BookTalk.org

The Left used to be in FAVOR of freedom of expression, but not now.

CANCELLED: J.K. Rowling Condemned By Twitter Mob For ‘Transphobic’ Tweet
Turns out Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling might not be as progressive as she thought. Recently, the fantasy writer angered radical LGBTQ folks on social media for tweeting a defense of a person fired for believing that there are only two genders. The author has since been called a “transphobe,” or more specifically a “TERF” (trans exclusive radical feminist.)
newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/gabriel-h ... obic-tweet

Stephen King Savaged by ‘Woke’ Mob For Saying Art Should be Judged on Quality, Not “Diversity”
Author Stephen King is facing potential cancellation from the ‘woke’ mob after he responded to the Oscar nominations by saying art should be judged on quality, not the “diversity” of its creators.
infowars.com/stephen-king-savaged-by-wo ... diversity/

‘American Dirt’ was supposed to be a publishing triumph. What went wrong?
It was poised to be a blockbuster long before copies arrived in bookstores last week: a thrilling contemporary migration story following a mother and her son, desperate to cross Mexico and reach the United States. ... Its publisher, Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan, paid a seven-figure advance after outbidding several competitors for the novel. It snagged a coveted selection in Oprah’s Book Club and had been shipped to key celebrity influencers, including Stephen King, Sandra Cisneros and Salma Hayek. A reported first run of 500,000 copies was printed. The film rights were sold. ... But by week’s end, the novel “American Dirt” had garnered attention that its boosters likely didn’t expect: angry charges of cultural appropriation, stereotyping, insensitivity, and even racism against author Jeanine Cummins...
latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/20 ... ket-newtab

I read the Stephen King link. There's so much I don't understand about the world of social media, but mainly I want to ask, who cares what a few Twitter users say? And why are you posting this crap here on BookTalk?

The article suggests that King faces "potential cancellation from the ‘woke’ mob." What does this even mean? Cancellation of what? And what is a "woke" person exactly?

Social media represents the very stupidest discourse on the planet. I just can't take it seriously. I would also suggest that the stupid is not left or right. It's just plain stupid.

I recently read something on Redditt about the actor Johnny Depp being assaulted by his girlfriend. The various posters (maybe a contingent of the aforementioned "woke" mob) were livid because people so unfairly judged Depp. Granted, I don't know enough about the story to comment intelligently, only that I would say the same thing. Who cares?

If you were stuck in a cave for the last ten years and only now were granted release, do you think that people would run up to you and say, did you hear that Stephen King is getting a bad rap from the "woke" mob for saying something racially insensitive? No, of course not. Because this isn't news, it isn't relevant. It's sheer inanity. The so-called "news" sources that "KindaSkolarly" reads are insulting to intelligent people everywhere.

What does "woke" mean?
duckduckgo.com/?q=what+does+%27woke%27+ ... mp;ia=news

BookTalk is an appropriate venue for discussing how the "woke" mob polices the work of writers. From what I've observed, "woke" = "Nazi," at least in the way that the woke crowd browbeats those with opposing views. The first two stories above perfectly illustrate how the system operates. Rowling and King failed to mindlessly parrot the views of the woke mob on gender and diversity, so they were savaged. Each writer has cranked out millions of words, but then suddenly the "tolerant" Left censured them because of some offhanded comments. Like it or not this is the way that Leftists operate now. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union attacked writers with non-conformist views, and now we see the enlightened "woke" Left doing the same in America. And note the hot-button issues that got King and Rowling into trouble--diversity and gender. The woke mob insists that you consider skin color FIRST in all things, and you CANNOT believe that there are only two genders. You MUST believe that 2+2=5. It will be some time before we all come to see the 5, but the woke mob will get us there with their patient attention to detail. They will confront bigotry in all writers who don't expand their pronoun usage beyond he/she, and they will cancel those who don't aver that white people should be genocided. This is woke love in action.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has the right woke mindset:

Elizabeth Warren Enlists a Transgender 9-Year-Old to Choose the Education Secretary as the Political Landscape Radically Transforms
redstate.com/alexparker/2019/10/11/eliz ... ransforms/

The last of the three articles in the original post talks about a book that was just released. The person who wrote it apparently has a skin color that's not the same as the main character's. This ENORMOUS transgression against wokeness was compounded when dark-skinned Oprah Winfrey got involved, and now the media has created an Obama-era-like race story out of...nothing.

Wokeness is a weapon that is used to divide people, that's all. Hitler used it, Lenin used it, and now the Leftists in America are using it.

I had to look back to find the stories below. The woke crowd has been chewing away on literature for a while.

SJWs Are Purging Politically Incorrect Sci-Fi Authors From Bookstores
breitbart.com/tech/2016/01/21/sjws-poli ... ge-sci-fi/
(SJW = Social Justice Warrior)

World Fantasy Awards Banish H.P. Lovecraft to R’lyeh
breitbart.com/tech/2015/11/12/world-fan ... -to-rlyeh/

from your link:

"The rise in popularity of "woke" has been tied to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which initially surfaced in 2013 following the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. #StayWoke often accompanied social media posts about police brutality, systematic racism and the industrial prison complex. #StayWoke reminds readers to look past the provided narrative, to examine their own privilege (or lack thereof). #StayWoke reminds readers that there is more than one reality to life in the United States."

I think it's a good thing to be aware of entrenched racist attitudes in our society. As such, I see nothing wrong with being "woke" though I'm not very likely to use the term in casual conversation.

It does not surprise me that a herd mentality exists on Twitter and Facebook. If you're super famous, like King and Rowling, you're going to get trolled by those who spend way too much time on the internet and live in judgment of others. You're cherry-picking, finding stupidity on the Left, when in fact, there's plenty of stupidity on both sides of the aisle.

The Right likes to complain that freedom of speech is being infringed upon by the Left, and there may be some truth to that. But personally I couldn't care less if Rowling or Stephen King said something that offended the internet minions.

I read mainstream, credible news sources, which is probably why I'm ignorant of trendy social media crap. I hear that Stephen King has recently quit Facebook, so there's at least someone who has made an intelligent choice. The Left is against freedom of expression? That's so vague and generalized as to be meaningless. Linking to Breitbart and Infowars articles does not make a very convincing argument. And reading about a supposed "uproar" on social media is about the most pointless activity I can think of.

geo wrote: The Right likes to complain that freedom of speech is being infringed upon by the Left, and there may be some truth to that. But personally I couldn't care less if Rowling or Stephen King said something that offended the internet minions.

I read mainstream, credible news sources, which is probably why I'm ignorant of trendy social media crap. I hear that Stephen King has recently quit Facebook, so there's at least someone who has made an intelligent choice. The Left is against freedom of expression? That's so vague and generalized as to be meaningless. Linking to Breitbart and Infowars articles does not make a very convincing argument. And reading about a supposed "uproar" on social media is about the most pointless activity I can think of.

Well, face it, geo--you're not much of a culture warrior. If you were, you'd be better at isolating all the negative stuff on one end of the scale while whistling past examples of the same closer to your own political temperament. You'd select snippets from random sources and declare them to prove the existence of an ideological monolith threatening the nation. You'd not distinguish between the political and the personal, because of course bad people and bad politics go hand in hand. You'd remain faithful to the mission: maintaining division at all times.

DWill wrote:Well, face it, geo--you're not much of a culture warrior. If you were, you'd be better at isolating all the negative stuff on one end of the scale while whistling past examples of the same closer to your own political temperament. You'd select snippets from random sources and declare them to prove the existence of an ideological monolith threatening the nation. You'd not distinguish between the political and the personal, because of course bad people and bad politics go hand in hand. You'd remain faithful to the mission: maintaining division at all times.

[Laughing] But seriously though, I don't know why this particular post irked me so much. Maybe I was just grumpy.

KindaSkolarly wrote: From what I've observed, "woke" = "Nazi," at least in the way that the woke crowd browbeats those with opposing views.

If the worst the Nazis ever did was browbeat people, cancel them on social media, and protest people with chants and signs, then you wouldn't be using "Nazi". Just saying there's a disconnect there.

KindaSkolarly wrote:they will cancel those who don't aver that white people should be genocided.

Further hyperbole, obviously.

News is when man bites dog, not when dog bites man. These are interesting cases, and a warning for those who are easily carried away with being right.

I do respect the effort to deconstruct assumptions that perpetuate dominance by particular groups. If it stirs up a little debate, one can at least hope that some self-examination will happen. On the other hand, I firmly believe Rush Limbaugh takes stirring the pot way too far, so I might as well admit I think these cases do, too.

geo wrote: I think it's a good thing to be aware of entrenched racist attitudes in our society.

I'm reading a really useful book called "Until We Reckon" at the moment, and it has pulled together for me the reality that life on the margins of US society faces much more than just racist attitudes.

Enforced housing segregation and "job deserts", combined with the effects in the family of prolonged stress and trauma, leads to an underground economy which practically railroads young men to prison and thus to further isolation from any chance in society. I don't think it was designed to do so, as some might allege, but the nation needs to reckon with the ongoing damage and failure to address the carnage happening to our young people.

In the second chapter the effect of shame is addressed. I am coming to realize in my students that ability to overcome shame is a key part of resilience, and any systematic assignment of low status is going to be reinforced by the effect of shame on those suffering from it. There are other systems which pull people into a self-reinforcing downward cycle, such as alcoholism, gambling and family violence, but white privilege includes a much easier time stepping out of these, (as my wife and I both stepped out of a moderate level of dysfunctionality in our households of origin), and far more resources for regaining equilibrium once out of the maelstrom.

"Until We Reckon" is written by a woman who conducts a program of restorative justice in Brooklyn, and it focuses on the destructive effects of incarceration. It is readable, though hardly an entertaining romp. More like D. Dennett than N.d. Tyson, you might say.

Geo wrote:You're cherry-picking, finding stupidity on the Left, when in fact, there's plenty of stupidity on both sides of the aisle.

So true.

New ‘Purity Test’ Tool to Scan Hollywood Scripts For ‘Diversity Bias’

Major Hollywood studios are set to use a new tool that scans movie & TV scripts and flags up any examples where “diversity” is not portrayed positively in a chilling new development that has echoes of Soviet realism.

Called ‘Spellcheck for Bias’, the tool was developed by the Davis’ Institute on Gender in Media and USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering. It is set to be implemented by Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Focus Features and NBC Entertainment within the near future.

“The tool supposedly breaks down diversity in material such as scripts and advertising briefs by scanning for mentions of LGBTQ, race, and disabilities, and then identifying how positively such things are portrayed,” writes Zachary Leeman....

https://governmentslaves.news/2020/02/2 ... sity-bias/