Some of my readers may already know that I’ve been banned from Twitter. You may not know the reason, however. Some folks were arguing that the word “retarded” should be banned from Twitter discourse. Naturally, I replied that this was retarded. Twitter has apparently sided with those demanding censorship, so let it be known that the social media platform has banned use of this word. Using it results in account suspension.
That’s pretty retarded.
Leftists, and especially journalists, have a propensity for deliberately misunderstanding language. Words have meanings, which can be gleaned partly from the commonly-accepted definitions, and partly from the context in which they were used. Or, put another way, intent matters in communication. Calling something retarded is not an affront to people with Down syndrome, because of the context in which it was used (i.e. not in the presence of, or having anything to do with, people with Down syndrome). To interpret the use of “retarded” this way requires deliberate intent to misunderstand the speaker.
In other words, Leftists who do this are defying the very purpose of language in the first place, which is to communicate. Now, using the word may very well be construed as extremely rude (and, in fact, it was intended to be), but since when is rudeness an offense which requires censorship?
This is where something very interesting happens. You see, to a Leftist, rudeness is an unpardonable sin. If I were, for instance, to refer to a gay man as a “fag” (despite the fact that many use the word to describe themselves), I am being rude. The rudeness must be censored. Leftists presume to be my mother, and to explain to me what words I am, and am not, allowed to use.
Now in the case of my suspension, it can be argued that Twitter is a private entity, and has every right to censor me for whatever reason they wish. And while this is true in a legal and technical sense, it omits the greater point that any nation which does not really believe in freedom of speech in a cultural sense is soon to lose its legal rights to the same. Or, in other words, de facto censorship can easily become de jure censorship. But even if it didn’t, note that North Korea enshrines freedom of speech in its legal documentation. Nobody there is stupid enough to actually try to use it. Nonetheless, Leftists would love to ban the use of words they don’t like at a legal level. Indeed, they salivate over hate speech laws, and the Orwellian policing we see today in (formerly) Great Britain.
It gets much worse than that, though. Take a look at this video created in opposition to the Second Amendment:
The fascinating thing about this video is just how childish and patronizing it truly is. Note the bright colors, the cartoon figures, the sing-a-long verses and Mr. Rogers vibe of the host. This whole thing looks like it was designed for six year olds. This is what the Left thinks of people.
Ana Gasteyer’s argument is, essentially, that if one person does something stupid with a gun, that person has effectively ruined it for the rest of us, and all the guns must be rounded up and taken away, because clearly Americans are unable to handle them. She appoints herself Mom-in-Chief, under which the rest of us are supposed to obey like good little six year olds.
This argument falls flat on its face, for we could easily make the same kind of delusional argument about alcohol and automobiles. Some people drink too much, and then drive their cars, and hurt people. Clearly they have ruined it for the rest of us, ban automobiles and alcohol. Remember the temperance movement? This shares a number of similarities to it. Indeed, it’s a very matriarchal approach to problem solving.
Some people are rude on the internet, ban mean words! Some people commit sex crimes, well… we they’ve clearly ruined sex for everybody, if you want to have sex, please obtain signed consent to continue every 2 minutes. Yet somehow this motherly attitude, this “omg somebody save our kids from the NRA” attitude vanishes the moment somebody coat hangers their child at the local Planned Parenthood abort-o-mat.
Temperance movement mothers would have been horrified by that, at least.
Some time ago, Sarah Hoyt wrote about the matriarchy that she encountered when she first immigrated to the United States. The experience was jolting for her. Feminists presume that we live in a patriarchy, and that men have all the power. Men know better. We possess a great deal of hypothetical power, rather like the Queen of England. But if we actually try to use any of it, it is quickly revealed as meaningless.
After all, if you can’t even call somebody retarded on the Internet, how much power do you really possess?
Leftists want government to be your mother. To put you in time out if you say a mean word to somebody, to take a thing away from everyone if even one person misuses it. To enforce Socialist notions of fairness through a sort of scaled up version of “oh, did you bring enough to share with everyone? No? Then I’m going to take it away!”
Affirmative action is a sort of scaled up participation trophy concept. Oh, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t practice, work out, or any of that. You’re just as good as the people who did! Here, have a trophy! Take a look at medical school admission rates for how this works in the real world:
Note that the lowest tier of black applicant is roughly comparable in acceptance rate to the highest tier of white acceptance. Note, also, that whites aren’t even the worst off here – Asians are. The Asian stereotype of “you be doctor now” has some truth to it. They are likely to have intact families, to work hard, to study hard, and to be dedicated to their work. But sure, affirmative action someone with lower grades and scores, right? Yeah, I’ve never heard anyone say “can I please have the affirmative action doctor?”
But the mother might say “it’s not fair!” And we should hold the phone, drop everything, and move medicine back to accommodate somebody’s feelings about fairness, right? That sounds pretty retarded to me.
No guns for you, share and share alike, don’t say mean words, and go have a time out if you voted for Donald Trump. Or, hell, if you just didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. After all, she’s a mother too, right? Otherwise you are an internet bully or something.
Thing of it is, even if we accepted the premise that human beings are all little children who need constant supervision, who have no agency of their own, and who must obey their betters in all things… who are the betters? Who constitutes someone worthy of being the mother who knows best? Naturally, Ana Gasteyer clearly thinks of herself this way. And pretty much every teenage SJW or college feminist considers his, her, or xis self qualified for the role, despite having a tendency to abort away their actual children.
They have agency, you see. We do not. We, as in productive adults, must obey college SJWs in all things. They are our mothers, and mother knows best, right? I have no doubt Hillary Clinton saw herself in this light. Certainly some of her emasculated male followers thought of themselves as slobbering man-children.
As far as I’m concerned, they are all retarded. And unlike folks who actually have Down syndrome (some of whom are wonderful, humble, caring people), these people are viciously arrogant about their retardation.
The thing is, mothering is an important part of humanity, but it is not the sole part, nor is it supposed to be done excessively. Otherwise you end up with wussified children who are completely unable to take care of themselves when they grow up. And if you think about it, that does sound like the 47% Mitt Romney lamented about in the 2012 election, people who would never vote for him because the government was, in effect, their mother, taking care of everything for them.
Eating is a good and proper activity. Gluttony is a sin. Having a glass of wine a day is supposedly a benefit to your overall health. Getting plastered every night is likely to destroy your body and send you to the hospital. Today, we have an excess of mothering, both from actual mothers (see: helicopter parents) and from Leftists and the government assuming a motherly role. In effect, Leftists are helicopter parents who, in lieu of actual children, have assumed the role of some kind of global parents over the supposedly-childish hoi polloi. That many of these Leftists are themselves barely removed from childhood might be regarded as a colossal irony.
I’ve long suspected that this motherly activity is actually one of the primary motivators behind the very school shootings lamented about in the video above. I remember several times as a child being disciplined by the school for defending myself against a bully. The policy, you see, was that violence was bad. Therefore, when two kids were seen fighting, both were disciplined the same. No effort was made to determine who was the aggressor. Both were at fault. Leftists view self defense in a similar matter. They are suspicious of it. They don’t actually like it. In their minds, someone who shoots an intruder is as bad as the intruder himself. Perhaps worse, even, because excuses can be made for the bad behavior of the intruder.
Likewise, excuses are made for the bullies. Oh, he’s having problems at home. Oh, he’s black and you’re white, and quite honestly you probably deserve it because your great-great-great grandfather might have owned a slave. You must accept it. No outlet is given for boys, girls are held up as the gold standard, something Christina Hoff Sommers has commented on many times. Add to this a toxic stew of single motherhood, absent fathers, a tendency to over-medicate, and a general cultural malaise… and you have a recipe for boys snapping and going apeshit at school. Not to mention the media gives a twisted sort of fame to the school shooters.
But no, like the helicopter mother who wants to stop her kid from spitting out gum everywhere, as cited in the video above, we should just ban everything for everybody. Forget the reasons why the bad behavior was occurring, just ban the word, or ban the physical object. It’s like the Rotherham rape epidemic. Forget actually protecting the victims and going after the perps, ban talking about it, ban the words.
This has given us a culture of childishness, of never actually growing up. Nothing is ever your fault, because you are seen as a child.
If I was of some protected class, and a recipient of affirmative action largess, I’d be angry. It’s patronizing, it’s saying “oh here, because you can’t win the game on your own, we won’t keep score, and we’ll give you a participation trophy.” No, screw you, I want to win, and losing the game is motivation to do better next time.
Participation trophy culture is retarded. The government is not your mother, and the fact that Leftists of various stripes think they are qualified to be my parents is profoundly insulting. In this case, ‘mother’ definitely doesn’t know best.
Twatter banned you permanently for the retarded thread? I though it was fairly mild- not like a psycho rant or anything.
This crap with Twatter is way out of control.
Thales –
Thanks for the explanation. I had e’d Fran as to why I was being blocked – he did tell me what you told him. So – now I can say – it’s good to see you/your site again.
You are correct about how such matters unfold in the pink unicorn universe of the SJW’s. On occasion I have been momentarily (or so) engaged with SJW’s. I am like Fran (like age, too). I don’t desire to clutter up much time with such engagements. I usually end it pretty quick with “You need to discover reality and then get back with me” – and then walk off. I’ve read Vox Day’s “Rules of Engagement” with SJW’s.
Perhaps I should borrow from you next time, and preface my words – “That is retarded thinking. You need to discover reality and then get back with me.”
These days and at my age, a well-placed zinger allows me to avoid any arguments with the clueless, and saves me time. Being retired I don’t have to worry about loss of a job, etc. Clean zinger, and just walk away. Heh! jb
I wish there was a polite way to educate morons like this.
There isn’t.
So the only recourse is to put them on the defensive by turning their words back against them. In this case, my best guess at semi-effective rhetoric would be “Some people have misused food stamps, guess that ruins the system for everyone. Ban it.”
Or if I really want to slap some sense into their heads (or just get them howling… or perhaps both) “Some immigrants have committed crimes, guess that ruins all immigration for everyone. Now they all have to go back”.
I could probably think of a few dozen more, but I’m sure you can too…
There is no way to fix this. Leftists cannot be educated. The leftists will never, ever, ever see the light and turn back to rationality, truth and evidence to form their arguments & positions.
The reason is they don’t WANT to change their convictions. Like cultists, their Mystical Psychosis prevents them from entertaining any notions that stray from orthodoxy, lest the entire doctrine (and along with it their self-image & psyche) collapse from the undermining of its pathetically flimsy foundation.
The divide in the American political landscape is growing, and its growth is accelerating. Leftist urban folk are now quite comfortable in saying the most utterly vile things about their rural countrymen. They appear to believe that rural people are nothing more than savage brutes at the level of jungle beasts – vermin that needs to be controlled or exterminated. I’ve heard it myself from people who were once dear friends.
This conception is being driven by the media quite deliberately. Sometimes the arguments are brazen and heavy-handed, other times very subtle in terms of the careful misuse, mis-characterization and manipulation of hard data. As a gross example – take a look, if you can stand it, at any episode of The View. The things leftists say repeatedly on that program every single day are quite often along the lines of German state media discussions in the 1930’s concerning “the Jewish Question.”
I must repeat this – the ideological divide is being DELIBERATELY EXPANDED. There are forces behind the media spokespeople and the activists – forces that are providing the necessary funding and logistics.
I offer as one example the march underway thru mexico of approximately 1500 hondurans (or so I’ve been told) who are headed to the US border. They are being led and helped along by activists, and these activists are getting money, food, medical assistance and other support. It immediately brings to mind the north african and moslem migrations that have been underway across the mediterranean for the past 3 years. The gathering of migrants into depots in Libya and other north african countries and their placement on a fleet of cargo ships, along with food and water, for transport to france, italy and greece has been orchestrated and funded since the beginning by NGOs bankrolled by George Soros.
The progressive activists are everywhere – in the education system, in politics, in the media. They are following the revolutionary playbooks of Mao, Lenin and Hitler assiduously (though the class struggle motif has been replaced by identity politics), and are getting all the financial backing they need to organize an astonishingly comprehensive attack on all the foundational pillars of western civilization.
Does anyone still think the demonstrations organized immediately after the Parkland shooting event were spontaneous, or that the calls for outright repeal of the 2nd amendment immediately afterwards were coincidental? This was a very thoroughly planned campaign set up well in advance, waiting for the right event to put its elements in motion.
Did anyone get a chance to look at the people attending those demonstrations? They were almost all quite young – in their teens and twenties. The events looked more like celebrations, with music, celebrities giving ‘insipiring’ speeches, big, enthusiastic, cheering crowds, and all the “we are the world” happy-happy joy-joy bulls*** with the participants being made to feel like they were being swept into a big, grand, wonderful movement that would ‘heal the world’ since “we’re all in this TOGETHER!” and “WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!” Of course, ideological rallies by the left have had these sorts of organizational parameters and goals for the last 100 years.
War is coming.
If you’re in a blue state or city, get out now. You’re behind enemy lines.
TSW,
You’re getting there. Since the Left cannot stop themselves this behavior has always led to and always will lead to extreme violence. As I leave with that upbeat thought a little something from Churchill: People often stumble over the truth, but almost invariably they pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and hurry on off as if nothing ever happened.
I bow to thee, oh mighty Slayer of the Chaldeans! 🙂
TSW,
They are losing!
I’m not so sure.
NONE of the MSM outlets have changed their newsrooms or content to reflect the fact that they are too far to the left for most americans. Twitter, Google and FB are still up to their usual shenanigans and seem convinced that they are on the ‘right side of history’, from the executive suite down to the lowest employees. The daily WH press briefings haven’t moved back towards the center, even after all the government-unbalancing storylines that the MSM has pushed over the last 15 months. They’re more hostile and ideologically driven than ever.
As best as I can tell, the Left has been meeting every setback or stall with even more extremism. I’m getting the impression that talk in the leftist echo chambers has recently become dominated with exhortations for a violent marxist/maoist revolution. I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who’s getting the impression, as I’m getting the same story from many I know on both the right and left (and with those people I know on the left, the relationships have all frayed badly despite all my attempts to avoid political discussions of any sort.)
There’s forces behind all this. (No, I’m not wearing a tinfoil hat.)
The 1500 person central american march thru mexico, the anti-gun rallies after parkland, the continuing influx of middle eastern and african illegal migrants in europe – they are all organized, financed and supported by….SOMEBODY or SOMEBODIES. The activist groups, NGOs, PACs, websites and media outlets are coordinated, financed and supported by….SOMEBODY. The messaging, pitches, themes and tactics are also carefully orchestrated and look like they’re right out of Lenin’s or Mao’s socialist revolution how-to guide.
Whoever is driving the forces of the Left across the Western World is Playing. For. Keeps.
This will get violent, and it will begin this year.
Did you know that Antifa Austin is deliberately recruiting people with mental problems? Their justification is that these people’s difficulties are caused by ‘capitalism.’ But that’s not the real reason. Somebody has learned lessons from the last twenty years of infrequent gun massacres, noting that they were almost all committed by leftist young people who felt isolated, alienated and nihilistic.
Most people on the Left wouldn’t go any farther than meeting their progressive comrades at starbucks and congratulate each other for the great moral and intellectual courage they all show as they support causes for ‘social and economic justice’ and ‘redistributive change.’ But there is a core group- maybe 5%, maybe a bit larger – who actively work with Antifa, BLM and some other organizations, who WILL pick up weapons and kill, who WILL plant bombs at police stations, subway platforms, airports, churches, sports stadiums and other public venues, who WILL kidnap politicos and wealthy businessmen who aren’t part of their ideological sphere and either hold them for ransom or just murder them. This ‘true’ cadre is aching to get the revolution started so they can finally lash out and ‘fight back’ against their ‘oppressors.’
The bolsheviks weren’t the largest revolutionary group in Czarist Russia. Far from it. They were, however, willing to do what no other group would dare in order to achieve power. Same for Mao’s original marxist cadres. There was no sacrifice too great, no act too vile, no method too ruthless that would hinder them from achieving their aims.
I hope I’m dead wrong and just overwrought. But you know the old saying:
“Hope for the best but plan for the worst.”
TSW,
I more or less agree with everything you say, but keep this in mind:
“As best as I can tell, the Left has been meeting every setback or stall with even more extremism.”
That my friend is the actions of a side that is losing. Read back what you said. One thing you emphasized is the “Left” is not changing appreciably, but instead is becoming more violent. Yes and that is a sign of no imagination. Also in the battle the loser always fights the hardest when he knows it’s a lost cause. They will win battles, but they are losing the war. Press them.
One more thing, the “Left has had it’s way for almost 35yrs and this has led them to be fat, lazy, unimaginative, repetitive, and generally stupid when seriously challenged (see Trump for a good example) they have lived on their laurels so to speak for too long and finding out they are not as they thought invincible.
ICD10 Code (*) Code Description (*)
F79.8 Unspecified mental retardation, other impairments of behaviour
F79.9 Unspecified mental retardation without mention of impairment of behaviour
F80 Specific developmental disorders of speech and language
F80.0 Specific speech articulation disorder
Looks like the medical community and the government still recognize retardation as a medical diagnosis(es)
F79.9 with impairment of cognition along with some inappropriate behaviors, works for me!
Sorry, that should have been 78.8 not 9
This sucks. I will miss you on Twitter and glad you are continuing to blog here.
I play Words with Friends on a daily basis. Over time, I’ve found that there are words that are banned/not recognized as word, eg fag and slut. Rude or offensive? Yes. Words? Yes. And ‘slut’ is being ‘reclaimed’ by some feminists, which is ridiculous.
My favorite ‘word that isn’t’: jew (and there aren’t that many short words with J, a high value letter). Good grief – while it can be used as a slur, it really isn’t!
The fact that there are people everywhere restricting our speech in small ways is just too 1984-ish for me.
I’ve been told by liberals that I shouldn’t identify myself as a “Jew” (because some dolts use it as a slur) but rather “Jewish person”. Funny thing is that I don’t like to use the term “non-Jew” because it’s wrong to define someone by what they are not, and I avoid “Gentile” because one of its meanings is heathen, so I’m left with “goy”, which really isn’t derogatory but some Jew-haters think so.
What we need to prepare ourselves for should the Progressives somehow rise back into political power:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/gender-madness-alienates-democratic-insider/
Cliff notes:
A long time far left progressive aparatchik has been deemed not sufficiently insane enough with regards to the use of gender pronouns and their conceptual application to all aspects of civil life.
I suspect even Mao’s Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution would have considered this a step waaaaay too far.
Be Prepared. War Is Coming.
For those of you who doubt civil war is coming:
https://www.redstate.com/diary/FreddyT/2018/04/07/great-read-says-twitters-ceo-article-advocating-eradication-right/
Read the excerpt in the article carefully. The projection in the screed is TOTAL.
It’s coming, folks.
Seems the article is causing quite a stir.
Here’s one of the responses – from Kurt Schlichter:
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2018/04/09/liberals-announce-plan-to-crush-normal-americans-in-a-new-civil-war-spoiler-its-not-a-great-plan-n2469023
It’s so gay that you can’t call people retarded anymore.