I agree with the author's statement that “ the only thing Poilievre has done wrong is making the unlikely assertion that he was unaware of the message on the T-shirt”.
Mr. Poilievre and Ms. Smith, and anyone else for that matter, should stop claiming they were not aware of it as a means of apology. People in power should stop apologising as soon as someone screams racist/bigot or any form of self made phobic! Nothing hateful was presented on those T-shorts. Only the possibility of expressing frustration. People are getting sick and tired of being told that other’s sexual desires/fantasies/delusions/choices….- all private matters- are virtues that everyone else is required to celebrate, believe, and bow to.
" . . . that everyone else is required to celebrate, believe, and bow to."
Well said, N.M. Yesterday I came across the following rather bizarre statement, made by a professor of Queer Studies in Education (U of Regina; yes, that's a U of R "faculty"). This was part of this prof's Facebook wish list for a future world:
"That we will create spaces where all people are recognized as their own experts, where the agency of children is honoured and is protected. Where people’s identities, names, pronouns and ways of being are not just respected, but recognized as exquisite."
Wise points, such as: “I am not prepared to assume that based on a T-shirt slogan, the same way I would not assume a person with a BLM T-shirt is a bigot, even though I know for a fact that a lot of BLM supporters are bigots. Some have a major hate on for white people (and any non-white person who does not share their postmodern, race essentialist way of thinking). But many BLM supporters have only the best of intentions.”
Words like 'racism', 'bigotry' or 'transphobia' have become ideological cry wolfery that is as meaningless as it is mealy mouthed. They are merely condemnatory cliches for perceived heresy and non conformity to received doctrine.
The neo-clerical Woke zealots who administer their quasi religious dogmas delude themselves into believing that they have the moral upper hand and the 'verdict of history'. They don't and calling their bluff will show them up as the Paper Tigers they really are.
Defending oneself against Woke categorizing is an act of legitimizing the enemy. They are race hustlers who are bigots in the original sense of aggressive moral grandstanding and sanctimonious puritanism. And they suffer from allodoxaphobia, which is the fear of hearing other people’s opinions. They have plenty to be phobic about.
These people are as despicable as any of the totalitarians ever to blight the history of our species, and we need to treat them as if they are. They do not deserve our respect, so we should never indulge them as if they did, even for the sake of debate, which will always be one sided because totalitarians never debate. They dictate.
Tx for the new word. If there were a surgical "fix" for this affliction, would it be an allodoxaphobiectomy? (Although, maybe those who have this condition consider it a virtue rather than an affliction.)
Ho ho ho....It is a bit like bowel cancer. The victim is unlikely to appreciate the full extent of the threat until there an irreparability slam from the oncologist, after months of surgery, chemo, radiology and unabated suffering.
Most of us generally learn the hard way, but the Woke seem to be really hanging out for an epoch ending history lesson.
This is good. The Toronto Star is trash. It has no place in rational discourse in Canada. The guy's t-shirt slogan 'Straight Pride" and especially 'Thank a straight person today for your existence' speak to several important socio-political concerns that the media and Smart People ignore, namely: 1) The abysmal and dropping fertility rate that has huge implications for a stable and sustainable society and 2) Trans and Pride fatigue caused by authoritarian activists. The guy's t-shirt speaks directly to these two issues, it is literally not even related to any kind of 'hate'.
Let the Toronto Star and the rest of the woke/leftist mob think what they like. If it's okay for the LGBTQ movement to proselytize with slogans like Gay Pride, with X-rated Gay Pride parades, with gender-affirming in schools and with Drag Queen story hours to pervert our children's young minds, then it's okay for the still-mostly heterosexual members of our society to speak up with a Straight Pride T-shirt. A friend told me recently that his 17 year old daughter feels ashamed of being white. I've no doubt that heterosexual kids are being shamed, too. We should be speaking up a lot more - and not just on T-shirts! Last I heard there is still a vestige of free speech left in our society.
Good observations--and of course it was a frickin' humorous t-shirt. In fact a satirical one--and satire is a protected form of speech (even against legal copyright law). But the oh-so-earnest activist Left entitle themselves to cancel the concept of humour when it suits their need to be outraged (that is, their need for the power strategy of outrage). Thus, the best response is just to LAUGH--and preferably in their faces.
"Is T-shirt guy a bigot? Maybe. To know, I would have to have a conversation with him."
Here's a question: Are *you* a bigot? To know, it would not suffice to have a conversation with yourself wherein you run through your ideological stances on some supposedly suitable selection of fashionable hot-button issues and assure yourself that all of your opinions are in line with whomever is currently regarded as bien-pensant. To show that *you* are not a bigot -- i.e., not someone who is obstinately, unreasonably attached to your own views about whatever it might be -- you would have to be able to engage in an intelligent critical discussion of your views and the foundations thereof, quite regardless of the pseudo-authority of the views of the politically correct twits at institutions like the Toronto Star (or anywhere else).
"There is no indication that T-shirt guy said or did anything to demonstrate bigotry, such as, for example, proclaiming intolerance of, or hatred towards LGBT etc. people."
Look, let's be honest: the shirt isn't about 'straight pride'; it's about a rejection of 'gay pride.' (Almost certainly.) To pretend oblivion to this fact in our current cultural context is silly. It's like pretending that 'Jew pride' in Nazi Germany wouldn't necessarily be an anti-Nazi message. But if someone is 'anti-LGBT etc.' does that make him a bigot? That's where we'd have to get into a substantive discussion about the actual nature and appropriate stance to take towards whatever ideology, behaviour, identity, etc. is in question. If you fail to understand that that is what is necessary, then you are a bigot.
I agree with the author's statement that “ the only thing Poilievre has done wrong is making the unlikely assertion that he was unaware of the message on the T-shirt”.
Mr. Poilievre and Ms. Smith, and anyone else for that matter, should stop claiming they were not aware of it as a means of apology. People in power should stop apologising as soon as someone screams racist/bigot or any form of self made phobic! Nothing hateful was presented on those T-shorts. Only the possibility of expressing frustration. People are getting sick and tired of being told that other’s sexual desires/fantasies/delusions/choices….- all private matters- are virtues that everyone else is required to celebrate, believe, and bow to.
" . . . that everyone else is required to celebrate, believe, and bow to."
Well said, N.M. Yesterday I came across the following rather bizarre statement, made by a professor of Queer Studies in Education (U of Regina; yes, that's a U of R "faculty"). This was part of this prof's Facebook wish list for a future world:
"That we will create spaces where all people are recognized as their own experts, where the agency of children is honoured and is protected. Where people’s identities, names, pronouns and ways of being are not just respected, but recognized as exquisite."
Recognized "as exquisite" no less!
Wise points, such as: “I am not prepared to assume that based on a T-shirt slogan, the same way I would not assume a person with a BLM T-shirt is a bigot, even though I know for a fact that a lot of BLM supporters are bigots. Some have a major hate on for white people (and any non-white person who does not share their postmodern, race essentialist way of thinking). But many BLM supporters have only the best of intentions.”
Words like 'racism', 'bigotry' or 'transphobia' have become ideological cry wolfery that is as meaningless as it is mealy mouthed. They are merely condemnatory cliches for perceived heresy and non conformity to received doctrine.
The neo-clerical Woke zealots who administer their quasi religious dogmas delude themselves into believing that they have the moral upper hand and the 'verdict of history'. They don't and calling their bluff will show them up as the Paper Tigers they really are.
Defending oneself against Woke categorizing is an act of legitimizing the enemy. They are race hustlers who are bigots in the original sense of aggressive moral grandstanding and sanctimonious puritanism. And they suffer from allodoxaphobia, which is the fear of hearing other people’s opinions. They have plenty to be phobic about.
These people are as despicable as any of the totalitarians ever to blight the history of our species, and we need to treat them as if they are. They do not deserve our respect, so we should never indulge them as if they did, even for the sake of debate, which will always be one sided because totalitarians never debate. They dictate.
No Pasaran Woke!
Tx for the new word. If there were a surgical "fix" for this affliction, would it be an allodoxaphobiectomy? (Although, maybe those who have this condition consider it a virtue rather than an affliction.)
Ho ho ho....It is a bit like bowel cancer. The victim is unlikely to appreciate the full extent of the threat until there an irreparability slam from the oncologist, after months of surgery, chemo, radiology and unabated suffering.
Most of us generally learn the hard way, but the Woke seem to be really hanging out for an epoch ending history lesson.
This is good. The Toronto Star is trash. It has no place in rational discourse in Canada. The guy's t-shirt slogan 'Straight Pride" and especially 'Thank a straight person today for your existence' speak to several important socio-political concerns that the media and Smart People ignore, namely: 1) The abysmal and dropping fertility rate that has huge implications for a stable and sustainable society and 2) Trans and Pride fatigue caused by authoritarian activists. The guy's t-shirt speaks directly to these two issues, it is literally not even related to any kind of 'hate'.
Let the Toronto Star and the rest of the woke/leftist mob think what they like. If it's okay for the LGBTQ movement to proselytize with slogans like Gay Pride, with X-rated Gay Pride parades, with gender-affirming in schools and with Drag Queen story hours to pervert our children's young minds, then it's okay for the still-mostly heterosexual members of our society to speak up with a Straight Pride T-shirt. A friend told me recently that his 17 year old daughter feels ashamed of being white. I've no doubt that heterosexual kids are being shamed, too. We should be speaking up a lot more - and not just on T-shirts! Last I heard there is still a vestige of free speech left in our society.
Good observations--and of course it was a frickin' humorous t-shirt. In fact a satirical one--and satire is a protected form of speech (even against legal copyright law). But the oh-so-earnest activist Left entitle themselves to cancel the concept of humour when it suits their need to be outraged (that is, their need for the power strategy of outrage). Thus, the best response is just to LAUGH--and preferably in their faces.
"Is T-shirt guy a bigot? Maybe. To know, I would have to have a conversation with him."
Here's a question: Are *you* a bigot? To know, it would not suffice to have a conversation with yourself wherein you run through your ideological stances on some supposedly suitable selection of fashionable hot-button issues and assure yourself that all of your opinions are in line with whomever is currently regarded as bien-pensant. To show that *you* are not a bigot -- i.e., not someone who is obstinately, unreasonably attached to your own views about whatever it might be -- you would have to be able to engage in an intelligent critical discussion of your views and the foundations thereof, quite regardless of the pseudo-authority of the views of the politically correct twits at institutions like the Toronto Star (or anywhere else).
"There is no indication that T-shirt guy said or did anything to demonstrate bigotry, such as, for example, proclaiming intolerance of, or hatred towards LGBT etc. people."
Look, let's be honest: the shirt isn't about 'straight pride'; it's about a rejection of 'gay pride.' (Almost certainly.) To pretend oblivion to this fact in our current cultural context is silly. It's like pretending that 'Jew pride' in Nazi Germany wouldn't necessarily be an anti-Nazi message. But if someone is 'anti-LGBT etc.' does that make him a bigot? That's where we'd have to get into a substantive discussion about the actual nature and appropriate stance to take towards whatever ideology, behaviour, identity, etc. is in question. If you fail to understand that that is what is necessary, then you are a bigot.