Hey, let’s make Shelley Garland dictator
[See UPDATE below.]
What could possibly go wrong?
When I read this HuffPo piece that Garland wrote, I kept looking for the angle. No, it wasn’t published on April Fool’s Day. No, it doesn’t seem to be satirical or a parody. It seems to be serious.
If real rather than fake, and written by an actual person (I couldn’t find anything else about Garland, so I continue to be somewhat skeptical), it’s chilling. Here’s a little excerpt, to get the flavor of it:
Some of the biggest blows to the progressive cause in the past year have often been due to the votes of white men. If white men were not allowed to vote, it is unlikely that the United Kingdom would be leaving the European Union, it is unlikely that Donald Trump would now be the President of the United States, and it is unlikely that the Democratic Alliance would now be governing four of South Africa’s biggest cities.
If white men no longer had the vote, the progressive cause would be strengthened. It would not be necessary to deny white men indefinitely ”“ the denial of the vote to white men for 20 years (just less than a generation) would go some way to seeing a decline in the influence of reactionary and neo-liberal ideology in the world. The influence of reckless white males were one of the primary reasons that led to the Great Recession which began in 2008. This would also strike a blow against toxic white masculinity, one that is long needed.
At the same time, a denial of the franchise to white men, could see a redistribution of global assets to their rightful owners. After all, white men have used the imposition of Western legal systems around the world to reinforce modern capitalism. A period of twenty years without white men in the world’s parliaments and voting booths will allow legislation to be passed which could see the world’s wealth far more equitably shared. The violence of white male wealth and income inequality will be a thing of the past.
You get the drift. All written with unapologetic pride in finding what she thinks is a really good idea that would solve all sorts of problems with a wave of her magic white-man-disenfranchising wand and make the world a better place, as Shelley Garland defines better.
Hey, why not? There’s no tyranny like progressive tyranny. Just ask Sarah Conly.
Among other things, the fact that Shelley Garland purports to be a graduate student anywhere (I believe she may be South African, although it’s hard to ascertain) is sobering. Has she ever studied history, for example? Does she have any sense of irony? Does she even understand what liberty is, much less how to protect it?
UPDATE 4/15/17 9:43 PM
I read the HuffPo article by “Shelley Garland” and wrote the draft of this post on Friday, polished it a bit later, and slapped it up there around noon on Saturday (today), and went out for the day and evening. Apparently, around the time I published it, HuffPo pulled the “Garland” piece, writing this:
We have done this because the blog submission from an individual who called herself Shelley Garland, who claimed to be an MA student at UCT, cannot be traced and appears not to exist.
We have immediately bolstered and strengthened our blogging procedures that, until now, have operated on the basis of open communication and good faith. From now on, bloggers will have to verify themselves.
We will hold discussions on putting in place even better quality controls.
Now, I don’t expect HuffPo to send a private detective to authenticate every fact about every writer they publish. But just common sense would tell them to be very, very careful about that one. It reeked of satire, and I mentioned several times my own doubt about whether it was real or some sort of satire or scam. Why didn’t they see that obviously they were going to need to check this one out with extra-special care?
Was it because they knew it was click-bait? Was it just laziness on their part? Or did the piece seem rather mainstream to them, and therefore didn’t raise any alarms at all?
Garland is a a leftist, sexist nutter.
The Democratic Alliance is not a party of white men, nor is it governing South Africa’s four largest cities, which would be Jo-burg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban.
As to Brexit, is it really necessary to say that Britains are historically white, that whites are part of the racially blind right to vote in America?
This nutter merits no attention.
Hey, why add two “Y”s when one gets the same job done?
“There’s no tranny like progressive tranny”
The Prescience of Neo: And now HuffPo’s pulled the article:
“Huffington Post SA has removed the blog “Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?” published on our Voices section on April 13, 2017.
We have done this because the blog submission from an individual who called herself Shelley Garland, who claimed to be an MA student at UCT, cannot be traced and appears not to exist.”
Yes, white men are a bunch of knuckle draggers who have brought the West unparalleled prosperity. Who defended the free world from Nazism, Japanese Bushido, and the Communist USSR. Who are now taking on the task of defeating radical Islam. Most major inventions that have driven the industrial and tech revolutions were accomplished by white men. The free world sits on the shoulders of policies devised by white men. (The free world is presently trying to recover from the policies devised by a non-white man.)
So, by all means let us disenfranchise white men. Let us be governed by feelings, intuitions, and good intentions. Let us provide the equal outcomes that lead to equality of misery.
Unfortunately, the thinking of Shelley Garland is all too common. It is both laughably insane and terribly frightening.
Lara Witt, who perfectly epitomizes today’s fanatical young SJW, recently declared via Twitter that “white people are evil, and whiteness is evil”, despite having both a white father and a white husband. To many on the left, this would not be an extreme or unwarranted opinion.
Amen, JJ.
Disenfranchising white people has, of course, been tried, as this person mentioned today on twitter:
https://twitter.com/OrwellNGoode/status/852965117696389120
Apparently white women have to go also:
http://lawnewz.com/crazy/i-wanted-to-punch-her-in-the-throat-dem-lawmaker-facing-backlash-for-violent-comment-about-gop-woman/
Horrific solutions for humanity, presented as kindly humanitarianism, seems to be a recurrent progressive specialty.
There are quite a few old film clips of progressive champions speaking banal, kindly evil in their own words, such as George Bernard Shaw and Margaret Sanger.
Here’s one of Shaw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Ljkoh_vmE
I developed a nightmarish feeling about the Fabians. Naturally, red meat for conspiracy theories. I thought they were a myth, but the founding of that outfit is noted in my old 1948 history book.
My fear was moderated somewhat after watching clip with a couple of anti Fabians blaming the Jews for creating Fabians- antisemitism is my handy all purpose signal for exposing dingbats.
But, the Fabians sprang to mind when I read that huffpo piece.
It’s telling that she would select South Africa, the only nation with a “progressive” constitution, that establishes [class] diversity (e.g. racism, sexism) to discriminate between individuals, and normalize abortion rites (e.g. selective-child, one-child), as the highest law of the land.
As for capitalism, it is not the problem. The real problem is schemes that engender or obfuscate monopolies and practices (e.g. redistributive change) that force economic misalignments, which are often catastrophic. The “free” scheme can and often does cost more than affordable. Perpetual smoothing functions (e.g. welfare) can and do cause progressive corruption and spiritual destruction.
There are moral (i.e. individual dignity, intrinsic value), natural (e.g. finitely available, accessible resources; procreation), and personal (e.g. wealth, pleasure, leisure, and narcissistic indulgence) imperatives. Go forth and reconcile.
Judging people by the “color of their skin” (e.g. [class] diversity, colorful clumps of cells) is a clear and progressive (i.e. monotonic) threat to the viability of civilized societies, and babies (“our Posterity”), too.
Hahaha, Rwanda. Uganda and Idi Amin. Mao.
And name one “progressive” black mayor who hasn’t turned into a crook. I’m sure there are some. Name one in Detroit. Take a tour of the ruins of Detroit.
“Huffington Post SA has removed the blog “Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?” published on our Voices section on April 13, 2017.
We have done this because the blog submission from an individual who called herself Shelley Garland, who claimed to be an MA student at UCT, cannot be traced and appears not to exist.”
In other words, the good-thinking progressives at HuffPo have no objection to the racist, sexist, hateful content of the blog submission. Had the author been properly identified, they’d have considered this a fine topic for discussion.
“Has she ever studied history, for example? Does she have any sense of irony? Does she even understand what liberty is, much less how to protect it?” neo
Liberty for me, not for thee.
Totalitarians and sociopaths are bereft of irony or humor.
“”Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.” Ayatollah Khomeini
We are all familiar with Santayana’s maxim, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I recently read of the corollary; “Those who do remember the past are condemned to be witness to those who cannot remember the past’s lessons… repeat them”.
The old Rush Limbaugh word “Feminazi” comes to mind.
KRB
It’s impossible to tell a wacko slice of prog-think from a sophisticated hoax. This is not a recent phenomenon.
I offer the notorious 1967 polemic, “The SCUM Manifesto,” by Valerie Solanis. SCUM, to be sadly specific, is an acronym: “Society for Cutting Up Men.” Solanis really-O, truly-O meant castrating all men and ultimately phasing them out in the species by parthenogenesis. Pretty cool!
A year later Solanis further cemented her reputation by shooting the grand patriarch, Andy Warhol, near-fatally in the abdomen and shortening his life by a good number of years.
Nonetheless, Robin Morgan, a top second-wave feminist, included the Solanis piece in her revered feminist anthology, “Sisterhood is Powerful.” To this day feminists still tug their chins and mutter over the significance of Valerie Solanis.
“Why I love this feminist who hit nuns and shot Andy Warhol”
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2014/09/why-i-love-this-feminist-who-hit-nuns-and-shot-andy-warhol/
Despite the reference to Brexit and Trump, something about this piece rings old bells … as if it is a reworking of something written half a dozen, or somewhat more years ago.
You are right to suspect it.
DNW: I think I know the reference you allude to, but I can’t pull it back either.
As I recall, it did turn out to be a hoax.
At the end of their explanation of why the blog was pulled, PuffHo added two paragraphs about “Discrimination and Hate Speech”. I’m not entirely sure why they included this pabulum, but it reminded me of this timely message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9cYuQonbXs
Thanks for the link, Sarah. Yes, Zimbabwe, the ultimate experiment in driving the white men out.
‘Twas once the bread basket of Africa. Reminds me of the Alexandra Fuller books, “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” and “Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness.” Wonderful stories of Southern Rhodesia as it was becoming Zimbabwe and then Mugabe’s Communist paradise for black Africans only. Such a lovely country, now ruined by the twin evils of Communism and racism. A cautionary tale, if there ever was one.
huxley@6:15,
How ironic! Nuns and homesexual men who do not reproduce as proponents for a world dominated by white heterosexual men. These dangerous idiots, should they ever achieve their goals will be the first victims of their utopia.
Once upon a time Ian Smith was the Big Bad White Guy in Rhodesia — he was the PM before Rhodesia morphed into Zimbabwe.
Years later, after Mugabe, even blacks remembered Smith with some gratitude.
“Huffington Post SA has removed the blog ‘Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?’ published on our Voices section on April 13, 2017.
“We have done this because the blog submission from an individual who called herself Shelley Garland, who claimed to be an MA student at UCT, cannot be traced and appears not to exist.”
I’m reminded of an academic journal submission that was deliberately placed gobbledygook, and was accepted for publication; it seems the article touched all the right bases, had all the requisite buzzwords, you-all undoubtedly know the drill.
(I don’t have the reference and I’m too lazy to try to dig it out. Maybe it rings a bell for someone else out there.)
I love it when pretentious and/or duplicitous forces are unmercifully unmasked. They ought to be permanent laughing stocks, but unfortunately, these forces are serious and serious people adhere to their (respective) poisons.
Also a novel.
I seem to remember a soft porn novel, in which each chapter was written by a different person. Called “Naked Came The Stranger”, I think . . . ?
Not an unmasking nor a hoax-with-a-purpose, but in some way maybe in a similar genre, nonetheless.
Ok. Couldn’t resist. Set the computer for a file search of my “leftist Ideology” files and the like; and nothing exact came up.
There was, Erika Jong saying that “I am so tired of pink men bombing brown children and rationalizing it as fighting terrorism. I am so tired of pink men telling women (of all colors) what to do with their wombs–which connect with their brains–in case you forgot. I am so tired of pink men …”
There were debates on the Second Amendment with progressives proclaiming how only sexually inadequate and insufficiently community minded white males have and interest in such rights …
There was ‘down with males feminism’, and stuff I have not reviewed which more or less implied what was being discussed.
But not that language.
I had had however, no idea I had saved up so much in the way of screeds extolling leftist pop ideology, from Randi Rhodes to Mark Morford.
“Mark Morford”. Now there’s a head-case. If anyone male had written something along those lines as a provocation piece. it would have had to have been the SF Gate hysteric and Yoga devotee Mark Morford.
Or, maybe Robert “Why are white men so screwed up?” Scheer; or Ted Rall or … well … I guess there are a lot of possibilities.
Ooookay …
Happy Easter, again.
Deconstructing physics …https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair
OK. Now I am really going. Really …. Honest … All done …
The retraction also points out that South African law guarantees Freedom of Speech, except for the obvious exceptions, which of course are all possible exceptions.
“Mark Morford”. Now there’s a head-case.
Mark was one of my yoga teachers. He was an assistant at Pretzel’s Yoga off Potrero Hill in San Francisco.
Pretzel was a Romanian contortionist who had morphed into a Yoga teacher and settled in San Francisco. Like many Iron Curtain folk who made it to America, she always had an eye for the main chance.
She once asked me if I were rich and I said, not really. She said, too bad and kept smiling. I didn’t think badly of her for it. I did some computer work for her. She was always straight with me. She saw the crazy money thing happening in San Francisco and moved her studio to Austin.
Mark Morford was this handsome, buff, Burning Man guy with great tats and one nipple ring. He gave a tough yoga workout the more athletic yoga kids liked.
I read his column and wrote back a few times. Like a lot of Burning Man people IMO he had a pretty high smug ass**** quotient.
Whether this was a parody article or not, Sherlock Holmes keeps trying to direct my attention to the dog that failed to bark.
We all know, had a similar article been written about any minority group that this story would have exploded across the news stream, and people would have moved heaven, hell and earth to find the author in order to extract the proper punishment. We need to look no further than the events at Middlebury College against Charles Murray or even the complaints against White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. If I may beg a question, why is this event so low key? Why didn’t the dogs bark?
KRB
J.J. Says:
April 15th, 2017 at 1:31 pm
* *
Indeed.
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M J R Says:
April 15th, 2017 at 7:53 pm
and
DNW Says:
April 15th, 2017 at 8:29 pm
* *
I actually read the book published about The Sokal Hoax, and was blown away at what a reputable journal accepted as a serious paper – total garbage.
But as noted here
huxley Says:
April 15th, 2017 at 6:15 pm
“It’s impossible to tell a wacko slice of prog-think from a sophisticated hoax. This is not a recent phenomenon.”
the academics long ago passed the point of being able to tell real research from fake in some fields.
PowerLine runs frequent posts with citations of inpenetrable “papers” —
huxley Says:
April 15th, 2017 at 8:49 pm
“Mark Morford”. Now there’s a head-case.
Mark was one of my yoga teachers. He was an assistant at Pretzel’s Yoga off Potrero Hill in San Francisco.
…I read his column and wrote back a few times. Like a lot of Burning Man people IMO he had a pretty high smug ass**** quotient.
* **
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=j+p+sears+yoga
How to Take Yoga Photos for Instagram – Ultra Spiritual Life episode
A bit OT: “The influence of reckless white males were [sic] one of the primary reasons…” I often hear this single subject/plural verb construct on NPR. Is this now considered okay?
As others have noted, this reminds me of the Sokal affair.
As an ex-modern day liberal I find it much easier to pass as such than trying to pass as a non-regressive. When regressive’s try their hand at espousing non-regressive ideas and concepts I always smell something fishy. As if they’re reading from a script or check list. More often than not it’s some fool trying to fool those he/she thinks are backwards rubes. Oh the irony.