Free speech org blasts Stanford after student reported for reading ‘Mein Kampf’

A free speech organization blasted Stanford University for reporting a student who was recorded on a Snapchat post reading a copy of Hitler’s notorious biography “Mein Kampf.”

A “Protected Harm Identity Report,” the California university’s system for addressing incidents in which a student feels attacked due to their identity, was filed against the student after a screenshot of the student reading the Nazi manifesto was sent to university officials, The Stanford Daily reported this week.

“Swift action was taken by the leadership in the residential community where both the individuals who posted and the one pictured are members, and where these actions are causing the most direct damage to relationships and feelings of safety and belonging,” Stanford Rabbis Jessica Kirschner and Laurie Hahn Tapper wrote in an email to the school’s Jewish students.

Hahn and Tapper said they were working with student affairs staff and have spoken to the individuals involved, whom they said are “actively engaged in a process of reckoning and sincere repair,” according to the email. The incident has broken trust on campus, they added, which can cause “damage beyond whatever the original intent might have been.”

A PHI report is “not a judicial or investigative process,” and participation in a resolution process is optional and voluntary, the university states. If the matter rises to the level of a hate crime, it may be referred to law enforcement.

It’s not clear if the student involved was doing anything other than simply reading the book, Hitler’s anti-semitic manifesto that he wrote in prison in 1925 which would become the founding ideology of the future Nazi Party.

It’s also unclear if the student was reading the book for a class. It was assigned in a Humanities course last spring, according to The Stanford Review.

In response, The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, penned a letter to Stanford decrying reporting the student for reading a book as an “unacceptably punitive and chills expressive activity.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/free-speech-org-blasts-stanford-after-student-reported-for-reading-mein-kampf/ar-AA16MV2F

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Newsmax, Dropped by DirecTV, Decries Anti-Conservative Censorship

Millions of DirecTV subscribers no longer have access to Newsmax programming after the AT&T-owned satellite giant and the conservative news network failed to reach a new carriage deal.

The official deadline passed at midnight on Tuesday. As a result, Newsmax’s programs went to a blackout for more than 13 million customers of the satellite service, as well as those using DirecTV Stream and fiber-based AT&T U-Verse.

DirecTV described the dispute as a financial one, accusing Newsmax of demanding a fee to broadcast programs that are available on free-streaming platforms.

“On multiple occasions, we made it clear to Newsmax that we wanted to continue to offer the network, but ultimately Newsmax’s demands for rate increases would have led to significantly higher costs that we would have to pass on to our broad customer base,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in a statement.

“Anyone, including our customers, can watch the network for free via NewsmaxTV.com, YouTube.com and on multiple streaming platforms like Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Google Play. We continually evaluate the most relevant programming to provide our customers and expect to fill this available channel with new content.”

Newsmax, on the other hand, claimed that the satellite provider’s decision wasn’t driven by a desire to cut cost, but a bias against conservative viewpoints.

“DirecTV pays cable license fees to all top 75 cable channels and to all 22 liberal news and information channels it carries. Almost all of these channels are paid hefty license fees significantly more than Newsmax was seeking,” the Manhattan-based company said in a statement on Wednesday, claiming that most of those channels have “much lower ratings” than Newsmax.

Citing the removal of conservative news outlet One America News (OAN) from the satellite platform last year, Newsmax chief executive Christopher Ruddy decried the treatment as a “blatant act of political discrimination and censorship.”

“The most extreme liberal channels, even with tiny ratings, get fees from AT&T’s DirecTV, but Newsmax and OAN need to be deplatformed,” Ruddy said.

Newsmax also said it was “false” to claim that Newsmax is asking for a fee while still wanting to keep a free stream on other platforms. “No operator pays a fee while Newsmax streams free and DirecTV was fully aware the free stream will end this year,” the outlet clarified.

The failed negotiation comes after a group of 42 Republican members of Congress urged DirecTV to reconsider dropping Newsmax from its lineup, expressing concerns over DirecTV’s move to “de-platform Newsmax by denying it cable fees on a fair and equitable basis.”

The lawmakers also referenced the cancellation of OAN, a decision that came about a year after Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee specifically asked providers whether they planned to continue carrying programming for Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax—conservative networks that Democrats deemed “misinformation rumor mills and conspiracy theory hotbeds that produce content that leads to real harm.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/newsmax-dropped-by-directv-decries-anti-conservative-censorship_5009689.html

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Sacre bleu! French Embassy ruthlessly mocks AP for saying labels like 'the French' are 'dehumanizing' in viral tweet

The French Embassy in the US has joined thousands ruthlessly mocking the Associated Press Stylebook for its suggestion that referring to 'the French' is 'dehumanizing.'

The tweet, which has since been taken down, had been viewed 23 million times, shared by 18,000 Twitter users and racked up more than 9,000 comments, according to the New York Post.

The tweet posted to the APStylebook Twitter read: 'We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing 'the' labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the French, the disabled, the college educated.'

'Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant.'

The French Embassy were quick to respond sharing an image suggesting they may have to change their name to the 'Embassy of Frenchness in the US' captioning the post 'I guess this is us now.'

Writer Sarah Haider also joined in to poke fun at the news organization tweeting: 'I agree with this. Nothing as dehumanizing as being considered one of the French.'

'Rather, such individuals should be thought of as 'suffering from Frenchness' and deserve our compassion and prayers,' she finished.

American comedian and political commentator, Jon Stewart, quipped: 'I believe the correct AP label is 'the/those f****** French.'

AP advertises its stylebook as a 'must have reference for writers, editors, students and professionals' and is used by most newspapers in the United States.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11684203/French-Embassy-ruthlessly-mocks-AP-saying-labels-like-French-dehumanizing.html

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Video Platform Removes Documentary About Families Impacted by Transgender Ideology

Video-sharing website Vimeo recently removed a documentary from its platform that profiled the lives of three families whose lives were “upended” after their children began to identify as “transgender.”

According to Fox News Digital, the documentary “Dead Name” was released last month on Vimeo for rental or purchase. But, the platform confirmed to the outlet that the documentary was taken down due to violating its “Acceptable Use Policy” overseeing “harmful, hateful, and misleading content.”

"We can confirm that Vimeo removed the video in question for violating our Terms of Service prohibiting discriminatory or hateful content," the company said. "We strive to enforce these policies objectively and consistently across our platform. Vimeo has notified the account owner and all purchases have been refunded."

Taylor Reece, the filmmaker behind “Dead Name,” told Fox that "there are two main issues here” regarding Vimeo’s decision to remove the documentary.

"One is the censorship, which is really concerning, and the other is the issue itself, which has got to be discussed. It has to be. They can keep trying to suppress it, but ultimately it has to be discussed,” Reece said.

Reportedly, Reece said that someone in her family is dealing with the issues detailed in the film. She interviewed more than 100 parents for the film whose children became transgender as teenagers (via Fox News Digital):

Bill recounted in the film how he believes his son Sean, who suffered from health problems his entire life, ultimately died from complications related to cross-sex hormones after falling in with people at college who affirmed him in a transgender identity. Sean's classmates later criticized him for using his son's given name, or "dead name," during his online memorial service, from which the film gets its title.

Helen told the story of how her son developed two different identities and began talking about genital surgery at 4 years old. Amy said her adolescent daughter's transgender identity "just came from somewhere and swept her away."

All three parents discerned that their children's confusion was the result of external influences, and each smacked up against opposition from professional therapists who affirmed their children in the opposite sex without question.

Reece shared that “in all three cases, you have parents who feel alienated, who feel ostracized, who feel marginalized, who have been stunned and shocked at every juncture, whether it's been from a nursery school all the way up to a really fine college."

Reece added, "I don't want to have to campaign about censorship and being silenced. I want the film to speak to this issue. This issue is so important. We've got a whole generation of kids who have been captured with this [transgender ideology] and will age out.”

https://townhall.com//tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/01/25/vimeo-removes-transgender-video-n2618746

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Trump’s Facebook, Instagram Accounts Will Be Reinstated

Facebook and Instagram will restore former President Donald Trump’s accounts about two years after he was banned, parent company Meta announced on Wednesday.

“We will be reinstating Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks,” Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, said in a blog post. “However, we are doing so with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”

Those guardrails entail “heightened penalties for repeat offenses—penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol. In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” Clegg wrote.

Trump has not yet issued a public comment about the reinstatement. But Trump’s 2024 campaign officially petitioned Facebook to allow him back on the platform, which he often used for fundraising.

“We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” Trump’s campaign wrote on Jan. 17 to Meta, according to multiple news reports.

With the lifted suspension, it will allow Trump to run advertisements on both Instagram and Facebook. The former president had amassed tens of millions of followers on both platforms.

“We just do not want—if he is to return to our services—for him to do what he did on January 6, which is to use our services to delegitimize the 2024 election, much as he sought to discredit the 2020 election,” Clegg told Axios.

The accounts, Clegg added, will not be restored right away. Meta’s engineers have to figure out a way to restrict certain posts or advertising capabilities, if it is needed in the future, he said.

“If he now posts further violating content, that content will be removed, of course, and he could be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” he said.

Whether Trump uses the account is another question. After Twitter owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account last year, the former president has said he will remain on Truth Social, his own social media website.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trumps-facebook-instagram-accounts-will-be-reinstated_5010968.html

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An interesting case of censoring free speech

Malick W. Ghachem has an article up in the Chronicle of Higher Education under the title:  "A Better Way to Protect Free Speech on Campus".  The sub-heading is "Grand statements of principle ignore classroom realities"

So that sounds like a useful article.  Sadly, however, we cannot read it.  The article is a blank page.  The Chronicle obviously did not like it.  If Prof Ghachen would like to send it to me, I will put it up

https://www.chronicle.com/author/malick-w-ghachem

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Stanford re-educates us

Stanford's IT department has issued a list of words that should not be used on any of their websites. For a start don’t call web users ‘users’ because that makes them sound like people addicted to illegal drugs. And never allow anyone to say they are ‘addicted’ to something (relatively) harmless such as chocolate or TV soapies—because that trivialisers real addictions that people struggle with.

Really? Why not treat your readers as being intelligent and able to distinguish between the different uses? Why not assume readers can understand how context changes the weight of words?

Now Stanford’s IT department wants to ban language about animals. They claim that although ‘there are different ways to skin a cat’ or ‘flog a dead horse’ or ‘kill two birds with one stone’, all trivialise violence against animals. Really?

Again, why not respect the intelligence of your readers? Why not assume that competent users of the English language understand what idioms are and how they work? The real problem here is that the Stanford IT department (just like the Brandeis University’s IT department before it) actually doesn’t understand how the English language really works, and then tries to impose its ignorance on everyone else. Ignorance is not a good basis for censorship!

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/01/language-43/?

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The Benefits of Cultural Appropriation

Can white people enjoy the fruits of another culture? To the modern leftist, the answer is simultaneously yes and no.

On the one hand, leftists say white people should be subjected to endless skin-deep diversity in the media. Every TV show, movie, and video game needs to have a mathematically precise percentage of minorities, or else it’s advancing white supremacy.

But anything further than that facade of multiculturalism is verboten. Attempts by whites to enjoy foreign cultures beyond passive spectatorship are met with swift accusations of “cultural appropriation.”

That term is stupid on its face, as cultures have always evolved by merging and mixing with each other, and there isn’t a culture on the planet—white or otherwise—that exists in a vacuum.

But the recent controversy surrounding singer Gwen Stefani shows that the left won’t tolerate white people using non-white culture in their works.

Stefani has a well-known affinity for Japanese Harajuku-style fashion that she incorporates into many of her songs and music videos. Harajuku is a neighborhood in Tokyo known for its cutting-edge youth fashion, a style Stefani has attempted to cultivate.

During an interview with the fashion outlet Allure, Stefani explained her fascination with Japanese culture.

“[T]hat was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic, [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline, and it was fascinating to me,” Stefani said. “If [people are] going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn’t feel right … . [It] should be OK to be inspired by other cultures, because if we’re not allowed, then that’s dividing people, right?”

Stefani added she’s “a little bit of an Orange County girl, a little bit of a Japanese girl, a little bit of an English girl,” adding, “My God, I’m Japanese and didn’t know it.”

Those of us who aren’t predisposed to viewing everything through a race-obsessed lens could tell Stefani wasn’t saying she was literally ethnically Japanese, but rather implying that that culture had influenced her style and brand.

Still, the interviewer claimed the singer’s statements left her “unsettled” and that Stefani was engaged in cultural appropriation.

Stefani is not the first white person to be accused of cultural appropriation over incorporating elements of Japanese culture into their works.

Singer Katy Perry wore a kimono at the American Music Awards in 2013, which leftist rag The Atlantic said needed “to be called out.”

Meanwhile, Western video game journalists had an aneurysm over Ghost of Tsushima, a game set in feudal Japan made by an American studio.

In an article for Paste magazine, one “queer, indigenous writer” argued that the game was “a hokey, arguably racist approach to samurai aesthetic” and “in pursuit of … orientalist spectacle.”

For all the angry Americans screeching about how bad it is that white people dare incorporate Japanese aesthetics into their work, actual Japanese people seem thrilled that foreigners are embracing their culture.

An Al Jazeera piece detailing the Stefani controversy cited several Japanese people who were thrilled an American pop star was bringing their culture into the mainstream, while the government of Tsushima, a Japanese island, honored two senior members of the Ghost of Tsushima development team with honorary ambassadorships.

Clearly, the same people who are supposed to be so offended over this supposed cultural appropriation seem to be more than happy that the world is engaging with their culture. That’s clear to anyone who understands how normal, well-adjusted human beings act in the real world.

People want their cultures and values to spread. Culture isn’t some treasure to be hoarded by a woke dragon. Its richness is meant to be enjoyed by the world at large.

The Left used to understand this.

Many Americans can remember when the United States was defined as a melting pot of various ethnicities and cultures mixing together, bringing their unique histories and traditions to strengthen the nation.

That was considered a liberal position to hold, but it has since become gauche among the tweeting masses of the radical Left, who have devolved into the xenophobes and segregationists they claim to fight. We can’t let the whites and the Asians mix, after all.

It’s like the “Yellow Peril” of the early 1900s, but woke.

Stefani did nothing wrong by engaging with Japanese culture, and others should be encouraged to engage with foreign traditions as well.

Those on the Left keep telling us diversity is our strength. Perhaps they should take their own advice.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/01/18/woke-america-freaks-out-over-singer-gwen-stefanis-cultural-appropriation-but-japan-is-ok-with-it

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Don't use the word 'MUMMY'... it's offensive to ancient Egyptians: British Museum bans age-old expression

It might seem impossible to hurt the feelings of a 3,000-year-old corpse. But woke museum chiefs have stopped using the word 'mummy' to describe the remains of ancient Egyptians, all in the name of 'respect'.

They say the term is dehumanising to those who died and – of course – an unwelcome throwback to Britain's colonial past.

The phrase now deemed politically acceptable is 'mummified person' or 'mummified remains'.

The British Museum says it uses the latter phrase to emphasise to visitors that they are looking at people who once lived, while the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle says that it has adopted the new terms for its mummified woman Irtyru, who dates from around 600BC, to acknowledge the history of colonial exploitation and to give her the respect she deserves.

A spokeswoman said: 'Where we know the name of an individual we use that, otherwise we use "mummified man, woman, boy, girl or person" because we are referring to people, not objects.

'The word "mummy" is not incorrect, but it is dehumanising, whereas using the term "mummified person" encourages our visitors to think of the individual.'

Museums are also concerned the word has become linked to terrifying monsters, thanks to countless horror B-movies such as 1932's The Mummy.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11661057/British-Museum-bans-word-MUMMY-respect-3-000-year-old-dead.html

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Free speech is facing new attacks at State level

Ben Carson

Unsurprisingly, one example comes from California. A new law was recently passed here laying the groundwork for doctors to lose their licenses if they disseminate what the state deems "misinformation or disinformation" related to COVID-19. This speech will now be considered a violation of professional conduct.

As a former pediatric neurosurgeon, I can attest that this is nothing more than an implied threat to all of California’s doctors: toe the party line, or lose your medical license, business, and source of income. In this case, it is particularly concerning because so much of what we now know to be true about COVID-19 was formerly considered misinformation.

These restrictions will have not just a chilling effect on free speech but also on the practice of medicine itself. All scientific discovery is a series of hypotheses, trials, errors, and adjustments in pursuit of truth. Only by this process of free and open inquiry can we find out our mistakes, correct them, and make progress moving forward. I can say with absolute certainty that politics has no place in science. This fundamental concept is one the Left likes to commandeer, yet contradicts time and again with actions such as these. In this case, we know exactly who it is that is going to be doing the teaching.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/free-speech-is-facing-new-attacks-in-california-and-new-jersey/ar-AA16w110

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Democrats’ latest attempt to use a ‘white supremacy’ scare to crush their opposition

Politicians of old wanted to persuade the public by capturing hearts and minds, but today’s pols find more value in capturing our tongues. They want all Americans to take the most paranoid position on how dangerous our majority-white nation is for its non-white citizens.

Since the 2017 Charlottesville chaos involving a clash between a faction of neo-Nazis and protesters, notable Democrats (including President Joe Biden) have mimicked a broken record as they repeat the phrase that pays: White supremacy is the greatest threat to our nation.

But the Democratic mission of defeating white supremacy quickly moved from decrying a fringe minority’s actions to demanding oversight of the speech of the majority, which is exactly the goal of Democratic Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s new bill, the Leading Against White Supremacy Act.

The bill aims, it says, to “prevent and prosecute white supremacy inspired hate crime and conspiracy to commit white supremacy inspired hate crime.” The addition of conspiracy means that people who use supposed hate speech online could face criminal charges under the legislation even if no one takes action taken based on their speech.

One clause states the charge of conspiracy would apply to someone who “published material advancing white supremacy, white supremacist ideology, antagonism based on ‘replacement theory,’ or hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-White person or group.”

With the Department of Justice potentially granted the authority to investigate and mitigate any sort of conspiracy of white supremacy, we must ask the most obvious question: What is white supremacy? It’s a viral phrase that has quickly infected our political lexicon while allowing each host to change the definition as he or she sees fit — but a definition that applies to everything ultimately means nothing.

“White supremacy” is a term that universally fits like a glove onto your opposition, and if the accusations fit, you mustn’t quit. Even if Republicans like New York Rep. Elise Stefanik decry white supremacy in the aftermath of the Buffalo supermarket massacre by lambasting the shooter’s actions as “pure evil,” Democrats will remain vigilant in declaring Stefanik and others in their political opposition inspired the rare heinous nature of a sick individual.

Democratic politicians love this term’s fluidity because it provides a perfect rhetorical weapon they can constantly direct at Republican voters and politicians. And a bill of this nature gives the federal government authority to prosecute dissidents and political opponents with the accusation of conspiracy to inspire.

Democrats have moved from wanting to criminalize speech inciting violence to that “inspiring” violence because incitement has a higher standard of proof. Inspiring violence is indirect and unprovable, and Democrats want the American public to attribute equal malice to the people allegedly inspiring and the ones committing the violence.

Identity politics’ end game has always been empowering the government with the façade of protecting vulnerable demographics by dissolving the rights of all Americans. This bill is not about preventing another racially motivated atrocity but instead about further weaponizing federal law enforcement for the benefit of the DC political establishment.

This has always been about capturing our tongues so we don’t challenge their power, and they are willing to use tragedies like the Buffalo mass shooting and Charlottesville as reasons we should sacrifice our speech, to supposedly prevent another dreadful event from occurring — much like one failed shoe bomber is the reason we forever will have to remove our shoes before going on a plane.

Politicians work with the media to highlight certain atrocities over others to push the narrative that garners the most empathy and societal helplessness, giving the government carte blanche to behave as tyrannical saviors who restrict our rights for our own good

https://nypost.com/2023/01/18/democrats-latest-attempt-to-use-a-white-supremacy-scare-to-crush-their-opposition/

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http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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Now SPACE is racist! Woke Colorado astrophysics professor moans her field is riddled with 'white supremacy' and sexism - with colleagues using 'hypermasculine' and 'violent' language to describe the cosmos

A Colorado astrophysicist has claimed her field is steeped in white supremacy and sexism because 'hypermasculine' and 'violent' language is used to describe stars.

Natalie Gosnell, an assistant professor at Colorado College, takes an unconventional approach to physics by comparing stars with humans to turn science into an art.

In an interview with the college newspaper she claimed she has struggled to overcome a division between art and science that is rooted in 'systemic racism.'

Her work aims 'to cross typical disciplinary boundaries to create art-science pieces that re-inscribe outer space as feminist space,' she said on her website.

'Both artists and scientists are just observing things about the world, interpreting those observations, and then sharing their interpretation,' Gosnell told Colorado College News.

'As an astrophysicist, I am a product of institutions steeped in systemic racism and white supremacy,' she said.

Suggestions that academic fields like science and engineering are male-dominated are common and generally accepted but Gosnell goes further by arguing that the language used to describe scientific phenomena is sexist and racist.

The way in which stars burn through their fuel and die is viewed through a 'hypermasculine' lens and the metaphors used are often 'very violent,' she claimed.

An example she gave was that stars which take mass from other stars are labeled 'bad boys,' though this does not seem to be a widely used scientific term.

She may have been referring to an article written by popular science journalist Nancy Atkinson in 2009, in which Atkinson wrote that 'blue stragglers [which] steal mass from companion stars by crashing into their neighbors' are 'stellar bad-boys.'

Much of Gosnell's research is dedicated to understanding blue straggler binary star systems - which often involve one star burning out and merging with another.

Gosnell, who studies binary star systems using telescopes and imaging, has said she tries to combine art and science because the two fields are more similar than people think.

'I think because science and art were so separate, and that's how it is […] systemic questions within science, the often chosen metaphors [to discuss science] are very violent and hypermasculine,' she said.

'The tenets of white supremacy emerging [in physics] of individualism and exceptionalism and perfectionism… it's an either-or thinking and there's no subtlety, there's no gray area. All of this is manifested in the way we think about our research and what counts as good research, what counts as important research,' she said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11642707/Colorado-astrophysicist-moans-field-riddled-white-supremacy-sexism.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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University language dictates

For some time, the universities of the world have been at the forefront of cancel culture—trying to put woke  blinkers on their students and staff (and largely succeeding!) This shows up particularly in what their IT departments do to impose censorship guidelines on their web users.

Some time ago I reported here when Brandeis University’s IT department put out its Oppressive Language List (since re-titled Suggested Language List) – and now the great Stanford university has done the same. Their IT department has issued a list of words that should not be used on any of their websites.

 For a start don’t call web users ‘users’ because that makes them sound like people addicted to illegal drugs. And never allow anyone to say they are ‘addicted’ to something (relatively) harmless such as chocolate or TV soapies—because that trivialisers real addictions that people struggle with.

Really? Why not treat your readers as being intelligent and able to distinguish between the different uses? Why not assume readers can understand how context changes the weight of words?

Now Stanford’s IT department wants to ban language about animals. They claim that although ‘there are different ways to skin a cat’ or ‘flog a dead horse’ or ‘kill two birds with one stone’, all trivialise violence against animals. Really? Again, why not respect the intelligence of your readers? Why not assume that competent users of the English language understand what idioms are and how they work?

The real problem here is that the Stanford IT department (just like the Brandeis University’s IT department before it) actually doesn’t understand how the English language really works, and then tries to impose its ignorance on everyone else. Ignorance is not a good basis for censorship!

https://spectator.com.au/2023/01/language-43/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Why did Facebook reject The Spectator’s Joe Biden cover?

Earlier this week, I was asked to list the three biggest threats to the media. Aside from the general sales decline of newspapers, I said, the threat of both censorship – and the lack of accountability from the firms who apply it. We at The Spectator have just come across a classic example of this, when Facebook refused to publish this week’s cover satirising Joe Biden when we submitted it as an advert. The cover asked if Biden would serve for six more years, but the illustration had him holding up five fingers. A nice joke, but hardly a cruel one. So we appealed. An email came back saying:

You asked for another review of your rejected ads. After another review, it’s been determined that they still don’t comply with our Advertising Policies.

So that was it. Our Biden cover was rejected. No further recourse. Computer says no.

What happened next makes an interesting case study of the power – and accountability – of the social media giants that hold such sway over British public debate. Facebook is now the no.1 source of UK news after the broadcasters, its bots deciding which news posts are promoted and which ones are concealed. Whoever programmes the bots wields more power than any of the great media barons: Hearst, Beaverbrook or Murdoch. I’m not saying that Facebook is politically biased, just that bots are getting more energetic which makes life harder for satire and against-the-grain arguments (from left or right). This is something I now encounter daily: a Kafkaesque process of rejection, lack of explanation and algorithm editing which has far more influence over what we read than is generally acknowledged.

Facebook, like most social media giants, does not feel the need to respond to people asking why their content has been targeted. There is no hotline to call, no account manager to complain to. We always use Facebook ads to promote our cover: over the years we have shown Boris Johnson crashing into the ground with his head splat on the pavement. We have shown Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng in a motorcycle crash, their bodies in mangled metal. We’ve mocked Theresa May as a ‘Maybot’ putting her in all kinds of positions of torture for weeks. And Donald J. Trump? We’ve had him as a gun-toting psychopath and a pitchfork-wielding loon, goose-stepping in synchronisation with Marine le Pen. All published by Facebook without a problem.

https://spectator.com.au/2023/01/why-did-facebook-reject-the-spectators-joe-biden-cover/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders bans ‘Latinx’ from Arkansas government documents

Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will prohibit the use of the term “Latinx” in government documents through an executive order.

Sanders, who was sworn in as the first female governor of Arkansas on Tuesday, justified the ban of the word “Latinx” in government documents and name titles by citing a Pew Research poll that found only 3% of American Latinos and Hispanics used the term to describe themselves.

“Ethnically insensitive and pejorative language has no place in official government documents or government employee titles,” Sanders’ executive order states. “The government has a responsibility to respect its citizens and use ethnically appropriate language, particularly when referring to ethnic minorities.”

Progressive groups and some politicians have pushed the term “Latinx” in recent years as a gender-neutral alternative to the Spanish words Latina and Latino.

Sanders noted in the executive order that the Real Academia Española, a Madrid-based institution that serves as a linguistic guide for Spanish, officially rejects the use of “x” to replace “o” and “a” as a way to identify gender in the language.

“One can no more easily remove gender from Spanish and other romance languages than one can remove vowels and verbs from English,” the executive order states. “It is the policy of the Governor’s administration to prohibit the use of culturally insensitive words for official state government business.”

Another executive order set to be signed by Sanders will ban the use of TikTok on state devices and government networks — an action first reported by Fox News Digital. The order follows similar bans from the federal government and more than 20 other states.

Sanders previously worked as the press secretary for former President Donald Trump in 2019. She told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that as a mother, education will be a core issue in her governorship.

“I’ve made no secret that the biggest priority I have for this session is a large-scale education reform package,” Sanders said. “I am living it every day with a fifth-grader, a third-grader and a first-grader, and I feel the impact of education and what it means and what it means to each kid.”

https://nypost.com/2023/01/11/gov-sarah-huckabee-sanders-bans-latinx-from-arkansas-govt-docs/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Woke leaders at USC ban the word 'field' because it's racist:

The University of Southern California's School of Social Work has published a letter saying it will remove the word 'field' from its curriculum and practice and replace it with the word 'practicum' instead.  

The move is meant to reflect 'anti-racist' values, but some have argued that it insults the intelligence of the people who it is addressing.

'This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that could be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favor of inclusive language,' the letter read.

'Language can be powerful, and phrases such as "going into the field" or "field work" may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.'

Houman David Hemmati, a board-certified MD Ophthalmologist and PhD research scientist, tweeted: 'Today, @uscsocialwork sent out this letter announcing that they will no longer use the word "field" (as in "conducting field work") because it's perceived as racist. Is this with merit or empty virtue signaling?'.

Interim dean of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Vassilios Papadopoulos, sought to clarify the situation. He told Fox News Digital that he understands the decision was made by the Office of Practicum Education 'out of a desire to more accurately describe its work'.

He added: 'Because the Office is not an academic department, its name change was not subject to a formal review process. The university does not maintain a list of "banned" or discouraged words. As an institution of higher education, we will continue to use words - including the word "field" – that accurately encompass and describe our work and research, while also continuing our efforts to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11622411/Woke-leaders-USC-ban-word-field-racist.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Biased Fact-Checker Is Targeting PragerU!

NewsGuard—one of the largest and most influential “fact-checkers” employed by Big Tech—is targeting PragerU!

After labeling PragerU as misinformation, encouraging tech platforms to cancel us, warning users to “proceed with caution” before viewing our content, damaging our reputation, and costing us hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars, NewsGuard refuses to leave us alone.

Political and corporate elites empower third-party fact-checkers like NewsGuard to censor companies they don’t like—companies like PragerU. Meanwhile, leftist, legacy media companies like the New York Times and NPR get near-perfect “credibility” ratings.

So, who is behind NewsGuard, and why are they controlling what you can and cannot see?

NewsGuard is partnered with Big Tech companies (like Microsoft), Big Pharma (like the PR firm for Pfizer—the maker of the COVID vaccine), government agencies (like the Department of Defense), and even national teachers unions (like the American Federation of Teachers) “to combat disinformation, especially around COVID-19 and elections” according to the World Economic Forum. So, it’s no wonder NewsGuard doesn’t want open dialogue about COVID-19 and lockdowns.

They want to stop PragerU from exposing the truth.

Advisors to NewsGuard include former Directors of the CIA and other government agencies. Their partners, advisors, and staff overwhelmingly support left-wing causes. So, how can NewsGuard claim to be “independent” and call itself “The Internet Trust Tool”?

If you’ve seen any of our videos, you know that PragerU is fiercely committed to the truth. But NewsGuard slapped us with a misinformation label just because they don’t want the public to hear what we have to say.

Here’s just one of many examples of how third-party fact-checkers like NewsGuard are hurting organizations like PragerU, Breitbart, The Daily Wire, and The Babylon Bee: The company that used to host our videos, JW Player, informed us 18 months ago that they were not willing to work with us anymore. When we asked why, they said we had been blacklisted by NewsGuard and claimed our content was “misleading.” Suddenly, we had to devote considerable time and money to find a new video host.

Now, NewsGuard is back, threatening to further harm us if we don’t comply with their long list of ridiculous demands.

We will not let NewsGuard and their cronies get away with this. We’re not going to let them suppress free speech, conceal information, and control what you can and cannot see, all while keeping you completely in the dark.

There might be severe consequences for us for pushing against NewsGuard. But if we don’t do it, who will?

info@update.prageru.com

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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YouTube Censors Doctors, Heritage Foundation Expert for ‘Medical Misinformation’ on COVID-19

Nearly three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and just after President Joe Biden effectively claimed the pandemic is over by trying to reverse Title 42, YouTube removed footage of a panel involving doctors and a Heritage Foundation expert discussing COVID-19 and restrictions imposed on religious liberty in the name of public health.

One speaker on the panel told The Daily Signal that this Big Tech censorship proved his point about suppression of freedoms during the pandemic, and he condemned YouTube’s move as “Kafkaesque.”

The panel, “Setting the Record Straight,” took place at the Restoring Our Faith Summit last October in Vermont.

Speakers included Dr. Robin Armstrong, owner of an organization of hospital and nursing home physicians; Dr. Janci Chunn Lindsay, a toxicology expert; Aaron Kheriaty, a psychologist and scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; and Roger Severino, former director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services and currently vice president for domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news outlet.)

“Hi Restoring Our Faith Summit, Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our medical misinformation policy,” YouTube wrote Dec. 13

YouTube provided a vague explanation for removing the content, noting that “YouTube doesn’t allow claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization.”

The email also warned that if Restoring Our Faith attempted to upload another video that violates the policy, its channel “will get a strike and you won’t be able to do things like upload, post, or live stream for 1 week.”

A representative of the summit personally reached out to a YouTube staffer, seeking clarification. The staffer did not explain which specific claims in the video from the summit allegedly violated YouTube policy or which speaker made them.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/01/09/exclusive-youtube-censors-doctors-heritage-foundation-expert-medical-misinformation-covid-19

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Biden WH Pressured Facebook to Censor Tucker Carlson by Invoking January 6

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry revealed a top White House staffer sent an email to Facebook flagged a post by Fox News Tucker Carlson about the lack of effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine and tried to get the company to censor the post.

The email was sent in 2021 by Rob Flaherty, who works as the White House's director of Digital Strategy, where he chastised the social media giant by question if they were actually taking steps to restrict the reach of those stating the COVID-19 vaccine not working as originally advertised, pointing to a post by Fox News contributor Tomi Lehren the previous day about the same thing was also number one.

"Since we've been on the phone — the top post about vaccines today is [T]ucker Carlson saying they don't work. Yesterday was Tomi Lehren saying she won't take one," Flaherty wrote. "This is exactly why I want to know what "Reduction" actually looks like — if "reduction" means 'pumping our most vaccine hesitant audience with [T]ucker Carlson saying it doesn't work' then...I'm not sure it's reduction!"

"Thanks—I saw the same thing when we hung up. Running this down now," the person from Facebook replied.

"Later, Facebook informed the White House that Tucker Carlson’s video did not qualify for removal; but the video was labeled with a pointer to 'authoritative' (White House approved) information, the video was not 'recommended' to others, and it was demoted on Facebook," Landry explained. "The White House then demanded to know why the Tucker Carlson video did not violate Facebook policy and was not removed. A follow-up email by the White House condescendingly reiterates that their demand for answers was not rhetorical."

Landry said when Facebook would not respond to their emails, the White House invoked the riot at the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

"Not for nothing but the last time we did this dance, it ended in an insurrection," the email said.

Facebook eventually caved in to the White House's demands and slapped a 50 percent demotion pending a 7-day fact checking period, even though no fact checking actually occurred

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/01/09/la-ags-lawsuit-reveals-top-wh-official-tried-to-get-facebook-to-censor-tucker-n2618051

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Rumble CEO tells Tucker Carlson his company is 'winning' the free speech game amid social media censorship

Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski told "Tucker Carlson Today" that "something nefarious" was going on with big tech and censorship. Pavlovski said he saw the opportunity to champion fair and free speech with his platform Rumble amid the controversy, which has led to huge success.

"We could run a good business just by being fair, and that's what we did," Pavlovski told host Tucker Carlson on Thursday.

With nearly 5 billion social media users - or more than half the world - registered for at least one social network, there's no doubt social media is a dominant part of our global society.

As of September 2022, nearly 80 million users have reportedly found a home on Rumble.

The cloud services business and video platform known for hosting Truth Social, was founded one decade ago in 2013 as a means to help small creators with their content amid larger platforms monopolizing the market.

"2013 we launched, helping the small creator, and our politics at the time were cute cats and dogs. We didn't have politics on our site. I think, like, one of our first political-oriented news publishers on Rumble was Reuters in 2000, I don't remember, but 2014, '15, around there."

By 2020, Pavloski said he knew something was amiss.

Politicization and censorship were taking grasp of the media, and free speech was being limited. Opportunity knocked with Devin Nunes and Dan Bongino, whose content faced censorship on the big platforms, and who saw their content analytics spike once they jumped to Rumble.

"I think our whole company concluded that there's something really nefarious going on when it comes to censorship. Like, what is it that's happening? How could that happen? And it presented an opportunity to us, obviously, where you know, we just had to be fair."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/rumble-ceo-tells-tucker-carlson-his-company-is-winning-the-free-speech-game-amid-social-media-censorship/ar-AA166up6

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Free speech risks being compromised by equality laws, Cambridge don warns

Prof Arif Ahmed, a Cambridge don who is on the shortlist to become the Government’s free speech champion, said that “well-meaning” initiatives aimed at promoting inclusion can end up undermining discussion and debate.

Downing Street announced plans to create the post last year, following a string of disputes over so-called “cancel culture” at universities.

Prof Ahmed, a philosophy lecturer at Cambridge, was recently at the centre of a row over an invitation he sent to Helen Joyce, a gender critical feminist, to address students at his college.

Ms Joyce has argued that men and women have been “redefined” by trans activists, with laws and policies “reshaped to privilege self-identified gender identity over biological sex”.

The event sparked major campus protests, with the college’s LGBTQ representatives saying they were “unanimously disgusted by the platforming of such views”.

The college’s master, Prof Pippa Rogerson, described Ms Joyce’s views as “hateful” and vowed to join the student boycott of the event.

Prof Ahmed said the saga showed how there are some “senior people in universities sometimes who are very often well meaning, they have aims for the university and for the colleges which come from a place of genuine concern about equality and diversity and a desire to protect minorities”.

But he added: “I think those well meaning intentions can sometimes be subverted often by small groups of people who can use it as a way to shut down legitimate debate and legitimate free speech.”

Prof Ahmed has recently been appointed to the board of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, meaning he will be among experts charged with enforcing equalities legislation.

Speaking in a personal capacity, he described how the recent events in Cambridge were just one way in which equality and diversity legislation and initiatives “risk being misapplied or misunderstood in ways that compromise free speech”.

He told The Telegraph: “We saw an illustration of what could have been another one of those cases - it could have been a case where the event was shut down, prevented from happening by people who are well meaning.

“Simply because they were influenced in the wrong direction by a small group of people who think that the best way to protect rights is to shut down anyone who speaks on the other side, which is a mistake

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/free-speech-risks-being-compromised-by-equality-laws-cambridge-don-warns/ar-AA165pRp

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Meta to decide whether to lift Donald Trump Facebook ban ‘in the coming weeks’

Top executives at Facebook’s parent company Meta will soon announce whether former President Donald Trump will be allowed back onto the social media platform from which he was banned following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

The decision over whether to allow Trump to reconnect with his 35.4 million followers on Facebook and 24.6 million on Instagram, another Meta subsidiary, will reportedly be made by Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs.

Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister who joined Facebook in 2018 as its vice president of global affairs and communications, has seen his portfolio expand at the company in recent months.

According to the Financial Times, Clegg will have the final say over Trump’s reinstatement. Trump recently announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2024 — which could factor into Meta’s decision.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/03/meta-to-decide-whether-to-lift-donald-trump-ban-from-facebook/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Washington teacher who brought MAGA hat to school trainings protected under First Amendment, court rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District ruled a former Washington teacher's decision to bring a "Make America Great Again" hat to a school training was protected speech under the First Amendment.

Court documents showed former Wy'east Middle School science teacher Eric Dodge, an educator of more than 17 years, wore the controversial hat while walking up to an Evergreen Public Schools building to attend a staff-only cultural sensitivity and racial bias training.

Dodge did not wear the hat during the training, but had it set it out where others could see it near his belongings. Some attendees reportedly said they felt "intimidated" and "threatened" by Dodge's decision to have the hat with him, court documents said.

Wy’east Middle School Principal Caroline Garret reportedly approached him about the hat and told him to use better judgment. Dodge then brought the hat to another training before the 2019-2020 school year.

In court documents, Dodge said he was "verbally attacked" by Garret and other school employees after bringing the hat again, and that retaliation amounted to a violation of his First Amendment rights.

He then filed a lawsuit against Garrett, the school's HR officer Janae Gomes and the school district.

On Dec. 29, the appeals panel ruled in favor of Dodge and decided the school district failed to show evidence of a "tangible disruption" to school operations that would outweigh the teacher's First Amendment rights.

The court noted that since Dodge did not wear the hat around students or in a classroom setting, his decision to wear the hat represented his beliefs alone and could not represent the school system, unlike other court cases.

Dodge's lawyers also argued that there was "no general prohibition on political speech" when Garrett told Dodge he could not bring his MAGA hat to school, even adding that Garrett allowed a Black Lives Matter poster to hang in the library and sported a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker on her car.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/washington-teacher-brought-maga-hat-school-trainings-protected-under-first-amendment-court-rules

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Wealthy donor cut off his cash over 'rise in campus wokery'

A university's largest donor has cut off his cash to instead fund the fight for free speech on campus.

Durham's former record-setting benefactor Mark Hillery, 57, will not donate to any university again until ‘they get their free speech house properly in order’.

The retired hedge fund manager donated more than £7 million to his alma mater, Collingwood College, between 2015 and 2021.

But this year, instead of funnelling his cash to the university, he gifted £400,000 to the Free Speech Union.

He told The Daily Telegraph: ‘It’s both depressing and deeply ironic that someone who was a long-time significant supporter of higher education now feels compelled to redirect his financial efforts to protecting free speech within it.

‘In the real world, such actions would surely send some alarm bells ringing and prompt some hard-headed, honest questions. But in higher academia, the message currently appears either lost or deemed irrelevant to the cause.’

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/wealthy-donor-cut-off-his-cash-over-rise-in-campus-wokery/ar-AA15KjhV

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Police in Scotland have sparked outrage for describing pedophiles as “minor-attracted people” in a report

Officials said the language in the year-end report was based on terminology used by the European Union.

In a year-end report, Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said police have worked on a project that’s main agenda is “to develop understanding and approach to avoid the victimization of children by engaging Minor-Attracted People (MAPs) and providing them with the necessary support, treatment and guidance to help prevent criminal activities.”

The phrasing in the report drew criticism from many in Scotland who said the police were normalizing sex crimes against children, Scotland Daily Express reported.

“Spouting these euphemisms simply masks the reality and their danger,” Kenny McAskill, Alba Party MP for East Lothian and former SNP Justice Secretary, told the outlet.

“I very much welcome the common sense approach from Police Scotland, though even in commissioning documents these euphemisms should be avoided as they mask the reality and hide the horror. The term in whatever context is baloney.”

Maggie Mellon, an independent social work consultant, said that the term “MAP” leads to “danger of normalizing and therefore perhaps decriminalizing a serious offense”.

A conservative party leader in Scotland added that “most Scots will find any attempt to soften the language around pedophilia in official guidance to be deeply disturbing and wrong.”

https://nypost.com/2022/12/31/scotland-police-deflect-blame-after-being-blasted-for-report-describing-pedophiles-as-minor-attracted-people/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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CDC censorship of gun statistics

Gun control activists know that Defensive Gun Uses (DGUs) are a thorn on their side because they make selling gun control harder. Therefore, in what can be uncharitably described as a conspiracy against the civil rights of The People, they mounted a months-long pressure campaign, using influence from a Democrat Senator and the White House, to privately meet with CDC officials to get higher-end DGU statistics removed from the CDC website.

One CDC official called the gun control activists “partners” in an email.

Beth Reimels, Associate Director for Policy, Partnerships, and Strategic Communication at the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, said in one email to the three advocates on December 10th. “We will also make some edits to the content we discussed that I think will address the concerns you and other partners have raised.”

While conspiring with gun control activists behind closed doors, the CDC at the same time did not bother reaching out to the researcher whose higher-end DGU estimates were yanked from the CDC website:

Kleck, Professor Emeritus at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, stood by his research. He said the CDC did not reach out to him for his perspective before making the change. He argued the removal of the reference to his estimate was “blatant censorship” and said it was evidence of the politicization of the agency.

https://bearingarms.com/ranjit-singh/2022/12/31/total-media-blackout-of-the-scariest-second-amendment-story-of-2022-n65727

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Must not mention illegal immigration?

N.C. State radio broadcaster Gary Hahn was suspended indefinitely after making a reference to “illegal aliens” in Texas Friday, according to The News & Observer’s Luke Decock.

While calling the Wolfpack’s 16-12 loss against Maryland in the Mayo Bowl on Friday, Hahn updated listeners about the Sun Bowl, which was also taking place at the time, by saying “down among all the illegal aliens in El Paso it’s UCLA 14 and Pittsburgh 6.”

Kyle Winchester, the Wolfpack Sports Properties general manager, later confirmed the broadcaster’s indefinite suspension in a statement to The News & Observer. Annabelle Myers, the associate athletics director for communications at the school, also confirmed the punishment in a statement to NBC’s local affiliate.

El Paso, Texas has seen a rising number of migrants coming through the city. Last week, the Sun Bowl canceled its Fan Fiesta due to the city using El Paso’s convention center.

https://nypost.com/2022/12/30/nc-state-announcer-gary-hahn-suspended-for-illegal-aliens-comment/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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