Tag Archives: culture

Political Censorship

Posted on by
Reply

Mark Zuckerberg is at it again. This time he deleted a Republican gubernatorial candidate’s—a sitting governor’s, yet—Facebook campaign page. The campaign page was Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s, and it’s no secret that her Conservative positions are anathema to the woke Zuckerberg and his censoring minions. Ivey thinks Zuckerberg’s Facebook censorship stemmed from her opposition to vaccine mandates.

The messages Zuckerberg’s censors sent to Ivey, though, consisted of these carefully uninformative items:

And those details:

Because being anti-vaccine mandate is somehow…graphic? Hateful? Harassing? Bullying? Really? Or maybe it’s related to sexual activity/exploitation? Nudity?

Wow.

It’s true enough that her campaign page was restored later the same day it was deleted, but c’mon, man. If anyone at Facebook had any integrity, Ivey’s page never would have been deleted in the first place.

Deliberate Segregation

Posted on by
Reply

This particularly insidious form of racism is being perpetrated by Western Washington University in Washington State.

Western Washington University has designated the fourth floor of Alma Clark Glass Hall as housing reserved for its “Black Affinity Housing program,” becoming the latest school to adopt such a program.

This is the racist segregation of 70 years ago brought back—deliberately and with careful…thought.

Washington State University rationalizes its move with this impressive bit of Newspeak:

Black Affinity Housing residents, representing all diverse identities, pride themselves on fostering a sense of belonging for all residents by creating a safe environment for open, honest, and sometimes challenging dialogue[.]

Because diversity is served by segregating blacks from all non-blacks at the school.

And:

…the opportunity to live in a shared space…with others who have a shared identity, specifically a marginalized identity.

By carefully marginalizing all others.

Right.

Censorship and Timidity

Posted on by
Reply

YouTube censored took Alexei Navalny’s material down from the video sharing social media platform ahead of the Russian “election” of Vladimir Putin to yet another term as President. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, in an interview with Bloomberg refused to say whether she ordered the material removed at the behest of Putin.

Bloomberg: Navalny said that YouTube deleted a video—one of his videos. Was that at the request of the Russian government?
Wojcicki: I mean, we certainly, we certainly get requests from government. Umm, and, and we look and consider what, you know, why are we getting the request, what’s actually happening on the ground, umm, and based on a whole bunch of different factors, we make a decision. We don’t always, those are not always requests that make sense for us to honor, but in certain cases, we will honor them, um, in that country.

Since Wojcicki is too timid to explain her company’s censorship, apparently at the behest of “that country”—Russia—the question should be put to her boss, Google CEO Sundar Pichai. If that individual is too jittery regarding Putin to answer the question, it should be put to his boss, Alphabet CEO…Sundar Pichai.

“Unfair and Absurd”

Posted on by
Reply

President Joe Biden (D), through his Press Secretary Jen Psaki (via her daily press conference), said that it’s unfair and absurd that businesses should pass on to their customers the costs represented by higher taxes that Biden and his fellow Progressive-Democrats want to impose on them.

There are some…who argue that, in the past, companies have passed on these [tax] costs to consumers. … We feel that that’s unfair and absurd, and the American people would not stand for that.

Why shouldn’t businesses pass on the costs represented by taxes?

Biden’s claim raises additional questions, too. What other costs does Biden consider unfair and absurd for businesses to pass on to their customers? What is Biden’s limiting principle regarding passing costs on to customers?

Naivete

Posted on by
Reply

JCS Chairman Mark Milley wants to deepen the level of military-military communications between the US and Russia.

Army General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US and Russian militaries need to expand and deepen their communication and stressed that dialogue between the two adversaries could help de-escalate a future crisis.

Milley went on, paraphrased by The Wall Street Journal:

[A]dding to existing communication channels already in effect would help each side understand the other’s plans and moves.

He wants the same with the People’s Republic of China, also.

The problem with this tension-defusion concept is that it depends on the participants, in particular our DoD’s Russian and PRC counterparts, being truthful with each other. Why, though, should we believe that a military buildup opposite the Balkans or the Republic of China, is just a training exercise, just because the relevant Russian or PRC generals say so? Or why should they believe that about us?

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer really only works if the enemies aren’t armed to the teeth.