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Progressives Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 08, 2016 27 Comments
We've covered the speech squelching progressive concept of microaggressions at College Insurrection countless times as an impediment to free expression on campus. Now it seems this idea is entering parts of the government. Peter Hasson reports at the Daily Caller:
State Dept. Warns Employees: ‘Microaggressions’ May Count As Harassment Following the example set by elite liberal universities, the U.S. State Department has begun cracking down on “microaggressions” in the workplace. According to a newsletter from State Department chief diversity officer John Robinson, employees who commit “microaggressions” may risk violating harassment laws in doing so.

Posted by Mike LaChance on March 02, 2016 17 Comments
In recent years, whenever a violent tragedy has occurred, the left has been quick to blame the NRA, Republicans, the Tea Party, and conservatives. Then they stand on a soap box and lecture everyone about civility and demand a new tone in our politics. It'll be interesting to see if anyone on the left condemns Comedy Central host Larry Wilmore for suggesting he'd like to murder Donald Trump with Supreme Court Justice Scalia's pillow.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 27, 2016 26 Comments
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry is now protesting her own show, proving once again that the only thing lower than the network's ratings is the collective IQ of their on-air talent. The New York Times reports:
Melissa Harris-Perry Walks Off Her MSNBC Show After Pre-emptions In an unusually public flare-up, one of MSNBC’s television personalities clashed with the network on Friday in a dispute about airtime and editorial freedom and said she was refusing to host the show that bears her name this weekend.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 26, 2016 38 Comments
We reported earlier this week that conservative author Ben Shapiro was banned from speaking at California State University LA by the school's president. The school then relented and said Shapiro could come after all. Then things got crazy. Students who wanted to hear Shapiro speak had to be ushered quietly into the lecture hall through a back door while unhinged student activists and faculty members screamed and tried to force their way through a police barricade protecting the front door.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 24, 2016 17 Comments
Conservative author and speaker Ben Shapiro has been banned from making an appearance at California State University Los Angeles by the school's president. Shapiro would apparently present too great a threat to the safe spaces of CSULA's sensitive snowflake students. Christine Rousselle reported at Townhall:
Conservative Writer Ben Shapiro Banned from CSULA Early Tuesday morning, conservative writer Ben Shapiro revealed on Twitter that his planned speech on February 25 at California State University-Los Angeles had been canceled by the university's president.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on February 20, 2016 48 Comments
Periods, as in periods, is the new frontier of the social justice movement. Not long ago, after widespread activist pressure, Obama opposed the (non-existent) "tampon tax." Now, a Columbia University female student has decided that Columbia should provide her—and all "people who menstruate"—with free tampons and assorted "period-related" items from sanitary napkins to painkillers. Writing in the Columbia Spectator, this student writes, Columbia should pay for my period:

Sure, I can easily find a free condom on Barnard and Columbia’s campuses, but why can’t I find a free tampon in the bathrooms in Hamilton or Milbank? Why does the administration care about my sexual protective rights, but not how I handle my monthly menstrual cycle?

Limited access to free sanitary products, along with the widely recognized “tampon tax,” is a frequently recurring topic in popular discourse regarding reproductive rights. While California may have pioneered potentially eliminating the tampon tax at the state level, many people who menstruate still lack the sufficient financial resources to frequently purchase sanitary products. And even if the sales tax is removed from these products, we must still front the cost to pay for other menstruation-related items, such as pads, DivaCups, painkillers, and birth control.

This adds up, she reasons, to almost a hundred dollars a year.

Posted by Mike LaChance on February 14, 2016 48 Comments
The left comes up with this stuff faster than anyone can keep up with them. Just in time for Valentine's Day, the left-wing Cosmopolitan Magazine is pushing an anti-gun narrative under the heading of gunsplaining:
Why You Should Never Date a "Gunsplainer" We've all met mansplainers, but have you ever met a similarly dreadful gunsplainer? He's the type of guy who will attempt to hit on you by calling you "schnookums" and, like the mansplainer, he will condescend to you about why you're safer in a world where guns are easier to buy than Sudafed, or how a good guy with a gun is the best antidote to a bad guy with a gun.

Posted by Miriam Elman on January 31, 2016 9 Comments
In November 2015, The Nation, a prominent progressive magazine, published an essay by controversial professor Steven Salaita which raised complaints from a prominent Rabbi that the essay crossed the line from legitimate criticism of Israeli policy to anti-Semitism. As we noted in many prior posts, Salaita is a virulently anti-Israel academic who had a contingent offer at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign rejected in 2014. He sued and got a money settlement, but not the job. Salaita's since become “enshrined as a symbol” in the American academy of the trouncing of academic freedom and the trampling of shared governance protocols. Salaita's essay in The Nation brought harsh criticism from a Professor of Jewish thought and culture:
Apparently it’s Zionism that ails the neoliberal university, along with everything else amiss in the world. You can read here his goodbye at the Nation. What reads like it was taken straight out from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the complaint that Zionism occupies the American mind and the American university expands as a logical next step on the basic view from the tweets and the book that “Zionists” are enemies of humanity, supporters of war crimes, adorn themselves with the teeth of Palestinian babies, etc, etc. Don’t be surprised when the next stage in on-campus Palestinian solidarity activism takes aim at purging U.S. academe of “Zionism,” namely Birthright, Hillel, study abroad in Israel, Israel Studies, and Jewish Studies.
The essay also prompted Rabbi Jill Jacobs, a leading voice in American Jewish Conservative circles, to write in complaint. In a Letter to the Editor sent to The Nation in November, Jacobs contended that Salaita’s article contained a series of disturbing anti-Semitic statements.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 31, 2016 13 Comments
Despite the success of Mayor Rudi Giuliani's quality-of-life laws, the smart set on New York’s City Council is considering options to ease enforcement of these offenses in the name of "diversity". I would like to offer New Yorkers a glimpse of their future by showing them what is now happening in San Francisco. The Bay Area metropolis hasn't had New York's experience of sensible leadership (albeit for only a brief time); therefore, it is about a decade ahead, in terms of enjoying the consequences of implementing diversity policies instead of those focusing on public health. I foresee that New Yorkers will soon be treated to fabulous, new facilities . . . like open-air urinals:
The first open-air public urinal in San Francisco has been unveiled in the city's Delores Park. The concrete circular urinal was opened in the latest move to combat the destructive scourge of public urination in the city.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 08, 2016 29 Comments
A rally is planned in Ithaca, NY, for January 9, 2016, against allegedly racist violence by police, specifically the non-indictments in the deaths of Sandra Bland and Tamir Rice, and the deaths of Betty Jones and Quintonio LeGrier. The event is taking place at the Ithaca Commons, a public space in the center of town. Here's part of the description from the public Facebook Event Page:
On December 23rd a grand jury decided not to indict the jailers involed in the death of Sandra Bland. On December 28th a grand jury decided not to indict officer Timothy Leohmman in the extra judical killing of 12-year old Tamir Rice. On December 26th 55 year-old Betty Jones was mistakingly shot and killed by police as she opened her door. Her neighbor 19-year old Quintonio LeGrier was also killed. This is a rally in response to these events and the increasing violence and general terror administered by police towards people of color. The purpose of this rally is as follows: Agitation Mobilization Information
Ithaca Protest Sandra Bland FB Page banner

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 27, 2015 17 Comments
The Oxford University student behind the demand to remove Cecil Rhodes' name from the Rhodes Scholarship now has another demand -- ban the French flag on campuses. The student, Ntokozo Qwabe, has a history of activism in demanding the removal of "offensive" materials.  His first project was the "Rhodes Must Fall" campaign demanding the removal of a statute of Cecil Rhodes; in an ironic twist, it turned out that he attended Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship which he apparently does not intend on repaying. The Telegraph reports on the new demand to ban the French flag:
The law graduate behind a controversial campaign to remove a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes from Oxford University’s Oriel College has turned his attention to the French flag, saying he’d support its ban on all university campuses.
Ntokozo Qwabe, co-founder of Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford, says France has committed acts of terror and refused to concede that Isis is worse than the French state.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 24, 2015 12 Comments
On Christmas Day 2011, as part of our "Open" post, we noted the following:
What a bunch of kill joys, How to Discuss Climate Change With Your Uncle During the Holidays (because after racist relatives, climate change deniers are the biggest problem at family Christmas dinners).
The advice was from a guest contributor at Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/12/24/391548/discuss-climate-change-holidays/ Of the several pieces of advice, I liked this coaching on how to bolster your own credibility, because nothing says "genuine" like a preplanned strategy to bolster your own credibilty:

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 12, 2015 21 Comments
Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza visited Amherst College in October and engaged in some voluntary debate with a small audience. One student asked two very long questions which, combined with D'Souza's responses, make up the bulk of the video below. The first question is about American foreign policy in the Middle East and D'Souza dispenses that issue fairly quickly. The second question has to do with social justice and racial privilege.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 23, 2015 6 Comments
This post has been updated. Earlier this week, Brandeis University became the latest in a long line of academic institutions to receive a "list of demands" from its allegedly beleaguered student body. Saying that "we [Brandeis has] failed our black students," "Concerned Students 2015" released a laundry list of demands to the administration that included a minimum wage increase for student employees, and the appointment of a VP of "Diversity and Inclusion." Students have since marched on various buildings, and are currently occupying (at some level) the public areas of the administration building. Since this is college, I feel free to assume that this has caused a certain amount of uproar when it comes to attendance policies. Never fear---Brandeis has the situation under control. Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Irving R. Epstein sent an email to the faculty last night giving them "discretion in regard to class attendance and completion of academic work." Here's a screenshot of the email (I've blacked out email addresses):

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 19, 2015 56 Comments
As the world reacts to the terror attacks in Paris and French authorities continue to address new developments, some progressives are pushing the left's pet issue of gun control. In order to understand their point, you have to completely ignore the fact that France has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world and that the victims of the Paris attacks were completely unarmed. Jenn Jacques reports at Bearing Arms:
Liberals Push Gun Control, Ignorant Rhetoric Following Attacks in Paris I cannot imagine the horror the survivors of last night’s attack in Paris witnessed and I pray peace and comfort will embrace the family and friends of the victims. I watched the reports of the attacks unfold on HD, and like many Americans, sat in disbelief feeling helpless and dumbfounded...

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 17, 2015 39 Comments
Dartmouth College students who are part of the Black Lives Matter movement recently staged a protest which invaded a school library. As we reported yesterday at College Insurrection, some students who were trying to study allege physical assault. Campus Reform has the details:
Dartmouth students lead profane Black Lives Matter protest Black-clad protesters gathered in front of Dartmouth Hall Thursday night, forming a crowd roughly one hundred fifty strong. Ostensibly there to denounce the removal of shirts from a display in Collis, Dartmouth's student center the Black Lives Matter collective began to sing songs and chant their eponymous catchphrase. The band then marched into Baker-Berry Library. “F*** you, you filthy white f***s!” “F*** you and your comfort!” “F*** you, you racist s***!”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2015 39 Comments
"As a Jew" is a phrase that starts the conversation for some left-wing Jews when it comes to Israel, and particularly "the occupation." The establishment of Jewish identity at the start serves as the shield for what is to follow: A completely one-sided, factually inaccurate, historically-skewed bashing of Israel. Such an Op-Ed was published in The Washington Post on October 23, 2015, by Professors Steven Levitsky (Harvard) and Glen Weyl (U. Chicago)[note: Weyl just joined Microsoft], We are lifelong Zionists. Here’s why we’ve chosen to boycott Israel. The opening reads as many "as a Jew" openings read: "We are lifelong Zionists. Like other progressive Jews ...." The Op-Ed is a caricature of the self-absorbed, selfish, ahistorical "as a Jew" argument which is at the heart of progressive Jewish opposition to Israel, often expressed through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It's mostly, if not all, about making the "as a Jews" feel good about themselves, justifying their own existences by putting the existences of Israelis at risk. I'll go over the Op-Ed later in this post. But first, it's helpful to consider this description of the "as a Jew" phenomenon as it relates to progressive anti-Zionist Jews:

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 30, 2015 14 Comments
Matt Damon has a big new movie coming out but he's not winning any new fans from his fellow travelers on the left. Damon has long been a favorite on the left for his progressive politics but two recent high profile incidents have put him at odds with the social justice crowd. The Daily Beast's culture reporter Kevin Fallon took Damon to the woodshed yesterday:
Shut Up, Matt Damon: The Actor Argues Gay Actors Should Stay in the Closet In The Martian, Matt Damon plays an astronaut who is left behind on Mars. The entire world rallies around an effort to retrieve him and bring him safely back to Earth. Lately, we’d be just as happy to send Damon back. The Oscar-winning actor’s career-long charm offensive came to a screeching halt this past week with two incredibly tone-deaf and woefully retrograde mini-scandals surrounding comments he’s made that were ill-advised at best—and bigoted at worst. First was the ignorant dialogue about diversity in film on Project Greenlight. And now the most recent symptom of the most severe case of foot-in-mouth to plague an actor in years: an interview with The Guardian in which Damon posits that gay actors should stay in the closet if they want their careers to thrive. Shut up, Matt Damon.
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