Gotta say I love this. This industry giant has taken a stand against government overreach. Brilliant!
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My Apologies. (Not.)
I grew up with parents that taught me that being polite was essential to being a gentleman. I was told to say “Please,” and “Thank you,” as well as calling adults “Mister,” “Missus,” or “Miss” before their last names, and to say “Yes sir” or “No Ma’am” as was appropriate. I was also taught that when I made a mistake, to own it, make amends for it, and apologize to those I hurt or offended.
Times, sadly, have changed.
With the advent of the Woke Supremacy, the rules of engagement have changed, and not for the better. In my youth, a heartfelt apology was seen as a mark of proper breeding. Today, it’s a sign of weakness, a mistake meant to be exploited to destroy one’s enemies. Don’t believe me? Read on, MacDuff, and damned be he who first cries “I’m sorry.”
Take any case of someone who has run afoul of the Cancel Culture choir. Let’s say, sometime in a more innocent age, you dressed up in some ethnic costume for Halloween. Could have been a sombrero and sarape. Could have been a rainbow-colored afro wig. Maybe a native Arab costume. Pictures were taken. Fun was had. Nobody thought a thing about this. But then, a decade later, a photo surfaces, and you are accused of “cultural appropriation,” and “mocking a protected demographic group.” Ruh-rho, Rohge. You’re in big trouble now. For all of about fifteen minutes (the attention span of the Woke Mob. Unless…unless you apologize and show contrition for your insensitive actions. You didn’t know…it was okay back then…you’ll never do it again, promise! Except, it’s too late now. You’re dead. Oh, maybe not in the physical sense, but you’re career is cancelled, your friends are afraid to talk to you, and you suddenly have no life. Congratulations. You made the fatal mistake of being polite and apologizing.
Donald Trump understood this, instinctively. He never apologized. And for four years, the Left found it impossible to stop him. He did not play by the rules. Compare and contrast this with just about every politician on the Right, who apologized, tried to atone, and found themselves cancelled.
NOTE: There is one exception to all this. If you are on the Left, and either seriously intersectional or in a position of power, you can ride it out, as long as you don’t apologize. The trick is to allow others to apologize for you. You see, there’s a pecking order in the Woke Nation. The more “marginalized” demographics you belong to, the less you have to worry. So let’s say you use the dreaded “N” word, even in a way that is illustrating how you should never use the word, because of its offensive power. If you’re a Conservative, you’re dead. If you’re a Leftist and a white male, you’re still dead, but they’ll send flowers. If you are a Leftist white female, you’re right on the bubble. If you are Leftist, white, female and straight, say sayonara to your career. But…if you’re Leftist, white, female and Lesbian or claim to self-identify as a male, you will likely survive. Those that are Leftist, non-white, on the LGBTQ/EIEO+ scale, and worship Stalin or Satan, you can use the word with absolute impunity.
Am I the only one that sees how stupid this is?
This past week, I was pilloried for using the term “Christian name” instead of “first name” and writing “May God have mercy on us.”
The horror.
I interacted with an angry, white, butch-looking atheist. From her profile pic, I’m just guessing, but I’d be on pretty safe ground to add “Lesbian” to that list. Maybe even “transgendered.” I knew precisely what to do. I doubled-down, explained my reasoning using logic, and refused to apologize. Oh, and I blocked her, after repeated warnings to avoid making personal attacks. She didn’t refrain, so I took a page from Orwell and made her an un-person.
I find it hilarious to hear the righteous indignation coming out of those on the Left, when they discover they are not safe from the Cancel cougars and curmudgeons who demand their pound of flesh. You can just hear the gears turning in their tiny little brains, as they think, “But wait! I’m not a bad person! I’m not a (shudder) CONSERVATIVE! I’m on YOUR side! Why are you picking on me!” By then, of course, it’s too late, they’ve been eviscerated, career-wise, their only hope to find some Betty Ford program for Leftist foot-in-mouth syndrome.
So here’s my recommendation. Don’t apologize. Ever. Wear your verbal gaffes and photos from the past like a badge of courage. Stand up. Be counted. Because I’ve got news for you. There are more of us than there are of them, and if we simply STOP taking them seriously, the will go away. For good.
The People’s Republik of Technostan.
I’m a ‘tech’ guy. I got hooked on PCs back in college, and shortly thereafter shelled out $4k for one of the first IBM PCs. I built websites back when “Notepad” was the only thing you could use to build ’em. And if you really wanna go hardcore, I still remember how to use EDLIN. As such, I’m not a nerd-come-lately to the Wonderful World of Technology. I’m also a small business owner (who depends on technology for my livelihood), a Capitalist/Entrepreneur, and a Conservative (with Libertarian leanings, or what at one time was considered a “Classical Liberal”). I’m in the “less government is better/lower taxes/reduce debt/the fewer rules and laws the better” bunch. Which is why the recent trend towards censorship and bans scares the ever-lovin’ crap out of me.
[Read more…] about The People’s Republik of Technostan.…and then THIS happened.
I’m a live and let live kind of guy, but we’re living in a world where that attitude is perceived as an invitation to be attacked, maligned, or messed with. In the real (physical) world, I’ve gotten my Level 4 Private Security/Bodyguard license from Texas DPS, which makes me an honest-to-goodness first responder and both licensed and trained to carry a firearm (pretty much everywhere), OC spray (pepper spray to you noobs), a baton, a Taser (the real kind, with the wires), and handcuffs. The group I’m with emphasizes training – we trained on driving vehicles in a protective detail this weekend. Fascinating stuff. But in the online world, things aren’t as simple. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – they are all run by people on the Left that think that censorship is just A-OK for opinions that differ from their own. Not cool. Not cool at all. And then there’s the monetization thing. They all make money, real money, when someone reads something I wrote. I get…nothing for it. And if/when they don’t like what I write, they can simply “shadow-ban” me by effectively hiding it from the rest of the world. In a word, this SUCKS. So I’m doing what I can to fight this.
[Read more…] about …and then THIS happened.The Non-Honeymoon Honeymoon
I’ve led an odd life. I’m on my second – and last marriage. You see, I finally found the right woman. My soulmate. All the other clichés…my muse. My partner. My lover. The one who completes me. I’m three years plus into this marriage, and lemme tell ya, when you find the right one, NOTHING can destroy what God has brought together. Not cancer. Not COVID. Not rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night. Nope. We ‘get’ each other. Which is about as far as you can get from my first trip down the aisle as possible. It’s as if I’ve hit the jackpot, every time I wake up in the morning next to her.
[Read more…] about The Non-Honeymoon HoneymoonElection 2016, a Facebook Postmortem
It’s easy to play armchair quarterback and try and figure out why large demographic groups behaved in unexpected ways. Why didn’t white women vote for one of their own? Why wasn’t “she has a vagina” a compelling argument? Why did coal miners and blue collar workers flip to a Republican this year? Why wasn’t it enough to have 600,000 felons in Virginia voting Dem, not enough to turn the tide? For that matter, why didn’t the illegal alien vote put Hillary over the top? There are no real answers to these questions. So let’s look at others, and since we don’t have answers, let’s just make up some stuff. Fun, huh?
Whither Trump & Sanders?
I had a friend of mine ask me the other day about Donald Trump. My long-time friend is as Liberal as I am Conservative. We get along because we respect each other as musicians and human beings, although we disagree on politics. A lot. He asked me a very thoughtful and well-reasoned question about Republicans and Trump. He just can’t get past the bombast, and can’t see the appeal. Frankly, I see a lot of the same questions coming from the right about Bernie Sanders, for much in the same way. Both appear to be even further to the extreme of their respective parties, than most candidates. But they share a lot of traits in common with each other, one in particular, I think, that is behind their ascendancies in the polls. And that reason is a cautionary tale for both parties – one I suspect they will refuse to believe, and refuse to take seriously if they ever do. [Read more…] about Whither Trump & Sanders?
Independence.
It’s Independence Day. Coincidentally, that’s my favorite holiday, both because I’ve always been a fan of patriotism, and because it’s so close to my own birthday. But I’d argue that Independence Day is the most important non-religious holiday on the American calendar. And unfortunately, it’s the one that is the most at-risk from those who would like to either abolish it, or turn it into something meaningless. Allow me to explain… [Read more…] about Independence.
Shoot em, if they can’t take a joke.
Last week, I’d read where Pamela Geller’s group was staging a “Mohammed Cartoon Contest” in little ol’ Garland, Texas, just on the Eastern border of the DFW Metroplex.
First thing that popped into my head wasn’t “Wow…I wonder what kinds of cartoons they’ll come up with.” Nor was it, “I should do a cartoon and enter the contest.” (No problem with that…just too busy to do it.) No, my first thought was “I wonder if they’ll be a radical Islamic attack on the event.
I needn’t have wondered. Of COURSE there would be. [Read more…] about Shoot em, if they can’t take a joke.
This is a test…
…this is ONLY a test. We’re having a bit of a mix-up on dates here with our WordPress installation, and we’re trying to figure out what in the Sam Hill is going on. Nothing to see here…move along…