Opinion Politics (warning, may contain political views you disagree with)

[poshman]

And you know all this how?

Have you seen how Chris Pratt was treated for simply saying nothing at certain times?

Do you think that Hollywood isn't extremely left and left biased? How many topics in shows and movies are centre or right positive? Top Gun Maverick was celebrated in parts simply because it didn't have pro left, woke preaching throughout the movie.

I personally don't mind different themes in stories, however, these days the preaching and virtue signalling breaks immersion. Boring.

 

[BanjoRules]

Let's not forget the movies/tv shows cancelled by the minority woke left, for example :

Fawlty Towers
Harry Potter Movies
Gone with the Wind
Dukes of Hazard

 

[Kram]

I like Gina Carano in The Mandalorian.

 

[BanjoRules]

From a post I made on another thread, The real victims of cancel culture are the powerless :

Some people pretend that cancel culture is not a thing. The epidemic of self censorship rooted in fear of reprisal indicates otherwise. If you don't get on board with the narrative set down by the vocal minority your job will quite possibly be on the line.

So stay quiet, keep your head down and don't rock the boat as they go about make the changes they deem necessary for us all.

Probably best that I add the recent words of Steven Pinker on this topic.

His bio is way too long to post on here however here is part of it :

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”

Cancel culture is absolutely real.

There are organisations that keep lists of people who have lost their jobs, or have been punished or censored.

And it’s a growing list.

It’s not simply that the feelings are hurt of some powerful people.

Quite the contrary, the real victims of cancel culture are the powerless.

The independent journalists, the journalists who have been fired from their positions at magazines and newspapers.

The graduate students and post docs and lecturers at universities, the employees who have been fired often for trivial breeches of decorum.
So there are real people who have suffered, and moreover, the fact that they have been punished means that there is a regime of intimidation, that puts other people on notice, that if they voice an unpopular opinion their job could be on the line.

 

[BanjoRules]

I like Gina Carano in The Mandalorian.

Cancelled...went against the leftist narrative.

 

[Taylor]

And you know all this how?

There's plenty of first hand experience detailed by the likes of Jon Voight on how hollywood treats non closeted conservatives. If you care to read anything by Ben Shapiro he also details in one of his books directors, producers etc who will not work with conservatives at all.

Hollywood has chosen it's side.

 

[Bicco]

Let's not forget the movies/tv shows cancelled by the minority woke left, for example :

Fawlty Towers
Harry Potter Movies
Gone with the Wind
Dukes of Hazard

You're going thave to post links to this.

 

[Purple_Turtle]

My beef with Republicans (and the LNP) is mostly their focus on issues that I don't see as fundamental to being a conservative. Issues like abortion, critical race theory, religious freedoms, traditional values are not core parts of conservatism imo. "Traditional values" is a great example of being way to vague and subjective to be lumped in with conservatism. What is traditional? When is the date cut off for being traditional and not? I suspect if most Republican supporters were asked to define what traditional values were they'd find a lot of their representatives they voted for don't actually uphold those values.

The President of the WA Liberal Party has just resigned stating toxic self-interest is rife in the party. There are good people in that party that could present a feasible alternate government but whilst the power brokers continue to hold sway with their extreme views and wholly divisive politics the party is going nowhere.

Geez, I'd love to see what you think conservatism should actually be. I have a feeling it's just going to boil down into something along the lines of Labor-lite or Democrat-lite.

Also I don't see any reason for Republicans to abandon their positions about any of the things you mentioned.

1. Abortion as an electoral issue I'd steer from, but Dobbs satisfies both the judicial conservatives who point out the original decision was a terrible misreading of the constitution to guarantee a political objective, and the social conservatives who are against abortion on the basis that it's killing a human being. Also not a huge amount of evidence it's hurting the Republicans at midterms: it's just not an important issue for most voters (compared to inflation, economy, crime, etc.) and it's hard to be called an extremist for being pro-life when your political opponents in turn can't articulate a single restriction they'd place on abortions.

2. Why shouldn't conservatives care if students are being taught something which is a "corrosive racialist ideology that undermines American institutions, which teaches citizens to categorize one another on the basis of race, and it presents a dark and twisted view of U.S. history," to quote an NR writer on it. And luckily for conservatives there's fertile ground here, so why not talk about it? DeSantis' education message is winning in battleground states, teacher union poll finds

As for the other two religious freedom is literally in the American constitution, and a defense of traditional values is literally in the dictionary definition.

Final point: from the official email announcing Richard Wilson's depature from WA Liberal State President; "An emergent career opportunity that necessitates extensive travel has presented a difficult choice for Richard, who in addition to the time demands of the Party Presidency, has been raising a young family with his wife, and pursuing a research Doctorate in the UK. In light of this development, Richard has made the difficult decision to step down as State President." Not sure where you got the idea that he cited other party members as the reason why he decided to quit.

 

[Kram]

Billy Birmingham said that if he tried to release his 12th Man albums today they would be deemed racist.

 

[Kram]

John Cleese Shamed the BBC Into Reinstating Ousted Fawlty Towers Episode

 

[BanjoRules]

You're going thave to post links to this.

Look one up and also look the rest up yourself.

 

[Purple_Turtle]

I saw a fair number of people on this thread bagging out the Morrison government for "corruption" and citing it as a reason they couldn't vote for the Liberals. I wonder what they make of Albanese so far:

1. $2.2b reassigned to Victoria's suburban rail loop in the budget, despite the project not being signed off by the independent assessor. It was only March that Albanese was claiming "Labor will make sure that those investments really stack up using the Infrastructure Australia model that I established.” But I guess when there's an election on? Labor’s $2.2b Victorian rail pledge not properly assessed

2. Winding back reforms that allow us to see how our superfunds spend our money to make sure they're doing it in our best financial interests. I guess voters just made the mistake of not donating as much to the Labor party. Labor is set to wind back reforms meant to hold super funds to account. Here's what that will mean

3. Scrapping the ABCC, which will cost the Australian economy $47.5b dollars by 2030. But once again the CFMEU campaign for and donate to the Labor party, and us little people who stand to lose out don't. Abolishing the ABCC could cost the economy $47.5 billion by 2030

4. Not calling his inquiry into Australia's Covid response yet. It's needed and he promised it, but the obvious outcome will be that Victoria under Daniel Andrew's was our worst performer and that's not going to look good ahead of an election. Albanese promises COVID-19 inquiry, federation reform

I'm sure if I go digging I'll find more, and this is in less than six months...

 

[poshman]

I saw a fair number of people on this thread bagging out the Morrison government for "corruption" and citing it as a reason they couldn't vote for the Liberals. I wonder what they make of Albanese so far:

1. $2.2b reassigned to Victoria's suburban rail loop in the budget, despite the project not being signed off by the independent assessor. It was only March that Albanese was claiming "Labor will make sure that those investments really stack up using the Infrastructure Australia model that I established.” But I guess when there's an election on? Labor’s $2.2b Victorian rail pledge not properly assessed

2. Winding back reforms that allow us to see how our superfunds spend our money to make sure they're doing it in our best financial interests. I guess voters just made the mistake of not donating as much to the Labor party. Labor is set to wind back reforms meant to hold super funds to account. Here's what that will mean

3. Scrapping the ABCC, which will cost the Australian economy $47.5b dollars by 2030. But once again the CFMEU campaign for and donate to the Labor party, and us little people who stand to lose out don't. Abolishing the ABCC could cost the economy $47.5 billion by 2030

4. Not calling his inquiry into Australia's Covid response yet. It's needed and he promised it, but the obvious outcome will be that Victoria under Daniel Andrew's was our worst performer and that's not going to look good ahead of an election. Albanese promises COVID-19 inquiry, federation reform

I'm sure if I go digging I'll find more, and this is in less than six months...

And you would need pages to cover how corrupt Andrews has been and continues to be. I am waiting for the same passionate attacks on Andrews character that I read for months on here about pollies from the other side.

 

[poshman]

Geez, I'd love to see what you think conservatism should actually be. I have a feeling it's just going to boil down into something along the lines of Labor-lite or Democrat-lite.

Also I don't see any reason for Republicans to abandon their positions about any of the things you mentioned.

1. Abortion as an electoral issue I'd steer from, but Dobbs satisfies both the judicial conservatives who point out the original decision was a terrible misreading of the constitution to guarantee a political objective, and the social conservatives who are against abortion on the basis that it's killing a human being. Also not a huge amount of evidence it's hurting the Republicans at midterms: it's just not an important issue for most voters (compared to inflation, economy, crime, etc.) and it's hard to be called an extremist for being pro-life when your political opponents in turn can't articulate a single restriction they'd place on abortions.

2. Why shouldn't conservatives care if students are being taught something which is a "corrosive racialist ideology that undermines American institutions, which teaches citizens to categorize one another on the basis of race, and it presents a dark and twisted view of U.S. history," to quote an NR writer on it. And luckily for conservatives there's fertile ground here, so why not talk about it? DeSantis' education message is winning in battleground states, teacher union poll finds

As for the other two religious freedom is literally in the American constitution, and a defense of traditional values is literally in the dictionary definition.

Final point: from the official email announcing Richard Wilson's depature from WA Liberal State President; "An emergent career opportunity that necessitates extensive travel has presented a difficult choice for Richard, who in addition to the time demands of the Party Presidency, has been raising a young family with his wife, and pursuing a research Doctorate in the UK. In light of this development, Richard has made the difficult decision to step down as State President." Not sure where you got the idea that he cited other party members as the reason why he decided to quit.

They have no idea what conservatism is and they couldn't answer my reply from this absurd post.

The midterms will be interesting. The Dems who say anyone who says an election isn't valid is a threat to democracy are already saying if the republicans win a heap of races it is because the election was interfered with. Clown world. Absolute clown world.

 

[Bicco]

You're going thave to post links to this.

I did. There's nothing on them being banned/cancelled. Fawlty Towers and GWTW were given warnings around historical content and HP books have been banned from schools due witchcraft by the religious right.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

From a post I made on another thread, The real victims of cancel culture are the powerless :

Some people pretend that cancel culture is not a thing. The epidemic of self censorship rooted in fear of reprisal indicates otherwise. If you don't get on board with the narrative set down by the vocal minority your job will quite possibly be on the line.

So stay quiet, keep your head down and don't rock the boat as they go about make the changes they deem necessary for us all.

Probably best that I add the recent words of Steven Pinker on this topic.

His bio is way too long to post on here however here is part of it :

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”

Cancel culture is absolutely real.

There are organisations that keep lists of people who have lost their jobs, or have been punished or censored.

And it’s a growing list.

It’s not simply that the feelings are hurt of some powerful people.

Quite the contrary, the real victims of cancel culture are the powerless.

The independent journalists, the journalists who have been fired from their positions at magazines and newspapers.

The graduate students and post docs and lecturers at universities, the employees who have been fired often for trivial breeches of decorum.
So there are real people who have suffered, and moreover, the fact that they have been punished means that there is a regime of intimidation, that puts other people on notice, that if they voice an unpopular opinion their job could be on the line.

I implore everyone (futile I know ) to read a book called Cancel Culture and the Long March of the Left, if you want to know how and why the world is currently the way it is, and what lies ahead.

 

[BanjoRules]

I did. There's nothing on them being banned/cancelled. Fawlty Towers and GWTW were given warnings around historical content and HP books have been banned from schools due witchcraft by the religious right.

Try this one....also talks of other shows being removed as well.

Fawlty Towers 'Don't mention the war' episode removed from UKTV

BBC-owned streaming service takes down episode that also features racial references

www.theguardian.com

 

[E Shed]

Its just so disingenuous to claim cancel culture as a left or a right thing. The whole left right thing is just a distraction anyway but thats another story.
People have cancelled other people since there were people. One group, culture, race, religion, whatever gets on top and they persecute people different to them.

Political correctness of recent historical meaning began with things like not calling African people in America the N word. It wasn't that long ago white people could hang blacks for talking to a white woman or anything really and there was no consequences but I was growing up in the 60's and 70's we became aware we were no longer allowed to call them by the N word as it was insulting and demeaning. Same with some of the names that were commonly used for Australian Aboriginals when I was a kid.

Then we stopped calling homosexuals all the slang names that were perceived as insulting. We stopped demeaning women sexually.

These were all good things in my opinion. You didn't need to be a "lefty" to agree to stop insulting and demeaning people based on their race or sexuality or gender.

Unfortunately when you give people power it often results in them abusing it so people with perceived power in our culture to determine discourse who are generally angry and or dissatisfied with their own lives look for things to continue being angry about. Some people are defined by their anger.
These are the people who continually create and redefine things to get angry about.

They're not longer left wing really. They're just authoritarians. No different to religious fundamentalists or militants of any other persuasion.

But the idea that powerful politicians or media figures are somehow being brave by fighting cancel culture is just a nonsense.
It's populism.

The idea that there is/was a better time in a country and these politicians are going to bring it back is one of the oldest tricks in the book of political populism. Making people afraid and angry is a sure fire way to get votes.

There is nothing noble about it and there isn't really a left or right anymore. The only stand I see worth taking is making yourself a better person, however you see that.

 

[Purple_Turtle]

Political correctness of recent historical meaning began with things like not calling African people in America the N word.

And then morphed into letting thousands of (probably more than ten thousand) young girls in Britain be r*ped without intervention from the state because the perpetrators are from South Asia and the victims are white trash.

Rotherham abuse scandal: How we got here

Recalling the origins and aftermath of the Rotherham abuse scandal.

www.bbc.com

The tragedy of Telford's girls

Did political correctness enable the biggest sexual abuse scandal in British history?

edwest.substack.com

I think anyone who's suggesting that political correctness is just being nice to people is selling you a lemon. The term in our vocabulary comes from the American socialists in the early 20th century using it to ostracise socialists who didn't follow the USSR party line, and even when it's not used to cover truly horrendous shit like Rotherham or Telford winds up being used in other debates to stop meaningful needed scrutiny.

 

[myfreodom]

Geez, I'd love to see what you think conservatism should actually be. I have a feeling it's just going to boil down into something along the lines of Labor-lite or Democrat-lite.

Also I don't see any reason for Republicans to abandon their positions about any of the things you mentioned.

1. Abortion as an electoral issue I'd steer from, but Dobbs satisfies both the judicial conservatives who point out the original decision was a terrible misreading of the constitution to guarantee a political objective, and the social conservatives who are against abortion on the basis that it's killing a human being. Also not a huge amount of evidence it's hurting the Republicans at midterms: it's just not an important issue for most voters (compared to inflation, economy, crime, etc.) and it's hard to be called an extremist for being pro-life when your political opponents in turn can't articulate a single restriction they'd place on abortions.

2. Why shouldn't conservatives care if students are being taught something which is a "corrosive racialist ideology that undermines American institutions, which teaches citizens to categorize one another on the basis of race, and it presents a dark and twisted view of U.S. history," to quote an NR writer on it. And luckily for conservatives there's fertile ground here, so why not talk about it? DeSantis' education message is winning in battleground states, teacher union poll finds

As for the other two religious freedom is literally in the American constitution, and a defense of traditional values is literally in the dictionary definition.

Final point: from the official email announcing Richard Wilson's depature from WA Liberal State President; "An emergent career opportunity that necessitates extensive travel has presented a difficult choice for Richard, who in addition to the time demands of the Party Presidency, has been raising a young family with his wife, and pursuing a research Doctorate in the UK. In light of this development, Richard has made the difficult decision to step down as State President." Not sure where you got the idea that he cited other party members as the reason why he decided to quit.

Happy to have a debate about this but perhaps we don't just make shit up if we do? Like "when your political opponents in turn can't articulate a single restriction they'd place on abortions". There were clear restrictions prior to Roe vs Wade being overturned and nobody I have heard has/is calling for unrestricted abortions.

The 13 US States that now have the most restrictions against abortions (either fully banned (9) or banned after 6 weeks pregnancy (4)) love to tell us about how they are being "pro-life". 10 of those states are in the 15 worst for child welfare. Correct me if I am wrong but I have yet to see/hear any policies/legislation they have subsequently implemented to deal with the extra 160,000+ babies per year that will now be born into poverty in their states. Pretty easy to claim you are "pro-life" but then not take any real responsibility relating to that political position isn't it?

In relation to CRT, the top six books being banned by Republican-controlled schools (also, asking for a friend, is this an example of cancel culture?) are:
1. Gender Queer - a book about gender identity
2. All Boys Aren't Blue - describes the challenges of Black queer boys
3. Lawn Boy - a gay protagonist discovering himself
4. Out of Darkness - story of a Black teenage boy and Mexican-American girl facing racism
5. The Bluest Eye - a Black girl who wants to change her eye colour thinking it would change her life
6. Beyond Magenta - interviews with six transgender/gender-neutral young adults

All six seem to fit your "corrosive racial ideology that undermines American institutions" so well?!? (yes, that was sarcasm) Free speech and against cancel culture except when it doesn't fit your ideology hey?

If you truly think Richard Wilson left the WA State Libs because he's too busy then you clearly only consume one source for your 'news'. I'm a member of the Liberal party. I've been part of the ****ing conversations. I assure you it is a toxic environment as evidenced not just by me but pretty much everyone who isn't part of the clan. It has been like bashing our heads up against a wall trying to **** off these a-holes that have destroyed the party from the inside. And before you say "but look at Labor", sure they've had to deal with their fair share of bad actors as well but at least in their case they didn't end up taking control of the party. I'm still optimistic we (WA) can eventually have an effective opposition in the next decade but hiding heads in the sand that everything is fine is only delaying that.

And all of this comes back to my point that conservatism has been hijacked imo. You claim that voters are more interested in inflation, economy, crime, etc but when you actually compare the policies of Democrats and Republicans or Labor and Liberal you often find the Dems and Labor are actually more fiscally conservative in their policies than their opponents. To clarify, just doing nothing is NOT being fiscally conservative. Nor is pushing massive scare campaigns instead of presenting feasible alternatives. Both sides of politics are not foreign to using the good 'ol con job but it's gone way too far lately.

 

[Bicco]

Try this one....also talks of other shows being removed as well.

Fawlty Towers 'Don't mention the war' episode removed from UKTV

BBC-owned streaming service takes down episode that also features racial references

www.theguardian.com

And here's an interesting quote from that article.
While traditional TV channels used to simply quietly stop repeating old shows that were no longer considered appropriate, the advent of streaming means catch-up services need to constantly reassess their back catalogues, attracting publicity in the process.
So 'self editing' has been happening since forever.
I think that 'cancel culture ' is just a more dramatic way of saying 'censorship ' which has always existed in media, and has always caused controversy too, especially in music.

 

[Purple_Turtle]

Happy to have a debate about this but perhaps we don't just make s**t up if we do? Like "when your political opponents in turn can't articulate a single restriction they'd place on abortions". There were clear restrictions prior to Roe vs Wade being overturned and nobody I have heard has/is calling for unrestricted abortions.

The 13 US States that now have the most restrictions against abortions (either fully banned (9) or banned after 6 weeks pregnancy (4)) love to tell us about how they are being "pro-life". 10 of those states are in the 15 worst for child welfare. Correct me if I am wrong but I have yet to see/hear any policies/legislation they have subsequently implemented to deal with the extra 160,000+ babies per year that will now be born into poverty in their states. Pretty easy to claim you are "pro-life" but then not take any real responsibility relating to that political position isn't it?

In relation to CRT, the top six books being banned by Republican-controlled schools (also, asking for a friend, is this an example of cancel culture?) are:
1. Gender Queer - a book about gender identity
2. All Boys Aren't Blue - describes the challenges of Black queer boys
3. Lawn Boy - a gay protagonist discovering himself
4. Out of Darkness - story of a Black teenage boy and Mexican-American girl facing racism
5. The Bluest Eye - a Black girl who wants to change her eye colour thinking it would change her life
6. Beyond Magenta - interviews with six transgender/gender-neutral young adults

All six seem to fit your "corrosive racial ideology that undermines American institutions" so well?!? (yes, that was sarcasm) Free speech and against cancel culture except when it doesn't fit your ideology hey?

If you truly think Richard Wilson left the WA State Libs because he's too busy then you clearly only consume one source for your 'news'. I'm a member of the Liberal party. I've been part of the ******* conversations. I assure you it is a toxic environment as evidenced not just by me but pretty much everyone who isn't part of the clan. It has been like bashing our heads up against a wall trying to * off these a-holes that have destroyed the party from the inside. And before you say "but look at Labor", sure they've had to deal with their fair share of bad actors as well but at least in their case they didn't end up taking control of the party. I'm still optimistic we (WA) can eventually have an effective opposition in the next decade but hiding heads in the sand that everything is fine is only delaying that.

And all of this comes back to my point that conservatism has been hijacked imo. You claim that voters are more interested in inflation, economy, crime, etc but when you actually compare the policies of Democrats and Republicans or Labor and Liberal you often find the Dems and Labor are actually more fiscally conservative in their policies than their opponents. To clarify, just doing nothing is NOT being fiscally conservative. Nor is pushing massive scare campaigns instead of presenting feasible alternatives. Both sides of politics are not foreign to using the good 'ol con job but it's gone way too far lately.

Just as a rapid fire:

1. When you have Democrats in the Senate voting down bills like the "Born Alive Survivors Protection Act" (which guarantees a baby born alive after an abortion will receive medical care rather than being left on a medical table for hours to slowly die unless the mother changes her mind) I think it's fair to say they have an extreme position. When only two candidates for the Democrat Primary in 2020 supported restrictions in the third trimester and Tulsi Gabbard is copping flak from Vice and "Shout Your Abortion" for saying abortion should be "safe, legal and rare" I think it's fair to say they're extremists on the issue, and that you'd be hard-pressed to find any significant restriction Democrats would go in to bat for. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...9af73c-01a4-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html

2. I imagine you'd be aware that an argument that abortion is killing an innocent human life is irrelevant from how welfare should provided to those humans and if you're a conservative you'd be aware of the socialist fallacy (just because you don't believe the government should do something doesn't mean you think it shouldn't be done at all.) Fair number of religious and private organisations doing a lot of work to support pregnant women in vulnerable positions. Just because I'm not personally going out providing shelter to the homeless on the streets doesn't mean I believe they can be killed off without consequence as a societal good; the two arguments are seperate.

3. Gender Queer was targeted because it's a graphic novel with sexually explicit imagery, including two men having sex with eachother and two women have sex with a strap-on. I imagine the others are targeted along similar lines. Is it cancel culture now to say children shouldn't watch pornography and r-rated movies? I also note you dodged the point about CRT in the school curriculum.

4. You're someone right of centre who believes parties that increase taxes and then massively increase spending are "fiscally conservative," and doesn't hold any socially conservative belief. Remind me again why I should believe you're right of centre or involved in the Libs?

 

[BanjoRules]

Here is Katharine Birbalsingh who heads up a community school in Wembley Park London

Apologies for the long snip of her political views from Wikepdia but I thought it was important to understand her conservative views that some will attempt to discredit with the term "populist".

Anyway she was reported to the police for a hate crime and demands were made for her removal from her job for meeting with Jorden Petersen and no doubt her political views below.

Hot tip... the people that went after her weren't right wingers. They are from the ultra woke far left. These people are anti liberal as well. Their ideas do not hold weight in the battle ideas so they rely on cancel culture to get what they want.

Political views[edit]​

Birbalsingh describes her views as being small-c conservative and argues such traditional values "which would once have been completely normal have completely disappeared." She maintains that misguided progressive politics in schools have held ethnic minority and working-class children back from academic success and that the political left seek to address problems within education by pouring more money into schools rather than fixing deeper issues, stating "there is a lot of power in ideas, and if the ideas are wrong, then the education system will not deliver."[41] In an interview with Nick Robinson, Birbalsingh said that she previously identified as being on the political left at university but formed many of her current views through teaching in inner-city state schools and seeing the contrast between state school pupils and the educational opportunities of her fellow students at Oxford. She argued that her experiences working as a teacher in deprived areas led her to believe that the state education sector encouraged a "culture of excuses and low standards" with regard to discipline and quality.[15]

Birbalsingh maintains that children of black and ethnic minority backgrounds are not sufficiently taught about British culture or Britishness in schools which has left them feeling "culturally excluded". She argues that such cultural exclusion happens due to teachers placing more emphasis on the ethnicity of children than on promoting British national identity, stating, "Teachers would tell them all the time they weren't part of the country—they say what country are you really from? Let's do a cultural thing where we all bring in our flags. The people who are doing this think they're being nice. They think they're being respectful" but that children "didn't get taught about Shakespeare and Dickens—or that they were part of their country."[42]

Birbalsingh has argued that teenagers should be prevented from having mobile phones in school as their brains are not developed enough for them to exercise proper self-control.[43] She has likewise advocated "digital drop-off" schemes, where children and parents were encouraged to bring in electronic devices to be locked in a school safe for the holidays.[44]

Birbalsingh has said that children used the "race card" when in disputes with teachers, and warned parents to take their children's claims of "racism" with a pinch of salt when disciplined at school.[45][46] She also claimed that young black students were being held back from success in school by teachers who "are scared of being called racist" if they discipline them.[47]

Birbalsingh has advocated the singing of patriotic songs such as I Vow To Thee My Country or Jerusalem in school assemblies, saying that they make teenagers feel proud to be British.[48]

In response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in the United Kingdom following the murder of George Floyd, Birbalsingh stated that education and instilling a sense of belonging is the way to make a real difference for black families.[42] She has argued that the killing of Floyd was unjustified and that white Britons have avoided serious conversations about racism, and that this in turn has drawn people to BLM. However, she is strongly critical of the tactics of the Black Lives Matter movement itself, arguing that it undermines the teaching of children to take personal responsibility, encourages violence and exacerbates racism by making debates harder and encouraging black teenagers to focus on identity politics or victimhood. She has also rejected BLM's claims that British schools do not teach about slavery and black history, stating that poor teaching and lack of discipline in classrooms has meant that lessons on these subjects are improperly communicated and not committed to memory, and that the BLM movement narrows slavery down to the transatlantic slave trade and not other examples of slavery from history.[49]

Birbalsingh is opposed to teaching children about white privilege in schools and subjecting staff or pupils to unconscious bias training, arguing that such measures encourage racial segregation over constructively solving racism and distract from the true meaning of education.[50][51] She has also maintained that using the term white privilege is unhelpful to ethnic minority students as it creates an exaggerated perception that they are perpetually oppressed by the political establishment and diminishes incentives to work hard.[13] Birbalsingh instead maintains that factors such as the quality of schools, discipline, teaching and parental support at home are more likely to shape the outcome of a pupil's success over race, and that emphasis on race or culture wars distracts politicians from these issues.[52] In a 2021 debate hosted by the Henry Jackson Society, Birbalsingh also asserted her opposition to what she described as the growth of "woke culture" in education, arguing that it is more concerned with "making children into revolutionaries" and inserting political bias into classes over instilling values such as kindness, tolerance and hard work.[53]

 

[myfreodom]

Just as a rapid fire:

1. When you have Democrats in the Senate voting down bills like the "Born Alive Survivors Protection Act" (which guarantees a baby born alive after an abortion will receive medical care rather than being left on a medical table for hours to slowly die unless the mother changes her mind) I think it's fair to say they have an extreme position. When only two candidates for the Democrat Primary in 2020 supported restrictions in the third trimester and Tulsi Gabbard is copping flak from Vice and "Shout Your Abortion" for saying abortion should be "safe, legal and rare" I think it's fair to say they're extremists on the issue, and that you'd be hard-pressed to find any significant restriction Democrats would go in to bat for. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outl...9af73c-01a4-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html

2. I imagine you'd be aware that an argument that abortion is killing an innocent human life is irrelevant from how welfare should provided to those humans and if you're a conservative you'd be aware of the socialist fallacy (just because you don't believe the government should do something doesn't mean you think it shouldn't be done at all.) Fair number of religious and private organisations doing a lot of work to support pregnant women in vulnerable positions. Just because I'm not personally going out providing shelter to the homeless on the streets doesn't mean I believe they can be killed off without consequence as a societal good; the two arguments are seperate.

3. Gender Queer was targeted because it's a graphic novel with sexually explicit imagery, including two men having sex with eachother and two women have sex with a strap-on. I imagine the others are targeted along similar lines. Is it cancel culture now to say children shouldn't watch pornography and r-rated movies? I also note you dodged the point about CRT in the school curriculum.

4. You're someone right of centre who believes parties that increase taxes and then massively increase spending are "fiscally conservative," and doesn't hold any socially conservative belief. Remind me again why I should believe you're right of centre or involved in the Libs?

I'm not right of centre. I've always described my alignment as centre. And these days I'm probably slightly left of centre if anything because I think the world needs to actually evolve a fair bit to survive. But really if it comes to my opinion on an issue, it isn't any political alignment that determines my pov. I look at both sides of a debate, weigh it all up and choose a my position on it. The only reason I've disagreed with the supposed 'right' a lot lately (most of the recent Liberal leaders have been) is because most of what comes out of their mouths is absolute BS. The same could possibly be said of the 'left' but the Greens aren't a major party.

Where did you get this crazy idea that all Lib members are all Right wing? Do you also think all Labor members are Left wing? It blows my mind that people semi-interested in politics think like this. Both parties have a mix, as they should have. When the balance of power is too strongly one way it rarely ends well - like the WA State Libs.

 

[Purple_Turtle]

I'm not right of centre. I've always described my alignment as centre. And these days I'm probably slightly left of centre if anything because I think the world needs to actually evolve a fair bit to survive. But really if it comes to my opinion on an issue, it isn't any political alignment that determines my pov. I look at both sides of a debate, weigh it all up and choose a my position on it. The only reason I've disagreed with the supposed 'right' a lot lately (most of the recent Liberal leaders have been) is because most of what comes out of their mouths is absolute BS. The same could possibly be said of the 'left' but the Greens aren't a major party.

Where did you get this crazy idea that all Lib members are all Right wing? Do you also think all Labor members are Left wing? It blows my mind that people semi-interested in politics think like this. Both parties have a mix, as they should have. When the balance of power is too strongly one way it rarely ends well - like the WA State Libs.

Yeah, I don't think the Liberal Party really has a place for those left-of-centre. It does at its core have a place for conservatives and classical liberals, but if you're looking to support a Nordic social welfare state (or something like that) in a political party that explicitly says it believes in lean government you've probably walked into the wrong room.

Also I don't the Labor party has many right-wing people in it for what it's worth. I'd question any of them that join a party that explicitly refers to itself as being "democratic socialist."