Bookworm Beat 6/13/20 — all the interesting things out there

This Bookworm Beat is a mish-mash of all the interesting things I’ve seen today whole browsing the “interwebs.”

Leftists libraries and the new Orwellian world. The Royal Holloway library, part of the University of London, has proudly announced that it will begin censoring its collection. Where Western libraries once sought to expand human knowledge and stood against censorship, the leftist moment is all in favor of ridding the world of any ideas that counter the leftist narrative:

It’s now racist to say police aren’t murderers. I first rode on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) in 1974. It was a wondrous thing in those days. It’s less wonderful now. It’s dirty, it seldom runs on time, and certain stations, especially in the East Bay, are extremely dangerous for passengers because of both evil and crazy people.

In 2009, a BART police officer shot and killed Oscar Grant. The officer argued — and video appeared to support — that he’d thought Grant might be armed and meant only to taser Grant, who was resisting handcuffs. At the end of the day, the officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, not murder.

That was 11 years ago but to the race hustlers, these things never go away. On Thursday, during a BART directors’ meeting, one of the Directors, Debora Allen, argued that it was wrong for members of the public to claim that BART officers “murder” people:

“‘BART PD murders people?’ That’s not true,” Allen said. “The definition of murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. It’s just simply a false statement. Statements like this right now at a time of such turmoil and unrest really — I can only guess are politically motivated.”

That statement is factually true. In addition, Allen is a director of BART. One would like to think that she’d speak up for it and its employees. But not in the Orwellian and McCarthyist world of the left. Allen is racist!

Later in the meeting, BART board president Lateefah Simon strongly denounced Allen’s comments.

“When I hear the dog whistles that are consistent with the political agenda that uplifts structural racism, that black men and women who succumb to unlawful use of force by law enforcement were to blame — it is unconscionable and it is racist,” Simon said. “I completely disavow the comments that were made earlier.”

And remember how I wrote yesterday about the wokesters’ desperation to out-do others in proving their purity on aligning with Black Lives Matter, something I compared to mourners at Kim Jong-Il’s funeral? Right on cue:

On Twitter, BART director Janice Li echoed Simon’s comments, writing that Allen’s comments were “vicious, toxic, and racist.”

No healthy society can survive this kind of hysteria, racial sensitivity, and panicky “me-tooism.” These people need to be ignored so that their insanity, which is antithetical to a free society, just fades away.

Tom Cotton is taking a stand against cancel culture. I just bloviate at my blog about the terrible dangers of cancel culture. Sen. Tom Cotton, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite people in D.C., uses his bully pulpit to make a difference:

On Thursday night, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) eviscerated the terrifying “cancel culture” that seeks to silence anyone who dares disagree with leftist dogma. Cancel culture animates the vandalism against statues — including those of black volunteer troops for the Union fighting against slavery — along with the abortion of television shows and the firing of people.

[snip]

“What is the logical conclusion? What is the end of the cancel culture? I will tell you what it is. It is right here in this city, Washington, the District of Columbia. That’s where it will end if we don’t put an end to the madness now,” Cotton warned.

“Just up the Mall is the Washington Monument. Are we gonna tear the Washington Monument down? Are we going to rename it the Obelisk of Wokeness?” the senator asked.

“Up the Hill is the Washington National Cathedral where so many times we have gathered as a nation over the years to mourn our great leaders, to pray for God’s protection and deliverance in moments of national strife and struggle,” Cotton continued. “Are we going to rename the Washington National Cathedral the ‘Temple of Reason’ as the Jacobins did to Notre Dame during the French Revolution?”

“And what are we going to call this city? Can’t call it Washington. Can’t call it Columbia,” he said, rejecting “Columbia” because it is a version of Christopher Columbus’s name. “Gotta come up with new names, all around.”

“I will say this, the cancel culture, whether in its Maoist or its Jacobin forms, ultimately is animated by a single idea, that America, at its core, is fundamentally irredeemable and wicked,” Cotton concluded. “I reject that claim fully, wholeheartedly. America is a great and noble nation, the noblest nation in the history of mankind, that has struggled throughout our history, imperfectly but ceaselessly, to live up to our founding creed that all men are created equal. The single greatest defense against tyranny, against racism, against oppression. [Those are] the stakes of this debate.”

Black Lives Matter collides with Gay Pride Month: The left has gained its power by dividing Americans into little victim groups and then telling these groups that Republicans hate them and want to destroy them. The truth is that Republicans don’t hate members of these victim groups, although they disagree strongly with the anti-American, anti-constitutional ideas that animate those who embrace their victim identities.

But back to leftist divisions. In a classic case of “you reap what you sow,” the “warload” controlling Seattle’s new nation — the Capitol Hill Autonomous  Zone — turns out not to like gays:

As we’ve previously reported, the Democrat/media-driven rush to “cancel” anyone who decides to think for themselves instead of participating in left-wing groupthink in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd is at a fever pitch, with professors, media figures, and pro-sports icons among those being tossed into the fire left and right.

But in an ironic twist of fate, a cancel notice may soon be coming for Raz Simone, the “warlord” of the radical Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, Washington as old homophobic tweets from his Twitter account have surfaced that appear to be legit based on various web archive websites (language warning):

Sister Toldjah has much more and I urge you to check it out. I just think it’s incredibly funny the way the Black Lives Matter movement and Gay Pride have collided. We know that blacks are one of the most homophobic demographics in America. June will be leftist autophagy month as far as I can tell.

“Don’t confuse me with facts!” I’ve written before at my blog about the left’s resistance to any facts that challenge the narrative. As far as you, my readers, were concerned, that hat was just my say-so. Ami Horowitz, however, put himself at risk to prove that it’s a phenomenon that extends beyond the leftists I know personally:

(And did you catch the homophobia?)

Candace Owens. Owens caught fire in 2017 when she made a clever video about confessing to her parents that she was a conservative. I loved it and linked. I then heard from other people that she might be a grifter, so I wrote about that too.

Since then, however, Owens’ allayed my concerns about her being a grifter. As far as I’m concerned, she’s been a stalwart and courageous defender of conservative values. Moreover, she understands how to conduct herself in the brave new world of social media politics, something many conservatives (myself included) can’t do.

Not everyone likes her. Kira Davis, another black conservative whom I read and respect, does not like Owens. She’s written a lengthy post about her problems with Owens. Davis believes that Owens’ willingness to point the finger of blame at pathologies within the black community isn’t helpful but, instead, just makes her a cute pet for white conservatives.

Obviously, I disagree. I don’t know about Owens being a cute pet, but I do know that I agree with her that blacks need to stop looking to whites, especially white Democrats, to fix them. They have to fix themselves, just as individuals with problems (alcoholism, anorexia, being a jerk) need to fix themselves. When I, an older white woman say that, people either ignore me or call me a racist. It’s harder to do either when a charismatic young black woman says the same. Still, I think Davis’s post is worth reading for its insight into tensions among black conservatives.

On Friday, Owens again showed why she matters to the Blexit movement when she engaged in some wonder social media jujitsu after Chappelle made her the subject of a gross attack because he disagrees with her about George Floyd. What Chappelle can’t stand is that Owens pointed out that, while Floyd’s death may have been a problem, that does not make Floyd was a saintly figure who deserved three funerals and being canonized. Unlike a saint, Floyd didn’t do any acts to show his faith. All he did was take a bunch of drugs and die while a police officer restrained him. Floyd was a lousy human being. He had a long criminal record, including beating and terrorizing a pregnant woman during a home robbery. And even though everyone talked about his trying to get his life together, the reality was that he was taking dangerous illegal drugs in large quantities. This is not a saint and Owens is right to say so.

Chappelle, though, who became well-liked in part for his honesty about racial matters (his blind, black KKK leader sketch is hilarious) was not going to accept anyone attacking the new black saint. In his new comedy special, he didn’t get funny about Owens, which would have been acceptable; he just got vicious in a misogynistic way:

“I seen Candace Owens try to convince white America, ‘Don’t worry about it. He’s a criminal anyway,’” Chappelle says.

“I don’t give a f*** what this n***** did,” Chappelle says, referring to Floyd. “I don’t care what this n***** did. I don’t care if he personally kicked Candace Owens in her stanky p****. I don’t know if it stanks, but I imagine it does. If I ever find out, I’ll let you know for sure.”

Chappelle is off my watch list. Making clever jokes to show your disagreement is one thing. Launching that kind of attack is a complete failure of intellectual and moral decency and competence. Gosh, Dave . . . if only you’d been funny.

Anyway, I said that Owens deserves her reputation because of her social media jujitsu skills. Here’s how she responded to that attack:

I doubt Chappelle will have the courage to take her up on that offer, but it would be interesting if he did.