Feature, Musings —01.05.2018 09:03 AM
—Racist is as racist does
Firstly, sincere congrats to Andrew Scheer for expelling the extremist Senator Lynn Beyak. Delighted to hear that he objects to his Senators being so defiant about their bigotry – but that he’s a-okay with his Senators being discreet about their racism! Well done, Blandy!
Secondly: in my 30 years of writing about the racist Right, my experience is that committed racists eventually out themselves, no matter how hard they try not to. They just can’t help themselves.
I give you, then, the heroine of the alt-Right and conservative columnists everywhere, Lindsay Shepherd.
I get that the congrats is tongue in cheek, but fuck that.
Scheer deserves absolutely no credit for doing something he should have had the spine to do months ago.
Lynn Beyak’s blatant dumbassery and transparent racism should have been reason enough for her to be kicked out of the Conservative caucus when she showed everyone who she was before. Scheer’s actions are too little too late from a weak leader and he should answer for his reluctance.
Secondly, Lynn Beyak is as stupid as you’d expect someone with shit-all qualifications to be appointed to a position where critical intellectual thinking and empathy is central to the role. Another fine reflection of Stephen Harper’s judgement of character.
Thirdly, Lindsay Sheppard is an irrelevant teaching intern soaking up her 15 minutes of minuscule fame. She fancy’s herself some Joan of Arc of free-speech but hasn’t a clue as to what she’s actually dealing with. Which should have been obvious to her when a bunch of pale ass virgins came running to her defence at the University. Her Tomi Lahren cosplay doesn’t deserve anywhere near the attention people give her.
Your comparison of Lindsay Sheppard to Tomi Lahren seems a little weird to me. Could you please expand on what you meant?
Tomi Lahren is a professional provocateur, who uses obviously incendiary language and statements to rile up reactions from her audience. She also knows that being a young semi-attractive female provides her a particular following with a specific crowd of people who see her as some queen of free speech.
Now, Shephard isn’t the Canadian version of Lahren’s millennial Ann Coulter act; she’s not some blatantly anti-progressive seeking the thrill of being a TV villain. But she is obviously comfortable with being the focal voice in a free speech crusade of aimless contrarianism.
I assert that we not give her the oxygen she needs to become something other than a teaching assistant who got caught up in a non-controversy.
I wouldn’t call university administrators bullying a young TA and attempting to enfore ideological purity on their campus to be a non-controversy. I imagine you’d feel differently if the campus ideological police were Fox News devotees. If that’s the kind of university it wishes to be, it should go private and cease collecting subsidies from Canadian taxpayers. There are many universities in Canada outside the public system; I suggest WLU join them.
Btw what’s wrong with contrarianism?
A link that might be relevant here:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/outintheopen/cut-through-hate-1.4450415/fighting-hate-with-friendship-one-exalted-cyclops-at-a-time-1.4450891
I don’t make friends with haters.
I like to make them very unhappy.
Quoting a known racists is never a good idea. I agree sometimes the left wing social justice warriors try to silence those who don’t agree with them, but on the other hand much of the free speech advocates seem to be way too cozy with the alt right. Otherwise fight for free speech limits where they occur, but also make clear to the alt right you want nothing to do with them. Reading Lindsay Shepherd’s twitter account, I wouldn’t call her alt right, but she definitely seems fairly right wing although I could be wrong.
I do however think the action the university took against her was totally over the top an unnecessary. We should all be respectful of transgendered people, but when it comes to people using wrong pronouns, I think the main thing is if a transgendered person wishes to be called by a different pronoun we grant them their wish, but actually mandating we always use them seems going a bit far. I also watched the debate too and it was on TVO, which is a public television no less so I really don’t see a problem showing it in a classroom. Only if she was encouraging discrimination or presenting bigots as a legitimate viewpoint do I think she should have been censured.
Thought I read an interview where she says she falls on the left of the political spectrum.
It was after a bunch of “social justice warriors” were saying she was alt-right.
That’s true. The left had no choice but to attack her, though, because she illuminated and publicized their lunacy, and they simply can’t abide that.
Beyak is just another example of the totally unqualified people that Harper appointed to the Senate. Thank’s Steve, it just proves that Conservative political philosophy is to f**k things up as much as possible.