Open Thread for Non-Personal Stuff: January 2016 Party Girls Edition

Mammothhunters (or are you the Mammotheaters?) I have a question.

My local government has a women’s initiative group. I’m pretty lukewarm to it, because frankly it seems like a place for rich white women to congregate and network and get each other jobs at city hall. That said, I didn’t have a serious problem with the whole thing until they “opened a dialogue” on social media with a certain video game related movement/gang of misogynists that happens to target and attack women on a regular basis, because dialogue with abusers is more important than actually advocating for women, I guess.

I spoke up about the… eh… disconnect, and the initiative people pretty much told me to take a hike for “spreading hate” against the poor gamers who just care about ethics in journalism. They’re currently being lovebombed by the video game people who are going on about professional victims and how we hurt feminism and free speech — the usual talking points. (Odd that they’re currying favor with predominantly men who are predominantly from outside the city, given their mandate… my tax dollars at work.) I know in my bones that the gamers are laughing their butts off somewhere about how they got a feminist organization to embrace them whilst telling off another feminist who tried to warn them of the mistake they were making. Buuut, there doesn’t seem to be much I can do.

Any ideas? I love my city. I don’t want it to become either a laughingstock or to actually ally itself with a hategroup, but I’m not sure what to do. I don’t really know who to even ask, but I thought you folks might be able to give me some suggestions.

Yeah, I could try that. I mean, even the Wikipedia article is reasonably clear on the whole issue.

I’m also thinking about trying to contact my city councillor, but I don’t know what’s going to make the situation worse, you know? For me or for the city. I’ve been blocking people all day on account of having drawn attention to myself, while the initiative people don’t seem to have written me off as being a “hater”. The manipulation is really disheartening.

@darkstatistc: maybe try to talk to one person from the initiative in a more private setting, if you haven’t done that already? People often can be more reasonable and open if not confronted in public.

That being said, I feel for you there.

Apparently South Carolina is trying to pass a Personhood amendment.

http://mic.com/articles/133063/south-carolina-fetal-personhood-amendment-here-s-what-you-should-know-about-proposed-law#.UgbZXMFjZ

Seriously, don’t they have anything better to do?

Is that Ayn Rand in the left there?

@darkstatistic

I wouldn’t know how to solve this, really. When an organization like that wants to do something, they usually push it through regardless of any objections.

I’d just try distancing yourself from the group as much as possible for now. The initiative will collapse inevitably and they’ll forget about it.

My bad! Wrong thread! I’ll delete & repost where it belongs 🙂

And in good news Daniel Holzclaw (the Crybaby Cop) sentenced to 263 years.

I was very disappointed in Sander following his comments on slavery reparations. I thought Ta-Nehisi Coates said it best:

Last week Bernie Sanders was asked whether he was in favor of “reparations for slavery.” It is worth considering Sanders’s response in full:

No, I don’t think so. First of all, its likelihood of getting through Congress is nil. Second of all, I think it would be very divisive. The real issue is when we look at the poverty rate among the African American community, when we look at the high unemployment rate within the African American community, we have a lot of work to do.

So I think what we should be talking about is making massive investments in rebuilding our cities, in creating millions of decent paying jobs, in making public colleges and universities tuition-free, basically targeting our federal resources to the areas where it is needed the most and where it is needed the most is in impoverished communities, often African American and Latino.

For those of us interested in how the left prioritizes its various radicalisms, Sanders’s answer is illuminating. The spectacle of a socialist candidate opposing reparations as “divisive” (there are few political labels more divisive in the minds of Americans than socialist) is only rivaled by the implausibility of Sanders posing as a pragmatist. Sanders says the chance of getting reparations through Congress is “nil,” a correct observation which could just as well apply to much of the Vermont senator’s own platform.

Sanders made his name by being willing to speak plainly and to say things which violate political taboos. For him to suddenly forget that when it becomes awkward is to admit that his honestly has only ever been tactical – in which case, the man deserves no support.

So I’m in the middle of applying to co-op jobs toward my degree. I’ve secured two interviews, but mostly silence. Can somebody more familiar with MRA Facts(TM) tell me how I can invoke those magic woman Quotas(TM) they keep insisting exist so that I can get any job I want? Thanks.

Sarkeesian recently uploaded her newest Tropes Vs. Women video. This time it’s titled “Strategic Butt Coverings,” and it’s about how video games tend to have the (Het) Male Gaze.

Before watching the video, I thought the title was going to mean developers trying to cover their own butts about how they portray (or don’t portray) women. Like Kojima giving an insultingly ridiculous “justification” for why Quiet from the latest Metal Gear Solid game is dressed for fanservice.

Crap. The first criminal harassment case via Twitter in Canada ended up with a not guilty verdict. Manosphere gloating will ensue. http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2016/01/22/verdict-in-alleged-harassment-of-toronto-feminists-could-change-the-twitterverse.html

Bernie Sanders has a lot of fangirls, too, and the really dedicated ones are equally obnoxious. When I’ve said anything even slightly critical about Bernie and race issues I’ve been called a paid Hillary shill (aka Shillary) and one guy accused me of trying to influence a U.S. election. White supremacy is on full display with these people. Bernie’s worst enemy in this election is his own fans. Some of them literally act like right-wing zealots.

I loved that article by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Re: Bernie Sanders

Some of my friends are involved in his campaign. We’ve been discussing a lot about electability issues (I’m not particularly ‘political’ but I’m interested in the mechanics of politics). We’ve been looking a lot at the analysis of the last general election over here for instance.

One factor that seems to crop up is this (I’d be interested in your thoughts and my friends will be too)

One difference between right leaning voters and left leaning voters (to use a convenient shorthand) is that right voters will vote for a party or candidate even if they have some policies that the voter doesn’t like so long as, overall, they prefer that manifesto.

Whereas left voters adopt a “black ball” approach. I.e. If there’s even one policy the candidate has that they don’t like, they won’t vote for them, even if they like the rest of the platform.

The suggestion is that this is down to a “not in my name” philosophy.

Left voters believe that if they support a candidate’s general platform they are also endorsing the parts they find distasteful. Whereas on the right a voter might say “well of course I don’t support him on (x), my vote was because of his policy on (y & z)”

There are some very politically astute people on here, anyy thoughts on this?