We need to talk about the lockdown

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China lied, people died. Let me preface what I’m about to say with this, this virus has caught the entire world off guard. Except for Taiwan. But otherwise the problems we are facing here in Canada is not so dissimilar from pretty much every other country in the world. I acknowledge that the measures taken by government is in many ways an experimentation in leadership and we’re doing the best we can with what limited options are available to us.

Though I often reference my belief that Trudeau is the worst prime minister in Canadian history and I stand by that, my intention here is not to play partisan games or whataboutism cheap shots. That’s not to say the feds or the province or even municipal government is above scrutiny. Questioning is necessary in these times. But we should all be taking off our partisan hats and prioritize the truth above all in these dire times. I just feel before I form my argument I first want to acknowledge all levels of government are working their asses off for us all and I deeply appreciate all the work everyone is doing. Especially front line workers like myself and all the healthcare professionals out there. Nothing I’m about to say takes away from any of that.

 

Leaving everything up to “the experts”

So I’ve been trying to pay as much attention as possible to this whole pandemic stuff and how it’s impacting the world. I’m no economist, I’m no healthcare professional, I’m no politician, I’m nothing more than a plumber. So take that for what it is. But the thing I can’t seem to wrap my head around with this whole lockdown stuff is what happens after the lockdown? First it was for 2 weeks. Then that became a month. Now cities are cancelling all events up to August.

All the politicians are citing the “science and facts” that they’re basing their decisions on. But to me there’s just something fundamentally flawed about deferring all policy making and security decisions up to unelected individuals. Especially when there is so much mounting evidence to suggest the experts are actually getting it wrong. So what will happen if they do get it wrong? “well what do you want? I’m leaving it up to the experts. Not my fault if they get it wrong. Well, yeah, actually it is. You’re the one promoting their guidance so you own it.

What advice is that expert going to give when they’re trying to cover their ass? The only people I see at these press conferences are more scapegoats than experts. But they wear many hats, I’m told. But it’s no surprise their advice is to shut it all down. Who wants to take the blame for when someone’s kid gets sick at school or someone’s grandparent collapses during lunch at the old folks home? And so they may be an expert but they are functioning mostly as bureaucrats. We elected the people in power to lead us. not to delegate all their responsibilities away. They rightfully fear the liability of risking public health but why is there no sense of responsibility for the health of the economy?

 

True North: The Economic Effects of Covid19 explained in 8 minutes

 

I get it, no one planned for this. This thing has caught us all off guard. But panic does not make for sound policies or pilot projects. This needs to be called out as the half baked plan that’s going to do more harm than good. And if it isn’t reevaluated now, I believe things will actually be worse off once this lockdown is finally ended, defeating the entire point of the lockdown to begin with. The lockdown may be winning a battle but it’s not even thinking about the war against this super virus. We need a long term plan, not just billions of band aids. I get it, there is no plan. That’s exactly the problem.

On top of that, with everyone harping on and on and on about misinformation, I’ve found Dr. Tam has been pretty misleading herself. First when the virus first arrived here the narrative was that it was very racist for people to avoid Chinatown and chinese restaurants like “Wuhan noodle” in Markham. To blame China for the virus would be to blame a culture for the virus and that’s just racist apparently. It was Dr. Tam who came out early and discouraged social distancing in this way and who claimed that border restrictions and travel bans were not helpful. And we all know in the coming days and weeks suddenly it became necessary to close the border and shut down travel. Duh.

According to Dr. Tam masks do nothing, in fact they actually increase the risk of contracting the virus because we’re all too stupid to figure out how to wear a mask. Now she’s had to back peddle and admit that if you have access to a face shield of sorts then it would be good to use one. If you ask any other doctor not standing at a podium they’ll tell you of course it’s helpful. Why are flight attendants wearing them? Why do the doctors and nurses start their shift with them? I think we all know what Dr. Tam is really saying. She just doesn’t want everyone hoarding the medical supplies like we have been with toilet paper. So just say that. But like most modern liberals, they believe we’re all too stupid and reactive for us to know the truth. So the best approach in a crisis is to lie.

Liberals told us to lock it down while people were still arriving into the country and not receiving testing or questioning. they were to self isolate and this was all done purely on honour system. There’s no coincidence that after march break things blew up, because of the absolute lack of guidance provided by our leaders. The legacy media decided to mock and sneer anyone wearing a mask in public. Now those people are working from home and preaching to us the importance of taking this seriously. I wonder how many people contracted the virus because they were too embarrassed to wear a mask. Oh but as long as the media has Trump to blame, they don’t have to take any accountability.

 

Rebel News: Arrivals to T.O. bring own masks from Argentina:

Rebel News: International arrivals to Canada given no Coronavirus gear:

Rebel News: Pakistani arrivals to Canada surprised no one took their temperature:

 

These are complex issues that demand dramatic change that not everyone has the capacity for. Most people aren’t plugged in to what’s going on in their own community let alone around the world. The hoarding actually isn’t our fault. Are there greedy, selfish people out there taking advantage? yes. But these people aren’t the majority. In fact these people are in the fringe minority. All it takes is for half of us to go to the store and pick up only one of anything before we would see shortages of that one item. Supply chains need to step it up to compensate and stores need to place purchase limits. Naming, shaming, doxing and ridiculing others who are distressed and acting irrationally, or who are mentally ill, not only does zero good but it’s actually detrimental. This is not the time to throw empathy out the window because we’re all being inconvenienced.

 

True North: Do Canadians like being controlled?

 

Self preservation instincts kick in when you’re vulnerable and afraid and have the ability to bring the best of us low like the worst of us. As a plumber I often deal with people in vulnerable positions and I can tell you it sure doesn’t bring out the best in them. You definitely find the best aspects of humanity once we are in a semi secure state of being but we’re just animals in a habitat like every other habitat on the earth. But really, why weren’t the stores limiting supplies from the start? They have no problem limiting the sirloin roasts when they go on sale. Why wouldn’t they limit medical supplies since day one?

This is an aspect of the plan we will have to develop to tackle future outbreaks. Pandemic planning needs to be at the forefront of every election now. Because the problem with war time measures is they are often in place with the consideration that this will ideally never happen again. However we could have another pandemic next year given the right cocktail of mutation vs poverty. The measures we are taking could actually destroy our entire country. I’ve been absolutely floored watching what’s been unfolding. This virus is all over the globe and varying strains from continent to continent. Even if we do come up with a vaccine it’ll only be effective until a new strain makes it’s way here thanks to globalization. There’s no turning that back, it’s unavoidable. So I’ve been paying attention and these are my thoughts.

The lockdown is only useful to give the hospitals time to prepare for the coming surge. To replenish medical supplies and to buy time for industry to provide new ventilators, masks, gowns, face shields, etc. That is worthy of a lockdown. For the sake of those who get sick and need hospitalization, yes, we all need to do our part to flatten the curve. But once the hospitals have been prepared and perhaps other alternative facilities established (such as converting some of these empty community centres or army relief camps) then we all need to go back to work. This country needs to begin it’s economic recovery literally as soon as possible. Or else we are fucked. I just don’t see it any other way.

It’s when we go back to work, we will be entering a new world. A world where social distancing is the norm. Look at Taiwan. Their first case was January 20th. Ours was Jan 24th. Our total cases per 1 million people is at 228 and deaths per 1 million people at 3. Taiwan’s total cases per 1 million people is 14 and deaths per million is 0.2. The total cases of covid19 in Taiwan is only 322 meanwhile here our total is currently at 8,612. Why is that? Taiwan, to my understanding, is far more densely populated than Canada. We should be the ones easily able to socially distance. So what are the Taiwanese doing that we’re not?

Just looking at Taiwan really reminds us that what we are dealing with here is a virus. It may be highly contagious and that’s scary and worth taking seriously but at the end of the day it’s just a virus. Like South Korea we need to ramp up our testing to make testing available to everyone and anyone at any time. We need to be able to identify who has the virus and those people need to be quarantined. And if we can manage to get this thing under control then perhaps we can do more than the honour system to ensure these individuals are in fact respecting the guidelines. The cases we see developing are indicating these people are not respecting the rules.

and I don’t even fully blame them, the government has been a complete wet noodle more concerned about identity politics than pandemic precautions since day 1. We need to ramp up our testing greatly. We also need to ramp up the production of PPE. This may require all of us to lend a hand in making our own protective gear for ourselves and for others. Let the official stuff go to the healthcare workers. They need it most.

And if we can start implementing new protective measures then we can start going back out into the world. Measures like clear physical barriers in food courts, transit terminals, etc. Floor/ground markings to indicate where to stand in line ups to respect social distancing. Sanitizer provided at virtually every single entrance and exit and hand wash stations available at places of business, parks, etc. And above all, individual responsibility. Hand washing before touching our face or eating. Then more hand washing! Some variation of mask to use in enclosed/confined spaces/indoors to protect from respiratory droplets. Showering every time we get home after being outside.

The police need to back the fuck off. If government wants scary headlines saying those not respecting social distancing will be fined $1000 then go ahead. But to actually fine people $1000 in a time when people are facing losing their homes? You’re a sick fuck and you apparently love robbing others of their civil liberties. If you’re throwing a 50 person party then yeah in these times of crisis I believe that would constitute a crime. A night or two in a jail cell should suffice for that sort of thing. That’s much less harmful than $1000.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-bylaw-parks-fines-1.5523154

But yet we see police handing out $750 fines to people just out, sitting on park benches. If you’re respecting social distancing then you’ve done nothing wrong. If police play this game too hard you are going to see a push back that will be really ugly. Desperate people loot, steal, mug, or worse. And this love for authoritarianism is going to blow up in all of our faces in a big way. We cannot abandon our principals and values just because it’s inconvenient right now. It’s precedent setting and you’re wrong if you think the goal posts will move back once this pandemic is over. This is a democracy and police exist to serve and protect. Period. This type of crime is best socially enforced, not legally. PERIOD.

And we need accurate, truthful, uncensored flow of information. I said it before and I’ll say it again. Censorship is nothing more than a partisan effort to control and bias the flow of information. We are really being let down by the legacy media right now. This is a direct result of narrative based activist reporting. The other day the Ontario press conference went on for an hour before someone finally asked a single question about the duration of the lockdown. I’ve heard more questions about Trump than anything about this lockdown or anything to guide us through it.

 

Viva Frei: The media is failing us now:

 

TVO: Data from Polly:

 

True North: More misinformation from public health:

 

True North: The media pushes fake news left, right and centre:

 

Rebel News: China’s Virus Lab Intentionally harvested bats for their virus potential:

 

Let’s be clear. The average Canadian, whether they like Trump or not, doesn’t give a flying fuck about Trump right now. What the Americans do is up to them. They can block aid but why don’t we have the necessary supplies as it is? Why aren’t we able to produce the most absolutely necessary protective gear? Why did we allow ourselves to become vulnerable in the first place? Ask those questions instead. And while you’re at it, find out when we can go back to work so we don’t lose our homes. Instead of seeking truth everyone is just bunkered down trying to find a way to interpret reality through their narrative filter. And it’s hurting the public.

The very media screeching about misinformation are the same media praising China over this outbreak. Claiming they did us all just such a huge favour by “buying us time”. I can’t even begin to explain why that is so incredibly ignorant and obviously aimed at people who don’t follow news at all and are only tuning in to be told what to think because they’re sheep. If China acted a month sooner the virus would’ve been 95% less impactful to the rest of the world.

 

True North: China Lied, People Died:

We need to take this next month to isolate for our healthcare workers and until we can get PPE restocked and distributed but after that we MUST GET BACK TO WORK. Otherwise we are utterly fucked. I very much fear for the future of this country if we don’t begin our recovery as soon as possible. I was suspecting our kids and grandkids would have a large financial burden but this is making the future look more like mad max than anything else.

And I do not doubt that one day we will be watching an HBO mini series next to Chernobyl called “Coronavirus” and even though it’ll be a different series, it’ll be the same story. Because it’s always the same story when it revolves around a communist regime that does not value human life. China does not value human life. We don’t even know totally whether or not this was actually intentional for China to reset the global economy with them on top, amid their Trump trade war and tariffs. This isn’t even close to being over yet. And we need to decide which team we’re on. Team America and Capitalism or Team China and Communism. If you love freedom and liberty you must be team America and Capitalism. Et tu Brute?

 

True North: The economic toll of the shutdown:

 

I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to even talk about this whole thing. I decided to just share my thoughts on what has been happening and my thoughts on where we need to go from here, for whatever that’s worth. But I think what I will be working on from here on out is a chronological timeline of this pandemic. That is truly difficult. There is so much happening every single day that there is just no way to capture every single detail or do so all in one single post. So I think what I’ll be doing is covering more actions than speculation and projections and offering resources covering these developments and presenting this timeline in the form of chapters like in a book.

Still not sure how it’ll play out but I do think these times are very important to document since I believe this pandemic will change the world. And so as I wake up every day and check for updates, I will seek to record these updates through my blog. So stay tuned as I struggle to document this ongoing challenge. Also follow my instagram @The301Champ for more optimistic, fun content which I think will serve as good medicine in these times.

What we don’t have is a 10 step plan for handling viral outbreaks in the future. I think what I’d like to do while compiling all this information is work on what MY 10-point plan would be for the future and see if we can discuss the effectiveness of such plans. Like a modern day zombie apocalypse strategy. By the way, here were some very good Joe Rogan podcasts that I found extremely helpful:

 

Joe Rogan Experience: Michael Osterholm

 

Joe Rogan Experience: Dr. Peter Hotez

 

 

The 301 Champ’s 5 step viral strategy:

Phase 1: A viral outbreak appears to be at or on the verge of an epicentre in a country.

  • This country must accept experts with peacekeeper escourts to observe the outbreak and gather data/assist with containment.
  • countries must send aid to assist with containment.
  • There must be weekly press conferences to update the world on developments.

Phase 2: The viral outbreak has broken containment and has began to spread outside of the epicentre.

  • Governments hold weekly press conferences informing people how to appropriately and responsibly stockpile 72 hours worth of goods in the event that anyone needs to self isolate (and how best to utilize food delivery services in the event of prolonged quarantine).
  • grocers implement shopping limitations on goods to prevent hoarding.
  • Governments- begins PPE resource stockpiling to prepare hospitals for possible outbreaks.

Phase 3: Cases appear on home soil.

  • Social distancing guidelines are made mandatory for places of businesses, public parks, etc.
  • weekly Press conferences held from municipal, provincial and federal governments to share all projections and available data on what is current on the outbreak.
  • commercials and ads are bought on which masks are appropriate for use and  to remind people when and how to wash their hands to avoid contracting viruses. also to inform people on what viruses are and how they are spread.
  • Restaurants and public events must set in place measures to respect social distancing guidelines. (such as dine in tables being spread 6 feet apart, markings indicating where it is appropriate to stand in line ups, etc)
  • The border and airports must conduct testing on all travelers entering and exiting the country. Social distancing must be explained to travelers and masks must be provided and made to be worn for those entering the country.

phase 4: An outbreak has escaped containment.

  • Social distancing guidelines are now enforced with threat of possible fines.
  • Restaurants must close dine in options and only operate take out and delivery options.
  • Border must be closed to non-essential travelers.
  • testing must be made mandatory and accessible to everyone. those who test positive must be connected with what is essentially a parole officer to ensure they are respecting the quarantine orders.
  • Travel bans may be implemented.
  • airports and transit terminals and grocery and department stores must embrace high security measures to disinfect public spaces on a regular basis daily and be able to provide sign off sheets to confirm cleaning is being done.
  • Government issues curfew orders for all businesses to be closed collectively at a certain time and for citizens to stay indoors after a certain time. (with an exception to essential services like plumbers, hvac, healthcare workers, truck drivers, etc)

phase 5: Projections anticipate hospitals about to reach max capacity with patients.

  • Military must be called in to set up relief care spaces and to provide aid in distributing PPE and other necessary resources.
  • Military set up safe off-site testing drive through facilities to begin testing the public regularly and constantly. This may involve retrofitting hotels, prisons, community centres or other local facilities.
  • Government issues self isolation lockdown orders
  • government declare essential services and provide strict timeline for lockdown. (any financial aid or compensation or tax cuts must be determined BEFORE the government calls for a lockdown)
  • Municipal, provincial and federal governments must conduct daily press conferences to update the public on all data and projections and modelling.
  • public amenities and all community centres and services must be closed to the public but as long as the curfew and social distancing guidelines are being respected, the public can enter parks, off leash dog parks, paths and green spaces.

 

 

I am just reflecting on measures that have been taken thus far and trying to think of how we could articulate these in more structured step by step initiatives. The government could create a website that goes into deeper detail between all 5 phases. But the problem with the slow trickle down of information and word salad that’s been going on at these press conferences is that in some cases they just cause more confusion than offer any clarity. In this regard a government could just simply say we’re implementing phases 1-3 and people would know what that means. or could at least easily look it up. maybe these 5 phases could be stretched into 10 to be able to highlight features better. I just feel the government really needs to improve their communications during a crisis. This is what we are learning today. Feel free to share your thoughts or add suggestions to the list.

 

 

 

 

Life isn’t valuable because of it’s abundance. It’s valuable because it is finite. It’s the brutality, challenge and unfairness of life that allows us to shine. Whether it’s watching the home run hit bounce out of the stadium, the figure skater landing that triple axel, the basket ball finding the hoop after dribbling off the rim. These moments of greatness come from our inner greatness. Covid19 is yet another trial for us. It wasn’t the first and it’s definitely not the last. I say good. We will endure it not because we want to but because we must. And we will emerge not just alright but better. Because we have the inner greatness and antifragility to shine through our adversity.

-Me

 

We need to talk about Meghan Murphy

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Gender Identity: What Does It Mean For Society, The Law and Women?

hosted by: Radical Feminists Unite

CBC: ‘I’m not going to reconsider’: Toronto’s top librarian refuses to bar speaker critical of transgender rights

CBC: Tory ‘disappointed’ in Toronto Public Library for hosting speaker accused of transphobia

CBC: Ontario writers blast Toronto Public Library for booking speaker accused of transphobia

NOW: Toronto Public Library facing Pride ban over Meghan Murphy event

NP: Event featuring Meghan Murphy ignites debate about libraries’ role as forum for free speech

Jonathan Kay: Meghan Murphy, the woman behind trans wars breaking out at the public library

NP: Hundreds protest as Meghan Murphy speaks on gender identity at Toronto library

Barbara Kay: How feminist Meghan Murphy fell victim to progressives’ double standards

Jonathan Kay: The silencing campaign against Meghan Murphy is a disgrace

 

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So who the hell is Meghan Murphy and why is everyone so upset? She’s an academic of women’s studies who writes for the website Feminist Current and others like Vice. Here are some of her works:

Canada’s New Prostitution Bill Is Far From Perfect

Japan Is Still Denying the Sexual Slavery of Chinese ‘Comfort Women’

Prostitution by Any Other Name Is Still Exploitation

It’s time for feminists and the left to support free speech before it’s too late

Women warned you: Yaniv’s human rights case is the inevitable result of gender identity ideology

 

So tonight was the Megan Murphy event and what looked like about a hundred protestors showed up and held signs that read: “Let us live, no hate in our city, binaries are for computers, Meghan Murphy hates women, fuck the binary, trans rights are human rights, fuck transmisogyny, no platform for hate, our library should be a safe, space not a hate space, turf the terf, no free speech for hate speech, support sisters not just cisters, etc.”

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They chanted things like “who’s library? Our Library! Trans right are human rights! Terfs go home! Hey, hey, ho, ho, these terfs have got to go! Trans women are women!” and others. Things got a little tense when the crowd swarmed the back exit when discovering the police were escorting people out the emergency exit. But luckily there were no violence or vandalism that I could see. No altercations between police or attendees.

I am not one who will ever recommend anything that comes out of feminism, regardless what denomination of feminism it comes out of. However I am not prepared to silence anyone, that includes feminists. I warn of the dangers coming out of academia but to suppress anyones free expression is to deny them their civil rights. I would not be defending someone like Meghan Murphy if we weren’t living in the upside down clown world we find ourselves in today but here we are.

Where I do agree with Meghan Murphy is that there is something disingenious going on with this latest trans movement. The thing with Trans people is that, well, they’re transitioning. You know, from man to woman or woman to man. They align on the same binary that the rest of us work with. These activists who seem to find themselves at the helm of every complaint, grievance and (micro)aggression seem to all have something in common. They’re self proclaimed “non-binary”. Which apparently means that they do not fit within biological norms. Even though most of them do.

It appears to me that this is the true defining difference within the LBGT community. The non-binary seem to be a signal of their position that biological sex is a social concept. And all that power junk that’s deeply imbedded in neo-marxism and the socialism rhetoric peddled by the far left. If this is true then Meghan Murphy has every reason to fear these people. Even the modern “feminism book” points out on page 287, “a new type of feminism,” that “cisgender feminists exclude trans women, saying they cannot know what it is to be a woman” and as such are agents of “division”.

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So if you believe in biological differences between women and men then you are without a doubt a perpetuator of patriarchy and white supremacy. This is what happens when progress peaks. It progresses until it inevitable progresses backwards. Modern feminism is not the bra-burning, sexual liberation movement that it was for our parents. Today’s feminism is just an extension of socialism and intersectionality. What the protestors are really saying is you’re either with us or against us and if you’re with us then you must swear allegiance to a socialist revolution of the west.

So by default if you stand for womens’ rights, for free speech, for freedom and liberty for all then you are in the conservative camp. Which may be the inevitability for progressivism. I mean, once you’ve accomplished all the things you’ve been progressing towards, you would then seek to preserve those values. When I was younger the issues were of equal rights between the sexes. Gay marriage, equal opportunities, etc. We have that now. Now in order to have pride we find ourselves celebrating pedophilia and beastiality. The LBGT community has become an umbrella party for even the most obscure deviants and once they are under that umbrella you cannot criticise any of them over anything they do at any time. Because fuck you.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against trans people. I follow several trans people over social media such as blaire white and I’m personally intrigued around trans people and trans issues. And I am happy that despite all the craziness going on, it’s still never been a better time to be trans. Everyone deserves our respect and trans people are no exception. I’m glad society has become so empathetic towards trans people. And I just hope all this assault on free speech doesn’t actually hurt trans people by painting them all with the same brush. Make no mistake, the non-binary crowd hate you, me and the entire western world and it will never stop. At least not until we begin calling out the callout artists themselves.

So I support Meghan Murphy and I applaud her for having the resilience to take a stand in such crazy times. I also believe that the protestors have the right to peacefully protest, her detractors have the right to call her a piece of shit. That’s all free speech. But no one has the right to prevent the other from talking. If what she has to say is so shit then that’s for others to discern from her speech. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. However these activists need to ask themselves why exactly she’s only gaining more followers. Maybe they’re the ones who are on the wrong side of history.

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Oh and Meghan is not the first career feminist who is being utterly defamed and destroyed by cancel culture. Check out these other feminists and you tell me if modern feminism REALLY has womens best interests at heart. What do they all have in common? They’re biological reality is what makes them unique and special. Sounds like what Christians preach. Sounds like conservative traditions. Sounds like women who want what’s best for women should find themselves networking within the Conservative tent.

Conservatives are the only ones who will advocate for you now. Your liberal partners have unpersoned you and exiled you along with the straight white men that you worked so hard to cancel. One says “trans-exclusionary” but another hears “pro-lesbian”. Not everything is so black and white. And we need to be able to make up our own minds about these issues. Under a conservative government you will have the freedom to express yourself. So you choose. Stand with Meghan. Stand with women.

 

Christina Hoff Sommers

Germaine Greer

Melanie Phillips

Camille Paglia

 

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“If we don’t believe in free expression for the people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”

-Noam Chomsky

We need to talk about Greta Thunberg

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Greta Thunberg is a 16 year old Swedish environmental activist who became famous after media coverage of her habit of skipping school to protest the Swedish government to do more about climate change. Since then she’s been hosted by multiple countries to deliver speeches about her activism and embarked on a 15-day sail boat voyage to New York City to raise awareness of climate change.

Her comments stir up reactions from all along the political spectrum. Some cheering her on for her harsh critique and others questioning how much of this is Greta’s idea or if those in her inner circle are using her as a political pawn for their own agenda. Lately conservative pundit Michael Knowles has been banned from Fox News, according to the Washington Examiner, for calling Greta “mentally ill” in a recent interview. This, although not exclusively, has sparked a debate over how one contends with Greta through the conversation she, herself, is trying to initiate. Broadcasters like John Moore and others on newstalk 1010 along with others on the political left have taken the position that to criticise Greta in almost any capacity is nothing more than a personal attack on her and amounts to bullying a minor.

 

Watch the Washington Post video about Fox News because apparently YouTube’s algorithm will only recommend content through Liberal media:

 

When black face photos surfaced of Justin Trudeau, liberals experienced cognitive dissonance.  Black face is clearly racist. Justin Trudeau was clearly an ally of racial minorities. But then how could Justin Trudeau wear blackface at multiple occasions and still not be a racist? While some of the same broadcasters and journalists who preach to us on a daily basis that Donald Trump’s racism needs to be called out, for this, they were more than keen to “listen” to what people had to say about it. While Trudeau continues to struggle to get his campaign back on track, those on the political left miss the entirety of what made his black face controversial.

Nobody believes Trudeau is a racist. Has he done or said racist things? Yes, we can now definitively say yes, he has. But is Trudeau a racist? No. He is a hypocrite. And this is something those on the left fail to even perceive. Hypocrisy is the main theme among the leftist movement as a whole. And this is why those on the left cannot understand how anyone could disagree with Greta Thunberg. So any critique of her must only be personal prejudice.

Liberals today just don’t understand anyone who disagrees with them. And contrarianism threatens them because it questions them. Maybe reading a news feed that has been 100% tailored to your individual worldview can have that effect on a person. Rationality threatens the cause and so all dissenting opinions must be suppressed at all costs. That is why instead of answering questions or making arguments they merely slander their opposition. That’s why everyone and everything is racist and bigoted. That is why anyone who disagrees with or disapproves of Greta Thunberg is attacking a minor.

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Like everything else, we need context. So I think of the Covington debacle. Nick Sandman was the name of a minor who participated in a pro-life rally called the March for Life. He decided to wear a MAGA hat during the event. After the event had wrapped up and Nick gathered with his classmates to wait for their bus to take them back to their school another group of protestors confronted the group of school children. A native group and a group called the black hebrews were also there protesting that day. The MAGA hats being worn by nick and others had caught the attention of these other groups and they converged on the students.

One native protestor who was playing a native drum had noticed Nick and singled him out. He confronted the minor, banging his drum, within inches from Nick’s face. One of the black hebrews captured this image with his phone and uploaded the photo to Twitter. There for the world to see was a MAGA wearing, white man facing off with a native man. Without any context the image quickly became a symbol and it garnered explosive outrage across social media from all regions of the world. It was received as Trumpian racism and ignorance facing off against a community of marginalized, vulnerable individuals. Even if that wasn’t the reality of the situation, it’s how it was communicated.

Since CBC thinks sharing tweets counts as journalism, I will also share with you some hard hitting, in depth, journal-isms. This was some of the fallout that happened over social media regarding Nick Sandman. Remember, Nick was a minor at this time:

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The highschool had to be shut down for several days because they received multiple threats. The Sandman family experienced a multitude of harassment and had to lawyer up after media decided to feature his face and identity in their news reports. Nick and his family, and the school itself, is still dealing with the fallout of the incident. Twitter, who operates under a self imposed hateful conduct policy, did not ban any of the verified accounts who incited violence or doxing against the students or the school. They have, however, permanently banned Megan Murphy for misgendering Jessica Yaniv. The point is that some of the same people who are condemning people for criticizing Greta today are the exact same people who called for violence against Nick Sandman.

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Watch Viva Frei break down the WaPo lawsuit dismissal:

 

I also think about Omar Khadr. He traveled to Iraq, pledged allegiance to the Taliban and after helping build improvised explosive devices he was arrested and pleaded guilty to killing an American medic and blinding another American soldier with a grenade. He was 15 at the time. To us, here in Canada, he would be legally considered a minor. In Iraq he would be considered a full grown man where many that age would be either starting a family or on track to start one. He committed the worst crime possible and did so under the flag of a terrorist group who has called for the deaths of all Canadians.

Omar Khadr now lives in Canada, enjoying ten million dollars given to him from a settlement out of court by the liberal government. But that’s it’s own story not worth glossing over too many details for the sake the of conversation I’m trying to have about Greta here and now. We are also living in such a different world today than the world we lived in before september eleventh. Both in government policy, socially and technologically.

When I was in highschool I did stupid things like ride the top of my buddy’s car and steal street signs. We would make stupid jokes about everything to try and shock one another. Jokes about everything. Back when “edgy” was something that can get you arrested for today, at least in the UK. But those jokes and that behaviour is not online. Even by adjusting our conduct today to match the standards of the day, we are still the subject of scrutiny from anything that can be dug up and exposed today. In today’s climate, context does not matter.

Justin Trudeau can use his “privilege” as an excuse for a “blind spot” to justify his lapse in judgement but I guess for everyone else whos daddy wasn’t prime minister we get no second chances or get out of jail free cards for our mistakes. We get fired. We get banned. We lose our friends. Maybe rightfully so. This is exactly why we need to be extremely careful about our conduct. Because you never know what will come back to haunt you in an uncertain future.

The whole reason why there are publication bans on court cases involving minors is purely to protect the identity of those minors. So nothing can be held against these individuals before they enter adulthood. Where they will be held accountable for their actions. Their actions as adults. But social media has made that an impossible standard because everything we do online is now saved, archived, recorded and sold to anonymous third parties. On a regular basis.

Raising a child in this environment in a way that won’t affect their future is almost impossible. You can’t just cut your child off of technology until they’re an adult. You’d be raising an illiterate mess who is incompatible with almost any workplace they will enter. let alone damage their ability to socialize with others. You also can’t expose your child to everything without scandalising them. The parental tight rope gets thinner and thinner every year. So it’s easy to see how so many people view Greta as a victim.

I do not know Greta and I am not trying to speak on her behalf. I, like most everyone else, is trying to just understand where we stand today as a society. Is Greta a victim of child abuse? Is she being used by those around her? Will everything she says and does be held against her in her future? She has admitted to having aspergers and we know that people’s mental illnesses work against them in job interviews. So I think we can say there is evidence that her inclination to polarize may work against her in certain situations. And I think we can all agree that she’s too young to really appreciate the implications of that. So I think there is actual credibility in peoples concern for her.

Ultimately we will need to wait and see what becomes of young Greta. Where she ends up. If she ends up becoming some politician, this will serve to her advantage. But what if Greta kills herself? Some of us rejoice in hearing her brutal critique of governmental indifference but some also hear a hysterical young girl who has become too cynical about the world in a time when she should be smiling and laughing with friends. Does she at least have a therapist to help her cope with her cynicism, depression and celebrity status? What do you think goes on in the mind of a girl who says, “you’ve stolen my dreams and childhood from me”? Or when she talks about extinction?

There is value and developmental benefit of children having a chance to lead happy, fun, worry-free lives before entering adulthood. That may be too late for Greta and I think we could all agree we would rather our children be competent than just simply safe and you don’t do that by raising a naive child. But I can’t help but feel like some people are using Greta to help them struggle with their world view, is anyone helping Greta struggle with hers?

 

Watch Emma Gonzalez speech at the “March for our lives” rally:

 

It also reminds me of David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez. The two main student activists that rose to fame with their appearances after the parkland school shooting. In an interview with 60 minutes Emma Gonzalez mentioned that when they first gave their speech before the Parkland community they had no conceptualization that they were being broadcast for the entire world to see and react to. Now they find themselves thrust into the public spotlight. The whole thing felt coerced to me. A local rally could serve to be a part of the healing process but it’s another thing to have CNN hold a town hall and get children to go on stage and yell at politicians. And then later be given an award for journalism. It’s no wonder so many people are confused about the reality we’re living in.

There’s no doubt that Greta has achieved a certain type of celebrity status and maybe that itself is healing to her. But It sure comes with a boat load of implications that need to be considered. The reality of the situation we are faced with is simple. You cannot enter discourse without expecting there to be discourse. We can all agree that discourse should be civilized and much of it is. But as always you have liberals taking the fringes of discourse and using it to write off the whole conversation.

Regardless how you feel about Michael Knowles referring to her as mentally ill, that is actually what she is. Aspergers is now considered part of the autism spectrum and is in fact a disorder. He didn’t call her deranged or crazy, he called her mentally ill. And it brings into question the conduct of parents of children with mental illness. Parents who seem to have no problem subjecting her to the world stage. I have no doubt if this were regarding a social conservative cause such as pro-life these parents would have their children taken away. You know, like when Kathleen Wynne made it a removable offense for parents to misgender their own children. And made it so teachers must exclude a student’s parents from discussions around sexual identity. And no I can’t find a citation right now so take it or leave it.

 

Watch Matt Walsh discuss whether climate alarmism is child abuse:

 

My take on all of this is that it is absolutely wrong to attack this girl on any superficial level. She is asking for debate, so contend with her ideas. Leave out the comments about her appearance or her gender or age. We can all appreciate young people becoming more engaged politically than ever before. But it is equally as uncivilized to refuse to participate in the debate she is literally asking for. To disqualify any argument or opinion as nothing more than attacking a minor is a lazy response to genuine reaction. What it’s actually saying is that their ideas and arguments are above scrutiny. Nothing is above scrutiny. Not even Greta herself.

You can’t treat Greta like an adult when she wants to speak and then infantilize her when it’s her turn to listen. The only way we’re going to navigate our way through this culture war is by doing as much listening as we do talking. Questioning climate activism isn’t climate denial and propping up children to take the place of science only hurts climate initiatives. A child can never be the face of the public relations battle for trust. And by hurting real conversations around actual change, we are working against Greta’s ambitions, not towards them.

Trudeau’s blackface isn’t a question about racism but of integrity. The concerns around Greta Thunberg doesn’t actually revolve around the environment. And in hypocrisy the only thing you will ever find is comedy and that’s why hypocrisy hurts trust. I disagree with Greta that the environment is our number one issue. Not because the environment isn’t an issue. Because she claims we are doing nothing about it. We are. At least here in Ontario, Canada where we currently have more forestry today than we did two hundred years ago. These issues aren’t solved overnight and as long as you keep demanding they are, we’ll never find a solution.

 

I disagree with Greta but I do admire her. I am glad people are becoming more engaged with issues that impact our daily lives. I just hope Greta can live a happy life. You know how it goes, childhood celebrities never ever develop any issues into their adulthood.

 

 

 

“The Earth is what we all have in common.”

-Wendell Berry

We Need to Talk About Women: is Society Leading Girls into a Crisis?

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Photo by Nicolas Postiglioni on Pexels.com

Boy Meets Girl

It’s clear that boys are in crisis today. Aside from the vitriol one finds anywhere in the media around any masculine topic, figures around drop out rates, gang violence, domestic violence and fatherlessness are all indicators that the situation for boys is in a state of crisis. But it’s not as easy to pin down the ways in which girls or women are in their own state of crisis. Girls face more consequences in their major decision making in their transition into womanhood. And a career cannot be encouraged without, in part, discouraging motherhood, nor does it address the reality for most childless women.

Despite girls doing better in education, at every level, than boys and now taking on better jobs on average than boys and earning more up to their thirties when majority leave the workplace to start having children. But despite this success, rates of mental illness are skyrocketing among younger women. Mental Health America finds that women experience depression at twice the rate of men. At least men’s ailments can be laid at the feet of their failures. Women’s suffering may call into question what we classify as “success” and whether or not that always has to be tied to academic or financial gains.

So if everyone is in some state of crisis then do we really have any real crisis at all or is this just the facts of life? 100 years ago a crisis meant you were going to starve or freeze to death. But I feel we must view the issues of the day by it’s modern context. And so I feel there is an actual crisis but it simply impacts the genders in different ways. And I believe this is a crisis of masculinity. The feminine and the masculine play out their roles in the lives of both men and women and when either one is out of whack, it poses a real threat to both genders.

But that threat doesn’t necessarily manifest itself in the same ways between men and women. I think what the missing link both genders may have in common is the state of fatherlessness or the lack of adequate paternal role models. In the way that mothers have a special bond with their sons, girls require that same special bond with their fathers. However almost all boys benefit from a mother whereas the majority of girls do not benefit from a father. 1 in 4 girls grow up fatherless. That’s about 17.2 million fatherless girls. We are not having the conversation about the impact or ripple effects of such a dramatic yet silent statistic.

What 12 Rules for Life has to offer women

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Photo by Travis Rupert on Pexels.com

When I started writing this I came at it from the position of what Jordan Peterson has to offer women. But given how many lectures, debates and conversations he’s engaged with in his evangelical-style book tour I felt the necessity to distinguish between what Jordan Peterson has to offer women  and what his book 12 rules for life has to offer women. But as I flipped through the chapters, reassessing the book to look for female specific messages or lessons, I felt myself at a loss. Not from the lack of female emphasis but from how equally valuable the message is to both boys and girls.

Rules #2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping – this might be a rule better emphasised for men since men are more likely to suffer in silence before going to the doctor, as opposed to women. Rule #3: Make friends with people who want the best for you – is a message of equal utility whether you’re a boy or girl. But rule #7: Do what is meaningful (not what is expedient) – this truly poses different challenges to women than the ones it poses to men. In terms of whether women desire both children and a career. Men have a bit more freedom to postpone having children till later in life which opens up more career opportunities to them.

What is meaningful at the individual level may not always match the popular consensus of what is “successful”. Equality of opportunity means battling stigma around both deviating from norms but also the pursuit of norms. Let the definition of success be described by the individual in what they find meaningful, not an academic course outline, the zeros on a paycheque or some stupid teen magazine. Pursuing what is meaningful will not only produce what is successful to you but, as Peterson always says, meaning will be what you use to offset your suffering. Snake oil salesmen sell us on the lie of happiness when the key to transcending your suffering is the pursuit of what is meaningful. That is what 12 rules for life has to offer women.

What it means to discover meaning

Communication around success is easily accessible as we all commonly presume the accumulation of commodity or asset but communicating what is meaningful is much less self evident. Because only you can define what is meaningful to you. But it’s probably something that involves some level of risk taking. You find meaning in the things that engage you. An instinctive phenomena you likely describe as your gut feeling or following your heart. Engagement that eclipse your concept of time. It likely feels like being at the right place at the right time.

Our subconscious cries out for this as we fill our days with activities of “empowerment”, “alignment”, “well-being”, “balance” or “harmony”. Whether we feel that from attending a concert, playing or watching a sport, blogging, doing yoga or other athletics. It’s the marriage between the metaphysical and the technical. It’s walking that fine line between order and chaos. It’s the process of growth and decay like that represented in the Taoist yin, shadow, and the yang, light. There is every reason to believe that in the moments one finds themselves fully engaged, they are actually fulfilling their destiny.

Delayed Gratification

In 12 rules for life Jordan Peterson makes the case that it is far more desirable to delay one’s gratification towards a target or goal. Despite the fact it runs contrary to our animalistic nature which demands immediate satisfaction. Especially when we are in a state of deprivation. But doing what is expedient is how one becomes addicted to drugs or alcohol or binge eating. Expediency is the inability to make sacrifices for the future good. The greater the sacrifice, the deeper and more profound opportunities open up for the future.

The lesson to take away being the importance towards setting goals to be able to plan a direct path correlating between now and then. This will reveal to a person which sacrifices will be necessary towards attaining such goals. One of the ways society fails girls is that today’s political correct oriented views promote education and careers for the sake of simply obtaining an education and a career. With no real discussion around the direction that will take you nor the consequences of choosing the necessary sacrifices to follow that path. This egalitarian-centric tit for tat treats women more as statistics and quotas than the sovereign individuals they are.

Problematic Education

We call it success when we allow people to go into tens of thousands of dollars in debt to study post secondary courses that have no potential of translating into an actual job let alone a career. Not to mention the post secondary courses for things that are already arguably obsolete as the rollout of automation continues to eliminate occupations. Year by year post secondary enrollment requires more and more justification.

As long as we continue to consider post-secondary education in itself necessary and the only means to success then we will only continue to incentivize aimless career students. Also risk producing people who don’t really qualify for any job. Either impossible to find opportunities in their specialization or dismissed for being overqualified for positions potential employers fear they’d simply quit the first chance they get. And no one is addressing the role motherhood plays into any of this.

There are movements to reform the education system to truly filter out things that don’t apply to the real world. And perhaps it is time we completely rethink the way education serves students and how to address what areas get priority to better ready students for the ever changing modern world. Perhaps in the form of more partnership between educators and employers with a more school-to-work based curriculum.

As someone, myself, who only completed high school, I continue to learn every single day through the revolution independent content creators provide through podcasts, youtube videos, books, blogs, etc. Perhaps the education system can help facilitate continued education in a post-graduate reality. Assuming what we truly value is education itself. But the days of cookie cutter, career-based classroom environments has served to only stifle creativity and innovation in an economy that now thrives on entrepreneurs.

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Photo by JUAN CARLOS LEVA on Pexels.com

The Motherhood Gap

Entrepreneurship also happens to open opportunities for mothers who seek irregular hours and the ability to work from home. And with the vast majority of women dropping out of the workforce within their 30s to start a family, it’s pretty clear that what we are faced with is not a “gender pay” gap but a motherhood gap. And motherhood is not a “problem” to be solved by politicians. There’s no evidence to suggest that this isn’t exactly the right choice for women to make. And we need to embrace family and motherhood better. And the answer isn’t 24/7 daycare from ages 0-24.

Watch: Jordan Peterson Explain the Motherhood Gap

Could this result in less female CEOs? Fewer female top executives? Maybe, maybe not. But we need to ask ourselves how we define success as individuals, not as members of a group from which demand quotas. But if we could plan for motherhood and have more family oriented educational courses then I believe this would help women make better decisions in everything from their personal relationships to career paths they study. And if the system could find a way to enroll boys in these courses this could lead to better rates of fatherhood. Which is actually more important to girls than to boys as I earlier pointed out that everyone gets a mother but not all girls get a father.

Higher Rates of Mental Illness Among Young Women

Watch: Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff Discuss Mental Health

According to Jonathan Haidt of the heterodox academy, rates of anxiety has skyrocketed in girls born after 1995. This anxiety has lead to higher rates of depression, suicide and suicide attempts. It’s speculated by Haidt that social media like facebook may be the single largest contributing factor into this.

Back when I was in high school if you said something controversial or did something regretful it maybe circulated around the school and maybe one or two people would say something to you but that was it. Today your social interactions happen mostly online and god forbid you say or do something others don’t approve of. What you do now can be retweeted and shared with the entire world and there is no way to undo that. This has radically changed the landscape for bullying.

Cyber bullying alone can involve spreading rumours, display hurtful comments for the world to view in the form of disparaging one’s physical appearance. Also one’s religious or political views. Bullies subject victims to sexual harassment towards teens who are only beginning puberty, a time when one find themselves particularly vulnerable. And if any teen finds themselves with special needs it’s no longer a handful of idiots snickering, it’s open displays of belittling, totally exposed for viewing by anyone and everyone.

Girls are 41 percent more likely to be subjected to cyber bullying than boys at 28 percent. The type of cyber bullying girls engage in with other girls is far more sophisticated than the way boys engage with other boys. I know when I was a boy it was more about threats of violence or situations would lead to actual physical altercations. But no one wanted to get into a fight with a girl. Girls would move schools because of other girls. It was more like psychological warfare to see who could ruin the other person’s life. A former girl friend of my own turned on me and actively sought to turn all my friends against me. Luckily she was unsuccessful but it was a war that dominated 2 whole years of my high school experience. By the end of it I found myself having become a bully myself to battle against it. This was before facebook opened to the public.

Boys tend to interact more over gaming platforms so unless they’re streaming their content at least these interactions aren’t necessarily being displayed and recorded for the rest of the world to observe. At least not in the same ways as twitter, instagram or tumblr, which are more female dominated platforms. I can’t seem to find stats on exactly how many girls have attempted suicide but there is no doubting that we are seeing more Amanda Todds than ever before.

Watch: Amanda Todd’s last video upload

The Superficiality and Over Sexualization of Social Media

But aside from cyber bullying, girls are forced to observe the artificial reality that social media provides. You need only browse the app store to see how marketing is catering towards women’s insecurities to keep them insecure and to keep them paying money to cover up superficial imperfections. The only thing boys give a shit about is whether or not they have man boobs or if their dicks are too small. A pimple for a woman is worthy of a panic attack.

Only seconds of looking at these apps and you can see exactly what’s in conflict with social media’s perception of beauty. It’s not much different from a casting couch porn audition and it’s targeting girls at all age groups. Instead of idolizing figures marketing campaigns put before us, like Kim Kardashian, perhaps the best role model for girls to develop their sense of beauty and value is through the context of their fathers. The depth of that relationship may provide the security and confidence necessary to develop a media literacy to shield against the seduction of consumerism and marketing.

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It’s normal to have ugly people shamed by beauty but this level of superficiality is fundamentally designed to shame every aspect of a woman’s physical appearance. This stuff isn’t even about attracting partners. Majority of guys find the majority of women attractive. And usually it’s not because of the makeup. Although the makeup doesn’t hurt. Although makeup at it’s core isn’t marketed to highlight what’s attractive about you. It’s strictly designed to highlight your flaws.

Even if such “flaws” are what make you unique and desirable in your own way, makeup is not marketed to promote positivity. There’s nothing in here about how to be a better friend or how to improve your life. Nor does it offer any insight about who you are or about your personality traits. Not that I’m bashing cosmetics but there is nothing here instructive or educational about cosmetic application or any educational basis for fashion in general. This is intellectual smut that’s training our girls to believe that the most important details about themselves are what’s skin deep.

And this isn’t even addressing magazines and other marketing that targets preteens through to young adults. Magazines like cosmopolitan can be found anywhere from department store checkouts to doctor office waiting rooms. Some of the issues are so shallowly sexual that even walmart has relocated where customers find them within stores. In this era of #peopleofwalmart, even walmart knows where to draw a line on social immorality. Most covers advertising the same thing. How to be desirable and how to have better orgasms. Meanwhile any man who reads these magazines can’t seem to figure out what men they’re actually talking about. But these magazines have been around forever. They would be less of an explanation to the sudden changes in girls mental health.

Feminism Hurts Women More than Men

Watch: BlazeTV on why not to be a feminist

When most people identify as “feminist” today I think they think of themselves as the old fashion, equality of opportunity type of feminist. Who wouldn’t be in favour of that in 2018? But the reality is despite there has never been more feminine movements than today, there are fewer and fewer positive role models for girls to look up to for guidance as they navigate an ever changing world. Virtually no one on any mainstream platform advocates for traditional values anymore. In fact traditional values are said to be patriarchal and oppressive now. And the only thing women hear about today are all the barriers holding them back, rather than all the opportunities available to encourage them. What’s worse is the fact that the bulk of this culture war is being waged by a noisy minority and it’s the consenting silence of the vast majority that give this malevolent minority authority to re-write history and provide an ideological context to how everything gets interpreted.

Feminism loves to attack men however they fail to consider all the women who have relationships with the very men they’re attacking. Which get demeaned by proxy. Not to mention that despite all the hashtags, marches and slogans purportedly in favour of women don’t prevent these same women from condemning other women like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Margaret Thatcher, Roseanne Barr, and every other woman who is counter narrative to the feminist agenda. Feminism isn’t about women, it’s about the “correct” women. Reports found women were actually happier than men in the 1960s whereas today women’s rates of happiness has dropped below that of men.

Feminism has, arguably successfully, replaced scientific data with hashtags. One need only look to James Damore and the Google debacle. Damore wrote a memo on how to entice more women into the stem field jobs. However because he used words like “typical versus a-typical”, “neurotic”, “agreeableness” and “risk averse” in relation to “job security” he was made out to be a bro-culture, rape apologizing hitler misogynist.

It leaked to mainstream news outlets who mischaracterized Damore as if he was boasting that men had bigger brains than women. Even a random science magazine I picked up from a local Rexall featured an article on differences in the brain and mentioned the memo directly in it’s article. Rather than refer to experts these outlets were purely emotionally reacting to how the individual words in the memo. Fox news was the only mainstream outlet who refused to smear Damore’s reputation. Yes, because the world is upside down, Fox news was the only non-fake news source.

Watch: CNBC play a blatant hit piece on Damore by reporting on the Google Memo from a position emotionally reacting to the words rather than referring to expert critique

Watch: TVO discuss disparities in female representation in 2012 (I bet if TVO played this today there would be protests outside the building to have Paikin fired)

Feminists resist science because they’re afraid of truth and the truth cannot be weaponized. Feminism needs an opponent for it to justify it’s own existence. So it has adopted a marxist oriented classism called intersectionality. Where through the lens of oppressor and oppressed you are now able to break humanity down into an infinite amount of identity groups (based on disabilities, ethnicities, religions, politics, etc) and since everyone is oppressed by something you now have justification for advocacy. And given that bureaucracy is defensive in nature then all you need to do to bring selective changes to the forefront is to protest in the form of filing formal complaints and grievances and form marches and online groups and get everyone in your group to echo in the form of retweets, hashtags, etc, criminal accusations towards institutions who fail to comply with your demands.

Next thing you know you have all the mainstream media outlets calling James Damore a sexist, misogynist. Not because they care whether or not he really is, but because they themselves don’t want the backlash of facing such an accusation. Some look at this mob justice and call it progress. However you don’t get to reject truth and walk away unscathed. To invalidate the big 5 personality traits as sexist means you’re dismissing all the qualities that make up everything that women are in their own way and all the insight that comes with unlocking the qualities to help you accomplish your life goals.

The ultimate irony is that due to things like higher aversion to risk resulting in more conscientious decision making, more agreeableness resulting in conflict avoidance/resolution and it’s things like this that make women more competent than men, on average. If you disagree with that then acquaint yourself with the Darwin awards. You’ll walk away a believer that, on average, men are the less competent sex. This is why 80% of all consumer based decision making is made by women because men know who’s the boss! Just because there is a disparity doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong.

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Tribalism is a part of our biology. Therefore our tendencies towards tribalism is deeply built into us all. When you frame situations around victim groups and the privileged groups. Meaning people at the bottom are good and people at the top are bad. It may not be self evident what’s so harmful with this notion but what it’s essentially saying is that life itself is a 0 sum game. That’s what they’re really saying when referencing to systematic racism. This encourages a tribalistic response which only dehumanizes individuals and divides society at every level from workplace relationships, friendships down to families and spouses. There are no checks in place to view things scientifically when your team is calling you to action. Feminism creates this positive feedback loop of negativity and relies on manufactured outrage to bring out the worst in you. A recruiting tactic to rally members not so different than ISIS calls to action.

As much as feminism claims to speak for all women, it’s really more like educated women advocating for other educated women. Demanding government paid all day child care is only advocating for parental disengagement. As if motherhood pride looks like children calling their nannies “mommy”. Let’s not innovate ways to bring the economy to women, let’s demand conformity to sculpt the kind of women we want. You know, in the name of diversity and inclusion and equity.

But it not only refuses to hold a more meaningful conversation on a woman’s role as a mother, it refuses to hold meaningful conversations about the challenges women face when seeking to begin a family. An educated woman tends to have kids roughly in their 30s. 4/10 children are born from single mothers. The mothers of 2/3s of those kids are mothers under 30 years old. But the most significant conversation it’s avoiding is the fact that the majority of single mothers live in poverty.

According to singlemotherguide.com (US stats), about 12 million single parent families with children under the age of 18, more than 80% were headed by single mothers. 4/10 children are born to single women and 2/3s of those kids are born to mothers under the age of 30. Among 11,667 single parent families 81.4% are headed by single mothers. 35.6% were poor. 27.5% were jobless all year long with 22.4% receive unemployment benefits. 31.6% were food insecure with 13% on some variation of food assistance like a food bank. 50% never married. 29% are divorced where 21% are either separated or widowed. The median income for single mothers is $35,400 whereas the median income for married couples is $85,300.

Frankly it’s the Church and local communities and families who are the primary supports for these women. And also some of the primary targets of feminism in the name of fighting oppression. And in attacking these support systems, they launch a direct assault on the women who rely on them. As long as they propagandize emotions and replace data with hashtags as the evidence in their arguments, they will only feed toxic tribalism and hurt women in the process. If you want to identify as feminist, regardless your views, you have to accept that people like Hannah Gadsby is the spokesperson you are electing to speak on your behalf.

Watch: Hannah Gadsby explain what her definition of a “good man” is.

Christina Hoff Sommers, Cassie Jaye, Camille Paglia, Janice Fiamengo, Karen Straughan, Brittany Pettibone, Lauren Chen, Lauren Debellis, Rachel Fulton Brown, Melanie Phillips, Germaine Greer, Heather MacDonald, Mona Charen, Christie Blatchford, Judith Sheindlin, Josephine Mathias, Ronda Rousey, Lauren Southern, Lana Del Rey, Blaire White, Diana Davison, Georgia Free, PO the Person, Barbara Kay, Katie Hopkins, Sydney Watson, Blonde in the belly of the beast, and others are speaking about the potential harm feminism is doing to girls and society. These women should be celebrated for doing their part to speak out against this toxic, divisive ideology.

Watch: Jordan Peterson Debunk White Privilege

We all want equality of opportunities. But this equality oriented feminism is  overshadowed by this new trend of intersectionality and identity politics. It’s also in bed with the post-modernists and neo-marxists. Feminism today operates more as a religion and mobs anyone who commits blasphemy. It truly highlights the dangers of smart people being seduced by dangerous ideologies. We are at a point now where feminists cook up so much false, propagandized data that you literally cannot trust any statistics they espouse.

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If you disagree with this notion, I’d bet you don’t realize what’s going on in society today. but thankfully there is a thriving counter culture that is becoming more vocal day by day. But you wouldn’t know it if all you pay attention to are the mainstream outlets. This year’s women’s march has been cancelled because it’s “too white”. There is no place for you, white women. All you white women who claim to want good things for others, you just need to shut the fuck up. Because nothing is better than you. That’s what YOUR feminism is saying about YOU. But I’m sure none of this has anything to do with the fact the first women’s march was founded by anti-semites. 

Watch: Louise Mazanti PhD discuss moving on from #metoo

As the modern feminists say: the opposite of feminist is misogynist so you’re either with us or against us. And there could be no better example of this than how Cassie Jaye was treated by the mainstream media for creating her documentary, “the red pill“. Or that of what’s happening to Megan Murphy. She takes the controversial stance that trans women (male to female) are not biological women. Therefore she does not want to share women only spaces like women only gyms with trans women. Some of these women are victims of domestic violence or rape by men so it’s easy to understand why this would cause a conflict. And, to me, proves that “inclusiveness” does not mean everyone gets their own space, it means you are obligated to submit your space to everyone else. Why can’t we have women only gyms? The fact that they wage war against this proves there will be no rest until every single institution and corporation has submitted everything to the communist initiatives of these regressive progressives.

But the gender feminists have been condemning her and platforms like twitter is enabling their campaign of hate by responding to a report by banning murphy. They even have a name for women like Murphy. Murphy is deemed a “terf” (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist). She has officially been deplatformed and dehumanized by this new allocation as radical. Feminism with all its many faces today is nothing more than an ouroboros as it is doomed to devour itself.

You either have empathy or you don’t. There is no picking and choosing who you have empathy for. You’re either empathetic or you’re not. Empathy is not a trait that prioritizes any kind of hierarchical order. So if you claim to advocate for the disenfranchised and yet end up condemning people who advocate for the disenfranchised then it’s clear to me your initiatives are not based in compassion as you claim. Your initiatives are more likely based in resentment. And this is where instead of attempting to correlate this to the many examples of genocide in the 20th century, I will simply tell you to read the Gulag Archipelago.

Watch: Jess Butcher, TEDxAstonU: Is Modern Feminism Starting to Undermine Itself? 

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What Jordan Peterson Has to Offer Women

Watch: Jordan Peterson lecture on motherhood and career

And so I come back to my original musing, what does Jordan Peterson has to offer women? Well his message, to me, is received like very fatherly advice. Many people have not had the pleasure of receiving fatherly advice to guide them through life. And so I believe it’s Peterson’s fatherly role modeling that is actually more meaningful to women than it is to men. Peterson often discusses how hierarchical ordering is built into our biology. He also frequently highlights the subtle differences that define the sexes through the big 5 personality traits.

Society sings songs and cracks jokes about women being gold diggers. However Peterson responds to this by asking why any woman would desire a pathetic man-child? Peterson points out something that should be common sense to us all but because of things like feminism it’s become controversial to openly discuss. Women select men that are of equal or greater status to themselves. Which only makes finding a suitable partner harder the more successful a woman becomes. Not that men are settlers, men just don’t put such emphasis on status. This is why the boss, secretary dynamic is such a common kink. The woman looks up to her boss while displaying to the boss an ability to fulfill his needs.

Petersons self authoring program allows you to learn about where you land within the big 5 personality traits. Peterson, in this context, often discusses how to overcome self-defeating behaviours. And identifying other bad habits holding you back. There is no greater advantage in setting goals then truly understanding who you are. This information helps you better understand yourself. What’s powerful about this for people and for women in particular, is that Peterson does a good job at communicating with a paternal flare the value in each one of these traits. He’s battling the stigma attached to the things that make the sexes similar but also the things that separate us.

Watch: Dr. Oz hosts Jordan Peterson in sharing quiz to help you accomplish your goals

Most women would take offense to being called neurotic. Mainly because it’s often used as an insult. But Peterson highlights that we rely on people in society who are sensitive to risk to keep dangerous new changes in check, however necessary the changes may be. Peterson’s message is a case for the sovereignty of the individual. Speak for yourself and only yourself, do not let any group dictate how you ought to live or try to speak for you. We all have strengths and weaknesses and there’s a reason why we tend to admire those who overcome their weaknesses. We’re not celebrating the weakness itself, we are rather admiring one’s triumph over it. Tragedy is the fact of life and there is nothing more real than pain.

Men and Women, regardless what they believe, are in this struggle together. And we need to step up and address exactly how we are getting masculinity wrong. And perhaps Jordan Peterson is providing us with a new cultural conversation to figure out what exactly we’ve all gotten so wrong. And perhaps through that discussion will emerge a new found respect for both sexes. And perhaps we can end this feuding with a warm embrace and renewed appreciation for each other.

Let girls benefit from their fathers in the ways boys get to benefit from their mothers. Let fathers advocate for risk taking and the call to adventure, to take part in the greater destiny of the world, that all good fathers demand of their children. Let feminine girls contrast with their masculine fathers and learn how to appreciate differences which can act in a way to support them. I think one of the ways fatherlessness manifests itself is the fact that women are more Christian than men. In church attendance, in faith, in practice and in participation. I believe this is by nature women finding it both more appealing and satisfying in building on their relationship with God the father.

My grandma made me a better man. So I believe grandpas, fathers, brothers and sons can also empower girls and women. We are at our best when we love each other. Let them embrace that masculinity in a way that celebrates their femininity. The key to better lives is through healthier relationships. And let boys and girls understand their whole selves and to take pride in the makeup of their character whether those traits be feminine or masculine. Let neither trait be discouraged if that daughter or that son finds meaning through it. Let them use what is meaningful to offset their suffering and let us all find peace in a balanced, aligned, harmonized relationship to both the light and the shadow. Let us love one another and work things out together so we can move forward together. It’s through our union together that will solve both crisis among boys and girls.

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Check Out: Understand Myself.com

https://www.understandmyself.com/

Check Out: The Self Authoring program

https://www.selfauthoring.com/

 

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”– Eleanor Roosevelt

We Need to Talk About Mohammed Bin Salman

Are you watching, Saudi Arabia?
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It started with a tweet from Chrystia Freeland, 2018 diplomat of the year, about the case of Samar Badawi. Because in a world with Trump why not just tweet all our diplomatic relations? Nothing bad has ever happened on Twitter before. I’m just glad she kept the emojis out of it this time. But lazy diplomacy aside, Ms. Freeland did raise a valid concern. Which frankly shocked me since even looking at a Muslim here in Canada is bound to get you accused of Islamophobia. Saudi Arabia has a long history of human rights violations. Or at least that’s what we would call it here in the west. But in sharia law enforced Saudi Arabia the restrictions on one’s sovereignty is considered the path to God.

Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was appointed defence minister on January 23, 2015, after his father’s accession to the throne. In the same year, he was named deputy crown prince. He has enforced a more aggressive foreign policy to rival Iran’s influence in the nearby regions. He has made headlines around the world in making social progressive changes of allowing women to drive and revoking the authority of the religious police to make arrests. In April of 2016 he declared his plans to diversify and privatize Saudi Arabia’s economy in an effort to rely less on oil. The plan is by the year 2030 Saudi Arabia will attract investment capital as it serves to connect the neighbouring continents.

However this was seen to be more of a PR stunt to distract from the controversial “purge” that was happening in the background. In November 2017, four ministers, 11 princes and several high-profile entrepreneurs were detained in what was called a “anti-corruption purge“. This on direct orders by Mohammad bin Salman. But critics claimed this purge targeting more competition than it did corruption. Fast forward today as Mohammad bin Salman exercises his military forces against the Houthi in Yemen, the conflict has left an estimated 56 000 dead while thousands other suffer from malnutrition and disease.

Turkish predisent on kashoggi

The most recent development was the murder of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He had published articles in the past which took a critical aim at the royals as he called for a need for more free speech in the kingdom. He went into the Saudi consulate in Turkey to handle divorce papers from his previous wife. Only he never came out. Turkey officials conducted an investigation where they determined that Khashoggi was killed by a coordinated strike which they linked directly to Mohammad bin Salman. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the findings in a public forum and Turkish authorities released evidence including an audio tape alleged to feature Khashoggi’s last moments.

Khashoggi had written one last article before his disappearance. This has caused senators in the US like Marco Rubio to react by guaranteeing congress will take action against Saudi Arabia whether or not Trump decides to take action. Meanwhile Trump refused to take a clear position on the matter until he had irrefutable proof that it was in fact Mohammad bin Salman behind the alleged murder plot. Then later Trump came out and declared that the Saudi-US relations took precedence over whatever events transpired over the Khashoggi incident.

Chrystia Freeland

Very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawi’s sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.

– Chrystia Freeland, 2018 diplomat of the year

After tweeting this out Saudi Arabia swiftly moved to call back all their foreign exchange students which was estimated at 5,811 short term students and 9,120 long term students. Ranging from an estimated cost upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars. They also suspended all Saudi state airline trips to Toronto. Then they expelled our ambassador from Riyadh (and they did that over twitter too). Not that Freeland regrets the tweet, noting that she hadn’t said anything about Saudi Arabia that wasn’t consistent with what Liberals have been “publicly vocal” about for some time.  “There is nothing new or novel about Canada’s support for human rights, very much including women’s rights, around the world and including in Saudi Arabia,” Freeland, 2018 diplomat of the year, told reporters in Vancouver.

I don’t know if Chrystia Freeland, 2018 diplomat of the year, was aware of the risks she was taking by signalling her virtues in her tweet but frankly this narrative from the media that all of this was ever so shocking and unpredictable is complete political spin bullshit. she could have expected a strong reaction if she was aware of Saudi Arabia’s 2015 reaction to Sweden’s foreign minister. Where attention was drawn to Raif Badawi’s treatment while criticizing Riyadh’s record on human rights. Saudi Arabia’s response was to temporarily recall it’s ambassador in Stockholm. I’m just saying, when dealing with a tyrant maybe a more serious approach than social media would’ve been a more appropriate way of addressing the issue. I don’t see her as willing to take on China, Pakistan or North Korea but I wouldn’t know, I don’t follow her twitter.

 

 

Now I’m certainly not about to defend Saudi Arabia by any means. Chrystia Freeland, 2018 diplomat of the year, is still my foreign affairs minister and I’m on team Canada every time. And even if I don’t like her methods, I at least agree that it’s about damn time that Saudi Arabia get called out for their atrocious human rights violations. Although I wonder if by the Liberals own standards if what Chrystia Freeland did was Islamophobic and violates twitter’s hateful conduct policy by promoting harm against a member of their protected category. I mean, who are we to criticize an Islamic state country? When they call women whores or declare them property of their husbands or sons, isn’t that just their truth?

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The part that makes this whole situation sticky is that, like the US, Canada has invested interests in Saudi Arabia. We currently trade about 4 billion worth of goods with them. A good chunk of which are military vehicles. So not only are we fiscally tied to the Saudis but we’re also complicit in what they use those combat vehicles for. You know, the war in Yemen that Trudeau has been so critical about. Some of that blood is on our hands. So we’re in the same boat as the US who does billions of dollars in military dealings with the Saudis as well. Trudeau has expressed a desire to actually pull out of these dealings but doesn’t see a way out of the current contract that was signed by the previous Harper government. At least not without losing a bunch of money in breaking the contract. My question is, are we really that sure about cutting all ties to Saudi Arabia? Over a US journalist and their handling of Badawi?

Anyway, now Trudeau is at the G20 meeting where he spoke to Prince Mohammed bin Salman about their diplomatic relations. And among the mass murder and malnutrition going on in Yemen, the planned murder of a journalist, imprisonment of Badawi, millions of dollars in trade sanctions, I’m proud to report to you that Trudeau is addressing the issues that matter most. Gender equity! I’m sure Oshawa is breathing a sigh of relief. Nothing to see here. In all seriousness Trudeau claims he did speak to the prince about how he’ll “always stand up strongly” for human rights and apparently he also spoke to Putin about what’s been going on in Ukraine. But didn’t go into details.

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My question to you is this. We do billions of dollars in trade (or at least we did) with Saudi Arabia. And they oppose a lot of countries that we oppose as allies of Israel. Like Iran and Lebanon and Syrian president Bashard al-Assad, who is supported by Russia. They also actively oppose the muslim brotherhood. They may be very different than us but in terms of our options, they’ve always played the role of the enemy of our enemies. And I hate to say it but I agree with Trump when he says if we cut off all ties only end up pushing them into the arms of our enemies. And that would no doubt be far more damaging in the long term. Perhaps the warm welcoming Putin gave M.B.S. at the G20 painted that picture perfectly.

It also doesn’t help having the Trump deranged narrative news only reporting on the details of the story around Khashoggi’s murder to make Trump look like a heartless bastard. They care more about that than even pronouncing Khashoggi’s name properly. Only a few sources seem to even be addressing that Khashoggi was more than just a journalist. He established a political party in the US called Democracy for the Arab World Now. Based around supporting Islamist gains in democratic elections throughout the region. This meant that Khashoggi was in the process of leading an Islamist political opposition to Mohammed bin Salman. So there is a hell of a lot more to this than mere censorship. And there have been allegations that in that movement he had direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood whom we consider a terrorist organization.

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I’m not excusing what happened to Khashoggi by any means. But with so much at stake I can’t help but feel like it just isn’t worth losing the relationship we do have. And perhaps through our relationship we may have opportunities yet in the future to put more pressure on Saudi Arabia for social reform. I really do believe that. If we can impress more capitalism integration then there’s no doubt in my mind that liberty will find it’s way to the people. If they do manage to pull off their 2030 vision, well that’s a lot of opportunity there. And we need to think about the future. I’d like to know what you think about all of this. Wherever you fall on the issue, this is definitely something we all need to be discussing. We need to talk about Mohammed bin Salman.

 

“hold your friends close but your enemies closer.”

  • Michael Corleone (Mario Puzo), The Godfather Part II