Category Archives: Politically Incorrect

Once you have your product and your business model conceived in the legal cannabis industry, its time to brand your endeavor. Branding is what will differentiate your company from others in the same cannabis space. Its a reflection of what you value and why customers should care about your company.

When branding your cannabis business, the first place to start is defining your brand identity. Working off your original business plan, you need to determine what your company stands for and how this reflects the services or products you provide. Formalizing your brand will create a foundation for all of your marketing materials, collateral, imagery, packaging and design. This will allow you to better reach your target market and build customer loyalty in the competitive cannabis marketplace. Brand identity includes your companys voice, tone, visuals, values, and mission. These core components work together to demonstrate how customers perceive your brand. It can help to personify your brand and illustrate its personality.

From healthcare to leisure, there are many emerging markets within the cannabis industry. Its important to know the subtle differences between each type of cannabis business. Knowing your market will help define your identity.

Your business name is your first impression on customers. Landing on a memorable name that speaks to your customers is a crucial decision that affects your bottom line. Reports have demonstrated that a strong name performs up to 33 percent better on the stock market than weaker names. These marginal advantages cannot be ignored in an industry that continues to ramp up. Its important to select a name that will be both powerful and overcome any social stigma associated with the cannabis industry.The cannabis industry is fresh and innovative and so should your brand and name.

One of the first steps in this process is to review naming constructs. Most brands fit into one of five styles: classic, clever, pragmatic, emotional or modern. The style needs to reflect your brands tone and values. It should also appeal to your dedicated audience. Using what you produced about your cannabis companys identity, you should begin the brainstorming process. You can utilize online tools such as a brand name generator to spark the brainstorm. Squadhelps generator is powerful in that it analyzes the accessibility, depth and functionality of each name idea.

The cannabis industry is fresh and innovative and so should your brand and name. Creative names are what customers respond to. Its what will set you apart from the bland and sterile. Remember your name doesnt solely have to describe your product or service. Your brands name should, however, evoke genuine emotion.

According to Motley Fool, here is a list of the 10 largest cannabis stocks in 2020:

The majority of these names involve nomenclature and cannabis buzzwords. But they also include names completely unrelated to the industry, proving an original name can drive success.

Love at first name is real. Its easy to fall for a name relying heavily on personal preference. But thats why audience testing is so important. Through proper audience testing, you can gauge whether your favorite name resonates with your key demographic or if theres another name that better hits the mark. You may also discover that your name is actually offensive or politically incorrect, a fail you truly want to avoid in todays cancel culture.

One example of this was a startup called Bodega, a San Francisco company that specialized in tech-enabled vending machines. The founders believed the name was a nod to corner stores heavily established throughout New Yorks boroughs. Instead, the company received extreme backlash for exploitation and cultural appropriation of these beloved mom and pop stores. In 2017, The Verge said that Bodega is either the worst-named startup of the year, or the most devious. Tapping into diverse audience surveys and polls provides valuable feedback to avoid catastrophic launches such as this.

When you finally settle on a name you want to be sure that youve run through a final functionality checklist.

There are three main parts of functionality to review when naming your cannabis business:

A highly functional name are ones that are easily remembered and often referred to in conversations.

The industry as a whole can be a complicated space to understand. Creative branding is an opportunity to educate potential customers about this novel industry as well as debunk myths. After all, two in three Americans support the legalization of recreational cannabis, according to a 2018 Gallup poll. This illustrates that theres still a population that needs additional cultivation.

By following these steps, your impactful brand name will promote interest and stand out in an industry that shows no sign of slowing down.

Link:
How to Name and Brand Your Cannabis Business - Cannabis Industry Journal

For car lovers, nostalgia is a key part of the enthusiast experience. After all, how can one appreciate the automotive creations of the present without the context of the past?

And if you're craving a journey back in time, there is perhaps no better way to traverse the decades than via the audiovisual treasure trove that is vintage car commercials.

While today's car ads are typically elaborate, high-concept affairs dominated by sleek slogans, celebrity cameos and cinematic camera angles, the 1980s and 90s were a far simpler time.

Marrying the decades trademark excesses with the limited technical capabilities available retro car ads from this era were simultaneously cheesy and brilliant, with a healthy dose of hyperbole for good measure.

So cast your mind back to when motor shows dominated the calendar, sedans ruled the streets and Tesla was just the name of a Serbian-American inventor. Here then, are the 10 best TV car ads of the 80s and 90s, in no particular order.

"Designed to stir the soul and not much else," was the catchphrase for this brilliant commercial showcasing how smooth Lexus' flagship sedan was capable of hitting 145mph (233km/h) without so much as rattling a tower of champagne glasses.

The clever clip cemented the Japanese luxury brand's arrival in the US market and, to celebrate 30 years since its anniversary, Toyota president Akio Toyoda recreated the champagne clip in 2020 (you can watch the new version here).

You're unlikely to ever find something as quintessentially 80s as Datsun's 'Black Gold' tribute to its 10th anniversary edition 280ZX.

A moustache to rival Tom Selleck's, a woman who looks suspiciously like a young Debbie Harry, a synth-laden soundtrack and lashings of gold lighting were the perfect way to celebrate this extremely extra limited-edition sports car.

This ad is regularly touted as the greatest car commercial of all time. We're don't disagree.

Remember how we mentioned hyperbole? Well this is perhaps the best example of it: Land Rover showcasing its off-roading prowess by having a Defender scale the vertical wall of a dam.

"Next time you're late for work, it's worth remembering that nothing nothing gets in the way of a Land Rover," a movie-level voiceover declares over the commercial's epic soundtrack.

Back in the 80s and 90s, competition between car brands was less of an unspoken understanding and more of an overt challenge.

Take, for example, this 1987 American Volvo ad for the Swedish marque's turbo-powered 740 wagon, which literally pits it against a Porsche 944 in a drag race.

The kicker? The not-so-humble tagline: "To you they're completely different cars but to a radar gun, they look exactly alike."

These two ads for the BMW 325i Convertible look more like scenes from blockbuster Hollywood romance movies than car commercials, given how much attention is given to the antics of the good-looking lead actors.

Still, our personal favourite is the second clip, in which an unidentified woman covers herself in suntan lotion while sitting in the drop-top car, as a man's voice declares that the 325i is "the ultimate tanning machine". Because, priorities.

Towards the ends of the 90s, car commercials started becoming more elaborate, high-concept affairs.

Take, for example, this 1996 Nissan advertisement, which saw the Japanese carmaker win over a generation of American kids with its play on the classic Barbie and Ken romance.

Spoiler alert: Barbie ditches Ken in favour of GI Joe and his kick-ass red 300ZX. Can you blame her?

Talk about a big build-up. For "the most advanced production car on the planet", Chevrolet had to go big or go home.

Hence this Tron-inspired epic about the Corvette that came with its own custom theme song, plus one-and-a-half minutes of an extremely 80s voiceover listing off its many, many attributes.

Four speakers?! We're sold.

Because this list was sorely missing a local entrant, and because "must be stuck in third" remains eminently quotable to this day.

Simple, powerful and incredibly sassy, this Porsche entrant is a masterclass in advertising.

The ad opens on the title, "What to feed a Porsche 944 Turbo".

The answer? "For lunch, a Porsche 944 Turbo generally prefers Ferraris, although it has been known, occasionally, to snack on Corvettes." Boom.

It's teeters on being politically incorrect at points, but this ad was a hilarious way to communicate Volkswagen's reliability message.

It's best if you just watch it yourself and let the toffy British voiceover do the talking...

Which 80s and 90s car ads are we missing? Tell us in the comments!

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The 10 best TV car ads of the 1980s and '90s - CarAdvice

Protesters in Brooklyn, June 12(Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)A look at woke religiosity

Cary, N.C., June 7. Amidst nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, a black man and woman are seated on a park bench while a white woman wearing a sweatshirt that reads LOVE takes to her megaphone. We repent on behalf of, uh, Caucasian people, she says. A small crowd of white people comes to kneel before the two seated black folks, who are co-pastors of a local church. Some of the kneelers wash the feet of the black people. A white man with an English accent solemnly intones, Its our honor to stand here on behalf of all white people, . . . repenting, Lord, for our aggression, Lord, repenting for our pride, for thinking that we are better, that we are above. Police officers join the ritual. Several people start audibly weeping, or keening, as the speaker continues. Roughly a rozen people join in the gesture and kneel before the black couple. We have put our necks, put our hands, our knees, upon the necks of our African-American brothers and sisters, people of color, indigenous people, says the English man. Lord, where we as a church, a white church, have used you as a persecution towards black people, Lord, as weve burnt crosses, as weve burnt churches, . . . weve used it as a weapon against people of color.

Its been coming for some time, this transmutation of white guilt into a cult, a religion that borrows from and intersects with Christianity but substitutes its own liturgy. In the Nineties, liberal white Hollywood filmmakers began to nourish a fantasy that black people were imbued with magical powers, and they built stories around angelic or Christlike black redeemers who stood apart from and above this fallen race we call humanity. Will Smith in The Legend of Bagger Vance, Cuba Gooding Jr. in What Dreams May Come, and Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile served as spiritual and/or actual caddies to troubled white men, guiding them toward salvation.

Today those magical negro films, as Spike Lee dubbed them, get ridiculed by the critical intelligentsia, but the same impulse is visible in different form. White people continue to have difficulty perceiving blacks as individual human beings, instead conferring on blackness a holy quality. Fallen white people can get closer to the divine by showing due deference in any way they can. Books that promise to assist white people with the project of metaphorically scourging themselves White Fragility, How to Be an Antiracist bounded up the best-seller lists. Black Americans report, with more annoyance than appreciation, that white friends are calling them nervously, seeking absolution.

The original sin in the White Guilt Cult, the New Church of Anti-Racism, is to be, uh, Caucasian people. Parker Gillian, a young black college graduate in Chicago who is in no need of financial support (she grew up in affluence, she told the Washington Post), says that someone from work texted out of nowhere to ask, Whats your cash app? and then pinged $20 into her account, unasked. It is so exhausting being everybodys one black friend right now, tweeted a comedian named Sarah Cooper. Black people observing such displays by their white acquaintances can be forgiven for wondering: Is it really a friendship if one party is groveling, throwing money, and begging to wash the other partys feet? If anything, the Great Awokenings response to the George Floyd killing seems to be bolstering racial barriers rather than eradicating them. By making a religion of anti-racism, white people carry on with the longstanding project of othering black folks.

Anti-racism is the most critical element of a broader new Woke Orthodoxy whose other elements include environmental apocalypticism, feminism, and a severing of sexual identity from genetic indicators. Settling on a term for the new religion will take some time. Wesley Yangs suggestion (seconded by Ross Douthat) of the Successor Ideology is clunky, anodyne, and a bit euphemistic given the righteous, roiling fervor and unnerving credulousness that define the cult. As Dmitri Solzhenitsyn writes in National Review Online, a YouTube prankster named Smooth Sanchez who walks the streets of New York demanding that white people kneel before him and declare their privilege receives surprising compliance, even as he signals his charlatanry by referring to George Floyd as George Foreman.

Ben Shapiro notes astutely that the new woke religion rushes in to fill a God-shaped hole in secular hearts. Devotees immerse themselves in the sacred texts of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi (n Ibram Henry Rogers of Queens), books designed to make white wokesters writhe with a kind of ecstatic anguish. Indoctrination in early childhood is taken up as a parental duty (Kendis new board book for toddlers, Antiracist Baby, is a hot seller), parishioners engage in ritualistic incantation of sacred phrases (Hands up, dont shoot, I cant breathe), and there are mass displays of penitential self-abasement. All over the country, guilty white crowds have gathered to reenact the circumstances of George Floyds horrifying death. Scores, even hundreds, of parishioners in the new faith prostrate themselves on the ground, hands behind their back, repeating Mama and I cant breathe. Sometimes police officers joined these displays, kneeling or prostrating themselves for the sanctified period of time: eight minutes, 46 seconds. Floyds death is a kind of new Crucifixion, his final words the new My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The new clergy consists of black thought leaders (Coates, Kendi, Stacey Abrams) and those white people who loudly proclaim themselves allies and proselytize for the organizing dogma, which is that everything is racist. Those who question orthodoxy are kept at bay, derided as conservatives who are arguing in bad faith if not actual racists. For example, one is not to ask Why are black people so upset about one white cop killing a black man when black men are at much more danger of being killed by one another? wrote John McWhorter in his 2015 essay Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion. The answers are flabby but further questions are unwelcome, McWhorter added. The much-promised conversation on race consists of repeating points in the catechism to enhance their power phrases such as I must do better, white privilege, systemic racism, white supremacy, allyship.

There is more dogmatism in this ideology than in most of contemporary American Catholicism, writes the Catholic columnist Andrew Sullivan. And more intolerance. Question any significant part of this, and your moral integrity as a human being is called into question. As the fierceness of old religions fades, a corresponding desire for a new righteous fury rises. The fervor sweeping through the South (but not just the South) to pull down statues seen as blasphemous to the new faith loudly echoes the 16th-century rampage through the monasteries that burned icons and laid waste to stained glass. Each successive wave of iconoclasm will take more and more historical monuments until either the new Reformation ends or all blasphemous iconography has been destroyed, with the logical endpoint being Mount Rushmore, with its quintuple heresy: Washington and Jefferson held slaves, Teddy Roosevelt is damned as a racist, the land the monument sits on was seized from indigenous peoples, and the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was friendly with the Ku Klux Klan.

My friend Kevin D. Williamson writes that cancel culture is a game, the point of which is to impose unemployment on people as a form of recreation. The line is amusing but, I think, not quite right: The impulse is more religious than recreational. How satisfying it must be to understand that one can send out a tweet and within hours destroy someones life for losing her temper for a minute while walking a dog in Central Park (former New York financial analyst Amy Cooper), for having posed as a Puerto Rican for a Halloween party 16 years ago (ousted Bon Apptit editor Adam Rapoport), or for having tweeted Working out is so gay more than a decade ago (Cond Nasts no-longer head of lifestyle-video programming Matt Duckor). That last example recalls Sullivans remark that politically incorrect language has become the equivalent of old swear words, referring to formerly shocking words such as goddamn that have long since lost all potency. Take the principles of Woke in vain and you invite instantaneous ritual chastisement the most thrilling, ecstatic element of the woke religion. The techno-narcissistic innovation of the Wokesters is that they have made themselves, as a collective, their own godhead, equipped with the authority to wield and unleash the thunderbolt of righteousness on blasphemers here and now, on their own authority. There is no need to be anxious about whether the right decisions will be made by the Deity in the hereafter; the new Social-Justice God is merciless and swift. Every day ending in day is now Judgment Day.

So rigorous is the new religion that the unrighteous can be vaporized simply for not chanting the liturgy, or for not sounding off loudly enough. White silence equals violence is one new precept gaining currency. The president and the chairman of the Poetry Foundation were forced to resign for no other reason than that the nonprofit had published a disavowal of racism considered insufficiently robust. The two executives were denounced in an angry open letter as having been responsible for nothing but watery vagaries that added up to ultimately, a violence. How exciting it must be to upend the meanings of words in service of the greater cause of smiting ones perceived enemies, or even whatever suspected counterrevolutionaries there may be among ones sworn allies. No one dared to be the first to stop applauding a Stalin speech.

Sullivan holds that it is, in fact, impossible not to have a religion if you are a human being. Its in our genes and has expressed itself in every culture, in every age, including our own secularized husk of a society. The old liberal consensus built around prosaic proceduralism fairness, equal treatment, dependence on the slow and imperfect operation of the machinery of justice made for a frustratingly dull religion. All that stuff amounts to so many watery vagaries in the era of the Great Awokening. Declaiming, denouncing, and destroying that is where transcendence lies.

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The White-Guilt Cult - National Review

So reports WBRZ. Columbus is too politically incorrect for the current crop of softheaded activists roaming our streets, you know

The Christopher Columbus statue on the corner where Government Street meets the river was donated by the Greater Baton Rouge American Italian Association in 1992 to then-Mayor Tom Ed McHugh.

Its stood there for nearly three decades, but it could soon come down.

The fate of the statue will be a topic of discussion for the mayor-presidents commission on race equity and inclusion, set to meet this month.

The commission will look into renaming or removing potentially offensive or oppressive government entities like street and building names or statues.

He introduced sickness to the land, genocide to the land, slavery, and he even raped and mutilated a lot of the people that were already here. And this statue here makes it seem as if we are complacent with slavery and racist antics that happened in the south, and we are not complacent with it at all, Breyonna Grant said.

In the meantime, Breyonna Grant and Camren Linson started a petition addressed to the city council and governor calling for the removal of the statue as soon as possible. It now has more than 1,200 signatures.

Were asking for 10,000 or 5,000, and after that, we will march to the state capitol to demand justice, Linson said.

Though the city-parish doesnt own the statue, the fountain it sits in is city property. So the statue could at least be moved elsewhere with a vote.

Grant and Linson say they are not interested in destroying the statue and would be happy if the city removed it from public view.

It is imperative that as the state of Louisiana we set an example and remove all monuments that represent racial inequality, injustice in America and also white supremacy, Linson said.

So who are Breyonna Grant and Camren Linson?

Heres Breyonna Grant, from her Facebook

And heres Camren Linson, also from her Facebook

If theres any significance to blue lipstick we dont know what it is.

Both of these ladies apparently graduated from Texas Southern. Grant lives in Atlanta now, while Linson lives in Baton Rouge.

The petition barely has more than 1,000 signatures so far, so its a long way from being particularly relevant. But with the local TV stations now giving it play its a matter of time before that number grows.

And with Baton Rouges mayor Sharon Weston Broome having set up that commission on equality and justice, it should be little surprise if someone takes this ball and runs with it.

We have a suggestion, which is that the folks in St. George ought to get with the Baton Rouge American Italian Association and pick a site at which to feature the Columbus statue. It needs to be on private land and a historical preservation foundation set up and funded for the upkeep of the monument so that if the protest mobsters want to attack the statue theyll be trespassing on private property and therefore subject to arrest.

Christopher Columbus isnt recognized because he enslaved or raped or mutilated people he came in contact with in the New World. Hes recognized because he did what previous explorers could not cross the Atlantic and spread Western civilization beyond Europe. Because of Columbus exploits the world became a far richer place.

The people denying this mans achievements are doing so for a very simple reason they hate America. They hate everything about our history, because theyve been poisoned into believing that this is a country founded on racism and violence.

And their arguments are so horrifically bad that anyone who disagrees with them is, in their view, then in turn branded as racist or violent.

All of human history is replete with racism and violence. Racism and violence are endemic to every society which has ever existed on Earth. No other country could measure up to the standards these people want to impose on America.

But since Baton Rouge is quickly devolving into a dead city the Grants and Linsons will have all to themselves if they want it, maybe theyre right. Maybe Christopher Columbus ought to be moved out of downtown. Lets find him a neighborhood in the suburbs where people proud of their national heritage will appreciate him more.

More:
Now They Want To Take Christopher Columbus Away From Downtown BR - The Hayride

MDC headquarters in Harare.

The recall was instituted by one of the warring Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions, which is arguing that both the appointment as vice president and the subsequent rise of Nelson Chamisa as president of the MDC-T party was illegal and unconstitutional.

CLOSE

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Commissioner Qubani Moyo told Daily Maverick:

It is not true that our recent review suspending any electoral activities is designed to aid one of the MDC formations. During this phase of national lockdown, all electoral activities that require any outreach programmes for our staff remain suspended indefinitely.

For the avoidance of doubt, ZEC has no side in their internal fights or any other political parties. Only those who try to find fault will create noise out of a purely administrative process, said Moyo.

The MDC-As newly appointed spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere told Daily Maverick:

We are concerned by ZECs unconstitutional decision to indefinitely suspend electoral activities because of Covid-19 without regard for the constitution and electoral laws.

ZEC acted unilaterally in deciding to issue an indefinite suspension of electoral activities without consulting political parties, civic society organisations and voters through public hearings, said Mahere.

The MDC formations are fighting it out in the courts, arguing that Nelson Chamisa, who represented a coalition of eight political parties under the banner of MDC-A during the 2018 harmonised elections to which the MDC-T was party to, is not a legitimate leader. The harmonised ballot was, however, characterised by post-election violence.

The MDC formation led by former deputy president Thokozani Khupe won a legal battle in which the Supreme Court ordered her reinstatement as acting president of the MDC-T, leading the partys secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora to recall four MDC-A members of parliament on the grounds that they had ceased representing the opposition MDC-T partys interests.

Mwonzora said: Honourable (Charlton) Hwende tweeted that he was no longer a member of the MDC-T. This is a statement we can never allow because it is both politically and factually incorrect.

In a show of short-lived solidarity, the remaining MPs loyal to Chamisa vowed to boycott parliament only to return in a few days to attend parliamentary business.

Independent election watchdog, Zimbabwe Electoral Supervisory Network (ZESN), issued a statement saying:

No consultations were done, so ZEC could have at least considered postponing, rather than suspending electoral activities. Engagement on whether or not to suspend electoral activities could have been done through virtual means, because the Covid-19 pandemic may be here to stay for much longer than we anticipate.

Zimbabwe is currently under an indefinite Level 2 lockdown only to be reviewed subject to circumstances. Parliament has, however, been allowed to conduct public hearings in the coming week on Constitutional Amendment bill No2

ZEC Chief Elections Officer Utoile Silaigwana said:

Our current position on the suspension of electoral activities was guided by his excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwas measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 and as such we will conduct activities that do not violate lockdown measures.

We will be looking at policy changes to accommodate post-filling just like what is done on proportional representations and senatorial positions, said Silaigwana.

The four legislators who were recalled include Charlton Hwende Kuwadzana (East Constituency), Prosper Mutseyami (Dangamvura Chikanga), Thabitha Khumalo (Proportional representative Bulawayo) and Senator Lillian Timveous (Midlands).

One of the recalled MPs, Charlton Hwende, told Daily Maverick:

I am the secretary-general of the MDC Alliance and never contested as MDC-T. I and others stand by President Nelson Chamisa. We will not be deterred by these antics by ZANU-PF to try and destroy the peoples party.

Sections 158 (3) and 121 (a) of the constitution of Zimbabwe provide that the ZEC should conduct polling in by-elections to fill vacancies in Parliament and local authorities, including fixing the polling dates for local authority by-elections within nine days after the vacancies occur. Further to that, Section 132 allows the ZEC to change without giving notice of its decision in the gazette and in the media beyond 90 days.

Speaker of Parliament, advocate Jacob Mudenda, said:

Parliament is obligated to play an oversight role in the circumstances and accordingly the Standing Rules and Orders Committee has exercised its rights regarding the arrangements that would make it possible for Parliament to function with minimum disruption.

The MDC has suffered countless splits since its formation and all splinters have claimed the brand name MDC so much so that voters are confused as to which MDC formation it is they want. Some of the formations include MDC-T, MDC-99, MDC, MDC-A and MDC-N.

Even more confusing to voters is that all the formations use the same symbols, sometimes with very little or no difference. DM

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Zimbabwe election suspended after recall of opposition MPs - Daily Maverick

Black Lives Matter is a Marxist scam. As with all totalitarian ploys, BLM uses your natural fear of social rejection to force conformity and compliance with its goals. If we buy into it, we have a lot to lose, including all individual libertiesfreedom of speech, of thought, and especially the right to a private life and private relationships.

The BLM goal should be obvious by now: conjure up enough blind conformity to create the illusion of unanimous support. Support for what? The uncontroversial slogan that black lives matter is just a tool to draw you in emotionally to its broader and more destructive agenda.

Read the BLM website and youll find lots of Marxist agendas like ending constitutional self-governance (under the guise of sustainable transformation) and taking over law enforcement to abolish the rule of law (defund the police). Its anti-Christian and anti-free markets. Its committed to disrupting the nuclear family and replacing it with collectivist forms of child-rearing. Its endgame is typical of Marxism: a power grab stoked by the illusion of mass approval through street theater.

When we get sucked in to the vortex of BLMs mass delusions, whether out of a sense of guilt or ignorance, the results are predictable. Forced confessions. Struggle sessions. The suppression of speech. Stoking of resentments. Accusations of thought crimes. Toppling historical monuments. Civilizational breakdown. Meddling in private life, especially family.

So, whats the secret of creating enough woke conformity to get to such an anti-thought point? How does a well-organized band of power-craving elitists get people to surrender the right to speak their own minds? To open the door to giving collectivist elites the raw power they crave?

Ill use the terms socialism and Marxism somewhat interchangeably. Marxists tend to refer to themselves as socialists, even if some socialists claim they arent Marxists. All are collectivists, though, with the same patterns and tendencies and agendas, some harder than others, depending on their state of evolution.

The threat of ostracism is a primal and universal human terror, and thus an extremely powerful weapon, especially when mobs enforce it. Tyrants have always been in the business of cultivating the terror of social rejection in order to control people and amass power. Sadly, most people are not consciously aware of these dynamics, and are therefore vulnerable to succumbing.

The terror of abandonment is built into our social DNA because human beings cannot survive in isolation. What we see today is a psychological operation that plays on that fear through identity politics, peer-modelling, and social contagion.

First, the propaganda media conjures up images of unanimity with a false BLM narrative. Then, anyone who doesnt buy in is smeared as a racist, at great risk of losing his or her job, status, livelihood, and now even family. Its designed to induce everyone to cave in to that primal fear of social isolation and submit to the power elites. Once society reaches a tipping point where everyone blindly succumbs, then the power grab begins, and game over.

Emotional blackmail seems to be an inherent tactic of Marxist activists as well as todays cult of wokeness. We can now see how BLM applies that tool to the daily lives of its allies.

The author of a recent New York Times op-ed writes that he fears for his life when he goes out because hes black. Hes irritated with texts of sympathy he receives from white allies because he finds their support for BLM inadequate.

The essay, titled I Dont Need Love Texts From My White Friends, offers a prescription for proving their love: threaten to ostracize any loved ones who dont get with the program. His exact words: Text: to your relatives and loved ones telling them you will not be visiting them or answering phone calls until they take significant action in supporting black lives either through protest or financial contributions.

Heres a key Twitter thread on it:

Cult experts have a term for this practice of meddling in relationships: predatory alienation. Its a form of relational aggression, straight out of Cults 101. BLM offers us other examples of mass compliance reminiscent of Jonestown.

A creepy Maoist-styled struggle session recently took place in the affluent suburb of Bethesda, Maryland where a large crowd theatrically recited a mass confession of collective white guilt. They also promised to proselytize (i.e., educate) others, leading likely to performing emotional blackmail when deemed necessary.

Weve also seen spectacles of police officers, and even uniformed military personnel, taking the knee in obedience to mobs. Corporate America from Amazon to Zoom has also drunk the Kool-Aid in fear. Even supposed Republicans like Mitt Romney and George W. Bush publicly support BLMs false claim that America is a systemically racist nation. Maybe you now have family and friends who harangue you, threateningovertly or tacitlyto shun you if you dont get with their program.

Americans should have enough sense to know that such shameful acts of submission to mobs are not about race, police brutality, or healing. They are about shifting power from the rule of law to a socialist elite who intend lawless dominion over everyone once in power. Their false narratives exploit George Floyds death as a trigger to stir up fear and loathing (in the name of love) in order to gain and consolidate power.

The emotional manipulation were seeing by Black Lives Matter reflects socialisms long pattern of isolating individuals and controlling their relationships. We can see it in socialisms history, in its policies, and especially in its tactics.

Abolishing family and religion are both old socialist rallying cries. A big part of socialisms history is its war on those primary institutions through which our most intimate relationships and our unique identities are formed. We become isolated and weakened, and more easily controlled, when separated from them. Thats the idea.

Socialist dictators like Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedog, Pol Pot, and Adolf Hitler were dedicated to the destruction of all private life, insisting that loyalty belonged only to them. Thats why the death toll of socialist systems is more than 100 million.

Whatever else socialists say they promoteequality, justice, free stuffthey have one goal: placing too much power in the hands of too few people. To undermine the power of individuals, they undermine their private relationships. Thats exactly what just about every socialist policy has done, including no-fault divorce, welfare dependency, and abortion, which wreak havoc on the family.

The victims of this brokenness naturally feel alienated. Yet they still have a need to belong to something. Socialists feed that appetite with pseudo-communities, such as contrived collectives, mobs, and, yes, its wokeness cult.

The mob mindset is a trap, a form of mental solitary confinement, an ironic form of mind rape. Why? Because mobs of wokeness do not allow for anyone to express an original thought to another human being without the risk of being smeared and isolated.

As people invest in groupthink to remain in the herd, they end up spiraling even deeper into the mental isolation, cutting off normal conversation. They soon become triggered by other points of view. BLM activists have not only taken full advantage of the fear of loneliness already inherent in our culture. They also seem intent in perpetuating the fear by stoking more divisions within private relationships.

Political correctness and identity politics have long been used as tools of agitation designed to instill groupthink and stir up that threat of loneliness. Political correctness works by inducing self-censorship, cutting off conversation and the exchange of ideas, which might lead to friendship.

People with politically incorrect ideas often confide they feel completely alone. Identity politics works by forcing people to focus only on a collective identity and collective guilt while erasing each of us as unique individuals. Both are alienating. Both empower bad actors.

Most of us have never had a chance to learn the history of how blind conformity breeds terror, and vice versa. Abject conformity led to the hellscapes of Stalins reign of terror, of Hitlers Germany. Those who submit to false confessions of white guilt can just as easily submit to such regimes because the psychological mechanism is the same: seeking the social approval they crave and avoiding the social rejection they fear.

In the end, weaponized loneliness is the fuel of socialism, as well as hardcore socialist organizations, including BLM. Recognizing and rejecting this scam is the only way to begin coming together as whole human beings.

Read more:
How Socialists Like Black Lives Matter Weaponize Fears Of Loneliness - The Federalist

Im always the oldest person in the room.

Things once considered moral issues are now deemed as political issues.

People, young and old, would be so controlled by electronic devices.

A child cannot close his eyes before eating lunch in a school cafeteria.

To mention God is wrong but not to mention Him is okay.

I would talk about my aches. pains, surgeries, or other ailments with others my age.

Id have to worry about what my children are being taught in school.

Americans would have placed all their hopes and dreams in what their government will do for them. Free stuff.

My spiritual beliefs are considered as being politically incorrect and out of date and maybe even dangerous.

Legal systems, of other societies, would be taken into consideration in my countrys courts, i.e. Sharia law.

I would go to church without wearing a suit and tie.

People who have started a business, took great risks, were successful, have been a source of income for many, and are philanthropical, are now considered to be evil.

Id actually pay for bottled drinking water.

To murder a living human being, a matter of convenience, would become a political issue.

A sweet young thing holds the door open for me, and will pick something up from the floor for me if I dropped it.

My kids excuse me from hard and heavy work.

I would have to stand guard at the Ladys Rest Room door, in a store, to prevent any man from entering while my granddaughter is in there.

Its dangerous for me to use even a short step ladder.

Good people are fearful to speak up about whats wrong in our society today.

My car could travel 150,000 miles and still not need to add oil between changes.

Rosemary and I would be so dependent upon each other.

When the world population could be controlled and governed instantly by the decision of a few to protect us from ourselves.

Scripture:

Their hands succeed at evil; the prince makes demands, The judge is bought for a price, the powerful speak as they please.

Micah 7:3 NASB

Final Thought:

The struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith. RONALD REAGAN, March 8, 1983

Vince Reidsma is a Holland resident. Contact him at vreidsma@gmail.com.

Excerpt from:
I Never Thought I'd See the Day When - HollandSentinel.com

Friends may have stood the test of time as a show that people love to go back and rewatch, but that doesn't mean there aren't aspects that look dated when viewed through a modern lens.

But it's not just us internet writer types who think that some of the cast themselves have looked back at the enduring sitcom and found it a bit old-fashioned.

Maggie Wheeler, who played Janice, told The Independent that she thinks the show is "incredibly retro" but also "racy for its time", which perhaps illustrates how far we've come.

"They say hindsight is 20/20," she said."You can't create a show with the consciousness of the future. The future hasn't happened yet.

Related: Friends star says her car got searched every night

"It's true that whenever you look back at a sitcom or at any television of that moment, you might see things that you might cringe at, or you might think, 'That is just so politically incorrect' or, 'Where is all the diversity?'

"Although that was a discussion that was taking place during the time that show was being made. So I'm not sure if it could have been done a different way then, but clearly we know a lot more now, or the discussions are a lot more open now about inclusion, about diversity, about the spectrum of sexuality, about all of humanity.

"There's so much more of an open conversation about those things now."

NBC/NBCU Photo BankGetty Images

Related: Matt LeBlanc's latest show cancelled after four seasons

Phoebe Buffay actress Lisa Kudrow recently echoed these comments, stating the show wouldn't have an all-white cast if it was made today, but she still thinks it was progressive with certain storylines.

Interest in the show is still right up there, with a highly-anticipated (and sadly delayed) reunion special, and a newly announced cookbook (which isn't as exciting, let's be real).

Friends airs daily on Comedy Central in the UK and is also streaming on Netflix in the UK.

Friends - The Complete Series 1-10 [DVD] [2004]

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Friends: '80s Rachel Pop! Vinyl Figure

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More:
Friends star Maggie Wheeler looks back on the show's "cringe" and "politically incorrect" aspects - digitalspy.com

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Right now, we could all use a little break. So FOX 17 and Feeding America West Michigan invite you to join us for a one-hour, commercial-free comedy special.

Watch Stand-up & Help on Thursday, June 4 from 7-8 p.m. on-air, as well as on our website, Facebook page or mobile or streaming apps.

The best local comedians will provide some living room laughs for a great cause!

Now more than ever, Feeding America West Michigan needs your assistance. We'll ask for donations throughout the special.

FOX 17 is going to match every donation made, up to $12,000 total. With this match, every dollar you donate will provide 8 meals to local families in need.

For more information on how to give, please visit feedwm.org/fox17/.

Comedians

David Dyer

David Dyer has been performing stand-up at comedy clubs and corporate events for over 25 years. Hes worked with some of the best comics in the industry, including Mike Birbiglia, Jim Breuer and Lewis Black. Hes been a contributing writer to NBCs Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and ABCs Politically Incorrect. Hes a frequent guest on the nationally syndicated Bob and Tom Show."

Joe Anderson

Joe Anderson is an award-winning actor, writer and comedian who spent two years touring with and as a main stage understudy for the famed Second City comedy theater. His critically acclaimed sketch comedy group, The Don't We Boys! toured over 30 states, and they were asked to pitch their TV pilot at USA, Comedy Central, TruTV and TBS. And in 2019, he opened The Comedy Project in Grand Rapids.

Johnny Beehner

Johnny Beehner made his network television debut in January of 2015 as one of the last comedians to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman. He has made numerous appearances on FOX's Laughs television show and regularly appears on the nationally syndicated "Bob and Tom Show."

Pat Sievert

Pat Sievert sees things in a way youve never considered, but its a perspective youll never forget. Based out of Lansing, Michigan, hes quietly become a fixture in the Midwestern underground comedy scene. Hes honed his charmingly quirky, wickedly funny material with diligent road work, appearing at festivals across the country (Whiskey Bear, Motor City and Savage Henry, to name a few). In 2019, he won the prestigious Funniest Person in Grand Rapids Competition. Whether its an indie DIY show or an A-list comedy club, he's a refreshing new voice that stands out from the crowd.

View post:
Watch at 7 pm on Thursday: FOX 17 presents Stand-up & Help with Feeding America West Michigan - Fox17

That which gets rewarded, gets repeated is a principle equally applicable in business management, dog training and public policy.

As to the latter, when politicians and bureaucrats are rewarded with more money after wasting the taxpayer dollars they already receive, what makes anyone think their behavior will change?

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has passed a staggering $3 trillion stimulus plan called the Heroes Act. Nearly a trillion of that is slated for state and municipal governments.

While the previous relief package called the CARES Act helped the private sector, a good chunk of that also went to state and local governments for mass transit, Medicaid costs and direct dollars to local budgets that were related more or less to the pandemic.

But the Democrats new proposal envisions a huge portion of bailout dollars that are unrestricted.

The good news for taxpayers is that the Heroes Act is DOA in the United States Senate, at least in its current form. Led by Mitch the Impaler, the Republican-controlled body will undoubtedly pare it down and hopefully place many conditions on the release of the funds that will incentivize good behavior, not bad.

Given that there are infinite examples of governing malfeasance in California, the federal government could make several reasonable demands as a condition for receiving additional relief funds.

First and foremost is pension reform. It is well known that public-sector labor controls the California Legislature and Office of the Governor. The alphabet soup of unions CTA, SEIU, CCPOA, PECG, etc. provide the current political establishment with what they need most: campaign contributions.

For that reason, pension reform has been virtually impossible, leaving Californias public employee pension funds woefully underfunded.

Even pro-labor Jerry Brown was only able to achieve very modest reform in 2013.

States that are well-managed have a legitimate complaint that they should not be forced to contribute to bail out mismanaged states.

David McIntosh, head of Club for Growth, expressed this sentiment concisely last week, writing, As Congress considers what to include in the next phase of coronavirus relief, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have pushed for $875 billion in taxpayer money to go to bail out irresponsible states and local governments. Why should taxpayers in well-managed states like Florida under Governor Ron DeSantis be on the hook for bailing out poorly run states like New York under liberal Governor Andrew Cuomo and California under Socialist Governor Gavin Newsom?

The anger is justified and therefore so are the proposed reforms. An easy solution would be for the feds to require that all states convert to a defined contribution pension plan for all new hires. Over time, the financial risk to taxpayers in liberal states would diminish.

Also helpful would be federal incentives to states to impose dollar limits on pension benefits. Californias $100,000 Club, a list of public retirees receiving over $100,000 annually, has exploded in recent years to over 26,000 retirees, a 13-fold increase since 2005.

Pension reform should not be the only requirement imposed by the federal government. California wastes money by the bucketful and compounds that waste with foolish regulations and mandates on the private sector.

The federal government could make the logical argument that a full economic recovery for the nation as a whole requires removing the shackles from those who actually generate the taxes that states claim they need.

Newsoms proposed budget is unlikely to help motivate federal relief.

Rather than deal with waste, fraud and abuse, the governor has engaged in a form of legal extortion. He publicly stated that if Washington fails to give the state enough help, police officers, firefighters and health care workers are the first ones to be laid off by cities and counties.

What are federal appropriators to think when confronted with this bluff?

It is reminiscent of the politically incorrect scene in Blazing Saddles when the sheriff holds a gun to his own head and threatens to pull the trigger.

In demanding additional relief funds from the federal government, California needs to tread carefully.

Right now, even many Republicans in Congress are sympathetic to the pleas for some local government subsidies.

But the urgency of the need may diminish, particularly if the economy recovers faster than many anticipated.

A well-known Democratic consultant famously said, Never let a crisis go to waste.

The problem for the Democrats seeking massive subsidies for local governments is that the crisis might dissipate and whatever leverage they have might disappear with it.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

See original here:
The Heroes Act just rewards bad behavior and poor governance - Press-Enterprise