Jul 192018
 

The Gorgon

Outrageous assertions and protests surrounding the metaphysically impossible act of ‘appropriation of culture’ have recently surfaced. They range from the BBC announcement that Monty Python is ‘too white’ for today’s British TV, to the cancellation of a Montreal play (SLAV) that featured songs ‘composed by slave cultures,’ something Leftists deemed ‘an appropriation of black culture.’

Meanwhile, the Left has now invented a collective called ‘intersectional’ feminism, a form of feminism that’s all about racism. This movement has led a charge against the classic television series Sex And The City, denigrating it for portraying ‘white’ women of ‘privilege,’ and for portraying a sexual orientation that was ‘orthodox’ – meaning heterosexual.

The arts and entertainment industry is but one target on a long list under attack by political correctness. It’s a list that has included university and college campuses, now intolerant environments where challenging viewpoints are no longer being heard.

‘Cultural appropriation’ is an anti-concept used as a weapon in the Left’s arsenal of political correctness, itself yet another anti-concept. Continue reading »

560 – Ontario’s majority mandate for socialism

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Jun 142018
 

Doug Ford

On the heels of Ontario’s newly elected Progressive Conservative majority government under Doug Ford, expectations of ‘change’ – for the better – are high. It would be difficult to imagine anything worse than what Ontarians endured under the ousted Wynne Liberal Party, which no longer holds official party ‘standing’ in the legislature.

However, it must be recognized that the conditions under which Ontario currently suffers are a consequence of the cumulative actions and directions taken by all of the parties in the legislature. Kathleen Wynne and her government merely continued in the political direction (Leftward) already established and entrenched by previous governments – including those of the Progressive Conservatives.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict or evaluate what the PCs may do under Ford, since the party won its majority mandate under a single objective: getting rid of Kathleen Wynne.

In the absence of any substantive or credible commitment to actually ‘change’ the Leftward direction in which Ontario is heading, Ford and his PCs have left us little to speculate about. After all, how does one reconcile a promise “to increase government spending, reduce taxes, and balance the budget?”

What we do know about the PC party is its history and tradition. Continue reading »

Jun 032018
 

When Jordan Peterson recently appeared on BBC and was asked: “Do you think a trans-woman is a real woman?” that very question contained an epistemological error that begs a more fundamental question: What is wrong with the person asking this?

Are there actually fully-grown adults who still cannot identify the essential difference between the sexes? Do they actually host BBC news programs?

To ask whether a man is a man or a woman is a woman – based on criteria beyond the physical characteristics that strictly determine such identity – reflects a complete detachment from reality.

‘Identity’ is determined by the physical. Indeed, as Robert and Danielle point out in this discussion of ‘gender identity,’ the very concept of existence itself is valid only in terms of the physical things that exist. Some ‘thing’ has to exist before existence can be confirmed. So too, with sex and gender.

The challenge is to properly identify the thing that exists, and in philosophy, this discipline falls under the Law Of Identity.

When those on the Left attempt to ignore the Law of Identity with their ‘gender bending’ anti-concepts, what they’re really attempting to ‘bend’ is truth and reality.

As Danielle observes, sex and gender identities (not feelings) are strictly binary: there are only two choices. Sort of like the difference between simply being wrong, or Just Right.

557 – The gender gap in logic

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May 242018
 

gender gap

In the world of identity politics, common sense, logic, justice and reason do not rule.

Feminism is one form of identity politics – politics specifically motivated by sex and gender issues. Whether it’s the #metoo ‘movement’ or the ‘gender gap,’ feminism’s goals are all directed against the assumed superior status of men (referring to individuals who are male and possess a penis, for those confused by various ‘gender identities’).

On the social front, feminism’s success in ‘convicting’ selected males in various arbitrary courts of public opinion continues to undermine justice, both in the social sense and in the criminal sense.

On the economic front, feminism’s calls for closing the ‘gender gap’ is in fact a ‘gap’ in logic and morality. There is no such thing as a ‘gender gap.’ It’s a fiction.

A given ‘difference’ in economic status – whether in income, wealth, property, or productivity – is just that, a difference. It’s not a ‘gap.’ This principle applies not just to gender, but also to race, culture, language, intelligence, physical traits, or any other ‘group identity’ that one might imagine. Continue reading »

551 – Still negative on ‘affirmative consent’

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Apr 122018
 

affirmative consent
What do ‘affirmative consent,’ ‘indigenous knowledge,’ and the trial of Bill Cosby have in common? In addition to being our discussion topics of the day, each controversy revolves around an epistemological war of words.

It’s a battle of definitions, as efforts to change or affect the social and political environment stretch beyond the political sphere. From the world of TV fantasy, monsters, and superheroes, to the real world that sometimes seems more unreal than the fantasies, the promotion of anti-concepts like ‘affirmative consent’ has already produced a host of real world injustices, not the least of which have been those directed at Bill Cosby.

Just as ‘social justice’ is not justice, so too, ‘affirmative consent’ is not consent.

And so too ‘indigenous knowledge’ is not ‘knowledge,’ particularly in the context of being used as an argument that ‘scientific knowledge is offensive.’ Nor are ‘indigenous’ rights true rights accorded to the individual. Yet these are the very things being asserted by Quebec’s indigenous leaders, at least two Quebec cabinet ministers, and several university law professors. Continue reading »

Feb 042018
 

The Last Jedi

Just Right Media is pleased to introduce THE AGE OF OUTRAGE, “a conversational look at selected topics in the news that most anger people,” featuring hosts John Otis and Scott (the Brick Wall) Williams-Oakes.

From the theater release of Star Wars the Last Jedi to the protests in Iran, John and Scott demonstrate that there’s plenty for people to get outraged about.

Calling the latest Star Wars saga “the most polarizing and divisive film” of the Star Wars franchise, Scott cites those who hated the film because the plot does not move in expected directions, which apparently upset a sector of the established fan base. The controversy rages.

Another outrageous circumstance has been the “deafening” Liberal media silence about the implications of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Christmas vacation trip, which now has led to his being found guilty of conflict of interest ethics violations. Continue reading »

The Danielle Metz Show – 008 – The ins and outs of Harvey Weinstein

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Jan 072018
 

Harvey Weinstein

Once you have a phenomenon like the “Weinstein Effect” named after you, it’s pretty obvious that the phenomenon itself is not about you. It’s about a pattern, in this case a social pattern exhibiting itself in the society of the rich and famous. Even Donald Trump is being accused of suffering from the Weinstein effect.

As described by Wikipedia: “The Weinstein effect is a global trend in which people come forward to accuse famous or powerful people, mostly men, of sexual misconduct. The term came into use to describe a worldwide wave of these allegations that began in the United States in October 2017, when media outlets reported on numerous sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. Described as a ‘tipping point’ or ‘watershed moment’, it precipitated a ‘national reckoning’ against sexual harassment. USA Today wrote that 2017 was the year in which ‘sexual harassment became a fireable offense’.”

What makes many of the sex scandal stories surfacing in the media suspicious are many of the other factors at play that get no air play.

Most significantly, since when are “sexual assault,” “inappropriate behavior,” “misconduct” and “rape” all considered equally serious? These are extraordinarily different acts, and the failure to distinguish clearly between has many negative consequences. Continue reading »