The Other McCain

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

Lesbian Is Now a Fashion Statement, Also: Gender, Identity, Roles and Feminism

Posted on | May 2, 2014 | 69 Comments

The cover of the latest issue of Flare, a Canadian women’s fashion magazine, adds new meaning to the phrase “lesbian chic.” Apparently, “loving ladies and living proud” a la celebrity lesbian Ellen Page is what stylish Canadian women are now expected to do.

Stephanie Verge’s feature interview with Page is rather tedious:

With a quiver in her voice and wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “All Love Is Equal,” [Page] stood in front of a crowded Las Vegas room at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s inaugural Time to Thrive conference and uttered the words every adolescent lesbian who’s ever watched (and rewatched) the roller derby flick Whip It dreams of hearing: “I am here today because I’m gay.” She went on to say that she was “tired of lying by omission.”

(Point One: Gay people do not actually believe that “All Love Is Equal”; they disdain heterosexuality, otherwise they wouldn’t be gay. Point Two: How does Stephanie Verge know “the words every adolescent lesbian . . . . dreams of hearing” unless . . .?)

It was the eight-minute speech pinged around the blogosphere, and one that Page and her manager planned meticulously in collaboration with the HRC Foundation. Page wanted her announcement to be aligned with a cause, ideally one having to do with LGBTQ youth (promoting the safety, inclusion and well-being of queer teens is an HRC Foundation priority). . . .

(Translation: It was was a political publicity stunt.)

“I was very nervous. I was very nervous, yes. Yes. Very, very nervous. Yes. I was emotional, deeply, deeply emotional.” Though she told her parents she liked-liked girls when she was 19, she was still coming out to herself eight years on. “You think you’re in a place where you’re all I’m thrilled to be gay, I have no issues about being gay anymore, I don’t feel shame about being gay, but you actually do. You’re just not fully aware of it. I think I still felt scared about people knowing. I felt awkward around gay people; I felt guilty for not being myself.”

(She was a heterosexual impersonator?)

One of the perks of being an out lesbian: being able to wear whatever you want. Less than three weeks after her big speech, Page attended theVanity Fair Oscar party wearing a leather-accented Saint Laurent tux by Hedi Slimane. “I felt happy and confident and the difference was huge,” says Page. . . . For years, she endured pressure to conform to industry standards, i.e., dresses, but those days are over.

OK, you can read the whole thing if you care. But what kind of simplistic reduction is this? Being a presumably straight girl means “pressure” to wear dresses, and once you come out as a lesbian, you get the “perk” of “being able to wear whatever you want”? As though there are no heterosexual women who wear pants and no lesbians who wear dresses? What is this, 1957 or something?

When I was tweeting about this Thursday night, a conversation ensued with someone who doesn’t seem familiar with feminist theory:

Maybe I’ve become too familiar with feminist theory, that I expect other people to understand the difference between sex and gender, between sexual preference and gender roles. Feminism is about the abolition of gender — that is, eradicating all “socially constructed” differences between the sexes. According to feminism, it is the oppressive male patriarchy that imposes the “feminine” role — a humiliating condition of submissive inferiority — on women. To be “feminine,” according to this theory, is for a woman to be passive and yielding toward men, to shape her appearance and behavior in ways that are acceptable and attractive to men. By contrast, feminists view the “masculine” role as typified by domination and aggression which ultimately is about reducing women to the role of “fuckholes, breeders and slaves.”

This is why lesbianism is the goal of feminism. Only by escaping male domination can women escape the prison of “gender” and the inherently violent act of male sexuality: PIV (penis-in-vagina) intercourse, which is both the means and motive of women’s oppression: “All PIV is rape, OK?” and “No woman is heterosexual”:

What men call heterosexuality is an institution where men make women captive for PIV, to control our reproductive functions and steal our labour. . . .
It’s part of the global male infrastructure that ensures men a constant supply of ready-tamed and pre-possessed women to effortlessly stick their dicks in, impregnate and abuse. The more it grows, the easier it is for each individual man to break any woman’s will and trick her into PIV and being owned by him — and maintain submission level with the help of men’s institutions.

If you don’t understand and believe this — if you recognize this as complete lunacy — then obviously, you are not a feminist.

Now, some of you familiar with lesbian culture may be asking yourself, “What about butch dykes? Aren’t they acting out a ‘masculine’ role? If feminists reject gender roles, what about women who emulate stereotypically masculine behavior and appearance?” Oh, but see, butch dykes are subverting the patriarchy by demonstrating that females can perform the “masculine” role. However, because of the transgender vogue, many butch lesbians are now undergoing hormone treatments and surgery to become “transmen,” a trend that one older feminist laments:

Why are all the butches becoming men? Why can’t they understand that gender is a social construct, and that women don’t have to conform to a feminine ideal? Isn’t that what we were fighting for — a world in which women could wear tool belts and neckties and do anything we damn well please, without the constraints of gender?
At its very core, this was the vision of the feminist movement, and lesbians more than anyone understood how transformative this could be.
Years ago, I asked the same questions, but today, this conversation makes me uncomfortable. Because I am of this older generation, I have seen things change — and not change — for a long time.
I have, in my life, loved many butches. My relationships and affairs have almost always been with masculine women and, more recently, with trans men as well.
In my experience, for as long as I have found myself in intimate circumstances with butches/studs/masculine-identified women — from way back when I was too young to be in the bars where I was meeting and going home with them — a curious thing happens. Once there is enough trust established, I become witness to a moment of confession. The confession goes something like this: “I don’t know how to explain this, but I don’t exactly feel like a woman. I mean, I’m butch, and that’s close, but honestly, I’m not sure what I am.”
Don’t get me wrong, there are many, many proud butch women who are exactly that: women. In today’s terminology, their gender expression is masculine, and their gender identity is female. They wear their tool belts proudly, and I am happy to admire the show. For them, a butch identity resolves the issue — if people have a problem with it, it’s their sexism or homophobia rearing its head.
But that experience is not everyone’s, and it never has been.

If you did not previously believe all feminists are crazy, perhaps now you’re beginning to change your mind. Feminism requires women to be fanatically certain about theory, while being perpetually confused about reality. Everything is whatever they say it is. Feelings triumph over facts. So if some women say they “don’t exactly feel like a woman,” a gynecological examination — proving that they have the biological equipment — cannot refute their feeling.

And if you are such an intolerable smart-ass as to point out that this emphasis on subjective feeling is typically feminine . . .

OK, I denounce myself.

 

 

Category: Celebrities, Culture, Feminism, Gays

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.02.14

Posted on | May 2, 2014 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Broadcaster Under Fire For Airing Edited Interview With Narendra Modi

BJP candidate Narendra Modi

BJP takes revenge by releasing unedited copy of interview


NAACP’s LA Chapter President Resigns Amid Sterling Flap
Chapter had honored Clippers owner previously, planned to do so again

Pro-Russian Mob Clashes With Police In Donetsk
Confrontation in prosecutor’s compound ends in violence; 26 injured



POLITICS
Big Jump In Military Sexual Assault Reports

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel

Outrage or sign of progress?


Phoenix VA Officials Put On Leave Over Patient Wait List

Florida Senate Approves In-State Tuition For Illegals

Chris Stewart (R-UT) Wants To Cut Funding For Federal Paramilitary Units After Bundy Dispute

Internal Memos Show EPA Worked Behind Scenes To Kill Alaskan Mine

Retired General Criticizes Lack Of Military Response To Benghazi

Officials Struggling To Fix State Obamacare Exchanges

Reid In A Bind Over Bipartisan Calls For Keystone Vote



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asian Oil Down Slightly On Increased Supply Ahead Of US Jobs Data: NYMEX $99.47, Brent $107.77
US Stocks Slip Ahead Of Jobs Data
Weekly Jobless Claims Jump To 344K Ahead Of Jobs Report
Yellen’s Fed Resigned To Diminished Growth Expectations
Consumer Spending “Surges” 0.9% In March
Box, Zendesk Among IPOs Stuck Watching The Market
Microsoft Releases Fix For Internet Explorer
Foursquare App Split Strengthens Challenge To Yelp
Google Deals Made Phones More Expensive, Lawsuit Claims
BASIC Celebrates 50th Birthday
NYC To Reinvent The Pay Phone



SPORTS
OKC’s Durant Brings It, Scores 36 To Force Game Seven Against Memphis

“Mr. Unreliable”? Apparently not

“I’m not going to give [the Daily Oklahoman] credit for nothing.”

Subban Lifts Habs Past Bruins In Double OT

West, Pacers Rally Late To Force Game 7

Blue Jackets Aiming Higher After Playoff Season

Royals Fall To Jays 7-3

Sterling Could Use Divorce To Avoid Clippers Sale

Cano, Elias Lead M’s Past Yankees

Sharks Hit New Low In Collapse Against Kings

Dodgers Outlast Twins In Extras To Sweep Doubleheader

O’s Sweep Pirates In Doubleheader At Camden Yards

Marlins Hang On To Sweep Braves

Rays Sweep Doubleheader From Red Sox

Bryce Harper Has Thumb Surgery, Out Indefinitely



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Why Elizabeth Olsen Is Hollywood’s New Sweetheart

Coming soon to the latest Godzilla remake

From cult hits to blockbuster glitz, the twins’ little sister is turning heads

Jason Priestley Dishes On Tori Spelling, Brad Pitt In New Memoir

Samuel L. Jackson Angers Porn Stars


Columbia Records Drops Naya Rivera

Miley Cyrus Delays Europe Tour Due To Illness (Again)

Josh Hartnett Opens Up About His Hiatus From Hollywood

Floyd Mayweather Broke Up With Fiance After She Got An Abortion

Mike Fisher: I Stay Out Of Carrie’s Way When She’s Focused On Work

Demi Lovato Discusses Her Bipolar Disorder: “It’s A Daily Thing”



FOREIGNERS
Boston College Again Immersed In Ireland’s Troubles
Car Bomb In Nigeria’s Capital Kills 15
Kerry Calls For Regional Force To End Bloodshed In South Sudan
Ukraine Reinstates Conscription As Situation In Donets Basin Deteriorates
Illegal Gold Mine Collapses In Colombia; 3 Dead, 15 Missing
Russia Revives May Day Tradition
Norks Replace Top Army Official Amidst Nuke Warnings
Riot Police Clash With Defiant May Day Protesters In Istanbul



BLOGS & STUFF
Doug Powers: Benghazi Amnesia – Would The IRS Accept “Dude, That Was Two Years Ago” As A Response During A Tax Audit?
Twitchy: “LIAR” – This Is Why Jay Carney Was Trending On Twitter
Captain Capitalism: Why Dennis Prager Is Dangerous To Young Conservatives
Max Boot: The Iraqi Military’s Downward Spiral
American Power: Victims Of Communism Day
American Thinker: Roe And Gay Marriage
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Joining The New Elite – A How-to Guide (Part 3)
Conservatives4Palin: Sen. Patty Murray – We’re Flat Broke, So Let’s Add Another Massive Entitlement Program
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, May 1
Jammie Wearing Fools: Actual Media/Obama Spin – Only Obamacare Saved Moribund Economy From Contracting
Joe For America: Government Web Bots To Scour Internet For Hate Speech
JustOneMinute: Not A Coverup, A Strategy
Pat Dollard: Terry McAuliffe Tells Harry Reid To STFU About “Washington Redskins”
Protein Wisdom: Now That We Know The Benghazi Coverup Was Planned…
Shot In The Dark: Take It Off My “Personal Time”
The Jawa Report: DC “Congresswoman” Declares Invasion Of Iraq “Most Catastrophic War Of 20th Century”
The Lonely Conservative: Who Will The Thought Police Come After Next?
This Ain’t Hell: DIA Chief Forced Out
Megan McArdle: Watch Obamacare Make Health Costs Soar


I’m positive that we have plenty of material for Rule 5 Sunday left over from last week, but if you have linkagery from this week’s post, the deadline to submit them is noon tomorrow.
DO IT.


Category: Live at Five

Tommy Vietor: Van Driver, NSC Spokesman, Hipster At Large

Posted on | May 1, 2014 | 38 Comments

by Smitty

Listen, Tommy, you smarmy little creep.

His first job for Obama was as the driver of a press van, and he rose up the ranks through the 2008 campaign, and then the White House press office, to become the National Security Council spokesman.

You went to some little liberal arts school in Ohio, where you may or may not have been introduced to a few key points before getting hired by #OccupyResoluteDesk:

  1. You do not leave men to die in combat.
  2. If you, or your pathetic boss, is such a worm as to fail to grasp Rule 1, you need to come clean immediately and beg forgiveness from your betters, whose sacrifices over the years keep craven worms in nice suits and ties.
  3. Your best bet is to find a nice liberal think tank to swim in once the rodeo clown is out of office. With good fortune, I’ll avoid ever encountering you in person and sharing unfiltered views with you.


via HotAir

Update: linked by the excellent Richard Fernandez at the Belmont Club

Category: Uncategorized

Wombs for Rent, Babies for Sale: TV Promotes Gay Surrogate Business

Posted on | May 1, 2014 | 66 Comments

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow is CEO of the British Surrogacy Centre, a business that specializes in hiring surrogate mothers for gay men:

Barrie and his partner were the first same sex couple in the UK to use a surrogate mother and to be recognised on the birth certificate of those children, as parent 1 and parent 2. Over the past 14 years Barrie has been involved in many media shows to highlight surrogacy and same sex parenting . . .

Now Britain’s Sky TV is promoting this lucrative trade in human flesh:

Britain’s first gay parents are appearing in their own TV show, recording the path to surrogacy.
The Parent Makers, which is set to air on Sky this month, follows the lives of Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow, who run the British Surrogacy Centre, in Chandlers Quay, Maldon.
The 10-episode series will feature footage of their lives at home, at work, wedding preparations and how they deal with their five children, Saffron, Aspen, Orlando, Jasper and Dallas.
Barrie, 43, said TV bosses are so impressed with the first series that they have already given the go-ahead for a second, which will begin filming in July.

How wonderful — free advertising for your baby-selling business!

And, of course, what could possibly go wrong?

Two Gay Men Used Russian Surrogate
Mother to Create Boy for Sex Abuse Ring

Peter Truong and Mark Newton with their 5-year-old sex toy, 2010

Perhaps you’ve forgotten that story from last July:

Police Vow to Pursue Pedophile
Ring ‘To the Ends of the Earth’
Authorities in Australia say they intend to apprehend and prosecute every member of an international child pornography ring that exploited a boy who was molested from infancy by two men who reportedly created him with a Russian surrogate mother. “With this network, rest assured that we will pursue them to the ends of the Earth to make sure each and every one of them faces justice for what their role has been in crimes against this child,” Queensland Police Officer Jon Rouse told the Australian Broadcasting Company.
Officer Rouse is a member of Task Force Argos, the special unit that investigated the case of two Australian men who sexually molested a boy for six years, providing video of their crimes — and even paid sexual encounters with the boy — to an “international syndicate” of pedophiles called the Boy Lovers Network.
Mark Newton, 42, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison last week by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker. Authorities say Newton and his partner, Peter Truong, 36, paid a Russian woman $8,000 to give birth to a boy they said was conceived using artificial insemination with Newton’s sperm. The men began sexually abusing the boy before he was two weeks old, recording the acts on video they shared online with other pedophiles.
“What can be said? What can be done to erase some of the horror of this?” Judge Barker said Friday in giving the maximum sentence to Newton, an American who had become an Australian citizen. Prosecutors said the case was tried in Judge Barker’s U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana because images of the boy were found on the computer of an Indiana man who was arrested as part of a larger child-pornography investigation.
Records in the case had previously been sealed, the Indianapolis Star reported. Newton and Truong made the boy available for molestation by other men in France, Germany and the United States, according to prosecutors. “For more than one year and across three continents, these men submitted this young child to some of the most heinous acts of exploitation that this office has ever seen,” said U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett.
Two U.S. men, John R. Powell, 41, of Florida; and Jason Bettuo, 36, of Illinois, also face federal charges in connection with the case. Police say they believe Newton and Truong created the boy “for the sole purpose of exploitation,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald . . .
Prosecutors said videos showed the boy “performing sex acts on Newton with a disturbing level of sophistication” when the boy was not yet 2 years old. At least eight different men had sex with the boy, investigators believe. ”The purchase of the child for the explicit and sole purpose of exploiting him across a network of men is incredibly depraved and very sad tale for that little boy,” Officer Rouse said.

So, nothing at all to worry about: Just a TV network promoting a business that rents out wombs to supply gay men with babies.

Barrie Drewitt Barlow is @Gaydads on Twitter. The Sky TV show has its own Twitter account, @TheParentMakers.

(Hat-tip: @gaysabovethelaw on Twitter.)

 

Category: Gays, Great Britain

Majoring in Minimum Wage

Posted on | May 1, 2014 | 28 Comments

You may not remember “Hard Times for Gender Studies Major,” a post last August featuring the lament of @Andria_XX, who had an “Honors BA in Social Justice and Peace Studies” and was pursuing a Master’s degree in Gender Studies:

“I have a honors BA and I’m defending my MA thesis in two weeks. I am also apply[ing] for jobs and I can only find stuff in the service industry. I applied for a Hotel Front Desk Clerk job today. My degrees mean NOTHING. I am at the end of my rope.”

That was absolutely one of the most popular posts in the six-year history of the blog. Her advanced degrees in trendy “studies” are worthless? Gosh, maybe she should have asked somebody. That came to mind when I saw this post today at Money Runner:

The Wall Street Journal has an article bemoaning the well educated barista economy. Of course they don’t put it quite that way in their article, the subhead if which is: A new study offers an unsettling explanation of why young adults have been hit so hard.
But in the spirit of those who hailed the benefits of losing your job. Not only can you get a chance to do your own thing, but according to Nancy Pelosi, those unemployment benefits you get create more jobs.  And if you lost your job becaue of ObamaCare, it’s really not a loss, but an “escape.”
With that view in mind, I want to explain why college educated baristas are a net plus for the American people.
Let’s face it, modern college graduates have just left the greatest brainwashing system since the Communists invented the “re-education centers” to set their enemies right. Do you really want those budding neo-Marxists to get on the first rung of the ladder of success?

Indeed. Let them be oppressed among the toiling masses. Let them live in squalor, eating Ramen noodles and trying to figure out how they’re going to pay the electric bill and the rent and their student loans. Let them go bankrupt and suffer nervous breakdowns and, when they get out of the looney bin, let them stand beside the highway intersection holding up crudely lettered cardboard signs:

GENDER STUDIES MAJOR
Will Criticize Patriarchy for Food!

Because, hey, who says the free market isn’t efficient?

 

Category: Economics, Education

Arkansas School Suspends Teacher for Gay-Rights Activism … No, Wait …

Posted on | May 1, 2014 | 53 Comments

One can easily imagine the outrage of progressives if a gay teacher were subjected to disciplinary action for his political beliefs, but that’s not what happened in Star City, Arkansas:

Star City School District teacher Philip Holthoff has been suspended with pay and under investigation by the district Friday after he allegedly made racist comments on a white supremacist website.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization which identifies hate groups, says they’ve been keeping their eye on the website called “Stormfront” whose slogan is “white pride world-wide.” The SPLC says they identified Star City teacher Philip Holthoff as posting racist comments on the site under a pseudonym, “David Lee Saxon.”
“I teach social studies in a public high school and I am racially conscious,” wrote poster David Lee Saxon.
The SPLC says they were able to identify Holthoff’s connection to the website by a donation.
“Mr. Holthoff gave money on April 20th to the site so we were taking a closer look at him and that’s how he came up as a donor on Stormfront,” said Heidi Beirich of the SPLC.
Beirich says she reached out to Holthoff before publishing his alleged connection to Stormfront.
“He was using a pseudonym online, David Lee Saxon, but by looking at all of the posts by Saxon, it’s very easy to figure out that this is Philip Holthoff, which he confirmed in a conversation to me,” Beirich said.

This story came to my attention via a Twitter debate between Aaron Walker and another user which, I am told, focused on the question of whether First Amendment protections apply without regard to the content of offensive speech. One might also see in this story an issue of whether anyone has a right to be employed by public schools. The whole matter of “employment rights” — which the labor movement has propagandized to the point that few ever question it — is problematic to me from a libertarian perspective:  In a free economy, employment is arranged by mutual voluntary consent; if an employee is free to choose his employer, and to quit a job whenever he wants, then by similar principle, the employer should be able to hire, fire or promote anyone, for any reason, without being subject to tort complaints.

By my lights, then, whether or not Star City schools discipline Philip Holthoff — up to and including termination from his job — is not a matter of Holthoff’s “rights” in any sense. Assuming that the school board members are accountable to the voters who elected them, they are acting entirely within their prerogative whatever they do. It is only the bogus entitlement mentality of “employment rights” that could possibly make anyone think otherwise.

Therefore, it doesn’t make any difference whether Holthoff was posting on Stormfront or on an NAACP website, or for that matter, if he was marching in the Little Rock Gay Pride parade. The content of whatever it was that may have offended his employer is irrelevant, from a libertarian perspective. However . . .

How did the SPLC get donor information at Stormfront?

Here at Hatewatch, we’re taking a deeper look at the donors who keep the largest hate site on the Internet — Stormfront — up and running. Taking in more than $100,000 a year in contributions, Stormfront is one of the best-funded hate sites in the world.
Although the site has hundreds of “Sustaining Members” that pledge $50 a year, a detailed financial study by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) shows that usually less than a dozen donors provide more than half of the income Stormfront takes in each month.
In fact, only a handful of high value contributors cover most of the costs involved in keeping Don Black, owner of Stormfront, and his vision of “White Pride Worldwide” online.
This month, Philip Holthoff, an odd and intensely racist Arkansas high school social studies teacher was among them, pledging $100 on April 20th. . . .

How does SPLC know how much money Stormfront collects and from whom? Given what we know about how IRS employees leaked information on donors who supported California’s Prop 8, shouldn’t we be suspicious about this kind of scrutiny of donors? Such a suspicion is not about the content of one neo-Nazi site, but rather about the means by which this kind of investigation is carried out.

Meanwhile, do parents know who is teaching their kids in public school?

The SPLC’s files suggest that Holthoff, 53, has been an active neo-Nazi for most of his adult life. Records show he joined the neo-Nazi National Alliance in May 1980 at the age of 19, where he was given membership number A3148. Records also show Holthoff joined National Vanguard in May 2005 as member #V0547, and he is listed as a “lifetime” member of White Revolution.
In a 2007 Stormfront post, Holthoff outlined his pedigree in the racist movement. “I was a loyal NA [National Alliance] member for years, went to two national leadership conferences and once stayed a week in WV [West Virginia] with a friend who was employed on staff under WLP [now deceased leader of the National Alliance William Pierce],” he wrote on Stormfront. “After the death of WLP the infighting and rumors and excessive secrecy disgusted me and I left and joined NV [National Vanguard]. I was at the second [David] Duke leadership conference and had so much hope. I suspect most of those present were NV members.”
Expressing common movement fantasies about rounding up “race traitors” after the revolution, Holthoff wrote earlier this year that he hopes a “top secret group” of white supremacists will form to “bring to justice“ those “traitors” who promote interracial activities like the Super Bowl.

What? The Super Bowl is about “race traitors”? And nobody told me?

As shocking as it is to learn that a guy who has been a neo-Nazi since he was a teenager would be working as a public school teacher — even in rural Arkansas — what about teachers who are associated with other controversial political organizations? For all you know, your kid’s science teacher may be an environmentalist who supports the eco-terrorist Earth Liberation Front. Maybe your local school teachers are supporting Planned Parenthood, or GLSEN, or the pro-abortion lesbian youth organization known as the Girl Scouts.

Heck, some of them may even be Democrats.

We must investigate these dangerous extremists in our public schools!

 

Category: Education, Racism

White Guilt Passes Its Expiration Date

Posted on | May 1, 2014 | 115 Comments

Some things are predictable to observant students of human nature. There is a Newtonian principle of equal and opposite reactions in social, political and cultural trends. After the radical anti-war protests and bohemian lifestyle experimentation of the 1960s — LSD, campus sit-in demonstrations, psychedelic rock, hippie communes and meditation gurus — a discernible backlash took hold. This was first manifested in politics: Ronald Reagan’s election as governor of California was perhaps the first omen, as his campaign made a clear issue of opposition to student radicalism at the University of California Berkeley. The 1968 election of Richard Nixon, when Democrat Hubert Humphrey was handicapped both by left-wing opposition to the Vietnam War and blue-collar support for the third-party candidacy of George Wallace, was another harbinger of the emerging backlash.

Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972 and, although the subsequent Watergate scandal temporarily derailed the political manifestation of backlash, it was still evident in social and cultural trends. By the mid-1970s, an increased visibility of fundamentalist Christianity — it was Jimmy Carter who made “born again” a universally recognized synonym for evangelical faith — further manifested the rightward shift in culture. Even the disco music trend could be seen as symptomatic of this shift: If it was a hedonistic expression of urban culture, disco also emphasized stylish fashions and a commercial show-biz ethic that was diametrically opposed to the politicized themes of anti-establishment protest that suffused much of the rock scene from the mid-1960s onward. The look made famous by John Travolta in 1977’s Saturday Night Fever — short, carefully styled hair and a flashy white suit — was a stark contrast to the grungy look of mud-covered naked hippies at Woodstock in 1969.

By 1977, kids didn’t want to change the world. They just wanted to boogie down. A couple years later, partly inspired by the nostalgic frat-boy movie Animal House, the “preppy” fashion trend swept college campuses, and suddenly Izod shirts, madras shorts, khaki slacks and Bass Weejuns were all the rage. (Does anybody else remember preppy girls with gold “add-a-bead” necklaces?)

To anyone who had been paying attention to cultural trends during the 1970s, the landslide election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 was not really surprising. The average American who pulled the lever for Reagan might have had difficulty articulating what it was they were voting for, by they damned sure knew what they were voting against. It wasn’t just the manifest incompetence of Jimmy Carter’s administration and the political/economic “malaise” that they opposed. From the mid-1960s onward, Americans had felt a growing sense of helpless anger toward the youth counterculture that manifested itself in rock music, drug use, radical protests, and orgiastic sexuality. That counterculture had never really represented the mainstream majority of American youth, but by 1980, young people themselves were as fed up with the counterculture as their parents had been for the past 15 years.

It is too early to say we are witnessing a new youth backlash against the dominant progressivism of the Obama years, but why else would Princeton University freshman Tal Fortgang unload a powerful denunciation of the regnant left-wing campus orthodoxy?

There is a phrase that floats around college campuses, Princeton being no exception, that threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them. “Check your privilege,” the saying goes, and I have been reprimanded by it several times this year. The phrase, handed down by my moral superiors, descends recklessly, like an Obama-sanctioned drone, and aims laser-like at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness, and the nerve I displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal Weltanschauung. “Check your privilege,” they tell me in a command that teeters between an imposition to actually explore how I got where I am, and a reminder that I ought to feel personally apologetic because white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world.
I do not accuse those who “check” me and my perspective of overt racism, although the phrase, which assumes that simply because I belong to a certain ethnic group I should be judged collectively with it, toes that line. But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. . . .

You should read the whole thing, if you haven’t read it already. Fortgang’s resentment of endless lectures about his alleged “privilege” is almost certainly shared by millions of students on today’s hyper-politicized campuses, where critical skepticism toward progressive ideas is streng verboten. Liberal hegemony in academia — Democrats outnumber Republicans on liberal arts faculties by a ratio of at least 4-to-1, and at elite campuses, by far more — means not only that progressive ideas are taken for granted, but that those who challenge such ideas are condemned as hateful extremists.

Empty accusations of “privilege” stem from a progressive worldview that Shelby Steele examined in his 2007 book White Guilt,. Further examination of this worldview can be found in Thomas Sowell’s 1996 book, The Vision of the Anointed. There is already a well-developed intellectual critique of progressivism and identity politics, if only young people were made aware of it. Unfortunately, there are so few conservatives on university faculty now that students are ill-equipped to interrogate the dominant campus culture. Yet there is evidence that many students want access to alternative ideas.

You can follow Tal Fortgang on Twitter.

 

Category: Culture, Education

LIVE AT FIVE: 05.01.14

Posted on | May 1, 2014 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Charges Filed Against Narendra Modi For Poll Code Violation

Modi displays his party’s lotus symbol after casting his vote

Ahmehdabad cops file First Imformation Reports

Oklahoma Orders Review Of “Botched” Execution
Governor agrees to delay second scheduled execution

Tensions High As Iraqis Vote In First Election After US Withdrawal
PM Maliki leads vote, is favored to form new ruling coalition



POLITICS
Lynchburg Derailment Highlights Concern Over Oil Shipments

Three tank cars full of oil caught fire after yesterday’s derailment

No injuries, but NTSB is investigating; much unhappiness over rail, barge shipments of oil through Virginia


White House Playing Defense Over Benghazi E-mails Tying Top Aide To Susan Rice’s Lies

Black Democrat Congressman Won’t Back Down From Calling Justice Thomas “Uncle Tom”


Obamanomics Under Fire From GOP As Economy Slows To 0.1% Growth

Paul Ryan Discusses Poverty With The CBC

DIA Chief To Retire

House Panel: Only 2/3 Of Obamacare Premiums Have Been Paid

Wyoming Slams Administration Over EPA Rules: “War On Coal,” Governor Says

SEIU Membership, Revenues Plummet After Michigan Ends “Underhanded Scheme”



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Brent Slips, WTI Falls Below $100 As PRC, Supplies Weigh: NYMEX $99.67, Brent $108.04
Asian Stocks Mixed After US Growth Slowdown
Fed Continues Taper Despite US Economy’s First-Quarter Stall
Reports Push Dow To Record
Latest TARP Report Says US Lost $11.2 Billion On GM Bailout
“Lego Movie”, HBO Shows Boost Time Warner Results
ADP Says Private Sector Added 220K Jobs In April; Other Data Suggests Uneven Regional Hiring
Facebook To Let Users Limit Data Revealed By Logins
Google To Stop Mining Kids’ E-Mails For Ad Ideas
FCC’s Wheeler Defends Net Neutrality Proposals
WSJ: AT&T Approaching DirecTV About Acquisition?
After 13-Year Console Ban, XBoxOne Set For Launch In PRC



SPORTS
Rangers Beat Flyers 2-1 In Game 7

Daniel Carcillo celebrates after scoring his winning goal in the second period

Will face Pittsburgh in second round

D’Antoni Resigns As Lakers Coach; Who’ll Be The Fall Guy Now?

Kings Finish Comeback From 3-0, Eliminate Sharks

Oprah Interested In Buying Clippers; Sterling, NBA Set For Epic Legal Battle Over Team

Niederreiter Scores In OT To Lift Wild Past Avs

Rockets Ride Howard, Lin Past Blazers To Stay Alive

Raptors Edge Nyets In Game 5 After Blowing 26-point Lead

A’s Finish Off Texas Sweep With 12-1 Laugher

LaRoche Lifts Nats Past Astros With Clutch Late Hits



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Bob Hoskins Dies Of Pneumonia, 71

From Facebook via Claudia Christian.
Picture by James Hance.

Perhaps best remembered for his role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

Miranda Kerr Talks About Coping With Breakdown Of Marriage To Orlando Bloom

Former “Teen Mom” Amber Portman Slams Justin Bieber

Zac Efron On Career Reinvention, Substance Abuse, And That Fight On Skid Row


Spanish Artist Domingo Zapata – Lindsay Lohan’s Married Lover?

Jennifer Lawrence Recalls Getting Wasted At The Oscars, Puking In Front Of Miley Cyrus

Hailee Steinfeld To Join “Pitch Perfect 2”

Demi Lovato: There’s More To Life Than Getting Sh*t-Faced

Kate Upton Heralds Summer On Vogue’s June Cover

Report: Peaches Geldof Died Of Heroin OD

The Onion Sets Its Sights On Buzzfeed, Upworthy

Hilary Duff On The Rebound…With Xenu?

“Jem And The Holograms” Finds Its Rio



FOREIGNERS
Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams Arrested Over 1972 IRA Killing
Rob Ford Takes Time Off From Campaign For Substance Abuse Treatment
Ukraine Readies Troops, Warns Of Russian Invasion
PRC’s Xi Vows “Decisive Action” After Deadly Xinjiang Train Station Attack
Shinawatra Agress To July Election In Bid To Appease Protesters
International Outcry As Brunei Embraces Sharia Law
IMF Approves $17 Billion Bailout For Ukraine
Brazil’s Poor Get Welfare Bump, Tax Cuts



BLOGS & STUFF
Proof Positive: All That’s Sterling Isn’t Golden
First Street Journal: Economics 101 – We Told You So! Minimum Wage Hike Has Already Cost Jobs
Michelle Malkin: Big Government GOP’s Common Core Rebrand Hustle
Twitchy: James Woods Remembers The Victim Amid Controversy Over “Botched” Oklahoma Execution
American Power: Only CBS Covers Benghazi E-Mails Suggesting White House Coverup; ABC, NBC Ignore
American Thinker: Obamacare And Common Core – Two Fronts Of The Same Coup
Blackfive: The Military As Socialist Paradise?
Blackmailers Don’t Shoot: Pulling A Reverse Alinsky
Conservatives4Palin: Tim Carney – K Street Battles Tea Party In GOP Primaries
Don Surber: Daily Scoreboard, April 30
Jammie Wearing Fools: In An Administration Full Of Lying Incompetents, Jay Carney Manages To Distinguish Himself Yet Again
Joe For America: Folks, You’re Missing The Point About Donald Sterling
JustOneMinute: Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Pat Dollard: Iran’s Ayatollah Urges President Rouhani To “Punch Obama In The Mouth” Whenever He “Speaks Nonsense”
Protein Wisdom: Federal Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin Voter ID Law
Shot In The Dark: Kill National Popular Vote With Greasy Fire
The Jawa Report: Bombshell – Emails Prove Obama Administration Orchestrated Benghazi Attack Lies
The Lonely Conservative: FEC Lawyer Admits He Campaigned For Obama
This Ain’t Hell: Jim Gourley – 10 Reasons Not To Vote For A Veteran
Megan McArdle: Recovery? What Recovery?


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