Category Archives: Political Correctness

In 1893, three years before Utah became a state, the Salt Lake Temple was completed after 40 years of sacrifice-filled construction. As is customary, a dedicatory prayer was offered by Wilford Woodruff, then president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the end of the prayer President Woodruff pleaded for heavens help on a very secular issue which remains a pressing problem in Utah and across the nation 127 years later.

Woodruff prayed, O God, Thou seest the course Thy people have been led to take in political matters. They have, in many instances, joined the two great national parties. Campaigns have been entered upon, elections have been held, and much party feeling has been engendered. Many things have been said and done which have wounded the feelings of the humble and the meek, and which have been a cause of offense.

I find it fascinating that in a remote territory of the American West, President Woodruff felt the need, in a prayer of dedication, to address the right and wrong way to engage in political conversations.

We find ourselves still wandering in the political wilderness. Presidential campaigns, a soon-to-begin legislative session, local elections heating up and burning social issues are all part of a combustible combination that is raising the temperature of public rhetoric, reducing real listening and upending rational thinking.

As the 2020 election cycle begins in earnest, we would be wise to remember the old axiom, Speak in anger and you will deliver the greatest speech you will ever live to regret.

Many have come to believe that silence is weakness, that calmness is cowardly and that you must engage in a tit-for-tat exchange of point and counterpoint, claim and counterclaim to compete and survive in the 21st century. We would do well in all our personal interactions, whether in the public square or within our personal circles, to focus on desired outcomes instead of emotional outbursts and come to people with questions instead of accusations.

The airwaves and internet sites are filled with pundits, experts and even those we call friends on social media who constantly badger or bombastically blow up anyone who might disagree with their point of view. While this might be entertaining talk radio, primetime television or Twitter banter, it has produced a horrible precedent and pattern for dealing with the only thing that matters in the end our relationships with people.

We all know that if an unwanted fire breaks out in our home the last thing we want to do is throw gasoline on it. Yet far too many of us cannot resist the urge to throw our last bit of emotional fuel on the interpersonal fire and then spar, thrust-and-parry and go back-and-forth, often, long after the source of the problem has been completely consumed. The age of rage is incinerating reason and ruining relationships.

Usually it is the preservation of ego that keeps us engaged in verbal combat. We somehow have come to believe that having the last word will win the day. Learning to check your ego at the door, and determine what truly matters most is key, not only to successful relationships and interactions, but to our own happiness and peace of mind. It is also important to remember that the solution to any problem actually begins when someone says, Lets talk about it, or asks, What do you think? and is then willing to engage in real listening and deeper dialogue.

Whether speaking to someone in person or going back-and-forth in email, texts or tweets, you must ask yourself if the messages you are about to speak or send are going to move the conversation, and more importantly, the relationship forward, or whether they will simply fuel more anger and angst. Winning a verbal battle at the expense of losing a war for a relationship is never wise.

It has been said that Gen. Robert E. Lee was once asked his view of a man he had had many public disagreements with. Lee reportedly responded that the man was a good, just man, who he happened to disagree with greatly. The questioner then stated that the man in question did not hold such a respectful view of the general and often expressed that negative opinion to others publicly, to which Gen. Lee replied, You asked me my opinion of him, not my view of his view of me. My view is the only one over which I have control. The way you communicate with those you disagree with speaks volumes about who you are as a person. Petty, personal attacks never produce positive results and often keep us a safe distance from real solutions.

All this is not to suggest in any way that we should retreat from public debate or abandon our commitment to stand on principle. Passive political correctness is not the solution. America is always at its best when we are the country of big ideas especially when those ideas cause us to have open, passionate and challenging disagreements and debate. We can disagree without being disagreeable, we can have uncomfortable conversations about difficult issues and we can communicate in ways that elevate ideas and promote sound principles and the best intentions of everyone.

The edifice of the Salt Lake Temple is undergoing a four-year renovation to strengthen, revitalize and renew this venerable structure. Perhaps there is a lesson in it to renovate our approach to politics in 2020.

Many will continue to speak in anger with contempt for opponents fueling divisive, society-damaging rhetoric. When it comes to the war of words, text tirades or social media rants whenever in doubt dont! Check your emotions and your ego. Silence can be strength, a kind word can carry a conversation, stepping away can be the best step forward.

Returning to President Woodruffs 1893 prayer, he concluded his petition to God relating to the politics of the people with these wise words that apply to people of every faith and to those of no faith: We beseech Thee, in Thine infinite mercy and goodness, to forgive Thy people wherein they have sinned in this direction ... Enable Thy people hereafter to avoid bitterness and strife, and to refrain from words and acts in political discussions that shall create feeling and grieve Thy Holy Spirit.

We the people can, and must, do better. As in most important matters in America, community, culture and individual citizens will lead and then the politics and the politicians will eventually follow.

Editors note: Portions of this column were previously published in the Deseret News in 2016.

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Boyd Matheson: What the Salt Lake Temple says about the 2020 election - Deseret News

Sadly, militant reductionists have no time for nuance.

The scourge of identity politics also means that examples of racism against white people are overlooked. Take the child abuse scandal in Manchester. This week, a detective claimed that a grooming gang, predominantly men from Asian backgrounds, was free to roam the city and abuse young girls because police officers were told to find other ethnicities to investigate. This is disturbingly reminiscent of cases from Rotherham to Telford, where the abuse of white girls by ethnic minority males was ignored, as shrugging sexism collided with crushing political correctness.

How did it come to this? Things looked promising when the baby-boomer generation, who grew up more accustomed to non-white faces than their parents, came of age. But then something interesting happened. Communism collapsed and the Lefts struggle shifted, for the sake of its own survival, from the collective to the individual. What has to be done? morphed into Who am I? The result is Manichaean navel-gazing.

One particularly toxic subplot is the medicalisation of victimhood. It was, after all, a professorof counselling psychology at Columbia University, Derald Wing Sue, who invented the term microaggression. That he was partly inspired by RD Laing will surprise few familiar with the baleful maverick who famously asked whether mental illness is a sick response to a healthy situation, or a healthy response to a sick situation.

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It is time to call out the intolerant woke's racist double standards - Telegraph.co.uk

By Letter to the Editor on January 17, 2020.

The squeaking wheel will always get the grease.

Sadly those who make the wheels squeak are often malcontents with thin skin who take offence needlessly. In that regard they take to social media to air their perceptions. As a result they get others to sympathize and soon they get laws that dilute our freedoms. The end result is political correctness which is slowly and incrementally driving our country to pass laws that, if we dont stop this nonsense will drive us to the same level of intolerance of opinions as countries like Iran, China, Russia and others that use intolerance to muzzle free expression. Our brave warriors would turn over in their graves if they knew the direction we are going.

In this country we have rights and freedoms that are the envy of many people in the world. However, if we keep watering down our rights like the saying of Merry Christmas we will soon our rights to think or speak our minds because of a few who will feel slighted at the smallest utterance. Get over it and learn to use common sense, reason, patience and understanding. Learn to see how others around you live and open your hearts and minds. Malcontents, will, sadly, look at the negative side and never see the sunny side of the street.

Canada is the most welcoming country I know of. We welcome all newcomers from different cultures and speaking all languages. I would not have it any other way. Let us all count our blessings.

We must continue on a path of forward thinking to reinforce our rights and freedoms.

W. Korzyniowski

Medicine Hat

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We have rights and freedoms that are the envy of many - Medicine Hat News

In November last year, an internet video made by a 17-year-old American went viral. The video was less than a minute long and began with its creator, Feroza Aziz, looking directly into the camera and talking viewers through a makeup tutorial. The first thing you need to do is grab your lash curler. Curl your lashes, obviously. Then youre going to put them down and use your phoneto search up whats happening in China, how theyre getting concentration camps, throwing innocent Muslims in there, separating families from each other, kidnapping them, murdering them, raping them, forcing them to eat pork, forcing them to drink, forcing them to convert.

The words gush out not in fiery anger but in the slightly bored instructional tones of all makeup tutorials, while she continues to curl her lashes. To end, Aziz flashes a cutesy, knowing smile: Please be aware. Please spread awareness and, yeah, so, you can grab your lash curler again As subversive political messaging goes, it was a masterpiece. One of the first truly consequential videos to be made using TikTok, the worlds fastest-growing and at its best most creative digital platform.

Though it launched only two years ago, TikTok already has more users than Twitter and Snapchat combined. It hit that all-important one billion mark last year, while its rivals spent triple the time reaching the same figure. Its parent group, the Beijing-based ByteDance, is estimated to be worth $75 billion, the highest-valued tech startup to date. TikTok is also the first Chinese-owned platform to become the most downloaded app in America, and what its dominance might mean for the future of the internet, entertainment, music and society are questions that people are increasingly interested in and worried about.

Shortly after Aziz posted her video about the maltreatment of the Uighur Muslims, TikTok temporarily took down her account. They blamed this on a human moderation error relating to another post. Many including Aziz werent buying this. TikToks dominance, until that point, had been achieved without the political controversies that have dogged platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In fact, much of its content, generated by its predominantly teenage user-base, seemed decidedly apolitical and harmless certainly when compared with the rest of the internet.

In September 2019, the New York Times set its art critics the task of reviewing TikTok and they immediately commented on the platforms goofiness. The most popular videos captured a sense of novelty and innocence that had disappeared from platforms such as Instagram (which had become dominated by the glamorous lifestyles of influencers) and YouTube (which had been ravaged by Trump-esque culture wars). What thrived on TikTok were videos that were fun to make and to watch.

At the time, the platform was driven largely by its video challenges viral events in which users won over fans by bringing their humor and creativity to a pre-agreed video format. These crazes were part ice-bucket challenge (the now-ancient viral Facebook stunt from 2014) and part Oulipo, the oddball literary collective who believed in uber-restrictive forms as a way of unleashing true creativity. The best ones were surreal and smart such as the videos of girls dancing to their exs abusive voicemails and soon spawned thousands of user-generated video responses from across the world. And with almost everything set to pop music, the whole thing seemed like a giant interactive music video.

TikTok launched a whole wave of young creatives, seeking to become TikTok famous. Unlike Instagram celebrities, though, there was no requirement to be photogenic and glamorous; instead the most successful TikTokkers were often the funniest and most creative ones. When I spent a week on TikTok, I was impressed by sadmuslimgirl a hijab-wearing teenager who used TikTok to make comedy videos about her life as an American Muslim. The target of the jokes varied. Sometimes they would attack media stereotypes of Muslims a common topic for professional comics; at other times they were much more novel and original. Though the jokes were often about the difficulties of fitting in as a teenage Muslim, the videos were never angry or provocative, nor did they obsess over complicated notions of identity politics and political correctness. They were just well, fun.

I was impressed, too, by how easy it was to make TikTok videos something that removed the entry barriers for those who might otherwise find it difficult to make art. I spoke to Amy Hayward, a 25-year-old supermarket worker from Essex whod had tens of millions of views for her comedy videos (many of which deal with her unglamorous day job). She told me shed always been the funny one in her friendship circle but had never really applied her talents to anything creative before. But TikTok, which provides a free-to-use video-editing suite and hundreds of millions of potential viewers, had made it easy for people like her to produce these little films. The most money she had spent was on a small lighting rig to improve the quality of her videos and even that came to less than 200 ($260). Now her videos were seen by millions of other TikTokkers.

But while TikToks popularity is driven by the creativity of users such as Amy, behind the scenes lies another of the apps distinguishing features: its pioneering use of artificial intelligence to curate users viewing experiences. Compared with previous platforms, TikTok is ruthlessly efficient in gathering data on its users behavior and preferences and in using this information to direct them to videos that were most likely to entertain them. The end result is a lightning-quick scrolling experience, in which users move effortlessly from one 15-second video to the next, creating a convincing feel of creative anarchy. All the while, though, the experience is shaped by ByteDances algorithms, continuously using the data to refine and improve the computations. According to tech experts, the system is making billions of calculations every second to work out exactly whats driving viewers attention.

With tens of millions of willing volunteers every day, TikTok might just be one of the most sophisticated artificial intelligence endeavors in the world. Given this technology was developed in China, where tech companies have been asked to hand over their data to the government, you can see why its caught the attention of US senators, some of whom have declared TikTok to be a counterintelligence threat, and even the Pentagon, which has banned American soldiers from using the app.

Take facial recognition technology: with most TikTok users starring in their own videos, ByteDance has probably acquired billions of images of users faces worldwide. Yet similar technology is routinely used for surveillance in China, including to keep tabs on Uighur Muslims. Elsewhere, corporates are developing software to predict who might be a shoplifter by monitoring how people move around a store. Could TikToks vast database on human poses mined from hosting innocent dance challenges be used to accelerate this technology?

When Jia Tolentino, a writer for the New Yorker, asked ByteDance how it would keep its data safe from the Chinese government, it pointed out that users data was always stored within their home country (reassuring, perhaps, for American TikTokkers, but not so much for the platforms 400 million Chinese users). But a former Facebook developer told a different story. The only thing that mattered, he said, was the location of the platforms coders and engineers: Everyone else is a puppet paid to lie to you. And where were TikToks engineers based? Largely in Beijing and Shanghai.

The impact of TikToks algorithms are already being felt across the world and in ways that are reshaping and redefining popular culture. The ubiquitous use of pop music in TikTok (with the same 15-second snippet often used from one video to the next) has already played havoc with the singles chart which, since 2014, has taken account of the amount of times a track is streamed online. When an unfashionable or obscure song becomes the soundtrack to a viral challenge, it can amass millions of streams in a day making it appear more popular than it really is. Now pop producers have cottoned on and begun writing songs that are geared for TikTok success. One hit songwriter Kamille admitted to an obsession with TikTok in an interview with the Guardian recently, tailoring tunes to make them meme-friendly: I think about [adding] weird production parts, because that tends to really work on TikTok.

Like Facebook and Twitter before it, TikTok is slowly but surely molding society to its meme-generating ways and, under the cover of goofiness, honing AI tools that will have repercussions far beyond the charts.

TikToks inner workings remain highly secretive, meaning that while it might avoid the blunt step of removing politically sensitive content or feeding information to authorities it can easily tweak its algorithms to divert viewers away from certain videos, or distract them with something else entirely.

For TikToks billion-strong fanbase the platform has become a byword for freedom, creativity and fun. Many will have no understanding of the complex artificial intelligence that drives their viewing experience. By contrast, the platform is quickly understanding more and more about them. And that could have massive implications for all of us.

This article was originally published inThe Spectators UK magazine.Subscribe to the US edition here.

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TikTok is the world's fastest-growing and goofiest digital platform, but should we fear it? - The Spectator USA

By Teresa Reile

Something definitely can be done about it.

After witnessing the destruction of the state that he loves so much, Derrick Gibson card carrying conservative and black man decided that enough is enough and that he can and will do something about it.

I simply cant stand by and let the great state of New York go by the wayside by these criminals in office Gibson states.

When asked about the criminals in office he replied, The NYS legislature. Namely, Cuomo and his counterpart in the City Bill DeBlasio. Both of them are criminal elements and they can not be allowed to destroy our fair state under the guise of help anymore. Since they have been in office, taxes have gone up, people are leaving NYS in record numbers, the city which was very safe and clean under Guiliani is now crime ridden and dirty.

When Derrick says he is going to do something about it, he means it. He has just put his hat in the ring to run against Cuomo for the Governor of NYS.

He just might make it. He is driven. He is persistent and knows what he is talking about.

Born in Jamaica, Queens NYC, Gibson was raised by a Christian mother who taught all seven of her children the difference between right and wrong.

Born in NYC, but raised in Georgia, Gibson became well versed in everything that had to do with survival. He learned how to fish, hunt, grow a garden and be a gentleman.

In high school he became interested in the industrial arts and auto mechanics. He was quite good at it. So good, in fact that he landed a full scholarship to South Georgia Technology College in Americus Georgia where he graduated with a degree in automotive technology. After graduation, he was employed in the automotive industry where he gained valuable knowledge and experience which he used to open his own auto transmission shops.

Being young and inexperienced in life in general, instead of using his success to further his business, he blew his money on silly things such as cars, and recreational vehicles.

Undeterred, he realized that he was a bit foolish, but also learned the value of the dollar and because of his foolishness early on, he learned to be even more successful.

He went to college and got his degree in criminal justice. He has seen both sides of the justice system and agrees that it can be unfair, but he is determined to do something about it.

Growing up a black man in the south with a Christian upbringing and 6 siblings, his mother ran a tight ship. She brought her children up right. This was the only way she knew. He had a very spiritual childhood and attended church regularly. His mom encouraged a strong adherence the concept of right and wrong and taught her children the meaning of the word integrity.

Life hasnt always been easy for Derrick, but somehow, he always manages to see the bright side of everything. Andhe perseveres. He never gives up. Today, he too is a proud father who has brought his children up the same way that he was raised: the right way.

He thinks that morals and values have a place in the world. He does not believe that the decline of society is ok. Quite the contrary, he believes in the upholding the Constitution of the United States. And with that, he will tell you that he thinks that Political Correctness has been the start of the decline of America.

At the tender age of 18, Gibson became interested in politics. He paid very close attention to what was going on politically and how these things were affecting his lifestyle. He saw many things that did not align with his Christian upbringing and he decided then and there, that someday, when the time was right, he would run for office.

That time is now.

After serving on Bush Advisory Board in the small business sector, he decided to move back to NYC as an adult and what he is seeing in the state of New York is appalling to him.

NY has left the interest of its citizens behind in favor of vested interests and back room deals, says Gibson, it has got to change.

He has been seeing politicians running rampant with power, going against constituents wishes, being bought off by vested interests and stripping the rights away from the people of NY. Taxes have gotten out of control and that is the first thing he wants to change.

Gibson is running for Governor. He is bound and determined to do it. He wants to see an end to the criminality of the politics as usual in Albany. He has a slogan Axe the Tax, and he promises to do just that when he is Governor.

We wish you all the best Mr. Gibson.

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Disgusted by the Corruption in Albany, Courageous Black Man Runs for Governor - Artvoice

Two events last week prove how worthless awards have become in recent years. Instead of recognizing actual accomplishments, they worship political correctness.

In one, Sports Illustrated honored USA Womens Soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe, by naming her its Sportsperson of the Year. But while accepting the award, she couldnt help biting the hand that honored her.

Is it truth that Im only the fourth woman deserving of this award? I dont think so, Rapinoe said.

Is it true so few writers of color deserve to be featured in this publication? No. Is it true so few womens voices deserve to be heard and deserve to be read in this publication? I dont think so.

As Sportsperson of the Year, Rapinoe joined the ranks of other luminaries, including NBA sensation Lebron James and tennis superstar Serena Williams.

But shes always lacked grace in victory. In late June when she was asked whether she would accept a White House visit, Rapinoe replied, "I'm not going to the f***ing White House," adding, "We're not gonna be invited. I doubt it."

After she was invited, she still refused to go.

Theres no question but that Rapinoe has talent, but there were far more talented athletes Sports Illustrated could have honored, like U.S. gymnast Simone Biles. She became the winningest female gymnast in world competition history this year.

Biles took home her fifth all-around world gymnastics title in Stuttgart, Germany, in October, despite being deducted points for performing routines that her competitors could not shes that good.

In another instance, last week Time magazine named climate activist Greta Thunberg its 2019 Person of the Year.

We cant just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow, she told the publication. That is all we are saying.

Thunberg made waves in September by dressing down world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly.

We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth, she said. How dare you.

The 16-year-old refuses to return to school until the rest of the world bows to her wishes.

No one doubts her sincerity, but shes long on talk and short on actual action "all show and no go" as the saying went back in the day.

If Time wanted to stick to an environmental theme, it might have named as its Person of the Year Irish teen Fionn Ferreira, who invented a method to clean microplastics from the worlds oceans.

Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in diameter.

Better yet, Time could have named the young people risking their lives each night by demonstrating for their own freedom in Hong Kong and Iran.

You can also throw Glamour into the mix. It named Caitlyn Jenner its Woman of the Year in 2015.

Its decision prompted the widower of 9/11 victim Moira Smith to return his wifes own 2001 posthumous Glamour Woman of the Year accolade to the magazine. He said he was shocked and saddened by Glamours decision, adding that the Jenner accolade was an insult to his wifes legacy.

Was there no woman in America, or the rest of the world, more deserving, asked James Smith, who referred to Jenner by the previous name Bruce.

As far as that goes, then-President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 the first year of his presidency. The committee didnt actually honor him for anything hed actually done, but rather for what they thought he might accomplish.

Before the end of Obamas second term, the Nobel Committees secretary, Geir Lundestad, regretted their decision.

"Even many of Obama's supporters believed that the prize was a mistake," he told the BBC. "In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for"

This odd journey down the rabbit hole by rewarding popularity over accomplishment began decades ago, innocently enough and with good intentions. It was an attempt to make everyone feel important by giving every participant a trophy.

Its since morphed into basing our highest accolades on whatever is politically correct at the moment Rapinoes lesbianism, Thunbergs extreme climate views, Jenners transgenderism over excellence. Given that, why should anyone bother to excel?

Weve finally found ourselves in a world where bad is good, left is right and, to quote the Jefferson Airplane classic White Rabbit, where logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. To read more of his reports Click Here Now.

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Awards Have Lost Their Luster Thanks to Political Correctness - Newsmax

This week, Lauretta Charlton reviews Darryl Pinckneys collection of essays Busted in New York. In 1992, Edmund White wrote for the Book Review about High Cotton, Pinckneys debut novel about a young black man coming of age.

When an African-American writer or a gay writer or a Native American writer publishes a novel, its always read as somehow representative of the whole minority group. Its also regarded as a testimony of the writers own coming to terms with that minority status. This kind of attention automatically focused on such books explains the power they generate and the constraints that are imposed upon them.

Whereas Ralph Ellisons hero was an invisible man to the whites around him, Mr. Pinckneys seems unreal even to himself. He has acquaintances rather than friends, observations rather than passions, few resentments, guarded enthusiasms and no sex life. No wonder hes drawn back again and again to the authenticity of the old-timers he meets in Harlem bars or at family funerals.

At a time in our history when a puerile political correctness imposes hypocrisy on most writers dealing with sensitive topics, Darryl Pinckney has dared to treat his theme with excruciating honesty and the total freedom from restraint that Schiller said we find nowhere else but in authentic works of art.

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Considering Darryl Pinckney and Authenticity - The New York Times

After Sen. Kamala Harris abruptly dropped out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, the famously inclusive party wasnt looking very inclusive anymore.

Without being too cheeky, you might say that the party that highlights diversity and equality is suffering from an embarrassment of wealthy white men.

Or, as Sen. Cory Booker described the irony, when only six people, all white, had met the partys new threshold to qualify for the debate in Los Angeles, the stage on Dec. 19 is likely to have more billionaires than Black people.

What message is that sending that we heralded the most diverse field in our history, Booker told a morning crowd in Des Moines, and now were seeing people like her dropping out of this campaign?

Yes, political correctness cuts both ways. As much as the party can boast of having more women and people of color than ever in the House after last years midterm elections, and in their lineup of presidential candidates, its another big challenge to hold onto that diversity.

Among top-tier candidates of color, businessman Andrew Yang qualified for the debate, just days before the deadline, joining six other candidates on the stage. Booker and former Housing Secretary Julian Castro have met the partys donor threshold, but neither has scored high enough in a single qualifying poll to make the debate, according to The New York Times debate tracker.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii scored enough in polling and fundraising to be listed as on the cusp as of Tuesday. Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts also appears to have entered the race too late to make the stage.

But things can change. With Harris departure, Bookers blunt blast about billionaires appears to have given a boost to his own fundraising. He raised more than $1 million within three days of Harris dropping out on Dec. 3. The day after Harris dropped out was his best online fundraising day, his campaign announced, and more than half of the surge came from first-time donors.

Of course, I already can see moans and groans in social networks about identity politics, as if that were a new thing in politics. In fact, women and people of color have seen identity politics played against them for so long that one can hardly blame them for using it to push back, especially in a campaign to unseat President Donald Trump, who often has fashioned a tribe based on conservative grievances.

Thats legitimate, in my humble opinion, but it doesnt substitute for a clear theme and purpose to ones campaign. Harris lost momentum on both counts. After her strong performance in the first debate with her takedown of front-runner and former Vice President Joe Bidens early voting record, she seemed to peak quickly, unprepared for criticism of her own record as a prosecutor.

Her campaign struggled with reported fundraising and organizational problems. But mainly she lacked what the late George H.W. Bush once called the vision thing.

Those questions matter as Democrats try to restore the multiracial, multiethnic coalition that carried President Barack Obama to two victories. About 4.4 million voters who cast ballots for Obama in 2012 stayed home in 2016, according to exit polls by Edison Media Research. More than a third were Black.

So, as much as candidates should never make too much of race or gender politics, which can invite a backlash, they cant take women or people of color for granted either.

The politically awkward possibility of an all-white Democratic debate stage shows, among other new realities, that symbolism isnt as powerful as it used to be with potential voters.

It annoys some liberals when electability questions are raised about Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example. But, for all the milestones that have been made by progressives such as Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Black Democrats in particular have been showing a persistent and resilient pull toward the familiar presence of Obamas former vice president, Biden.

Thats important, even as South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has gained top-tier status in Iowa polling and Warren is looking strong in New Hampshire, next door to her home state of Massachusetts.

Biden continues to lead in South Carolina, where most of the Democratic primary voters are Black and where Buttigieg recently scored a 0% of Black voters. The mayor will do better, Im sure, especially since he has nowhere to go in that poll but up.

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With Kamala Harris out, many Democrats dread a loss of diversity. But will Black voters care? - The Philadelphia Tribune

Brandon S. Todd of Wewahitchka writes: Its all a political-machine, intended to be a circus, for the primary purpose of distracting us from the real, tangible, and fixable issues affecting our property, wallets, and families.

We live in very chaotic and confusing times.

The stories and reports we Americans get are sometimes too much to absorb. Most of us simply are trying to get by," the last thing we need is a mendacious media.

The media has force-fed us lie after lie, till it has appeared as truth the Left announces falsities as truisms. The American media has become a partisan-agent of chaos; television news is all synchronized, so propaganda knows no limits here now.

Local journalism is the back-bone of any city; local newspapers and stations still matter tremendously to the nation. However, the national high-tower companies are peddling quantity over quality partisan opinion over investigative fact.

Its troubling to know that Fake News is actually a real thing. Narratives are created day-in-day-out. Character assassinations are performed hear sayers have open-mic sessions on national television now.

To put it very bluntly, the news media have been weaponized; political correctness and half-truths are what they shovel. Very partisan political-factions have merged with journalistic institutions, and now the past, present, and future are all narratives.

"Control the narrative, control the nation."

Those in power are swaying journalism in America; we have a polarized, more than corporate institution that was once united for truth and founded upon egalitarian principles. Now media, especially TV, have become 'Orwellian' in nature; facts are no longer the media's concern.

The weaponization of the media is a threat to all of democracy. The free press must remain utterly free to operate for the American people. Propaganda is inevitable. However, mass-deception should not be the norm to allow MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, etc., to keep getting away with deceiving the public must not be allowed.

Its all a political-machine, intended to be a circus, for the primary purpose of distracting us from the real, tangible, and fixable issues affecting our property, wallets, and families.

America is ranked as one of the deadliest places to be a journalist, behind Afghanistan, Syria, Mexico and Yemen.

No wonder we cant get the truth to tell it is quite risky.

Brandon S. Todd, Wewahitchka

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: National media now weaponized - The News Herald

With the recent Tory triumph in the British parliamentary elections, it is clear that the old, predictable dynamics of politics and public life are gone, at least for the immediate future. As we approach the U.S. presidential election in 2020, it seems likely that, whoever wins, it will not be somebody of moderate views and mild personality.

One note repeatedly struck by pundits is that of the opposition between populists and liberal elites. Such an approach provides a partial explanation for what we see unfolding before us: The lefts failure to achieve popular appeal is surely connected to the fact that it has abandoned traditional economic concepts of oppression for the psychologized categories of identity politics. And so the left now finds itself out of step with traditional workers, for whom jobs are more important than gender-blind bathroom policies or drag queen reading hours. The concerns of the cocktail party set in Chelsea or Manhattan are not the concerns of workers in Huddersfield or West Virginia.

Yet I would suggest that the real division in the politics of the earthly city is not between populists and elites, or the New Left and Everybody Else. It is between those who believe that human nature is a given and those who believe it is merely a social construct. And that distinction cuts across the grain of traditional political taxonomy, given that the latter is as compatible with right-wing libertarianism as with critical theory.

The symptoms are all around us, most obviously in the arbitrary morality of the moment. The NBA boycotts North Carolina over its bathroom policy, yet plays the fawning sycophant to China, a nation with a catastrophic record on human rights. Money may be the key factor, but that rests on a deeper (anti)metaphysical point: It is not that the NBA hypocritically strains at a gnat while swallowing a camel; it is that there is no longer any objective scale beyond the immediate exigencies of the economy by which to judge which are the gnats and which the camels. And what we see on the world stage with corporations like the NBA and nations like China we can all observe in our own small worlds, from those who decry traditional use of pronouns yet glory in abortion rights, to those who vilify political correctness but who are perennially outraged at the smallest perceived linguistic slight directed at themselves.

Our culture is increasingly an anti-culture, marked only by relentless iconoclasm. That is why I write for, and support, First Things. For all of the differences among the writers, it remains committed to showing, by precept and example, that civil discourse and honest, open discussion of the most important issues in this earthly city are vitalbecause there is such a thing as human nature, and therefore there is such a thing as human flourishing, which is not for us simply to invent for ourselves.

Carl R. Trueman is a professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College.

Originally posted here:

Arguing for Truth in the Anti-Culture | Carl R. Trueman - First Things