The Culture War Thread

[HaughtyFrank]

https://twitter.com/aberamentho/status/1619645511014940674

“With the diverse group of performers, we want to show that the ice has space for everyone.”

“The opening ceremony will present skaters at various levels from non-professionals to top athletes.

“Often, only the top skaters in the country are seen in figure skating shows. With this diverse group of performers, we want to show that the ice has space for everyone. Especially in uncertain and difficult times like these, it is meaningful to create an accepting and positive experience for all”, Leppilampi said.

 

[james]

https://mobile.twitter.com/parismarx/status/1620117357577519104

[Potato]

https://twitter.com/aberamentho/status/1619645511014940674

“With the diverse group of performers, we want to show that the ice has space for everyone.”

“The opening ceremony will present skaters at various levels from non-professionals to top athletes.

“Often, only the top skaters in the country are seen in figure skating shows. With this diverse group of performers, we want to show that the ice has space for everyone. Especially in uncertain and difficult times like these, it is meaningful to create an accepting and positive experience for all”, Leppilampi said.

 

My boss had no idea what the hell this shit was about.

[benjipwns]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/30/newsrooms-news-reporting-objectivity-diversity/


 

[HaughtyFrank]

There's really something going on with modern writers.

https://twitter.com/RussFrushtick/status/1619094672999346176

Mind you, I'm not bothered the political message at all, the original game was also very critical of capitalism through it's story and satiric ads:

 
What bothers me is that it's so direct, like there's not even an attempt to include any subtext. Is there even any thought put into who would write that on a wall? Wouldn't they instead call out something more direct, like the shit working hours, pay, lazy boss or whatever instead of being shocked that the company they work for is capitalist? Basically hard to imagine a real life oil worker writing this on an oilrig.
But the thing is, as you can see by the tweet, people actually eat this up. This dude, who apparently co-founded Polygon, is all "Fuck yeah, not pulling any punches!", so this sort of writing is exactly aimed at permanent twitter residents like him, and it upsets me that there's really a crowd out there who want all their media to have the villain turn to the camera and explain that they're doing bad things.

Oh and let's not talk about how a graffiti somehow has correct commas lol

[Pissy F Benny]

eh its kinda whatever, theres an idea that current audiences are fucking stupid (probably true) so need to be slapped in the face with the message, the example from the original game is 2deep4u today. how will your run of the mill twitter slacktivist know that you're criticising capitalism without lame overly wordy slogans?

not that the standard of writing in some stuff hasn't got more hacky over the last 15 years too.

[Potato]

eh its kinda whatever, theres an idea that current audiences are fucking stupid (probably true) so need to be slapped in the face with the message, the example from the original game is 2deep4u today. how will your run of the mill twitter slacktivist know that you're criticising capitalism without lame overly wordy slogans?

not that the standard of writing in some stuff hasn't got more hacky over the last 15 years too.

If you need a direct example of how fucking stupid modern audiences are, then maybe revisit the Cyberpunk 2077 controversy regarding the in-game advertisements.

[benjipwns]

This dude, who apparently co-founded Polygon, is all "Fuck yeah, not pulling any punches!", so this sort of writing is exactly aimed at permanent twitter residents like him

Is he making fun of it?
https://twitter.com/joshWit_Ch/status/1619393364025278466

Are these the replies he hated?
https://twitter.com/purplecumulon/status/1619172872991444992
https://twitter.com/Player2Joypad/status/1619302349641748480

Anyway, actual winner:
https://twitter.com/iHeartMilfsss/status/1619138860608540673
https://twitter.com/iHeartMilfsss/status/1619146237659447296
https://twitter.com/iHeartMilfsss/status/1619147574673543169

[Polident Hive]

Sometimes I can’t what direction it’s coming from. If it’s done for the audience sake, the Bergeron effect of dumbing it down. Or it’s insecurity from the creators to not have their work missed or misunderstood. Either way, see it more and more. Stopping short of facing the camera and explaining what’s happening and how to feel.

[benjipwns]

Sometimes I can’t what direction it’s coming from. If it’s done for the audience sake, the Bergeron effect of dumbing it down. Or it’s insecurity from the creators to not have their work missed or misunderstood. Either way, see it more and more. Stopping short of facing the camera and explaining what’s happening and how to feel.

I'm no longer under the illusion that the people doing this writing are smart. They're all on Twitter now and I can see what they think about everything all the time.

The writers on The Larry Sanders Show and 30 Rock were apparently not parodies at all but played straight and we just didn't know it yet.

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/jowyang/status/1620128829661675520
https://twitter.com/jowyang/status/1620141122491408384

He locked the replies because they were making fun of him of course.

[Uncle]

https://twitter.com/ezyjules/status/1620423060519272448

[Uncle]

https://twitter.com/chaosprime/status/1620724131426865152

[HaughtyFrank]

I believe he meant to say he punched it up 

[Polident Hive]

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/TheLaurenChen/status/1621082742892171265

[Potato]

Stop filming in the gym you idiots. Did these cunts ever consider that others might not be comfortable with them filming?

[Pissy F Benny]

rules are for thee, not for me

[james]

Stop filming in the gym you idiots. Did these cunts ever consider that others might not be comfortable with them filming?

Are my hidden cameras in the gym locker room ok or no?

[Cauliflower Of Love]

rules are for thee, not for me

thats what i have written on my collar

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/TinStarGames1/status/1621052252663451648
https://twitter.com/TinStarGames1/status/1621069895151804417
https://twitter.com/TinStarGames1/status/1621064877598216193
https://twitter.com/TinStarGames1/status/1621068591100751872
https://twitter.com/hiandlois/status/1621064319755755521

@TinStarGames1
We are the preeminent Australian rpg publisher. “Dee’s words make the everyday seem magical and the magical seem within reach" http://ko-fi.com/tinstargames

[Polident Hive]

Stop filming in the gym you idiots. Did these cunts ever consider that others might not be comfortable with them filming?

Some people film themselves to check their form. For themselves and to get input from others etc. but mostly private. Not for social media content or whatever the hell they’re doing these days.

[chronovore]

Stop filming in the gym you idiots. Did these cunts ever consider that others might not be comfortable with them filming?

Some people film themselves to check their form. For themselves and to get input from others etc. but mostly private. Not for social media content or whatever the hell they’re doing these days.

Sure, but that's not what we're talking about. Many gyms have rules prohibiting photography/recording, and it's precisely for the privacy of all paying customers.

The clout-chasers, the creeps, the vain, and those who are legitimately just trying to improve their form can't be separated. They're all under the same blanket prohibition.

[Polident Hive]

Yeah. Pretty much what I’m agreeing with. People took advantage of that understanding and are ruining it for everybody.

Think I’m mentioning it because I don’t get the sense this video was meant to be one of those. Lady actually seems like a lifter and at least has the camera aimed at a wall.

[Snoopycat_]

Today I watched a clip of that mental case Jordan Peterson raging about devious drag queens. It's funny as fuck. Starts around 1.40 and lasts around 2 minutes

[benjipwns]

The drag queen panic honestly seems like the cultural right was upset they didn't have anything and somebody threw a dart at a board with a bunch of random shit on it.

[Rufus]

It's spill over from anti-trans sentiments.

[Snoopycat_]

I've never heard drag queens deny they get a sexual kick out of dressing up, but so what, they're not hurting anyone. This nutter in his wonky suit is as mad as the ree trans mob. Constantly throwing up imaginary enemies. They deserve each other.

[Potato]

I just like how Joe Rogan clearly only understood about every third word of what Peterson was saying, but kept nodding and "uh-huhing" as if he had a clue.

[Snoopycat_]

Oh man. It's crazy out there. Like, where even is the social construct anymore? It's gone man. It's gone. It doesn't exist. They literally ripped it up and now people can't even make sense of like, uh, the ballgame

[Pissy F Benny]

The whole Peterson cast is fucking insane, he's starting his own super villian league later this year to to take on the WEF

Also the way he says buddy is hilarious

[Nintex]

"That's Hansel and Gretel"

"phew wow"

"But they put that in the Disney vault in favor of garbage like She Hulk to hide the truth"

"damn"

"Wake up Buddy! You think the world is all sunshine and rainbows. Welcome to reality"

[HaughtyFrank]

https://twitter.com/thomaschattwill/status/1621538370378764305

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/cliftonaduncan/status/1621520039924101128

[Tasty]

That's heinous.

[Pissy F Benny]

That's one of the grimmest things I've ever read, and we all know that Hillary and co will eat those babies too anyway

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/Lawrence/status/1621260833748557825

 

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/DeletedSharon/status/1621301418605907968

[Potato]

Slut shaming, very progressive.

[HaughtyFrank]

https://twitter.com/ShitpostGate/status/1621872620109963267

https://twitter.com/DrShepherd2013/status/1621908181860352003

[chronovore]

I remeber in Independence Day, they warned on the news, "Los Angelinos are encouraged to refrain from shooting firearms at the ships..."

[benjipwns]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Two Democratic lawmakers are seeking to remove Columbus Day as an official holiday in Tennessee in favor of a different day of celebration: the day after the Super Bowl.

Rep. Joe Towns Jr. (D—Memphis) and Sen. London Lamar (D—Memphis) introduced a bill this week that would designate the first Monday after the Super Bowl as a legal holiday while removing the official recognition of Columbus Day.

The bill would delete the language in the current Tennessee Code Annotated that designates “the second Monday in October, known as ‘Columbus Day,’” as a holiday while inserting “the first Monday after the Super Bowl,” as a new holiday, known as “Super Bowl Monday” in the bill text.

If passed, the change would take effect immediately, per the bill.

[benjipwns]

But as Gopalakrishnan got further into the movement, she realized that “the advertised reality of EA is very different from the actual reality of EA,” she says. She noticed that EA members in the Bay Area seemed to work together, live together, and sleep together, often in polyamorous sexual relationships with complex professional dynamics. Three times in one year, she says, men at informal EA gatherings tried to convince her to join these so-called “polycules.” When Gopalakrishnan said she wasn’t interested, she recalls, they would “shame” her or try to pressure her, casting monogamy as a lifestyle governed by jealousy, and polyamory as a more enlightened and rational approach.

After a particularly troubling incident of sexual harassment, Gopalakrishnan wrote a post on an online forum for EAs in Nov. 2022. While she declined to publicly describe details of the incident, she argued that EA’s culture was hostile toward women. “It puts your safety at risk,” she wrote, adding that most of the access to funding and opportunities within the movement was controlled by men. Gopalakrishnan was alarmed at some of the responses. One commenter wrote that her post was “bigoted” against polyamorous people. Another said it would “pollute the epistemic environment,” and argued it was “net-negative for solving the problem.”

[Potato]

Dave Chappelle wins Best Comedy Album Grammy. That will rustle a few jimmies.

[D3RANG3D]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Manager_JoJo/status/1621976719044317184

[Pissy F Benny]

Keffqls is based and redpilled now?

[james]

WE NEED TO CANCEL LEO DICAPRIO

THAT MOTHERFUCKER IS DATING AN ISRAEL APOLOGIST

[HaughtyFrank]

https://twitter.com/DelusionPosting/status/1622694217838624769

Brb asking Alexandria Daddario if I may jerk off to her body because I'm not a creep

[benjipwns]

But the reparations movement is bigger and wider than that. Its rise in the United States has inspired a global movement committed to redressing perceived historical injustices to all manner of aggrieved groups. The causes include gay reparations, climate reparations, colonial reparations, university reparations – and Roman Catholic Church reparations for officially sanctioning colonization, slavery, and genocide in the New World. Scholars, activists and legislators across the United States and Europe and in former colonies are drawing on the logic and language of the black reparations movement and international human rights law to make the claim that their causes also deserve atonement and compensation for past wrongs.

...

Reparations advocate William Darity, a Duke University economist and one of five economic advisers to the California Reparations Task Force, acknowledged that claims against the United States and other European nations that enslaved Africans could potentially lead to similar claims against Western and non-Western countries that, in a previous political configuration in past centuries, engaged in slaving, concubinage, and other practices that were formerly accepted but are now viewed with moral revulsion.   

“I would encourage the people who are concerned about these histories of injustice to do the work and make the case,” Darity said, noting that the full scale of potential claims may not be fully appreciated. “It could be immense; it could be enormous.”   

Illustrating the complexity of the issue, reparations projects around the country are using inconsistent eligibility criteria. The California Reparations Task Force has defined eligibility in such a way as to exclude people like Obama, whose late mother was white and late father was from Kenya, by limiting benefits to descendants of free blacks or enslaved blacks who lived in the United States in the 19th century. 

But California’s definition currently doesn't require the applicant to document that they have self-identified as African American, an oversight that could open the door for white people who have black slaves in their lineage, Darity said, unless the state’s task force revises the criteria in the final proposal this year. 

California's eligibility standards were controversial and passed narrowly on a 5-4 vote. Public figures last year impassionedly urged the task force to make reparations available to all black people.   

“In essence, we’re saying people like that, who’re experiencing racism now — and you can’t tell me Barack Obama didn’t experience racism — could not be part of reparations,” said Reginald Jones-Sawyer, who represents South Los Angeles in the State Assembly, according to The New York Times. “The fact that we all came in, whether on a slave ship or a cruise ship — Guess what? We’re all in the same boat now.” 

Officials in San Francisco, a progressive city that last year implemented the nation’s first guaranteed income program exclusively for transgender people, are weighing a separate reparations proposal to make lump sum payments of $5 million each to eligible black residents and supplement lower-income black households with $97,000 a year (in 2022 dollars) for “at least 250 years.”   

Darity’s national proposal, outlined with co-author A. Kirsten Mullen in “From Here to Equality,” calls for closing the estimated $14.7 trillion racial wealth gap by paying each African American about $358,000, over a period of 10 years in a combination of annuities, trust accounts, endowments, and cash, all exempt from federal income taxes. 

Among the impediments to achieving racial wealth parity in this country is the almost certain unconstitutionality of awarding financial benefits based on race. Darity said Congress would have to pass legislation affirming the legality of redress for national culpability against a specific racial group. The final obstacle for reparations advocates would be the U.S. Supreme Court, which at the present time is majority conservative. 

“A Congress that makes a commitment to a reparations plan might also have to make a commitment to stack the court,” Darity said. “From my perspective, the Supreme Court is purely a political instrument, and it should be treated as such.” 

“Injustice and oppression are global in scale. Why? Because trans-Atlantic slavery and colonialism built the world we live in,” Georgetown philosophy professor Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò wrote in “Reconsidering Reparations,” an academic treatise published by Oxford University Press last year. “If we want reparations, we should be thinking more broadly about how to remake the world system.” 

Táíwò declined comment for this article, but his 2022 book argues that “climate justice and reparations are the same project: climate crisis arises from the same political history as racial injustice and presents a challenge of the same scale and scope.”   

“The Case for Gay Reparations” notes that an apology is key for claimants because it establishes grounds for further concessions.   

“As suggested by the Western European experience, an apology to the LGBTQ community is often a gateway for other reparations, including rehabilitation and compensation,” author Omar Encarnación wrote in Time magazine in 2021. Compensation is sought for the loss of wages and pensions that may have resulted from time spent in prison or in a mental institution because of homophobic laws and policies, he explained in The Nation.   

The Caribbean CARICOM Reparations Commission and the National African American Reparations Commission both have promulgated 10-point platforms, listing demands such as affordable housing, substantial land tracts, creation of an African Holocaust Institute, psychological rehabilitation, and technology transfers, among others. Both movements advocate for a government-supported repatriation program to be made available to millions of individuals in the African diaspora who might wish to return to their ancestral homeland.   

“Africans in America who choose to exercise the right to return will be provided with sufficient monetary resources to become productive citizens in their new home and shall be aided in their resettlement by a Black controlled agency funded by the federal government to perform this function,” states the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC).   

Darity expressed frustration that reparations to African Americans have faced continual resistance in this country, a response he attributes to “good old-fashioned racism.”   

He also attributes the recent popularization of reparations to the same ugly impulse.   

“Why now? That’s the question you all should be asking yourselves,” Darity said, offering a theory he characterized as “truly cynical”: 

“Ultimately, black Americans always serve as the mules for other peoples’ purposes.”   

[Tuckers Law]

“A Congress that makes a commitment to a reparations plan might also have to make a commitment to stack the court,” Darity said. “From my perspective, the Supreme Court is purely a political instrument, and it should be treated as such.”

I won't dispute that it often can be, but still what a horrifying mentality to see voiced out loud.

[benjipwns]

I won't dispute that it often can be, but still what a horrifying mentality to see voiced out loud.

Ibram Kendi openly called for an unelected body with absolute unchecked power authorized to ignore Constitutional rights:

The amendment would make unconstitutional racial inequity over a certain threshold, as well as racist ideas by public officials (with “racist ideas” and “public official” clearly defined). It would establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism (DOA) comprised of formally trained experts on racism and no political appointees. The DOA would be responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they won’t yield racial inequity, monitor those policies, investigate private racist policies when racial inequity surfaces, and monitor public officials for expressions of racist ideas. The DOA would be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas.

[Tuckers Law]

What a twit.

[Pissy F Benny]

Is that the buck breaking guy?

[benjipwns]

Is that the buck breaking guy?

That's Tariq Nasheed. Kendi is better known for being paid millions to say things like this:
https://twitter.com/JohnHMcWhorter/status/1399670923221946372

RACIST: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.
ANTIRACIST: One who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.

Definitions anchor us in principles. This is not a light point: If we don’t do the basic work of defining the kind of people we want to be in language that is stable and consistent, we can’t work toward stable, consistent goals. Some of my most consequential steps toward being an antiracist have been the moments when I arrived at basic definitions. To be an antiracist is to set lucid definitions of racism/antiracism, racist/antiracist policies, racist/anti-racist ideas, racist/antiracist people. To be a racist is to constantly redefine racist in a way that exonerates one’s changing policies, ideas, and personhood.

So let’s set some definitions. What is racism? Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities. Okay, so what are racist policies and ideas? We have to define them separately to understand why they are married and why they interact so well together. In fact, let’s take one step back and consider the definition of another important phrase: racial inequity.

...

A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people. There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.

...

The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.

[D3RANG3D]

https://twitter.com/speechsci/status/1622647767188504576
 

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/nickcamper/status/1622654812511772679

I'm starting to think that Alex Jones was right and there's something in the water

I also wonder how the BLM folks feel that their slogan got culturally appropriated by white men with purple hats 

[HaughtyFrank]

Why is there someone in a witch hat watching them from the balcony? Rowling has her agents everywhere!

[Phoenix Dark]

Is that the buck breaking guy?

That's Tariq Nasheed. Kendi is better known for being paid millions to say things like this:
https://twitter.com/JohnHMcWhorter/status/1399670923221946372

RACIST: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.
ANTIRACIST: One who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.

Definitions anchor us in principles. This is not a light point: If we don’t do the basic work of defining the kind of people we want to be in language that is stable and consistent, we can’t work toward stable, consistent goals. Some of my most consequential steps toward being an antiracist have been the moments when I arrived at basic definitions. To be an antiracist is to set lucid definitions of racism/antiracism, racist/antiracist policies, racist/anti-racist ideas, racist/antiracist people. To be a racist is to constantly redefine racist in a way that exonerates one’s changing policies, ideas, and personhood.

So let’s set some definitions. What is racism? Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities. Okay, so what are racist policies and ideas? We have to define them separately to understand why they are married and why they interact so well together. In fact, let’s take one step back and consider the definition of another important phrase: racial inequity.

...

A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people. There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.

...

The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.

It's interesting how extreme this is even when compared to previous arguments on this. Not long ago we could discuss the concept of a white liberal who votes for democrats while still being racist on some basic level. Or the literary idea of Atticus Finch allegedly being racist while simultaneously defending and protecting a black man. The idea that racial biases and resentment can be present regardless of one's political views strikes me as an uncontroversial, pretty basic concept.

By framing it the way he is you essentially turn racism into a contract, wherein white people must support any and all specific policy you deem to be anti-racist or else risk being labeled racist. This is quite an incentive for a lot of modern liberals of course, who love jumping through hoops for black people. But it also absolves any personal or individual agency. A white person who actively discriminates against black people in their personal life could very easily quality as anti-racist solely based on voting straight blue every 2-4 years. Regardless that said person votes blue because Trump Bad or because they're fiercely pro-choice, the contract still absolves them. This...isn't logical at all?

[benjipwns]

Kendi's also said that any sub population that does not match exactly the national population (why the national population? They never say) is evidence of deliberate racial inequality. So he'd force everything to have exactly 13% Black people or whatever. The NBA? Now 13% Black. Historical Black colleges? Now 13% Black. Wu Tang Clan? Now 13% Black.

He's not the only dummy who thinks this way. And usually most people who think this way are the same (often white progressives) people who overestimate how much of the population is Black in all those surveys where they think a third or more of the country is.

[Phoenix Dark]

Kendi's also said that any sub population that does not match exactly the national population (why the national population? They never say) is evidence of deliberate racial inequality. So he'd force everything to have exactly 13% Black people or whatever. The NBA? Now 13% Black. Historical Black colleges? Now 13% Black. Wu Tang Clan? Now 13% Black.

He's not the only dummy who thinks this way. And usually most people who think this way are the same (often white progressives) people who overestimate how much of the population is Black in all those surveys where they think a third or more of the country is.

When you say force, I assume you mean government intervention to ensure private companies are employing at least 13% black people. Is this straight across the board or does it take qualifications into account. Say...for engineering. And I assume to do this, some white people would have to lose their jobs by government edict? And if those people who lost their job decided to vote for a politician who offered to reverse the policy, they'd be labeled racist correct?