What's in the News? 2.0

[Tolvo]

Old What's in the News? Thread

Continuation of the last thread. A thread for posting general news stories from around the world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46874617

So there is a backlash and call to boycott Gillette now due to an advert inspired by the #MeToo movement, this advert is about showing examples of sexism by men and how men can stand up and be the best man they can be and fight against sexism, saying that sexist men are not the best and that to be the best they can be men should stand up against it.. It has a focus as well on not just dealing with sexism but bullying in general and especially between boys. With a part of it being about being a better figure for boys to look up to who will be the next generation of men. I really like the advert personally, but anti-feminist groups are rallying against it and view it as horrible and etc. They demand Gillette apologize but the company put out a statement that they have nothing to apologize for and that they stand firmly against sexism and bullying. Though it is still a company selling a product so they may have wanted this publicity and backlash as a form of marketing.

https://abc11.com/5080817/

Some other news, the Silent Sam statue which glorified Confederate soldiers was removed and it's pedestal was finally removed. It was erected in 1913 at UNC after the project was started by the Daughters of the Confederacy, a pro-slavery group which worked with the KKK, formed after the Civil War to support a call for the Confederacy and slavery to return. Many white supremacist and pro-slavery people were present at its unveiling and gave speeches. After it was knocked down UNC trustees planned to house it in a new building but were told that wasn't possible due to the budget, so now it appears Silent Sam is going into storage. This piece of historical revisionism for the time being is going away.

[Blythe]

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46874617

So there is a backlash and call to boycott Gillette now due to an advert inspired by the #MeToo movement, this advert is about showing examples of sexism by men and how men can stand up and be the best man they can be and fight against sexism, saying that sexist men are not the best and that to be the best they can be men should stand up against it.. It has a focus as well on not just dealing with sexism but bullying in general and especially between boys. With a part of it being about being a better figure for boys to look up to who will be the next generation of men. I really like the advert personally, but anti-feminist groups are rallying against it and view it as horrible and etc. They demand Gillette apologize but the company put out a statement that they have nothing to apologize for and that they stand firmly against sexism and bullying. Though it is still a company selling a product so they may have wanted this publicity and backlash as a form of marketing.

I really liked the Gilette commercial after watching it. I'm surprised certain conservative-types didn't like it--I felt it actually had some of what might be seen as 'traditional' values in there I associate with their idea of masculinity--being a good male role model (particularly for other men), teaching the strong to defend women and children in vulnerable situations, being strong while also being a caring provider, etc.



https://www.koco.com/article/homicide-investigation-in-okfuskee-county-linked-to-texas-missing-persons-case/25906547

Bodies from a missing couple from Texas may have been found in Okfuskee county. What's strange is the house's descrption includes the phrasing of  no one is living at the home, but it is not a completely abandoned property." Makes me wonder what was up with the house & how that couple got there. :/

[Tolvo]

Well a lot of the people angry about that commercial are people who defend sexual harassment and assault as well as bullying, I'm not sure if a ton of conservatives are mad about it but the ones I saw who were and are famous are pretty notoriously in that camp. Also the commercial was surprisingly amusing, in regards to the line of dads grilling saying "Boys will be boys" was a sort of weird fantastical toxic masculinity infinity of dads.

Also that story with the bodies is freaky sounding. o.O

[Sara Nilsson]

https://gizmodo.com/man-injects-18-doses-of-semen-into-arm-to-cure-back-pai-1831817131

In a new case study, Irish doctors report the baffling case of a 33-year-old man who injected his own semen intravenously for a year and a half, a self-developed “cure” intended to treat his chronic back pain. It does not appear to have worked.

And.. yeah it went just as well as expected. And note: the doctors advice not to do this.

[Tolvo]

You know, having read about the history of medicine in a lot of time periods, not the weirdest one I guess. I actually doubt it is the first instance, but maybe is the first recorded one, given all the things people have done like replacing their testicles with goat testicles to become immortal, injecting cocaine into their dicks, all of the many urine, fecal, and semen medical applications to wounds and as topical treatment. The history of medicine is a lot of "Well let's try all of the literally worst ideas first before we try anything else." Though this is more in a historical sense not modern medicine. And we do have weird ones like pre-recorded history brain surgery, which did exist as we can tell from found human remains though it was very simple and likely had a high fatality rate. Since it was basically scraping someone's skull then brain and hoping they don't die.

So you know what semen injection arm man, you're perhaps not as ridiculous as neanderthals or Ocelot from Metal Gear. And technically, if no one has tried it we can't be sure it wouldn't work, though now we definitely know it doesn't if you inject it into your arm.

[Missy]

I think I liked the end of that "it does not appear to have worked", it made me laugh. You really gotta wonder what happens inside the heads of some people.

[TheGlyphstone]

Or what doesn't, in this case.

[Tolvo]

https://mashable.com/article/collection-1-password-breach/#erW0f4R7tOqn

https://www.troyhunt.com/the-773-million-record-collection-1-data-reach/

There's been a new massive data breach involving many emails and passwords being breached and posted and searchable, this data includes many services such as G-Mail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail. So people are going to probably want to change passwords related to any of the sites involved. Especially since the data was shared on hacking forums and while on the main forum it was eventually deleted many people were able to see it and copy it and can share it even further.

[Skynet]

GOP lawmakers met with an alt-right pseudoscientist who claimed that black people and Muslims are genetically predisposed to rape and violence.

What was the meeting about? Genetics of course!

[Tolvo]

Content warning for rape and pedophilia below.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Ah Chuck Johnson, notorious Gamergate supporter, Neo Nazi, and man who tried to doxx victims of rape because he thought all who accuse people of rape are lying manipulators. He also was at the State of the Union Address as the guest of a congressman attending and has worked with the GOP before on these sorts of things. He's met with Trump's personal staff members who relay things to Trump. So this is one of many times he has done this.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/02/09/spurned-milton-race-baiting-troll-has-found-acceptance-trump/jk2YPROcjHz8OPLMrj3zFL/story.html

https://www.wired.com/story/information-terrorists-trying-to-reshape-america/

https://mashable.com/2018/01/08/charles-johnson-sues-twitter-right-wing-activist-breitbart/#zxtupR4gtmqL

https://forward.com/fast-forward/393525/why-did-this-congressman-give-a-holocaust-denier-a-state-of-the-union/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/05/26/charles-johnson-one-of-the-internets-most-infamous-trolls-has-finally-been-banned-from-twitter/?utm_term=.7580c11af0e5

I did see this earlier, a lot of people like this have been making connections with the GOP(Some even were associates of the White House). Certain ones have joined UKIP as well and are being used to try and reach younger audiences since they're more popular in internet hate spheres.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/racist-troll-who-sent-rape-tweet-addresses-ukip-members-8tdvlp6qj

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ukip-alt-right-members-paul-joseph-watson-mark-meechan-carl-benjamin-a8418116.html

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/29/trump-cernovich-milo-yiannopoulos-richard-spencer-alt-right-2018-221916

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/mike-cernovich

This btw includes Cernovich, the Pizzagate guy who nearly got a man to shoot up a pizzeria full of families. Also famous for a similar thing to the semen injections story, that Mike posted a lot about how his jizz is magical and that not cumming makes your cum more powerful and "Irresistible to women" and various things about cum wizardry, he later deleted. It's unclear if it was a joke or not because he defended it a lot and is in line with his incel and PUA teachings. He also has admitted to raping women while claiming it's impossible to rape women and that him doing it and nothing happening proves him right.

A lot of these people have been used by right wing politicians and figures to advance their goals and for their audiences, though usually when they become too nuclear to associate with they drop them after getting what they can out of them. Similar happened with Milo Yiannopulus when after he had doxxed and threatened people who are Trans, black, and/or Jewish, he finally was caught openly admitting supporting pedophilia and that was the nail in his coffin.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/21/516473521/after-comments-on-pedophilia-breitbart-editor-milo-yiannopoulos-resigns

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/21/milo-yiannopoulos-resigns-breitbart-pedophilia-comments

Though he still does try to return often, and has mostly gone back to old tactics of refusing to pay his employees and starting disputes with them.

Current popular people like this are Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro, who agree with the others on many things(Hatred of people of color, hatred of queer people, hatred of transgender people, etc) but as of yet have not gone so nuclear that others won't associate with them. But inevitably these types end up saying or doing something so absolutely vile and indefensible that even those who normally associate with those things ostracize them. Or they get angry and publicly insult and try to fight against the actual people in power who they supported who can just have them easily blacklisted for stepping out of line and heavily cripple their funds and support.

A lot of Neo Nazis and Neo Nazi adjacent and supporters like this have ties to large and powerful right wing political groups in the USA, and the UK. And certain ones still have ties to high government positions.

Though they use these people more so because they're popular with certain crowds mainly, like online hate groups, I'm not sure that your average conservative will know who all of them are(Ben Shapiro I'd say currently is the one they might know but in a year that may change if he becomes another pariah), or even who one of them is unless they are in online communities. But Chuck Johnson meeting with GOP lawmakers is more the norm than something uncommon. These pseudo scientists are often drawn on as authorities on matters which they don't actually understand. And because they're speaking to people who don't understand these things either and want to hear exactly what they're being told by them, people don't end up realizing it and just assume because they "Look smart and sound smart" they must be right.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.theroot.com/this-is-not-justice-former-chicago-police-officer-sent-1831885053

Police officer that murdered 17 year old Laquan McDonald will serve just 6 years and 9 months for his crime. 3 of his accomplices in the murder walks away totally free. mr McDonald was shot in the back while walking away, and then shot another 16 times when on the ground dying.

Think that is bad enough, oh sweet summer child.

A police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old boy who was walking away and had his back to him. When the shooting was over, the police went into the the nearby Burger King that had cameras which captured the shooting. They deleted the Burger King surveillance video according to the store’s manager.

Then all the officers involved wrote their reports so that it appeared the dead teenager was responsible for his own death.

So all 4 delete evidence, falsify their reports. And only one of them get a paltry 6y9m in jail and the other three nothing.

Feel like justice to you? Feel like a big steaming shit in the mouth to me. people get fucking longer prison sentences for marijuana ffs. He not only shot and killed him, but 16 rounds into the dying young man?! And deleted evidence? And this is it?? fuck the justice system.

[Tolvo]

They're always going to try to do the bare minimum they can so they can continue getting away with murdering black people.

https://www.out.com/news-opinion/2019/1/17/op-ed-jill-abramson-and-trans-reporter-who-wasnt-there

Weird story here, of a white cis journalist trying to portray offices of progressive orgs as full of undeserving inexperienced millenials hired for diversity, when the people she claimed were there didn't even exist or were not the identities she assumed they were, on top of claiming they were inexperienced neophytes when they're heavily educated and experienced young people.

[Lustful Bride]

A survivor tells stories of what goes on inside of China's new concentration camps. Its ugly.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/uyghur-refugee-tells-of-death-and-fear-inside-chinas-xinjiang-camps/ar-BBSryYp?ocid=spartandhp

[Skynet]

High school students chant "Build the Wall!" at a Native American Vietnam Veteran.

I admire this man's self-control. If I were in his shoes I'd have replied "You're more immigrants than I am, now get off my land!"

[Iniquitous]

Trump's big amazing proposal that he said would be announced today.

Honestly, this man has NO idea how to negotiate.  He is a brain dead buffoon that continues to make a mockery of himself.  I will say I am surprised his big announcement was not the declaration of a national emergency so he could shift funds around. (Though I suspect someone may have actually convinced him how much legal hell he'd get trying to go that way.)

Either way, this announcement is dead on arrival and 800,000 continue to be held hostage.  I am ashamed of my government.

[TheGlyphstone]

The question we have to at least ask ourselves though, is whether this is the best we're going to get? It's the unpalatable reality that for the next 2 years, the WH and Senate are going to be GOP-controlled. And no one is realistically going to expect Trump or McConnell to simply fold - if the Democrats no-sell him without even making a counter-offer of some kind, it's going to look bad for Pelosi+Co. as they become the ones unwilling to negotiate and risk losing their moderate fringe. The only way they can keep control of this narrative is to stay as the mature, reasonable adults relative to Trump's childishness.

Does anyone here think the Democrats leaving the current offering dead on arrival will provoke them to make a larger concession next? And from the reverse angle, what deal could the Democrats put forth that the GOP's moderates might start leaning on McConnell to take? We're not going to get Pelosi's hardline dream of 'open the government now', that stonewalling would only work with a President who isn't willing to stonewall right back with a high 85+ percent approval rating from the only people he considers to be his actual constituents.

[TheGlyphstone]

To elaborate, I don't think this is a good deal. It's an awful one. But if we think this is the GOP's line in the sand and they won't give in further for something good, does continuing to stand up defiantly and demand the whole bag of marbles risk eroding the public perception that Trump is responsible for the whole thing? His stubbornness is ratings gold for the left right now, an upswing in popular opinion in his favor could be disastrous as the 2020 election circus opening acts draw near.

[legomaster00156]

Democrats would be mad to take this offer. It is a terrible deal, and even despite that, Trump will renege on his end of the deal the moment his funding was secured. The man cannot be trusted to fulfill his promise to protect "the scary foreigners".

[Callie Del Noire]

He’s not offering anything lasting. Not one fucking word about a path to citizenship. He will dick them over as soon as the ink is dry on the paperwork congress gives him and McConnell will NOT allow citizenship for those kids. 

[sdparquinn]

Toxic masculinity is an actual thing. There are negative aspects to masculinity. On that I agree. But the responses to people that dislike the ad are... missing  the point at best or willfully dishonest at worst.

The concept of toxic masculinity does have ideological origins even if it is a mostly accurate assessment. And most people objecting to it are not saying that they don't want to be decent people or that they support rape. (seriously are we really going to take the least charitable possible interpretation and apply to everyone that objects?).   

They object because they accurately notice the ideological associations underlying the concept and take issue with that ideology.

Now of course it's silly to object to an accurate observation (that negative aspects of masculinity exist) on the basis of it's origin, but at the same time something rubs me the wrong way about people taking the least charitable interpretation of the objections. This is also partly the fault that many of those objecting to the commercial are very bad at expressing their objections (probably a result of their toxic masculinity making them unpractised in effective communication).     

[Tolvo]

Toxic masculinity is an actual thing. There are negative aspects to masculinity. On that I agree. But the responses to people that dislike the ad are... missing  the point at best or willfully dishonest at worst.

The concept of toxic masculinity does have ideological origins even if it is a mostly accurate assessment. And most people objecting to it are not saying that they don't want to be decent people or that they support rape. (seriously are we really going to take the least charitable possible interpretation and apply to everyone that objects?).   

They object because they accurately notice the ideological associations underlying the concept and take issue with that ideology.

Now of course it's silly to object to an accurate observation (that negative aspects of masculinity exist) on the basis of it's origin, but at the same time something rubs me the wrong way about people taking the least charitable interpretation of the objections. This is also partly the fault that many of those objecting to the commercial are very bad at expressing their objections (probably a result of their toxic masculinity making them unpractised in effective communication).     

As I said I based my statements on the actions and words of the people I have seen objecting, largely Incels, MRA's, PUA's, Neo Nazis, are the groups who were most vocally angry. I mentioned I wasn't even sure if moderate conservatives were angry about the ads. The groups and figures I did see reacting in anger towards the ad and calling for boycotts are people who support bulling, harassment, and assault. The poster boys for this are the Alt Right and Piers Morgan.

People can hate the ad simply because it is progressive or feminist even if they agree with it due to them hating progressives and feminists. But the core outrage came from a lot of hate groups and those were the people vocally pushing it. And #MeToo is explicitly an anti-sexual assault and anti-sexual abuse movement as such taking a strong position in opposition of that would align someone with supporting rape for instance, since they are against anti-rape stances. It is like when people claim to be Anti Anti Fascists, that would mean they are Fascists and are Pro Fascism, and if they don't want to be called that to use different terminology and not support Fascism.

You can find conservatives not close to these groups and people who also did not like the ad, but when they join hands with the groups leading this charge they're going to be associated with and will be known for supporting their hateful views and ideologies.

If people rally around hate groups and hate leaders and agree with them, they'll be associated with them.

[TheGlyphstone]

I'm confused. What ad are we discussing now?

[Tolvo]

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-46874617

From the OP, this ad focusing on anti-bullying and anti-sexism. It is in the article.

[TheGlyphstone]

Ah, thanks. We move through news so quickly here, I was lost.

[Tolvo]

Understandable, especially since we're still on the first page and it's recent news people might come in to discuss things posted days ago. Probably when it becomes old news it'll happen less simply since its in the OP as well as when the thread goes on longer people will focus on things posted in the latest page or two.