Well, for what it's worth, I couldn't stay quiet at Re-Education Camp.
We were doing "empathy" exercises, and one of the "exercises" was Person A showing Person B the scar they'd gotten from a bike accident, or something---and we were supposed to say whether Person B was showing "one-upmanship" by saying, "You think that's bad? You should see the scar I got on my (wherever) from (whatever)."
Everyone was saying, "Oooooo, that's bad, because they're not showing empathy," and I had to say, "Why do you not think it is "empathy" for Person B to say, "I got a worse scar, but I got through it, which means you can deal with this too"? Because that is what the second person is really saying; "I got through this; you can overcome it also." It's not woogie-woogie-woogie girlie "empathy," but it is indeed empathetic and meant as such. Yet the "cohort leader" was upset by this.
Kosh's Shadow
4/20/2021 6:02:19 PM
3
Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 2:
Of course, if you said "We Jews have been killed and mistreated for 3000 years, when Blacks were just treated as any other people - the Romans enslaved everyone they could", you would have been piled on for "white privilege"
Yep, we Jews have been privileged to be the targets of the rest of humanity for longer than most peoples have existed.
As Tevvye said, "Maybe sometime you can choose someone else"
buzzsawmonkey
4/20/2021 6:05:23 PM
4
Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 3:
I almost said---but fortunately resisted the temptation---that they might as well just get out the shears and castrate every male in the school, since it was clear that the only kind of "interaction" or "empathy" they were interested in was a really toxic form of hen-party.
Kosh's Shadow
4/20/2021 6:13:57 PM
5
In #4 buzzsawmonkey said: I almost said---but fortunately resisted the temptation---that they might as well just get out the shears and castrate every male in the school, since it was clear that the only kind of "interaction" or "empathy" they were interested in was a really toxic form of hen-party.
That has been part of the effect of the Obama Title IX rules. Men are guilty, period. Even if the woman had a long relationship - if she changed her mind, it was rape all along.
buzzsawmonkey
4/20/2021 6:15:07 PM
6
My "cohort leader," Black Vagina, got really upset at being "challenged."
Kosh's Shadow
4/20/2021 6:28:16 PM
7
So far, I have not been required to attend any indoctrination sessions. They are listed on the internal website, and we had email encouraging us to attend discussion groups.
Should they require me, I will say if they do so, then it is required work time and I expect it to come out of the 40 hours a week I get paid for.
And then largely ignore it while blogging and playing games.
I think there is still a group of former military who don't want to put up with this BS. Sure, there is a gay/whatever group, and a women's network, etc., but they can do their thing. Personally, I don't care about anyone's gender or sexual orientation at work - I care about how they do their jobs.
buzzsawmonkey
4/20/2021 6:29:10 PM
8
In #7 Kosh's Shadow said: Personally, I don't care about anyone's gender or sexual orientation at work - I care about how they do their jobs.
That's racist, in wokieville.
Occasional Reader
4/20/2021 6:34:16 PM
9
Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 2:
You could have just misquoted (apocryphal) Freud: "Sometimes a scar is just a scar." Then see how they reacted...
Kosh's Shadow
4/20/2021 6:49:33 PM
10
Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 8:
"Ableism", nor racism
Occasional Reader
4/20/2021 6:57:34 PM
11
Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 2:
And by the way, I completely agree with your analysis here. What they are demanding is a stereotypically "feminine" reaction to such a situation.
buzzsawmonkey
4/20/2021 7:02:53 PM
12
In #11 Occasional Reader said: And by the way, I completely agree with your analysis here. What they are demanding is a stereotypically "feminine" reaction to such a situation.
A few months before my late friend went into the hospital, she was yelling at me for not being "empathetic." I told her that the way MEN are "empathetic" is to find out what the problem is, whatever the "problem" may be---and try to fix it. Likewise, when there is something ugly or terrible threatening, it is the man's job to NOT show fear---to be the strong person on which the terrified may lean. That is the job, even if one is terrified/fearful one's self; that is the deal. Being calm, and strong, so that others can vent their fears, is the man's job---and if women don't understand this, they are stupid.
buzzsawmonkey
4/20/2021 7:09:16 PM
13
By the way, just to be clear---I'm not making myself out to be a great big tower of strength. But when my then-girlfriend had breast cancer, almost 20 years ago now, it was my job to say, "No problem; you'll beat it; you'll get through it. Everything will be OK," whether I believed that or not.
That IS the man's job, dammit---that and killing bugs, since women get all wobbly when they see a cockroach or a spider.
doppelganglander
4/20/2021 7:09:20 PM
14
In #12 buzzsawmonkey said: ---and if women don't understand this, they are stupid.
Women are stupid. They threw away the immense power they had until Betty Friedan started bitching and moaning.
buzzsawmonkey
4/20/2021 7:15:56 PM
15
Reply to doppelganglander in 14:
The Female of the Species
---Rudyard Kipling, 1911
When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;
But when hunter meets with husband, each confirms the other's tale --
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man, a bear in most relations-worm and savage otherwise, --
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger --- Doubt and Pity oft perplex
Him in dealing with an issue -- to the scandal of The Sex!
But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same;
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.
She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity -- must not swerve for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions -- not in these her honour dwells.
She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.
She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate.
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.
She is wedded to convictions -- in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies! --
He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.
Unprovoked and awful charges -- even so the she-bear fights,
Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons -- even so the cobra bites,
Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw
And the victim writhes in anguish -- like the Jesuit with the squaw!
So it cames that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice -- which no woman understands.
And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern -- shall enthral but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.
Kosh's Shadow
4/20/2021 7:21:33 PM
16
Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 13:
SEXIST//////////
We aren't supposed to admit there is a difference between genders.
There has long been a deeply-engrained social correlation between certain jobs and specific genders. New research dates this correlation back to the Neolithic period, when sex was synonymous with certain types of labor.
Our female dog insisted on being pet during that song - even though I'm listening with headphones.
And I think our male dog would agree with the sentiment
buzzsawmonkey
4/20/2021 7:35:38 PM
19
'Nite, all. Gotta git.
Kosh's Shadow
4/20/2021 7:45:25 PM
20
Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 19:
We use git for source control, so one of the last things I do at the end of the day is generally to git my changes up to github (our private github, not the public one)
Kosh's Shadow
4/19/2021 2:54:02 PM
JCM
4/20/2021 5:17:14 PM