Ringwood School Board meeting turns into exercise in virtue-signaling.

By Rubashov

A recent article by David Zimmer of the Gannett organization devoted 700 words to the all important issue of who posts what on social media. Apparently, a group of rather miserable looking attendees at a Ringwood Board of Education meeting were offended by words posted on social media by one of the Board members.

Yes, someone is stalking someone again, looking for something to be pissed-off about. This seems to be the national pastime of late, replacing the more traditional pastimes of television, reading, and sex. And, of course, the miserables demanded their neighbor’s excommunication from their society, as if his presence could further corrupt the already corrupted.

Their neighbor is a blue-collar worker. Their specific problem with their neighbor is his plain-spokenness. His “sins” are as follows:
“…posts that derisively characterize the weight of 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, refer to the governors of New York and New Jersey as ‘[expletive] jerkoffs’ and call for leaders in the tech industry to be ‘erased’.”

The Establishment opinion and its followers are afraid of blunt, on-the-level speech. Afraid that a blunt, plain spoken population might – one day – call a war, a war… and not join in. They demand that the truth be embellished in lies.

From their complaints, it appears that the miserables have a problem with the truth…

Stacey Abrams does appear to have a weight problem. Let’s be honest, a lot of people just call it fat. Now fat is attractive to some people, not so to others. It is a matter of opinion. Anyone who willingly trots onto the public stage – especially a politician who spends millions for the purpose of becoming a household name – is subject to the judgments of those they are spending money to impress. People forming an opinion that a politician is smart, stupid, beautiful, or fat is what they signed-up for.

As for the Governors of New York and New Jersey being (copulating) jerkoffs, well this is undoubtedly true in part and most likely true in whole. The politicians in question have never suggested they are sexual virgins and the size of their families strongly suggests that they have engaged in copulation. Fornication is also a possibility. As for being jerkoffs, there exists a great many scientific studies indicating that most males engage in masturbation and that, among males, masturbation occurrence increases with age. While this is not conclusive, it is highly suggestive. Perhaps the Ringwood Board of Education could get the two Governors to take a polygraph?

So far, it seems the miserables’ neighbor was simply telling the truth. Perhaps in a more blue-collar way than they might be used to, but it is the truth nonetheless.

And according to a study released yesterday, the use of vulgarities is a sign of intelligence, as CNN reports:

Polite society considers swearing to be a vulgar sign of low intelligence and education, for why would one rely on rude language when blessed with a rich vocabulary?

That perception, as it turns out, is full of, uh ... baloney. In fact, swearing may be a sign of verbal superiority, studies have shown, and may provide other possible rewards as well.

"The advantages of swearing are many," said Timothy Jay, professor emeritus of psychology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, who has studied swearing for more than 40 years.

"The benefits of swearing have just emerged in the last two decades, as a result of a lot of research on brain and emotion, along with much better technology to study brain anatomy," Jay said.

So, it appears the neighbor is perfectly situated on a School Board. The only question is whether the miserables will get with the program and expand their vocabularies as well. Hey, that’s from CNN.

As for the “call for leaders in the tech industry to be ‘erased’” – it seems only natural to suggest that you be done as you have done. That having erased people on both the Left and the Right (particularly anyone who questions the need for endless wars) the tech oligarchs (as Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Chris Hedges calls them) do need to be either regulated or made into public utilities. They are simply too powerful for the good of the Republic. Again, this is an opinion, along the lines that pasta is better than pizza – but being a political opinion, it is protected speech under the First Amendment. Until you repeal that amendment, no lynch mob of miserables has the legal authority to take it away from anyone.

The article also states that “in a response to a post on diversity training,” the School Board Member/neighbor “likened college instruction to brainwashing.” Well, there are plenty of others who have made this argument – academicians included. There are books written about it. By everyone from William F. Buckley to Noam Chomsky. Lots of them. This isn’t even controversial.

So, let’s ask the question: What was all that pissing and moaning about? Was the coverage warranted?

David M. Zimmer of the Gannett organization appears to be trying to make some didactic points. Among them is this gem:

“Parler is a social media account favored by far-right extremists that fell into disrepute after the Capitol riots, with Apple and Google pulling the apps from their stores and Amazon ending their hosting agreement with the company.”

Of course, the most dangerous “extremists” are those using the Capitol riot to abrogate the Bill of Rights. Just as they used the Patriot Act to imprison journalists, charge whistleblowers under the Espionage Act, and execute American citizens without due process.

Zimmer appears to be uncritically swallowing the line offered by the avowed enemies of the Bill of Rights. Before pushing this propaganda, Zimmer – who has been a journalist for 12 years – should perhaps read some of what Glenn Greenwald has to say on this subject. Possibly the best investigative reporter on the planet, Greenwald is a winner of the George Polk Award and a Pulitzer Prize for his journalism. He has also written best-selling books, including No Place to Hide. Here is some commentary from Greenwald…

In a discussion about the non-partisan ticket on which most of the current members of the Ringwood Board of Education ran, Zimmer ends his article with a strange appeal to racialism:

“All five of the slate's candidates are white.”

Wow, now there’s a man who can’t get past the surface to reach the content of a human heart. And what is with the catchword “white”? Nobody is truly “white” (perhaps albinos?) just as nobody is truly “black”. People are all sorts of shades from all sorts of places. Someone interested in people would notice that. White and Black are fit for propaganda films and B movies.

If he wants a real story, maybe Zimmer could get his bosses to let him write about Gannett’s very real shortcomings – taken directly from the case files of federal court. Like the recent federal class action lawsuit brought against Gannett alleging that the corporation is "running a racist workplace that makes it impossible for black workers to be promoted". The 26-page lawsuit, with 23 pages of attachments makes for interesting reading:

“Gannett ran a sophisticated scheme and cover 'in the form of focus groups and other means and methods that are subjectively manipulated by Gannett to achieve its discriminatory goals and objectives.'

According to the lawsuit, Gannett 'has a corporate custom, policy, pattern, practice and procedure of not promoting African-Americans to director and leadership positions and utilizing a one-and-done policy that disparately impacts African-American employed within the company’.”

A journalist employed at Gannett added:

“In sum, the overall employment atmosphere and attitude at Gannett is hostile toward recruitment, training, leadership, management and advancement of African-Americans into top broadcasting leadership positions and opportunities.”

The EEOC found that it could not certify that Gannett is in compliance with the federal anti-discrimination law. The federal class action lawsuit "seeks class certification, restitution, and compensatory and punitive damages for Civil Rights Act violations, loss of prospective earnings and a court order 'to enjoin the discriminatory practices.'"

Gannett was also recently sued for age discrimination over its practice of replacing older employees with younger, less expensive ones. Are stories like the one on the Ringwood School Board designed to take our focus off Gannett?

“If you’re on the Left, and you are giddy about censorship
of any form, just to let you know, you’re not on the Left.”
“It is a fascist position
to be pro-censorship of anybody.
I don’t care if you are transgendered
and for censorship,
that doesn’t make you on the Left.
Your sexuality doesn’t make you on the Left.
What makes you Left is your policies.
And if you think you’re on the Left
and you are for censorship, you’re a right winger,
you’re an authoritarian fascist.
Sorry to break it to you, but that’s how it works in the real world.”

Jimmy Dore
#ForceTheVote

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