The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox, 02.03.16

Posted on | February 4, 2016 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: Angela Merkel, What Have You Done?
Da Tech Guy: The Unexpectedly Chronicles – So Much For The GOP Hating Hispanics & Blacks
The Political Hat: Queering Outer Space
Michelle Malkin: Chicken Little Chuckie Schumer – America’s Disease-Fighting Phony
Twitchy: DeRay McKesson Of #blacklivesmatter Files To Run For Mayor Of Baltimore


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Swagger, Curses, And Confidence – Trump Returns To Form In New Hampshire
American Thinker: How John Adams Predicted Bernie Sanders And His Acolytes
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – Casualties By Elizabeth Marro
Conservatives4Palin: Sarah Palin – Witnessing Dirty Politics Firsthand
Don Surber: Anybody Going To Apologize To The Tea Party?
Jammie Wearing Fools: Deranged Trump – Ted Cruz Stole Iowa Or Something
Joe For America: Good Guys With Guns Win Again!
JustOneMinute: Breaking Bold!
Pamela Geller: Watch Obama’s Radical Speech At Jihad-Tied ISB Mosque In Baltimore
Protein Wisdom: NYT Tells Cruz And Rubio Sorry Boys, You’re Not Hispanic Enough
Shot In The Dark: Utterly Unimpeachable
STUMP: Words Have Meanings – Neither Kale Nor 80% Funded Public Pensions Are Healthy
The Gateway Pundit: Karl Rove Breaks Down How Cruz “Cheating” Stole Iowa From Trump
The Jawa Report: Cornhole Watch – Justin Nojan Sullivan aka TheMujahid
The Lonely Conservative: Cruz Apologizes To Carson Over Caucus Mixup
This Ain’t Hell: Louisiana Vet Secretary Under Investigation For Misuse Of Funds
Weasel Zippers: Rep. Steve King – No Dirty Tricks Against Carson; Posts Based Off Media Reports Including CNN
Megan McArdle: Six Takeaways From An Exciting Night In Iowa
Mark Steyn: Second-Degree Bern


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Category: Linkagery

Don’t The #TrumperTantrum Gags Just Write Themselves?

Posted on | February 3, 2016 | 31 Comments

by Smitty

Category: Donald Trump, humor, Politics

How @RooshV Trolled the World

Posted on | February 3, 2016 | 82 Comments

 

Daryush “Roosh V” Valizadeh is a pickup artist (PUA) who has somehow managed to get himself identified as such a menace to women that he’s listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (“Is banging hotties a hate crime now?”) In general, I consider PUA culture to be folly, a logical consequence of liberalism’s amoral “consenting adults” ethos of sexual hedonism. For decades, liberals have insisted that all voluntary sexual activity is good; the more sex, the better. There is no such thing as morality, according to liberals, and therefore no one can be permitted to express disapproval of, inter alia, Bill Clinton sodomizing White House interns. Liberals will denounce you as a judgmental crypto-fascist if you dare to criticize the shameful behavior of sexual degenerates like Anthony Weiner, and it is this licentious attitude which has given rise to PUA culture. If the whole point of life is to get as much sex as you can (and this would seem to be the Clintonian doctrine, against which no opposition is permissible) then anyone who isn’t getting laid as regularly as Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin’s 1971 world tour is just a pathetic loser.

In the Post-Moral Age of Liberalism, it makes sense that the losers want to become winners, and the winners want to brag about their success, and this is where PUA culture comes from. Yet even if we stipulate, arguendo, that hedonistic decadence is acceptable, PUA culture violates two basic principles of wise behavior:

  1. Do not join a lemming herd in its stampede to oblivion. When civilizations become decadent, most social trends are bad trends. Beware of fads. Do not become a habitual conformist, a follower of fashionable attitudes. Develop a habit of independence, and accept the fact that to be an honest man in an Age of Lies will not make you popular with the deluded fools who believe whatever they are taught in public school, and whose behaviors are a result of emulating whatever they watch on TV.
  2. Never discuss strategy in public. You see this error all the time in politics, where some consultant or “strategist” (e.g., Karl Rove) selfishly seeks to enhance his reputation by bragging about his own cleverness. In any competitive enterprise, the “secrets of success” must remain secret, or else your competitors will figure out how to beat you at your own game. To publicize your methodology is to invite others to imitate it, and what happens when everybody is playing the same game with the same tactics?

So, even if you have no moral objection to promiscuous fornication — indeed, especially if you are a would-be womanizer — the popularization of PUA methodology is a bad trend. What has made the PUA community so controversial, however, is neither its tactical errors nor its flagrant immorality. Liberals like the SPLC’s Mark Potok despise all morality and endorse every form of perversion. No, what liberals condemn about PUA culture is its “misogyny,” a feminist thought-crime for which no liberal would ever condemn such idols of liberalism as Ted Kennedy. (Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.)

  • Question 1: If feminists say pick-up artists hate women — for this is what “misogyny” means — isn’t it fair to assume that Bill Clinton is also a woman-hater?
  • Question 2: If men who repeatedly succeed in seduction are condemned by feminists, does this condemnation not also apply, by an obverse principle, to promiscuous women whose behavior justifies the boasts of PUAs?

Well, anyone who expects logic, honesty or intellectual consistency from feminists is a hopeless fool and, as if it were their goal to confirm once and for all what fools they are, feminists have freaked out over Roosh’s latest project. At his “manosphere” site Return of Kings, Roosh proposed an international meet-up day this coming Saturday, Feb. 6.

This would seem like nothing controversial — fans of a popular Web site, with many thousands of regular readers, getting together IRL (“in real life”) to socialize. Yet because (a) feminists hate Roosh, (b) feminists are shameless liars, and (c) major media organizations are staffed almost entirely by “progressive” allies of feminism, these meet-ups were labeled “rape rallies,” and a bizarre hysteria took hold. The Toronto Sun‘s coverage is a typical smear:

Roosh V. plans ‘rape should be legal’ meetup in Toronto
Roosh V. is back but Mayor John Tory says he’s not welcome in Toronto.
The notorious American pick-up artist — who ruffled feathers during a tour stop in Toronto last summer to promote “neomasculinity” — announced on his blog that Hogtown will be among the 10 Canadian cities hosting local “rape should be legal” meetups on Feb. 6.
Toronto’s “tribal meeting” for only heterosexual men will take place at 8 p.m. at Queen’s Park near the Edward VII statue.
“The media in Canada, Iceland, and the United Kingdom have also put out defamatory reports about the meetup that falsely claim it’s a ‘rape’ gathering where we will strategize on how to rape women,” said Roosh V, whose real name is Daryush Valizadeh, on his website. “Not a single meetup will be cancelled. We will not be intimidated by the actions of the lying media and leftist political establishment.”
According to Valizadeh’s website, there are 165 meetings in 43 countries slated for Feb. 6. Hosts will wait until 8:20 p.m. sharp at the meeting point before “moving on to the final location.”
It isn’t clear if Valizadeh will attend Toronto’s meeting. The 36-year-old could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Tory’s office said Valizadeh’s views don’t “reflect the values of Toronto and his statements about women are demeaning and unacceptable.”
“While free speech is the law in this country, promoting violence against women is wrong,” the mayor’s spokesman, Keerthana Kamalavasan, said, adding the mayor’s views have not changed since Valizadeh’s last visit to Toronto in August.
“Roosh V and his hate speech have no place in our city and should have no platform here either.”

This “hate speech”/”violence against women” rhetoric is nothing but propaganda, and the Toronto Sun‘s coverage is strangely reminiscent of the kind of transparent hype Hunter S. Thompson used to publish when he was starting out as a young sports writer:

At one point, in Florida, I was writing variations on the same demented themes for three competing papers at the same time, under three different names. I was a sports columnist for one paper in the morning, sports editor for another in the afternoon, and at night I worked for a pro wrestling promoter, writing incredibly twisted “press releases” that I would plant, the next day, in both papers.
It was a wonderful gig, in retrospect, and at times I wish I could go back to it — just punch a big hatpin through my frontal lobes and maybe regain that happy lost innocence that enabled me to write, without the slightest twinge of conscience, things like: “The entire Fort Walton Beach police force is gripped in a state of fear this week; all leaves have been canceled and Chief Bloor is said to be drilling his men for an Emergency Alert situation on Friday and Saturday nights — because those are the nights when ‘Kazika, The Mad Jap,’ a 440-pound sadist from the vile slums of Hiroshima, is scheduled to make his first — and no doubt his last — appearance in Fish-head Auditorium. Local wrestling impressario Lionel Olay is known to have spoken privately with Chief Bloor, urging him to have ‘every available officer’ on duty at ringside this weekend, because of the Mad Jap’s legendary temper and his invariably savage reaction to racial insults. Last week, in Detroit, Kazika ran amok and tore the spleens out of three ringside spectators, one of whom allegedly called him a ‘yellow devil.'”
“Kazika,” as I recall, was a big, half-bright Cuban who once played third-string tackle for Florida State University in Tallahassee, about 100 miles away — but on the fish-head circuit he had no trouble passing for a dangerous Jap strangler, and I soon learned that pro wrestling fans don’t give a fuck anyway.

Dimwits with an appetite for phony controversy, whether they are Florida wrestling fans or Canadian feminists, are always being suckered by this kind of ginned-up hype. Really, what was Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 trying to explain? Thompson’s reference to his early career in sports journalism, which is the purest form of media hype known to man, was meant to suggest that no intelligent person should be deceived by political journalism, where the pretense of Objectivity was even less plausible than a press release about Kazika the Mad Jap. Thompson perceived in modern media the aspect that Richard Weaver called “The Great Stereopticon.” The media factory produces Conventional Wisdom, a shoddy simulacrum of reality, accepted as an ersatz substitute for truth by people too lazy to think for themselves.

Honestly, feminists and PUAs deserve each other. The accusation that Roosh is an advocate for legalizing rape is the kind of bogus nonsense that only a feminist could possibly believe.




 

Category: Feminism, Media Bias, Sex Trouble

Rape Culture: German Women Terrorized by Growing Menace of Muslim Violence

Posted on | February 2, 2016 | 50 Comments

Last month, after German women were assaulted during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cologne, I published this headline:

Muslim Rape Gangs Attack Women, and
Feminists Won’t Say a Word About It

Well, a few actually did say a word about it — Laurie Penny, for example, denounced as “racists” anyone calling attention to sexual violence committed by Muslim men — but no feminist will acknowledge the reality of what the Islamic invasion of Europe means for women there.

Feminism Is a Totalitarian Movement to Destroy Civilization as We Know It, and feminists therefore advocate (as “intersectionality”) a de facto alliance with any enemy of Christianity, capitalism and democracy. Those of us old enough to remember the Cold War know that feminists defended Soviet imperialism in Cuba, Nicaragua, Angola and elsewhere. So-called “Second Wave” feminism originated in the radical New Left of the 1960s, and in the 1980s feminists were among the most outspoken enemies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, whose policies ultimately defeated what Reagan called the “Evil Empire.” Like every other movement of the Left, feminism is anti-social in its motives and destructive in its purposes, advocating a poorly understood goal (“equality”) that is impossible in reality, even if it were desirable in theory. Friedrich Hayek explained this long ago in The Mirage of Social Justice, and the Left simply ignored him, so there is no point explaining why the Left is wrong. If they would not listen to a Nobel Prize-winning economist, they’re not going to pay attention to me, but I digress . . .

Germany is paying a price for its government’s pro-Muslim policies:

Cologne authorities say it’s impossible to guarantee 100 percent security for the German city’s famous Carnival celebrations starting this week, but security forces will be out in force to try to ensure people can enjoy the events without fear.
In the wake of a string of robberies and sexual assaults in the city on New Year’s Eve blamed largely on foreigners, police chief Juergen Matheis said Monday he’s doubling the number of officers on hand compared with last year to more than 2,000, and also bringing in 350 cadets.
Video surveillance is also being added, and local police are coordinating closely with federal counterparts, fire and rescue units and others.

Notice the politically correct omission of the word “Muslim” from that Associated Press report and notice, also, how the article shifts the perspective — “sexual assaults . . . blamed largely on foreigners” — to signal the reader not to ask, “Who committed these crimes?” but rather to wonder, “Who blamed foreigners?” It is the implied hostility toward “foreigners” that the Associated Press finds objectionable, rather than the behavior of these “foreigners,” whose identity is never specified, so that we might imagine Taiwanese tourists or American exchange students were terrorizing women in Germany. The best way to cover Muslim violence, according to the liberal media, is to pretend that it doesn’t exist.

ITEM 1: Ercan Yasaroglu, a famous German social worker, said in a recent interview that the violence that happened in Cologne on New Year’s Eve is now routine in many German cities: “Once it gets dark, drugs are sold and passers by are robbed. They act in groups, stalking their victims, for example, at an ATM. . . . Meanwhile, there are also these sexual assaults. Girls who are surrounded and groped.” The perpetrators are “young guys from North African countries.”

ITEM 2: In the small German town of Bad Schlema, Mayor Jens Müller caused outrage at a town hall meeting when he told residents their children must stay away from certain areas and “not provoke” migrants to avoid sexual harassment, as well as suggesting they need not worry because German men are a “problem” too. One resident, who expressed concern for his 10-year-old granddaughter, told the mayor that “girls have been harassed” by refugees. The mayor said: “It’s technically not necessary for the girls to walk near the refugee shelters, there are alternative routes.” When residents became angry at being told their children cannot walk in their own community, the mayor threatened to call police to have the indignant citizens removed from the meeting.

The mainstream media in America are ignoring all of this. Nobody except Pamela Geller seems to care that an all-girls school in Cologne cancelled classes to avoid putting its students at risk of rape during this week’s Carnival celebration. Feminists fomented hysteria over a non-existent “rape epidemic” on U.S. university campuses — indeed, they insisted that anyone who doubted the existence of the fictional University of Virginia rapist “Haven Monahan” was a “rape denialist” — but when gangs of men sexually assault women in the streets of Germany, the only comment from feminists is to denounce the alleged “racism” of those who condemn this barbaric violence.

It is incorrect to suppose that feminists are merely stupid or misguided. They are active agents of evil. They hate honesty, decency and kindness, and love everything that is false, selfish and wicked.




 

Category: Crime, Germany, Islam, Sex Trouble, Terrorism

LIVE AT FIVE: 02.02.16

Posted on | February 2, 2016 | 13 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Your rape culture moment of Zen.


TOP NEWS
TRUMP THUMPED

Ted Cruz – sealing his victory in the Iowa caucuses with a kiss

“Iowa has sent notice that the Republican nominee and next president of the United States will not be chosen by the media, will not be chosen by the Washington establishment,” Cruz said.



SANDERS DECLARES VIRTUAL TIE
With 99% of precincts reporting, Clinton clings to narrow 23-21 delegate edge

BRAZIL: ZIKA VIRUS OUTBREAK WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
Health Minister Marcelo Castro says 80% of those infected with virus show no symptoms



POLITICS
HUCKABEE SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN AFTER POOR SHOWING IN IOWA

Former Arkansas governor pulled off upset in 2008, but not this year


Martin O’Malley also calls it quits

Ammon Bundy Seeks Release From Custody As Oregon Protesters Rally

Withheld Clinton E-Mails Contained Operational Intel, Put Lives At Risk


House Report: Obama Lied To Congress About Debt Limit

Senate Probe: Administration Left Migrant Children In U.S. At Risk Of Sex Trafficking

VP Biden’s Cancer “Moonshot” Price Tag Now $1 Billion

Judges Overturn Demotions For VA Officials Accused Of Job Scam

Congressman Vows To Defund Sanctuary Cities If AG Doesn’t Take Action



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Crude Falls For Second Day On China Worries, OPEC Glut: Brent $33.68, WTI $30.95
BP Reports Worst Annual Loss In Over Twenty Years, Cuts More Jobs
Abbott Labs To Buy Test Maker Alere For $5.8 Billion
U.S. Construction Spending Hit Eight-Year High In 2015
Fox To Cut $250 Million Through Staff Buyouts
Affordable Care Act Dark Spot For Aetna
WhatsApp Hits One Billion Users, Still Looking For Revenue
Tablet Shipments Down, But Detachables Catch On
Trained Eagle Destroys Drone In Dutch Police Video
Facebook Is Screwing With Your News Feed Again
You Can Play Star Citizen For Free This Week



SPORTS
JOHN SCOTT: FROM UNWANTED TO UNBELIEVABLE

How can the MVP of the NHL All-Star Game not even be playing in the league?

Traded away by the Coyotes, sent down by the Habs, Scott nevertheless emerges as the hero of the All-Star Game.

Houston Rallies To Upset #12 SMU

Terriers Beat Huskies To Advance To Beanpot Finals



Yankees Lose 1B Greg Bird For The Season

Teague Scores Season-High 32 As Hawks Blow By Mavs

#15 Baylor Falls Out Of First After Loss To Texas

NCAA Votes To Extend President Through 2020

Will The Nationals Prove Everyone Wrong In 2016? Bryce Harper Thinks So



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
DANBURY INMATES FURIOUS OVER “SNITCH” GIUDICE’S LESBIAN CLAIMS

Reality star-turned-inmate looking for another fifteen minutes?

Forthcoming book alleges rampant lesbianism at prison; warden may come forward to rebut


Jay-Z’s Label Sues Rita Ora

Azealia Banks Offered Deal In Boob-Biting Case


The Bachelor‘s Ashley Salter Is Pregnant

Oscar Winners Taking Over Broadway

Grease Live Surges On Fox With 12.2 Million Viewers

Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney Among ACM Awards Nominees

American Lung Association Calls Out Leo DiCaprio For “Deeply Troubling” Behavior



FOREIGNERS
Aussie PM Weighs Early Election To Break Political Deadlock
Former Malaysian Law Minister Files Suit Over Failure To Charge Former PM Over Financial Scandal
“No Deal” Following UK/EU Talks
“World’s Best Chef” Found Dead
US Calls On Beijing To Clarify Status Of Missing HK Booksellers
Over 3500 Syrians Flee To Turkey As Loyalist Forces Advance
Boko Haram Kills At Least 65 In Nigerian Raid
New Democratic Era Dawning In Burma?
Greece Not Interested In Playing Gatekeeper For EU
China’s Handling Of Norks Called “Hypocritical”



BLOGS & STUFF
EBL: Democrats With Benefits
Da Tech Guy: The Cost To The GOP Of Fighting Ted Cruz
Proof Positive: Nary A “Fare Thee Well”
Political Hat: Obama Administration Declares War On The Gender Binary
Doug Powers: Ted Cruz Wins In Iowa; Sanders, Clinton Running Neck And Neck
Twitchy: Jeb! Spent How Much Per Vote In Iowa?


American Power: The Biggest Loser Coming Out Of Iowa? Donald Trump
American Thinker: Who Received Hillary’s Secret E-mails?
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – The First Order By Jeff Abbott
Conservatives4Palin: Sarah Palin – I’m Not Asking Donald Trump “For Anything”
Don Surber: Biggest Loser In Iowa? The Des Moines Register
Jammie Wearing Fools: Deeply Religious Trump Confuses Communion Offering With Collection Plate
Joe For America: 14-Year-Old Beheaded Before Parents Leaves Michael Moore Silent
JustOneMinute: Hope, Change, And A Future (Or Past!) We Can Believe In
Pamela Geller: Muslim Mob Found Guilty Of “Frenzied” Knife Attack In London Sentenced To Life
Protein Wisdom: Men And Women Are Fundamentally Different
Shot In The Dark: Urban Liberal Privilege
STUMP: On Alternative Assets And Pensions – Multiple Stories In New Jersey
The Gateway Pundit: MASSIVE TURNOUT IN IOWA – ADVANTAGE TRUMP
The Jawa Report: Jawa Iowa Caucus Results
The Lonely Conservative: Obama Claims He Didn’t Know About Hillary’s Private E-Mail – But He E-Mailed Her Eighteen Times
This Ain’t Hell: Justin Sullivan – ISIS In North Carolina
Weasel Zippers: Iowa Democratic Party Says Results From 90 Precincts Have Gone Missing
Megan McArdle: Tax Cuts Can’t Motivate The Republican Base Any More
Mark Steyn: Mohammed’s Millinery


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Category: Live at Five

In The (Rape Culture) Mailbox, 02.01.16

Posted on | February 2, 2016 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho


Because we have a theme going here. XD


OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: SPLC
Proof Positive: “Affluenza” Poster Child Kills Four, Not Held Responsible
First Street Journal: The Racism of Modern Feminism
Da Tech Guy: “Rhodes Must Fall” Falls
Conservative Intel: Win or Lose, Trump Leaves His Mark
Michelle Malkin: How Did Dulce Candy Get Into The Military?


RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Power: Trump Downplays Hawkeye State Significance On Eve Of Caucuses
American Thinker: Islam And The First Amendment
BLACKFIVE: Book Review – The Ex By Alafair Burke
Conservatives4Palin: Four Roads Out of Iowa For Republicans
Don Surber: The Power Of Newspaper Endorsements
Jammie Wearing Fools: “This Was All Planned” – Former State Dept. IG Says Hillary, State Department Are Lying
Joe For America: Watch Larry The Cable Guy Come Out Of Character And Go After Liberals
JustOneMinute: Something New Under The Sun?
Pamela Geller: Cologne All-Girls High School Closes For Carnival For Fear Of Sexual Attacks
Protein Wisdom: Socialism Ruins Venezuela, WaPo Blames “Bad Luck”
Shot In The Dark: Fiction And Fact
STUMP: Followup On One Of The Fraud And Pensions Cases
The Gateway Pundit: Germans Turn on Merkel, Jeer And Boo Chancellor In Neubrandenburg
The Jawa Report: Another Case of Disney Jihad?
The Lonely Conservative: SEIU, Democrats Trying To Make 5 Million Immigrants Citizens Before November Elections
This Ain’t Hell: SecDef Carter Won’t Demote Petraeus
Weasel Zippers: Soros Contributes $6 Million To Hillary Super-PAC
Megan McArdle: Hey, Trump Voters – He’ll Offend You Next
Mark Steyn: Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow


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Category: Linkagery

The Iowa Caucus Is Rape Culture

Posted on | February 1, 2016 | 68 Comments

Does that headline make sense? Of course not, but I’ve been reading so much feminist literature lately, I’ve come to realize that expecting headlines to make sense is patriarchal oppression.

“Shut the f–k up! Because patriarchy!”

To a feminist, everything is rape culture, and so the Iowa caucus must be part of it somehow. When coeds at the University of Alabama (scarcely a haven of radicalism) form a Feminist Caucus and issue a manifesto full of Women’s Studies jargon — the gender binary! heteronormativity! social constructs! — about “rape culture” in Tuscaloosa, we must realize American culture is so thoroughly corrupted nothing can save us from the destructive tsunami of complete decadence. As I explained the night Obama was re-elected, we are Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption. Meanwhile, in Iowa . . .

With 17% of precincts reporting in the Republican caucus, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 30%, businessman Donald Trump has 27% and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 19%, Dr. Ben Carson has 10% and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is . . . losing. Very badly.

So maybe there is a tiny glimmer of hope.

UPDATE 9:45 p.m.: With 37% precincts reporting, according to the New York Times, it’s Cruz 29%, Trump 26%, Rubio 20%, Carson 10% and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush . . . still losing.

UPDATE 10 p.m.: Meanwhile, with 63% of precincts reporting on the Democrat side, it’s the Criminal Clinton 51%, Socialist Sanders 49% and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is losing even worse than Jeb Bush.

UPDATE 10:50 p.m.: OK, so 99% of precincts are counted, Cruz is the winner with 28%, Trump second with 24% and a surprisingly strong third-place finish for Marco Rubio with 23%. Marco just gave his big speech — full of the rhetoric of American exceptionalism — and sounded very confident about his prospects. Meanwhile, on the Democrat side, Martin O’Malley has hoisted the white flag, suspending his campaign, as has Mike Huckabee among Republicans.

At Jeb Bush HQ, it’s got to look like a Downfall parody video tonight. The dude spent $80 million and got 3%.

 

Category: Election, Iowa

‘Rape Culture’ in Tuscaloosa?

Posted on | February 1, 2016 | 26 Comments

Lindsay Macher, Cameron Ridgeway, Jessica Morgan, Jilisa Milton, Rachel Ledbetter, and Isabelle Beauregard are members of the “Feminist Caucus Executive Committee” at the University of Alabama where, to judge from their rhetoric, every male student is a rapist and every female student is a victim:

Sexual assault is often a difficult topic to speak about, especially for those of us who are survivors. We do not choose to share a personal story in this article, as it would most likely be exploited and undermined for faux campus initiatives.
The “It’s On Us” initiative on our campus has done nothing to eliminate rape culture and has only perpetuated it. It is impossible to end sexual assault without first addressing the social mechanisms on which it thrives. One doesn’t have to be a scholar in feminist theory to realize that the toxic representations of women in the media and general attitudes towards women and members of the LGBTQ+ community on campus create a culture where victims feel responsible for their attacks and perpetrators feel justified.

(How many victims? How many attacks? How many perpetrators? Could we get some estimate of the scope of this problem in Tuscaloosa? Never mind. We must endure a lecture about “social mechanisms” and “toxic representations of women.”)

The first meeting of “It’s On Us” that a representative of UA Feminist Caucus attended featured a speaker from the Women and Gender Resource Center explaining the extent of rape culture as it relates to our campus, with suggested measures of bystander intervention. Her lesson was extremely helpful in dismantling rape culture and preventing sexual assault through the use of societal pressure, and some of the suggestions from the group were encouraging. However, as women who have a 1 in 5 chance of facing sexual assault (notwithstanding other factors such as race and gender identity) during our college experiences, the initiative has only left us concerned.

(There it is again — the infamous “1 in 5” statistic that refuses to die, no matter how often or how thoroughly it is debunked. It’s a zombie statistic, and no flamethrower can ever kill it.)

When it has been proven that membership in a social fraternity significantly contributes to the likelihood of perpetrating sexual assault, it is difficult not to be wary of an initiative spearheaded by greek students. Initially, we gave it the benefit of the doubt, thinking, “Who better to solve this problem than those who are prominent within it?” However, Jordan Forrest’s article about her project stated “We do not let our friends walk alone late at night or ignore their requests for a designated driver. We hold our friends and ourselves accountable, and we never blame the victim.” While we admire the intentions of those who came together to write these articles and lead this initiative, it must be noted that the very sentence that warns us not to blame the victim is preceded by victim-blaming through false notions of “accountability.” The goal of this initiative was to create a culture of accountability, but this accountability seems to be only for those more likely to be targeted rather than those who may perpetrate it.

(Translation: All men are rapists.)

This is one of the main problems of “It’s On Us.” At the first meeting, some members of the task force suggested solutions to a hypothesized situation including a man displaying potentially aggressive behavior towards a woman at a bar. Their solutions included interrupting him or trying to distract him while simultaneously taking care not to offend him. Without sternly expressing that this behavior is threatening and unacceptable, we challenge nothing and change nothing, hardly providing the safety that the initiative claims to create.
Another “solution” of the campaign that assisted in victim-blaming was the campus walk. Members of the task force walked around campus after dark and pointed out places that could be more well-lit. This is problematic because women (as the campaign frequently assumes all victims are cis women) should not have to walk in large groups or in well-lit places to avoid being assaulted. We should not be responsible for preventing violence against ourselves. The only suitable way to prevent sexual assault is to teach people not to sexually assault others.

(Yes, this the “only suitable way to prevent sexual assault”! Many will recall that, on Sept. 11, 2001, we realized the only way to prevent terrorism was to teach guys named Mohamad not to fly commercial airliners into skyscrapers.)

Providing better lighting is treating a symptom of a larger epidemic, and an ironic approach considering the University’s late-night shuttle service hardly works.
Secondly, this idea of “stranger danger,” in which women are only attacked at night by “bad guys” is a false notion. Eighty-two percent of assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knows, including their intimate partners or spouses. The walk, as well as the whole campaign, did little but give a group of people two hours of self-righteousness while doing nothing but furthering myths about sexual assault.

(Every man is a rapist and rape is an “epidemic” in Tuscaloosa. To believe otherwise is a “myth,” saith the Feminist Caucus.)

It goes without saying that no one was inspired to come forth and tell their story at any of the events for “It’s On Us.” To foster true change, our campus needs to listen to victims, rather than blame and criticize them, and remind them that they are more than their assault or merely a story to use as our own resume-builder. We need to have a solid pushback on men who refer to women as sexual objects.

(Obviously, “men who refer to women as sexual objects” are rapists, because all men are rapists, saith the Feminist Caucus.)

We need to focus less on what White House initiative we can complacently adopt, but rather on our own specific needs, catered to our own environment.
This starts with recognizing where we are failing. We need more campaigns that publicly promote consistent training about consent, frequently muddled at this university, along with fully-inclusive sex education, which is much harder than signing a wall on the Quad and then returning to a life of perpetuating violence. We need to analyze the deepest parts of rape culture, not just scrape the surface. Ending the stigma about women’s sexuality and the social construct of virginity are good starting points. From there, we can expand into heteronormative expectations of men and women within the gender binary and then further into queer and trans erasure.

(Yes, “the gender binary” and “heteronormative expectations” are “the deepest part of rape culture,” saith the Feminist Caucus.)

By following this progression, eventually we can manage to achieve what seems to be the impossible: the destruction of a culture that justifies and covers up sexual assault.
While the idea behind “It’s On Us” is well-intentioned, our campus’s handling of it has been nothing more than a moment of self-glorification. Fixing this complex issue requires difficult self-reflection on the part of every individual on this campus.

In other words, once they have banished males from campus — or perhaps criminalized heterosexuality — the Feminist Caucus will have achieved “the destruction of a culture” in Tuscaloosa.

This is what “fixing this complex issue requires,” they imply, but dare we suggest an alternative? Go to Auburn.

If you hate the University of Alabama so much — you accuse the administration of “perpetuating violence” and blame your fellow students for “rape culture” — why not get the hell out of Tuscaloosa?




 

Category: Education, Feminism, Sex Trouble
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