Patterico's Pontifications

6/16/2021

This Week in Woke White Self-Loathing

Filed under: General — JVW @ 9:15 pm



[guest post by JVW]

This is just sad:

The Auckland, New Zealand, chapter of a climate organization inspired by activist Greta Thunberg disbanded itself on Saturday because it was a “racist,” “white-dominated space,” the group announced in a Facebook post on Saturday.

School Strike 4 Climate, a movement of student protests against global warming, began in the wake of Thunberg’s activism and ballooned into widespread student strikes in 2019. Around 20,000 New Zealand students went on strike in March 2019, organized by School Strike New Zealand, which describes itself as “the New Zealand movement of Greta Thunberg’s strikes in Europe.”

The Auckland branch of the group said on Saturday that it had agreed to dissolve.

“BIPOC communities are disproportionately affected by climate change, so the fight for climate justice should be led by their voices and needs, not Pākehā [white New Zealander] ones,” the group wrote on Facebook. “We are disbanding because, since 2019, SS4C AKL (as well as the wider national group, though we can’t speak on their behalf) has been a racist, white-dominated space.”

Hey, if climate activism turned out to be something of a drag when there are more fun things for teenagers to do while skipping school, then just come out and admit it. No need to abase yourself with Maoist confessions of wrong-doing. It’s hard to read a statement like this one and not instantly think of the sort of psychological manipulation commonly found in cults. And this level of white racial posturing doesn’t sit well with one of the group’s founders:

Sophie Handford, one of the founders of School Strike New Zealand, expressed skepticism of the move in a statement to The Guardian. Hanford coordinated the group in 2019.

“There is a real need to cede space to Indigenous-led kaupapa [policy] and to transform the movement so that it can properly uphold the collective aspiration of climate justice,” Hanford said. However, “I’m a little concerned that this sends a message of division or that not everyone is needed.”

The bad news and the good news is that these are teenagers. The bad part being that the teen years are already often fraught with emotional peril, so forcing these kids to confess their alleged racism strikes me as a particularly ugly form of bullying. The good part is there is a chance that as these kids mature they will see just how silly all of this racial posturing is and will regret that they so readily fell for all of this garbage. But it’s past time that sane adults step in and put a stop to the nonsense.

– JVW

Republican Representative Refuses To Shake Hands With DC Police Officer Assaulted At Capitol on Jan. 6 (UPDATE ADDED)

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:20 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Shameful:

Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Georgia Republican who has downplayed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, refused to shake hands with Michael Fanone, a Washington, DC Metropolitan police officer who was assaulted by pro-Trump rioters while protecting the Capitol, two members of Congress announced on Wednesday.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, tweeted that Fanone approached Clyde at the Capitol and introduced himself as “someone who fought to defend the Capitol,” but Clyde refused to shake his outstretched hand.

And if you have problems believing Swalwell, here’s Republican Adam Kinzinger confirming the described incident:

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, tweeted shortly after that he’d called Fanone and “confirmed” the story.

“Officer Fanone just ran into @Rep_Clyde at Capitol (he’s the “Jan 6 was a typical tour” guy). Fanone introduced himself as ‘someone who fought to defend the Capitol’ and put out his hand,” Swalwell tweeted. “Clyde refused to shake it. To honor Trump, @housegop will dishonor the police.”

“I just called Officer Fanone and confirmed this story. This is really incredible,” Kinzinger tweeted. “Also relayed an interaction he had with another members [sic] Chief of Staff that was really incredibly bad and disrespectful.”

You may recall that Rep. Clyde repeatedly downplayed the events of Jan. 6 and claimed during a hearing last month that many of the rioters behaved like they were on a “normal tourist visit.” The congressman also insisted there was “no insurrection,” and instead “an undisciplined mob” that included “some rioters” and some who committed vandalism. Clyde’s attempt to minimize the Capitol riot is particularly notable because he was photographed helping barricade the doors to the House floor from inside the chamber as pro-Trump rioters attempted to smash them down.

What an imbecile. But worse, what a big, fat hypocrite:

According to Fanone, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has also refused to meet with him.

UPDATE: Because a commenter noted that he wouldn’t shake hands with a stranger who came up to him and offered his hand, which is not unreasonable, I am adding a fuller description of the incident per Fanone:

Michaeal Fanone…told CNN’s Don Lemon that he went to the Capitol in an attempt to set up meetings with Clyde and the 20 other Republican lawmakers who on Tuesday voted against legislation to award Congressional Gold Medals to officers who responded to the Jan. 6 rioting.

“I really just went there to engage with them, talk to them about my experience, show them body-worn camera footage from that day, if they were interested,” Fanone said. “I didn’t go there with the thoughts that I was going to change a bunch of hearts and minds, but I wanted to better educate them as to what officers’ experiences were that day.”

Fanone, who was repeatedly hit with a stun gun and beaten during the riot, said that while he was not able to set up meetings with any of the lawmakers, he ran into Clyde outside an elevator.

“I was very cordial. I extended my hand to shake his hand,” Fanone recounted. “He just stared at me. I asked if he was going to shake my hand, and he told me that he didn’t who know I was.”

“So I introduced myself, I said that I was Officer Michael Fanone, that I was a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer who fought on Jan. 6 to defend the Capitol and, as a result, I suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as a heart attack after having been tased numerous times at the base of my skull, as well as being severely beaten,” the officer said.

“At that point, the congressman turned away from me,” Fanone alleged before saying that once the elevator doors opened, Clyde “ran as quickly as he could, like a coward.”

–Dana

Biden and Putin Meet as “Conservatives” Cheer and Shill for the Enemy

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:29 am



Biden and Putin are meeting today. No matter how many note cards Biden needs, he’s unlikely to favor Putin’s word over our intelligence services, or spill state secrets to impress Biden. Meanwhile, “conservatives” are following Trump’s lead from the other day in seeming to be on Putin’s side, praising Putin’s toughness as they denigrate Biden:

The guy who shot Bin Laden says:

I liked him better when he was shooting our enemies instead of shilling for them. I felt like our lunch money got stolen in Helsinki in 2018, myself.

Meanwhile, Putin spent some time recently pretending that our response to the Capitol riot shows we’re worse than he is about oppressing dissidents, and Useful Idiot Tucker Carlson is on board to repeat the propaganda:

Objectively pro-Putin. What else needs to be said?

P.S. To update my Chip Roy post, he showed up on the list of people who voted against recognizing the Capitol police for bravery. As someone on Twitter said: he is who you thought he was.


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