Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - The Blue Wave Crashes ｜ This Week in Stupid (12⧸08⧸2018)

All Episodes

Previous Next

Aug. 12, 2018 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

24:27

The Blue Wave Crashes ｜ This Week in Stupid (12⧸08⧸2018)

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	Hello everyone, welcome to This Week in Stupid for the 12th of August 2018.
	So the United States just had its midterm primary elections and CNN are forced to answer the question, how Donald Trump just keeps winning.
	Here's an amazing stat.
	In the last 14 contested Republican primaries where Donald Trump endorsed a candidate, his pick has won or is leading all 14 times.
	That's remarkable, and it speaks to the fact that despite Trump's weak numbers amongst the general populace, citation needed, last I saw his approval rating was around 42%, with 52% against.
	They're better than Macron, Trudeau, and Merkel's numbers, aren't they?
	On how's Theresa May doing?
	But anyway, he remains a massively powerful force within the GOP, someone who can make and break candidacies with a single tweet.
	Trump tweeted out, as long as I campaign and or support Senate and House candidates within reason, they will win.
	I love the people and they certainly seem to like the job I'm doing.
	If I find the time in between China, Iran and the economy and much more, which I must, we will have a giant red wave.
	I genuinely enjoy Trump and I'm a genuine supporter of him and I think what he's doing is fantastic.
	But his Twitter feed really is what I'd expect the Twitter feed of North Korea to sound like.
	But results were results and you can't argue with that, unless you're CNN, who said, that's not exactly the right conclusion based on Trump's results.
	More accurately, the first line of that tweet would read, as long as I campaign and or support Senate and House candidates within reason, they will win primaries.
	Oh my goodness, CNN, that's a hell of a nitpick.
	But what Tuesday reproved is that Trump has tremendous power to move Republican voters behind his preferred candidate.
	This should not be surprising, as poll after poll has shown that Trump is among the most popular Republican presidents ever among Republicans.
	The latest Gallup Weekly tracking poll showed that 89% of Republicans approved of the job he's doing and that's in a poll in which Trump's overall approval among the broader electorate is just 41%.
	So while Trump appears to be having success after success after success, you can trust CNN.
	It's all just smoke and mirrors.
	Most people actually hate him and are certainly not going to elect him for 2020.
	What we should do is be looking at the magnificent stand the Democratic Party has been making with their candidate, Alexandria Orcasio-Cortez, their new firebrand socialist candidate who's going to take US politics by storm.
	How did the candidates that she backed do?
	Well it was slim pickings for commies in last night's primaries as Bernie and Alexandra backed socialists.
	They got mostly walloped and shut out at the polls, proving the socialists on the hunt for Red November weren't nearly as potent as rational people feared.
	You know what, Fox News are still the funniest thing in the world to me.
	You've got to understand, 10 years ago, I was a Jon Stewart supporter.
	I loved watching him interview Christopher Hitchens.
	I used to watch the Daily Show religiously.
	I hated Fox News.
	So watch them actually being correct about something is an experience I don't think I'll ever get to grips with.
	I don't think I'll ever be truly able to accept that when I watch Tucker Carlson, 90% of what he says is dead on the money.
	What he's saying is accurate, factual, and a fair representation of what he's talking about.
	But yes, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's candidates got walloped in their primaries.
	Democratic socialist Alexandria Orcasio-Cortez endorsed several candidates in the primary elections, but three out of five of those competing in the Tuesday races lost.
	She went on a tour around the US endorsing candidates Abdul Al-Saeed for Governor of Michigan, Farouz Saad for Michigan's 11th congressional district, Corey Bush for Missouri's 1st Congressional District, and James Thompson for Kansas's 4th Congressional District.
	She appeared at the My Muslim Vote Rally in Michigan in July, where she urged voters to send Rashida Talab to Congress.
	And she actually won her primary on Tuesday.
	And James Thompson was the other candidate to win his primary.
	And we gotta leave it all on the field in the next 10 days.
	We gotta leave it all on the field.
	What's doing?
	Gee, I'm well.
	If you're not on a door, if you're not on a phone, if you're not writing a post, it ain't going well.
	We have to take personal responsibility for delivering the change that America wants.
	Because let's not make a mistake that this is not a pipe dream.
	The people of Michigan have voted.
	The people of Michigan want Medicare for all.
	They want tuition-free public college.
	They want to get corruption out of our politics.
	They want lobbyist-free representatives.
	They have already suffered.
	And so us, as servant leaders, take that responsibility.
	We take what people already want and we advocate and we organize to deliver and make it happen on behalf of our community.
	She's utterly insufferable.
	God, she is just so irritating.
	The constant like head-bobbing and the conviction of a real zealot.
	The sort of bulging swivel eyes of someone who has received divine wisdom and is going to suggest that you all stab yourselves before the Romans storm the fort.
	The three out of the five candidates that she endorsed at last got broadly crushed by the corporate Democrats.
	It's quite amusing because I genuinely hate both sides of this argument.
	The corporate Democrats are soulless shills who will adopt any ideology for money, and then Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's intersectional socialists are actively seeking to destroy the West.
	They unironically want open borders and open socialism, and she wants everyone to be able to work for the government for $15 an hour.
	Needless to say, I don't think that's a very good idea.
	So Trump 2020.
	And there was quite an amusing Twitter altercation between Ben Shapiro and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as Ben Shapiro offered her $10,000 to debate.
	Cortez responded with, just like catcalling, I don't owe a response to unsolicited requests from men with bad intentions.
	And also like catcalling, for some reason they feel entitled to one.
	That's right.
	She's basically saying that Ben Shapiro is sexually harassing her, a congressional candidate, for wanting to discuss policy.
	Not only is that the cheapest and most cowardly way of avoiding the debate, you could have just said, I'm sorry, I just don't want to.
	But it's also wildly hypocritical, as by her own standards, she has harassed her opponents with requests to debate too.
	Only three months ago, she was harassing congressional candidate Joe Crowley, sorry, incumbent Joe Crowley, saying, my opponent seems to be avoiding a debate and isn't acknowledging me.
	It's just the two of us.
	So weekend, I stopped by his office, said hello, and asked for a debate in person.
	I am the first congressional challenger in 14 years.
	The Bronx and Queens deserve to know their options.
	Alexandria, he doesn't have to debate you, you sexual predator.
	Stop cat calling the man, you vile street harasser.
	After covering British politics so heavily for the past few weeks, it's a real pleasure to going back to North American politics.
	I don't know what it is about the difference between the two places, but North American politics are so much more meme-worthy.
	Because apparently there is some kind of Cold War going on between Saudi Arabia and Canada.
	And in this Cold War, Saudi Arabia threatened Canada with a 9-11 attack meme on Twitter because Canada kicked out their ambassador for jailing women's rights activists.
	This is the funniest thing I have ever seen.
	This is the meme.
	Sticking one's nose where it doesn't belong.
	As the Arabic saying goes, he who interferes with what doesn't concern him finds what doesn't please him.
	In the background is a picture of the CN Tower, one of Canada's best-known landmarks, and an Air Canada plane flying directly to it.
	And you'll notice the Air Canada plane is actually highlighted in real colour, whereas the background is in black and white, to make it stand out.
	This is clearly a fucking threat of a hijacking.
	And for those who fail to remember, 15 of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
	Holy mother of God, what is social media doing to politics?
	So the apparent threat comes following a disagreement between the two nations over Canada's criticism of Saudi Arabia for its jailing of women's rights activists.
	Well, no shit.
	So what we're looking at is matriarchy versus patriarchy.
	Saudi Arabia responded by freezing all new trade with Canada, which seems a bit stringent, and expelling its ambassador over citing interference in the desert kingdom's domestic affairs.
	It added Canada's actions were a violation of the country's sovereignty.
	That's right.
	Canada, not approving of the way Saudi Arabia treats its women, is a violation of Saudi Arabia's sovereignty because Saudi Arabia is in direct competition with North Korea for the worst country that has ever existed.
	A spokesman said, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not accept interference in its internal affairs or impose diktats from any country.
	You could have considered it to be advisory.
	In response, a Canadian foreign ministry spokesman said that the country would always stand up for the protection of human rights, very much including women's rights and freedom of expression around the world.
	Yes, that's true, but the Saudis obviously won't.
	This is being done because Saudi Arabia is unironically locking up and probably torturing women's rights activists.
	And when I say women's rights activists, they may as well just call them human rights activists.
	Obviously, the meme was a step too far, and whoever operates this Saudi Twitter account deleted it and posted, earlier we posted an image, which is why we deleted the post immediately.
	The aircraft was intended to symbolize the return of the ambassador.
	We realized this was not clear, and any other meaning was unintentional.
	We apologize to anyone who is offended.
	Well, I'll tell you what, an apology from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is really meaningful, and that's such a believable excuse, it's difficult to imagine there's anyone who's on Canada's side here.
	Oh, what's that?
	There is no one on Canada's side here.
	We don't have a single friend.
	Canada's Saudi spat reveals country is alone.
	As Saudi officials lashed out at Canada this week, the US remained on the sidelines, signaling a blatant shift in the relationship.
	Oh dear, Justin Trudeau.
	The United States said it would remain on the sidelines while Saudi officials lashed out at Canada over its call to release jailed civil rights activists.
	It's time for the government of Saudi Arabia and Canadians to work this out, the State Department said.
	Both sides need to diplomatically resolve this together.
	We can't do it for them.
	Well, on one side, you've got Canada, an English-speaking Commonwealth nation who, you know, have got a good track record on human rights and democracy.
	And on the other side, you've got Saudi Arabia.
	And they have lots of oil.
	Who could possibly make a judgment when both sides are so evenly matched?
	The United Kingdom was similarly muted in its response.
	A former leader of the Federal Liberal Party noted, The Brits and the Trumpians run for cover and say we're friends with both the Saudis and the Canadians.
	Thanks for supporting human rights guys and we'll remember this one for sure.
	Don't worry Bob, we aren't a monolith.
	I am on your side against Saudi Arabia, regardless of whether you are an insufferable country full of SJWs who are directly attacking common law tradition with the most embarrassing prime minister in all of human history.
	I am still on your side against the Saudis.
	But I really do have to say, I'm kind of enjoying the conies the Saudis are showing here.
	I'm not joking.
	Tweeting 9-11 memes is actually my kind of shitposting.
	And you've got to remember just how unbelievably shameless the Saudis are.
	Saudi Arabia crucified a man in Mecca while aggressively calling out Canada over human rights.
	The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executed a man by crucifixion in the holy city of Mecca on Wednesday amid waging a public relations battle with Canada over human rights.
	You see what I mean about the absolute balls on the Saudis.
	The man was accused of murder, theft and attempted rape according to Bloomberg.
	Crimes in Saudi Arabia such as homosexuality and attending anti-government rallies, remember they're not big on human rights, have previously led to crucifixion sentences.
	Unlike the biblical crucifixions carried out by the Romans against Christians in antiquity, because that is how fucking backwards the Saudis are, that's how far back in history you have to go to find another state that used to crucify people.
	Saudi crucifixions usually involve displaying a beheaded corpse in public on a cross.
	After accusing Canada of blatant interference in the kingdom's domestic affairs, they say, any further steps from the Canadian side in that direction will be considered as acknowledgement of our right to interfere in Canadian domestic affairs, which they undoubtedly already do by funding every single fucking mosque in your country.
	Because you have to understand how they think.
	And it can be summed up by a quote from Frank Herbert in Dune.
	I'll be paraphrasing because this is off the top of my head, but it goes something like, When I am weaker than you, I ask for freedom because that is in line with your principles.
	When I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is in line with mine.
	Christia Freeland, the head of Canada's Foreign Affairs Ministry, whose tweets sparked the hostility, said that Canada will continue to advocate for human rights and for the brave women and men who push for these fundamental rights around the world.
	On Thursday, she tweeted of Samara Badawi, a recently detained women's rights activist who is the sister of Rafe Badawi, an activist who remains in prison in Saudi Arabia.
	Rafe was sent to prison, I think it was in 2012, for insulting Islam.
	And he got 10 years in prison for that, which was presumably a sentence fully supported by the British government.
	The UK meanwhile expressed strong support for human rights and said it regularly raises concerns with the kingdom, but did not mention the Badawis.
	I'm pretty sure I don't live in a serious country.
	And I only say that because this week we found out that in our universities, male, pale and stale university professors are to be given reverse mentors.
	Yes, you can imagine exactly what this is going to be, can't you?
	You can already predict how unbelievably patronising and racist.
	Who do you think these reverse mentors are going to be?
	Male, pale and stale university professors are to be given reverse mentors to teach them about unconscious bias under a new government-funded scheme.
	This is the Conservative Party funding social justice activism and helping it to evermore take over universities and enact racist anti-white anti-male policies in these institutions.
	Under the project, white males in senior academic posts will be assigned a junior female colleague from an ethnic minority as a mentor.
	Holy fucking shit, just imagine if that was reversed.
	Under the project, the female brown and boring university professors are to be given reverse mentors, who will be young white men to check their unconscious bias.
	Professor John Rowe, who's overseeing a project at Birmingham University, said he hopes the scheme will allow eminent professors to confront their own biases and leave them feeling quite uncomfortable.
	Right, so what you're saying is you want to harass professors in the workplace because they are male and English.
	That's your problem, is it?
	English men need to feel quite uncomfortable.
	Is that really the society we want to build, is it?
	What is understood about unconscious bias is that we've all got it, but the more you learn about it and become conscious of it, the more you can act.
	So are we not going to treat the young brown women as if they are people then?
	As if they too have unconscious bias?
	Why should their particular perspective be given credence?
	Why not the perspective of a transgender young midget?
	While it is well known and obvious that women and minority groups suffer setbacks to their career progression, no one really understands why.
	Oh yeah they do.
	Oh yes they do.
	Everyone outside of this understands why, but you don't want to say it, because it makes it sound like it's their own fault.
	But instead of looking at a set of data that might imply that the non-white people and women might be responsible for their own quote-unquote oppression, and of course, that's not oppression, not working as hard as someone else and receiving less than them is not a form of oppression, but instead of taking into account the agency and humanity of the groups you're trying to defend,
	instead you can just keep going on this witch hunt where you admit you can't find the fucking prejudice.
	You don't know where this is coming from.
	You don't know why these things are happening as they're happening and yet they are still happening.
	How is it that white men keep outworking everyone else?
	Why do white men keep doing this?
	What is it about the culture that's been formed by the Protestant work ethic that creates white men who just get up every morning, go to fucking work and do their jobs?
	I know what it is.
	It's racism.
	It's sexism.
	Do you have any evidence for this?
	No.
	But by God, we're going to keep looking.
	Professor Rowe, who is the director of research at Birmingham University's College of Engineering and Physical Science, said he hopes to interrogate the underlying causes that lead to the underrepresentation of female and ethnic minority academics at the top of academia.
	Does anyone want to send this guy a copy of Charles Murray's book?
	We are mindful that previous attempts at addressing such imbalances have not been successful, so we are investigating new ways of understanding how to support progression of our female and ethnic minority colleagues.
	The EPSRC, a government agency, is funding 11 equality, diversity and inclusion projects as part of a £5.5 million anti-discrimination drive in engineering and physical sciences.
	This is the diversity industry in action.
	To the tune of millions of pounds of taxpayer money.
	Just so you know, when you're sick of all this bullshit, when you want to return to having a free country, join UKIP.
	The University Students Union published their Liberation Vision document, which recommends that porters should also be trained in how to respond to reports of sexual violence and mental health issues among students.
	The document says that and cleaners known as scouts, tutors, supervisors and senior tutors should also partake in the training.
	The move follows a series of complaints about porters unfairly targeting black students, singling them out for questioning of why they've entered college grounds.
	Okie-doke.
	So when Viktor Orban decides to defund gender studies in Hungarian universities, I completely agree with what he's doing.
	It is ideology and not science.
	The Hungarian government is discontinuing programs in gender studies at state-run universities after determining the programs serve no identifiable purpose and are based on ideology rather than science.
	The Secretary of State of the Ministry of Human Resources said that university degrees must be rooted in a scientific basis, whereas gender studies, like Marxist-Leninism, are more aptly termed ideology than science and are inappropriate matter for university-level education.
	Bravo!
	That is music to my ears.
	That's exactly what I want to hear.
	A spokesman for the Hungarian government told Breitbart News that there is no demand for gender studies graduates in the Hungarian job market.
	There is no economic rationale for studies such as these, he said, and nor does the program furnish students with skills that can be readily and directly converted on the labour market.
	Completely correct, which is why the English-speaking world is suffering from an epidemic of students with massive student debts and absolutely no marketable skills.
	But they've learned that they do hate capitalism, they hate gender, they hate patriarchy, they hate white people, they hate men.
	And it is because of these gender ideology courses that that is happening.
	Good on the Hungarians.
	There is no need for this shit.
	The spokesman said the programmes to such low student numbers are unsustainable and take away valuable resources from other programs, deteriorating the economic stability of universities.
	State universities operating from public funds must take these factors into consideration, since the purpose of these institutions of higher education is to meet genuine social and labor market needs.
	Completely correct.
	There is no reason that the government must fund a revolutionary ideology.
	As Jordan Peterson has said many times, this is producing revolutionary activists.
	There is absolutely no reason that a state should fund insurrection against itself.
	And I know what you're thinking, hang on a second, but won't this hurt women?
	Aren't women benefiting from gender studies degrees?
	The answer is no.
	No, they're not.
	When far-left ideology takes over your country, you may well find that women are the most affected, unironically, as the hashtag MeTooBacklash in corporate Canada sees women locked out of business.
	Women in business say they are facing a chilling effect on their relationships with male colleagues and supervisors, otherwise known as the Pence effect.
	Mike Pence did nothing wrong.
	Mike, I'm not going to go to dinner with a woman who isn't my wife, Pence, turned out to be right after all.
	A lawyer is asked whether a male executive should leave the door open when meeting with a woman.
	A consultant's longtime male client will only take a meeting with her if someone else is in the room.
	A public relations executive hears from senior business leaders who say they are shying away from mentoring young women.
	The revelations relayed to the Canadian press about being a woman in corporate Canada in recent months offer a glimpse into a male-dominated workforce that is quietly grappling with the unintended consequences of the Me Too movement.
	And I just want to point out, most of the people targeted by the Me Too movement are progressives.
	Most of them are left-leaning men who describe themselves as feminists.
	But now everyone has to stay on their guard and make sure they don't spend time alone with a woman without a witness, just in case they are targeted next.
	Women in business say they are facing the result of a chilling effect on their relationships with their male colleagues and supervisors.
	They reported a noticeable decline in invitations to meetings, business trips and dinners, gatherings considered invaluable for career advancement.
	More importantly, senior executives are increasingly hesitant to mentor female employees.
	Don't call it a grave, it's the future you chose.
	You wanted to be able to destroy a man's career with a single accusation.
	You cannot blame these men for wanting to protect themselves and their careers and their families from an allegation.
	Most of the dozen women who spoke with the Canadian press were hesitant to discuss the unintended consequences of Me Too because they didn't want to detract from the progress they hope the movement will make towards improving opportunities for women.
	Once again, women step on the rake of patriarchy.
	While these women are being unironically chaperoned to business meetings because the people involved have no idea whether you're facing someone who's going to bear false witness against you, Sarah Kaplan, the director of University of Toronto's Institute for Gender and the Economy, worries that focusing on such unintended consequences will prompt people to wonder if the Me Too movement has gone too far.
	In her opinion, it hasn't gone far enough.
	While there is a single witch, sorry, I mean man, who hasn't gone to jail for the sexual harassment we know they have committed, Me Too won't have been successful.
	It is just one more way that even an effort to lead more liberation and equality has been co-opted.
	It's as if people don't understand what they shouldn't be doing.
	As long as you don't grab someone or proposition them, you can take someone to lunch, it is completely obvious how to be professional.
	Yes, Sarah, I am sure that everyone's aware of that, but are the women who are making false accusations aware of that?
	And are all the virtue-signaling shitheads on Twitter who are bullying corporations into firing people without so much as a whiff of due process aware of that?
	Because it turns out that Mike Pence was right.
	If you're not alone with a woman, rumours won't start.

▲