Category: Society | Page 48 | Just Right Media

557 – The gender gap in logic

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May 242018

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 »

555 – Guests: Lindsay Shepherd, Gad Saad, David Haskell, Rick Mehta

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May 102018

As learning institutions, universities were once considered to be the environment where a diversity of ideas was both encouraged and tolerated. Today, that diversity of ideas and opinion has been abandoned in favor of a ‘diversity’ of racial, sexual, and cultural ‘identities’ that make the discovery of reality almost impossible.

Just ask Lindsay Shepherd, Gad Saad, David Haskell, and Rick Mehta, each a member of Canada’s academic university community who attended last weekend’s Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) annual General meeting.

As our guests on today’s show, you will learn how each has been outspoken against the climate of fear and censorship that has become so ingrained in campus culture. Each is an advocate of free speech and a free exchange of ideas. Each has achieved a level of notoriety because of challenges by, and to, the ‘politically correct’ forces on their campuses.

Each is empowered by debate and knows that their opponents are weakened by debate. Whatever their views on ‘left’ or ‘right,’ they all recognize that it is views pointing in the right direction that are most under attack on university campuses.

Unavoidable in every controversy, as always, is the polarity between Left and Right. Also unavoidable is the conclusion that when it comes to freedom of speech, those who defend it are always Just Right.

553 – Manufacturing hate – The social disease of the Left

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Apr 262018

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 »

552 – Guest: Salim Mansur – Free speech to free trade

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Apr 192018

In attempting to live up to the ideals of free speech and free trade, the complexity of achieving each soon becomes apparent. That’s because in practice, neither of these ideals literally exists – even in the Western nations that rightly hold them as high virtues.

Given the best of intentions, it is highly doubtful that Mark Zuckerberg’s recent grilling before a US Senate hearing committee will actually pave the way towards any guarantee of ‘free speech’ on Facebook. His hauntingly welcome acceptance of government regulation on ‘privacy’ issues that would affect how he runs his Facebook business model may well open the barn door to the entrenchment of regulated speech – by government.

Said Zuckerberg: “Our position is not that regulation is bad. I think the Internet is so important in people’s lives and it’s getting more important, the expectations on Internet companies and technology companies overall are growing. And I think the real question is ‘What is the right framework for this?’ not ‘Should there be one?’” Continue reading »

551 – Still negative on ‘affirmative consent’

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Apr 122018

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 »

549 – The social metaphysics of social media

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Mar 292018

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 »

The Danielle Metz Show – 013 – The trouble with kids these days

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Feb 252018

Outraged by a November 15, 2017 NBC News editorial, Danielle and Robert share their incredulous reactions to a Leftist’s view of ‘morality.’

Written by Travis Rieder, the headline reads “Science proves kids are bad for earth. Morality suggests we stop having them.”

“But morality suggests that we SHOULD have children,” responds Danielle, as Robert cites the continuing death cult philosophy spouted by representatives of the Left.

In conflict are two entirely polarized and opposite views of morality.

The Right view on morality and ethics was perhaps best expressed by Ayn Rand when she wrote: “… the standard by which one judges what is good or evil – is man’s life – or that which is required for man’s survival qua man. Ethics is an objective, metaphysical necessity of man’s survival…” Continue reading »