Man-Hating and the Grievance Studies Hoax

Bettina Arndt

My video this week is an interview with Helen Pluckrose, one of the scholars who pulled off the extraordinary Grievance Studies hoax. Helen, with two other scholars, James Lindsay and Peter Boghossian, wrote 20 fake papers and managed to get them published in high-profile peer-reviewed journals in fields including gender studies, queer studies, and fat studies.

What really interested me in this great coup was not just that it exposed the corruption at the heart of so much of what passes for academic literature today, but it revealed the appalling anti-male bias in the academe and the really dangerous ideas about men being promoted in universities which have found their way into mainstream culture.

The classic was their paper about dog-humping as evidence of a rape culture which was published in the prestigious journal, Gender, Place and Culture. This paper, which was honoured for excellence as one of 12 exemplary pieces in feminist geography, included discussion of whether we could train men the way we train dogs, to prevent rape culture. How frightening that this misandrist rubbish is held up as exemplary scholarship.

In another of Helen’s fake articles, “Rubbing One Out: Defining Metasexual Violence of Objectification Through Non-consensual Masturbation,” she argues that men who masturbate while thinking about a woman without her consent are perpetrators of sexual violence. Just think about the implications of that. In her literature search she had no difficulty finding a wealth of feminist literature to support this notion that an everyday act for many men is proof they are prone to sexual violence.

My interview with Helen reveals many pernicious ideas about men being promoted in our universities which then seep through into our society. I hope you enjoy the interview. Please like it and help me promote it. Unfortunately, the picture of Helen is very blurry due to internet problem at her London home but what she has to say is really important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wxc9E7Uuws

Email from Bettina. bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au






Climate striking pupils told to ‘turn up to school’ by Education Minister

It began with a solitary, 15-year-old girl camped out in front of Sweden’s parliament next to a handwritten sign: “SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE”.

Now Greta Thunberg’s message and her actions haves been embraced by the world — as tens of thousands of Australian school students prepare to down their pencils and take to the streets tomorrow — demanding political action on climate change.

Pupils from hundreds of schools in over 55 cities and towns across Australia are using the action to call on all politicians to stop Adani’s coal mine, say no to all new fossil fuels and power Australia with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

Cynics say the movement is a ploy to weaponise children for political purposes, but some of the pupils taking part say they have seen the effects of climate change first-hand.

Harley Hickey, 13, from Walgett in northern New South Wales, said she was seeing her future disappear before her eyes.

“I see the temperatures reaching 50 degrees during summer in my community,” she said. “We have two rivers in Walgett - the Barwon and Namoi River but both are dry.

“No water means no life. Where did our water go? A lot of towns along these rivers are suffering because of our government’s bad decisions.”

However, not everybody supports the strike, with some schools warning of consequences for truancy and education ministers such as NSW’s Rob Stokes declining to back the political movement.

“As adults, we have a shared responsibility to encourage our young people to attend school,” he told 2GB this morning.

“So that’s really got to be the first message. Turn up to school. Don’t rob yourself of the opportunities to get a great, quality education.”

Columnist Gemma Tognini wrote kids were being used as “pawns in climate wars”.

“Kids are the perfect weapon when it comes to emotive issues because there’s never any sensible centre or intelligent debate when it comes to feelings, and who better to use than children,” she wrote in The West Australian.

However, striking pupils have won the support from other political leaders, such as NSW Labor leader Michael Daley who told ABC: “They do have a democratic right of assembly, they do have a right to protest.”

Tomorrow’s strike will spread over 100 countries and shapes as a “milestone moment” in a grassroots campaign to goad world leaders into confronting the threat of global warming, activists and experts say.

So far, the weekly walkouts have spilled tens of thousands of mostly high school students out into the streets in Germany, Belgium, Britain and France, with a smattering of actions in six other countries.

But on March 15, classrooms are set to empty in cities across the globe, from Boston to Bogota, Montreal to Melbourne, Dhaka to Durban, Lagos to London.

Here in Australia, The University of Sydney vice-chancellor Michael Spence has given permission for students and staff to walk out of classes – joining school students converging on Town Hall in the CBD.

SOURCE  






Australia's visa rules have been updated to make it easier to hire foreign workers

Updates to the country's list of skilled occupations follow recent changes to the working holiday maker and seasonal worker visa programs. Sponsored sportspeople and artists will also be able to get new eight-year visas.

'We want Australians filling Australian jobs but when this isn't possible action is needed to ensure farmers can continue to operate,' Immigration Minister David Coleman said on Monday.

Footballers and tennis coaches are among eight professions in the sports and arts sectors added to the long-term skills list.

'These changes recognise Australia's passion for sports and the arts,' Mr Coleman said. 'Having access to highly skilled professionals helps to develop local talent and facilitate skills and knowledge transfer.'

Dentists and anaesthetists will also be able to obtain working visas more easily, as the government grapples with skill shortages in regional communities.

The agricultural sector, including the National Farmers' Federation, has been calling for a specific visa for farm workers but assistant agriculture minister Richard Colbeck last week said it wasn't needed given changes already in train.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last year committed to an agriculture visa in the medium to long-term after a failed push from the Nationals to get the proposal in place before harvest time.

Under other new visa requirements starting on Monday, overseas-trained doctors wanting to work as general practitioners will be directed away from metropolitan areas to regional, rural and remote communities.

SOURCE 

    




Corporate cowards who collude with silencing debate

Andrew Bolt

Do not give your business to companies that are bad corporate citizens. And a business that helps the mob to shut down debate is a very bad corporate citizen.

Janet Albrechtsen names and shame the companies helping the mobs to silence Sky and ... er, me:

Last week Alan Beasley fought back. This ordinary bloke is as mad as hell and he is not going to take it any more. He saw another company that advertises on Sky News succumb to intimidation.

Beasley stepped up because the choices people like him make determine the health and ultimate survival of our democracy...

The Sydney businessman, who grew up in country NSW, ... wrote to the NIB board, disgusted that the health insurer pulled its adverts from Andrew Bolt’s program on Sky after Bolt raised questions about the verdict against George Pell.

As an NIB member through Qantas’s health insurance arm Qantas Assure, Beasley denounced NIB for giving into “bullies and intimidation”, entering into a “PC debate”, putting “activists before customers” and “playing politics” instead of focusing on its business.

Beasley asked NIB to admit error and return its advertising to the Bolt show. If not, the Sydney businessman promised NIB he would lobby Qantas to end its association with NIB. He ended his March 6 email to the board with this: “I regard NIB corporate behaviour as gutless.”

Explaining why he took action last week, Beasley tells The Australian: “We don’t as a community stand up for the right thing. If we walk past intimidation and corporate cowardice we are endorsing that behaviour.”

Beasley is not alone. Albrechtsen cites other customers and companies.

I have heard from many other Australians who are also alarmed that companies are siding with a few activists - and against the wishes of their own customers - to shut down debates the activists don't like.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here