PoliticallyConfused Monkey

Trying - in a small way - to foster international peace, love and understanding.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

95% of our problems come from our not being sufficiently well-intentioned.

#principleoftheday
#politicalcompass

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@DHBostyn So it turns on 'racial prejudice'. If the underlying assumption is that all races are equal in all socially relevant respects and that anyone who denies this is racially prejudiced, then it's just a more guarded way of saying that Cofnas is out.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@newinattica 4/ correct in particular, and seems to be getting worse. Lots of young Europeans seem not grasp the basic connection between providing good customer service and what pays their income. It's the service mentality that's missing.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@GoodwinMJ I doubt it. The AfD are presently on 42% in the opinion polls, and the other parties will do ANYTHING to keep them out. By the way, the AfD candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, is not a Nazi but a very nice person, as I've recently realised when I saw him on television.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@SteveStuWill That reading, working and studying are so far down on the list is rather concerning for our longer-term future.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@martianwyrdlord His appearance and demeanour account for at least half the interest in him. And in a Jungian archetypal sort of way, he is destined to be on his way to the beautiful, saintly martyr, compared to whom his critics seem ugly creatures of hell. This is exactly what's going to happen.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@fuecks Es gibt eine Zutrauen stiftende Politik: Die Position der AfD zur Immigration selbst zu übernehmen, aber ihre Exzesse zu vermeiden. Denn längerfristig kann es sich in einer Demokratie keine Partei leisten, den Wählerwillen zu ignorieren - ob man ihn nun mag oder nicht.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@erasmuse @PhilipSwallow2 Hardly a chairman of panels appointing academics. Nor obviously satirical. Nor even drunk!

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@nicolange_ Mich wundert, wie wenig Druck auf die Bahn und andere Beteiligten an Stuttgart 21 auch von der Öffentlichkeit ausgeübt wird. Eklatantes Versagen hat dort bislang kaum Konsequenzen für die Verantwortlichen gehabt. Es ist höchste Zeit, dass sich das ändert.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@MartinFieder Dass amerikanische ideologische Themen fast 1:1 auch in Deutschland übernommen worden sind, ist offensichtlich, obwohl sich die beiden Länder in Geschichte und Kultur einst stark unterschieden haben. Mich würde immer noch interessieren, warum dies in dem Ausmaß geschehen ist.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@biIliescomet @DrJessTaylor They did. But anyone who had seen Cofnas' Substack post knew that their response was clearly inadequate. Instead of looking into the very specific plagiarism allegations, they hid behind the assurances of John Moores University.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@DrJessTaylor Sorry for autocorrect: too, not to, of course!

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@DrJessTaylor Clearly some went to far. But don't you think much of it could - and should - have been prevented by clear statements from Arday and above all Cambridge University that seriously addressed the specific allegations? It didn't happen. A void will always be filled with speculation.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@PeterRNeumann I say this with all due compassion for his predicament and his problems: But it was him who in the end made the decision to not give himself a second chance. Whether right or wrong, that harsh truth has also to be respected.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@nathancofnas @Rosalind_Arden_ My very British advice to you: Keep calm and carry on. You injected some truth in this story, and the truth is always a virtue. Despite its terrible outcome, you carry the least responsibility for it. Truth and compassion must not be mutually exclusive.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@WolfReuter3 Nicht die Öffentlichkeit hatte Arday geschaffen, sondern ausschließlich die DEI-Politik der Universitäten. Den genauen Anlass für sein Suizid kennen wir nicht. Aber dass er genau dann zurücktrat, als Cambridge letztlich eine Untersuchung ankündigte, hat sicher etwas damit zu tun.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@MDC12345678 The media bears responsibility because at some point they realised they were dealing with a vulnerable fantasist. Cambridge bears responsibility because they knew it but did nothing about it. Arday himself bears responsibility because he never quit lying instead of seeking help.

[John Pollock @JohnPollock]

Pseudologia fantastica

Powerful & fascinating take: the psychiatrist & writer Dr @MaxPemberton looks at Jason Arday...

"The people I’ve met who fit the description of pseudologia fantastica tend not to stop lying. They are seldom cold or calculating. They tend to be charming and, perhaps most importantly, fragile underneath. What strikes me most is how often they appear to half-believe the story they’ve invented. The lie is not really being told to the listener at all, it is being told to the ego of the person telling it. The listener is only there to confirm it.

"...the tales are about suffering that has been overcome, odds that were insurmountable, the diagnosis nobody believed, the childhood that should not have been survived, and then the triumph over all this. It is a far more effective structure for any fantasy, because it makes doubting it feel like an act of cruelty.

"Why do the stories become so extravagant? Part of it is this notion that an audience gets used to them, just as the exponent of the lie does. So what produced gasps last year produces only nods this time, and applause that has stopped coming leaves an empty feeling.

"So the story has to grow, and it grows in whatever direction was rewarded most loudly last time. You can’t backtrack once a story is out there, you can only embellish and elaborate...

"The only person they picture on the other side of their story is somebody looking impressed. A claim is not weighed for whether it will survive scrutiny, it is weighed for whether it will trigger the required impression and response. The claims that do best in that regard are precisely the ones nobody sensible would invent.

"Every fantasist I’ve known kept going with their stories long past the point where anybody was still convinced, because the alternative was to confess it was a sham and allow people to destroy the false identity they had built for themselves, so become a nobody.

"Which is why I don’t feel triumphant about Jason Arday’s downfall. When a world collapses it is a terrible thing to live through, and no less terrible for having been constructed of tissue paper.

"He built it and must answer for it. But he did not build it on his own, and the institutions – not least Cambridge University and the diversity, equality and inclusion industry – that made him their poster boy and handed him the bricks have gone very quiet.

"For that they bear considerable responsibility in this sorry saga and should reflect on it in shame."

Original: https://t.co/yKN6HQnhXl
Archive: https://t.co/uzFXWnfX0X

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

Mit solchen Ansichten würde die Sozialdemokratin Mette Frederiksen in Deutschland möglicherweise bereits vom Verfassungsschutz beobachtet werden. Oder zumindest als rechts bis rechtsextrem gelten.

[Eva Gregersen @evagps]

I går i Folketinget sagde Danmarks statsminister:

"Problemet er jo, at en stor fjende er begyndt at vokse op indefra, og det er udlændinge, der er kommet til Europa.

Det er Hamastilhængere, det er folk, der begår terror mod europæiske samfund, det er folk, der ikke anerkender vores grundlæggende europæiske værdier, det er folk, der sympatiserer med nogle af de allermørkeste kræfter i den her verden.

Så Europa er truet. Problemet er, at vi både er truet udefra og nu indefra, men det er ikke på grund af en uenighed mellem den danske og spanske regering. Det er på grund af folk med en islamisk baggrund, som ikke vil det åbne, frie europæiske samfund, desværre."

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@sitsio Strangely enough, even the most basic feminist precepts appear to apply only to white society with its toxic masculinity. Others must of course be catered for by women so they can live out their raw instincts.

[PoliticallyConfused Monkey @PolConMonkey]

@jonatanpallesen We should always be suspicious of such self -immunising ideologies. Of course it's true that some people react with withdrawal or argumentation, which can prevent them from seeing the truth. But that's just as true for the ideologue himself! Clue: Do we find any self-criticism?