Tuesday morning links

North Korean defector slams 'woke' US schools

“I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think,” Park told Fox News. “I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.”

The 27-year-old told The Post that she could’t believe she would be asked to do “this much censoring of myself” at a university in the United States.

“I literally crossed the Gobi Desert to be free and I realized I’m not free, America’s not free,” she said.

https://nypost.com/2021/06/14/north-korean-defector-slams-woke-us-schools/

#1 feeblemind on 2021-06-15 08:46 (Reply)

One of my South Korean friends (now an instructor at Harvard) once told me he feels much less free and secure in America, despite theoretically having more "social freedom" (South Korea is culturally very conservative). His concern is that he may inadvertently say or do something that is deemed politically incorrect and that his career or teaching positions would be over. Being from another country, he says he doesn't know where the lines of acceptable speech are in U.S. society, and the lines are always shifting. So he keeps his mouth shut most of the time. He says there is more freedom in South Korea to say what you want without fearing retribution or punishment. (Yes, and Koreans tend to be opinionated about things.)

#1.1 Jim on 2021-06-15 16:35 (Reply)

"It dishonors the victims and obscures the real motive." Mr. Greenwald, I think you know the answer to that and are just trying to get us to see it. But the victims are irrelevant and obscuring the real motive is the point, not an unfortunate side effect.

#2 Assistant Village Idiot on 2021-06-15 08:58 (Reply)

QUOTE:

"British President Boris Johnson has expanded the UK's controversial COVID-19 lockdown by another four weeks Monday, citing concerns about the "Delta" COVID mutant that first emerged from India.

"This was Journalism's finest half-hour". I think President Churchill said that once.

#3 Aggie on 2021-06-15 09:06 (Reply)

Masks forever even though they don't work to prevent the spread of disease and they are actually harmful. I think in all fairness people should be allowed a choice between a mask or garlic hung around their neck. Both are equally effective.

I do wonder about the airline mandate. We were told that because of the superior air flow/replacement in airplanes that risk of transmission of Covid is minimal. If true, why require a mask? Could they have lied to us???

Interestingly almost all of the people who have caught Covid did indeed abide by the mask rules. And yet various state and local governments still mandate them.

#4 Anon on 2021-06-15 10:04 (Reply)

Straight out of Conspiracyville, in search of a reacharound for virtue signaling, it's a candidate for Poast of the Weak:

QUOTE:

#4.1 Poast of the Weak on 2021-06-15 11:40 (Reply)

I can't tell if you are agreeing or disagreeing. If your intent was to slyly disagree you were to obtuse.

I wish masks worked. Wouldn't that be great? Never get sick again just wear a mask all the time. But they don't. It is like whistling past a graveyard.

This is what works:
https://www.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/styles/2014_wysiwyg_full/public/fields/field_insert_file/news/Ebola%2002.jpg?itok=7_mOiUQy

#4.1.1 Anon on 2021-06-15 15:26 (Reply)

Where's the lamb sauce?

#4.1.1.1 Helen the Labradoodle on 2021-06-15 22:49 (Reply)

"Politicians and activists should stop ratifying the fiction that Omar Mateen was motivated by anti-LGBT hatred. It dishonors the victims and obscures the real motive."

Couldn't agree more. The real problem was/is the disease of Islam.

#5 Maniac on 2021-06-15 10:13 (Reply)

Exactly right. And there is only one cure for that disease and we are unwilling to do what must be done so that we can survive. So we won't survive... It's just a matter of time.

#5.1 Anon on 2021-06-15 15:28 (Reply)

I got into Costco yesterday without a mask. Didn't have to show my shot record.

NYC: Smart people will move to safer towns.

HOW RADICAL ARE THE TEACHERS’ UNIONS? The STUPID is STRONG in these ones.

"In fact, I don’t even believe that most people have any real concept of what critical race theory is." It's a plot to make people angry and un-trusting.

How did such collective madness infect a once pragmatic and commonsensical America? Democrats did it.

Journalists Complain That Reporting on Israel Is Not Misleading Enough: Why I despise, detest, and totally distrust the "media".

#6 Sam L. on 2021-06-15 10:14 (Reply)

Americans oppose restrictions, but report feeling less free to speak about political matters.

And unfortunately, everything is political now. And the scary thought is that Orwell nailed it in 1984 in an overlooked part of that - in the end Winston Smith overcame his own beliefs and came to love Big Brother, there's no happy ending there. When the time comes for us to be loaded aboard the cattle cars and sent off to the camps, they won't need troops to force us aboard the trains, they'll need troops to maintain order as the throngs push and shove their way to be the first aboard. We are all sinners and we all deserve to be punished, we want to be punished, we demand to be punished for it is only through suffering that we can be cleansed of our sins.

#7 Jerryskids on 2021-06-15 10:22 (Reply)

Chemistry, biology textbooks overrepresent male scientists, educators say

What? They left out physics? What an insult!

#8 Paul in Boston on 2021-06-15 10:24 (Reply)

I work with physicists…I’m not sure if it’s the charming outgoing world view, the command of the English language or the amazing personal hygiene but yeah…they get left out a lot.

#8.1 DblTap on 2021-06-15 13:07 (Reply)

You should work with geologists; they really do not think like "normal" people. A true geologist thinks like a rock.

#8.1.1 Frances on 2021-06-15 22:55 (Reply)

Yes, those physics books are just full of the names of old dead white men like Ampere, Volta, Gauss, Henry etc. They should replace those names with the names of POC.

#9 Ray on 2021-06-15 10:30 (Reply)

You can show you've personally canceled Ampere and Volta and disavowed their White Power ideas by picking up a paper clip and sticking it in the wall outlet.

#9.1 Jim on 2021-06-15 21:11 (Reply)

I don't think anybody intends for masks to be worn perpetually or for vaccine passports to become mandated, we are a free people and we will always be given a free choice. For example, if you don't want to wear a mask or show a vaccination record, you won't have to, but you will have to submit to a COVID test. An anal swab. Administered by a guy named "Bruiser". On an hourly basis. For the children. But, hey, totally your choice!

#10 Jerryskids on 2021-06-15 11:24 (Reply)

Masks have just about disappeared here. But I disagree with the article's conclusion, too: we don't need 50 states reading out of the same manual. The only thing that saved us this time was that half the states were free to be sane. That forced a few people to take an honest look at which policies had some effect and which were a waste of time or harmful on balance. It drove the NYT crazy having to confront the facts from Texas and Florida.

#11 Texan99 on 2021-06-15 13:01 (Reply)

Drove them crazy? They were about five yards from that destination at the start...

The idea that One Size Does Not Fit All is anathema.

#11.1 Jlawson on 2021-06-15 15:47 (Reply)

Yeah, I feel real bad that textbooks are still referencing the good scientists.

But here's what the reality of the situation as far as getting people into STEM (medicine is already compromised. Dr. Bliss has even hinted concerns about this)

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/04/08/1418878112

#12 DrTorch (Link) on 2021-06-15 14:03 (Reply)

Based on regular observations in an airport I'd say 1/3, at least, wear no mask inside until they are at the airline counter or in the TSA line. Same for post-security. I know that most TSA employees are locals so it probably depends on where you live, but around here no TSA agent is going to bother telling you to put on a mask when simply walking through the airport. They only care to the extent that their supervisor does.

I'm happy for the employees of big corporations who are no longer required to wear the stupidmasks. I think that was mostly just sadistic people who enjoy watching others in pain or discomfort. Now if we can just get rid of the plexiglass barriers. It's a Lowe's, not a gas station on the bad part of town.

#13 Jack Walter on 2021-06-15 14:15 (Reply)

That's funny. I took the wrong freeway leaving Disneyland some years ago and found myself on the way to Long Beach. I realized I was lost and stopped at a gas station to get directions. They were behind bullet proof glass and you passed your money through a dip in the steel counter. I was the only non-POC there.

#13.1 Saul on 2021-06-15 15:33 (Reply)

"Biden Administration Asks Americans to Report ‘Potentially’ Radicalized Friends and Family"

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/15/biden-administration-asks-americans-to-report-potentially-radicalized-friends-and-family/

What a great opportunity to turn in anyone you know who is part of Antifa or BLM. Flood the system with the names of left wing radicals.

#14 Anon on 2021-06-15 15:41 (Reply)

Excellent essay's regarding covid

https://www.juliusruechel.com/2021/05/the-lies-exposed-by-numbers-fear.html

https://www.juliusruechel.com/2021/06/washingtons-inoculation-gamble.html

#15 Jake on 2021-06-15 19:29 (Reply)

Anyone notice there were no flu cases this year?

QUOTE:

Public health and clinical laboratories reported 2,038 flu cases during the season from Sept. 27, 2020, to April 24, 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency estimated about 38 million people were sick with the flu during the 2019-2020 season.

“It’s been an amazing year,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of California, Berkeley in the school of public health. “In all my years of being a flu watcher … I’ve never seen anything like this.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/05/10/flu-cases-historically-low-during-covid-what-expect-fall/7088318002/

#16 Jim on 2021-06-15 19:37 (Reply)

Good point. From the article:

QUOTE:

A year full of social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing and staying at home to prevent coronavirus spread rendered the 2020-2021 influenza season practically nonexistent.

Social measures can work to reduce the spread of respiratory infections.

#16.1 Zachriel on 2021-06-16 07:56 (Reply)

"Social measures can work to reduce the spread of respiratory infections." LOL

If that were true than Covid wouldn't have killed over half a million Americans. The social measures were phony. It was merely something politicians could mandate so it looked like they were doing something.

#16.1.1 Anon on 2021-06-16 14:22 (Reply)

Anon: If that were true than Covid wouldn't have killed over half a million Americans.

Ignoring the point raised is not much of an argument. COVID-19 is much more contagious than seasonal influenza. Poorly implemented social policies will much reduce influenza while still allowing for significant outbreaks of COVID-19. Countries that were successful in controlling the initial outbreaks by isolating infected individuals, such as South Korea or Vietnam, had relatively few deaths.

Country, deaths per million population
South Korea, 39
Vietnam, 0.6
U.S., 1850

U.S. social policies were very uneven, and tended to follow outbreaks rather than lead them. People would adopt more discipline with social policies when the outbreaks were severe, then abandon them once they thought the danger had passed. The result was an ebb and flow of contagion. The death toll in the U.S. is still counted in the hundreds per day.

#16.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2021-06-16 15:57 (Reply)

"I hope you don’t think masking is ending anytime soon"

Never started.

#17 ccoffer on 2021-06-15 19:51 (Reply)

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Tuesday, June 15. 2021

Tuesday morning links