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Progressive or Parody? Tag

When I first heard that President Trump is considering releasing illegal aliens into sanctuary cities, I laughed. Out loud.  There may have been giggling, too, as I pondered the implications and read the outraged outraging of the left. My first thought was "perfect! This is Alinsky in action: make them live by their own rules."  My second thought was "this has a touch of Cloward-Piven, too, overwhelm the systems of the sanctuary cities, and voters there may decide they don't like living in a sanctuary city after all."

Just when you think we may have seen peak "social justice insanity," there is a news item showing that we have clearly not yet topped out! Despite having 15th largest economy in the world and being the third most populous country in the Americas, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has demanded that the Spanish government apologize for the conquistadors.

Leftist billionaire Tom Steyer has made no secret of his desire to see President Trump impeached, and he has been putting his billions where his mouth is. His latest ad-buy via his Next Gen PAC goes beyond attacking Trump and demonizes every left-leaning, centrist, and right-leaning American who votes Republican in this country.  Given Democrats' massive, humiliating losses at every level of government, that's a lot of people. The "Mother's Day" ad warns that the GOP is turning kids into misogynist, thieving, Trump-supporting bullies who march for white supremacy.

When I first saw this story, I thought maybe it was a hoax, or at least parody. But apparently it's for real, or at least the campus newspaper The Spectator treats it as being real. It's about my alma mater, Hamilton College, which has seen its share of social justice activism in recent years reflecting a generational faculty shift to the left.  Hamilton is a textbook example of how a relatively small group of left-wing faculty activists can take over an institution, as detailed in our 2012 post, Western Civilization driven off campus at Hamilton College.

Several weeks ago a series of fliers appeared on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Most of the hateful fliers disparaged American Jews as privileged whites and connected this alleged ‘Jewish privilege’ to social injustice in the U.S. Others drew on classic antisemitic tropes of Holocaust denial and the new form of Jew-hatred in which Israel is compared to Nazi Germany. In a statement, university administrators condemned the antisemitic fliers that "defame, insult and negatively portray Jewish members of our campus community." They're reportedly conducting a full investigation, but as of this writing those responsible for creating and distributing the fliers are still unknown.

A writer for the Huffington Post named La Sha has found an upside to the story of the American college student being imprisoned in North Korea. He's finally been stripped of his white male privilege. I wish I could say this is parody, but it isn't:
North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal “That’s what the hell he gets. Good for him!” My mother had uttered those words in her typical matter-of-fact tone one morning as she watched the news. “He” was Michael Fay, an 18-year-old from Ohio who had confessed to vandalizing cars in Singapore, and was subsequently sentence to six lashes from a rattan cane. I was in sixth grade and all I could imagine was how horrible the pain would be. My mother was unmoved at the thought, remarking, “He earned that.”

Let's play, Progressive or Parody. Some students at Brown University devote so much of their time to activism they are getting stressed out, and it's creating mental health problems. (h/t @JeffreyGoldberg) From the Brown University Daily Herald, Schoolwork, advocacy place strain on student activists:
Two weeks ago, the University released the final version of its diversity and inclusion action plan, which could not have been compiled without the exhaustive efforts of students throughout last semester. “There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” said David, an undergraduate whose name has been changed to preserve anonymity. Throughout the year, he has worked to confront issues of racism and diversity on campus.

While Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had many well-known speeches and quotes, I think it's fair to say that his "I Have a Dream" speech is his most famous. And in that most famous speech, the following line may be the most famous:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
In a campus world of affirmative action based in part on the color of one's skin, and a hyper-sensitive microaggression mania, I've wondered how long it would take for Dr. King's most famous line to be repudiated. There is an irreconcilable tension between Dr.King's call to not base the evaluation of people on the color of their skin, and the modern progressive demand that skin color (and other immutable characteristics) be a central focus of everything.

Now they've gone too far. Someone tell me this is a hoax, and we've all been had. Progressive or Parody? But, I fear this report from The Ottawa Sun is not a joke. Free Ottawa yoga class scrapped over 'cultural issues':
Student leaders have pulled the mat out from 60 University of Ottawa students, ending a free on-campus yoga class over fears the teachings could be seen as a form of "cultural appropriation." Jennifer Scharf, who has been offering free weekly yoga instruction to students since 2008, says she was shocked when told in September the program would be suspended, and saddened when she learned of the reasoning. Staff at the Centre for Students with Disabilities believe that "while yoga is a really great idea and accessible and great for students ... there are cultural issues of implication involved in the practice," according to an email from the centre....

This is gross. And also sad. Progressivism continues its inevitable descent into complete parody. According to Right Wing News, a few n'er do wellers on 4chan had a brilliant idea: see if they could convince people to, "publicly piss/sh*t their pants in the name of ‘Equality?'" feministhoax

When I saw this tweet earlier today (via @JWBritton), I was like WUT!? Spoof account? Nope, verified. True blue EPA: https://twitter.com/EPA/status/648969378852151297 The link in the tweet goes to a page that doesn't exist.

We have been covering the absurdity of the "Yes Means Yes" movement, and the violation of fundamental due process rights under the banner of "rape culture," for quite some time: In our coverage, we frequently have posted this parody video from 2007. Now life is imitating parody, as reported in The Washington Examiner (via Instapundit), Advocacy group distributes sexual 'consent contracts' to college students:

If you're not at a point in your day where you can handle a Bill Clinton bobble head teetering around in high heels and a dress, click away now, because the "Bill for First Lady 2016" meme factory is back. Anyone with a TV or internet connection knows that political ads are, for the most part, boring, demographic-specific, and safe. But this pro-Hillary 2016 group's new efforts to create excitement around another Clinton candidacy is anything but. They put a Bill Clinton bobble head in drag...and it's part of a bigger strategy to GOTV:
We are a national online grassroots movement of young Americans to support Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and make "herstory" by putting a woman in the White House. With a focus on creating youthful viral videos, catchy campaign memes and sharable social media content, as well as live "Bill" campaign events in cities and on college campuses across the nation, BillForFirstLady2016.com PAC (Political Action Committee) is a strategic effort to move, motivate and inspire younger voters to get involved.
Let's get this over with: