In her second “free speech pub night” Lindsay Shepherd of The Laurier Society For Open Inquiry introduced Andrew Lawton to speak on Ideological Conformity in Politics and the Media.
Andrew Lawton is a writer, columnist, broadcaster, and former radio talk show host. With a quick wit, entertaining speaking skills, and personal anecdotes he reveals the lunacy of post-modernism and the problem with politics in both Canada and the United States.
Absurdity takes many forms, and some of the stories finding their way into many media reports today certainly fit the bill. Though the stories themselves may not be threatening or scary, what they symbolize might very well become so.
In their appraisal of some ‘absurd’ reports, Danielle and Robert cite three recent media features that share the common threads of ‘group think’ and ‘victim culture’ ideologies (two absurdities in and of themselves).
When a low percentage of ‘black skiers’ on a particular ski slope is interpreted as evidence of racial bias, it’s clear that the great outdoor ‘white space’ being objected to by that writer isn’t the snow.
When mankind’s exploration of space and the planets is portrayed as an undertaking to ‘colonize’ space in a manner resembling the historical imposition of one culture upon another, it’s clear that those now calling for the ‘decolonization’ of space have already Left the planet. Continue reading »
It’s clear that the world will never learn the truth about what’s really happening at the Mexican-American border, if the fake news media continues to report ‘facts’ that just ain’t so.
That’s the reality that comes to light as Danielle and Robert look at some of those facts, best illustrated by Time magazine’s fake news story featured on a recent cover with the heading: “Welcome to America.”
It’s not the fake cover photo with Trump looking down at a young child purported ‘ripped’ from her mother’s custody at the Mexican-American border that’s at issue. That could be fair editorial comment. What’s at issue is the fake news story that the cover represents.
The devil is in the details, as with many stories of this nature. Not only was the young child never ‘ripped’ – or even separated – from the custody of her mother, but the mother herself was in custody of the child illegally. And that’s the tip of this particular iceberg. Continue reading »
Since last joining us on Just Right, Amir Farahi of the London Institute has become the Chair of London’s Transportation Committee, been appointed to the Municipal Advisory Committee for Rapid Transit, and has become project manager of a $20 million development plan called Venture London.
Over the same period, Amir’s views have become less accessible to the London community. He no longer appears on the weekly Wednesday CJBKam1290 round-table with Ken Eastwood and Lisa Brandt or on Andy Oudman’s Live Drive, which has been dropped by the same station. And because of the recent folding of a London community newspaper, Our London, Amir’s regular and insightful columns about municipal issues are also no longer available there.
So it should be no surprise that Amir now plans to provide a fresh media platform for people who have “lost the opportunity to be a voice for reason” in the London community. Stay tuned for further developments on this front as we delve into the controversies that have driven all of these changes and developments.
As examples of the municipal themes Amir is now dealing with in an official capacity are those discussed on today’s show: the traffic problem, the drug problem and the political problem – issues facing municipalities everywhere. Continue reading »
On April 6, a tragic highway accident claimed the lives of 16 people associated with the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team on their way to a playoff game in the town of Nipawin, Saskatchewan. The outpouring of international support resulted in a GoFundMe campaign that raised millions of dollars for the families of the victims.
So it is understandably beyond the understanding of most people why anyone would express ‘cynicism’ about the “maleness, the youthfulness and the whiteness” of those who died. Yet that’s exactly what left-wing activist and journalist Nora Loreto posted to her Twitter account in her ostensible effort to promote “justice and more for so many other grieving parents and communities.” But when one considers that Loreto’s past tweets include comments like “White men are the worst beings that orbit the Sun,” it is clear that she is not motivated by any sense of “justice” for “other grieving parents.”
That Loreto is a racist and a sexist is undeniable – by any objective definition of those words, and by the comments and actions of Loreto herself. But racism and sexism are mere symptoms of a greater social disease: thinking of individuals as mere members of some subjectively pre-defined collective who all think and look alike. Continue reading »
The term ‘social metaphysics’ was coined by philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand to describe the philosophy of those who regard the consciousness of others as superior to their own – and to the facts of reality. Fascinatingly, the term ‘social media’ appears to describe much the same phenomenon.
Having passed away long before the evolution of on-line social media, Rand could never have guessed just how literal and visibly explicit her description of a social metaphysician would become. “It is only a social metaphysician who could conceive of such absurdity as hoping to win an intellectual argument by hinting: ‘But people won’t LIKE you!’”
Our experience with posters to Just Right’s Facebook page regarding our past two shows offered us a glaring illustration of just how impossible it is to have any meaningful dialogue with social metaphysicians – in this case, with Progressive Conservative and Doug Ford (‘Ford nation’) supporters. Their blatant (and proud!) dismissal of unequivocally accurate facts, of history, and of ideas goes a long way in explaining many other negative observations increasingly being made about social media.
The recent controversy involving Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook’s database to spread false news to millions of people during election periods is merely one of many scams made possible thanks to social metaphysicians. Continue reading »
It’s one of those editorial items that Ayn Rand might have cited in what she called her “horror file,” those news stories and commentaries of her day that best illustrated America’s deteriorating intellectual and moral climate.
The trend continues. From the pages of Atlantic Magazine, in an August 18, 2017 commentary by Alice Ristroph (American Blackout), came the argument that the pending solar eclipse was, in effect, a racist eclipse.
“It’s pure lunacy,” says Robert Vaughan in his conversation with Danielle. “This is insanity. This is not sane. The author would, in past, have been placed in an asylum.”
Worse, the loony commentary appeared in a supposedly credible media source.
With the media “lens of the Left” so intensely focused on real and imagined incidents of racism, the then-pending eclipse was overshadowing their stream of anti-Trump stories. So why not turn the lunar event into a racist metaphor to protest Trump’s America? That, according to Danielle, is how the Atlantic Magazine’s editorial comes across, particularly given its political content.
It’s a fascinating look into the dismal minds of those who are constantly focused on race and group identity. What is continually being “eclipsed” is logic and reason. That’s why the superficial and associative thinking of the Left will always be incompatible with what is Just Right.