Category Archives: Jordan Peterson

Photo credit: Derek Story via Unsplash.

Jonathon Van Maren atConviviumputs his fingeron an interesting phenomenon: the atheists and agnostics who are coming around to a pro-Christian view:

Not so long ago, the atheists who retreated to their Darwinian towers and bricked themselves up to fire arrows at the faithfulwantedto be there. Their intellectual siloes were a refuge from faith because they didnt want Christianity to be true. They hated it and thought wed be better off without it. Like [Christopher] Hitchens, they were thrilled to find arguments that permitted them to reject it.

These atheists are finding the Darwinian tower less to their liking, and are laying down their bow and arrow. Not because they doubt their atheism, or evolution for that matter. As John West and others have pointed out, Darwinian atheism has acorrosive effecton culture. But the theory, like atheism more broadly, could still be true and its influence would be no less corrosive.

I call this group the New New Atheists. We still have the loud and aggressive Old New Atheists around, folks like evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne who think wed all be much better off without Christianity, or other faiths. But this seems increasingly like an old-fashioned position. Van Maren cites historian Niall Ferguson, philosopher Roger Scruton, writer Douglas Murray, social scientist Charles Murray, historian Tom Holland, and the famed Jordan Peterson as examples of agnostics or atheists who argue that the West without Christianity would be in serious trouble.

Christopher Hitchens wrote a book calledGod Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Published in 2007, that now seems like a time capsule. From the perspective of 2021, the spitefulness of the title sounds reactionary. More of the moment is Douglas Murray, who provocatively called himself a Christian atheist in afascinating conversationwith blogger Esther OReilly on Justin Brierleys podcastUnbelievable?

The view of people like this carries weight. Peterson has appeared to tremble on the edge of conversion, while withholding it from expectant observers for now. He may be a greater influence as he is. As OReillypoints out, the fact of Petersons not being a Christian disproportionately tilts ears in his direction right out of the gate.

Van Maren quotes Fergusson:

I know I cant achieve religious faith, he went on, but I do think we should go to church.We dont have, I dont think, an evolved ethical system. I dont buy the idea that evolution alone gets us to be moral. It can modify behavior, but theres just too much evidence that in the raw, when the constraints of civilization fall away, we behave in the most savage way to one another. Im a big believer that with the inherited wisdom of a two-millennia old religion, weve got a pretty good framework to work with. [Emphasis added.]

Arguably the Wests inherited wisdom can itself be explained in (loosely defined) evolutionary terms. Traditions dont survive for millennia because they areunfitto guide a healthy culture.

These atheists are only recognizing something that no small number of Jews also see Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, and Michael Medved, for example. They (and I) would agree with Fergusson that, when the constraints of civilization fall away and in the West, that means Christian civilization we behave in the most savage way to one another. Christianity is suited to the role of a religion for billions of people. Judaism,as Ive pointed out, is not well suited to that role. William Lane Craignotesthe paradoxical effectiveness of Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew, in pointing people to Christianity. Craig hassaid he was flabbergastedthat in an interview, Shapiro invited him to offer his personal testimony as a Christian and did not really argue with Craigs apologetic case. My instinct would have been to push back, but Shapiro was the wiser.

Something new, in any event, looks to be evolving, even if still on a modest scale. Weve been encouraged by the responses to Stephen Meyers new book,Return of the God Hypothesis, from self-described agnostics, Brian Keating, Michael Shermer, and James Croft, among otherscientists and scholars, a long way from the petulant jeering of the Old New Atheists. Perhaps Jonathon Van Marens observation helps to explain that too.

Follow this link:

Meet the New New Atheists, Not Like the Old New Atheists - Discovery Institute

The left, he believes, refuses to admit that men might be in charge because they are better at it. The people who hold that our culture is an oppressive patriarchy, they dont want to admit that the current hierarchy might be predicated on competence, he said.

Mr. Peterson illustrates his arguments with copious references to ancient myths bringing up stories of witches, biblical allegories and ancient traditions. I ask why these old stories should guide us today.

It makes sense that a witch lives in a swamp. Yeah, he says. Why?

Its a hard one.

Right. Thats right. You dont know. Its because those things hang together at a very deep level. Right. Yeah. And it makes sense that an old king lives in a desiccated tower.

But witches dont exist, and they dont live in swamps, I say.

Yeah, they do. They do exist. They just dont exist the way you think they exist. They certainly exist. You may say well dragons dont exist. Its, like, yes they do the category predator and the category dragon are the same category. It absolutely exists. Its a superordinate category. It exists absolutely more than anything else. In fact, it really exists. What exists is not obvious. You say, Well, theres no such thing as witches. Yeah, I know what you mean, but that isnt what you think when you go see a movie about them. You cant help but fall into these categories. Theres no escape from them.

Recently, a young man named Alek Minassian drove through Toronto trying to kill people with his van. Ten were killed, and he has been charged with first-degree murder for their deaths, and with attempted murder for 16 people who were injured. Mr. Minassian declared himself to be part of a misogynist group whose members call themselves incels. The term is short for involuntary celibates, though the group has evolved into a male supremacist movement made up of people some celibate, some not who believe that women should be treated as sexual objects with few rights. Some believe in forced sexual redistribution, in which a governing body would intervene in womens lives to force them into sexual relationships.

Violent attacks are what happens when men do not have partners, Mr. Peterson says, and society needs to work to make sure those men are married.

Read more here:

Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the Patriarchy - The New ...

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Universities should be safe spaces from assault and bodily harm, but not from ideas and opinions people might find offensive

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The University of Glasgow hit peak woke when it recently announced that it will be urging professors to avoid using the phrase trigger warning.

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Professors have been advised to stop saying trigger warning before sensitive content is talked about because it could be too triggering for their thin-skinned students. Instead, theyve been asked to say content advisory prior to speaking about sensitive matters, in order to ensure U of G remains a safe space.

While this incident took place in the United Kingdom, Canadian schools are not immune to this type of thinking.

A group of current and former students at Ryerson Universitys School of Journalism caused an internal revolt in March, releasing an open letter that claimed the school had contributed to an unsafe learning environment because they were subjected to words and opinions they disapproved of. This letter was written after a group of students was frustrated by the facultys response to a human rights complaint that I initiated against the Eyeopener, one of Ryersons campus newspapers.

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Likewise, for the past year, community members at Wilfrid Laurier University have called for professors David Haskell and William McNally to be fired for the crime of being conservative. Haskell and McNally have been vocal defenders of freedom of expression at Laurier, which the woke mob sees as unacceptable.

People might hope this safe-space culture would stop at the doors of universities, but it has extended into the work world, as well. This idea of not wanting to offend people contributed to the resignation of Bari Weiss, an opinion writer and editor at the New York Times, in 2020. Weiss said she was annoyed with how stories that didnt explicitly promote progressive causes needed to have every detail scrutinized before being published.

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Employees at Penguin Random House Canada proclaimed in November that they were offended when it was announced that the company would be publishing Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. The employees said the book should not be published by Penguin because they did not want Petersons views to be platformed.

Universities should be safe spaces from assault and bodily harm, but not from ideas and opinions people might find offensive. The harmfulness of safe-space culture was explored at length in the 2018 book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.

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The authors said they wrote the book because they observed that students were pathologizing words and ideas as dangerous and violent, which they found illogical. This change started to occur around 2013 or 2014, and became more widespread from 2015 to 2017.

In the book, Lukianoff and Haidt argue that safe-space culture does not work because it relies on three great untruths: what does not kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good and evil people. These untruths contradict modern psychological research and ancient philosophical wisdom, and serve to hurt people who embrace them.

Indeed, the authors found that embracing these untruths has led to increased depression, anxiety and suicides among students. In other words, what was supposed to help students has left them unprepared to deal with stressors and challenges, which leads to increased suffering.

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Lukianoff and Haidt argue students need stressors and challenges in order to learn, adapt and grow. But universities consistently do the opposite, teaching students that they are candles that can easily be extinguished, instead of fires that thrive when faced with adversity.

Trigger warnings, in particular, often have the opposite effect of what they are intended to. A 2018 study out of Harvard University suggested that trigger warnings intensify the stigma associated with trauma, as they serve to enforce the idea that trauma is central to peoples identities.

The study went on to explain that trigger warnings are terrible for people who have never experienced trauma, as they can lead to people thinking that they are not resilient and may lead them to think that they are vulnerable to developing mental illnesses.

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Using trigger warnings communicates to students that words can be harmful. After all, trigger warnings serve as threat-confirmations. This inclination to see threats where they do not exist is associated with an increased risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the study.

The result is that many conservatives are now afraid to say what they really think. A recent study from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology found that 58 per cent of right-wing professors in Canada claim their university is a hostile climate for their views.

It also found that 45 per cent of Canadian academics say they would discriminate against a colleague who supports former U.S. president Donald Trump, that 17 per cent would discriminate against a right-leaning grant bid and 11 per cent would be more critical of a right-leaning paper submission.

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The study went on to claim that 34 per cent of somewhat right grad students and 62 per cent of very right grad students in North America and the United Kingdom believe sharing their views would make their lives difficult. As a result, right-wing grad students end up being less inclined to pursue academic careers, as conservatives are made to feel like they have to shut up or face consequences.

Given all of the evidence that safe-space culture does not work, I find it confusing why so many students and professors support it. I presented this evidence to various people throughout my academic career at Ryerson, but faculty and students consistently ignored the facts presented to them. I recall one instance where I recommended a journalism professor read The Coddling of the American Mind to understand why safe-space culture does not work, and he said he would never pick it up.

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There are plenty of basic steps universities can take to stop this craziness: adopt a free speech policy based on the Chicago statement; stop using the word unsafe except when it pertains to matters of physical safety; and remove their radical diversity, inclusion and equity offices and instead encourage unity among faculty and students. These solutions might be unpopular, but they are the right moves.

Former British prime minister Winston Churchill said that, A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot endure long. People should be free to speak their minds on university campuses without being punished. If freedom of expression remains a touchy subject on university campuses, the prospects of having a functioning democracy are minimal.

National Post

Jonathan Bradley recently graduated from the journalism program at Ryerson University.

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Excerpt from:

Jonathan Bradley: Campus safe-space culture is a threat to the very fabric of our society - National Post

The Utah state flag, top, and a commemorative state flag, below, fly atop the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, July 13, 2021. As Pioneer Day nears, the Utah League of Cities and Towns released a new lighthearted campaign Thursday aimed at getting national outlets to call people from Utah "Utahns." (Spenser Heaps, Deseret News)

SALT LAKE CITY The Utah League of Cities and Towns has a bone to pick with how some people spell the word for people from Utah.

Stop spelling "Utahn" U-T-A-H-A-N.

Yes, as the Pioneer Day state holiday nears, the organization rolled out a new campaign called "Call Me a Utahn," aimed to get people to correctly pronounce and spell Utah's demonym. The lighthearted campaign took aim at national news organizations like the New York Times, USA Today and the Associated Press for spelling "Utahn" with an extra "a."

"I'm not sure what a UTAHAN is, but it is not me!" said Bountiful city manager Gary Hill, and the league's vice president, in a written statement released Thursday.

Utah League of Cities and Towns also enlisted the help of Y2 Analytics to conduct a poll among Utahns about what they call themselves and how they spell it. In an adjoining report, they found 90% spelled it "Utahn." Nearly half of those polled didn't just prefer "Utahn" but also believed "Utahan" wasn't acceptable. Another 43% preferred "Utahn" but didn't mind "Utahan."

Quin Monson, a partner at Y2 Analytics, wrote in a report Thursday that finding 90% agreement on anything is "rare," especially because large groups tend to have "a few contrarians."

"That's probably higher than the proportion of Utahns that consider themselves fans of the Utah Jazz or that listen to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square," he wrote of the 90% agreement, adding that it was higher than the number of people who approved of Pioneer Day as an official state holiday which received an 84% favorable rating among Utahns who responded to the survey.

What they also found is that calling people "Utahns" was something even opposing groups could agree on. Ninety-three percent of Democrats polled favored "Utahn," and so did 90% of Republicans. Whether you voted for Joe Biden or Donald Trump, Spencer Cox or Christopher Peterson, or are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or not, it didn't seem to make a difference. All of those ranged from 88% to 92% in favor of "Utahn."

"Overwhelming majorities of Democrats and Republicans, Biden voters and Trump voters, as well as Cox voters and Peterson voters agree that Utahn is correct. These are groups that normally see the world differently," Monson added. "Given the long-term religious and cultural divide in Utah, you might expect some differences on the preferred demonym by religion. That expectation would be incorrect.

"Whether you are a Latter-day Saint, some other religion, or no religion at all, you prefer to call yourself a 'Utahn.'"

In addition, Y2 Analytics found nearly all Utah news publications use "Utahn." For the record, KSL.com's internal style also prefers "Utahn" over "Utahan."

Meanwhile, outlets like the New York Times used it about 37% of the time, USA Today used it half of the time, and out-of-state stories from the Associated Press use "Utahn" about 63% of the time.

The Utah League of Cities and Towns' message to those who don't pronounce "Utahn" correctly or spell it U-T-A-H-N?

Get on board.

"Please, the next time you refer to us, call us Utahns. Really! We would appreciate it," said South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey. "In fact, we'll probably send you a thank you note with some fry sauce and green Jell-O salad!"

Excerpt from:

Utah organization wants to make it clear: It's 'Utahn' not 'Utahan' - KSL.com

People who live in New York are New Yorkers. Residents of New Hampshire are New Hampshirites. Those in Georgia are Georgians.

Seems simple enough.

But what about people in Utah? Are they Utahns? Or are they Utahans?

Y2 Analytics recently posed this question in a statewide survey of Utah voters: Which of the following do you think is the correct way to spell the word that refers to someone who lives in Utah?

Only two options were given, and Utahn was chosen 90% of the time.

Every large group has some contrarians, so any public opinion item with 90% agreement is rare, said Quin Monson, a partner with the Salt Lake City-based market research and data analytics group. Thats probably higher than the proportion of Utahns who consider themselves fans of the Utah Jazz or that listen to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.

Even a state holiday received a smaller proportion of agreement. The survey conducted June 24 to July 7 found only 84% approve of Pioneer Day (July 24) being an official Utah state holiday.

The poll also found that a large percentage of Utahns believe that Utahn is the only acceptable demonym, the word used to refer to people in a particular country, state or city.

The locals clearly prefer one spelling over the other, Monson said.

The survey looked at other factors such as politics and religion to see what might predict the preference for Utahns over Utahans.

Overwhelming majorities of Democrats and Republicans, Joe Biden voters and Donald Trump voters, as well as Spencer Cox voters and Chris Peterson voters agree Utahn is correct.

These are groups that normally see the world differently, Monson said. They not only cannot agree on who to vote for in an election, but many cannot even agree on who won the 2020 presidential election or if election fraud occurred during that election.

As for religion, given the long-term religious and cultural divide in Utah, some might expect some difference on the preferred demonym. But that is not the case.

Whether you are a Latter-day Saint, some other religion, or no religion at all, you prefer to call yourself a Utahn, Monson said.

So Utahn it is.

But not everyone thinks so, including some major news outlets.

Y2 Analytics used the Lexis/Nexis database of news stories from 2000 to 2020 to search for both Utahn and Utahan and compute the percentage of the time news media used the correct spelling.

The New York Times only got it right 36.8% of the time. The Los Angeles Times and USA Today spelled it correctly half of the time. The Associated Press and the New York Post did it right about 60% of the time.

Every local news source, including the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune, is above 95%.

In doing a little digging to find out why those two papers would allow an incorrect spelling to go to press, Y2 Analytics found it occurred only in letters to the editor (which are not corrected) or when a snarky columnist poked fun at an outsiders incorrect spelling.

In light of the survey results, the Utah League of Cities and Towns launched a campaign Thursday called Call Me a Utahn in an effort to get national news media to call us what residents want to be called.

Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini weighed in with some clever word play.

I am a Utahn, because its much easier to pronounce and (always a plus) uses fewer letters to express the same thought. It is an honor to be called a Utahn. It is not an honour to be called a Utahan. See, even Noah Webster would approve this style change, he said.

South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey agreed, saying he is proud to be a Utahn.

Skiing, hiking, making green Jell-O, eating ice cream and cheering for the Utah Jazz all come natural to me, he said. We are Utahns, not Utahans.

Read more from the original source:

Utahn or Utahan? Whats the right term for people from the Beehive State? - Deseret News

Nurphoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Winston Marshall of the British folk band Mumford & Sons performing live at Pinkpop Festival 2018 in Landgraaf Netherlands

Look, being the worlds most famous banjoist aint nothin. Last month, Winston Marshall, the banjoist for Mumford & Sons, quit the band. But it wasnt over artistic differences or a disagreement over ambitions or the burnout of touring. In a lengthy missive posted on Medium, Marshall explained that he had departed because hed like to speak his mind freely, and he wanted to protect Mumford and the rest of the sons from backlash and criticism.

Marshalls exit was the latest turning point in a saga that began in March, when he praised a book by Andy Ngo, the right-wing provocateur who has made a career of demonizing antifa. Congratulations @MrAndyNgo. Finally had the time to read your important book. Youre a brave man, Marshall tweeted. Perhaps because the book had been called things like supremely dishonest, or perhaps because its author hung out with far-right hate groups please, take your pick the tweet caused a furor and Marshall apologized on Twitter.

The apology was, by all appearances, sincere. I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed, Marshall wrote. I have offended not only a lot of people I dont know, but also those closest to me, including my bandmates and for that I am truly sorry. After posting the apology, he announced that he will be taking time away from the band.

Late last month, he made that sabbatical permanent. In his Medium post, he described the apology as something he wrote in the mania of the moment to protect his bandmates. Upon some additional reflection, Marshall said he found that well, actually the truth is that my commenting on a book that documents the extreme Far-Left and their activities is in no way an endorsement of the equally repugnant Far-Right. He doubled down on the tweet he had once apologized for: The truth is that reporting on extremism at the great risk of endangering oneself is unquestionably brave. (After Marshalls departure, the band posted a farewell message to Marshall on their Twitter, writing, We wish you all the best for the future, Win, and we love you, man.)

Out came the praising forces. Marshall stands up to cancel culture, said the New York Post. Conservative writer Bari Weiss wrote that the Medium post made her stand up and cheer. Meghan McCain gave Marshall mad props. Could all this drama really have been stoked over a banjoists right to tweet without restraint? Does one really give up being in one of the most successful bands of the millennium to...post?

Marshalls decision to quit may be surprising to some, but its an evolution of the hollow, cosmetic idea of masculinity that the Mumford & Sons project once heavily relied on. (Mumford & Sons did not respond to requests for comment). At the height of their career, Mumford & Sons telegraphed a traditionalist aesthetic of masculinity and used it to build their image. But what are the consequences of romanticizing this kind of manhood? Does it risk giving the appearance of endorsing outdated values? And who, exactly, gets to dream of traveling back in time to the 1930s?

When you name yourself Mumford & Sons, it naturally raises the question: What kind of shop is this? The British band burst on the scene, banjos blazin, in 2009. But why the folksy Americana-y direction? Was it, perhaps, the bands down-to-earth British upbringing? Unlikely Marshall, for example, is the son of Sir Paul Marshall, one of Britains richest hedge fund managers. According to the band, their sounds inspiration came from the soundtrack to the Coen brothers 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a transcendent soundtrack made up of folk, blues, gospel, and country.

Mumford & Sons stepped forward with aggressive folk, folk that was loud, folk with guitars that went chugga-chugga-chugga, folk you could mosh to. And sure, patrons of Mumford & Sons were buying the music Little Lion Man and The Cave were positively colossal songs that led to their debut record Sigh No More selling more than 2 million albums. But the music was only half the inventory.

What are the consequences of romanticizing this kind of manhood? Does it risk giving the appearance of endorsing outdated values?

The other half was visuals: Mumford & Sons sold a facsimile of a bygone mode of masculinity (I always felt I was supposed to be a highwayman, the groups lead singer Marcus Mumford once wrote). The four members wore suspenders and waistcoats. They wrote songs inspired by the work of Steinbeck novels frequently held up as the ideal of when men were men. They dressed up like they were enamored with the Grapes of Wrathness, the Dust Bowlness of it all. This last part is not even metaphorical; the debut album literally features a song called Dust Bowl Dance. They seemed rather earnest and in the world of reviews, this hurt them (the band is in the costume business, wrote Pitchfork).

Still whatever the product, people were buying in droves. Why it took a British band inspired by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack to successfully repackage roots music for American audiences is still something of a mystery, wrote the New York Times. No one could quite figure out how to explain the bands outsize success.

Part of it was that Mumford & Sons was buttressed by huge songs. The band hit upon a formula of rising crescendos and repeated it over and over and over again. The group perfected the formula: Sometimes the music gets loud!!!!! Then shhhh, it gets real quiet again. And, wait for it, it gets LOUD! It was pleasant and taut, even if you didnt quite believe what the group was selling. But a significant part of why Mumford & Sons conquered the early 2010s was because they were also cast in a role they probably didnt specifically seek: At a time when EDM was ascendant on the pop charts, Mumford were the insurgency, the counterforce. This was real music with real instruments, bro.

To the extent they were the rebelling forces, the rebellion worked. The Mumford & Sons sophomore album, Babel, was a hit. The banjo part of its lead single, I Will Wait, was only out-banjoed by its other major single, Hopeless Wanderer. Beyond the pastiche and the foot-stomping, Mumford provided humongous hooks and sturdy pop song construction One Direction for a more grown-up audience, wrote Slate.

Ultimately, the predictability of Mumford was irksome. Reviewers came with their pitchforks out Spin wrote that they don't seem remotely musically curious (ouch); the A.V. Club critiqued them for using the same rhythm guitar pattern over and over and a songwriting formula that is almost computer-programmable. Not that anyone cares what reviewers think: Babel bagged the Grammy for Album of the Year (over Frank Oceans Channel Orange!) and has sold nearly 3 million copies in the US.

They filled arenas with what the New York Times called bro folk. Soon thereafter, Mumford began to have, uh, sons all over the place, with aesthetic and sonic descendants intent on riding the same coal-powered train to success. Theres the Colorado outfit the Lumineers, who are very good at shouting hey! Theres Of Monsters and Men, the Icelandic band that is...very good at shouting hey! The band fathered a musical moment, or perhaps more accurately, set up the model for franchising.

This is the part where I begrudgingly admit that the Mumford product sometimes works for me. Sure, the songs are vague and sweeping, in the grand tradition of U2 or Coldplay, obviously intent on stadium ambitions, but that in itself is not a crime. And on occasion, theyve stuck the landing. For NPR, Ann Powers pointed out in 2012 that to deny that widely shared notions of being good and strong and fulfilled the things Marcus Mumford sings about don't have power is to dismiss a lot of what lives in people's hearts.

I am also not overly against the old-timeyness vibe that dominated the early part of their career; a gimmick is not a crime. Drake raps in a Southern accent, and were supposed to forget hes from Toronto? The Mumford schtick did its job and made the band a household name.

But the gimmick opened Mumford & Sons up to a very particular kind of criticism: Why romanticize this masculinity? Why put effort into visually re-creating a time when white men were thriving at the expense of everyone else? Why is this your golden age? At best, its a naive romanticism. At worst, its something more sinister.

From left: Ben Lovett, Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall, and Ted Dwane of Mumford & Sons in 2019

I am inclined to believe its the former. By their third album, 2015s Wilder Mind, Mumford and co. benched the banjo and picked up electric guitars in favor of radio-friendly rock (though without the banjo, reviewers found they were blander). They followed that with 2016s Johannesburg EP, recorded over two days of their South African tour, featuring collaborators such as the legendary Senegalese singer Baaba Maal.

For a time, Mumford & Sons successfully moved away from the fedora and waistcoat days, away from critiques over valuing a cringey kind of masculinity. But in 2018, they were brought right back to those questions again: There was a small internet furor over a photo featuring three of the four members with none other than Jordan Peterson, a once-obscure psychology professor who has become a sort of spokesperson of traditional masculinity (Marcus Mumford was not in the photo). Peterson rose to fame after refusing to use the correct pronouns to refer to a student and has since transformed into a right-wing celebrity. A lot of his writing and speaking is about defending masculinity (The masculine spirit is under assault, he told the New York Times). Marshall told CBC that Peterson came to the studio on his invitation because hed been a fan of his work on psychology.

As it turns out, Marshall wasnt the only band member excited about the Peterson visit. Ben Lovett, who is the bands keyboardist, described Peterson to the Guardian as an intellectualist more than anything, and downplayed the political nature of how he is perceived. In the same interview, Marcus Mumford added that he does not agree with Petersons politics, but will fiercely defend my bandmates rights to listen to the guy.

But it wasnt merely listening to the guy. After quitting the band, last week Marshall told Bari Weiss that one of the ways he felt restricted was that on the press tour for their 2018 album Delta, he couldnt talk about how Petersons work heavily influenced his contributions to the album. All four members are credited on all the songs on Delta, so we dont specifically know where Marshall peppered in the Peterson influences. It could be everywhere!

And then there are Marshalls post-band choices: He followed up his appearance on Weisss podcast with one on Ayaan Hirsi Alis, who rose to fame among a crop of anti-Islam Muslims and has lately been on the march against wokeism. He wrote a follow-up to his Medium post for conservative newspaper the Spectator, where he declared that in the current febrile political climate, many of us are just too scared to say what we think.

Marshall is positioning himself as a sort of modern knight leading the culture to enlightenment against the scourge of the extreme Far-Left. He says he does not endorse the values of the far right, but he will not stand silent and watch the lefts excesses either nay, he will give up being the worlds most famous banjoist over it! Once more into the breach!

This extreme far left, this wokeism, these excesses that are so supposedly so cancerous often entail critiques of traditional masculinity, the same one Mumford & Sons once saw fit to elevate and perform. Marshall may have left the band to shield his former bandmates from criticism, but in doing so he only highlighted questions that had been there from the start about whether the schtick was just for show.

In a post-#MeToo era, where masculinity is in search of a new story, those who want to cling to an old one cry out wokeism! The most efficient and popular way to assert masculinity on the internet is to align yourself with the anti-woke. Masculinity isnt toxic, this assertion goes its fine.

This is a lazy argument, to say the least. To be critical of how masculinity is changing does not mean to be specifically anti-men. The traditional notions of what it means to be a man have not lost favor because a woke mob pulled a fast one on society they lost favor because they arent serving us.

It is not brave to provoke internet outrage by grandstanding. It is far braver for men to do the gritty, personal work of investigating where their ideas of what it means to be a man come from, and look beyond the cosmetic. There, we may find discomforts, demons, questions, and revelations that may be difficult to face, but at least its a meaningful place to start. Tremble, little lion man, indeed.

See the article here:

What Winston Marshalls Departure From Mumford & Sons Reveals About The Bands Brand - BuzzFeed News

Image:Andrs Man @elektrobelle

Electronic musician Holly Herndon is a leading proponent of using artificial intelligence in art, creating an AI called Spawna singing neural networkwith partner Mathew Dryhurst that was featured prominently on her 2019 album, Proto. Now, anyone can have Herndon sing back any audio recording with her voice or rather, her digital twins voice.

Holly+ is Herndons new project, which is kicking off with an AI-driven vocal tool developed by Never Before Heard Sounds that was trained on recordings of her singing. It relies on machine learning to recreate the distinctive nuances of her voice. Anyone can upload a polyphonic song or voice recording to the Holly+ site, and within a few minutes theyll have a version sung by her digital copy, much as if her voice was played like a synth.

Soon after launching, Herndon tweeted that there were 18.5 requests per second to her server, and that there had been 1,000 such song transformations within an hour. Want to hear the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime theme song tackled by an algorithm? Done and done. According to Herndon, more tools are coming and theyll get more sophisticated in time.

The technology itself isnt new: AI algorithms have produced compelling likenesses of voices for years, such as with a tool developed by Chinese tech giant Baidu in 2018. And there are tools that can create convincing deepfake likenesses of celebrity voices, like the one that rankled Jordan Peterson in 2019 and was quickly shut down after threats of legal action.

Part of what makes Holly+ unique is the initiative to turn her voice into a publicly-available instrument that anyone can use. The advent of machine learning tools that let anybody copy anybody elses physical appearance or voice have led to widespread debate around things like bodily autonomy and intellectual property rights. Herndon is pushing back against the idea that allowing for a potentially wide array of derivative works with machine learning will devalue her own music.

In an extensive post about Holly+, Herndon explores the potential rights issues that could surface around deep learning voice models based on commercial artists. She cites cases of corporations tapping impersonators to copy popular songs for ads, such as Midler v. Ford Motor Co. in 1988, which concerned a series of commercials for the automaker that used an impersonator of Bette Midler. Herndon writes that precedents suggest that public figures will retain exclusive rights to the exploitation of their vocal likeness for commercial purposes.

Instead, she believes that as the digital likeness of her voice grows in use and popularity, it will only increase the value of her own original works. Its the My Collectible Ass theory, she cites, which holds that the more prominent and visible/audible a work of art is, the more valuable the certified original becomes. Holly+ creations are made under an open-source license and can be freely released, but cannot be commercially exploited without permission.

She will not govern the commercial use of Holly+ creations herself, however. Instead, Herndon will create a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), in which members are issued ERC-20 VOICE governance tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Those token-holding stewards will vote on whether works created using Holly+ tools can be commercialized, and make decisions about licensing agreements. Herndon is no stranger to exploring the artistic potential of blockchains, including by creating NFTs of generative art pieces.

Herndon told Motherboard that tokens will be distributed to friends, family members, supporters, and artists who contribute to the Holly+ platform, but that there will not be a public token sale.

I need to make sure people who are able to vote on official usage of Holly+ understand who I am and what I represent, she said. Approved songs will be minted as a non-fungible token (NFT) and sold via a Zora auction house, with 50 percent of profits going to the new artist, 40 percent to the DAO members, and 10 percent to Herndon herself.

Through this model I can give people tools to experiment with my voice, create an organization to vet and approve official usage, and generate funds to create new tools. That seems cooler to me than approaching it from a defensive DRM angle, Herndon told Motherboard. We need ways to compensate artists whose likeness is being used, certify what is real and what is not, and also celebrate a new and strange capacity we have to perform as other people. I think the model we came up with covers those points!

Zora, which was co-founded by former employees of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, enables creators to use DAO governance to develop brands and products in a new, collective manner. Its part of a rising trend of DAO-led brand creation and management in the crypto space. Earlier this year, Motherboard spoke to Herndon about how blockchain tech has the potential to give power back to musicians. With Holly+, she seems elated about the creative possibilities ahead.

I am excited at the potential for there to be many different Holly albums in the world. I have already received some questions from musicians to ask if they can make Holly+ records, and that sounds perfect <3, she told Motherboard. I am curious what it would feel like to be in a band with 10,000 people, and how that might interact with my personal music project.

I like the idea of licensing songs from Holly+ musicians to play in my own sets, or DAO members performing as Holly+ without me, Herndon added. The DAO will make all of that stuff possible. This is fundamentally an experiment, so the uncertainty of everything is pretty thrilling.

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Holly Herndon Deepfaked Herself Into a 'Digital Twin' That Sings Any Song In Her Voice - VICE

CINCINNATI For at least a night, the Mets ran out of magic.

They lost to the Reds, 4-3, on Tuesday night in a game that was mostly normal, which was different from their recent usual.

The Reds Wade Miley held them to two runs in 6 1/3 innings. Pete Alonso homered, but Cincinnati countered with long balls from Jonathan India in the first, then Joey Votto and Aristides Aquino back-to-back in the third inning. The Mets (49-43) stranded the potential tying run on second base in the seventh and eighth innings and on first base in the ninth inning.

Amir Garrett, the sometimes closer in a bad Reds bullpen, walked Dominic Smith on four pitches, none close to the strike zone, to begin the last inning. But he struck out Brandon Nimmo and Alonso and got Jeff McNeil to pop out to end it.

"All of us felt," bench coach Dave Jauss said, "that we were going to go to the bottom of the ninth tonight."

Ten days before the July 30 trade deadline, the Mets desperate need for pitching somehow became yet more desperate.

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Righthander Robert Stock left with an injured right hamstring prior to the bottom of the second inning. In the top of the second, he busted it down the first-base line on a groundout to second, stranding two runners in scoring position. The 31-year-old took the mound to start warming up but soon left with an athletic trainer.

"He got so excited that he was getting an at-bat with runners in scoring position," said Jauss, who was the fill-in manager as Luis Rojas finished his two-games suspension. "He said he hadnt run that hard since he was 21 years old, the adrenaline."

That meant another long night for the Mets bullpen. In the past three games, their starting pitchers have combined for five innings. Relievers were required to toss 23.

Plucked off the waiver-wire scrap heap from the Cubs last month, Stock going down illustrates just how bizarrely deep the Mets injury woes are, particularly with their rotation situation.

Already, the Mets have nine starting pitchers/longer relievers who could start on the injured list: Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco, Jordan Yamamoto, Joey Lucchesi, Robert Gsellman, David Peterson, Sean Reid-Foley, Corey Oswalt and Jacob deGrom.

A glance at their upcoming rotation situation shows Marcus Stroman (Wednesday), Tylor Megill (Friday) and Taijuan Walker (Saturday) as the last men standing.

Then it gets rough again. They have three games in two days including a doubleheader against Atlanta on Monday and an uncertain number of starters. Anthony Banda, who pitched poorly in the minors before getting called up Monday, is an option.

So, too, is Carrasco, but he only lasted 1 2/3 innings (of a scheduled three) in a rehab start for Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday. He hasnt pitched all year due to a torn right hamstring.

All of which is to say, the Mets need help, the sooner the better. They are 14-18 since June 17.

Alonso said he looked forward to the first trade deadline under owner Steve Cohen.

"Well see what Uncle Steve decides to do," he said.

Despite losing Stock, the Mets actually had a chance. They got through the game with a combination of pitchers from a part of the depth chart that didnt even exist until recently: Stephen Nogosek (three innings, two runs), Yennsy Diaz (one inning), Geoff Hartlieb (1 1/3 innings, one run), Aaron Loup (two outs) and Drew Smith (one inning).

"In a situation like that, you gotta give the team a chance to win," said Nogosek, who on his second day wit the team was the emergency long reliever. "I thought I did that. Nine times out of 10, we come back and win that ballgame."

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This time, Mets fall short in loss to Reds - Newsday

Former Washington Football Team running Adrian Peterson wants one more chance to show that he can be an elite running back. Would the Los Angeles Rams be a good fit?

They need another runner.

Rams' second-year running back Cam Akers suffered a torn Achilles during practice Tuesday. According to sources from ESPN's Adam Schefter, the former Florida State star is expected to miss the entire 2021 season.

Akers showed in glimpses that he could be the next big thing in Sean McVay's system as a second-round pick. He averaged 113.1 yards from scrimmage over the final seven games, including two postseason appearances against Seattle and Green Bay.

Ultimately, Akers was the replacement for Todd Gurley, who was released before the start of the 2020 season. Could this be the best chance for Peterson to get back on an NFL roster?

McVay has said that Los Angeles feels comfortable with the running backs they have in place. Derrell Henderson was a 1,000-yard rusher for Memphis in 2018. Xavier Jones, Raymond Calais, and rookie Jake Funk also are on the roster.

An early look into training camp could show that without Akers, the Rams are missing an offensive piece. What to do now?

A start would be to call Peterson.

Last season, Peterson joined the Detroit Lions on a one-year deal. There was nothing positive with the Motor City franchise, including his overall production. Peterson, 36, rushed for just604 yards on 156 carries with seven touchdowns.

He's no longer the feature back that took the NFL by storm when coming out of Oklahoma in 2007, but he's a good bruiser. Theveteran flashed against a weaker defense the ability to get to the second level of defense with the Lions' offensive line.

One could argue that the Lions' offensive line is a little better than the Rams, but they still mirror each other enough. Having that backing support from Matthew Stafford, who Los Angeles traded for this offseason would also help.

If anything maybe the renaissance revival isn't dead. When signed with Washington in 2018, many believe he would be a teacher to young players like Derrius Guice. Instead, the second-round pick was hurt in the preseason, forcing Peterson to take lead reps.

He didn't disappoint as he finished1,042 rushing yards, 208 receiving yards, and nine touchdowns. Those numbers on the ground were good enough to finish fifth in the NFL that year.

Earlier this offseason, Peterson spoke on his progression and training. While his body is getting up there in age, he still believes he has not lost a beat when it comes to moving the ball.

"The training is going well and I'm going to control the things that I can control right now, and, when that time comes, somebody will give me a call," Peterson told Aaron Wilson of Sports Talk 790in Houston, Texas. "That's all I'm asking for. My body feels good. I came out healthy from last season. My body feels strong. I still feel young. I still feel good. I'm ready to play ball."

Gurley will likely be the other name to watch for with Los Angeles since he's familiar with the Rams' offense. Last year, the former All-Pro signed a one-year deal to play for the Atlanta Falcons. The 26-year-old averaged a career-worst 3.5 yards per run, and managed to have career-lows in rushing yards (678) and carries (195).

Those numbers were also featured as Gurley being the lead back. Imagine what Peterson would do with that same amount of carries as a secondary player?

If anything, Peterson would be able to teach young talent like Akers and Henderson the ins and outs of the position. It would also allow McVay to see what he has in the former Tiger as his next lead back.

Peterson would be the change of pace player.

At 14,820 rushing yards all-time, he sits 450 yards from passing Barry Sanders (15,269) for fourth place. Frank Gore (16,000 yards), Walter Payton (16,726 yards), and Smith (18,355 yards) make up the top three.

Maybe a year in Los Angeles propels him ahead?

As proven by his time in D.C., believing that Peterson is done would be a mistake. For the right price, Los Angeles could add a strong-willed runner, and a future Canton candidate.

LISTEN:Locked On Washington: Thoughts With Snyder Family

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Could Former WFT RB Adrian Peterson Return To Football With The Rams? - Yardbarker

When the Coronado Unified School District fired JD Laaperi as Coronado High Schools head basketball coach following an incident in which team supporters threw tortillas at an opposing team, it retained him in another capacity: as a teacher at Silver Strand Elementary School.

Groups that called for Laaperis firing were largely unaware that he also teaches at the district and will remain in that role despite his move off the basketball court, and now doubt whether the district is holding him fully accountable for the incident.

David Cruz, a spokesman for the League of United Latin American Citizens, told Voice of San Diego that it seems disingenuous to say Laaperi was fired if he only lost one of his jobs with the same employer.

Its an interesting use of semantics, he said.

The Coronado school board isnt alone in its decision to fire Laaperi in one capacity and keep him on staff in another. Across the region, school administrators have fired coaches after finding they acted inappropriately or abused their roles as student mentors, while retaining them as teachers and leaving them accessible to students, a Voice of San Diego review found. Though Laaperi isnt accused of abusing students, coaches in other roles have been found to have crossed boundaries with players but continued working directly with students in the classroom.

Firing an employee from as a coach is easier than firing them as a teacher, because employee union-negotiated collective bargaining agreements afford teachers due process rights that arent extended to coaches. Its rare that schools move to show probable cause to terminate an employee, Voice of San Diego has found. Yet a school board can choose not to renew a coachs annual supplemental contract without a stated reason if they are at-will employees.

Experts on students rights told Voice of San Diego that school districts are leaving the door open to legal action when they continue to employ staff who commit misconduct in any role on campus. They said districts can be proactive by firing employees from all roles regardless of where they commit misconduct, complete diligent background checks on all coaches and hire more women and people of color as coaches to prevent harassment in the first place.

Karl Muller, the superintendent of Coronado Unified, and Laaperi declined interview requests for this story.

Athletic coaches who are also teachers perform their duties as coaches in an adjunct capacity, meaning they are hired as a teacher first, and a coach second. Theyre paid an additional stipend for coaching, on top of their regular teachers salary. Often, teachers who coach, like Laaperi, go through a higher level of background checks in those roles, but school officials are less likely to move to fire them.

Music Watson, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Office of Education, confirmed districts can relieve employees of their coaching responsibilities without it affecting their teaching jobs.

A similar situation played out in Poway in 2017. Officials at Poway Unified found that two coaches sent inappropriate texts to female students and removed them from coaching roles, but retained them as teachers. That district completed investigations into the employees cases, and determined the teachers actions were inappropriate or unprofessional, but not criminal or warranting termination.

Community members demand the district fire the men from their teaching roles in both cases, but district officials refused.

We believe the level of discipline they received was appropriate for these first instances. They were removed from coaching positions and received letters in their files, Christine Paik, a spokeswoman for Poway Unified, previously wrote in an email to Voice of San Diego. The education code has an onerous process for employee terminations. Districts are unable to dismiss employees unless their offenses rise to a certain level as described by ed code.

After Voice of San Diego published details about both cases, a Westview High alum claimed one of the teachers, Derek Peterson, a former basketball coach, also sent her inappropriate texts while he was her English teacher. The student started an online petition demanding the district fire him and the other coach, Tim Medlock, as teachers.

Peterson resigned from the district in October 2020 before the district finished investigation the second claim, Paik told Voice of San Diego in an email. Medlock is still employed at Westview High.

The unwillingness to fully terminate employees on school campuses is concerning, said Alana McMains, an associate attorney at The Pride Law Firm in San Diego.

McMains said districts should be aware that retaining employees in one capacity after relieving them from another can have detrimental legal and financial implications. Beyond the morality of a school keeping a problem employee on staff, it presents a liability that threatens taxpayer dollars.

If the school keeps them around kids, theyre really setting themselves up for a huge lawsuit, McMains said. The first thing we ask a school district is if there has been a complaint against a teacher before.

Districts are quicker to hire and fire coaches who are considered walk-on or limited term employees, who do not hold teaching positions and are considered non-certificated employees. Those coaches receive a stipend for the season, and can be let go at any time.

Last year, Coronado district officials swiftly fired Jordan Tyler Bucklew, a former girls basketball coach, when allegations came to light that he abused one of the students on his team.

State education code requires schools to conduct background checks on all coaches whether they have a teaching role or not, and requires coaches to have some training. The local chapter of the California Interscholastic Federation offers a coaching education program that provides a minimum level of professional training that complies with California Education Code. The law requires prospective coaches to pass a coaching education class. The CIF offers its own program.

The San Diego County Office of Education requires its walk-on coaches to have fingerprint clearance, valid CPR certification and other pre-employment requirements before beginning a coaching assignment, according to its website. Watson, the San Diego County Office of Education spokeswoman, said most districts have the same requirements, but local schools make their own decisions.

Unlike with teachers, theres not a statewide oversight board for athletic coaches in schools. School administrators are left to decide who should be around schoolchildren, unless the coach commits an egregious crime.

Watson said if a parent, student or community member is concerned about a school coach, they can contact officials at their respective school or local law enforcement.

The first step is generally to contact the site administrator (principal), although parents, students or community members can also contact the districts human resources office. If theres a concern about potentially illegal activity, the parent, student or community member could also contact law enforcement, she said.

The CIF doesnt have a say in the hiring or firing of coaches either, Joe Heinz, the commissioner of the CIFs local chapter, said in an interview.

Heinz would not comment directly on Laaperis case but noted that theres a lot of work to be done within the association moving forward.

We want to make sure this doesnt happen again, Heinz said.

Sports is all about creating community, Hogshead-Maker said.

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When Districts 'Fire' Coaches, They Often Keep Them on as Teachers - Voice of San Diego