I recently spoke with Darby about what White nationalism looks like in the Trump era, how America's perception of Whiteness is undergoing a slow but necessary change, and why it's crucial to pay attention to backlash dynamics amid a season of racial reckoning.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

There are so many ways to grapple with White nationalism. What motivated you to approach the issue from the angle of women's involvement in the movement?

I was very curious to dig into where White women fit into the far right. I started from the point of: Where are the women? Once I started looking for them, they weren't terribly hard to find. They were right there on the internet.

Had you thought about White nationalism in a focused way before the 2016 election?

I think that I was aware of it maybe more than the average person, just because I grew up in the South. My family's been in the South for a really long time. There was a Ku Klux Klan rally pretty regularly in the town next door to where I grew up. So White nationalism was something I was aware of.

But it wasn't something I'd spent a lot of time thinking too hard about -- other than worrying about it, I guess. 2016 really was the catalyst for me.

Did your thinking on Whiteness change as you worked on your book?

I'm really glad that you feel that way about the book. One of the things I feel was most illuminating to me in working on this project was how I hadn't necessarily considered my own Whiteness. As you said, in America, culturally, we tend to treat it as the default against which everything else is compared, and that itself is a measure of power.

It's interesting to me that we, as a country, haven't really had a meaningful reckoning with what Whiteness is, what it means, and how the far right, especially, is positioned to capitalize on Whiteness as an identity in a way that's incredibly toxic.

I obviously dig into the extreme end of White identity in my book. But everything exists on a spectrum. White nationalists are essentially saying that there's no problem with Whiteness being at the top of the hierarchy, that there's no problem with preserving White supremacy, if we think of White supremacy not just as a belief but also as a system of institutions and structures and even as a way of talking about history.

Conversations about Whiteness that are measured and fact-based are important. But you can't divorce them from an understanding of what the extreme end of the spectrum is.

What was the most surprising thing you learned from your reporting?

Whenever I talk with friends and family about the book, I keep coming back to the fact that you don't have to feel deep hatred to be a part of the hate movement. Often, hatred is secondary, even tertiary. It's something that can be learned over time by being a part of the space.

Think of hate more as a social bond, as a currency between people. I think that there's this misapprehension that if people get involved in the hate movement, they must have a particularly deep-seated disdain for people who aren't like them. But actually, they can get involved in the space -- whether we're talking about an organized group or, especially in the digital age, online networks -- for reasons that are actually really mundane and really familiar to pretty much anybody. They're looking for a way to understand the world that helps them have a narrative for their own lives. They might be looking for camaraderie. They might be looking for power. They might be looking for a way to have a voice, a way to have a platform.

The rhetoric of hate -- and then certainly the violence of hate in some cases, for some people -- that comes later. And it's a way of reinforcing a place in a community. It was very instructive for me to see hate like that, because if you think of hate as a kind of poison or as something that's just curdling in someone, that's not a terribly constructive way to think about hate as a social phenomenon.

Something else that was surprising to me was how little the rhetoric of the far right has changed over time, specifically in the post-Civil War era, because before the Civil War, it was pretty clear where the country stood in terms of hierarchy. Whether you're talking about the Ku Klux Klan or various neo-Confederate groups or Aryan Nations or the alt-right, the consistency in messaging over time is really striking. The rhetoric has been about how the White race is under threat, how the real racism is against White people, how White people are the true and rightful Americans and their way of life must be protected.

That stood out to me because there are people today who run White nationalist social media platforms and try to say: Well, I'm not in the Klan. Or: I'm not a neo-Nazi. And, OK, fine, but you're a part of the same ecosystem, and your rhetoric is remarkably similar.

That reminds me of how your book unpacks how even people who are progressive can gradually make their way to White nationalism.

The book is structured around three women. The first woman is by most people's standards the most extreme, in terms of the things she's done in her life and what she believed (before she disavowed White nationalism). But then I try to move through women who might be more familiar to people, because, again, there's a spectrum of people -- from the most unusual people you've ever heard of to people you could've gone to college with.

There are lots of people who go to this space because they're seekers. America is full of people who are seeking. I think that it's frightening to realize that some people can find their way to a surprising end.

What's also important here is that White nationalism isn't some totally alien environment. It's just making explicit things that are already coded and veiled -- maybe not even code and veiled, frankly -- in mainstream cultural and political conversations. People in the hate movement are explicit. They're very overt about what they believe. But they're drawing from a communal well, essentially. So it's not as though people who were more progressive or apolitical or whatever go to a totally new thing. White nationalism is building on something that's already very present in American life. Which goes back to your earlier point about why it's so important to have these conversations about race: We shouldn't disassociate White nationalism from the greater American experience.

Right. Schlafly was the object of sexism and misogyny. But everybody has a choice. To make the choice to run what was ultimately an exclusionary movement isn't a choice that had to be made.

It's possible to acknowledge that somebody can be the object of a negative cultural force and also be at the forefront of a negative cultural force. A lot of the time, we're not very good at recognizing that reality.

Since the police killing of George Floyd in May, has your thinking on what you want your book to accomplish -- how you want it to fit into conversations about race -- changed at all?

I've been very excited and heartened by what's been happening, with this very public resurgence of protests and demands. I think that it's incredible.

I spend time on parts of the internet that I don't recommend other people spend time on, but that's very much been the rhetoric: See, we told you that they'd come for White people. See, we told you that they actually hate White people. See, we told you that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization. All these things that are -- to me and I assume to you -- untrue, but they exist in echo chambers. I think that it's very important not to lose sight of the fact that there will be people who find something in these spaces to believe in.

See the original post:

Finding the women of the White nationalist movement - CNN

DIVERSE VOICESLocal community reading initiative Spokane is Reading is on hiatus for 2020 and encouraging readers instead to set out on an independently guided path of enlightenment via cultural awareness and anti-racism. A partnership of the Spokane County Library District, Spokane Public Library and Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane is Reading has published a recommended reading list featuring an acclaimed lineup of BIPOC authors, including Tommy Orange's There, There, Roxanne Gay's Hunger, Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, and many others. Find the list at spokaneisreading.org. (CHEY SCOTT)

ERIC DOES THE BIG EASYIf you're unfamiliar with him, I might suggest getting a little, uh, taste from The Eric Andre Show before you dive into the comedian's new batshit-insane Netflix special: Eric Andre: Legalize Everything, performed in the cozy confines of the New Orleans House of Blues. Expect larynx-shredding, off-the-wall, high-energy deliveries on everything from prostitution to the war on drugs to American Puritanism. And perhaps it wouldn't be right without a few props thrown into his set. It's gonna get weird. (QUINN WELSCH)

RADICAL IDEOLOGYIf you've ever wondered how someone can go from being only passively interested in politics to dying on the hill of a fringe movement, you may want to check out the New York Times podcast Rabbit Hole. A fascinating and horrifying dissection of online radicalism, the show illustrates how so many 20-somethings have become indoctrinated into alt-right ideologies, why the conspiracy theories of QAnon appeal to mostly older people, and how YouTube's recommendation algorithm unwittingly pulls users into videos espousing extreme politics. There are only six episodes, so you can easily binge the entire series in an afternoon. (NATHAN WEINBENDER)

CABBIE CONFESSIONALSWho better to listen to late-night confessionals than a cab driver? In the video game noir Night Call, that's you: A cabbie in the City of Lights, except this story is pretty dark. You're a recent victim of a serial killer still on the loose, but somehow you survived. The authorities want to pin the blame on you. You must investigate. Talk to witnesses and suspects, but don't forget to pick up customers to pay your bills and keep your gas tank full. Driving around Paris in the wee hours is all automated. The player just has to choose the responses to the conversations. And remember, sometimes the best choice is no response at all. Available on Microsoft GamePass, PS4 and Switch. (QUINN WELSCH)

THIS WEEK'S PLAYLIST

ALANIS MORISSETTE, Such Pretty Forks in the Road. The 'rona put the kibosh on a 25th anniversary tour for Jagged Little Pill, but a new batch of songs will do.

PSYCHEDELIC FURS, Made of Rain. Their first album in 29 years(!), and the songs I've heard fit right in with the good ol' days.

FONTAINES D.C., A Hero's Death. Their 2019 debut Dogrelwas one of the year's best. Can the Irish rockers follow it up with the same insistent energy? (DAN NAILEN)

Read more here:

Spokane is Reading, Eric Andre gets weird, Night Call and more! - Pacific Northwest Inlander

by James A. Bacon

Conservatives have been mocked for suggesting that Antifa members have numbered among protesters roiling Virginia the past two months, but yesterday Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith, with Mayor Levar Stoney at his side, said the police believe that Antifa and individuals influenced by Antifa participated in the predominantly white mob action that led to vandalism, arson and assaults on police Saturday.

To be sure, Stoney contended that white supremacist boogaloo boys were spearheading the event with the intent of discrediting peaceful protesters, according to this Blue Virginia summary. But he did not contradict Smiths assessment that Antifa was involved.

Smith said he believes that the flyer promoting the demonstration (displayed above) originated from outside the Richmond region, as did some of the protesters arrested during the mayhem. Richmond police are conducting an investigation into the origins of the event.

Stoneys reaction to the event is interesting in two ways.

First, the effort to blame boogaloo boys for the violence is pathetic. Even if extreme right wingers did organize the event several armed individuals in Hawaiian shirts, a trademark of the boogaloos, were reportedly seen in the crowd they accounted for only a tiny percentage of the participants and, more importantly, the people joining them thought of themselves as left-wing anti-fascists.

The second interesting angle here is that the demonstration was comprised mainly of white militants. Indeed, Smith thanked Black Lives Matter for sharing the flyer and not participating in the event. News reports from other parts of the country indicate that leaders of Black Lives Matter are increasingly concerned that white militants are hijacking the protest movement.

Stoney denounced Saturday nights violence in no uncertain terms, saying that it was disgusting, that it takes us backwards and that it was unacceptable in the city of Richmond.

Its good to know that Stoney is taking a strong stand against white violence. Id have more respect from if he had done something to protect Councilwoman Kim Gray, who is running against him for Richmond Mayor, when a predominantly black mob held a threatening demonstration at her house a couple of weeks back. (See previous post.) Gray says that, though Richmond police monitored the demonstration, they never showed up at her house. But if the mayor is willing to take a hard line against nihilistic white punks sowing mayhem, thats at least something.

Related

Originally posted here:

Yeah, Antifa in Richmond Is Real. Even the Mayor Admits It. - Bacon's Rebellion

We cant tell you who wrote this piece, or where they work. What we can tell you is its not Unity.

A little while ago, I said to a friend that working at a bookshop kind of sucks. He was clearly bamboozled. I thought working at a bookshop would be lovely and magical. Being surrounded by books, reading all day

I used to think so, too.

When I got my first job as a bookseller, at 16 years old, I was thrilled. I had wanted to work at my local bookshop since I was a child I hero-worshipped and crushed on the staff, was entranced by the shelves and the papery smell, and spent hours reading in the kids room while my Mum and Dad had coffee next door (note to parents: if your children are gremlins, this is not good practice).

I loved cutting up the Christmas wrapping paper and recommending childrens books to parents. I happily gave up half my weekend to be there, making friends Ive kept ever since. Through the bookshop Ive become more confident, met countless lovely customers, been introduced to excellent and thought-provoking books, and experienced the way that communities continue to support an industry that would otherwise disappear.

But after 10 years as a part-time bookseller, Im jaded. Ive become someone who frequently loathes other people. And this isnt just me being an asshole.

Lately, grumpy booksellers have been going public. Last year Anne Barnetson, a bookseller in Perth, started posting her comic series Customer Service Wolf to Tumblr and Instagram. She told the BBC Its unenacted fantasies that I think people have after a very long day when they think: It would just be great to stop all this right now.'

There have been books, of course: London bookseller Jen Campbell released Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores in 2012; five years later Scottish secondhand bookstore owner Shaun Bhythell put out what Russell Baillie described in the Listener as a funny, pithy, grumpy poignant memoir of a year in the shops life and its occasionally annoying clientele.

And, at the serious end of the spectrum, Sadie Stein, contributing editor for The Paris Review, opened a 2016 column with I love bookstores, but theres something that needs to be said: theyre often filled with lurking creeps.

All retailers know that just one unpleasant interaction someone who doesnt treat you as a real human, basically can ruin your day. These customers come in various forms: the creepy men, the entitled, the children-with-icecreams, the bigots, the (many) people who are outraged that we dont have a particular title, despite Covid-19 playing havoc with supply chains (NB: please call ahead!). Crucially, unlike most retail jobs, customers of bookshops want to discuss ideas, and that can lead to uncomfortable, sticky situations.

Plus, I now know that part of the bookshop smell is a carpet that has absorbed urine both canine and toddler so a bit of the olfactory charm has gone, too.

Probably weeing. (Photo: Martin Barraud/Getty)

The reality: working in a bookshop is sometimes a bit shit, more Black Books than Notting Hill. Let me list the ways.

When the customer is wrong

A woman once said to my manager, Do you have 20 Rules for Life?

Do you mean Jordan Petersons 12 Rules for Life? she asked.

Haughty look. No. Its 20 Rules.

My manager picked up a copy of the book, 12 Rules for Life. This one?

Well, thats the right author. But no. Im certain its 20 Rules. Ill call my son and get this sorted out.

When the customer is wrong and also racist

The number of times Ive had someone tell me I dont like Asian writers would be ridiculous and absurd if it wasnt so offensive. Generally, I assume such customers have read one Murakami novel and believe that hes It.

An incident that really sticks with me is when an older woman asked for a book recommendation, and I suggested A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara a Man Booker finalist, incredible, brutal, and one of my favourites. Recommending a book like this, which left me devastated and still has the power to choke me up, feels like extending an (emotionally laden) olive branch. Youre trying to share an experience that moved you, so its hard not to feel a bit miffed when you gush over something amazing and then the customer buys Jojo Moyes. But this time, the customer stopped me before I finished saying Its about four men

Oh no, she said. I dont read Asian authors.

A pause.

Hanya Yanagihara is American, I said. The book is set in New York.

Then whats with her name?

Long exhale through the nose. Her parents are from Hawaii.

She scrunched up her face and said no thank you and at that point I just had to walk away, leaving her to browse all the novels by men called John or Robert and women called Ann. How, I thought, did people still think these things, let alone say them aloud in public? Is it because people like me just walk away, rather than telling them it isnt right?

Its hard, though, to say what you think when youre in customer service. Even in a regular social situation my conflict-averse nature would make it difficult, but when a large part of your job is to ensure that your shop keeps getting five-star Google reviews and receiving happy paying customers, biting your tongue can feel like the only option, even when on the inside youre spitting nails.

When the customer is a creep

Sometimes, behaving like its all OK and putting on a pleasant face can really cause trouble. On and off for five years, from when I was 19, a middle-aged man stalked me in the shop. He would come in when I was on my own at night, tell me hed broken up with his girlfriend because he liked me better, call the shop repeatedly to ask me to coffee, say hed recently watched Fifty Shades of Grey and that Anastasia reminded him of me because, of course, shes so clever.

Anastasia Steele (as played by Dakota Johnson): really not renowned for her smarts. (Photo: Supplied)

At the start, I partly blamed myself for getting into this situation. Hadnt I chatted cheerfully with him? Hadnt I smiled? Hadnt I wryly told him that Fifty Shades of Grey is not great literature?

But of course this wasnt my fault. I was in customer service mode. I was being nice and accommodating because thats what youre expected to do, both as a customer service worker and as a woman. You get used to saying Yes, of course, and Oh, how interesting. Plus, I literally couldnt leave when he talked to me. The furthest away I could get was behind the till.

What most customers understand is that customer service workers are fakers. Sure, sometimes were happy, sometimes we even enjoy the chatting but its also our job, so generally it shouldnt be taken to heart. But some men oh, they take it to heart, and they keep it buried deep in their aorta, even when two years have passed and you duck upstairs whenever they walk through the door.

Our health and safety plan in a situation like that is to send a Facebook message saying CALL THE SHOP! to the work groupchat, wait for a colleague to ring, then pretend the friend on the phone is an annoying customer who might take hours to deal with, hoping that the actual annoying/unstable/stalker customer will get disheartened and decide to leave.

This is not totally reassuring, however, when youre alone with a man who is wearing a mesh singlet and covered in swastika tattoos.

When whats selling is extremely weird

Cultural trends are reflected in what people buy. In 2016, for example, we sold what felt like billions of adult colouring books. Obviously, that year everyone was stressed as hell and very susceptible to suggestion. After Christmas, the colouring books left and never came back, a weird blip in the book universe.

Over the past few months, since the police killing of George Floyd and the political protests and riots that followed, the trend has been to buy books that confront and oppose racism. How to be an Anti-Racist, Me and White Supremacy, So You Want to Talk About Race, White Fragility, and books by James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michelle Alexander and others have been hugely in demand we keep ordering them in, there are stacks put away as special customer orders, and yet there are never enough copies on the shelves.

Black Lives Matter March For Solidarity in Auckland on June 1, 2020 (Photo: Jihee Junn)

The buying habits at our bookshop are just a microcosm of whats going on in the world. In early June, both the New York Times list of bestselling non-fiction and Amazons bestsellers list were suddenly dominated by books addressing racism.

In the UK, Reni Eddo-Lodge (Why Im No Longer Talking to White People About Race) and Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other) became the first black British women to top the countrys non-fiction and fiction charts, respectively.

Its refreshing to see these changes, despite how late theyve come, despite the incredible discomfort, articulated by Reni Eddo-Lodge, that it took the killing of an innocent black man to drive such widespread interest and care. Still, when I see people lining up to buy these titles, it feels considerably better than when the queue was for Lost Ocean: An Inky Adventure & Colouring Book.

When it all gets too much

Books are vehicles for ideas, ideology, and politics, even when that wasnt the authors intent (think of when Ted Dawes Into the River was banned, or the recent controversy surrounding American Dirt).

While bookshops are generally politically neutral spaces, in which Richard Dawkins is equally as welcome as Eckhart Tolle, there are times when both booksellers and customers dont see it that way.

A customer I remember well came into the shop one night and turned John Keys biography face-down on the table before leaving in a hurry. She then emailed the shop to say that she found it both distasteful and mystifying that a small business like ours would propagate such a book. We replied that we didnt push a political agenda, that our staff hold a variety of viewpoints (although, really, were mainly a bunch of lefties). End of discussion.

Possibly not an accidental juxtaposition. Kim Dotcom tweeted this in 2014, commenting in fine company (Photo: Twitter)

Really, though, were not always neutral and agenda-less. Nearly half of my colleagues studied politics, were in the book world because we enjoy discussing ideas, and were low-wage earners of course we have views, not only about the world, but about the books we sell. On occasion, thats led to some perhaps less-than-ethical behaviour.

Jordan Petersons self-help book 12 (not 20) Rules for Life is a good example. After becoming well-known for his views on free speech and gender-neutral pronouns, Peterson was adopted as a mascot of the alt-right. Boxes upon boxes of his books arrived in our shop, and most staff werent thrilled.

So after selling dozens of copies to both Peterson fans and people simply intrigued by the title, a few of my colleagues had had enough and ended up hiding Petersons books in a cupboard behind the till. Well sell them if someone asks, they said, but were not going to advertise them on the shop floor.

Surely it isnt the place of booksellers to censor or interfere in consumer trends, is it? But, equally, were human, were political beings rather than customer service robots. And sometimes, we snap.

More:

Confessions of a jaded NZ bookseller - The Spinoff

The irony of a mens rights activist murdering two men to get back at feminists goes to show, no one is safe from violent misogyny, writes Baker. Toxic masculinity kills. (Mathias Wasik/ Flickr)

On Sunday afternoon, July 19, a white, anti-feminist mens rights activist and lawyer Roy Den Hollander dressed up in a FedEx uniform and went to the house of New Jersey federal judge Esther Salasthe first Latina appointed to be a federal judge in New Jersey. Judge Salas had presided over a case brought by Hollander, challenging the U.S. governments male-only military draft registration requirement.

When the door opened, Hollander shot Judge Salass 20-year-old son dead and seriously wounded her husband, then fled. Judge Salas was in the basement at the time.

Hollander was later found dead about two hours north of Judge Salass home in an apparent suicide.

The 72-year-old Ivy League-educated, former New York corporate lawyer had been a member of the San Diego-based mens rights organizationthe National Coalition for Men. He had for years filed lawsuits alleging gender discrimination against men. He challenged the constitutionality of ladies night promotions at bars and nightclubs, sued Columbia University for its womens studies classes, and sued news organizations over what he said was biased coverage against Trump during the 2016 election.

In 2008, he filed a suit against the federal government, alleging the Violence Against Women Act was unconstitutionally biased against men.

Hollander reportedly carried around a typed, 41-point list headed Discrimination against men in America. He complained feminists had infiltrated institutions, and theres been a transfer of rights from guys to girls.

In a 2018 ruling, Judge Salas allowed Hollanders case to go forward, but he criticized her for not moving the case along quickly enough. He called her a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama.

This man seems to have been especially unbalanced, but the incident nonetheless offers a tragic illustration of how violence lurks very close to the surface for some of these men, pro-feminist scholar and educator Jackson Katz told Ms.

It is directly related to how violence is used by abusive men in heterosexual relationships with women. It is a very effective means of gaining compliance: If I cant get my way by any other means, Im going to get it through the threat of violence or the actual enactment of violence.

Here atMs., our team is continuing to report throughthis global health crisisdoing what we can to keep you informed andup-to-date on some of the most underreported issues of thispandemic.Weask that you consider supporting our work to bring you substantive, uniquereportingwe cant do it without you. Support our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

Hollander follows in a long line of anti-feminist men who commit murder, such as Marc Lpine and Elliot Rodger. In his 1989 Montreal massacre, Lpine shot 30 rounds of ammunition into a group of female students at an engineering school in Montreal, while yelling, Youre all feminists!

In 2014, Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured 14 others in Isla Vista, Calif., after distributing a 141-page document describing his deep-rooted loathing of women. Like Hollander, Lpine and Rodger both killed themselves after murdering others.

And just as mass shooters often have histories of domestic violence, so did Hollander. His former wife accused him of abuse and harassment, including revenge porn. In 2001, she filed a New York domestic incident report, alleging that he violated a protective order by stealing her diary and posting it on the internet along with nude photos. He stalked her and doxxed her for years.

Hollander, who was a Trump supporter and volunteer, posted a 2,028-page collection of writings on his website containing deeply misogynist and racist rants about women, whom he called feminazis. He characterized feminists as an evil that wants to exercise totalitarian power over men. He said men have a right to revolt against that tyranny, to take it down. He also threatened that Feminists should be careful in their meddling with nature. There are 300 million firearms in this country, and most of them are owned by guys.

Just as Lpine left a list of nineteen names of radical feminists he would have killed but for lack of time, police found in Hollanders car the names of other female judges he may have planned to target, including New York States chief judge Janet M. DiFiore.

Hollander was part of the anti-feminist mens rights movement, which advocates for a male supremacist ideology the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes as a thinly veiled desire for the domination of women and a conviction that the current system oppresses men in favor of women.

A Voice for Men is the largest and most influential mens rights organization. Hollander published on their website. But the movement has many branches, including:

The 60,000-plus member online community called the Red Pill uses a metaphor from The Matrix to refer to the moment one comes to believe that men are oppressed. Most mens rights activists are white, middle-class, heterosexual men.

While there is often hostility among the different subgroups, SPLC reports the unifying thread is virulent, at times violent misogyny, and the practice of blaming women and a large feminist conspiracy for the ills of (mostly white) men today.

Male supremacist ideology is driven by the belief that men are entitled to a superior place in society than women, which are biologically and intellectually inferioras a result, any advancement that women might have obtained is nothing more than a usurpation. Like white supremacy, male supremacy is driven by fear and anger at the loss of white male status.

This misogyny is often interlaced with implicit or explicit threats of violence.

Violence is a critical part of that ideology, says Katz. If I cant get what I want through persuasion, I will use violence, or the implicit threat of violence of it. Even if a man doesnt use violence, the threat of violence hangs in the air as the ultimate way to get what he wants.

Many mens rights activists have an aggrieved entitlement that they use to justify misogyny and violence, says sociologist Michael Kimmel, author of Angry White Men: If you feel entitled and you have not gotten what you expected, that is a recipe for humiliation.

When they see women around them who have succeeded when they havent, they blame women for their failures, feel aggrieved, and use violence, or the threat of violence, to get back at them.

If you grow up with the expectation that the world should be organized in your favor, says Katz, and theres a deep cultural belief in a natural hierarchy with white men residing at the top of that hierarchy, and youre growing up from the earliest moments of your life being taught that, and then seeing it slip away, then theres a real feeling that something is being taken away. Even though objectively they didnt deserve it in the first place, thats not their lived experiencethats not their subjective emotional experience.

Anti-feminist mens rights activists often attack efforts to address violence against women, as Hollander did in his lawsuit challenging the Violence Against Womens Act, inaccurately contending that women engage in intimate partner violence against men as often or more than men do against women.

In her book Equality with a Vengeance: Mens Rights Groups, Battered Women, and Antifeminist Backlash, scholar Molly Dragiewicz argues antifeminist mens groups use the language of gender neutrality to attack programs created to ameliorate the outcomes of gendered inequality. These discourses proclaiming sex symmetry in violence against intimates serve to reproduce the conditions that enable violence by silencing those most adversely affected, obscuring structural contributing factors, and echoing abusers.

According to SPLC, the most established proponents are the virulently misogynistic website A Voice for Men, started by Paul Elam (male spelled backwards), and the Return of Kings, founded by pick-up artist Roosh V. The SPLC designates both as hate groups and describes male supremacist ideology as the gateway drug for the racist alt-right.

Australian scholar Michael Flood maintains a comprehensive website of scholarship about mens rights movement, including resources on the links between anti-feminist mens rights activists and the alt-right.

Hollander, who was 72 and had a fatal cancer diagnosis, may have felt he had nothing to lose. In addition to the murder of Judge Salass son, Hollander is also the top suspect in the murder of a rival mens rights activistlawyer Marc Angelucci, the vice president of the group National Coalition for Men. On July 11, a man posing as a FedEx delivery person shot Angelucci to death at his home in California. Investigators suspect that Hollander may have been jealous of Angelucci, who won a military draft case before Hollander could win his case before Judge Salas.

Mens rights activists are now trying to distance themselves from Hollander, claiming he is not one of them. But his long-term involvement in their movement, past membership in one of their leading organizations, and use of their ideology and rhetoric proves them wrong.

The irony of a mens rights activist murdering two men to get back at feminists goes to show, no one is safe from violent misogyny. Toxic masculinity kills. Male supremacist ideology and behavior, which often intersects with white supremacy as in the case of Hollanders racist misogyny toward Judge Salas, have been tolerated for far too long in American society.

Whether in the streets or in our homes, in front of womens reproductive health clinics or in the halls of government, whether online or in person, we must finally start taking misogyny seriously, in word and in deed.

The coronavirus pandemic and the response by federal, state and local authorities is fast-moving.During this time,Ms. is keeping a focus on aspects of the crisisespecially as it impacts women and their familiesoften not reported by mainstream media.If you found this article helpful,please consider supporting our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

See the original post:

Misogyny, Murder and the Men's Rights Movement - Ms. Magazine

Bill Maher, the longtime political satirist and host of HBOs Real Time, harbors an Ahab-like obsession with cancel culturethe theory that prominent politically incorrect (to borrow his catchphrase) folks are being pushed out of their jobs by bad-faith online mobs.

This likely stems from the time when, six days after the 9/11 attacks, Maher eventually had his show Politically Incorrect canceled by Sinclair after calling the terrorists involved not cowardly for staying in the airplane when it hits the building, a statement that had come on the heels of Maher comparing his dogs to retarded children. In a matter of months, however, he was given a brand-new show by HBO, which hes hosted for the last 17 years.

And, like many of the rich, privileged, highly influential signatories of Harpers infamous cancel culture letterfrom Malcolm Gladwell and Fareed Zakaria, who have committed multiples acts of plagiarism yet have not seen their opportunities slip, to J.K. Rowling, an anti-trans billionaire and bestselling authorMaher is a living example that cancel culture is overblown.

On his HBO show, Maher has said the N-word; regularly defended powerful men accused of sexual harassment; yukked it up with the alt-right; made discriminatory statements against Muslims; pushed anti-vaxx nonsense; and suggested that everyone should want to get COVID-19. He has yet to be so much as censured by HBO (at least publicly) for his behavior.

And so, on Friday night, Maher welcomed Bari Weiss and Thomas Chatterton Williams, the two people who have dined out the most on the Harpers letter, to discuss cancel culture.

As a guy who did a show called Politically Incorrect and another called Real Time, thank you, because we need a pushback on cancel culture, said Maher, adding, What strikes me about it is the pushback is coming from liberals, and almost anyone who signed this letter is a liberal! (The bulk of the letters signatories are more libertarian than liberal.)

Chatterton Williams, who was not able to provide a single solid example of someone whos been truly canceled during a recent interview with The New Yorkers Isaac Chotiner, spoke of the overall climate of censoriousness and applauded the letters international coverage; meanwhile, Weiss referred to it as a warning cry from inside these institutions, this growing culture of illiberalism, which is different from criticism. She added, It is about punishmentit is about taking away their job.

Lets unpack this a bit. Chatterton Williams is a prominent author and writer who has for some reason penned two memoirs before the age of 40 and contributes to The New York Times Magazine. Weiss recently wrote a book and was an opinion writer at The New York Times. These people have massive platforms. Furthermore, Weiss recent resignation from The New York Times, which shes painted as her being canceled by a major institution, was by all accounts a coordinated PR effort conducted by Weiss and the writer Andrew Sullivan who had been plotting to launch a new venture for people who presumably wont criticize them as much.

Weiss went on to draw a false equivalence between those on the right who worship Trump as a deity who can do nothing wrong and those on the left where to be anything less than defund the police or abolish the police makes you a hereticthe latter of course not even being true, since the majority of those on the left, including Democratic nominee Joe Biden, dont support defunding or abolishing the police. Im also not sure how the blind worship of a fascistic ruler is on the same level as believing in defund the police, or to support the reallocation of some police funds elsewhere, though it sounds like Weiss does not understand that defund the police does not actually mean taking away all the polices money.

Im not sure how the blind worship of a fascistic ruler is somehow on the same level as believing in defund the police, or to support the reallocation of some police funds elsewhere.

Maher agreed wholeheartedly with Weiss (whom he called hip) and Chatterton Williams, opining, For those who think that this is just, again, celebrities whining or elites or something, there was a survey recently and 62 percent of peoplesay theyre afraid to share what they truly believe.

Heres the thing: this letter was mostly celebrities whining. And that study Maher cited was conducted by the Cato Institutea right-wing organization founded by Charles Koch.

The reality is that speech has never been more Democratic, and platforms like Twitter, that the Weiss and Chatterton Williams of the world decry as unfair, have given voice to countless underrepresented groups, from Black Lives Matter to the Arab Spring. Sure, there are some cancellations happening in media and academia but they arent of these politically incorrect writers with gigantic platforms who are paid large sums of money to share their politically incorrect opinions and at no risk of cancellation. Theyre of people like Norman Finkelstein, who was driven out of academia and denied tenure for criticizing Israelthe very same crime that drove Weiss to campaign to get Arab professors fired during her college heyday.

Plus, with all the real problems going on in the world150,000-plus dead from the novel coronavirus, unidentified federal agents kidnapping protesters on the streets, police brutality against Black bodies, Trump threatening to postpone the electionwhy is Maher dedicating the majority of his program to this crap?

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Bill Maher, Who Said the N-Word on TV, Decries 'Cancel Culture' - The Daily Beast

PUBLISHED: 12:31 30 July 2020 | UPDATED: 09:27 31 July 2020

Steve Anglesey

STEVE ANGLESEY considers whether the Brexiteers latest fight with the corporation is an attempt at revenge over what they see as Remain bias.

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Almost four years after its creation The New European goes from strength to strength across print and online, offering a pro-European perspective on Brexit and reporting on the political response to the coronavirus outbreak, climate change and international politics. But we can only continue to grow with your support.

If you liked Brexit, youre going to love its sequels. Pre-production work on one of them began in mid-July on what its organisers describe as one of the busiest roads in London, when a billboard went up featuring a smug-looking Gary Lineker, a surprised-looking Emily Maitlis, their respective pay packets and the simple message: Are you still paying? Below was a tagline carrying the point of the exercise: Defund the BBC.

This anti-Auntie campaign is ostensibly the creation of Glasgow University history student James Yucel, and ostensibly it aims to decriminalise non-payment and reduce the scope of the licence fee so that it only covers BBC content. Will the Defunders be happy achieving just those two outcomes though? For as they are well aware, the more you remove the BBCs means of raising revenue, the less able the BBC is to produce content. And in this case, the Defunders hope it will be the kind of content they dont like, created by people whose political views they oppose.

Its no surprise to see Lineker, who vociferously supported Remain, on the billboards. Nor is it a surprise to see the Defunders targeting Maitlis, who missed an episode of Newsnight in May following her monologue criticising the governments handling over Dominic Cummings revolutionary optometry experiment in Barnard Castle. In a YouTube video launching his campaign, Yucel protested that, Ultimately the BBC is not impartial, they regularly fail to introduce guests with their political background, they accidentally edit footage that makes the government look worse than they actually are, and yeah, I think the people have had enough really.

So who are Yucels colleagues in the Defund The BBC campaign? The press officer is Liam Deacon, who worked in the same capacity on the Brexit Partys 2019 general election campaign (slogan: run away, run away) and before that worked at alt-right website Breitbart London, where in the 14 months before the referendum he published 450 stories about immigration, migrants or Islam.

Campaign champions include Darren Grimes, whose interview with David so many damn blacks Starkey will no doubt be held up as an example of the kind of journalism a defunded BBC could produce if only it dared. Another content champion is Calvin Robinson, who recently told Spiked that: Anything that doesnt fit the liberal, metropolitan perspective of the BBC is disregarded The BBC seems to have become an outlet for woke propaganda. His examples of shows which offer this diet of leftist tripe included Doctor Who and Countryfile.

Robinson, a teacher, felt similar about the education system in 2016, when after the referendum he professed to be not at all surprised that the majority of young people voted in line with a left wing agenda to remain in the undemocratic, or even anti-democratic European Union Schools have been grooming children towards this decision for years.

Strange how it all comes back to Brexit, isnt it? The candidates, the press officer, the campaigner. Even Defund The BBCs campaign co-ordinator Rebecca Ryan is a veteran of Stand Up 4 Brexit, the unsuccessful quest to find a pro-Leave comedian able to draw more laughs than Mark Francois can just from standing there being Mark Francois.

So is Defund The BBC just a revenge strike on behalf of what they see as pro-Remain bias before and after the referendum? The Defund the BBC campaign is not connected with Brexit, the 2016 voting preferences of the team are therefore irrelevant, a spokesperson told us. Theyre concerned instead, they say, with the fact one in 10 court cases in the UK concerns non-payment of the TV licence fee, and 70% of those prosecuted are women. It disproportionately affects the poor in our society.

They add that the key driver for the campaign is not post-Brexit rage but that: The BBC is reneging on its commitment to fund free TV licences for the over-75s, which comes into force from August 1. What better time to focus on this issue? Given that it was the government that decided to stop paying the BBC to fund this, effectively forcing their hand, its a rotten line of attack. But its working so far Defund The BBC has raised just under 45,000 in just under a month, with an aim to get to 100,000 and produce more billboards across the country soon.

Does all this mean James, Darren, Liam and pals are dodging the detector vans? The spokesperson said: It would be unusual to work on a campaign focused on an organisation and yet not view and monitor its output. The BBC requires a licence fee to watch its output, therefore the entire team have paid for their TV licences for work purposes.

But if they are successful, perhaps there will be no need to pay for much longer and if arts programmes should be cut and the World Service closed, whats all that against Doctor Who no longer being woke?

If you really do want to defund the BBC, their website is at http://www.defundbbc.uk

Almost four years after its creation The New European goes from strength to strength across print and online, offering a pro-European perspective on Brexit and reporting on the political response to the coronavirus outbreak, climate change and international politics. But we can only rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press with your support. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.

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The Brexiteers behind the 'Defund the BBC' campaign - The New European

Conspiracy theorists, alt-right memers and prominent white nationalists have frequently appeared at properties owned by President Trump, where theyve hosted gatherings, mingled with officials and spent money, according to research obtained by Salon.

Trump properties are well-documented hot spots for MAGA-world luminaries and hangers-on, particularly Trump International Hotel in Washington, where the lobby is frequently a blur of lobbyists, administration officials, lawmakers, corporate leaders and foreign dignitaries the physical embodiment of the presidents numerous conflicts of interest.

But in a sense those properties are also real-world iterations of the presidents Twitter feed, a running scroll of the same groups. Both are also sprinkled to varying degrees with influential right-wing extremists and internet trolls (Diamond and Silk kicked off their 2019 Chit Chat Live tour at Trump Hotel D.C.), some of whom now are now moving into legitimate electoral politics under the auspices of the Republican Party in various states, including Oregon, Colorado, Georgia and Trumps new home state of Florida.

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And though Trump fandom is little more than an ironic lark to young fringe-right adherents, who see themselves as more pure, edgy and extreme, those places draw an older generation that has influence, but might be looking for someone who knows better how to wield it today.

Trump properties are the place to be if youre an elected Republican looking to dip your toe in alt-right waters. So no one should be surprised that once-mainstream Republicans and the NRCC are now backing the very QAnon supporters and fringe factions theyve mingled with for years, said Kyle Morse, an American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson.

The more high-profile of these patron-extremists include:

Trump properties are a particularly popular draw for the Fuentes-led Groyper movement, a loose affiliation of far-right and alt-right nationalists who peddle racist and anti-Semitic tropes while mocking mainstream conservatives including some less radical white nationalists as phonies.

As with most things born in the nether regions of the internet, the origins of the Groyper movement are not easy to understand. Its name is drawn from a specific Pepe the Frog pose, in which the alt-right cartoon mascot rests his chin on his interlinked hands.

Marilyn Mayo, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism, described the movement in a 2019 interview.

What theyre trying to do, theres this whole grouping who refer to themselves as the dissident right, they want to move the Overton window, said Mayo, referring to the shifting spectrum of acceptable ideological and political discourse. They want to make racism and anti-Semitism mainstream.

Trump made waves this January when he retweeted a clip of Michelle Malkin, the self-described mommy of the Groyper movement, complaining about online censorship. Trump added his own caption, thanking her:

The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google. The Administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Stay tuned, and send names & events. Thank you Michelle!

That Malkin clip was produced by Fuentes internet show, America First.

Donald Trump is watching America First Clips, Fuentes tweeted.

Fuentes has attended events at Trump International in Washington, including with friend and fellow Groyper Megan Harris, and both appeared there during the conservative gathering CPAC this year, as documented in a since-deleted Instagram post. The two were joined at CPAC by musician and Groyper Ricky Rebel, who shared a number of pictures from Trump International on his Instagram story.

Fuentes, like several other fringe-right personalities, has also patronized Trump National Doral, the presidents golf resort near Miami, where he appeared in an Instagram photo with alt-right internet personality Baked Alaska (Tim Gionet).

One of the more well-known names is alt-right personality, Pizzagate truther and noted misogynist Mike Cernovich, whom Gionet engaged in multiple projects. Cernovich has spent considerable time at Trump properties.

Gionet once spent Christmas with blogger Chuck Johnson, the aforementioned most hated man on the internet, who reportedly had a hand in vetting Trump Cabinet picks during the transition (working with Facebooks Peter Thiel) and may have acted as an inadvertent conduit between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Donald Trump Jr.

In January 2017, Johnson posted on Facebook that he was building algorithms to ID all the illegal immigrants for the deportation squads. HuffPost quoted a source claiming to have seen Johnson discussing that same project with a whole bunch of really important people at the Trump hotel in D.C. Former Breitbart editor Katie McHugh has said that Johnson asked to be connected with senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller so he could pitch a way to identify every illegal alien in the country.

In 2018, Johnson was also spotted at Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Then theres the Posobiec, who while not exactly a Groyper is a fringe conspiracy theorist with anti-Semitic views whom Trump has retweeted a number of times. Posobiec and his wife met Brexit architect Nigel Farage at the Trump Hotel in Washington in February, 2017, and have spent both Christmas and New Years holidays there.

In July 2019, Posobiec joined QAnon acolyte Tracy Beanz, MAGA alt-right memesmith Carpe Donktum and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for a conservative conference called AMPFest, held at Trump National Doral. Documents obtained by The Washington Post showed that the Florida propertys revenues were in steep decline at the time.

Posobiec spread the debunked conspiracy theory that the Las Vegas mass shooter was affiliated with ISIS, but was challenged for credit by right-wing provocateur, Islamophobe and Trump patron Laura Loomer. The two seemed to smooth things over before AMPFest 2019, where Loomer appeared alongside Posobiec.

Loomer is currently running as a Republican congressional candidate in Floridas 21st district home to Donald Trumps private Palm Beach club Mar-a-Lago, where she appeared at a 2019 winter gala that featured Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka and guest of honor Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Just a few days after that, Trump tweeted his support for Loomers candidacy. And since the 21st is officially his district of residence, he will have the chance to vote for her should she appear on the ballot in November. (Her chances of winning are not strong: Incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat, was re-elected without opposition in 2018.)

On March 3, Loomer was back at Trump International in D.C.

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Trump's Properties Are a Playground for White Nationalists, Far Right Extremists - Truthout

"The Interrogator," the next installment in TheatreSquared's virtual 2020 Arkansas New Play Festival, is set in World War II. But it might not always feel like it. The playwright, Russell Leigh Sharman, says "whole sections of the transcripts [on which it is based] could be lifted out of context, and you might think they were recorded just yesterday. I began work on the story in 2015, but I returned to it as a play late last year. I was surprised, and honestly a bit disheartened, at how much more resonant the material had become in those four to five years."

The story is set at Fort Hunt, a top-secret prisoner of war camp built in the suburbs of Alexandria, Va., code-named PO BOX 1142.

"I first heard about PO BOX 1142 on the radio on a drive back from the Tulsa airport in 2015," Sharman explains. "NPR did a story on how the park rangers at Fort Hunt, now a national park in Alexandria, uncovered the secret history of the location: How it was used as an interrogation center by the U.S. Army and Navy during the war and immediately after. How thousands of Nazi officers and U-boat commanders passed through on their way to more permanent camps. And how the only interrogators they could find who knew the language and the culture well enough were recent immigrants, most of them German and Austrian Jews.

"The kicker was that there was no torture or physical duress of any kind permitted," he adds. "The interrogators had to use psychology, build rapport, establish trust. They basically hung out with these guys -- played cards, chess, table tennis. Sometimes even took them out to dinner. And then these men, and they were all men, stayed quiet about their service for more than 60 years. Never told a soul. I was floored."

Sharman was a successful Hollywood screenwriter, so of course his first thought was that PO BOX 1142 would make a great movie. But he also knew "it was going to be a hard sell in Hollywood -- a period film, mostly in German, and mostly in a windowless room with two men... talking. Still, I couldn't shake the story. So I dove in. I spent the next few years pouring over every shred of documentation I could find. And there wasn't a whole lot. ... I finished the screenplay version a couple of years ago, and as I suspected, it got a lot of compliments but not a lot of traction in Hollywood. It was then that I realized this story needed to live in the theater. All of the elements that made it a hard sell in Hollywood were what would make it compelling on the stage.

"I am amazed there has been no other formal account of PO BOX 1142 by now, no book, no documentary," Sharman adds. "It is such a rich and fascinating story, and I am beyond excited to get to tell it in this form."

Sharman says the moral -- that a group of young men could offer grace to their enemies -- resonates as strongly today as it did in 1944.

"The greatest triumph for these men was not the military intelligence they discovered, it was the ability to look their enemy in the eye whether that's a living breathing person or some past or present trauma and show beyond a shadow of a doubt they have not been broken, that they have not only survived, they have overcome. That is a truth that we can all aspire to."

But the transcripts of the interrogations also revealed "some truly frightening parallels between the rise of National Socialism in Germany and our current political reality, the rise of the alt-right and the deep cultural divisions in the United States."

"I began to see the interrogations in a new light, beyond their historical context," Sharman says. "There is always the temptation to hear a story like this one and think, 'Thank goodness all of that is in the past.' But that would be a perilous mistake. I hope these resonances with our current experience will give us all pause, that they will remind us to be vigilant, ruthlessly self-critical, and, ultimately, full of grace for each other."

"One reason we go to plays is to feel something, discover something, that puts our world, our troubles, in perspective and reminds us that we're not alone," says director Amy Herzberg, one of the founders of TheatreSquared. "This profoundly difficult, and I think hopeful, period of change we're experiencing wound up underscoring several aspects of the play that we otherwise might have taken for granted.

"This play takes this massive wrong from history and transforms it from the abstract into the profoundly personal. It helps us feel the meaning of that wrong by identifying with individual people. And then of course it leaves us with a hard-won sense of hope."

"It is a scary time in this country and around the world," says New York actor Joe Chisholm, pictured here in rehearsal for "The Interrogator" with Steven Marzolf and Matt Boston. "I think until a few years ago, most people would look at the megalomania that was Hitlers rise and see it as a fluke in fabric of human history. But political division and dangerous rhetoric in todays world have seen the embers of nativism sparked and flamed in a frighteningly reminiscent fashion. It adds a heavy layer of djvu to see some similarities in how the world was back then compared to where we are now, and just how much we failed to learn last time. It makes the immediacy and need within the play that much easier to hook into as an actor, and I hope as an audience member."(Courtesy Photo/T2)

FAQ

The Interrogator

WHEN 7 p.m. Aug. 7

WHERE Streaming at playarkansas.com

COST By donation

INFO theatre2.org

BONUS The reading will be followed by a conversation with the creative team. Encore streaming is available through Aug. 10.

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Doomed To Repeat It? Historical lessons resonate in T2's 'The Interrogator' - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

ATLANTA Right-hander Mike Foltynewicz has cleared waivers and was outrighted to the Atlanta Braves alternate training site.

No team chose to take on the $2.13 million remaining in Foltnewiczs 2020 contract. He was designated for assignment by the Braves on Tuesday following an alarming drop in velocity in summer camp and in his 14-5 loss at Tampa Bay on Monday night.

The 28-year-old Foltynewicz allowed six runs, three homers and four walks in 3 1/3 innings in the loss.

He now will have a chance to regain his strength and velocity at the Triple-A Gwinnett alternate site. The Braves hope he can turn it around the way he did after he was demoted to Gwinnett last year.

Good for him to be able to go there and see if he can get himself going again, Braves manager Brian Snitker said Thursday.

With everybody needing pitching, I didnt know if somebody would come in and take a chance with him. Remembering how he has thrown in the past, I figured somebody would take a crack at him.

Snitker said the Braves can use as many guys as we can have in the system.

Foltynewicz was an All-Star in 2018, but since then has endured some ups and downs. He spent almost two months in the minors last year before returning to post a 6-1 record and 2.65 ERA over his last 10 appearances with Atlanta.

He allowed only three hits over seven innings in a 3-0 Game 2 win over St. Louis in the NL Division Series. The right-hander then had a meltdown in Game 5, when he recorded only one out and allowed six earned runs in the decisive 13-1 loss.

Continued here:

Mike Foltynewicz clears waivers, sent to Braves alternate site - Sports and Weather Right Now

This is a jubilant and mischievous documentary that suggests changing the world for the better is something we can all do.

Five lawyers who work for the non-profit organisation ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) are shown fighting four cases. Each case has its own twists and turns. The attorneys are just as distinct. Brigitte Amiri, for example, is as trendy and hyper-gleeful as rock icon/comedian Carrie Brownstein. Watch Amiris face as she decides, on a train journey, that its time for train wine!

Meanwhile, controversies connected to the organisation are embraced rather than swerved. The ACLUs executive director Anthony D. Romero fought for alt-right activists to get a permit so they could demonstrate in Charlottesville. Not everyone in the company, let alone the world, agreed with the decision. Fights, and in-fighting, are the order of the day.

Most of these lawyers are surprisingly well-off. Still the charming Chase Strangio, who works for LGBTQ rights, has a non-sproncey sitting room and, as he points out, his office is pokier than everyone elses (it really is tiny).

What the lawyers have in common is energy to spare and an approach best described as informal. Technological disasters befall them (errant voice-recognition software converts a dry piece of legalese into a missive on hors doeuvres and Ben Affleck). The team also stumble over their words, forget to read the small print and have children and colleagues who do not always gaze at them with complete admiration. The heroes of this movie arent perfect, which is what makes them such a joy to root for.

Available on demand and screening at Genesis cinema, Mile End

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The Fight review: A jubilant look at changing the world for the better - Evening Standard

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If LeBron James shoots a jumper but no fans are there to see it, did he shoot a jumper?

We kid. But on Thursday, the N.B.A. made its return at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., with several of its most visible stars, including James, Zion Williamson, Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis taking part in a doubleheader. The games were sloppy the rust after a four-month layoff was real but they were nonetheless compelling, both of them coming down to the final seconds.

The most striking images came before the games, when members of all four teams kneeled during the national anthem. Several players wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts. The N.B.A. ran commercials with coaches and players expressing their desire to fight for social justice.

In the opener between the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, the game came down to a final shot. Brandon Ingram of the Pelicans rimmed out a last second 3-pointer, and the Jazz pulled out a 106-104 win. Jordan Clarkson led the Jazz with 23 points off the bench.

The Los Angeles Lakers led for much of their game against their crosstown rivals, the Clippers. But like the opener, this game came down to the final possession. After James made a tip shot with 12 seconds left, Paul George missed a contested 3-pointer for the Clippers as time expired, much like at the end of the opening game. The Lakers won, 103-101.

Heres how the Lakers beat the Clippers, and how the Jazz came back to beat the Pelicans.

The highly anticipated N.B.A. restart tipped off with a symbol of solidarity, rather than rivalry. Pelicans and Jazz players, coaches and staff kneeled together in front of a Black Lives Matter floor mural painted on the edge of the court as a wordless rendition of the national anthem by the musician Jon Batiste played.

It was the first of many demonstrations for social justice causes expected this season. The players across the 22 teams participating in the restart were allowed to replace their names on the backs of their jerseys with phrases related to social justice. On the floor today were peace, equality and listen to me among others.

And as the Compton Kidz Club sang the national anthem on a video screen before the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers tipped off later in the evening, both teams kneeled. Several players on both teams, including LeBron James, wore T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase Black Lives Matter.

Commissioner Adam Silver had released a statement earlier in the night saying that the N.B.A.s longstanding rule, which prohibits players from kneeling, would not be enforced.

Many N.B.A. players have been active in various social justice initiatives this summer.

In early June, James and a group of prominent Black athletes and entertainers including Trae Young, Draymond Green, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Jalen Rose announced that they would be starting a new group aimed at protecting African-Americans voting rights.

Yes, we want you to go out and vote, but were also going to give you the tutorial, James said of the organization, called More Than a Vote. Were going to give you the background of how to vote and what theyre trying to do, the other side, to stop you from voting.

Read more:

How the Jazz beat the Pelicans

Rudy Gobert, the first N.B.A. player known to have tested positive for the coronavirus, snagged the first points of the restart, swooping in with a shot from near under the basket after grabbing the ball from the tipoff.

Despite an early Jazz lead, the Pelicans took control in the last minutes of the first quarter, going into the second quarter up 26-23. Pelicans guard JJ Redick put in the work that pushed the Pelicans ahead, shining with his notorious 90 percent sink rate and a clean assist to guard Jrue Holiday to close the gap.

Zion Williamson got going with a few buckets in the quarter. He averaged 23.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in 19 games this season.

Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry vowed to use Zion Williamson in short bursts after Williamson missed so much practice time recently tending to an urgent family matter. But New Orleans other stars have clicked quickly to compensate for the limited minutes. Brandon Ingram (15 points) and Jrue Holiday (12 points) have complemented Williamsons 9 points on 4-for-4 shooting in just seven minutes. Its been sharp offensive start for the Pelicans in building a 60-48 lead, as they seek to build early momentum in their quest to wrest the Wests No. 8 seed away from Memphis.

Ah, one point of familiar comfort in an N.B.A. broadcast: the TNT analysts Charles Barkley, Shaquille ONeal and Kenny Smith bantering with host Ernie Johnson at halftime. They sat socially distanced, with dividers between one another on set at a very long table.

They could have the Last Supper on this table, Barkley joked.

Barkley said that normally, the group would be watching the game together in the same room. Now, they had to watch by themselves in individual rooms. They all acknowledged the awkwardness.

Im not used to watching games like this, ONeal said. He added, I really have to concentrate.

The Pelicans lead tightened, 87-79, as the Jazz upped their offensive game in the third with help from a few 3-pointers with Utahs Royce ONeale coming in hot toward the last three minutes of the quarter. But Utahs success in the paint really sealed its comeback.

Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson and the Pelicans Ingram led the board with 18 points a piece. Lonzo Ball, the Pelicans point guard, leads the game in assists. And Gobert despite being benched with a little over two minutes left on the clock after taking a foul from JJ Redick still led in rebounds. New Orleans had 20 fouls by the quarters end.

Zion Williamson tossed clear assists to both Jrue Holiday in a dunk and Lonzo Ball for a layup early in the third, proving the 20-year-olds chemistry is intact in his 20th career game. Redick also landed two 3s, holding the Pelicans lead.

A considerable concern for many teams after just three weeks of full-speed practices was their readiness for games that count and how ugly the product might look early. Utah was shooting 24.1 percent from the 3-point line through three quarters (7-of-29) and had committed 15 turnovers, with Donovan Mitchell shooting just 4-of-11 from the field for 12 points. The Jazz, though, entered the final period trailing by just 8 points, despite their up-and-down offense.

4th Quarter: The Pelicans give up a big lead and lose to the Jazz.

The N.B.A.s first game amid the coronavirus pandemic ended with a gripping back and forth for a Jazz victory over the Pelicans, fitting for the novel atmosphere the game was played in. Tied with 7 seconds left, the win was decided by Rudy Goberts two successful free throws, putting Utah over New Orleans for good when Brandon Ingram missed a last-chance 3-pointer for the Pelicans. The final score was 106-104.

Utahs Mitchell scored 8 points in the last 8 minutes of the game, which initially lifted the Jazz over the Pelicans. He hit a layup and a 3-pointer to overtake the lead in the last 4 minutes. Still, Utahs Jordan Clarkson and Ingram were the top scorers with 23 points each.

5 Stats of the Game

1. Both teams, as expected, were sloppy in their first game since March. The Jazz and Pelicans each had 20 turnovers, well above their season averages.

2. Zion Williamson: once again impressive: 6-of-8 from the field for 13 points in 15 minutes.

3. Lonzo Ball: 2-of-13 from the field. Missed all four of his 3-point attempts.

4. The Jazz shot 8-of-34 (23.5 percent) from 3-point land and still managed to win.

5. Jordan Clarkson was the top scorer for the Jazz, and he didnt even start. He scored 23 points off the bench.

How the Lakers beat the Clippers

The two titans of the West tipped off with Lakers center JaVale McGee landing a clean shot with help from league-assist-leader LeBron James, who had two assists within the first couple of minutes and five by the end of the first quarter. The Lakers ended the first quarter ahead, 35-23.

Paul George, a six-time All-Star, scored the Clippers first points and led the team with 8 points out the gate.

Both teams were missing players. The Clippers were without Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, both of whom left the campus. Williams has since returned and is still in quarantine, while Harrells status is unknown. The Lakers do not have Rajon Rondo, who broke his thumb while in the bubble, or Avery Bradley, who opted to skip the Disney World restart.

Lakers forward Anthony Davis who almost didnt play because of an eye injury had 14 points in the first quarter. Davis got into a tit-for-tat dunk battle with Clippers forward Joakim Noah, who smacked what shouldve been a clear shot for Davis out of his hands only to have Davis come back and dunk on him minutes later. Both forwards secured three rebounds in the first quarter.

Updated July 27, 2020

Noah was making his debut for the Clippers. Noah, a former defensive player of the year, has battled injuries for the last five years, but he put together a productive run with the Memphis Grizzlies last year. In his prime, Noah was an energetic, frenzied presence on the defensive end and a frequent LeBron James antagonizer and helped the Chicago Bulls get to the Eastern Conference finals.

The Lakers success near the board put them over in the end. They went 2-for-8 on 3-point shots; the Clippers missed all seven of their 3-point attempts.

One more thing

The end-of-quarter interviews with coaches look much different. The broadcasts have been taking advantage of wide shots to show that the TNT sideline reporters are socially distant from the coaches, creating a bit of a jarring visual.

Dion Waiters may be who the Lakers needed.

Another new face on the floor tonight: Dion Waiters for the Lakers. Waiters, who entered the league as a rookie in 2012, can be a bit of an adventure. Hes always been a trigger-happy scorer. He likes to shoot, even though hes not a particularly good shooter. But hes known for scoring in bunches. When he gets hot, hes dangerous. His best year was in 2014, when he averaged a career-high 15.9 points a game.

Waiterss last stop in the league was with the Miami Heat. This season, he was suspended three times by the team for failing to adhere to team policies. He was eventually traded to the Grizzlies and waived, before signing as a free agent with the Lakers.

But the Lakers need depth, especially without Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley. Waiters, at his best, can help take the scoring load off LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The Lakers ended the first half just 2 points ahead, 54-52.

After a rough first quarter, Clippers guard Kawhi Leonard came back with a fury, landing a strong 3-pointer in the first few minutes, rocketing himself to an impressive 19 points in 16 minutes. Leonard, who helped lead the Toronto Raptors to their first championship last season, ranks eighth in the league for points per game.

The Lakers Anthony Davis had 20 points in 16 minutes. Forward Kyle Kuzma also locked in a couple of threes. But LeBron James only scored 6 points on 2-of-9 shooting (22 percent), with 6 rebounds.

Strong defense prevented success on both sides: The Clippers ended with a 56 percent sink rate. The Lakers, 51 percent.

There was some, uh, hope from N.B.A. fans that the lack of people in the seats at the Disney World arenas would allow those of us on our couches to hear trash talk and cursing on the floor. Truthfully, in part because of some fake crowd noise, music being piped in during gameplay and copious bleeping from the TNT censors, there hasnt been much of that. But a fan can hope!

Not the expected comeback game for what was described as a potential preview of the Western Conference finals, with a third quarter bogged down by turnovers and fouls. The Clippers stole the lead by 1 point after a slow first half, starting the final quarter 77-76.

Anthony Davis, consistently leading in game points, goes into the fourth with 32 points.

LeBron James hasnt had an assist since the first quarter, simply tallying 7 rebounds, just ahead of Clippers guard Reggie Jackson, who has 6.

The Lakers have rallied, but can they hold on?

LeBron James is just 4-of-16 for 12 points with 5 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Anthony Davis (32) and Kyle Kuzma (16) have been critical for the Lakers in the second half.

With a minute left, the Clippers Paul George tied up the game only to have LeBron James first miss a shot, then snag a rebound to secure the 103-101 win for the Lakers.

But the conversation has been more about social justice than the down-to-the-wire games.

The game of basketball has always been bigger than the ball and the rim, James told TNT after the game.

James earned himself a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds, also leading the game in assists at 7.

George got hot from the field in the fourth to lead the Clippers with 30 points. Kawhi Leonard had 28. Clippers guard Pat Beverley locked in 8 points in the last quarter, but the Clippers were still unable to overcome the Lakers Anthony Davis, who stole the game, pouring in 34 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

See original here:

The Lakers Hold On to Beat the Clippers in Thriller - The New York Times

Elon Musk is no stranger to controversy.

Aside from making billions of dollars and (hopefully) living on Mars one day, Musks primary occupation seems to be infuriating people up on Twitter.

A prime example of this happened in back May when Musk tweeted the cryptic message take the red pill.

Musks tweet caused huge backlash, including from Matrix director Lily Wachowski, who replied in a colourful way...

Why was this such a big deal?

On a basic level, taking the red pill (or the blue pill, for the matter) is a reference to the moment in The Matrix when Neo must choose between swallowing the hard truth in the form of the red pill, or take the blue pill and remain in a state of blissful ignorance. (Spoiler: he takes the red pill)

The concept of 'taking the red pill' has struck a chord with everyone from leftists to "men's rights" activists.

But the meme is well known for its association with the alt-right.

To the group of hardcore conservatives who primarily communicate via websites like 4chan and Reddit, being "redpilled" in means rejecting previously held leftist social ideals and accepting a world view which is heavily socially conservative. To some, taking the red pill means accepting white supremacy, while to others it means realising that they live in a world that favours women over men.

There is no single definition of what being redpilled means, even amongst the alt-right. For instance, whilst it has been linked to racist ideologies, American conservative Candace Owens runs a YouTube channel called Red Pill Black, where she espouses conservatism for African-Americans.

So was Musk's tweet an endorsement of the alt-right, Republicans or Trump?

People certainly seemed to take it that way at the time. Grimess mother (a Canadian journalist) called him out on Twitter, and Trumps daughter Ivanka gleefully accepted what she perceived as an endorsement.

But now Musk has confirmed that his red pill tweet was not an endorsement of Trump or any political agenda.

In an interview with the New York Times, Musk said that he did not have a political message behind the tweet:

No, its just: Accept reality as it is as opposed to what you wish it were.

On Ivankas quote-tweet, he said:

I think she was interpreting it through more of a political lens then it was intended.

This will no doubt be a blow for Trump, who has been complimentary of Musk, even describing him as one of our great geniuses. Musk sat on business advisory councils for Trump early in his administration but left once he removed America from the Paris climate agreement.

Musk tends to change his mind a fair bit when it comes to politics. Last week he threw his support behind Kanye West's bizarre campaign, before appearing to backtrack after West made several anti-abortion and anti-vaxx comments.

Anyway, Trump has until November to secure Musk's vote, so there's still time for an actual Twitter endorsement. And if 2020's shown us anything, it's to expect the unexpected.

See the original post:

Elon Musk has finally confirmed whether his take the red pill tweet was a Trump endorsement - indy100

Courtney Love says that she hopes Jeffrey Epstein burns in hell after learning that her name was in his infamous little black book.

The musicians name was one of a number of high profile figures to feature in the book that surfaced in 2015 in court proceedings after Epstein's former house manager Alfredo Rodriguez tried to sell it in 2009.

Epstein died in jail of apparent suicide last year while awaiting trial for multiple charges including sex trafficking.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Hey. About my name in Epsteins address book, its creepy as f*** that Im in that thing I agree, Love tweeted.

I didnt know him, never met him, didnt know who he was. Apparently he collected celebrity phone numbers. The end. Hope he burns in Avci hell.

The singer then linked to the Wikipedia page for Avci, which is described as the lowest level of hell in Buddhism.

Also among the celebrity names to feature in Epsteins book were Donald Trump, Alec Baldwin, Ralph Fiennes and Mick Jagger.

Despite not being named in the book, model Chrissy Teigen was recently forced to distance herself from Epstein after alt-right trolls shared a conspiracy theory that claimed she flew on Epsteins private plane, dubbed The Lolita Express.

Why would I be such a public paedophile, tweeting about it?? she asked. It was about how anyone who watches it needs to go to jail. Its not hard Everyone thinking Im guilty because Im defensive. You understand you are calling me a paedophile, correct?

Read more here:

Courtney Love hopes Jeffrey Epstein burns in hell after her name appeared in his address book - The Independent

AMAZON boss Jeff Bezos had his company compared to a "heroin dealer" during a historic anti-trust hearing today.

On Wednesday, Amazonboss Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc Google's parent company Apple's Tim Cook were accused of squeezing out competitors and small businesses.

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The highly successful tech moguls were all sworn in to address lawmakers at the Rayburn House Office Building inWashington, DC.

Congressman David N. Cicilline said small businesses the committee had spoken to compared their relationship with Amazon to that of heroin pusher or "drug dealer."

"[Amazon is] exploiting its monopoly power,"Cicilline said. "It's dual role [with sellers]... is fundamentally uncompetitive."

Likewise, Zuckerberg was grilled by Rep PramilaJayapalabout whether he had threatened competitors like Instagram founder Kevin Systrom and Snapchat's Evan Spiegelabout their product's features.

Jayapal recounted for her fellow lawmakers how Systrom felt Zuckerberg would go into "destroy mode" if he refused to sell Instagram.

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When she directly asked the tech mogul if his company ever copied features from other organizations, his answer was vague.

"We've certainly adapted features ... as have others," he said, before denying that Facebook had threatened to clone a competitor while trying to buy it.

"Not that I recall," he added as Jayapal reminded Zuckerberg that he was "under oath."

The congresswoman also referenced a 2012 email wherein Zuckerberg noted that it would be a "while before we can buy Google.

"[You've] used Facebook's power to threaten smaller competitors and to ensure you always get your way," Jayapal declared.

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Earlier, Rep Neguse asked Zuckerberg whether he has a monopoly, which he denied.

"Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram are the most downloaded apps of the last decade," the congressman noted.

"Your company, sir, owns them all. We have a word for that. That word is monopoly."

Zuckerberg, Bezos, Cook, and Pichai were all asked to swear an oath not to use slave labor in their respective companies during the lengthy hearing.

Bezos launched into his testimony first shortly after 1.30 pm, followed by Pichai, Cook, and Zuckerberg who described Facebook repeatedly as an "American success story."

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All three of the businessmen emphasized the innovation of their respective companies and the significant job creation while bring grilled by Committee members.

Rep Raskin asked Zuckerberg about election interference on Facebook, fake profile pages, and "alt-right racist" content.

Zuckerberg said their AI systems aim to identify this "with the goal of getting this stuff down before people even see it."

Speaking about their 6.5 billion fake accounts, Zuckerberg said they try to remove billions of accounts every year a small amount of these are "nation states" trying to interfere, he said.

Rep Sensebrenner also raised the issue of Trump promoting hydroxychloroquine during the hearing.

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"We do not prohibit discussion about trials of drugs," Zuckerberg said. "But if somebody is going to say it's proven when it's not..."

After a brief recess due to tech issues, the committee resumed and Jayapal grilled Bezos about Amazon using sellers' data.

She asked him about whether the policy againstusing seller specific data was really enforced after employers claimed it was "like a candy shop."

"The fact that we have such a policy is voluntary I dont think any other realtor has such a policy," Bezos said, after saying he "can't answer that question [with a] yes or no" when it came to violations.

Rep McBath concluded her address to Bezos asking if Amazon used "bullying,fear and panic" to control their sellers.

She played a recording to one book seller begging Bezos to get back on track."

Pichai was the first to be grilled by Cicilline, who said small businesses had accused Google of stealing content.

He also queried why Google shows what ever is profitable rather than relevant when users are looking for something.

"I disagree with that characterizations," Pichai responded, citing the 1.4 million small businesses they assist.

Cicilline also accused Google of stealing content from Yelp, describing it as "anti-competitive."

"Google is increasingly a walled garden that keeps users on its own sits," Cicilline said. "Virtually ensuring that any business that wants to be seen on the web, has to pay Google a tax."

Congressman Gaetz also threw a series of China-related questions at Pichai, who denied Google was in cahoots with the communist country.

Gaetz cited claims that his company was "directly aiding the Chinese military" via their AI Center and working with universities.

Pichai denied these claims.

Rep Jordan also expressed his concerns that Google would assist Joe Biden over Donald Trump come November and "electioneering."

Pichai said they complied with laws in 2016 and that their work was non-partisan.

Lawmakers also quizzed Cook about claims that Apple changes the app rules as they go to benefit the phone giant at the expense of developers.

"We treat every developer the same," Cook insisted. "It's a rigorous process ... We do look at every app before it goes on."

Cook said it wasn't correct to say that some app developers were favored over others, however.

Just before 4.30 pm, the committee went on another recess.

After the recess, McBath questioned Cook about Apple excluding apps from the app store that it may deem competition.

"Before [Apple's app] screen time existed, there were other apps that limited kids [screen time]... You removed these competing apps from the app store Why did apple remove competing apps?

"We were concerned about the privacy and security of kids," Cook said. He added that there are now "over 30 apps" today.

Cicilline questioned Zuckerberg about a Breitbart video showing doctors promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19 and face masks not being necessary.

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He questioned how the video amassed over 20million views in 5 hours before being removed.

"A lot of people shared that. And we did take it down because it violates our policies," Zuckerberg said.

Cicilline insisted that Facebook "polices" its own platform and alleged the only person holding the platform accountable is itself.

More:

Amazon compared to heroin dealer as Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook and Google CEO accused of squeezing out com - The Sun

The term cancel culture has been thrown around a lot in Singapores internet-sphere lately, with targets including online provocateur Xiaxue and former political candidate Ivan Lim.

In the brief time since its birth with the #MeToo movement, the social media phenomenon has gone from holding the most powerful accountable to broad application across the realms of culture and politics. But is it leveling the playing field to make the world more just, or, as critics argue, a blunt instrument of mob rule?

The term recently entered the lexicon of Singapores culture wars at a time when more voices, especially on the political right, are speaking critically of its alleged threat to expression, with Singaporean influencer Xiaxue joining the likes of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in calling for people to reject it.

Coconuts Singapore tracked the evolution of cancel culture and how it has unfolded on our shores.

Canceling traditionally means discontinuing plans or deleting something. But that definition evolved to also mean ending support for a person and their work after the #MeToo movement emerged three years ago.

Cancel culture, or delegitimizing someone because of their wrongs real or perceived, can be traced to victims of Hollywood sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, whose impunity went unpunished because their voices were not heard.

It wasnt just a way to impose consequences on someone for their wrongdoing, but also a means to empower those denied power.

Weinsteins downfall began In 2017, when enduring whispers against the powerful movie producer of Hollywood juggernauts such as Quentin Tarantinos Kill Bill and the Lord of the Rings came to public attention.

Long ignored by the media, it took multiple victims going on the record with Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker before the criminal charges were filed against then-66 Weinstein in 2018. More than a dozen women had rallied to accuse him of sexual misconduct including rape, which eventually led him to being sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Cancel culture proved liberating for those women and even encouraged other sexual assault victims to speak out. Not long after, a separate group of victims came forward to give voice to long-standing rumors about American comedy giant Bill Cosby, who was later convicted of sexual assault in 2018.

Since then, cancel culture has become more widespread, particularly online and in American pop culture. Celebrities and social media personalities have quickly become targets for cancellation. So much so that it seemed increasingly easy for individuals like certain Beauty YouTubers to lose subscribers and fans to cancel culture.

Three noteworthy targets were Say So singer Doja Cat and beauty YouTubers Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star. Hashtags like #DojaCatIsOverParty, #ShaneDawsonIsOverParty and #JeffreeStarIsOverParty even trended on Twitter when the controversies happened.

Not that they came out of nowhere. Fans were reacting unhappily to actions deemed to promote racism, homophobia and even pedophilia. Doja Cat, who is openly bisexual, had apologized for using a homophobic slur in the past and years later apologized again for participating in an alt-right online chatroom but denied participating in racist conversations.

Online stores discontinued products by Dawson and Star after the former drew a backlash for his pedophilia jokes and wearing blackface in his sketches. The latter was caught making racist slurs in previous videos.

How effective those cancel campaigns were remains to be seen. Doja Cat still has her career intact; Star has just announced a new skincare line.

Meanwhile in Singapore, whats now called cancel culture seems to have been around even before the term was popularized.

Complaining and doxxing, reporting people to the police, and setting up petitions have successfully cancelled people in the city-state, some even before the #MeToo movement.

A woman named Amy Cheong fled for Australia after her racist Facebook rant about Malays drew a backlash and police attention.

A petition by a mainly Christian group prompted the authorities to cancel a gig by Swedish black metal band Watain a move that drew a counter-backlash for happening in a nominally secular nation.

In recent weeks, however, more Singaporeans have used cancel culture to impact individuals in positions of bigger power and influence.

Clicknetwork TV dropped influencer Xiaxue over the divisive way she addressed her past racist and xenophobic comments. Ivan Lim withdrew from the ruling political partys candidate roster after several people accused him of elitist and abusive behavior.

In June, popular entities being held accountable by society was witnessed in the Okletsgo episode after Malay women rallied against the podcast hosts misogynistic content. The podcasters rejected complaints until President Halimah Yacob stepped in to demand the trio issue a proper apology and promise to review their content. They quickly did.

Using cancel culture to empower disenfranchised communities seems like a good thing, but some people are increasingly perceiving it as a threat to unwelcome opinion, or worse, mob justice.

In the past month, people resisting cancel culture have come out to criticize it as a form of intolerance and threat to freedom of speech. Because of their efforts to shut it down, the victims inadvertently use the phrase cancel culture more often than anyone else.

After British author J.K. Rowling was accused of transphobia earlier this month, she signed an open letter denouncing cancel culture in support of freedom of speech. The letter was also signed by 150 other authors and academics, including novelists Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood.

The letter said that it was becoming too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought. It also condemned the disproportionate punishments institutions had meted out to cancel culture targets amid panicked damaged control.

Wendy Cheng, aka Xiaxue, also tried to cancel cancel culture after being fired by Clicknetwork TV. In a fearmongering video post, the Trump-loving 36 year old told her viewers that the obsessed online mob was out to cancel everyone, and that people should start standing up against it.

But regardless of which camp youre in, its pretty clear at this point at least that the ones opposed to cancel culture tend to be those held to account in positions of power, influence and privilege. On the flipside, those who support and promote cancel culture usually arent.

Other stories you should check out:Clicknetwork TV drops divisive Xiaxue over racist tweetsOkletsgo issues apology after President Halimah Yacob tells them off for misogynistic remarksBye Ivan, Hello Yao Quan: PAP replaces Jurong GRC candidate after backlash

Support Coconuts and rep your city

Now you can wear your love of Coconuts proudly across your chest. Thats right, were getting into the merch business with the launch of our official online store, The Coconuts Shop.

Our first product is that ultimate wardrobe mainstay: the white T-shirt.

If you want to rep your city, weve also launched Coconuts City Logo Tees for Bangkok, Manila, Singapore, Hong Kong, KL, Jakarta, Bali, and Yangon.

Theyre all sold exclusively at The Coconuts Shop at a special introductory price of S$29 until Sep. 30, 2020!

More here:

Who wants to cancel cancel culture? The voiceless or the privileged? - Coconuts

They are amazing nerds, Ms. Roman, 38, said of her parents.

Sheryl Roberts, 65, understood the perils of the pandemic she had diabetes, asthma and heart disease, which could put her at higher risk. Her husband had chronic lung disease and a stent to open a blocked coronary artery.

We have been so careful, so very careful, and stayed away from people, Ms. Roberts said. Her husband began working from home in the spring when Washington State, New York and then other areas around the country were hit hard. Mr. Roberts occasionally made a supermarket run during senior hour; the couples only big, hot date in recent months, Ms. Roberts said, was to view wildflowers from their car.

Their younger daughter was diligent as well. But then she came back from work sneezing one day in mid-June and thought it was allergies. Soon she had a cough, fever, headaches and diarrhea, and lost her senses of taste and smell, telltale symptoms of the coronavirus.

She told me, I dont know whats going on, Mom, but I wore a mask, I wore gloves, I washed my hands, Ms. Roberts said. You do the right things, and still you get it.

Elaine Roberts, who tested positive for the coronavirus, did not become seriously ill. But for her parents, it would be much worse.

Mr. Roberts and his wife started sneezing, then coughing, just like their daughter, and developed fevers and severe body aches. Then he got awfully sick, awfully quickly, Sheryl Roberts recalled. He became confused on June 22. Alarmed, she tested his oxygen level. It was low, and she called her older daughter to take him to an emergency care center, the second visit in two days.

Before he left, his wife asked him to make a promise.

More here:

'You Do the Right Things, and Still You Get It' - The New York Times

click to enlarge

CP photo: Jared Wickerham

Jacob Klinger

Many people online criticized the post, saying that a racist group that advocates such causes could hardly be called peaceful." PennLive deleted the tweet, changed the headline, and updated some language of the original story. PennLive also repacked the reporting in adifferent story which included some different language, too.

But for Jacob Klinger, a Pittsburgh-based PennLive reporter who covers the Steelers, his newspaper had not done enough. Klinger announced on Twitter today that he has quit, and that the papers coverage of the Neo-Nazi protest was the main reason why.

In his statement on Twitter, Klinger also said the body of the original article frames false equivalencies of the put-off passersby and the armed, Seig Heil-ing, Swastika-wearing, Nazi-flag flying Nazis.

He acknowledges that the headline and the article were later altered, and that a follow-up article was also written, but he had issues with that as well. The follow-up article, titled National neo-Nazi group holds illegal protest in Pa. park: cops, ran on July 20 and added descriptions not seen in the original story, like that the group openly supports the oppression of minority groups. However, Klinger notes that the follow-up, repacked story still said in the lead paragraph that the NSM members were the same as the group that marched at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017, but referred to that group as a so-called Neo-Nazi group. Marchers at the 2017 Unite the Right rally chanted, Jews will not replace us, and one of its participants murdered an anti-racist counter protester named Heather Heyer.

Screenshot taken from Twitter

In July 2020, one of our reporters knew they could get away with calling avowed Nazis, so-called Neo-Nazis, and those people killed my family, so I quit, said Klinger.

He also is open about what he hopes to accomplish with his resignation, and the splash it might make. He understands that reporting softly on racists, the alt-right, or Nazis doesn't necessarily mean reporters are advocating for those subjects, but says it doesnt matter if the PennLive reporting was due to "a lack of intellectual curiosity or just being unbothered." He says going softly on those subjects is unacceptable.

It is a product of the culture, says Klinger of his former employer. He says before announcing his resignation on Twitter, he had a meeting with Patriot-News publisher Cate Barron, which he says he appreciated, but his mind was already made up.

Barron did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Klinger hopes that his resignation will motivate PennLive and the Patriot-News, as well as other newsrooms, to change how they cover the the alt-right and hate groups. I would not have done this the way that I did it, if I didnt think it would give PennLive the most likely chance of changing, said Klinger.

In his statement, he mentioned that he was chastised for covering protests of Trump's Muslim ban that popped up in Pittsburgh on January 29, 2017. Klinger acknowledges his beat is the Steelers, but also says he was one of only a few other PennLive reporters stationed in Pittsburgh at the time. He also said that an editor killed a story in 2016 he had started to report about a Pittsburgh Holocaust survivor who was critical of Donald Trump.

Upon leaving the paper, Klinger says he left PennLive management some suggestions. These include: identifying Southern Poverty Law Center hate groups as such; during coverage of such hate groups, giving a voice to populations hate groups target; offering context in those stories of the nationwide rise in hate crimes; noting that the FBI has reported that members of these hate groups have infiltrated local police forces; and to acknowledge that the initial coverage of the Nazi protest was wrong and share some next steps.

Klinger says that he did enjoy many parts of his job at the paper, including covering the Steelers and the NFL. In his statement, he said he respects and believes in many of his former coworkers. But he says the frustration over the culture he says PennLive is enabling led to the failures in the Nazi protest coverage. He is hoping that amplifying his story will lead to some change.

I am not the first person to quit out of frustration, and there is a level of privilege that I have that knows I will be okay for a month a so, says Klinger. But I did want to make this as loud as possible.

He also hopes this will remind other publications of some issues in a lot of their own coverage, especially of protests. He says that people could search many publications and media outlets and find substantial reporting issues, even if they are less problematic than being soft on Nazis.

Right now, a lot of coverage is showing unsubstantiated state power being used against people with water bottles, and that is being framed as an even fight, says Klinger.

In Pittsburgh, some media outlets were still referring to Blacks Lives Matters protests in late May and early June as riots, despite that more than 90% of the people arrested at those events have had all charges dropped, and documentations of a protest on June 1 in East Liberty shows that Pittsburgh Police fired tear gas and sponge rounds at marchers, before marchers started throwing water bottles back.

These are not games, says Klinger. They are peoples lives.

Link:

Pittsburgh-based Steelers reporter quits PennLive in protest of site calling a Nazi rally "peaceful" - PGH City Paper

Alt text is a short text description of an image published to the internet that can be read aloud by accessibility programs for the blind and visually impaired, including screen readers.

But there's another reason to include alt text: Google and other search engines use alt text to better understand your photos' content, which affects your website's page ranking in search results.

Because WordPress is a popular web site publishing tool, it includes the ability for you to add alt text to images contained in those web pages. The best time to add alt text to an image is when you upload it to WordPress. This way, the image has alt text right from the start, and the text is already there every time you add the image to a web page.

If the image is already in the WordPress media library and you are merely selecting it to insert in the post, there may already be a description in the alt text field in the Attachment Details pane. If the alt text is appropriate, insert it into the post. But if you prefer, you can edit the alt text before adding it.

While alt text is not required, you should strive to add useful, well-crafted alt text to every image you publish via WordPress so all users and search engines can better understand your content.

Here's how to write and add alt text in WordPress.

Because alt text describes the image to a visually impaired person, try to make the alt text as useful as possible. That will also help search engines rank your web pages appropriately for relevant keywords. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. While writing a post in WordPress, click "Add Media" at the top of the page.

Start adding alt text by clicking the Add Media button near the top of the page. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

2. Add the image to your media library, either by browsing or dragging it to the web page.

3. After the is uploaded, the Attachment Details page should appear on the right side of the screen. Enter a description of the image in the Alt Text field.

Enter alt text in the field on the right side of the page. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. Complete any other entries you need to add, such as the caption and media credit.

5. Click "Insert into post."

Insider Inc. receives a commission when you buy through our links.

See the original post:

What is alt text in WordPress? How to add the accessibility feature - Business Insider - Business Insider

In September 1888, an aged Frederick Douglass made his second visit to a tiny abolitionist college in rural southern Michigan. He spoke on the looming presidential election, and his words have uncanny relevance today.

In a Presidential canvass three things are always in order: First, we have to consider the character of the candidate, he said in a typed version of the address that matches descriptions of the ones he gave at the college and elsewhere on that speaking tour. A man in the presidential chair should stand for something more than a lucky and successful politician. He should be one among millionsa model man; one to whom the sons of after-coming generations can be referred as an example to them.

Douglass went on to argue that voters should also consider the past actions of political parties when deciding how to cast their ballots. The past is parent to the present, and it is only by the past that we are able properly to discern the future, he said.

That tiny abolitionist school was Hillsdale College, my alma mater, now sometimes dubbed the conservative Harvard. At its heart Hillsdale is simply a liberal arts college, but its alumni pepper the Trump administration and its various lecture programs, online courses, and D.C. outpost serve as intellectual training ground for the conservative movement.

So when hundreds of Hillsdale alumni signed petitions in June asking the college to condemn historical injustices against black people in response to the George Floyd protests, the school was at a crossroads. Would the college that sent more of its sons to fight for the Union than any other Michigan school vocally oppose state violence against the descendants of slaves? Or would it reiterate, as it had in the past, the danger of the Black Lives Matters movement?

Hillsdale chose to be evasive.

The College is told that it garners no honor now for its abolitionist pastor that it fails to live up to that pastbut instead it must issue statements today. Statements about what? read an open letter from leaders of the college, republished in the Wall Street Journal. It must issue statements about the brutal and deadly evil of hating other people and/or treating them differently because of the color of their skin. That is, it must issue statements about the very things that moved the abolitionists whom the College has ever invoked.

But Hillsdale, like all of America, ought to heed Douglasss advice and take a good, hard look at its past. It must lament the evil and treasure the good. The college has more than abolitionists in its pastlike many other institutions, it has a history of tangled, unexamined, internally competing racial views. Hillsdale has plenty of reasons to join the national reckoning on race.

Hillsdale was founded by abolitionist Baptists in 1844. It was the first college in the nation to prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, or religion in its charter. It fought efforts to segregate its ROTC unit in World War I. Its 1955 football team refused to play in a bowl game that barred its black players from the field.

But Hillsdale was not exempt from the racism that permeated educational institutions in the 20th century.

Hillsdale sat out the civil rights movement, as noted by the preeminent chronicler of the colleges history, Arlan Gilbert. The student newspaper, the Collegian, voiced some support of black protesters in the 1960s but was mostly mum on the topic. It did, however, reprint in 1960 an editorial that ran in the Duke student paper: We would question the appropriateness of protesting against a Southern . . . custom by applying pressure on a private business establishment, it read. While we are for desegregation, we realize that the problem is complex and that no easy solution is possible.

The college then found a president who would use apathy toward civil rights legislation to make it famous. When George Roche III became president of Hillsdale in 1971 at age 35, he was fresh from the libertarian Foundation for Economic Education, which in the previous decade had issued a steady stream of anti-civil-rights commentary of the type that animated the GOPs Southern strategy. FEE authors defended private businesses right to discriminate against blacks, criticized the Supreme Courts Brown v. Board of Education ruling, argued for a hands-off response to South African apartheid, and saw the civil rights movement primarily as a massive expansion of federal power. Roche echoed these arguments.

The racial problem is still with us (as are innumerable other problems as well) but it ill-behooves us to destroy the American tradition of federalism in the course of attempted solutions to our problems, he wrote in 1967.

The future president of an abolitionist college also questioned whether the Civil War was necessary to end slavery, calling abolitionists do-gooders who pressured the United States into war but did not lead on the battlefield and wondering whether the free market might have averted the Civil War.

National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr., a longtime friend of Hillsdale, was on hand to celebrate Roches appointment as president. Buckley in 1957 supported gradual, voluntary change from Jim Crow, because whites were the advanced racea stance he later disavowed.

Roche made a name for Hillsdale. When in 1972 the federal government began to require colleges to track students by their race for the purposes of implementing anti-discrimination law, Roche led the college both to refuse race statistics and to cement its refusal of federal funds. He then trumpeted those refusals around the nation to win conservative praise and donors.

In 1973, under Roches leadership, one of the first editions of the colleges widely circulated digest of speeches, Imprimis, defended minority white rule of Zimbabwe and private discrimination. Imprimis also printed a response from the countrys white prime minister, Ian Smith, who wrote of the backward races and the more sophisticated European and Asian races.

The college continued to keep odious company. Segregationist James Kilpatrick, racist Sen. Strom Thurmond, and racist Jared Taylor, the editor of the white supremacist American Renaissance magazine, spoke at Hillsdale seminars in the following decades. Taylor argued in a college-sponsored lecture that minorities were genetically inferior and more suited to manual labor. Roches statement at the time did not specifically condemn the talk: For 150 years we have prided ourselves on treating individuals on the basis of their own merit and anything that moves from that direction is not keeping with our mission. The college still sells copies of Taylors lecture in its Freedom Library Catalog.

Though many Hillsdale professors are fiercely pro-Union, an odd strain of Lost Cause romanticism lingered at Hillsdale. In 2008, the Hillsdale-published reader for its required American history course included writings by Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. but also introduced an 1891 essay by Confederate apologist Basil Gildersleeve by praising him and saying that his view of the South had universal validity. Gildersleeve argued that the South had fought for states rights and the cause of civil liberty, not to defend slavery; the introduction was signed by a historian who also edited the neo-Confederate magazine Southern Partisan.

In recent years the college has done little to voice sympathy for black Americans protesting police brutality. Imprimis, with more than 5 million subscribers, regularly points to black culture and black-on-black crime as the root causes of any ill treatment from police. For years Hillsdale speakers have pooh-poohed diversity.

Hillsdale as an institution does not endorse the racist alt-right and its hatred. The colleges current president, Larry Arnn, is no Roche; he loves Hillsdales abolitionist legacy, can recite Douglass and Lincoln by heart, and demonstrates his personal care for students of color. In 2016 he led the school to launch the Frederick Douglass scholarships, offering tuition, room and board to first-generation college students from disadvantaged school districts.

But the college has chosen to publicize voices that make the alt-right feel comfortable. For example, the colleges D.C. center last year hosted an excellent symposium with a Howard University scholar on black classical education. Her presentation did not make it into Imprimis, but a speech defending John C. Calhoun and Confederate monuments did.

Meanwhile, Hillsdales colorblindness has made it blind. The college continues to keep no records of students race and awards no financial aid on that basis. But in the 2018-2019 academic year, for example, it did offer four different scholarships to students of Norwegian, Lithuanian, or Polish descent and many more that gave preference to students from predominantly white areas. It also had a handful of scholarships for international studentsfrom China, for exampleand Hispanic students. It had none that explicitly gave preference to black Americans.

What has all this meant for black students at Hillsdale?

Hillsdales graduates are now nearly all white. Many American universities struggle to attract and retain students of color. But Hillsdale has given itself a special challenge and has not done enough to solve it. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a friend of the college, once critiqued conservatives attitude toward race as indifference. He could say the same of Hillsdale.

Since the 1980s Hillsdales black students at any given time have been able to count their total number on two hands, or some years even one. Roche told the Chicago Reader in 1996 that the school was being outbid for black students.

It wasnt always this way. Thirty-one black students attended Hillsdale as it was beginning to parade its federal-tie-cutting in 1976a larger slice of the student population than at many other Michigan schools at the time. The campus Blacks United club had a house, staged events for Black History Month and produced a play about Malcolm Xs life. By the mid-1980s, it disappeared from Hillsdales yearbooks.

Black students in the following decades gave mixed reviews of the school to the Collegian, while recounting a few chilling incidents. In 1991, the same year a Confederate flag hung in the first-floor window of one mens dorm, two black students hung a Nelson Mandela poster on their door. After someone tore it down, they put up a picture of Malcolm X, only to find later the words NS GO HOME scrawled on their door. They reported the incident to an administrator, who in turn told them not to hang anymore posters of black leaders on their door, because it invites racism, the Collegian wrote.

The experiences of recent black alumni have varied. Of the ten black former Hillsdale students I interviewed for this article, three had completely positive experiences at the school. Some might see a lack of diversity and say, Wait theres a problem, but for me I never really had an issue, said Joseph Nchia, class of 2017. Its just one of those things.

Kayla Fletcher, class of 2014, loved Hillsdale and was drawn to the school because it does not consider race in admissions. If I got into a school like Hillsdale, it was just because I was good enough to get into a school like Hillsdale, she said. Thats what mattered to me.

Others describe a painful four years. Christian Campbell, class of 2010, stayed at Hillsdale for financial reasons but grew tired of the constant stares and questions from fellow students about what sport he played, if he could dance and rap, whether they could touch his hair. The stupidity and ignorance just got me, he said.

Some chose to transfer out. Thad Wilson attended Hillsdale in 2006 but left the following year, primarily because of finances but also because of race. While a coach and two professors were kind, he said, one classmate asked him pointed racial questions constantly, such as: You like fried chicken, right?

Not having the ability to really see a black person who was in the same shoes I was in was difficult, he said.

For most of the students I spoke to, Hillsdale was a mixed bag of friends and classes they loved and experiences they wished had been better. Keyona Shabazz, class of 2017, loves Hillsdale but recalled two different students calling her a Negress or n-r on multiple occasions. While Hillsdale gave her a good liberal arts education, she said, it rarely discussed the black experience in America.

Hillsdale has done its populace a disservice by taking itself out of the conversation, Shabazz said. You cant pat yourself on the back for who you used to be.

Shabazzs fellow alumni should look hard at the schools indifference to race. We should question why we have a student body so white that many of the black students feel out of place. And we should think about how the school can show all its students that the good, the true, the beautiful belong to them, and that they belong at the school.

Hillsdale wishes to critique illiberalism on the left, but it will lack the moral authority to do so without critiquing illiberalism and racism on the right. The colleges liberal values should put it at the forefront of the fight to defend Frederick Douglasss vision for America. In the months before his second visit to Hillsdale, Douglass toured the South and witnessed how Reconstruction had failed former slaves. He hoped that his country would change; he hoped that his party, the Republican party, would lead that change.

The national honorthe redemption of our national pledge to the freedmen, the supremacy of the Constitution in the fullness of its spirit and in the completeness of its letter over all the states of the Union alikeis an incomparably greater interest than all others. It touches the soul of the nation, Douglass said in a speech that year. I simply say to the Republican party: Those things ye ought to have done and not to have left the others undone, and the present is the time to enforce this lesson.

With that last sentence Douglass borrowed from Jesus, and likewise Hillsdale should heed the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. The college has a chance to change for the better, to change America for the better, to be better than the whims of the right wing rather than tethered to them. If it does not, many of its alumni will have run out of faith, just as Douglass warned he might with the GOP: If it fails to do all this, I for one shall welcome the bolt which shall scatter it into a thousand fragments.

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Hillsdale Must Join the National Reckoning on Race - The Bulwark