• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Cancel culture IRL

Status
Not open for further replies.
Chris_Halkides said:
At the NYT John McWhorter had an Op-Ed about the Chamberlain rock six days ago, but it is behind a paywall.
Click to expand...

I'm irritated by that. I subscribe to McWhorter's substack, because they provide an interesting perspective on a lot of things. But they have closed that down and gone to NYT, and I just REALLY don't want to subscribe to NYT.
 
Emily's Cat said:
I'm irritated by that. I subscribe to McWhorter's substack, because they provide an interesting perspective on a lot of things. But they have closed that down and gone to NYT, and I just REALLY don't want to subscribe to NYT.
Click to expand...

This blog post by Jerry Coyne gives lots of quotes from the NYT article.

Coyne seems to think McWhorter might get cancelled.
 
not picking a side on this, but here's the thing: if that rock was only called that once in 1925, how did those students know was it was called?
 
Elaedith said:
This blog post by Jerry Coyne gives lots of quotes from the NYT article.

Coyne seems to think McWhorter might get cancelled.
Click to expand...

"Kabuki as civil rights" made me laugh.

I wonder how long it will be before we need to completely ban brazil nuts? When I was a young child in the south, my quite-obliviously-racist grandparent always called them "n-asterisks-toes".
 
A heavy issue at UW-Madison

dirtywick said:
not picking a side on this, but here's the thing: if that rock was only called that once in 1925, how did those students know was it was called?
Click to expand...
That is a fair question. I thought that one of the links I supplied touched on this point, and that there were people who had allegedly referred to this rock by the same name.* I would like to see such a claim documented. I asked a contemporary of mine at UW-Madison about it, and he did not even remember the rock, let alone recall any racist words related to it.
EDT
*I reread the articles just now, and I cannot find any evidence of anyone else referring to this rock in the same way as the 1920's newspaper article. I did notice that one of the...activists...also had the surname McWhorter, but I don't know whether or not they are related.
 
Last edited:
Emily's Cat said:
"Kabuki as civil rights" made me laugh.

I wonder how long it will be before we need to completely ban brazil nuts? When I was a young child in the south, my quite-obliviously-racist grandparent always called them "n-asterisks-toes".
Click to expand...

I read the archive version, and McWhorter makes the same point!

Let us remember: The point here is treating a rock as psychologically damaging because of something someone dug up written about it at a time when people lived without antibiotics, television or McDonald’s. And yes, people often called big rocks and other things that ugly name in those days. But by that logic, we should be lifting away thousands of rocks nationwide. Note the perfect absurdity of an idea that America is “coming to terms” with racism by having cranes laboring all over the country moving boulders to different spots. Then I assume we must also refrain from consuming what many consider the most luscious of nuts, the Brazil — because they have been described with a similar word as the rock. Let us raze stands of Brazil nuts worldwide as a gesture of antiracism? Nay, I shall continue to savor their exquisiteness and shall wince not.
Click to expand...

I do so enjoy their writing style.
 
And an Isthmus never cries

Link
There is a little more information here, but there is still nothing to suggest that people regularly used a derogatory name for this rock; if anything, it seems as if people looked and found nothing.
 
Mob of pissed off students calling for the end of notoriously rapey frat.

Protesters call for removal of the University of Iowa FIJI chapter
Following sexual assault allegations, over 2,000 students gathered outside the Univeristy of Iowa Phi Gamma Delta fraternity chapter, some breaking windows and spray painting the house.

More than 2,000 protesters gathered on the sidewalks and in the street on Ellis Avenue outside the University of Iowa Phi Gamma Delta chapter house on Tuesday. Members of the fraternity, commonly known as FIJI, face sexual assault allegations.

Before the official start of the protest at 8 p.m., people holding signs lined the sidewalks, and a neighboring fraternity handed out water. The house, which had been graffitied earlier in the day, stood with a few lights on and blinds drawn.

Chants of “F— FIJI,” “Rapist,” and “Protect our girls,” sprang back and forth up and down the block before the crowd began inching closer to the chapter house. A few protesters left the crowd to approach the house. Some broke windows with rocks, knocked and banged on the front door, threw eggs, and graffitied the house’s sides.
Click to expand...

https://dailyiowan.com/2021/08/31/protesters-call-for-removal-of-the-university-of-iowa-fiji-chapter/
 
Emily's Cat said:
Generally speaking, calling for a group that commits crimes to be removed from a campus wouldn't be considered "cancelling".

Unless maybe you want to take the perspective that people who oppose rape are engaged in censorship and are infringing on the rights of those rapists to rape?
Click to expand...

Amy Cooper committed a crime, yet she is frequently held up as an icon of "cancel culture".
 
a petition?

"An online Change.org petition, describing an alleged sexual assault by members of the University of Iowa Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, has reached over 40,000 signatures, as of Monday night." link

"In a statement, Fiji executive director Rob Caudill told TV9, “Upon learning of the allegations last September, the fraternity immediately removed the members involved and cooperated with the University and local police investigation.” The petition claims Iowa City Police have video and DNA evidence, but that the county attorney opted not to prosecute. Iowa City Police declined to comment or confirm if it investigated the allegations."
link2
 
Last edited:
Chris_Halkides said:
"An online Change.org petition, describing an alleged sexual assault by members of the University of Iowa Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, has reached over 40,000 signatures, as of Monday night." link

"In a statement, Fiji executive director Rob Caudill told TV9, “Upon learning of the allegations last September, the fraternity immediately removed the members involved and cooperated with the University and local police investigation.” The petition claims Iowa City Police have video and DNA evidence, but that the county attorney opted not to prosecute. Iowa City Police declined to comment or confirm if it investigated the allegations."
link2
Click to expand...

If that's the case, I put the petition into the category of cancel culture. The frat already took action against the members involved, and has cooperated. Failures beyond that point fall on the police and the attorney, not the frat.
 
From China via News.com, what 'Cancel Culture' used to mean...

She has millions of adoring fans. She’s worth billions of dollars. But Beijing has all but erased actress Zhao Wei from history. And they won’t say why.

Zhao’s name won’t be immortal. Her entire internet existence has been scrubbed.

All serials and chat shows featuring her have vanished from major Chinese online streaming sites. She no longer even appears in the online credits for the movies she appears in.

Discussing why is being censored on social media.
Click to expand...

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...y/news-story/94100f6569377078cfeee411f5fc3538
 
I am taking a wait and see approach

Emily's Cat said:
If that's the case, I put the petition into the category of cancel culture. The frat already took action against the members involved, and has cooperated. Failures beyond that point fall on the police and the attorney, not the frat.
Click to expand...
If there were failures. I have seen no evidence that there was a crime. On the balance of probabilities, I am willing to accept that something unsavory happened, but there are almost no facts upon which to base an opinion.
 
Last edited:
The right wing group 'Project Veritas' boasting they've managed to get a teacher 'cancelled'...

https://www.projectveritas.com/news...riel-gipe-to-be-fired-as-a-result-of-veritas/


And here is their statement on what they claim to have found:


https://www.projectveritas.com/news...chool-teacher-in-california-admits-communist/


Of much more interest is this page from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education which again demonstrates the 'outrage without context' dynamic in so much of what is called 'cancel culture'


Illinois State University found itself in the middle of a social media firestorm this week when images of an unusual quiz question from an introductory psychology course were posted online.

In the now-viral Twitter thread, a relative of an Illinois State student posted an image of the multiple choice quiz question at Illinois State, which asked: “Which of the following examples best fits with the cultural traditions of the Native American Church?”
Click to expand...


https://www.thefire.org/after-twitt...ing-commitment-to-police-elearning-platforms/
 
1. Mediocre comic transgresses adolescently, possibly to distract from looking like Ed Sheeran’s scrotum
2. People outraged
3. Mediocre scrotum gets clicks and some money, possibly invitation to Tucker, or a column by someone Very Concerned About Cancel Culture
4. Repeat
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1433588104703602694

Seems to be a lot less of this going on right now though. I think all the right wing freaks are more interested in anti-vax/anti-mask freakouts. I'm sure they'll be back to this hobbyhorse eventually.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom