There’s never been an act done since the beginning, from a kid stealing candy to a dictator committing genocide, that the person doing it didn’t think he was fully justified. That’s a mental trick called rationalizing, and it’s done the human race more harm than anything else you can name.
Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow (1955), Chapter 14.
On May 17, 1973, televised hearings regarding the Watergate scandal began in the United States Senate. Sen. Sam Ervin chaired.
Little did participants know that the name of the hotel in which the White House-arranged break-ins occurred would provide a template for most future political scandals: “-gate” would be suffixed to nearly every other possible designator of scandal. The Democratic vendetta against Republican Donald Trump for winning the 2016 election has been called “Russiagate,” for example.
And on May 11, 2020, Trump retweeted a previous post with one additional word: “OBAMAGATE!”
This could be called a “suffix meme.” Or “insufferable meme,” if you prefer.
In these censorious times, why not applaud any sincere testament upholding freedom of speech?
Even if called “diversity,” in Netflix-speak.
According to the revised memo, the company supports “a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values. . . . If you’d find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you.”
This is probably not about Netflix’s willingness to rent The Wizard of Oz no matter who objects to the spectacle of weepy tin men or broom-riding green-faced women in pointy hats.
Recently, Netflix has been roiled by employee protests against videos they find annoying, especially Dave Chapelle’s comedy special “The Closer.” Chapelle, who appears to lean more left than right, turns out not to be the type to run his riffs by a lefty censorship board.
Now let’s see how Netflix follows up on its delicate suggestion that working for Netflix “may not be the best place” for employees demanding censorship. Will Netflix show the door to all sullen saboteurs of speech-diversity?
Also, will it more fundamentally diversify its own original content?
In any case, good for Netflix for resisting the mob, for now. Until further notice, it’s two full thumbs up.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts
But is it possible for princes and ministers to be enlightened, when private individuals are not so?
Jean Baptiste Say, A Treatise On Political Economy: or the Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth. Translated from the Fourth Edition of the French by C.R. Prinsep, M.A. With Notes by the Translator (Sixth American Edition).
Paul’s on the road, and gives an explanation of what he is up to: think Michigan and Initiative.
Also covered is the sorry state of the current political landscape and practical things to do about it:
At some point you’d think you should have to turn in your Victim Card. . . . [L]ike when you go to an Ivy League university, it’s like right then and there: you’ve got to . . . hand in [the card.] You don’t get to be oppressor and oppressed at the same time. That’s just too much.
Dr. Jordan Peterson on Joe Rogan’s podcast, talking about Cathy Newman’s infamous interview with him on BBC Channel 4.
On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention instructed its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States’ Declaration of Independence.
Paul Jacob provides an estimate of the current situation, a look at “where we are at.” And we have a lot to change.
But there are ways to fight the current trends, and they are quite clear and quite doable:
Defunding the police? Yes, that’s a bad idea. But so is de-policing the funds.
Bill Maher, “New Rule: American Kleptocracy,” on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, railing against the bipartisan misdistribution of COVID crisis “stimulus.”
“At risk of stating the obvious, unless something changes to cause the birth rate to exceed the death rate, Japan will eventually cease to exist,” Musk posted on Saturday. “This would be a great loss for the world.”
A very significant observation, at odds with so much of the Official Narrative of Approved Subjects and Opinions.
Recognizing that depopulation is the big problem for the developed nations of the world, not over-population rubs up against most of what we’ve been told for years.
But it’s true.
Japan is not alone, here, in showing a demographic collapse. It’s merely the most advanced in population decline. Russia is in a bad way, and many European countries’ native populations are in zero population growth. The United States, too, is growing only because of immigration, legal and illegal.
Behind the numbers, though, is a disturbing reality: the instability of our welfare state policies. In America, and in most advanced nations, government-run social pension programs require a growing population to properly service. Yet, Social Security, by removing the need to have children as a natural safety net (where we beget offspring to help take care of us in old age), actually disincentivizes the population growth that might make the system sustainable.
Elon Musk did not offer a fix. But by pointing to a very real problem, he’s done us a great service, speaking simple truth instead of propaganda.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts