The left’s Meltdown of Kavanaugh Rage Pot Luck & Hootenanny has certainly been entertaining. Corey Booker’s Concern Face alone was worth the price of admission.
By far the most amusing has been the spectacle of liberal men falling on their Nerf swords to advance the fiction that Brett Kavanaugh was guilty of -- well, it doesn’t matter what, exactly. The important thing is that The Bitter Injustice enters the left/media bloodstream and becomes conventional wisdom. (This is something the left excels at: The Supreme Court “gave” George W. Bush the presidency. JFK was murdered by racist Texas conservatives, rather than a committed communist who lived in Russia and had recently been to Cuba’s Mexico City embassy.)
These “feminist” men can’t debase themselves fast enough or thoroughly enough at the altar of feminist anger. Last week, eunuch Michael Kauffman from Salon assured us that “we are watching the colossus of patriarchy tumble to the ground.” Now here comes Emory University philosophy prof George Yancy in the New York Times to rend his garments and declare “#IAmSexist.”
Yancy’s piece is so overwrought I first thought it was satire, an effort to troll conservatives by spoofing the likes of Kauffman: “In fact, perhaps it is time that we lay claim to a movement — #IamSexist. Think about its national and international implications as we take responsibility for our sexism, our misogyny, our patriarchy,” Yancy writes.
I am a failed and broken feminist. More pointedly, I am sexist. There are times when I fear for the “loss” of my own “entitlement” as a male. Toxic masculinity takes many forms. All forms continue to hurt and to violate women … If you are a woman reading this, I have failed you. Through my silence and an uninterrogated collective misogyny, I have failed you. I have helped and continue to help perpetuate sexism. I know about how we hold onto forms of power that dehumanize you only to elevate our sense of masculinity. I recognize my silence as an act of violence. For this, I sincerely apologize.
Apparently, he’s serious. (BTW, It helps if you imagine him writing in the “good Smeagol” voice.)
I know, I know. The only appropriate response to something as embarrassing as this is “Grow a set.” And normally I’d agree. But we aren’t talking about just hurting and violating. Why, these acts are “soul murders” (and not the kind that involve Michael Bolton covering Percy Sledge). Forthwith, I shall dispense with the narrative and detail some of these heinous spirit exterminations:
- Before I got married, I insisted that my wife take my last name …
Monster!
- Either I should without question objectify girls’ behinds or I was gay. There was no wiggle room for me to be both antisexist and antimisogynistic and yet a heterosexual young boy.
- As early as elementary school, the young boys would play this “game” of pushing one another into girls. The idea was to get your friend to push you into a girl that you found attractive in order to grind up against her.
- At about 16, we used to play a game called “Catch a girl, get a girl.” There was no equivalent called “Catch a boy, get a boy.” After all, as boys, we named the game. We would count to give the girls a head start. We would then run after them. If you caught a girl, you could steal a kiss. Some of the boys attempted to grope the girls.
Sounds like some of the boys needed some of the girls’ older brothers around to administer an “ass murder.” Boys -- and girls -- misbehave. Having fathers and mothers and especially older brothers around to correct that behavior goes a long way toward creating young ladies and gentlemen.
As I said, Yancy’s groveling is amusing. I’m all for progressive guys sharing their soul-baring mea culpas and wailing how they’re not worthy of the women they profess to care so deeply about. It’s always funny to watch someone “welcome our new insect overlords.”
Quick Take: But how does the Korean First Armored Division feel about Dukakis ’92? From Vox: “In January 2018, a surprising clothing item popped up on the South Korean fashion scene: boxy oversize T-shirts with the logo of Jesse Jackson’s 1988 US presidential campaign.”
A really modest proposal: Consider the rich creativity of modern Hollywood. To thrill to the 12th installment of Transformers or guffaw at the cutting-edge topical humor of the latest sitcom reboot is to ask yourself, “Don’t these wizards ever run out of fresh ideas?” Fox just dug up Sinbad, for goodness sake!
And creativity goes beyond content. Check out the new anti-gun effort by the production company Level Forward. Level Forward is a feminist outfit that wants to be “gun-neutral.” That sounds like it's not taking a position on guns. And that would make sense, since nobody asked Level Forward anyway.
But it’s so much more clever than that. For every gun featured in a Level Forward-produced film, beginning with the forthcoming American Woman, the company will “destroy 10 firearms,” according to Variety. “For the 69 guns featured on screen in that pic, 690 will be destroyed, Level Forward founders Adrienne Becker and Abigail Disney announced Thursday.”
Not only that, “The initiative also calls for Level Forward to invest in arts programs for youths in communities affected by gun violence,” Variety said. Wow, why hasn’t anyone thought of throwing cash at troubled communities before?
Once upon a time arrangements like this were known as “buying indulgences.”
It seems Level Forward is working with an anti-gun group called One Less Gun “spearheaded by artist Carl McCrow to identify stockpiles of firearms that can be taken out of circulation.” So McCrow raids crack houses and meth labs to disarm thugs before taking their guns to a smelter? Uh, well, no. One Less Gun’s website explains that:
The UN has identified stockpile management and control as one of the most acute small arms problems. "Leaking" Government stockpiles are prominent sources of illegal small arms in circulation. Access to guns in countries emerging from conflict need to be reduced, if this doesn't happen these weapons eventually find themselves in the wrong hands and lives are destroyed. Simply the best way to address this issue is to destroy the weapon before this happens.
So the stockpiles are overseas in war-torn Third World nations. That doesn’t exactly tackle the bloodbath in Chicago, but hey, think globally, act … globally. How does this work exactly?
One tactic is for One Less Gun to trade agricultural equipment for guns. Makes sense, as long as you don’t have to defend your farm, or you don’t own a farm. He’s another more, er, creative approach from One Less Gun’s site:
This program is currently being discussed with a number of governments around the world. It offers gun owners amnesty to deliver their weapons for destruction and inclusion in a planned sculpture in a prestigious city location. Contributors to the sculptor retain a proportional ownership of the artistic piece calculated on the weight of their contribution.
Imagine for a moment you’re a poor tenant farmer or laborer or mechanic living in a Third World country that for the last 50 years has had civil war punctuated by sectarian violence occasionally interrupted by tribal conflicts and played out to the constant accompaniment of ambient banditry. You have a small home and family. That Chinese-made AK-47 in the corner is your best friend.
One day a European from an NGO drives up in a Land Rover. He wants your AK . “Not for sale,” you say. “Go to the village Saturday morning. There’s a big arms fair. You can get all the AKs you want. Rocket launchers too. They also have some very yummy local baked goods and artisanal goat cheeses.”
No, he doesn’t want to buy it. He explains that he wants to take it and make it part of a really visionary modern art sculpture in the village, that you’ll be part-owner of.
“So I lose my only means of protecting my family?”
“Well … yes.”
“So that you can put some eyesore in the middle of the village, where they hold the arms fair every Saturday?”
“Yes, perhaps people will like to look at it while they nibble goat cheese …”
“And who does this help, exactly?”
“Some wealthy Hollywood women who want to feel okay about putting guns in movies.”
The next sound is the squealing of MR. NGO’s Land Rover tires as your wife begs you not to shoot him.
It must suck to be a bitter liberal, episode 437,982. Remember Sears for its sexism and the legacy of unequal workplaces that it gave us. -- Slate
Something to wash down that Pow Wow Chow, Senator? A little-known secret of “woke” journalism: it’s mostly generated by computer apps -- especially the soft lifestyle pieces about how terrifically brave it is to be a pioneering transexual ambulance driver or the first Wiccan bishop of the Episcopal church.
Take this recent story from Munchies, the Vice food site. Clearly, the editors punched a few variables into the Intersectional Inspirational 3300, and it spit out a tale about Native American lesbian brewers. The article featured the Bow & Arrow Brewing Co., which is, Munchies tells us (and I believe it!) “the only Native woman-owned brewery in the U.S.” Even better, the Native woman in question has sex with another Native woman, making both Native women and their brewery super interesting and awesomely non-patriarchal!
Owners Shyla Sheppard and Missy Begay boasted impressive professional achievements before opening the brewery, but other than that, the II3300 shows why its known as “Old Reliable” in the identity lifestyle biz. The Bow and Arrow is:
a radically inclusive space, a haven for the local LGBTQ and indigenous communities, as well as anyone else who wants to come drink a cold one. What’s more, in a small yet significant way, these two women are helping to redefine perceptions of Native-American culture by incorporating their heritage in a way that feels contemporary but not watered down for mass-consumption.
Apparently, the brewery is decorated in a really meaningful philosophical way:
“Every element here has a story. We’re from different tribes, but both of our families are very artistic. I have relatives that do beadwork and regalia, and Missy is related to silversmiths and weavers,” Sheppard says. “Ultimately, both of us bring this strong connection to and respect for the land. We grew up with these ceremonies and these ways of life, so we’ve just carried that forward.”
And there’s a big buffalo head on the wall. That’s not kitchy, it’s an excuse to impart some wisdom of the land. “‘My grandfather used to raise buffalo,’ Shyla Sheppard tells me. ‘When I was growing up, we were told to be like the buffalo, because they never turn their back on a storm. They face it.’”
Hmm. My grandfather used to fix Greyhound buses. When I was growing up he told me to be like the people who spend the money for seats in the front of the bus. They didn’t have to smell the toilet.
Anyway, the two “have used the beer hall to host events ranging from Pride celebrations to a panel dedicated to bolstering women in the forest service.” A noble cause to be sure, and one only the II3300 could have come up with. “Through their actions and entrepreneurial success in a largely male-dominated industry, the two women are challenging preconceptions of what a leader in the craft beer community can look like.”
If it never occurred to you to wonder if there is such a thing as a “leader in the craft beer community,” let alone preconceive what one looks like, well, you probably have your ass to the storm.
