings). Artistically, it does a disservice to the real work of serious artists by promoting what, evaluated on the merits, is the worst kind of incoherent conceptual art — flawed in both concept and execution.

Per the Times, Büchel “is adamant he has no creative stake in the project” (which seems an odd way for an artist to establish integrity). He claims that “This is a collective sculpture; people elected the artist.” For Büchel, writes Walker, “Americans, by electing Mr. Trump, allowed his obsessions to be given form that qualifies as an artistic statement.” This kind of convoluted philosophizing to legitimate a flimsy artistic premise wishes to align itself with, or at least to appropriate, the Duchampian honesty that claims “It’s art because I say so.” Büchel seems to be doing something more insidious: using art-speaky language to prop up something I suspect he must know is pretty empty as a conceptual artwork (even if the prototypes themselves are visually imposing), while contributing to, and deriving press coverage from, a dangerously violent political context.

Not all Americans elected the Tiny Tyrant, Mr. Büchel. Actually, the majority of them voted against him. Büchel typifies the exact type of shallow, pretentious asshole, who, with nothing else to market, jumps on something they think is trendily controversial, coated with enough bullshit to engage the fleeting attention span of the ‘art world’, the one inhabited by people with less depth than a puddle. The most one could say about the wall prototypes is that they are a monument to unthinking bigotry and hatred; that they glorify isolation and dehumanisation. In the current time, when people have finally decided, rightly, that monuments to slavery and those who defended it are not appropriate, why in the fuck would these monstrosities be considered to have any value? This is a disgusting, infuriating story, and I’m going to go help myself to more tea and go feed the birds instead of risking a blown artery. You can read the whole thing, with all relevant links at Hyperallergic.

Trump the Thump.

Yeah. For Real. It gets worse. Note how, in the poster, TrumpBunny is under Jones’s hand.

Alex Jones is hawking another book, this time, it’s ostensibly for the sproggen. The title is Thump: The First Bundred Days, By Timothy Lim, Mark Pellegrini, Brett R. Smith.

In the year 2016, with a hop, skip and jump,
A candidate stormed the stage: A bunny named Thump!

His goal is nothing less than to become President
And to make America great for each resident!

But his campaign trail is fraught with challenge and peril,
Attacked on all sides by fiends ferocious and feral!

There are traitors and crooks and old establishment guard
And rabid media watchdogs unchained from their yard!

Will the winningest of bunnies take his greatest stand
And find his way to the highest office in the land?

We won’t spoil it for you here, but you might have a guess…
Come join Thump and his party on the road to success!

It’s every bit as bad as you’d expect, with at least one surprising low. One thing is quite clear, they do not expect children or adults to actually have a working vocabulary; this is more “we can’t use the real words, but you know wot I mean, wink nudge.”

The book, called Thump: The First Bundred Days, was written by a group of co-authors including Brett R. Smith, the creative director of the Steve Bannon-backedClinton Cash: A Graphic Novel, and Timothy Lim, who has worked with Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Hasbro. The book is published by Post Hill Press, whose books are distributed by Simon and Schuster.

The online store of Jones’ conspiracy theory outlet Infowars is selling the book with an exclusive poster showing Jones and Thump and describes the product as “the perfect book for teaching your kids or reading through it for yourself!”

Jones hosted Smith for a promotional interview on January 3, and flipped through the book, revealing some of its disturbing content.

On one page that Jones showed, the text read, “Thump found friends in strange places and in all shapes and sizes. Such as the frogs that croaked ‘KEK!’ They were full of surprises!”

“Thump found friends in strange places and in all shapes and sizes, such as the frogs that croaked “KEK!” They were full of surprises!“Gosh, no nazism there, no. And isn’t that critter on the left stolen from whatshisface?

And then we have this…

Thump reads, “Thump was caught talking of grabbing all things pusillanimous. Protesters even made pink hats: their ire was unanimous.” Let’s have a look at vocabulary here:

Pusillanimous

Adjective.

Lacking courage and resolution: marked by contemptible timidity Syn: cowardly.

-pusillanimously, adverb.

[Origin: Late Latin pusillanimis, from Latin pusillus very small (diminutive of pusus boy) + animus spirit; perhaps akin to Latin puer child.]

(1586)

Hmm. Seems they only cared about a rhyme and at least the starting sound of pussy, and not the meaning of the word. It would be nice to think this was a deliberate swipe at the Tiny Tyrant, but I doubt that’s the case. I’m sure if the sprogs of Trumpholes ask as to the meaning of pusillanimous, they’ll be told a pretty lie, if the Trumpholes know what it means in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets tangled up with pugilism in the Trumphole world.

You can read more about this travesty at MediaMatters.

That’s Quite The Poll…

The Tiny Tyrant’s fundraising committee has released a survey: Official Presidential Job Performance Poll. And here it is:

Wow. Impressive, right? Every time you think the bar of stupid just cannot possibly get lower, it defies reality and gets down, down, down in the pit of fuckin’ idiocy. Obviously, they are hoping for a sop to toss into the void of Donny’s ego, reassuring him that yes, he’s so much better than a former president.

If you’re thinking of having a bit of fun, think twice, because:

respondents must submit identifying information, including their names and email addresses, raising concerns that the details will be raided for marketing purposes.

The site’s fine print below the form notes that, “by providing your phone number, you are consenting to receive calls and texts, including autodialed and automated calls and texts, to that number from TMAGAC and its participating committees.”

The full story is here.

Oh, It’s All So Girly! What About The Poor Young Men?

Bono (Photo: JStone / Shutterstock).

Aww, Bono is awash in sad tears over the state of angry young men, because girly. The Girly™, it’s ruining everything!

I think music has gotten very girly. And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment – and that’s not good. When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me. You need to find a place for it and for guitars, whether it is with a drum machine – I don’t care. The moment something becomes preserved, it is fucking over. You might as well put it in formaldehyde. In the end, what is rock & roll? Rage is at the heart of it. Some great rock & roll tends to have that, which is why the Who were such a great band. Or Pearl Jam. Eddie has that rage.

Oh, the poor, poor young men, who will cry for them? Golly, such a terrible state of affairs when an angry young dude just can’t pick up a guitar, or bangsmash on a drum set, howl out their angst, or write a poor, pitiful me ode, because Girly™. Of course, it’s imfuckingpossible for women to be angry, because what on earth do ‘girls’ have to be angry about, right? Bono, an old white dude afloat on money and privilege, being a seriously bone-headed twit. Sorry dude, you aren’t relevant anymore, you’re plain old white male moneyed establishment. You can go fuck off, and in doing so, make way for the angry, sarcastic women…

Via Raw Story and Rolling Stone.

Star Wars: The Persecution of White Men!

It’s interesting, how certain factions always see something nefarious in any SW flick, rather than seeing the reality: same old movie, done a zillion times.

Stefan Molyneux, a video blogger popular among the far-right, told viewers this weekend that “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” contains a commentary about the persecution of white men and the failure of diversity.

In a video uploaded on Sunday, Molyneux claimed that the newest Star Wars film contains a hidden commentary about the plight of white men as Western countries diversify.

[…]

“Some of you are going to respond and say, ‘Are you sure that’s what the writers intended?’ and the only people who say that are people who aren’t themselves creative writers,” Molyneux said, going on to claim he wrote a short story when he was six and a novel when he was 11 years old. He began his explanation by comparing Luke Skywalker to white men he believes have been marginalized.

And I’m sure your family patted you on the head when you were six and eleven, and reassured you of your spectacular genius. That does not make you a creative writer. It doesn’t make you a writer of any kind. It does make you come across as something of an idiot.

He began his explanation by comparing Luke Skywalker to white men he believes have been marginalized.

“So Luke Skywalker has checked out of society—ha, isn’t that interesting? He’s a white male who’s checked out of society. And we see this all over the place with white males, right? I mean, they’re not happy. Neither is Luke Skywalker happy. He’s got this bitter, gristled, half-homeless kind of determination to survive another day but for no particular purpose other than to watch the slow extinguishing of his own possibilities and his own life,” Molyneux said. He went on to explain that he believed Luke Skywalker’s lack of children was reflective of “the demographic decline among the whites that is happening in Europe and in North America” and foretold a “quasi-extinction” of white people “in the not so distant future.”

A lot of people aren’t terribly happy. That goes across all societal lines. Again with the babies. Why in the hell is always about the [white] babies? Since the SW movies are always populated with mass amounts of people, it’s fair to assume someone is breeding.

Molyneux explained that when Luke Skywalker abandons the Jedi forces in the film, it reflects how white people have abandoned their culture.

“Whites are not allowed to have a history to be proud of, not allowed to have in-group preferences, the religion of the West must be burned—and this, of course, you see the tree and the Jedi texts get burned down and it’s the end of a lineage. It’s the end of a history. It is the end of culture,” Molyneux said.

Oh gods, not again. What culture? Please, point me to explicitly white culture. If you’re talking about confederate flags and remembering slavery fondly, then yes, that shit has to go. We had the war, it’s over. People at large figured out that yes, people who are not white are people. That’s a good thing. Ustates is now, and has been, a great dumping ground for all manner of peoples from all over the world. There’s no ‘white culture’ here. If you’re all that bent on pursuing it, head back to England. Or wherever it is you think your ‘white’ heritage lies.

The trouble is with white people, in particular, men, always being taught and told how amazingly special they are, why they are entitled to all things ever. You are so damn desperate to believe that, that you do seriously stupid shit like point out the short story you wrote when you were six years old. Outside of your particular heritage, which I’m sure has some sort of culture attached, you get American culture, which is just a fucking mess of pottage from numerous sources.

When Luke Skywalker appears in a battle scene and is targeted by opposing forces, it illustrates “the hatred directed at white males,” Molyneux said.

Okay, I haven’t seen the movie, because I don’t much care for the whole franchise, but this is plain old bullshit. I imagine any such scene was to highlight that “Hey, Skywalker, still a hero!” or somesuch.

He explained: “There’s a lot of frustration out in the world. This is why I talk about race and IQ, is that I want people to get along. I want people to understand and to have peace with the way that the world and its cultures are, because there’s this incredible frustration out there in the world that other cultures are just not able to reproduce the former successes of white male culture.”

Goodness, do you ever have that one backwards. There’s a lot of frustration on the part of white men who have never accomplished a fucking thing, but wanting everyone in the world to acknowledged that white dudes are the smartest, bestest ever at everything. Get the fuck over yourselves.

He continued to explain that the more diverse cast in the new Star Wars film was a reflection on the diversification of the Western world.

Molyneux said, “This increased diversity means decreased success. In fact, it’s just one disaster after another for the Rebels and I’m not really sure if diversity is such a strength. Why, now that the Star Wars universe is more diverse, do the Rebels keep losing? Well, because there’s kind of a truth in that.”

Yes, there’s a truth there, cupcake. It’s “we want to keep milking this cash cow until the next century at least.” Amazing you can’t figure that one out, what with you being a creative genius and all. The plot is ancient, and SW is a recycling plant: underdogs vs big evil powers.

Via RWW.

Shoving The Overton Window Alt-Right.

Paul Nehlen, screengrab.

RWW has an extensive story about Paul Nehlen, an unapologetic nazi who is running again in an attempt to unseat Paul Ryan. Nehlen is intent on shoving the Overton Window as far right as possible, to ‘sanitize’ and normalise white supremacy and nationalism. Just a bit here, because the article is fair long, and rich with links.

Paul Nehlen, who is running again to unseat Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in Wisconsin, told Breitbart radio host Curt Schilling today that he is using his campaign and fiery social media presence to force discourse in the Republican Party further to the right—in his case, toward the white nationalist worldview of the alt-right.

This morning, Nehlen joined Schilling to talk about campaigning for failed Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama and his upcoming 2018 campaign in Wisconsin.

“There’s a lot of followers out there, there’s a lot of people out there, that look up to me and I take that seriously,” Nehlen said. “But you know, people like you who are out there every day—you wake up every morning and you work hard, you get your message out, it’s imperative that you realize, ‘Hey, there’s a bunch of people out there like me, who aren’t going to give up.’ And if we’re all moving forward in the same direction, moving that Overton Window to the right, and saying, ‘Hey, this fake news media, that doesn’t work us, that doesn’t scare us’—you know, I’m standing up for people’s free speech, lawful speech.”

Mmm. Odd how that standing up for people’s free, lawful speech only has to do with things you approve of, while you’re oddly silent in other cases, along with the rest of the freeze peach brigade. Unfortunately, the Overton Window has already been shoved considerably to the right, as we all get more accustomed to seeing and hearing white! white! white! everywhere. We really can’t afford to let this happen, but it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Earlier this year, Nehlen retweeted photos that celebrated the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. Nehlen was also a major proponent of “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and told the Associated Press in August that he still believed it to be true. Earlier this month, Nehlen told columnist John Podhoretz on Twitter to “do us all a favor” and “eat a bullet.”

Last week, as first documented by the blog Angry White Men, Nehlen appeared on and praised the hosts of “Fash the Nation,” an anti-Semitic podcast popular in alt-right circles, and celebrated that “the red pills are being shot at people like with bump fire stocks.”(Taking a “red pill,” a reference to a scene in the sci-fi film “The Matrix,” is alt-right shorthand for embracing the movement’s views and bump stocks are the type of weapon modification that enabled the mass shooter in Las Vegas to achieve near-automatic fire). Nehlen also appeared on “Fash the Nation” last year, calling for an end to birthright citizenship.

Recently, Nehlen has pushed even harder to the right and dropped any attempt to conceal his affiliations with the furthest fringes of the Right.

It would be really nice is someone like Nehlen could simply be dismissed as ‘lunatic fringe’ without a hope of gaining support. Unfortunately, that’s not the case any longer. While people like this might not be winning yet, the call is too close for comfort. There’s no comfort at all to be had in the fact that it’s someone like Paul Ryan who does win, because while Ryan might not embrace nazism, he’s an awful sociopath, bent on eliminating poverty by eliminating all those icky poor people.

RWW has the full story.

The Zeta Male.

To be manly masculine man! The text reads: Though she was a tiger lady, our hero didn't have to fire a shot to floor her. After one look at his Mr. Leggs slacks, she was ready to have him walk all over her. That noble styling sure soothes the savage heart! If you'd like your own doll-to-doll carpeting, hunt up a pare of these he-man Mr. Leggs slacks. Such as our new automatic wash wear blend of 65% "Dacron" and 35% rayon - incomparably wrinkle-resistant. About $12.95 at plush-carpeted stores.

To be manly masculine man! The text reads: Though she was a tiger lady, our hero didn’t have to fire a shot to floor her. After one look at his Mr. Leggs slacks, she was ready to have him walk all over her. That noble styling sure soothes the savage heart! If you’d like your own doll-to-doll carpeting, hunt up a pare of these he-man Mr. Leggs slacks. Such as our new automatic wash wear blend of 65% “Dacron” and 35% rayon – incomparably wrinkle-resistant. About $12.95 at plush-carpeted stores.

Yesterday, when I was reading the wailing over the war on christmas at Townhall, another post caught my eye – “The Rise of the Zeta Male.” I’ll admit, I’m not good at keeping up with all the different categorizations of male these days, and I hadn’t heard of this one. I’m rather sorry I know about it now. A lot of it is the standard insulting the hell out of any man who isn’t of the approved Manly Masculine Man™ type, because of course, finding ways to compare men to that most awful of beings – women, is a sign that you’re a Manly Masculine Man™, one who can bully properly! So, a good deal of this nonsense will be at least somewhat familiar, because the repertoire of the Manly Masculine Man™ is on the limited side.

There’s a possibility our species will, in the not-too-distant future, be wiped out. Not by a meteor, but by simply no longer reproducing. Sterility won’t be the culprit, it will be the rise of the zeta males. … there is a new, disturbing option emerging that may, and maybe should, mean the end of all human reproduction: the zeta male.

[…]

So, what is a zeta male? They aren’t just “woke” feminists, thought they are certainly that. They are biological men for whom a urinal holds no meaning, they always sit.

My partner sits. So what? It’s relaxing and clean. That you think, Mr. Hunter, that standing splay-legged with a penis in your hand is somehow uber-manly, well…

More than that, they are exemplified by a recent op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper of America’s most over-priced college.

The piece, entitled, “The Harvard Community is Responsible for Sexual Assault,” is a progressive diary entry on the fall of western civilization.

The headline is typical leftist pap – blaming everyone for the actions of a few so as to alleviate personal guilt. But the source of the personal guilt in this case is the issue and the evidence.

Oh, so wrong. This is not about placing blame on everyone. It is about seeing how, societally, we enable and reinforce attitudes and behaviours which cause harm to people.

[…]

So what was this horrible offense; this sexist, sexual assault enabling action he took? He acted like a normal guy, quite possibly for the first and only time in his life.

How? I’ll let him explain:

“During Orientation Week in August of 2016, I was out late drinking in Harvard Square with two classmates. The topic switched to the women in our class. Over the drunken hum of the bar’s collective conversation, one guy proposed the ‘hottest’ girls in our class. The other did the same. They both then asked me to rank the girls in our cohort in the order I wanted to get with. My alarmed heart bolted blood to my cheeks. I crossed my arms, unable to speak. ‘Are we making you uncomfortable?’ one asked me. I cannot remember my exact response. But it was not: ‘Yes. Objectifying women, even though it seems harmless to you, demeans them and creates an environment that makes sexual assault more likely.’ Instead, I uncrossed my arms, I shook my head, and yes, I discussed which girls were hot.”

We no longer have a need for The Onion, real life has become a parody of itself.

All they were basically doing is talking about the women they find attractive, something every normal, healthy, heterosexual man since communication was invented has been doing, but now it’s just one step down from Harvey Weinstein. Maybe only a half-step.

This is as insane as it is hilarious, a eunuch’s love letter to a lonely future.

Crispy Christ, you’re an idiot, Mr. Hunter. A willful one. No, those young men were not talking about women they find attractive – they were ranking them, which is quite different than saying something like “wow, that’s a nice looking group of women!” or “Sally is really pretty.” When you turn around and rank people in order of who you would fuck first, that’s not harmless talk. That’s objectifying people into sex aids. It’s demeaning. It’s a way of encouraging young men to never consider women as actual human beings.

The zeta continued, “At the time, it was easy for me to discard my act of cowardice as inconsequential. The desire to be included made the risk of speaking up too great. During many similar ‘inconsequential’ comments at the pub and locker rooms throughout my life, I know I’ve taken the easy way out.”

I didn’t realize competitive knitting had locker rooms.

Amazing that you think your lame comment about knitting makes you a Manly Masculine Man™,  Mr. Hunter. I’ll take a man who is unafraid of thinking any day, like the young man at Harvard. He is absolutely right. Given how important the homosocial sphere is to men, the only way to make true change is for men to have the courage to speak up, and that does take much courage, given the sheer assholism of all you Manly Masculine Men™. You assholes are so damn insecure, it’s pitiful. On the other hand, the young man from Harvard, he’s not only capable of thinking, he displays empathy, and he is secure enough in his own self to own up to making a mistake, and how this all too common mistake makes our society a worse place. Not just for women, Mr. Hunter. This insistence of Manly Man Masculinity™ stuffs all men into tiny, claustrophobic coffins, where they are not allowed to simply be people. That’s not healthy. That’s not good.

The confession of this student (a graduate student, no less) is a prime example of what happens when you accept as moral arbiters people who insist gender is a social construct and a person can switch from one to the other at will.

:Near-fatal eyeroll: Gender is a social construct, just like “masculine” and “feminine” are social constructs. Different societies throughout history provide many examples. This is not about “switching gender at will” you flaming dumbfuck. I am so tired of hearing that. Transgender people and non-binary people are not the result of a sudden whim.

Men finding women attractive, and vice versa, is why we’re all here.

No it isn’t. Evolution is why we’re all here. And yes, like all animals, some of us breed. Golly, how revolutionary.

Talking about it, and everything else, with friends, even in crude terms, is perfectly normal human behavior. But now it’s pre-rape and needs to be confessed.

Yes, talking about women as objects to be demeaned is all too common. That needs to change, which thankfully, more and more men are realizing. No one said it’s “pre-rape”, it’s simply bad behaviour which causes harm throughout a person’s lifetime. If you don’t see others as human beings, then helping yourself to them doesn’t seem like a big deal. That’s why sexual harassment is so standard and widespread, because you have a fucktonne of men who think they are entitled to any body they find attractive. They don’t give one tiny shit about the person they are assaulting. It’s a toxic way of thinking, one which insecure men hang on to with a death grip, because they fear a loss of power – the power to objectify, the power to demean, the power to humiliate.

Hopefully, Mr. Hunter, you and the rest of the Manly Masculine Men™ will find themselves increasingly isolated, sitting in your lonely corner, while the rest of us get on with lives outside of your categorical coffins.

You can read the full toxic stew here.

Dear Women, Have More Babies.

It seems there’s no shortage of white idiots who think the solution to everything is “Moar Babies!” We can add sociopath Paul Ryan to the heap of baby idiots.

“People — this is going to be the new economic challenge for America. People,” Ryan said, in response to a question about entitlement reform.

Alluding to the fact that he’s a father of three, Ryan added, “I did my part, but we need to have higher birth rates in this country. Meaning, baby boomers are retiring, and we have fewer people following them in the work force.”

“We have something like a 90 percent increase in the retirement population in America, but only a 19 percent increase in the working population in American,” the Speaker continued. “So what do we have to do? Be smarter, more efficient, more technology — still going to need more people. And when we have tens of millions of people right here in this country falling short of their potential — not working, not looking for a job, or not in school getting a skill to get a job — that’s a problem.”

Here’s a thought, you dipshit – immigrants. Filling the same old age hole they have always filled in this lost country. The reason we have tens of millions of people right here in this country not working, not looking for a job, or not in school is because of all the “policies” you have helped to implement. The current regime is anti-education, and making it more and more difficult for anyone to get skills of any sort. All manner of jobs now demand a college degree, even if you’re going to be a low level grunt getting paid shit. White people are still being told they will have all the BEST jobs, but those jobs aren’t out there. And you think having more babies will somehow magically fix this problem. We’ll assume you mean [middle class] white babies, because you certainly can’t be talking about all those shiftless types living in poverty, who are desperate for the thinnest of safety nets, now can you?

[…]

Ryan isn’t alone among male Wisconsin Republicans in believing that women should have more babies for the good of the economy. On the floor of the Wisconsin State Assembly last month, Wisconsin state Rep. Scott Allen (R) argued on behalf of a bill that would prevent health insurance plans for state employees from covering most abortions, saying more births are needed to spur economic growth.

In November, Mr. Allen went further:

Allen then went on to argue that abortion was wrong for economic reasons, essentially saying that all women should be forced to have babies in order to grow the labor market.

“Labor force shortages are tied to population declines. Labor force shortages are a limiting factor in economic growth,” Allen said. “And limited economic growth poses a problem when government tries to pay for public services and infrastructure. In spite of this Mr. Speaker, ironically, the democrats continue their effort to support the abortion industry.”

Emphasis mine. Y’know, we can talk labour shortages when there’s actual labour to to be done. The small circle of people who have money in this country are terrified of one slim cent slipping out of their overstuffed pockets, so they have moved any required labour out of this country. No one here actually wants to pay workers much anymore, because so far, most Americans aren’t quite ready to agree to intense labour for around ten dollars a week. Probably won’t be long before things reach that point though. In the meantime, I expect you can fully see people with uteruses guarding them ferociously, and deciding for themselves if they do or don’t want to breed. Most people aren’t overly crazy about the idea of breeding with no resources, since people tend to get silly ideas when they have sprogs, like wanting things to be better for them.

The full story is at Think Progress, with video.

Killing ALL The Fun Of Christmas!

Retrospace.org. Creepy as fuck.

Now that the ‘war on christmas’ has been won, the conservachristians have a new complaint. You just knew this was coming, right? Life is no fun for conservachristians unless they can gripe and whine. Fox News host and Trump cheerleader Laura Ingraham is concerned about women. She’s concerned that women, those awful killjoys, might suck all the fun out of christmas parties, because what else so typifies christmas as the drunken office party?

“Is the #MeToo movement becoming a spoiler for this season’s Christmas parties?” Ingraham asked Friday evening during a segment on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle.

Speaking with comedian Jimmy Failla, Ingraham said she was worried that women who feel empowered to report sexual misconduct might ruin the holiday season by making office Christmas parties less festive.

“I can see this year it might be — a little less festive, let’s say that. No alcohol and no fun and no lampshades and, I don’t know, maybe that’s better,” she said.

“Is this just killing all the fun of Christmas?” she wondered absurdly.

Maybe that’s better? Unbelievable, especially coming from the SHN (Sexual Harassment Network). If your party hits the lampshade point, you’ve gone too far. Seriously. The next day will be flashes of very embarrassing behaviour, always remembered by at least one person, who will spread it all over the place, massive headaches, and someone will get stuck cleaning up all the pools of vomit. If you want to do that sort of thing in your own house, go for it. When it comes to office parties, which many people feel obligated to attend, having a lower key affair will come as a relief to many a person.

As for killing the fun of christmas, gosh, I thought your celebration was supposed to be Christ centered, and you all should be getting pickled in Jesus juice.  Ah well, the truth always outs – christmas, it’s about being a drunken lout!

Failla and Ingraham then turned their attention to Vox, which they ridiculed for imposing a two-drink limit at this year’s office holiday party in an effort to keep things under control.

Limiting the alcohol limits the fun, Failla argued, offering an enthusiastic endorsement of drunkenness at office parties.

“I’m pro-holiday Christmas party,” he said. “I think it serves a purpose, which is to build camaraderie over someone getting trashed. You know, you get that one night a year to be like, ‘Simmons took his shirt off and jumped in the the water fountain.’”

The reason so many people get wasted at office parties is anxiety and nervousness. That kind of ‘camaraderie’ always comes at someone’s expense, so it shouldn’t be that gosh darn hard to dispense with it.

Via Share Blue.