Category Archives: Politically Incorrect

Catherine Rampell The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The show must not go on.

So sayeth some of President Donald Trump's most ardent fans, who spent the past couple of weeks attempting to shut down a production of "Julius Caesar" with a Trump-like character in the title role.

These Trumpkins -- part of a bloc known for mocking political correctness, safe spaces and undue efforts to avoid offending the pwecious feewings of others -- deemed the show politically incorrect, unsafe and offensive.

Peaceful protest would be well within their rights. But these illiberal cultural illiterates instead wanted curtains for the offending Elizabethan play.

They stormed the stage at multiple shows, including the closing performance. They yelled and screamed inside and outside the open-air production -- part of the Public Theater's annual Shakespeare in the Park series -- to drown out dialogue they disliked. They threatened violence, sometimes quite graphically.

Some even sent death threats to other productions of Shakespeare and other plays in other parks.

The justification for these present-day disruptions and threats is that, at least according to (wrong) right-wing media reports, the production advocates assassination of a Trump-like Roman tyrant. But the only people lately threatening political violence in the name of "Julius Caesar" are those who wanted to shut this play down.

If these reactionaries had actually thought about the play, they'd realize its portrayal of the aftermath of assassination offers the opposite lesson: that "those who attempt to defend democracy by undemocratic means pay a terrible price and destroy the very thing they are fighting to save," as the Public put it in a statement to theatergoers.

There's a part of me that wants to rejoice that, 168 years after New York's Astor Place riots (also inspired by a contentious interpretation of the Bard), the theater can still be a source of so much controversy. In recent months not just "Julius Caesar" but also "Hamilton" has brought a raucous and artistically challenging rialto to the center of national social discourse.

Still, needless to say, death threats are not the type of intellectual engagement and social validation that most theater nerds were looking for.

The violent rhetoric of recent days is certainly no fault of the Public, even if, in choosing to portray Caesar with blondish hair, an ultra-long tie and a Slovenian-accented paramour, it clearly intended to provoke.

Nor is this debacle the fault of a few misguided protesters alone.

After all, they were just firing the latest salvo in the ongoing war against the free exchange of ideas, that most precious and endangered of liberal democratic values.

Plenty of conservatives like to believe that illiberalism is confined to liberal college students. Certainly there is evidence that millennials are at the vanguard of hostility to free speech. But as I have written time and again, attempts to stamp out speech are not confined to young or old, or left or right.

Instead, there is a growing sense on both sides of the aisle, and among all generations, that the free marketplace of ideas is broken. Everyone seems to believe that the inferior and dangerous ideas of their enemies are unfairly gaining ground; therefore, the words and beliefs of those enemies must be fair game for suppression.

And yes, attempts to shut down "Julius Caesar" -- like attempts to shut down conservative campus speakers -- are about objections to words and beliefs. They are not about protecting politicians or vulnerable minority groups from physical harm, despite the claims of would-be censors.

In "Julius Caesar," Shakespeare hinted that he expected his play to offer lessons for generations to come, though perhaps not the ones his characters believe they are offering.

"How many ages hence/Shall this our lofty scene be acted over/In states unborn and accents yet unknown!" declaims Cassius, after proudly smearing himself with the slain Caesar's blood.

Censors willing, let's hope Cassius' prediction continues to hold true.

Catherine Rampell (crampell@washpost.com) is a columnist for The Washington Post.

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Rampell: The play's not the thing - The Ledger

Netflix has produced yet another unexpected summertime hit, this time in the form of a delightfully bingeable series about female professional wrestlers in the 1980s. GLOW, released last week, is equal parts hilarious and pensive, matched only in wildness by the real-life all-female wrestling league on which its based.

In the show, Alison Brie plays a struggling actress who finds herself auditioning for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (G.L.O.W.), the brainchild of a sleazy Hollywood director and the young hotshot producer whos financing him. Many of the other women auditioning are also aspiring actresses, either hoping to use the gig as a stepping stone to bigger and better things or forced there because no one else would have them.

Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, the creators of Netflixs GLOW, said they were first inspired to make the series after watching a 2012 documentary about the real G.L.O.W. Never expected to be a success, the league quickly became a hit in the United States, airing on millions of TVs across the country from 1986 to 1990.

Unlike most male wrestling at the time, G.L.O.W. was celebrated for being extremely politically incorrect (many of the villainous characters were meant to be of foreign origin) and unabashedly campy. Each wrestler had her own signature rap shed dish out before entering the ring. The shows budget was so small that creator David McClanes on-air office was literally a phone booth. One wrestler described it as vaudeville mixed with Saturday Night Live mixed with wrestling.

The women were separated into good and bad girls (wrestling fans know these categories as faces, or heroes, and heels, or villains) and lived together in a house not far from the Las Vegas casino where the show was filmed. They often acted in their personas even when the cameras were off. Many, like Emily Dole (better known as Mountain Fiji), became household names.

But almost as quickly as it came, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was gone. Meshulam Riklis, the magnate who financed the show, inexplicably decided to pull his funding, and in 1990 G.L.O.W. went off the air after four seasons. Continuations and revivals were attempted, but many of the performers had moved onto other things.

The documentary that inspired Flahive and Mensch is currently available on Netflix (and smartly advertised right next to the Netflix series). Its only about 75 minutes long and well worth watching for fans of Glowor anyone whos interested in a wild, stranger-than-fiction story of how an all-female wrestling league became a bona fide American phenomenon, if only for the briefest of moments.

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The true story behind Netflix's superb GLOW is just as wild as the show - Quartz

Washington Times

Sammy Hagar laments 'crazy' Trump resistance: 'I'd like to see him have a chance' Washington Times Mr. Hagar has said he typically likes to avoid discussing politics during interviews, but expressed admiration last year for Mr. Trump's politically incorrect attitude, Breitbart News reported. I've never had two less likable candidates in my life ... and more »

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Sammy Hagar laments 'crazy' Trump resistance: 'I'd like to see him have a chance' - Washington Times

Toronto Sun

Professor who backed black-only Memorial Day celebration on Fox News fired by Essex County College Toronto Sun ... get invited to the Black Lives Matter's all-black Memorial Day Celebration, Durden told Carlson. White folks crack me up, she continued. You've been having 'White Day' forever. You don't say the words anymore because you know it's politically ... University professor fired over 'racist' remarks on Fox NewsNewshub College professor fired in wake of Fox News appearanceNewburgh Gazette NJ college: Professor fired for racially insensitive remarksNormangee Star all 69 news articles »

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Professor who backed black-only Memorial Day celebration on Fox News fired by Essex County College - Toronto Sun

Ponder ran an unsuccessful 2010 campaign for Alabama lieutenant governor as a Republican.

During the race, Ponder took a radical limited-government stance, and said in an email that he wanted to stop the federal government's "coercion, intimidation and blackmail" of states, according to AL.com.

He proposed that "all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of force by civil or criminal penalties or sanctions...be prohibited and repealed."

Local politicians from both sides of the aisle criticized Ponder's strong words. His Republican primary opponent, Hank Erwin, said "language like that" bordered on secessionist.

"We're not trying to secede from the Union," Erwin said at the time.

The mother, who asked her last name not be used, is a Democrat. Still, she said, she always taught her children to do "their own research, their own deciding on things."

But her teenage son hadn't really formed his own political beliefs before meeting Ponder, she said. And when he started the AP Government class, his sudden transformation was "scary."

"[My son] asked, 'Why shouldnt we be friends with Russia?' and 'Maybe dictatorship isnt so bad,'" said Jennifer. "He was never a racist kid. And he was a science buff."

She said she didn't complain to the school out of fear of retribution, and didn't see the reading list until it was posted online Wednesday.

"Now hes really argumentative, so we cant have good talks," said Jennifer. "Im never right, hes never wrong."

"I dont necessarily mind that he has his own mind, but this was implanted," she said. "This was purposeful by the teacher. It completely changed his ability to think about things on his own."

In a video he posted on Facebook, Morgan said the teacher is "a great Christian and a great human being" and "like a second father" to him.

He supports the reading list, but told BuzzFeed News he thinks it would be better if a few liberal books were added and students had to read one of each one liberal, one conservative.

"I don't think he purposefully tries to influence opinion, but I find that hard to believe because I actually shifted more left in his class than I originally was," Morgan said. "Before I went into his class I was far-right Republican, but now I am a libertarian. Fiscally conservative, socially liberal."

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A High School Pulled Its "Right-Wing Propaganda" Summer Reading List After Complaints - BuzzFeed News

When it comes to the Trump administration, liberals have no sense of humor, unless they are the ones doing the skewering.

Case in point,White House chief strategist Steve Bannonsreaction when askedwhy White House press briefings are sometimes held off-camera in reporting that press briefings are now shorter, less frequent, and routinely held off-camera, The Atlantic asked Bannon to comment.

Opting to have a little fun, he joked in a text message: Sean got fatter.

The jest was directed at White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who is reportedly being promoted to a position that oversees the entire White House communications operation.

Nonetheless, Bannons reply sent the left into a tizzy.

Even Chelsea Clinton got in on the act, accusing the presidents aide of fat shaming.

Its bad enough that CNNs Jim Acosta had a conniption over the briefings not being televised Spicer has been favoring off-camera press gaggles, with Acosta calling him kind of useless but Bannons politically incorrect reply really upset the left.

And fromMSNBC tool Kyle Griffin:

The best response to poor Griffins indignation may be this reply, which proves that some have retained their funny bones:

The hatred of Bannon is so strong, some even took to sticking up for Spicer, believe it or not while fat shaming Bannon!

Right.

Despite all the hand-wringing from social justice liberals out to save the world from itself, the kerfuffle may be best summed up in the tweet below only 7 1/2 years to go!

Tom is a grassroots activist who distinguished himself as one of the top conservative bloggers in Florida before joining BizPac Review.

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Steve Bannon's politically incorrect comment on Sean Spicer's promotion has the left in absolute turmoil - BizPac Review

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who does not believe in too much political correctness when speaking his mind, got himself into another controversy when he suggested that the Taj Mahal and other such monuments did not reflect Indian culture. Foreign dignitaries, he said, were now being given copies of the Gita and the Ramayana where earlier they were being given replicas of the Taj. (See an actual excerpt of his speech here)

Clearly, there was no need for Adityanath to rubbish the great monuments left behind by our Mughal rulers. The monuments, including the Taj, the Red Fort, the Qutb Minar and the ones at Fatehpur Sikri, are part of our history and heritage.

However, there is equally no need to hyperventilate on Adityanaths choice of words, for there is an intrinsic truth to what he was trying to convey. The true spirit of India is not defined by the monuments to human vanity that were left behind by past rulers, but the civilisational ethos, culture and spiritual pursuits of its people.

The spirit of India is represented by no monument, but by the millions of Indians who turn up at the Kumbh, unheralded and unbid, to bond with their sense of the sacred at places like Prayag, Ujjain and Nashik. Sure, there are many temples in these places to see, but the pilgrimage itself is not about clicking a selfie in front of a beautiful monument. Islam does not believe in god being represented in any form, but its adherents today (and Indias unholy Left) do not see this formless devotion to god in the millions who turn up at the Kumbh and Ardh Kumbh. They come, they do their thing, and they melt away without a fuss.

The spirit of India is defined by the millions who use yoga not as a health enhancing bit of muscle-stretching exercise, but as a way to balance mind and body in a perpetual search for higher reality. But today this is being rubbished as unIslamic and subverted into forms defined by organised religion, including the creation of so-called Christian yoga or Holy yoga. What is Christian about yoga? Perhaps the only way in which it is Christian is the blatant appropriation of Indias cultural and spiritual wealth by a civilisation ethos that does not respect our traditions. This hypocrisy is emphasised by western civilisations normally high emphasis on the protection of its own intellectual property rights. But other peoples cultural properties can be looted and stolen.

The idea of India is not defined by a westernised elite sitting at the India International Centre (IIC) in Delhi or the Habitat Centre, but by a common Indic sense of living in a sacred geography, and the footfalls of its pilgrims, as scholar of religious studies Diana Eck put it. It needs a westerner to see us and tell us what we are, but no Indian liberal is able to see it.

Syncretic India, to which the religions and ideas that came from outside also contributed, is not defined by the monuments the latter left behind, but by their contributions to the spirit and culture of this country. The real Mughal contribution to India is not the Taj Mahal beautiful as it is but how Mughal rule helped infuse new life into Indian music, which is now celebrated as Hindustani music and enthrals millions all over the sub-continent.

When it comes to grand monuments, we were never lacking in them as the fantastic temples at Thanjavur, Tirupati, Srirangam, Guruvayoor and Sabarimala attest, as also do the gigantic Gomateshwara in Sravanabelagola, or the cave art of Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta, or the Golden Temple in Amritsar. But it is the Indian spirit that dominates, not the monument or the moorti created with the effort.

Contrast this spirit of India with the iconoclasm of Islam, where grand monuments were often built by demolishing those that already existed in Varanasi, Ayodhya and Mathura. The distinguishing features of the temples or Buddhist seminaries demolished were not their architectural qualities alone, but the devotion that made them possible.

In fact, some of Indias holiest temples are not distinguished by their imposing nature, but by our sense of the sacred and the spiritual in them. The Kashi Vishwanath temple is nobodys idea of grandeur, but still it attracts millions every year.

Nothing illustrates this spirit better than the Somnath temple, which was repeatedly looted, plundered and demolished by Islamic invaders like Ghori and Ghazni. Left historians like Romila Thapar see this as evidence that the temple destructions were not traumatic to those living at the time they were destroyed, since they did not explicitly say so in contemporary literature, but she misses the simple point: to the Indic mind, where glory is transient and hubris anathema, it is the effort that matters, not the outcome. Doesnt the Gita itself say so in its reference to nishkama karma?

Yogi Adityanaths reference to the Ramayana and the Gita are important for the simple reason that todays card-carrying secularists think it is something that belongs only to Hindus, and the mere telecast of a Ramayana or a Mahabharata on Doordarshan was tantamount to communalism. To a Sheldon Pollock, the Ramayana is a mere tool to get citizens to respect the kings authority unquestioningly, when the Ramayana itself disproves this point, by being rendered in more than 300 renditions hardly a tribute to a peoples blind adherence to monoculture and obedience. Nobody in India collected 300 important priests and pandits to decide that only one version of the Ramayana is valid, as Constantine did with the Bible in the Council of Nicea. And while every westerner accepts Homers Illiad and the Odyssey as part of her cultural heritage, only in India are non-Hindus told to treat the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Gita or even Sanskrit as a limited heritage.

The UP Chief Ministers comments on the Taj Mahal should be seen in this context, and not in terms of the words he spoke. India does not benefit by pretending all its culture and achievement are encapsulated in the Taj Mahal or the Red Fort.

The reason why the Taj and the Red Fort occupy such important places in tourist literature is an accident of geography they are in and around Delhi, where many of Indias Islamic kings and the latter-day colonials chose to make their political centre.

A 5,000-year-old civilisation cannot be reduced to a few monuments build in the last millennium, nor should it seek to bury the past in the ruins of Hampi. If you want to extol the creativity of the Taj, dont forget to also extol the even greater virtues of the Vijayanagar empire that achieved another peak in Indian architectural and devotional splendour, but fell victim to mindless bigoted iconoclasm.

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Politically Incorrect It May Be, But There Is An Underlying Truth To Yogi Adityanath's Views On Taj Mahal - Swarajya

National Post

Appreciation becomes appropriation: Is deeming yoga politically ... National Post Yoga joins a long list of art, fashion, music, sports and activities chastised as insensitive or racist acts by a Western or white majority cultural appropriation from ... and more »

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Appreciation becomes appropriation: Is deeming yoga politically ... - National Post

In Brevard County, Florida, Sheriff Wayne Ivey has made a name for himself as being one of the most politically incorrect people in law enforcement. And by his own admission, hes fine with that. But hes drawn national attention for a new video which his department released this month, encouraging people to arm themselves and learn how to fight to protect their own lives and families in the event of a spontaneous terror attack such as weve been seeing around the globe. Its about six minutes long and is quite well produced, so give it a look.

Despite what youll see in the various media attacks being launched against him, Ivey isnt foaming at the mouth or spouting conspiracy theories. Nor is he encouraging anyone to break the law or do things they arent personally comfortable with. Hes simply reminding citizens that the cops cant be everywhere at once and sometimes it takes time for them to respond to reports of an attack. That delay may cost you your life or that of your loved ones if you arent able to defend yourself.

Ivey ranges all over the place in defense of his position, citing everything from news coverage of actual terror attacks using low tech weaponry to quotes from Sun Tzus Art of War. (Every battle is won or lost before its ever begun.) He encourages those with concealed carry permits to have their weapons on their person at all times where legally allowed. (Your firearm isnt going to do you any good at home when youre out of the house.) But for those who choose not to keep firearms, he asks them to get training on how to use other forms of weaponry ranging from tasers to golf clubs to chairs or even fire extinguishers.

That sort of advice should be the type of common sense which most everyone can get behind, right? Who are we kidding. People are tearing him apart over it. (Daily Mail)

The video attracted a barrage of both positive and negative comments on Facebook, although many criticized the sheriff for exaggerating the level of threat and spreading fear.

One commenter wrote: How is this helpful? The point of terrorism is to scare people and get a panicked response from them, to disrupt their everyday lives with anxiety.

You are doing far more harm than good by trying to get everyone armed and on edge.

And as usual, you wont need to look very far to find the same sentiments (and worse) on social media.

That was predictable, I suppose. Even if hes not insisting everyone have guns, the anti-gun groups cant stand to hear about anyone suggesting fighting back. Sheriff Ivey seems to have clear eyes when it comes to the possibility of an attack by jihadist forces, but not quite so much when it comes to the home front. Perhaps he should have kept one other old adage from Sun Tzu in mind. If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

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Video: Florida sheriff urges people to arm up and prepare. Outrage ensues - Hot Air

Fox News

Dad Meets the Sexual Revolution: A Politically Incorrect Father's Day Guide Fox News This coming Sunday, in homes across the nation, millions of American men will awake to the arrival of breakfast in bed. Prepared and served by their children, these Father's Day repasts convey appreciation as well as contributing to the general ... and more »

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Dad Meets the Sexual Revolution: A Politically Incorrect Father's Day Guide - Fox News