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Aug. 7, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
24:10
This Week in Stupid (07⧸08⧸2016)
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Hello everyone, welcome to this week in Stupid for the 7th of August 2016.
I'm not very well at the moment, so my voice will probably sound a bit rough.
I do apologise.
So, Gorka Media founder Nick Denton files for personal bankruptcy.
Gorka Media founder Nick Denton has filed for personal bankruptcy in the wake of PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel's proxy war against the news organisation and its individual journalists.
Gorka itself filed for bankruptcy in June.
It's disturbing to live in a world in which a billionaire can bully journalists because he didn't like the coverage, wrote Denton in a memo to staff on Monday.
I love how Denton and Gorka are playing the victims here.
We were just standing up for our right to host a sex tape of someone on our website.
It was a matter of the public good and not just a seedy attempt to get clicks.
Thiel, a Donald Trump supporter, is that relevant information?
Was the clandestine source of funding behind Hulk Hogan's suit against the site, which published a sex tape featuring the pro wrestler and the wife of a friend.
Hogan was awarded 140 million damages and cost by a Florida jury in March.
Thiel has said he has backed other lawsuits brought against Gorka.
Well, why would he do that?
I mean, why would he have a personal vendetta against Gorka?
I assume he's just some evil billionaire steepling his fingers and thinking how can I screw the little guy today.
The tech billionaire has found himself the frequent subject of Gorka stories.
Gorka-owned Valuag outed Thiel as gay in 2007.
Thiel had not tried to hide this but considered it a private matter.
Well now I see why he might be interested in destroying Gorka.
But the thing is this is completely standard practice for Denton and Gorka.
Denton is gay himself and he thinks it's a good idea to out other gay people whether they like it or not because he thinks it's better if they live honestly.
Even though it's really none of your business to out anyone, is it Nick?
This is a company founded by a journalist, built around a journalistic mission of hosting sex tapes and outing gays.
Beholden only to readers.
We can be proud that we survived and prospered as an independent company for more than a decade and have a second act ahead of us under the shelter of a larger media company.
Gorka endures.
Oh yeah, that's just heroic.
The heroic cancer of the internet can't quite be squashed.
In May Thiel told the New York Times, I refuse to believe that journalism means massive privacy violations.
Oh come on Peter, stop being so stop being so sensitive.
You know, there's nothing wrong with them hosting a sex tape of Hulk Hogan on their website.
I mean that's a matter of the public good.
You're being far too sensitive you queer.
So you're probably not aware of a Facebook group called Country Living.
That's C-U-N-T-R-Y.
Now, that's not run by Glenn Kwagmite.
It's actually run by feminists, feminists from Oxford University.
And it's 14,000 members strong.
And apparently it's not a feminist safe haven, it's toxic.
And I thought it's worth looking at this, because it really just demonstrates what the problems with feminism are, if left to its own devices.
Theoretically, country living, I can't read this without thinking of Family Guy, should be a paradise.
Set up as a feminist group by some of the finest young minds in the country, well, Oxford students.
It should be a place to discuss important issues, to learn and to educate themselves.
It is, as it claims in a pin post to the group, an intersectional, anti-racist, sex-positive online space in which we can challenge the patriarchy and other structures of oppression.
Well, it certainly sounds like they've got their intersectional feminist buzzword credentials down.
It's not a paradise, if you can believe it.
Instead, the 14,000-strong group has become so asphyxiated with its own impossible to uphold ideals and labyrinthian rules that it's impossible to take seriously.
I can hardly believe it.
Both as a feminist and someone who spends way too much time on Facebook, I wanted to understand the hellscape of arguments and bannings that was country living.
The first thing to do was to message the admins.
I'd heard horror stories of people being kicked out for voicing opposition to a niche opinion, or for siding with the wrong person in one of their many daily all-out comment wars.
But in a group that was founded by Oxbridge students to educate Oxbridge students, I was sure they'd be reasonable, intelligent, open to chatting.
I was wrong.
Country Living is a bizarre feudalist setup, a group run by a gang of 11 admins, and though I reached out to all of them, I only heard back from two people.
One was a mother living in Australia, the other English.
Honestly, I'm wondering if this isn't sort of mean girl syndrome.
And then maybe we could call it toxic femininity.
You know, where you've got the popular girls and they tend to exercise their power on the less popular girls.
I bet we see something like that.
Country Living might once have been a mecca for like-minded feminists who educate themselves and discuss ideas.
Now it straddles an uncomfortable position between laughable and terrifying.
On one hand, the group is an easy parody.
Its attempts at intelligent debate can be reduced to Portlandia-style buzzwords.
Oh, what a surprise.
It's too tempting to joke about how any post in the group can be reduced to someone with blue hair shouting caps lock style at someone who has been triggered.
I mean, I don't want to say that everyone knew this was going to be the logical outcome of feminist identity politics, but I mean, this was all that was ever going to happen from a setup like this.
Someone else will interject, asking for a content note about gender exceptionalism.
There will be a splinter argument carried out over the wrong use of pronouns.
Of course there will.
Because having weird and unnecessary pronouns is just such a productive thing.
Out of nowhere, a user will remember that nobody has checked their privilege in at least seven minutes.
And there's a brief meltdown before they realise the person who's pointed out this identifies as a man, which, you know, in itself is quite problematic.
If you scroll down the page looking for any opinions that don't come with the words feel, trigger, admins, please delete, you'd be fighting a losing battle.
Well, I really wanted to get into this Facebook group, and so I sent a request to join it, because obviously it's closed.
They didn't accept my request to join.
I don't know why.
I'm very disappointed.
But there is a Tumblr for this Facebook group, where people post some of the most ridiculous things.
And here's a sample.
Hey, I think my friend has been unjustly expelled from this group.
I thought this was a safe space where people could express their opinions.
This is a safer space, which prioritises the voices of marginalised groups.
Will made a comment which completely invalidated a group member's experiences of sexism and racism.
87 upvotes.
Honestly, I don't even know how something someone says can invalidate someone's experiences.
But anyway, country living is a safer space and don't you forget it.
An investigation carried out last year by the Tab Oxford on the people the group was founded for discovered that people weren't posting in the group simply because they were too scared of the constantly frenetic and aggressive atmosphere.
160 of the 270 respondents said they'd never posted to the group before even though 70% of them said they had something to post.
And over half of those had never posted admitted they hadn't done so because they felt too nervous and the atmosphere was described as militant, toxic and hostile.
And many felt country living could not function as both a safe space and a discussion group and that this conflict could often lead to issues such as what one called authoritarian moderating.
I'll try and contain my surprise.
The thing is, what would one expect a community like this to end up as?
Feminism is deeply authoritarian, and there is a distinct mob mentality about policing everyone in the group, especially if you are policing people with rules that are not only arbitrary, but also ambiguous.
They finish with, to me, feminism is about support, education, and equality.
None of those values are upheld in Country Living's aggressive forum.
Though it seems to pride itself on being able to shout the loudest, ultimately it doesn't really have anything to say.
And really that is third wave feminism in a nutshell.
They've missed the boat on fighting for civil rights, but they still want to feel like they're doing some sort of good, and so now it's just come down to aggressively policing each other and castigating each other for any kind of tiny infraction.
So we're going to have a significant change of pace from annoying first world women to the Munich shooter.
Specifically how a man who stood up and shouted at the guy from a balcony is now facing prosecution for insulting the killer.
Thomas Salby, 57, saw the shooting happen from his balcony in the Bavarian capital on July 22nd, in an attempt to stop 18 year old Ali Sombali from further slaughtering people.
He swore at the shooter as he was standing in the car park below.
Somboli shouted at him, I am a German.
That's an important thing that you'll have to remember for later.
And I'm not making this up, I swear to God.
Footage of the feisty exchange went viral as thousands praised Mr. Salbi for standing up to the deluded teenager.
So this article comes from The Express, and in Britain, The Express has a terrible reputation.
And it's because of articles like this.
Brave man who stood up to the, you know, blah blah blah.
It's the fact that they need to try and form your opinion when reporting the facts.
And what really annoys me is that The Express sometimes does good work, and they sometimes report on important things that other mainstream media outlets, like The Guardian and The Independent, you know, the more left-leaning ones, would never touch, ever, just ever.
And I really wish they'd get their shit together and stop making propaganda pieces.
I mean, there are facts in this, obviously, but they just lay on the bullshit, and I really wish they'd stop it.
But anyway, let's carry on.
Loner Somboli, you see my point, had just shot dead nine people, mainly young teenagers he had lured to McDonald's on the promise of free food.
The German Iranian, this is important, also injured 16 others during the rampage before he killed himself a kilometre away from the Munich Olympiad shopping centre as he carried out the shooting.
Now a twist of German justice.
Mr. Salby is facing charges for standing up to the killer who shot himself in the head.
Florian Weinzerl, spokesman for the Munich State Prosecutor's Office, confirmed the Munich resident is being investigated.
He said the post-shooting exchange between Salbi and Somboli had no influence on their actions.
What the fuck is he being investigated for then?
What will be included in the charges remains to be established, as it whether they will be brought forward, but Mr. Weinsverl suggested they could include insults to the detriment of the dead.
According to the spokesman, a court review will be completed soon.
How dare you insult this mass spree killer who shot himself?
How dare you?
I mean he wasn't dead when you were insulting him, but goddamn, insults to the detriment of the dead.
And that's really something that someone could be charged with, is it, in Germany?
I mean, I know there's a lot wrong with Germany, but really...
And then we get to the bit that I just, I find hilarious.
And I know it's dark to laugh at a mass shooter's mental illness, but come on, listen to this.
This is just hilarious.
Shortly after the shooting, it was revealed that Sombly considered himself an Aryan, despite his Iranian heritage.
Well, that's actually because of his Iranian heritage, because Iran means land of the Aryans, and held racist views, including a deep hatred for Turks and Arabs.
And Somboli was reportedly proud of his Iranian ancestry.
right-wing killer also said it was an honour to have shared his birthday April the 20th with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Materials found at the Gummer's home also showed he had been hospitalized for three months to treat mental health condition and was an avid player of violent video games.
Oh yes, it was the video games that was a problem, isn't it?
One of the games, Counter-Strike Source, was a game played, quote, by nearly every known Rampage killer, according to president of Bavaria's Crime Office.
Detectives believe the Gumman was also inspired by Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, and likely staged the shooting on the fifth anniversary of Brevik's massacre of 77 people.
Isn't that just amazing?
This whole thing is just...
I shouldn't laugh, but it's so fucking funny.
This kid's like, hey, look, I'm an Aryan just like you Germans.
As if people in Germany are going, oh, come over, our fellow Aryan brother.
Oh, dear.
But yes, nice tri-Bavarian Crime Office.
I'd like to see your proof that video games had anything to do with this spree killing.
So, changing subjects once again, let's talk about the ACT Parliament and how they've passed religious vilification laws.
Now, as I understand it, this is a legislative branch of the Australian government.
But honestly, I don't really know too much about it, but apparently they have the power to pass this kind of law.
Vilification on the grounds of religion is now illegal, and in serious cases could result in a criminal conviction with a fine of up to $7,500 under laws passed by the Act Parliament on Thursday.
Both Labour and Liberals supported the move put by the Green Shane Rathenbury, who said the display of hatred, intolerance, and offensive behaviour towards Muslims was one of the biggest intolerance issues in Australia today.
Well, that does sound like it may well be the case, but it also sounds like you may be making thought criminals out of people.
The University of South Australia found that about 10% of Australians were highly Islamophobic, and while the Act showed the lowest rates in the country, Islamophobia was still significant here.
So, 10% of Australians are guilty of wrongthing.
I see.
Thursday's changes to the Discrimination Act also added disability to the list, so now it is illegal to vilify someone because of disability, religion, race, sexuality, gender identity, and HIV/slash AIDS status.
Vilification can include social media posts, actions in a workplace, and wearing clothes, signs, or flags that would incite hatred, contempt, ridicule, or revulsion.
That is double plus good, comrade.
Protect us from our wrongthink.
No one in the party would ever want to be responsible for inciting contempt, ridicule, or revulsion.
And I don't know whether the ACT Parliament knows this, but this means that I can't criticise Muslim fundamentalists who believe the world is 6,000 years old, that gays should be murdered, and that women are the property of men.
That is, if I lived in Australia.
Thank God I still live in a country where I can ridicule people on social media for holding backwards and primitive beliefs.
Liberal leader Jeremy Hansen said the Liberals wanted a harmonious multicultural society free from extremism, and the best way to get that is by criminalising all of these beliefs and actions.
I mean, who's going to be an extremist if it's made illegal?
They'd be like, well, I'm sorry you're not allowed to be an extremist.
That's against the law.
To which our extremists would say, oh, I'm so sorry.
I certainly wouldn't want to go to jail for my opinions.
I will change them forthwith.
Christians and Jews were also vilified to their beliefs and would be protected by the new legislation, he said.
So are you saying that I can't even go on Facebook and mock Ken Ham's life-size replica of Noah's Ark?
I mean, it's only taken $100 million and whole teams of construction crews to do what Noah and his sons apparently did on their own.
And I mean, it's not like Ken Ham doesn't believe the world's 6,000 years old, that was created in six days, that the book of Genesis is historical fact, and that homosexuality is sinful.
And if I went on social media and criticised him for these things, I would be in trouble with the law in the Democratic People's Republic of Australia.
So, for the final thing that we'll be talking about this week, guess who's made it to the UK?
Black Lives Matter!
Black Lives Matter!
Who Steve Harfie!
Who's Steve Fasty!
Who's Steve House Feed!
Who stinks?
I feel!
Who stinks?
I feel!
Yep, the cringe-fest that is Black Lives Matter has made it to the UK, and it's even cringier hearing it in an English accent.
So Black Lives Matter activists protesting against racism in the UK blocked roads in three major cities on Friday, including London, where traffic was brought to a standstill outside Heathrow Airport.
As the movement carried out a coordinated day of action, it took police hours to end demonstrations at key routes in Birmingham and Nottingham, as well as the capital.
By midday, protesters who had chained themselves to one another remained in place in Nottingham city centre, bringing buses and trams to a halt, and on the approach to Heathrow causing lengthy tailbags.
Black Lives Matter UK, a loose network of anti-racism activists, called the shutdown to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan.
Why the fifth?
I mean, why not the second or third or fourth?
Oh, I see.
It's because Black Lives Matter is getting popular in America, and you think you can ride on the coattails in this country and craft yourself a little narrative about how black people are so oppressed in Britain.
Well, we'll get to that.
So Duggan was shot dead by police during a hard stop, a planned operation that involves armed officers deliberately intercepting a vehicle to confront suspects.
Duggan's shooting and the police response afterwards sparked the 2011 riots.
See, for those who don't know anything about Mark Duggan, it turns out that he was actually a hippie.
He used to wear flowers in his hair and he used to go around preaching the virtues of Gandhi and Mother Teresa and he never did anything wrong and he certainly wasn't involved in underground gang networks and he certainly didn't have a weapon that he threw from the car when the police were trying to incept him.
He was in fact on his way to donate blood and bone marrow to cancer sufferers in Great Almond Street Hospital because he was just that kind of a guy.
Natasha Nakonde, a Black Lives Matter UK activist, said, Duggan represents another death in police custody with no consequences.
Well there was an inquest and they found that his killing was lawful.
Black people are overrepresented in these cases.
Remember that.
In the past year we've had Maze Mohammed, Sarah Reid and Jermaine Baker.
We were in a crisis about the brutality being inflicted on black people.
Sarah Reid had mental health issues and was beaten up by the police and found dead.
I'm not going to go into each one of these cases in this video, but they are not nearly as cut and dried as these people would have you believe.
We're upset about the 3,000 deaths in the Mediterranean this year.
How the hell is that our fault?
And post-Brexit we know there's been a 57% increase in hate crimes.
Yeah to from like 200 to 300 or something like that.
Other forms of protest have been exhausted.
What have you done?
And so the disruption today is bringing back to the mainstream discussion around black lives and the racist structures and inequalities we know about.
Heathrow was chosen for the demonstration partly because it was where the Angolan deportee Jimmy Mumbenga died while being restrained by private security guards in 2010.
Well again, why did you need to wait six years to do anything about this?
But B, this isn't really anything to do with the police is it?
or the state, I mean, they're not responsible for what private security guards do.
Nikonde said, the delays for people on the way to holidays are regrettable, but we're talking about injustices, damn it!
1,500 families whose relatives have died in police custody have been given no justice, no convictions.
Okay, let's actually look at the data on this, shall we?
To start with, the 1,500 figure comes from total deaths in police custody or otherwise following contact with the police in England and Wales from 1990 to now.
This includes white people and non-white people.
So you saying Black Lives Matter, 1,563 people have died, is entirely disingenuous.
You're deliberately using this statistic to inflate the problem, given that you are not complaining that white people are being killed by the cops, are you?
If we look at the black and minority ethnic deaths in police custody, again, from 1990 onwards, for 26 years, it's 156.
10% of the total deaths have been non-white people.
Given that that makes up 13% of the population, you're actually being underrepresented in these cases.
And again, for a country of 65 million people over 26 years, 156 is fucking low.
You are full of shit, Black Lives Matter.
Maybe, maybe, there is a case in America.
Well, I mean, maybe.
I would have assumed there might be, but given the amount of lies and bullshit the American Black Lives Matter groups are coming out with, I can only assume there's fucking not, but I would have easily believed that in America there was a problem with race and the police.
I would totally have believed that.
But in this country, to say we have a problem with race, you are full of fucking shit.
Our country is so painfully anti-racist.
We will allow, literally allow, white girls to get raped to make sure that we don't get called racist.
The statistics you're citing are bullshit.
The person you're defending, Mark Duggan, was a criminal, so one would have to ask what exactly you're doing.
So one of the other activists said, we need black people all over the world to come together, groups and individuals, to build this movement to achieve justice and equality in Britain and all over the world.
We're asking the government to take responsibility not just to investigate the statistics, but to hear the demands of the communities.
Fuck your demands.
I don't think you're entitled to anything.
Dr. Tony Sewell from the Youth Justice Board told BBC4 Radio's Today programme that in England and Wales, 21% of young men under 18 in custody were black, even though black people only making up 4% of the general population.
Conversely, he said 60% of men under 18 in custody were white, when that racial group made up 82% of the population.
That's a scandal, and that's what we should really be looking at.
Okay, but did they commit crimes?
Are they in custody because they committed crimes?
If the answer is yes, which I'm overwhelmingly certain it will be, then what the fuck do you want us to do?
Oh, I know, maybe they shouldn't take responsibility for our own actions.
Maybe if we just weren't so racist, that we were, if we were maybe just a little bit more PC, then these people wouldn't be arrested for the crimes they're committing, right?
You know what, let's just have a look at just how politically correct we are.
This is an available job position for the BBC to be a training researcher for Panorama.
Quite a prestigious programme, actually.
The salary is 20 grand.
Under application details, all roles advertised through Creative Access are only open to UK nationals from a black, Asian or non-white ethnic minority.
So just to be clear, that's my license fee being paid to racially discriminate against white people for a fucking trainee researcher position.
It's not like this person even, it's not like the race of the person even fucking matters.
But my money is being taken from me to discriminate against white people.
Needless to say, I really don't like the idea that the BBC is discriminating based on race at all.
One way or another, I do not want to live in a country that thinks open discrimination based on race is a good thing.
And what is this Black Lives Matter movement going to foster?
That's right.
Open discrimination based on race.
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