Friends, Google, one of those Big Tech companies that we love to hate, has decided it will no longer remove YouTube videos that claim that the 2020 election was rigged and/or seriously compromised by fraud. Gee whiz, Google -- what changed? Google says, "In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm." Ya think??? That's been true for eons. Funny that it just occurred to those Google-heads now... Nevertheless, any win for free speech is worth celebrating, so I say: hooray!
In other news, censorship continues to thrive in our public schools, and it isn't just conservatives pushing for LGBT propaganda to be curbed. It's also lefties demanding that "vulgar" content like the Bible be removed from school library collections. Sometimes this debate over kids' reading materials surely does descend into madness, but the fact remains that every school has to make choices about what material is appropriate for children of various ages, and many of those choices are not easy. They must, perforce, be guided by a set of values, and that puts paid to the idea that a public school education, or any education, can ever be "value-free". The Left should stop hyperventilating about the removal of some books from red state classrooms, therefore, because these efforts are underway all across the country, and it's red and blue and purple parents at the root of them. Personally, I would tend to err on the side of permissiveness, at least when it comes to books -- after all, few kids are likely ever to pick one up!
Dr.Waddy from Jack: What manner of execrable nonsense is this on the part of the left to emote on the (oh do let them seek summary chemical comfort!) VULGARITY of ANY literature, fiction or nonfiction. What insufferable crust they have; they who would blithely flood school library resources with "redeeming" pornography, anti Christianity America hating screed and
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: . . . and exhortations to punish and destroy an essentially flawed homeland. Yeah, make them kids "revolutionaries" before their adult chompers come in!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: In library school we were taught that taxpayers who sought removal of material from school or public were "a problem" and were to be reeducated. The profession is overwhelmingly dominated by enforced leftist biases,practiced in library education , employment,administration, professional publications,acquisitions, reference and reader's advisory. Want proof? Check out the annual conventions of the American Library Association or the NY Library Association. What conservativ
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy fromJack: . . . What conservative librarians there are areas insectsor microbes to the leftists who run the profession. I say this because it is exemplary of the left's characteristic "heads we win, tails you lose" self righteous presumption. "Why, if we don't like it, it is by definition condemned; if the unwashed who doubt us don't like it, too bad". Eg the Bible goes but the Koran? "Well now, see here!"
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: "Yeah, get rid of Christmas in public ( or soon in private too) but don't you dare complain about graphic celebration in places fully accessible to and even mandated for children,of cultural phenomena heretofore enjoyed only at the discretion of adults. What! Would you discriminate? "
ReplyDeleteDr. Wadyfrom Jack: Correction to my third comment ". . . school or public libraries. . .
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: It is a common reaction from those of leftist sympathies, to urge "tolerance" and refrain from "judgementalism" when they encounter views with which they disagree. My answer to them is"ok, do you tolerate and refuse to judge all matters? If not, what do you not tolerate; what do you judge? You just judged my view. You must perforce have values and standards which necessarily move you to judge and sometimes express intolerance. What the are the values which led you to question my position? " When it comes to censorship here is where the left stumbles; when you challenge their advocacy of ehh, counterintuitively selected materials in school libraries, they protest "censorship",a term which,like "discrimination",both of which the left freely wields in expectation of automatic condemnation, receipt of abject apology and "end of discussion". But when they purpose the removal of materials which rile them, they call it justice.As always, when we face such powerful proto totalitarian nonsense from the left, we should bid them to be specific about the particular values which have moved. them.Often they are emotionally incapable of creditable give and take. Many of them are people of good will but their doctrine mandates scorn for by definition insolent challenge.Summary judgement is to be expected of them, eg.on "censorship"
ReplyDeleteJack, the Left defines every term -- like "vulgarity" -- opportunistically, as you know. They may well feel that, for every work of LGBT pornography that gets ripped from the shelves, they're entitled to ban a classic of Western Civilization in retaliation... When we're done with this childishness, and the only books left in school libraries will be the ones with all the pages torn out!
ReplyDeleteExcellent point about the Koran. I'd like to see a left-leaning school board square that circle!
As you suggest, Jack, it's pretty rich of the advocates of censorship in social media to be decrying "book bans" in school libraries. That's not a position that passes the smell test, but luckily for leftists they don't have to use words with integrity, or adhere to elementary logic, because, in their universe, countervailing arguments are automatically silenced -- or, at best, ignored. And the beat goes on. Most frustratingly, what are we ever to do about it? Almost by defintion, anything we do or say will be consigned to the category of hate or hate speech as soon as it's done or said. Only people with "credibility" even HAVE a voice, and they earn that credibility, as we all know, by toeing the line. It's a vicious circle.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: We must defend at the point and moment of leftist overreach; it must even be reflexive as is the left's custom. Eg.if they yell "nazi" we retort " Stalinists". We must call out their counterintuitive claims of justice for the proven evil they are, with Stentorian emphasis and , if necessary the verbal aggression they so blithely level at us.We must demonstrate confidence that our side is on the positive side in this culture war. We must affirm that we understand and embrace the realities of political power and are determined ,willing to use them with vigor, and loathe to be entangled in compromise born of bad will from the left.Decisive assertion of our views assumes time and reasonable lack of vulnerability from professional and social attack. That can be difficult for Americans because we are busy leading positive, law abiding, productive lives; anti Americans maintain an extensive cadre of rootless "organizers" ready to do anarchy on a moment's notice. We must confront them immediately, if possible courteously but without deference ,when they casually presume to charge us with any of the many 'isms" they deem automatically condemning. We must be on the offensive and keep them on the defensive, keep 'em backpedaling. Eg. Reagan, Gingrich, Rush, the Tea Party, Trump, Fox, DeSantis and McConnell and McCarthy. Leftists' principles are based in dreams of the unknowable future; ours in reason, supported by proof . If we must get down in the political even moral dirt with them, then bring it on. Let any presumptuous consignment of our views to summary dismissal or notoriety have purchase only among leftist fanatics, who are irredemably lost and must be disempowered.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddyfro. Jack: We must assume of the left the bad will they consistently confirm and react accordingly .
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: On Dec. 6, 1941, FDR could not bring the U.S. into a war, possibly for its life, which he was by then convinced was inevitable. The requisite political will did not obtain in the nation. On Dec.8 it did. In the present political, social, cultural and legal war to prevent antiAmerica from forcing tragically wrong headed "fundamental transformation" of an America which does not deserve it, what analagous development can motivate and mobilize America to
ReplyDeletefinally defend itself?Creditable speculation of decisive totalitarian power moves being made by the radical antiAmerican left in the foreseeable future have been expressed on this site (eg. the left not "allowing" a reelected DJT to take office).David Horowitz is a courageous reformed leftist schooled by bitter first hand experience in antiAmerican leftist savagery and resolve to destroy America. His many books eloquently express core conservative convictions; it would be difficult to commend them too highly! His latest suggests that our last election is at hand in '24. Will this or another development making crystal clear the left's longtime dictatorial intent - a latter day Dec.7 - be attempted by a left driven to recklessness by America's hesitation to accept deliverence from imperfection? Could that bring us to full attention in time?
Dr.Waddy from Jack: Sure it is much to ask of an America busy with the demands of positive living - in direct contrast with those in airy antiAmerican settings like the academy, the debauched entertainment swamp , the deeply disgraced MSM or the many presumptuous unelected and immoveable government bureaucracies - to concentrate on this existential threat to all we value. But the dread but actual prospect of the imminence of a Soviet "america" may loom!
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy fromJack: We experience in America a level of material well being and all its attendent benefits historically proven unprecedented and astonishing. Most of humanity, then and now, has faced ever threatening evil. We must realize that we do too.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Jack -- we do need to confront the Left head on, no doubt. Once upon a time we turned "liberal" into a dirty word, and the lefties fled in terror from it. Of course, we did that mainly by winning, and "liberals", like the rest of us, hate losing, so they rebranded accordingly. Lately we haven't been doing a whole lot of winning, and thus the Left feels no need to correct its course. What's more, their domination of the culture has been massively bolstered since the 80s and 90s, meaning that any challenge we mount can usually be ignored. Take the term "woke". It means pure evil to us, but apparently means little or nothing to most Americans, and to quite a few of them it has a positive significance. What this means is that what we're presently doing to get our message across isn't nearly enough.
ReplyDeleteYou ask the question of the hour, Jack: what could get the American people to wake up and perceive the stakes as they are? I'm not sure. Would the specter of a major party candidate for president being hauled off in chains do it? I fear it may not, given the Trump-hatred that obtains so widely. Government-backed censorship? You'd think that would outrage many more Americans than it does. I just don't know the answer.