The Notable Video Games Of 2020 – Dark Horizons

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Last year proved something of an odd duck for gaming after such a strong showing in 2018, gone were widely acclaimed single-player titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, Marvels Spider-Man and God of War replaced with less high profile but still interesting ones like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Control, Death Stranding and the Resident Evil 2 remake.

2020 is different. Not only are some big high profile titles back on the board, but it also marks a generational switchover point as both Microsoft and PlayStation refresh their consoles at the end of the year. With the new consoles all set to be backwards compatible for current generation games those involved arent slowing down.

Some major titles like The Elder Scrolls VI, Dragon Age 4, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, Metroid Prime 4 and Beyond Good & Evil 2 arent hitting until 2021 or beyond and so heres a list of the games were keen to see this year:

The Last of Us Part IINaughty Dog boasts the best track record for quality gaming product on the planet and has never failed to deliver, I dont expect them to stop now with this sequel to the incredibly acclaimed first title. Set five years later, Ellie and Joel return in a new story which hits May 20th though many will either wait or replay once a PS5 working version is released.

Ghost of TsushimaSucker Punch Productions Infamous: Second Son was the first real notable PS4 exclusive and boasted an excellent open-world design, lush visuals and fun powers tied to a bland story and repetitive gameplay. They return with this third-person stealth/combat game set in an open-world medieval Japan and resembling something out of the classic samurai films of the country. Hopefully a real winner, and at the very least it looks so damn gorgeous.

Cyberpunk 2077After nearly a decade of teasing, The Witcher creators CD Projekt Red deliver their take on a cyberpunk dystopian future with this first-person tale of a massive neo-metropolis run by militarized corporations and criminal gangs all vying for power. Its a rich open world with so much attention to detail and, considering CD Projekt Reds past track record, no doubt a whole lot of playability.

Half Life AlyxIts not the Half-Life 3 we all want, but the VR-only Half-Life: Alyx is something to be celebrated because at least Valve is showing interest in the franchise again. Here, the story follows Alyx Vance and her father Eli as they form a resistance to take on the invasion of the alien force known as the Combine. The usual first-person exploration, combat, and puzzle elements come into play and expect this title to finally push some VR headset sales.

Batman: Arkham Legacy / Untitled Rocksteady GameFor several years now, both Batman: Arkham City developers Rocksteady Games and Batman: Arkham Origins developers WB Games Montreal have separately been working on their own secret projects. Events last year teased some sort of announcement about what at least one of them has been working on will happen soon. Whether it be Batman: Arkham Legacy or an Arkham-style Superman game, who knows but we should hopefully see at least one of these companies coming forward with something later this year.

System Shock RemakeA remake of the iconic 1994 game that served as the spiritual precursor to the BioShock and Deus Ex franchises. Like the original, this is set on a space station in the year 2072 and you play a hacker trying to stop the malevolent artificial intelligence SHODAN. Originally planned for 2018, the game has hit some setbacks and will release no earlier than late 2020, most likely being pushed into 2021.

Final Fantasy VII RemakeThe original is arguably considered to be the most famous role playing game of all time and now were finally getting Square Enixs full remake of it with all new graphics and a new realtime combat system along with the originals classic turn-based system. The only downside is its being released episodically, but one upside is a the possibility of a PC release according to reports from people who have scoured the code of a recently leaked demo.

Halo InfiniteThe biggest launch title for Microsofts Series X console, though very likely coming to PC as well, Master Chief returns in a story that begins when he awakens from sleep to find his forces have already lost the war. Developer 343 Industries promises an emphasis on open exploration this time out, and the hope is it will steer away from the elements that made Guardians such an unmemorable entry.

Microsoft Flight SimulatorA flight sim game with a difference, this eleventh entry in the famed franchise and the first since 2006 is a major upgrade in realism and simulates the entire planet thanks to its use of Bings satellite imagery and Azure cloud services. As a result, the in-game assets will incorporate all of our planets nearly 200 million square miles of land and water, over two million cities and over 40,000 individual airports. It will also sport seasonal weather and other elements to add to the realism, but will depend heavily on a good internet connection.

Oddworld: SoulstormUnlike Oddworld: New n Tasty which was mostly a direct remake, this is a full re-imagining of 1998s franchise-best entry Oddworld: Abes Exoddus with some key changes to the story and gameplay of this second of a planned quintology of titles. Abe the Mudokon is back and ready to lead his people to freedom so long as you can keep him alive.

Doom EternalBethesda and id Softwares sequel to 2016s shooter franchise reboot wants to be even faster and more fluid than its predecessor as the Doom Slayer returns to Earth to save the human race from the monstrous hordes. It also includes what has been dubbed Invasion Mode from games like Watch Dogs allowing players to enter someone elses game as playable demons. For the twitch shooter crowd, this should be a hit.

Resident Evil 3Capcoms full remake of Resident Evil 2 scored much acclaim last year, the title winning several game of the year awards and selling over five million copies outselling the original. Now Capcom is giving the same treatment to the third game from 1999 as Jill Valentine attempts to escape from the infected Raccoon City. Like last years remake, this modernizes the controls and viewpoint and will include the 1-vs-4 multiplayer game Resident Evil Resistance.

Senuas Saga: Hellblade 2A big launch title for the new Xbox, Ninja Theory delivers this follow-up to the acclaimed dark action-adventure Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice in which you play a Pict warrior who believes she is cursed due to the mental health issues she suffers. The new tale is set three years after Senua traveled through Helheim to rescue Dillion. The first trailer released for the title not long ago looks absolutely stunning.

Marvels AvengersCrystal Dynamics did such great work with the Tomb Raider franchise, but oddly excitement for this is notably muted following some not so great early trailers. The game begins with the unveiling of the new Avengers HQ in San Francisco which results in the death of civilians and the Avengers officially disband. Five years later, all superheroes are now outlawed until a recent world event puts humanity at risk. Im a bit Avengers-ed out at this point, but the graphics look great even as I have some serious questions about the gameplay.

Watch Dogs: LegionThis third installment in Ubisofts open-world hacking-themed title shifts the action to a post-Brexit London, one under intense and constant surveillance. You must build up the resistance, and this time you can recruit and play as any NPC in the game world turn that little old lady or that street tramp into a rocket-launching dynamo. Its a new spin on the gameplay that could really open up this title, and mostly it promises to be all sorts of anarchic fun.

Dying Light 2The first-person parkour survival game returns and this time its a much more interesting a varied open world fifteen years later. Theres not only seven different zones with whole different looks, but a map around four times as big as the first one and one with much more height to it. Leap across rooftops with help of hooks and paragliders to try and stay out of danger and make alliances which will change how the NPCs of this world react to you. Theres also some four-player co-op.

SaturnaliaA fascinating looking survival horror tale from Italian company Santa Ragione and done with graphics made to resemble pencil sketch artwork. You follow several characters who are stuck in an abandoned village as they try to both survive and get out. Wonderfully moody piece in its trailers.

The Red LanternWhat could be this years Firewatch, Timberline Studio delivers this survival tale following a woman who enters the Iditarod in Alaska and must use what few resources she has to survive the hazardous obstacles including bear attacks, frostbite and other natural threats. A strong narrative and intriguing setting makes this indie stand out from some bigger budget competitors on the way.

Skull and BonesTake the ship-to-ship combat sequences from Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag and build an entire game out of them and you get Skull & Bones, a lavish-looking sea-faring tale of galleons and cannons, rum and seamen. Its also a game that includes both campaign and multiplayer battles and isnt some always online MMORPG style deal which is nice.

Gods and MonstersUbisoft attempts to blend a look akin to Nintendos Breath of the Wild and Greek mythology elements in this exploration RPG that hails from the same team behind the acclaimed Assassins Creed Odyssey, so you know itll pay attention to the details. Here youll have to help save the gods from the giant serpent Typhon who wants to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of the universe.

ALSO COMING IN 2020

12 Minutes Annapurnas new overhead perspective title has you reliving the same twelve minutes over and over as you try and find ways to stop being beaten to death by a dangerous cop in your home.

Carrion You play the tentacled monster in this Metroidvania-style game as you race through the facility/prison where youre kept, chomping on scientists as you go.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope Man of Medan gets a follow-up in this small town set supernatural chiller as a creature lurks in the darkness waiting to pounce.

Empire of Sin A turn-based combat-strategy game lifted by the fact its set in Prohibition-era Chicago and has you vying for control of the cities speakeasies and brothels.

Gears Tactics A turn-based single-player strategy game set in the Gears of War world from The Coalition and Splash Damage. Set during the early parts of the Locust Wars, the top-down game features first-person action sequences.

Ghostrunner Take the cyberpunk tower block setting of the film Dredd, expand it in size and fill it with enemies you have to kill with a Dishonored-style mixture of stealth, parkour and lethal melee.

Godfall The only PS5 exclusive announced thus far looks oddly dull. A multiplayer heavy third-person looting game from Counterplay Games.

Kerbal Space Program 2 The franchise returns with a follow-up with better graphics, enhanced modding ability, and expansions of the first games playability.

Nioh 2 A prequel to the 2017 title continues Team Ninjas hack-and-slash title with fully customizable characters to play with.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps The charming side scroller gets a follow-up in this just as colorful game about a spirit creature exploring their world, with the new entry improving the games upgrade and auto-save systems.

Persona 5 Royal A re-release of Persona 5 with a bunch of new features, a new character and a new area along with some tweaks.

Psychonauts 2 A follow-up to the beloved platformer sees you controlling Raz, a new graduate with powerful psychic powers.

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated The celebrated 2003 game gets a full remake which will add a whole new multiplayer mode along with a bunch of excised content from the original game.

Tom Clancys Rainbow Six Quarantine A three-player co-op first-person shooter in which you take on a technological parasitic threat.

A Total War Saga: Troy The strategy combat franchise shifts the action to the Bronze Age and the Fall of Troy, can you win the battle and appease the gods?

Way to the Woods Teen developer Anthony Tans indie adventure game has a very Journey style feel to it as we follow two deer who are lost in the world and are trying to find their way home.

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The Notable Video Games Of 2020 - Dark Horizons

The history of cyberpunk on PC – PC Gamer

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Although earlier examples do exist, nothing sums up the mood and aesthetic of cyberpunk quite like the opening of William Gibsons 1984 novel Neuromancer: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Its a genre of science fiction often marked by its contrasts; low life and high tech, to quote author Bruce Sterling, and a vision of the near future with its feet heavily planted in both the obsessions and pessimism of the 1980s.

Its instantly recognisable, and yet defies neat categorisation, with elements of noir, satire, fetishism and paranoia all typically mixed together. In its stock form, its the near future as seen from the gutterindividualists struggling to live as they choose in the perpetual darkness and driving rain of oppressive future cities where megacorporations rule everything and everyone. Its the antithesis of utopian sci-fi such as the Star Trek series, typically rooted in a sense of nihilism and criminality. Corruption is rife, violence is omnipresent, and law belongs to the highest bidder.

However, like most genres, theres far more to the setting than that. For starters, its a dark view of the future thats also shaped by its creators passions; a strong Asian vibe to the worlds, for instance, from the iconic geisha billboard that introduces us to Blade Runners near-future Los Angeles, to the existence of archetypes like Shadowruns 'street samurai'. The result tends to be worlds that are very cool to visit, but would be hellish to actually live in.

Deeper down though, cyberpunk is a genre thats less interested in the fancy toys and bright lights as the questions that they raise about humanityidentity, sexuality, ethics, memory, freedom, and more. Blade Runner, for example, is nominally a movie about a cop chasing down robots, but in practice is a deeper philosophical work that explores the nature of humanity by contrasting cold protagonist Deckard with the emotional Replicants he hunts.

This type of exploration is part of most major cyberpunk works of the last few decades, regardless of their origins. Be it the title of Ghost In The Shell referring to a spark of soul even when all organic elements have been replaced with machinery, to The Matrix, widely discussed for both its overt themes, such as the nature of reality, and for the many metaphors that can have read into it, most notably its potential to be seen as a transgender coming out story, andrather less positivelythe rise of philosophies such as 'redpilling' within certain online communities.

But lets turn our attention to games. Cyberpunk has been a part of them since the beginning, even if never as popular a setting as you might expect. Neuromancer saw a game conversion as far back as 1988, and many of its elements are still present in cyberspace futures todayhacking as a whole virtual world where the hacker must literally fight against ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics), upgrades in the form of skill chips, and so on. While not a great game, it was certainly a forward-thinking one, offering adventure/RPG cyberpunk action over a decade before Deus Ex; one where you could go from selling your organs for pocket money, to wandering down the street and finding a religion based on Pong.

As a game though, it made few waves, and this is honestly true for most attempts until the new millennium. Where theyre remembered, its primarily for their oddities. The original Blade Runner game particularly stands out here: an 8-bit outing not technically based on the moviethat would have been expensivebut rather 'inspired by the Vangelis soundtrack'. Needless to say, that inspiration somehow led to you being a cop in a big coat chasing down 'replidroids' in a futuristic city. That was 1985. Westwoods official game wouldnt arrive until 1997.

Not being huge commercial successes didnt mean that these games werent interesting. One of the more ambitious ones was Westwoods Circuits Edgethats Westwood as in the future creator of Command & Conquer. This was a text adventure with very simple graphical elements, based on the novel When Gravity Falls, with Islamic elements instead of the usual Asian ones. While almost entirely forgotten today, its an interesting piece of gaming history both for its technical side, with elements such as NPC scheduling, and for featuring some of the earliest gay/trans characters on PC.

Ideas in general were the genres strength, even if the games they were in drew more overall from Blade Runners aesthetics than cyberpunk philosophy. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, for example, created Snatcher, a totally original story about a detective with a mysterious past hunting humanoid robots in the futuristic Neo Kobe City. Even more blatant was Sierras Rise Of The Dragon, a Chinese-themed adventure set in Los Angeles that named its hero Blade Hunter. Nothing, however, was ever quite as shameless as Access Softwares Mean Streets, which didnt just lift Blade Runners style, but shamelessly pinched one of its advertising posters.

When games broke free of that, the results could be fascinating. DreamWeb was one of the earliest to make waves, though not so much for the fact that your character was a potentially insane serial killer being guided by his dreams, as for the inclusion of a sex scene showing a few scandalous pixels of penis. It was an interesting game though, at least for the first few missions, before everyone involved unfortunately seemed to get somewhat bored with the concept.

Other prominent games of the '90s included Origins Cybermage: Darklight Awakening, arguably the most '90s name ever, the original System Shock, interactive movies with names like Angel Devoid and BurnCycle, and of course, the opening disc of Final Fantasy VII, which eschewed traditional fantasy for dark alleyways and the evil Shinra corporation. While it wasnt on PC, CD32 game Liberation: Captive II also deserves a mention. It was an RPG about freeing prisoners in a huge, fully explorable city. Almost impossible in scope then, its still impressive to consider today.

Three of the more interesting failed experiments came from creators John Antinori and Laura Kampo: Bloodnet, Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller, and (minus Kampo) Ripper. Theyre not great games, but they represent some of the most earnest attempts to Make Cyberpunk Work. Bloodnet mixed the traditional elements with vampires, in an open-world adventure/RPG in which you regularly had to feed to maintain your sanity, and any NPC was a potential target. Hell was about a future government working with demons to damn their enemies (though it was really a virtual reality scam). Finally, Ripper brought Jack the Ripper into the future, with some hilariously campy FMV, and a huge cast of actors such as Christopher Walken and a pre-fame Paul Giamatti.

Alas, it wouldnt really be until Westwood returned to the genre with its official Blade Runner game, and Ion Storm released Deus Ex, that the genre would truly get its dues on PC.

Even then, its been a bumpy ride. Until CD Projekt, wed never seen an official Cyberpunk game, despite the P&P having been written back in the very Web 1.0 era of 1988. And while there had been pretty good console RPGs based on its main competitor, Shadowrun (cyberpunk, but with elves and trolls and magic), it wouldnt be until over a decade later that Microsoft finally released a PC one. Unfortunately, this one wasnt an RPG, but a mediocre team-based FPS that fans mostly loathed. It wouldnt be for several more years that Shadowrun Returns would save the series reputation with a trilogy of excellent games. The second one, Dragonfall, is especially good.

Despite the struggles, cyberpunk has always been a part of PC gamingelements borrowed, inspiration drawn, cool things cherry-picked, whether something simple, like the anime stylings of Bungies Oni, the cool approach of hacking in Introversions Uplink, or the sprawling dystopia of Syndicate and Syndicate Wars, in which youre the evil corporation instead of the oppressed antihero.

Along with Blade Runner, one particular work has repeatedly cropped up in gaming cultureNeal Stephensons Snow Crash. While part of the genre, it largely satirised cyberpunk tropes, as best summed up by the main character being a hacker pizza delivery boy called Hiro Protagonist. Its central concept, a virtual world called the Metaverse, became an inspiration for what the internet could bepopularising, for instance, the word avatar as a name for a character, and the dream of a user-created space in which code and imagination could craft any landscape. This, alas, never happened, with the best attempt, Second Life, quickly descending from utopian dreams of virtual universities and truly world-wide rock concerts into a virtual universe of porn shops.

Still, the dream defined both an idealised future for the internet and gaming in general, that weve seen explored in everything from MMORPGs to VR. Microsofts Xbox Live was heavily inspired by the novel, for example, with its creators given copies to read as homework.

Theres definitely something endearing about that: while cyberpunk as a genre may have often been marginalised in gaming next to newer, shinier visions of the future, it was helping define the future long before the likes of Deus Ex brought its nihilistic visions mainstream.

Now, in an era of indie creators facing off against huge publishers and platform holders, it has new meaningthe establishment that wants more than just your money, rebels creating art, and the internet as the last battlefield where David can fight Goliath. It may not be dark alleyways and rainy cities, but gaming doesnt really get much more cyberpunk than that. Unless, of course, David finally upgrades to a katana.

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The history of cyberpunk on PC - PC Gamer

Bitcoin Cashs adoption metrics for Australia accused of being fabricated – AMBCrypto

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Over the course of 2019, Bitcoin Cash had registered impressive adoption metrics in Australia. As reported previously, Roger Vers BCH was advancing its retail trade and outperforming the likes of even Bitcoin, ETH, and Litecoin by a huge margin in the land down under. According to the presented data, BCH had registered sales of $36,430 out of $39,405 worth of crypto-transactions in September 2019, equivalent to over 92 percent of the total retail sales.

However, according to a thread on Reddit, Bitcoin Cash may have altered some of these metrics to their own benefit.

The previously presented information had been compiled by an organization called BitcoinBCH.com, which aggregated its data from two sources, namely, TravelByBit and HULA. Here, it is important to note that HULA is controlled by BitcoinBCH.com as well.

The Redditor stated that the reports released by BitcoinBCH.com which indicated high BCH retail transactions had excluded non-BCH transactions, something the report failed to mention. He also found that BCHs TravelByBit analysis did not match the total number of transactions tallied on TravelByBits website.

The Redditor claimed that when he approached Hayden Otto, CEO of BitcoinBCH.com, about his recent findings, he was immediately banned from r/btc and r/bitcoincash, with all his posts on the thread deleted soon after.

According to him, Hayden Otto stated that the only data removed during the analysis were non-retail in nature. However, the Redditor argued,

The report does not mention any data being excluded at all and he still fails to explain why several businesses that are clearly retail (e.g. restaurants, cafes, markets) had tx excluded.

According to the Redditor, Otto also claimed that the report could not be wrong because it underwent an audit. However, in response, the Redditor explained that in order to justify their flawed methodology, BitcoinBCH.com hired an accountant from a Bitcoin BCH startup to conduct an audit of their October report. The Redditor added,

This is remarkable, because not only did their reported TBB totals still not match those from the TBB site their result was mathematically impossible. How so? No subset of TBB transaction in that month sums up to the total they reported. So even if they excluded retail transactions at will, they still must have messed up the sum.

AMBCrypto has reached out to Hayden Otto for his comments on the matter.

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Bitcoin Cashs adoption metrics for Australia accused of being fabricated - AMBCrypto

One Day Left For Craig Wright To Expose The Flaws Of Bitcoin – The Coin Republic

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Steve Anderrson Tuesday, 31 December 2019, 04:58 EST Modified date: Tuesday, 31 December 2019, 06:20 EST

As Craig Wright once said that, everyone would learn next year that there is a severe flaw in the BTC, and thus there will be no BTC next year.

Wright warned bitcoin miners that if they carried forward with their supporting for Roger Ver/Jihan Wu backed Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCH) over his own Bitcoin Satoshis Vision (BSV), then they would be ensuing hash war battle by selling off Bitcoins.

The warning by Wright is, however, to crash the price of Bitcoin. This is an addition to the fork war, which has taken place between two sides having different opinions.

If one goes by the reports, Rogers decision had outraged Craig Wright, and thus he sent a threatening mail to Ver. Roger Ver further presented the screenshot of the e-mail exposing the threats and insults, which Wright threw at him. He also asked him if he was Satoshi Nakamoto.

The e-mail filled with insults like saying that opting to shitcoins or ABC is welcoming bankruptcy.

Roger termed Craigs behavior as immature and uncivilized. He said that what Craig wrote was not something that a person in his forty is who is a mature businessperson would write.

Craigs step led various influencers to come up and speaking up about this issue either in support of him or against him.

Criticising what Wright said, McAfee also tweeted that the popularity of Bitcoin has been rising drastically since it released. Earlier, McAfee has predicted that by the end of 2020, the BTC price will hit $1 million. Additional to it, he also predicted that Altcoins like KTC and Apollo would witness a rise, which is going to be ten times more than what it is now.

Another leading analyst and influencer, Tom Lee, has also predicted that Bitcoin will see a rise in the coming years.

Mike Novogratz, the co-founder of cryptocurrency merchant bank Galaxy Digital, also predicts that bitcoin will hit 12k in 2020.

The maximum of the changes is affecting the trading in Bitcoin Cash in the hope that things would sort out themselves. They also need to avoid the double spend problems, which can cost them a few bucks during Ethereum/ Ethereum Classic split.

Well, a day left in ending 2019, it is yet to see, will he expose or all is just a hoax? However, Bitcoin is here to stay for long.

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One Day Left For Craig Wright To Expose The Flaws Of Bitcoin - The Coin Republic

Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Binance Leaders Asked To Help The Impacted by The Australian Fi – U.Today

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John McAfee has just backpedaled on one of the wildest wagers in the history of crypto. In his recent tweet, the cybersecurity tycoon makes it clear that his promise to eat his penis if the Bitcoin price doesn't go to $1 mln by Dec. 31, 2020, was simply a "ruse" that was meant to attract new users.

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Back in July 2017, less than six months before Bitcoin became the biggest topic worldwide, McAfee took to Twitter to make an unprecedented claim that he would eat his penis on national television if Bitcoin failed to reach $500,000. Five months later, he upped the ante with the now-famous $1 mln price target.

Throughout these years, McAfee continued to stand by his prediction. As reported by U.Today, he still insisted that BTC could end up in the seven-digit reality as of Dec. 13, 2019. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at$7,462, which means that its price would have to increase by13,286 percent in twelve monthsfor McAfee's body to remain safe.

His prediction became so popular that there is even the "Dickening" countdown till Dec. 31, 2020 (itis called afterthe reward "halvening" that will take place in May). However, now that McAfee claims that it was nothing but a ruse, this site might no longer be relevant.

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Moreover, the eccentric septuagenarianhas apparently had a change of heart about Bitcoin since he's now certain that the top cryptocurrency has "an ancient technology," and newer blockchains will effectively replace it. McAfee compared Bitcoin tothe FordModel T,which is generally considered to be the very first affordable car.

While McAfee himself did not mention any specific names in his tell-all tweet, the threadgot instantly swarmed with people who wanted to pitch their favorite cryptocurrencies from some top altcoins to obscure projects.

A bit later, he named privacy-focused coin Monero as the new clear winner.

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Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Binance Leaders Asked To Help The Impacted by The Australian Fi - U.Today

When the King of Debt Is the President – The New York Times

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Mr. Douthat writes that the 2010s exposed the depth of problems without suggesting plausible solutions.

I want to offer another take on disillusionment. All my life Americans seemed to believe that our country was practically perfect in every way. Exceptional. Until we get over that, until most of us can accept that other countries may have better health care at lower cost and that our citizens could be better educated, we cannot move.

I cheer disillusionment as a step toward the movements, leaders, spiritual renewal and structural reforms that Mr. Douthat longs for.

Christine JohnsonPortola Valley, Calif.

To the Editor:

Ross Douthat has coined a term that perfectly captures my mental state at the end of 2019 prosperous despair. Yes, my bank account is fatter, but I am also often depressed and anxious about the world around me. For example, the devolution of politics into tribalism is terrifying.

James Carville famously coined the phrase Its the economy, stupid.

Maybe true in the more innocent 1990s, but in the post-truth era, Ive learned that its not that simple.

Janice GewirtzMountain Lakes, N.J.

To the Editor:

Re The Decade We Changed Our Minds, by Charles Blow (column, Dec. 30): What troubles me about culture in America is the strengthening dogmatism of superwoke culture and its consequences: to restrain freedom of speech and thought, and to dismiss as intellectually inferior or immoral those who disagree with the flock. We need to make an effort in the United States to be content with disagreement, and to embrace compromise something that, until relatively recently, anchored and enriched American culture.

Political correctness embraces conformity over truth, sensitivity over reality. Were not getting to the truth because it can be construed as offensive. Americans are walling themselves off from those who may have differing political opinions or worldviews, and in turn, marinating in self-indulgence and self-reinforcement. This lays bare a society that is losing its sense of common fraternity.

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When the King of Debt Is the President - The New York Times

Ricky Gervais is hosting the Golden Globes. Expect controversy. – Vox.com

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In 2018, then-four-time host Ricky Gervais said that hosting the Golden Globes again would be the end of his career.

Gervais was thinking of the blowback he would likely receive from the gig in an increasingly polarized culture as a provocative comic whos known for offending people. But on January 5, he will indeed return to host the awards for a record fifth time.

NBC, which hosts the annual awards show, is leaning into the idea that Gervaiss hosting gig will be outlandish and unpredictable. Theres some justice to that: As Bafflers Brendan James put it in a rundown of Gervaiss career, Gervaiss only real claim on the publics attention in the past ten years has been his epic, renegade, no-holds-barred Golden Globes roast-a-thon, in which hes known for taking potshots at other celebrities and their failings, from Mel Gibsons alcoholism to Robert Downey Jrs drug abuse.

In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Gervais described his hosting style as wanting to represent the perspective of the viewer watching at home who wasnt invited into the room where it happens. But that descriptor downplays his habit of saying outrageous things both onstage and off. A look at Gervaiss standup history reveals that, far from being unpredictable, his comedy covers a pretty standard range of offenses, including taking cheap shots, doubling down on them, and getting defensive after the fact about people not getting the joke.

Gervais himself insists that punching down is a no-go: You mustnt make [identity factors] the target to be ridiculed, he told THR. You shouldnt laugh at something they cant help. ... Deep down, I want people to know Im not a racist or a homophobe or a sexist. But in the same interview, he also rails against political correctness: People like the idea of freedom of speech until they hear something they dont like.

This ambivalence means his Golden Globes gig will likely be a big swing from last years ground-breaking ceremony toward a more reactionary flavor. And while he may be on his best behavior for Sunday nights ceremony, its also likely we can expect Gervais to joke about everything from war with Iran to cancel culture itself.

How can we be so sure? Heres a selection of highlights from his previous comedy and performances, as well as other moments from his past history.

At the 2016 Golden Globes ceremony, Gervaiss opening monologue included a joke about Caitlyn Jenner that many viewers read as transphobic. After referring to her by her pre-transition name i.e. deadnaming her, a major dont if youre trying to support the transgender communities Gervais joked that while shed become a role model to trans women everywhere, she didnt do a lot for women drivers. The joke was a reminder that, in 2015, Jenner had been involved in a tragic four-car collision that left one person dead; Jenner bore no responsibility for the accident and was not charged and its likely audiences barely remembered the incident or understood Gervaiss point.

So Gervais went out of his way to reiterate his point multiple times first on Twitter, and then in his 2018 Netflix special, Humanity, where he made Jenner jokes that were far more explicitly transphobic than the joke he was trying to debunk as transphobic.

These additional jokes come in the middle of a segment in which Gervais describes creating a string of offensive jokes for his Golden Globes hosting gig including jokes about Bill Cosby raping various celebrities then ironically adds, Id never tell a joke like that, Id never even think of that ... Youre getting offended at a joke that doesnt exist.

Then he moved on to the Jenner joke. It wasnt transphobic in the slightest. It was a joke about a trans person, but the joke had nothing to do with that aspect of her existence. To make the argument, he then repeats the Golden Globes joke verbatim and attempts to explain it.

The target of the joke is a celebrity killing someone in their car, he says. A celebrity killing someone in their car, running home, and popping on a dress, he says.

He then goes on to discuss the deadnaming, in an extended segment in which he protests that he cant acknowledge that she used to be a man but she did! I saw him on the Olympic games! He then doubles down on the deadnaming and misgendering, doing both repeatedly. Its a deeply transphobic sketch in which he frames transgender identity as gaslighting him, while building a whole joke around Jenners anatomy.

He follows it all up by mocking the entire idea of transitioning by joking that hes going to transition into a chimpanzee.

This is just the most well-known example of Gervaiss transphobic humor. But as Lindy West noted in the New York Times after Humanitys release, his entire attitude toward trans identity is one of discomfort, and he present[s his] spasms of discomfort as something relatable.

Gervais recently drew backlash again for perceived transphobia just a few weeks ago. Shortly after the backlash over a transphobic tweet by J.K. Rowling, Gervais tweeted several things that many readers took as sardonic TERFdom.

He later clarified to THR that hed been playing along with a spoof Twitter account intended to parody white progressives, and had been intending to take the piss out of the parody account without acknowledging that he has a history of taking the piss out of trans identity itself.

Gervaiss history of mocking disabled identities is long. During his 2007 Fame standup tour, in particular, the comic courted controversy with this brand of humor. First came a segment in which he jokes about taking an autistic child to a casino the joke being that he ignorantly thought all autistic kids were like Dustin Hoffmans character in Rain Man. Then came a bit when he joked about chronic fatigue syndrome, known as ME: Not MS, he clarified, not the crippling, wasting disease. No, the thing that makes you say, I dont wanna go to work today.

He also stepped on toes with his portrayal of autism with his puzzling 2013 short series Derek, in which he revived a character hed created in 2001, Derek Noakes. Noakes who was originally a victim of child sexual abuse reads to many people as an adult man with autism, despite Gervaiss insistence that the character is actually just naive and gullible. Its worth noting that Gervais has also participated in fundraising events for autism support, and that he intended the character to be heroic, rather than a mockery; but many people had a muddled impression of the character, while the show itself drew mixed reviews.

Thankfully, his jokes here are rare, but theyre pretty dark. In the aforementioned Humanity special on Netflix, Gervais in the segment where he coyly discusses jokes that were too offensive for him to stay onstage by ... saying them onstage he briefly mocks Bill Cosbys victims by hypothesizing about which celebrities might be, essentially, unrape-able. First, he drops a slightly baffling joke implying that Helen Mirren is too much of a lady to be sexually assaulted. Then, he makes a fatphobic comment about Melissa McCarthy being too much of a beast to be subdued by the date rape drugs Cosby used in his assaults.

A third, extremely dark joke, is considered by some audiences to be one of Gervaiss best and by others to be among his most offensive for its trivialization of male sexual violence against women. The entire bit is built around a setup for a joke about child molestation, with an even darker twist joke about child sexual abuse at its center.

In late 2018, a Louis C.K. post-Me-Too comedy routine, which was still being workshopped through live performances, was leaked online, revealing a stretch of offensive material that mocked everyone from non-binary people to Parkland shooting victims.

Gervais spoke out in defense of Louis C.K., telling Vanity Fair in a 2019 interview that he sympathized with the other comedian for having jokes leaked while they were still in progress. But then he went further, once again blaming audiences for allegedly not understanding the jokes:

[C.K.s] got nothing against those [Parkland] kids. It was him pretending to be angry for comedy.

Two years ago, wed have got that. Wed have said, Oh yeah, hes being naughty. Now we go, No, he means it now. Now hes out in the cold; now hes an alt-right Nazi. Its ludicrous.

In other words, Gervais, joining many of his fellow comedians, blames cancel culture for destroying nuance in standup comedy, while also downplaying the reasons people find certain kinds of comedy offensive.

Remember that old segment from HBOs 2011s Talking Funny special that resurfaced in 2018 in which a bunch of male comics laugh at their own use of the n-word? In case youve forgotten which comics were involved in that delightful episode, here we have Chris Rock, a gleeful Louis C.K., a Ricky Gervais who seems hesitant at first but rapidly gets into the bit, and a Jerry Seinfeld who seems appalled the whole time.

This is important context for his assertion in the aforementioned THR interview that offensive humor is in the eye of the beholder:

Its a good thing to not be racist and sexist and homophobic. But its not a good thing to not be allowed to make jokes about those things, because you can tell a joke about race without being racist. Im happy to play by the rules. Its just that the 200 million people watching have different rules. Thats the plight. When people say, He crossed the line, I say, I didnt draw a line, you did. Its relative. Its subjective.

In the clip above, it almost appears that Gervais is re-drawing the line in front of our eyes, deciding that a line that couldnt be crossed seconds earlier saying the n-word is, in fact, fine.

What does all of this mean for Gervaiss 2020 Golden Globes appearance? Probably just where we were four years ago, the last time Gervais hosted the Globes: with Gervais taking potshots at various celebrities and pet progressive issues, then retreating into a defensive stance on social media. Brendan James notes in his Baffler piece that this disappointingly banal pattern has pretty much defined Gervaiss most recent career phase:

Gervais [abandoned] satire and storytelling and instead adopt[ed] a new comedic style of being incredibly logged-on and tweeting Have I offended you? Do you find me offensive? next to professionally shot photos of himself laughing. It is, in fact, a long way down from the brilliant work that made him famous.

This repetitive cycle means its probably too much to ask that Gervais undergo an attitudinal transformation before the Golden Globes ceremony and recognize that his transphobic jokes and other offensive jokes make life harder for real marginalized people.

But maybe this Sunday, with any luck, Gervais will just stick to mocking celebrities.

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Ricky Gervais is hosting the Golden Globes. Expect controversy. - Vox.com

Can Donald Trump and Boris Johnson save our world from anarchy? | TheHill – The Hill

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Pause for a moment to escape from the insanity of the unhinged partisan politics that apparently have engulfed our nation and take a quick peek at the rest of the world. If you do, you will notice to your dismay that much of the world is coming apart at the seams as it appears to careen toward global anarchy.

Yet two world leaders U.S. President Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpBiden rips Trump tweets on Iran: 'Incredibly dangerous and irresponsible' Swalwell pens op-ed comparing Trump impeachment to XYZ Affair Rockets fired near Green Zone after day of mourning for Soleimani MORE and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson are in positions of legitimate strength to stop, or at least delay, our worlds collapse.

From both sides of the pond, no matter which direction these leaders turn, they could point to nations in dangerous stages of unrest. In many cases, countries literally are on fire, besieged by increasingly violent protests and riots.

France, Spain, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, the Philippines, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, parts of Central America, Haiti and many other nations are dealing with protests, riots and fires; some also are experiencing executions and terrorism.

Potentially much more troubling whats happening in Russia, China, Ukraine, Serbia, Albania, Pakistan, India, North Korea and much of the African continent. All are experiencing real threats to their stability, including protests and emboldened rioters.

Some of these countries have nuclear arsenals that may be at risk, or their governments may become more inclined to consider using them.

Totalitarian tactics of oppression brought about much of the worlds unrest. Some protests are the result of spoiled, pampered students and activists who aim to bring about their view of utopian globalization. They would eradicate borders, wealth, hard work, taxes, accountability, law enforcement and just plain common sense.

These activists become enraged when the false promises of Marxism and socialism collapse and they are told they will have to pay more for public transportation or fuel, or, heaven forbid, work a few hours more to add to the tax base that pays for their benefits. Cue the riots.

Many predominantly young protestors are being radicalized in dangerous and permanent ways. Only a complete capitulation to their ignorant nation-destroying demands will satisfy them. Additionally, the leaders of countries that are under siege may be corrupt, incompetent, frozen by fear, or in socialist sympathy with those who are burning down their infrastructure.

But Trump and Johnson could emerge from all this anarchy as two leaders who may well represent the worlds best defense. These men mirror each other in critically important ways.

Many on the left especially from the arenas of academia, the media and entertainment like to pejoratively point out the superficial similarities between Trump and Johnson. Starting with their wild hair, the comparisons generally devolve to more childish schoolyard insults.

But interestingly, and ironically, three similarities that leftists attach to Trump and Johnson as badges of dishonor are that both men are not politically correct, can be considered populists, and are strongly anti-entrenched establishment.

So heres a message to the left: Trump and Johnson are succeeding precisely because both men do hear the voices of all the people, do rail against the destructive outcomes of political correctness, and will fight those in the entrenched establishment who are in it for themselves.

Certainly, Trump and Johnson disagree at times, but Trump instantly recognized that he might have a lasting ally in Johnson. With the Conservative Partys massive victory in the U.K. last month, Trump tweeted: Congratulations to Boris Johnson on his great WIN! Britain and the United States will now be free to strike a massive new Trade Deal after BREXIT. This deal has the potential to be far bigger and more lucrative than any deal that could be made with the E.U. Celebrate Boris!

And that is exactly the point. Both Johnson and Trump realize that the European Union is part of the much larger problem of global unrest and self-destruction that threatens nations stability and that of the world as a whole.

The fact is, both men bring unique real-world experiences to their offices Trump, as a decades-long successful businessman who has employed hundreds of thousands of people and Johnson, as a journalist, author and creative force who never has shied away from wielding cutting words as a rhetorical sword against ignorance, lies, power centers, failed policies or appeasement.

Each man, thankfully, marches to the beat of his own drum.

Barring some unforeseen situation, Trump will win reelection in 2020. When he does, he will have four years to work with Johnson to help right the situations that contribute to violence and anarchy. Together, they just might save our world from collapse.

As Winston Churchill said in his famed address to Congress in December 1941: In the days to come, the British and American peoples will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together side by side in majesty, in justice and in peace.

If Trump and Johnson cannot replicate that mission and victory, then lives, liberty and world peace will be in great peril.

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

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Can Donald Trump and Boris Johnson save our world from anarchy? | TheHill - The Hill

Scarlett Johannson clarifies controversial casting feedback: I mishandled that – Sunriseread

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Scarlett Johansson has responded to the backlash she obtained this summer season after saying she believes any actor ought to be capable to play any individual, or any tree, or any animal.

The assertion got here after the star dropped out of a movie primarily based on the lifetime of a transgender man as a consequence of criticism from the trans neighborhood. The 35-year-old was additionally accused of whitewashing in style Japanese manga Ghost within the Shell in 2017.

In hindsight, I mishandled that state of affairs, Johansson just lately advised Vainness Truthful of her earlier feedback. I used to be not delicate, my preliminary response to it. I wasnt completely conscious of how the trans neighborhood felt about these three actors enjoying and the way they felt on the whole about cis actors enjoying transgender individuals. I wasnt conscious of that dialog I used to be uneducated.

Johansson went on admit she misjudged the state of affairs, including, It was a tough time. It was like a whirlwind. I felt terribly about it. To really feel such as youre form of tone-deaf to one thing will not be a very good feeling.

Scarlett additionally launched a press release claiming her unique feedback have been taken out of context

An interview that was just lately printed has been edited for clickbait and is extensively taken out of context, she wrote. The query I used to be answering in my dialog with the up to date artist, David Salle, was concerning the confrontation between political correctness and artwork. I personally really feel that, in a super world, any actor ought to be capable to play anyone and Artwork, in all varieties, needs to be resistant to political correctness. Thats the level I used to be making, albeit didnt come throughout that manner.

I acknowledge that in actuality, theres a huge unfold discrepancy amongst my business that favors Caucasian, cis-gendered actors and that not each actor has been given the identical alternatives that Ive been privileged to, Johansson went on. I proceed to assist, and at all times have, variety in each business and can proceed to battle for initiatives the place everyone seems to be included.

The controversial quotes stem from a July 2019 As If journal interview the place she mentioned the intersection of political correctness and artwork.

Performing goes by tendencies, she stated. You understand, as an actor I needs to be allowed to play any individual, or any tree, or any animal as a result of thats my job and the necessities of my job. There are lots of social strains being drawn now, and lots of political correctness is being mirrored in artwork.

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Scarlett Johannson clarifies controversial casting feedback: I mishandled that - Sunriseread

Letter: Americans must be alert to threat from within – Reading Eagle

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Editor:

I disagree with Trump represents threat to American democracy (Reading Eagle, Dec. 29). The Founding Fathers designed our republics Constitution so that no one not even the president could become an existential threat. Apart from external threats from China, Russia, Iran and radical Islam, an insidious internal threat is posed by corrupt, entrenched bureaucracies in both political parties, government agencies, organizations, and the media. This is fostered by a populace that is generally uninterested, apathetic, and condones immorality by our own oft-coerced amorality.

Wherever theres power and money, corruption is inevitable. There are still some good men and women in politics, in government, in influential institutions and in the media. But we citizens must reaffirm that morality and the truth are not relative. We must reject media bias and partisan spin and abandon political correctness nonsense. This while voting in unity to make government service like military service sacrificial, modestly recompensed, term-limited and a patriotic duty, not a means by which people impose their will or divisive agenda upon others.

David A. Hagginbothom

Williamsburg, Va.

Editor's note: Hagginbothom is formerly of Muhlenberg Township.

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Letter: Americans must be alert to threat from within - Reading Eagle

In 2020, culture warriors need to call for a ceasefire – The National

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Will this be the year that political correctness undergoes a course-correction? All the signs point to a rising enthusiasm for subversive expression against social liberalism. The revolt is against perceived censoriousness and complacent self-righteousness in speech, public policy, political choices and even stand-up comedy.

Consider this.

On December 26, the BBCs flagship domestic radio show, The Today Programme, featured a remarkable exchange between British prize-winning artist Grayson Perry and Marina Hyde, a liberal commentator on politics and culture. They discussed what Ms Hyde described as the incredibly ponderous nature of the political lefts response to national and international events, and its tendency to be too puritanical about language or action that might cause offence to minority groups.

Right round the time of this discussion, some culture mavens declared that it was time to bid a glad goodbye to the 2010s a decade of guilt in which naming and shaming, and an overwrought conscience, had played both too prominent and too ineffectual a part. Interestingly, this appeared in a British newspaper that predominantly serves business titans, bankers and suchlike on both sides of the Atlantic.

The left should lighten up and be less judgemental about those who question. And the right must be less afraid of the metaphorical other and more willing to address the reality of ceaseless change. That would set the terms of the debate very nicely for a new decade

Then in August, Dave Chappelle, an African-American once universally hailed for his stand-up comedy, offered up a profoundly politically incorrect Netflix special titled Sticks and Stones. Critics were unimpressed, acidly acknowledging that while Chappelle may still have the power to offend, he had lost the all-important comics power to shock. But audiences loved the show, giving it a Rotten Tomatoes score of 99 per cent.

And finally, some say that the backlash against political correctness has already proved itself, through election outcomes, not least Boris Johnsons landslide in Britain on December 12. It has been like that since 2016, when Donald Trumps complaints about eco-friendly restrictions on hairspray and his comments on women and minorities garnered controversy but did not decisively affect his electoral support. Four years later, Mr Trump is still seen by some as a champion of plainspeak.

A caveat is in order at this point. If there is any re-jigging of political correctness it will not mean the end of all linguistic good manners. The collective vocabulary has already expanded to a point beyond which it is simply unacceptable to levy racial slurs or to make jokes that denigrate people for their culture, beliefs, the colour of their skin, or a physical or mental disability.

So, what to make of the backlash to more than two decades of political correctness? How far will it go? Politicians who supposedly tell-it-like-it-is think Mr Johnson in the UK, Mr Trump in the US, Narendra Modi in India, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines have a following that celebrates the freedom to rebel. The insurgency is directed at political correctness gone mad, a phrase that is seen to encapsulate a deep and pent-up anger against a culture that allegedly prizes tolerance over truth-telling.

Back in May 2016, the intensity of that anger was expressed by a 22-year-old Trump supporter to The Atlantic magazine as follows: Disagreement gets you labeled fascist, racist, bigoted, etc. It can provoke a reaction so intense that youre suddenly an unperson to an acquaintance or friend. Its almost impossible to have polite or constructive political discussion.

Is that really true? Is political correctness really constraining honest debate and the free expression of opinion in the 21st century? Is it so bad to have linguistic guardrails for tolerance and magnanimity towards weaker sections of society? Is freewheeling majoritarian commentary, no matter how insensitive and threatening to everyone else, a necessary indicator that a society is really free?

The honest truth is that no society can flourish without genuinely free debate, especially about fraught issues that revolve around culture, majority values and minority rights. And it is equally true that no debate can be free if it is argued only with brutish rhetoric that stokes the majoritys fear and anger under the guise of rebelling against too much political correctness.

There should be no shame in updating the concept of political correctness based on the experience of past decades. The re-jigging would have to happen in two ways.

The first is relatively easy. Re-label, re-define and call political correctness what it really is: the verbal form of good manners, with inherently civilising qualities. The second course of action is a great deal harder: leave little space for the category that currently goes by the name of "politically incorrect". Nothing should be politically incorrect. Instead, it can be true or false, right or wrong, legal or illegal. Once political incorrectness falls away, it should be possible to have even the most difficult discussions those that bump up against liberal political principles without throwing around the charge of fascism, racism or bigotry.

So long as the discussion keeps to the now globally accepted collective vocabulary, we can be assured that everyones rights vulnerable minorities, as well as majority communities are protected.

Culture wars are not really ever settled by election victories, successful stand-up comedy shows or trenchant media commentary. More to the point, both sides are well matched in this contest for the ages. The anti-political correctness brigade has formidable tools of its own to match the cancel culture, woke-ness and no-platforming associated mainly with left-wing liberal opinion.

There has to be a middle path. The left should lighten up and be less judgemental about those who question. And the right must be less afraid of the metaphorical other and more willing to address the reality of ceaseless change. That would set the terms of the debate very nicely for a new decade.

Updated: January 1, 2020 11:48 AM

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In 2020, culture warriors need to call for a ceasefire - The National

Will Gore Has the Lake District gone wet in its search for more visitor diversity? – The Independent

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The quiet period between Christmas and new year is always a risky time for anyone making a media appearance, as the chief executive of the Lake District National Park Authority recently discovered.

Speaking to Sky News last weekend about the need to make the Lake District as welcoming as possible to all sections of British society, Richard Leafe quickly found himself accused of bringing identity politics into nature. His suggestion that the national park must adapt in small ways to attract a greater diversity of visitors was regarded in some quarters as political correctness gone mad.

For the most part, the rage that greeted him was concocted. The national parks are, as a matter of principle, for everyone to enjoy: yet there is no doubt that visitors are disproportionately white, middle-class, able-bodied and old. It should hardly be controversial to suggest that particular efforts might usefully be made to explain the Lake Districts merits to people from other backgrounds, and to encourage them to experience the areas wonders.

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Will Gore Has the Lake District gone wet in its search for more visitor diversity? - The Independent

Religions unseen effects on the elderly … and everyone else – Deseret News

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As I recently entered the Bountiful Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an elderly married couple emerged. They were well into their 80s. Chatting warmly with each other, they both scooted walkers along to steady themselves. It was still early in the day, so they had gotten up with the chickens to attend the temple. They were dressed up to go somewhere special. They were visibly cheerful and having a great time; they clearly enjoyed being together.

They had been volunteering in the temple. Think about it: Where else besides a temple, church, synagogue or mosque service can barely mobile people of advanced age go to work, to be welcome contributors instead of patients, objects to be helped, or problems to be dealt with?

This couple and the many just like them have something to get out of bed for when they go to worship. They want to contribute. They want to feel useful and needed. They want to serve, to do something meaningful. They could just stay in bed and think about their aches and pains, about their limitations. But they choose to serve instead.

In worshiping, they meet and mingle with other people. The social connections they make broaden them and lift their spirits.

The main reason these people worship is to commune with God and pay him their devotions. Here they touch something holy. They promise God to be more obedient, less selfish, more loving, holier, more generous. There arent many places where octogenarians promise and strive to change, to improve, to do better. In this important sense, they are looking forward, not merely backward, as the elderly are often inclined to do. By their efforts and through the ceremonies they participate in, they emerge as better people. They feel Gods hand in their lives.

These people undoubtedly pray for their family a son or granddaughter who is ill, injured, dealing with mental illness, needing a job, suffering from addiction, going through a divorce or suffering financial difficulties. Thus, thousands of people pray for those who need Gods blessings. Just ask someone who has been the beneficiary of that process they feel it.

Science has proven regular religious service adds six years to the average lifespan. Meaningful social connections strongly correlate with improved quality and length of life, and the same goes for engaging in serving others. Feeling connected to ancestors, descendants and to family generally is another silver bullet for improving quality and length of life. No government program can rival the mental and physical benefits that church and family offer all ages in experiencing personal connectedness and meaningful service.

Our current age demands that society acknowledge the uniqueness of each person and their experience and background. If that means that we honor the worth and uniqueness of each individual, who can argue against it? The ultimate goal is to respect each person as an entity, all being of equal dignity, with equal rights.

A culture of political correctness increasingly requires that each individual also be acknowledged by their gender, race, sexual orientation, personal pronoun choices and other characteristics and personal choices. Religious affiliation, spiritual devotion and faith-based service must also be counted among the defining characteristics that make a person who he or she is; few things both guide and characterize a person more markedly.

Many on the political left and the media seem almost uniformly to see religion in negative terms. Admittedly, churches are struggling with hot button issues like same-sex marriage, Catholic sex abuse scandals and how to interface with the hyperpolarized political realm. But pure religion has always been and will always be the most positive and powerful force in making bad men good and good men better. Just ask my happy octogenarian fellow worshipers.

Greg Bell is the former lieutenant governor of Utah and the current president and CEO of the Utah Hospital Association.

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Religions unseen effects on the elderly ... and everyone else - Deseret News

Sheriff gets robbed; why Grady Judd should have made Florida’s top Politicians of the Decade – Florida Politics

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Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and I have sparred for years over issues of transparency, crossing the line in labeling innocent men sex offendersand his aggressive practices seizing property from private citizens.

Those videos were seen hundreds of thousands of times and the controversial sheriff still got more than 95% of the vote when he ran for reelection in 2016.

In fact, Judd is so popular in Polk County, he hasnt had an opponent on the ballot in 15 years!

But dont mistake the tough-talkin, camera-lovin, bombastic Judd for just another lawman hes as shrewd of a politician as they come, tapping into rural Americas distaste for political correctness long before Donald Trump capitalized on it.

When Judd says hes going to speak, assignment managers all across West/Central Florida stop the presses and race their crews to hear what the sheriff will say from his headquarters in Winter Haven, even though its about as remote as you can get from the newsrooms of Tampa and Orlando; you just know Judd will give you a sound bite (or six) worthy of leading a newscast.

I mean, half the state knows why Polk Co. deputies shot a fleeing suspect 68 times (they ran out of bullets).

Judd isnt just one of the most recognizable politicians in Florida; with countless TV specials and his addiction to the Dateline-style undercover sex stings, he turned himself into the most recognizable sitting sheriff in America.

You want a politician with impact?

As president of the Florida Sheriffs Association in 2013 and 2014, Judd helped steer legislative priorities, a duty he continued even after leaving the statewide post. Hes also the current president of the Major County Sheriffs of America and plays a prominent role on theMarjory Stoneman Douglas State Commission.

Judd may not spend as much time in Tallahassee as some of Florida Politics other top politicians, but his popularity, impact, and ability to influence his community certainly rivals that of any Mayor on the list.

And with no opponent on the horizon for his 2020 reelection campaign, Judd is already building his resume for Florida Politics list of the top politicians for the next decade.

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Sheriff gets robbed; why Grady Judd should have made Florida's top Politicians of the Decade - Florida Politics

Dori: Im very disappointed in Nordstrom for booting Salvation Army – MyNorthwest.com

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(AP)

This story makes me so sad because I hold Nordstrom in very high regard.

It was a fantastic first job for all three of my daughters in high school and college. Everyone holds the company in high regard. So it is from that position of respect and love that I share a story about Nordstrom that really disturbs me.

The Seattle Times had a story over Christmas about an 85-year-old man named Dick Clarke who has been bell-ringing for the Salvation Army outside of the downtown Seattle Nordstrom for 18 years. He estimated that in that time, he collected over $100,000 for the Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army does a lot of good all around the world, from feeding the hungry to disaster relief to addiction rehabilitation to fighting human trafficking to helping survivors of domestic violence.

Dori: Christian soccer player persecuted for beliefs

The Salvation Army is also an evangelical Christian organization. Some LGBTQ Nordstrom employees have apparently complained that the Salvation Army bell-ringing made them uncomfortable.

In a world of common sense and reality, the logical response to these employees would be that they need to raise the bar of what makes them uncomfortable. But we are not in a world of common sense and reality. We are in this bizarro-world where radical political correctness trumps reality.

And so, Nordstrom told the Salvation Army man that he could not ring the bell outside the store anymore, because the Salvation Army is an evangelical Christian organization that uses the money it raises for fundamental Christian principles like helping the least fortunate among us.

Instead, Nordstrom could have told the few employees who were offended, Sorry, but were a private company, the Salvation Army does a lot of incredible work around the world, and weve partnered with them. But instead, they got rid of that wonderful charity opportunity because of a small number of people.

Its a bad move by Nordstrom and Im extremely disappointed.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Tony Vagneur: Thankfully, we’ve put the brakes on skis becoming dangerous missiles – Aspen Times

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Its the old how did we get here story. A group of us fifth-graders, out on Aspen Mountain enjoying the Red Brick schools always-popular Wednesday Afternoon Activities Club, had just started down the Ridge of Bell. Whoever our leader was that day has probably gone up in a swath of cold smoke.

Stopping just behind the leader, I looked up to see a flurry of activity followed by the haunting yell of days gone by on the mountain: Ski! Ski!

When safety straps failed for one reason or another (like not being decisively buckled), there was nothing to hold the ski to the foot in case of a binding release, and the ski was suddenly turned into a deadly missile, soaring down the slope, out of control. People have died or been severely injured by such flying skis, and everyone took it seriously when it occurred.

But this was different. Coming toward me, skipping off the top of the bumps, was a definitely loose ski topped off with a securely strapped-in ski boot. Visions like that are outside the realm of believability, but youth knows no safety bounds in an emergency and I managed to trap the fast-moving missile, stopping it dead in its tracks.

The girl who owned the unusual ski/boot apparatus was not very happy as we got her put back together and started the long trek to the bottom of the mountain, her wet foot and chagrined attitude slowing things down. The next week, she was no longer in our class. Since then, Ive seen a similar scenario a couple of times.

You cant talk about safety straps without talking about long thongs, those long leather lengths that held our boots to our bindings (about 3 feet long). In the early days, there were no safety bindings and our ski boot toes were held in place by two steel plates, one on each side of the ski. Long thongs were pulled tight against the heel of our boots, making sure the toe couldnt come loose at an inopportune time.

We pulled those long thongs very tight and no one ever came out of the ski binding, let alone the boot. There were several ways of wrapping the leather straps around boots, creating a visible pattern on the back of the boot, but practically all of them in Aspen were done in the same way, simply because we were fashion-conscious, I reckon.

When safety bindings came along, mainly in the form of Marker toes (at least to us), long thongs were still essential to keep your boot solidly against the Marker toe. Marker also had a spring latch that was snapped shut over the heel to keep the boot securely fastened. No safety release on the heel.

When you fell at a high rate of speed and your new Marker safety toe released, one or both skis would be freed from your feet, but would still be attached to you by the long thongs. The skis would flail around in all directions as the straps unraveled, hitting your body, sometimes gashing your head or shins. If you were lucky, you didnt get hurt by the gnashing of the ski edges and got up and put yourself together again. Such falls were aptly described as egg beaters, only in reality they were body beaters.

Many different models of safety release bindings were developed over the years, but the one remaining issue was that of safety straps or long thongs. Until, one bright and glorious day, wop stops appeared on the Aspen scene. Via radio, Robin Perry sent me out of the patrol room one day to stop a skier getting off Lift No. 3 he said the skier had no safety straps.

Said skier was chagrined to be stopped for such a violation, and after showing and describing the invention beneath his ski boot, a spring-loaded device that dug into the snow when the ski was released from the boot, we were convinced of its effectiveness in stopping runaway skis, although company policy had to be changed to allow such things on the mountain (1976).

Wop stops (name origination long forgotten) soon appeared within the patrol room, being mounted on everything except powder skis, the reasoning of which should be clear. If a ski is attached to you during a fall in deep powder, its much easier to find.

It should be said that wop stops were referred to as such until political correctness overtook the world of public discourse. They are now an integral part of every alpine downhill binding manufactured, albeit now denoted as ski brakes. We have unfortunately lost our sense of irreverence.

Weve come a long way, baby, and were not done yet.

Tony Vagneur remembers who lost the ski and boot on the Ridge, but he aint talking. Tony writes here every Saturday and welcomes your comments at ajv@sopris.net.

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Tony Vagneur: Thankfully, we've put the brakes on skis becoming dangerous missiles - Aspen Times

Racism is already mainstream soon it might be the norm – Wired.co.uk

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Was it the whipping up of white working-class voters in Trumps election campaign? Or the toxic debate around immigration during the Brexit referendum? Or was it as early as the birth of social media, when a platform was handed to racists? However it happened, public discourse around race in the last decade slowly morphed from polite political correctness and justified outrage at even a hint of racism in public to a slow accommodation with extremist views on the far-right setting up 2020 to be the year that the veil lifts altogether, finally normalising racism in ways that we haven't seen for decades.

Racism has long existed in politics and academia, and persists in structural discrimination and everyday bias. But the idea that the ideology driving racist actions and rhetoric should somehow be given space for discussion has only recently (re)gained currency. In recent years far-right intellectuals have subtly and skilfully changed the rules of engagement, arguing for viewpoint diversity in the disingenuous insistence that they have been unfairly silenced. They argue that racial differences are so profound that the mere presence of immigrants is damaging a countrys genetic stock and cultural fabric.

Primo Levi wrote that the thing about fascism is that it wants everybody to be the same, and you are not. And it is diversity and difference that those intellectuals are against. Their argument is one that was once popular in the early 20th century, at the height of the eugenics movement, when it became fashionable to believe that certain people are good for the health of the nation and should be allowed to live and stay, while others shouldnt. Eugenics was, at the time, accepted scientific wisdom. Then it was the precursor to Nazi racial hygiene and the Holocaust.

Today, disturbingly, we are seeing a re-emergence of eugenics-style thinking on race. Steve Bannon, chief strategist to Donald Trump until 2017, has appeared on the European political scene to promote far-right populism. In March 2018 he told French nationalists: Let them call you racist, let them call you xenophobes, let them call you nativists. Wear it like a badge of honour. When in July 2019 President Trumps supporters chanted Send her back!, referring to black Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar, it was clear that politics had changed. Some of us are welcome as citizens and some of us arent.

With the help of social media and the dark web, the new racists have found each other. The burgeoning social network known as Gab, forums such as 4chan and 8chan, and groups like Generation Identity have all enabled this. A report published by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, following the mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, found that tweets referring to Great Replacement Theory (the belief that white people are being ethnically superseded) almost tripled between 2014 and 2018. The racist far-right has already become one of the biggest terrorist threats within Europe and the US.

If youre not scared yet, you soon will be. What is most worrying is how nationalists and populists who happily fan the flames of racism are being welcomed into power across the world. The racism swilling about on the dark web will no longer be languishing in the dark in 2020. It will be in parliaments, newspapers and lecture theatres in Europe, the US and across the world.

Angela Saini is author of Superior: The Return of Race Science

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Racism is already mainstream soon it might be the norm - Wired.co.uk

The common phrases midwives are banned from using – Coventry Telegraph

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A huge list of words most people use around babies are out of bounds for midwives.

Among the things they aren't supposed to say in the hospital are "good girl", "big baby", and even "delivered".

The guidance was drawn up to stop mothers from getting upset

The lengthy advice bans many words and phrases to make language more "respectful, inclusive, and less intimidating for the mother".

And it doesn't just stop there - the 'labour ward' needs to be called the 'birthing suite', apparently.

But the authors admitted some may see it as "political correctness gone mad".

Instead of telling mums "good girl" during labour, midwives have been told to say "you're doing really well" instead.

"Big baby" should be "healthy baby".

The guide also suggests avoiding the phrase "terminate pregnancy".

Instead women should be told it is a "compassionate induction".

It also stresses that midwives and obstetricians should never address the pregnant woman as a 'she' when they are discussing the situation at hand, and says they should address her by name.

The guide says this is because women should be respected as individuals, "rather than simply a container and mechanism for producing a baby".

Other advice for midwives includes avoiding using phrases that are 'anxiety-provoking, over-dramatic or violent'.

In another move, it asked for coded language, frequently used by medics to describe certain situations, to be replaced in plain English.

This includes scraping the medical term SROM, and telling the woman her water's have broken in much simpler language.

The advice was published last year in the British Medical Journal.

Its three authors were Professor Andrew Weeks, who works at the International Maternal Health Care at the University of Liverpool, Natalie Mobbs, a medical student at Liverpool, and Catherine Williams, a committee member of National Maternity Voices.

Writing in the BMJ, they said: "Although eyes may roll at the thought of 'political correctness gone mad,' the change is well founded.

"Firstly, intra-partum care must keep in pace with and reflect changes in societal norms and expectations."

They said the clinician should "ensure that the woman is in control of and involved in what is happening to her".

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The common phrases midwives are banned from using - Coventry Telegraph

A YouTube Doc Exposes What Went Down at the "Unite the Right" Rally – Hyperallergic

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From Charlottesville: The True Alt-Right

Since 2017s notorious Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, everybody wants to make a movie about white supremacists. Taika Waititi made one. Terrence Malick made one. Christian Petzold made one. Spike Lee, characteristically, made the most pointed one, ending BlacKkKlansman with a smash cut to real footage of the carnage in Charlottesville. But as these filmmakers mythologize the past in order to warn about history repeating itself, the narrative of the present is actively being rewritten by the alt-right (or as theyll be referred to here, Nazis) in an effort to cover their tracks and obfuscate the truth. We disavow Nazism or were nonviolent, the Nazis say; there were very fine people on both sides, the president says.

With this in mind, the threat that Charlottesville confronts us with is a subject perhaps best suited for documentary, a form that at least aspires to convey a more concrete sense of truth. And I posit that the most definitive and vital documentary about Charlottesville (as well as Neo-Nazism more broadly) is the almost hour-long YouTube video Charlottesville: The True Alt-Right, made by the popular video essayist known only as Shaun.

Because todays Nazis tend to be extremely online as a recruitment strategy, plenty of footage exists of the event by way of various live streams (some extant, some since deleted) filmed by the Nazis themselves. In The True Alt-Right, Shauns mission statement is simple: We should look at it. You cant get more truthful than a direct video of the event, after all, he says. Working in a uniquely 21st-century form of found footage, Shaun pieces together on-the-ground footage, after-the-fact interviews, still images, and text from the police report to construct a full and unflinching picture of the days oft-disputed events.

For the first half of the video, Shaun introduces his cameramen of intersecting Nazi streamers and traces their advancement into Charlottesvilles Emancipation Park, alternating between dynamic ground-level video footage and a flat, birds-eye view of the obviously flawed police action plan. This contextualizes the Nazis increasingly violent actions against counterprotestors, as last-minute changes to the plan sent them marching into the exact wrong location the designated counter-protest zone with no police escorts or intervention policy for when conflicts arose.

Shaun parses these dense bureaucratic documents and cryptofascist character constellations with his trademark droll, sardonic narration, which makes for a strangely compelling and often amusing experience. This is a big part of his appeal as a video essayist. (Im partial to the moment when he introduces Mike Enoch, host of the podcast The Daily Shoah, as a lovely chap after a bit of a pause.)

Most of Shauns work is visually sparse by design. Hell occasionally display text that the viewer can read along with his narration, but often his videos will rest on a static image of a skull wearing sunglasses over a dull grey background, leaving it to his dulcet tones to hold the viewers attention. Charlottesville, however, is energized by a strong sense of visual language.

The best examples of this can be found in the middle section, when Shaun reads over still images of police documentation as the Nazi cameramen and the counterprotestors gradually find themselves in greater conflict. Although no act of violence or moment of unrest is commented on directly, the viewers attention is continually drawn by the busyness of the visuals, with skirmishes often breaking out just beneath the still images or at the very edge of the frame.

The video Shaun works with here is extremely low-res, captured on always-in-motion smartphones in broad daylight and constantly compressed by limited live stream upload speeds. The images are blurry, pixelated, and sometimes datamoshed to hell. No artistic choices were happening in the creation of this footage, but the spartan, handheld quality is accidentally perfect, capturing the ugliness of an infamous day when digital hate found corporeal form and shed real blood. Its the most visceral artifact of what happened there that were ever likely to have.

Shauns approach also allows him to play a game of Spot the Swastika (or Swastika-Adjacent Iconography), the vast array of which on display here debunks the post-hoc Nazi talking point (parroted by Donald Trump) that not all of those people were white supremacists. They were or at the very least, they were content to join forces with them. The acceptable amount of Swastika flags at the rally, Shaun says, would be zero If youre willing to walk under a Nazi flag with a bunch of Nazis and make no effort to disagree with them or counter the things they say, then youre a Nazi.

In the final stretch of Charlottesville: The True Alt-Right, Shaun provides a rhetorical analysis of the dialogue recorded on these streams, which should dispel any lingering doubts regarding exactly what these people hope to achieve. Before presenting a four-minute montage of the conversations these Nazis have in private, he utilizes a technique unique to YouTube as a medium: He invites his viewer to skip forward to a certain time-stamped moment if theyd prefer not to experience an uninterrupted onslaught of hate speech. Skipping this, however, would mean missing the most mask-off moment of the entire project: a man leading a call-and-response of Gas the k*kes, race war now! The man calls this the first precept of the true alt-right.

This video should serve as a wake-up call for people to understand just how seriously to take the reemergence of Nazism in America, especially as they continually attempt to rehabilitate their image. This is exactly how we should remember these people, Shaun says in the final minutes. Charlottesville: The True Alt-Right stands as a testament to that memory.

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A YouTube Doc Exposes What Went Down at the "Unite the Right" Rally - Hyperallergic

The Monsey Attack Shows Anti-Semitic Violence Isn’t Always Tied to the Far Right – Reason

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The Jewish community of New York City is reeling after a string of alleged hate crimes, including vandalism targeting Jewish institutions and a horrific Saturday night attack on a rabbi's home in the suburb of Monsey that left several people seriously wounded.

The alleged assailant, Grafton Thomas, entered the rabbi's home shortly after 10:00 p.m. during the seventh night of Hannukkah and began slashing people with a longsword.

Thomas's motivations are unknown, and friends report that he is mentally ill. But he is an African American man, which means that he probably wasn't motivated by white supremacy, a connection to the alt-right, or a fondness for the rhetoric of President Donald Trumpall of which are often posited as explanations for a purported spike in anti-Semitism in recent years.

Last May, when I testified before the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties about a supposed rise in white nationalism and hate crimes, I cautioned against hyperbolic interpretations of the data that would cause policymakers to be overly fearful. Indeed, the perpetrators of these attacks often do not fit the profile of the kind of MAGA-worshipping alt-right terrorist that the House subcommittee hearing was so worried about, particularly in New York City, where so many of the recent incidents have taken place. "The overwhelming majority of the alleged perpetrators in New York are either black or Hispanic, and casting anti-Semitism as an issue pitting Jews against various other minority groups threatens to re-agitate problems that many in the Jewish and surrounding communities hope no longer exist," wrote Tablet's Armin Rose in a July piece about anti-Semitism in New York City.

Though far-right anti-Semitism is the most familiar type for a media obsessed with finding the anti-Trump angle to every news story, there is indeed plenty of contempt for Jewish people on all ideological and racial-identity-based extremes. Campus leftism is sometimes tinged with anti-Semitism, and progressive activists have often associated with known anti-Semites. The Jersey City shooters had a connection to the Black Hebrew Israelites, a black nationalist cult best known for precipitating the Covington incident.

This is not to say that Thomas, by virtue of being black, is a likely member of the group or an activist for a leftist or black nationalist cause. In fact, it would be unsurprising if he had no broader motivation. Murder is usually non-ideological: Just a tiny number of killings each year can be credibly connected to a political agenda.

"There is little evidence that these attacks are ideologically motivated, at least in terms of the ideologies of hate we are most familiar with," wrote Batya Ungar-Sargon inForward.

The left shouldn't ignore anti-Semitism when its perpetrators are inconvenient targets who contradict the progressive doctrine of intersectionalitya doctrine that grants sainthood to the marginalized while glossing over very real infighting among different historically oppressed groups. The same goes for the right, which often turns a blind eye to anti-Semitism among its own ranks.

And everybody should make sure that they aren't succumbing to unfounded panic in general. It's right to be very concerned, and very angry, about attacks and intimidation directed at Jewish people, but we should also demand more reportingand more accuratereportingabout the scale of the problem. Nationally, it's not clear that anti-Semitic violence is rising dramatically, since tallies often include anti-Semitic taunts, schoolyard bullying, and online writings. And while anti-Semitic incidents have increased in New York City by 53 percentfrom 111 incidents to 170from 2018 to 2019, according to the NYPD, the overwhelming majority of anti-Semitic incidents are classified by police as "criminal mischief," which typically means vandalism and graffiti. Just 13 percent of incidents involved violence.

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The Monsey Attack Shows Anti-Semitic Violence Isn't Always Tied to the Far Right - Reason