Exhibit A:
That's' deacon and Catholic film critic Stephen Greydanus. Stifle it and an end to the conversation was his final explanation. I wish he had just said whites are evil and racist and you can tell everything you need to know by their skin color since that's what the majority expert consensus says. It would be honest and reflect just what our modernist establishment is teaching. Instead, we have what appears to me a level of doublespeak and denial of reality that would make Orwell blush.
I was going to write a lengthy tirade about how so many Christians, including Conservatives and their leaders, are becoming court prophets dedicated to excusing, defending, endorsing or ignoring whatever evils are emerging from our post-Christian era, especially from the left of center. But I thought this stood well enough on its own without any extensive commentary on my part.
(Tom New Poster)
ReplyDeleteVance made the mistake of criticizing a woman crying in public, which despite pretensions to "equality" us guys are not supposed to do. Had he been a teammate who was let down by her withdrawal, it would have been different. But it certainly had nothing to do with race.
Same with the "childless cat lady" comment. I know exactly the sort of perpetually-cranky, man-hating scold he's talking about (and there are plenty in the religion departments of certain Catholic high schools and colleges). But when you're running for high office, and you're a guy, it's not going to work for you. Bawling or crabby women are problematic for men to rebuke: best let your wife or (better) grandma handle 'em.
Oddly enough, it appears Greydanus agrees that it has nothing to do with race. It merely had to do with Vance being white.
DeleteOne also wonders how Vance can be judges as "mediocre." Yake graduate, soldier who served in wartime. Now a senator and vice president nominee. If that's "mediocre" what counts as exceptional?
ReplyDeleteHe probably sees himself as "exceptional" because he's quite happy to go along with the dominant narrative, LOL (Sorry, this might be my pregnancy snark coming out...;D )
DeleteI did something I always regret and checked in on people I've hidden on social media for a reason. Morbid curiosity I guess, but I was predictably appalled. Our society has become so feminized we are pretty much a "mean girl" nation now with the social structure equivalent to high school girls. And the draw to be part of the "cool kids club" seems to be just too strong for some people.
ReplyDeleteI need to ask my friend for an article she posts from time to time, written in the 30's/40's, about the author's observations on which of her social circle were likely to turn or embrace Nazism. (I'm also trying to recall if I already posted it here before.) If I remember correctly, those generally happy with their lives and positions who would resist the temptation, but the socially ambitious and those with inferiority complexes would completely jump at the chance if it meant a social leg up.
Anyway, what is most disturbing to me is the perverse delight the social climbers seem to take in the perceived missteps of those they personally dislike. It's so against St. Paul's exhortation on charity they become like clanging gongs, IMO. I can understand it from the worldly, but for those who make a living off their professed faith it's inexcusable and evidence of something askew, IMO
Here go. Who Goes Nazi
DeletePublished in 1941 it seems.
That's an interesting take. I think part of it is that the Left now has the orb, the scepter and the crown, and has made it clear that those lofty values of post-war liberalism are now dead on arrival. You heard post-war liberalism say we should respect different views and beliefs? Sorry buster, you will conform or watch your tail. Or, not be invited to the best media parties and Manhattan gatherings. Which was more than a generation of leaders who thought it would still be easy could handle. They thought you could go be Christian on Sundays, pick your battles the rest of the week, and the emerging Left was honor bound to allow for diverse and open opinions. Now that's clearly not the case, and we've raised a generation, as you say, perhaps a bit on the less than masculine side that simply isn't prepared to take one for the cause. This becomes more clear as this revolution seems to go out of its way to say 'look at how evil we can be' (see carving up the bodies of children to the benefit of the sex change industry) and nonetheless those who should resist simply buckle, surrender, retreat, or throw old values out the window to keep up.
Delete@Nate, thank you for finding that!
Delete"Deacon" Greydanus is obsessed with scrambling to the defense of black people. Ironic, given his conviction that the white savior stereotype is racist. People like him make me glad I'm not a Catholic. (Obviously, every religion has its fair share of lousy clerical figures.)
ReplyDeleteI can only assume that this discussion was spurred by Matt Walsh's new movie, as well as his past comments on Simone Biles. I think that Walsh is something of a loudmouth and a narcissist, but I can easily imagine that Greydanus, a man who was stupid enough to buy into the cottage industry of "anti-racist" indoctrination that sprang up in the summer of 2020, is deeply offended that somebody is offering a belated film-length critique of that racket. He probably has well-worn copies of "White Fragility" and "How to Be an Antiracist" sitting on his nightstand. Perhaps he even shows them to his legions of black friends! Regardless, it's clear that Greydanus fetishizes black suffering, especially since it lends him opportunity after opportunity to come to their rescue. There's a strange psychosexual dynamic to his sanctimony. He'll invariably repeat a mainstream talking point and then dig up an academic justification for said talking point. He'll then twist himself into a pretzel as he concocts an elaborate tautologies to back up his "argument." Tiresome man.
I have no intention of voting for Trump and Vance (I think they're slippery on issues like abortion and IVF, and I dislike how Vance has gone from being non-interventionist-adjacent to actively supporting Israel's war in Gaza). That said, it would be nice if a pretend Catholic like Greydanus would spend more time calling out Harris and Walz, both of whom support late-term and post-birth abortions. After all, according to the polls, Harris is the current favorite. But Greydanus, like many of his peers, doesn't actually believe that abortion is murder. In his mind, it's akin to shoplifting or dinging another car in the parking lot and driving away. Sure, it's bad, but it's not like it's some profound evil! It's more important to focus on what really matters: whether or not black people are sufficiently valorized!
Either way, I hope Simone Biles sees Greydanus' efforts. Like John Hinckley Jr., he'll stop at nothing to impress his celebrity crush.
One last note: Greydanus' use of the word "mediocre" is kind of rich. As somebody who pretends to be a film critic, he's given an awful lot of bad movies a pass. In 2007, he declared the abysmal "Juno" (starring future trans "man" Ellen Page) his favorite of the Best Picture contenders. The other nominees were "There Will Be Blood" (brilliant), "No Country for Old Men" (brilliant), "Michael Clayton" (brilliant), and "Atonement" (terrible, yes, but still better than "Juno").
One of the things I and others have noticed is that he will not engage with other views or sources. He is a bit like the Beatles fan who is comfortable with the thought that he has proven the Beatles were the greatest - by ever and only referencing Beatles fan pages. When someone provides links to another view, he merely ignores it. Sometimes he finds some triviality to discredit it. But that's the best you get. Before he stopped contributing at Catholic World Report, that was an increasing criticism. He would post a million links to leftwing sources, and then all but ignore attempts to provide other viewpoints by readers who were challenging him. And yes, perhaps I should have jumped on his use of the word mediocre. It was just him embracing the Left's 'calling him white has nothing to do with skin color' mendacity I thought was the big deal.
DeleteEven our church hierarchy is awash in beta males...le sigh
DeleteExcept for the reality of 'there is always hope,' Mr. Greydanus is currently a pathetically lost self-righteous drinker of the extremely unjust left-wing narrative which arrogantly declares that all those elements of Western Civilization falsely labeled pejoratively as "white supremacy" are to be condemned. Also to be condemned are any individuals who defend Western Civilization against the woke "white supremacy" narrative. This is often done in a despicable weaselly manner by employing the straw man fallacy when unjustly attacking people like JD Vance and anyone else deemed to be part of the "white supremacy" club.
ReplyDeleteThe bogus conclusion of "white supremacy" used as a pejorative violates basic Church teaching on justice that any reasonable Catholic deacon knows and defends, but the left-wing woke depiction of justice takes precedence over Church teaching in the mind of Mr. Greydanus and the minds of his fellow Kool-aid drinkers. Sadly, Mr. Greydanus repeatedly shirks his duty as a deacon (provided he really is such), and so he needs our prayers while at the same time he is not to be sought out for or taken too seriously on his views regarding anything dealing with Western Civilization and race because not only are they unjust, they are also galactically obtuse.
The goal is the overthrow of the Christian Western Tradition. This is done by tossing old oppressive ideas like forgiveness and reconciliation. Sins are never forgiven, they are all defining and all tainting. Since the West is defined by its unique sins of colonialism, imperialism, racism, oppression, and a slew of such sins, anything to do with the West can be jettisoned due to that irredeemable taint. Including how we were taught to view things like democracy, freedom, and equality. And it's working. My sons in college ran into this thinking more than once. Most classes weren't the horror stories you hear on conservative media. But there were some. And those students who stay within the world of such classes and professors are convinced that anything west of the Urals has got to go. Many of their peers who think this are as white as a linen sale. Greydanus accomplishes aligning with this movement the same way the press does - he simply ignores anything he can't pin on a white, male, American, Christian - preferably conservative (MAGA hat getting bonus points). If it can't, no matter how much suffering occurs, good luck getting him to call it out. Because this all is accomplished by downplaying or ignoring any sin other than that which can be blamed on the West. Just like Greydanus' endorsing the idea that slavery has always been a problem, but it was only really horrible when Europeans and Americans did it. Almost everything he advocates now falls into that template.
DeleteGreydanus appears to employ himself pushing the latest talking point from the DNC press office.
ReplyDelete==
What Vance said was as follows:
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"What I find so weird about this, and it reflects more on the media than it does on Simone Biles, is that we've tried to turn a very tragic moment — Simone Biles quitting the Olympic team – into this act of heroism." he said. "And I think it reflects poorly on our sort of therapeutic society that we try to praise people not for moments of strength, not for moments of heroism, but for their weakest moments."
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Is there any value whatsoever to Greydanus judgments on any subject?
Oh, he's 100% for the Left. He doesn't even blink equating leftwing talking points with Truth. He frequently links to such proof as the Chronicle of Higher Education above to buttress his case. He has written a couple times on his belief in defaulting to the majority expert consensus. Which, apparently, proves his points. And he ignores attempts to point him to dissenting views. When it gets tough, like leftists and non-whites celebrating Hamas and blowing beer out their noses over the slaughter of Jews on October 7, he merely points out antisemitism is there on both sides, but - in so many words - both sides have very fine people. Then he moves on and wild horses couldn't get him to dwell on the ongoing treatment of Jews here and in other places, or anything that challenges leftwing templates. Basically, the Left is obviously the same as Truth, because evidence to the contrary isn't worth discussing.
DeleteCan't agree with David Griffey's perspective on the supposed anti-Semitism crisis. Obviously, a lot of pro-Palestine types are sanctimonious idiots and professional protesters, but the real victims of the conflict are the civilians who've been killed, the overwhelming majority of whom have been Palestinians. And yes, what happened on October 7 was monstrous and indefensible.
ReplyDeleteEither way, Greydanus will never condemn the Democrats for funding the war and enabling the slaughter. He prefers the serotonin boost that accompanies his ceaseless attempts at being an anti-racist try-hard. Interestingly enough, his misadventures mirror the exploits of conservatives who try to use anti-Semitism to silence critics of Israel, Zionism, or the IDF. Free expression? Who needs that?
Hamas started a war with Israel. They've discovered they do not get to dictate how it ends. If you have any 'criticism' informed by an understanding of military tactics and strategy, you're keeping it to yourself.
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Partisans of the Arabs can speak all they like. They just do not say anything reasonable or decent.
I fully agree that the greatest tragedy of any war ever is the suffering of the innocents. The problem here, is that the innocents are pawns used by these terrorist groups who have made it clear the elimination of Israel is the goal. Recall that shortly after October 7th, Hamas made it clear they plan on doing it again. They purposefully intermingle with the Palestinian population, using any casualties against Israel because it gets certain trends in modern Western thought:
Delete1 There is a strong ‘anti-Western’ bias in the West, and Hamas gets that. Israel is connected to the West That’s all it needs to know. Hence no matter what, blame ultimately falls back on Israel.
2 There is that ‘oppressed v. oppressor’ template that increasingly defines our understanding of the past and present. The oppressed always heroic and justified, the oppressors always the villains and beyond redemption. Israel, being the West, is the oppressor. Hamas, is the heroic freedom fighters as they are perceived as the oppressed.
3 Not necessarily related, but significant, something my boys noticed some time ago. For generations we have developed a tendency to look under every rock and behind every tree to find anything to criticize and tear down the heroes and good guys who did the right thing, while often bending over backwards to find excuses for the villains. If you read or watch from the last 60 years or so, it’s hard to miss.
All of these things Hamas and Hezbollah get. More than that – and an ugly fact we don’t like to talk about – is that they’re not the only ones who want Israel gone. Many Palestinians were in the ‘hurray for Hamas’ protests, and likewise not all Palestinians are unwilling shields.
With that, it’s tough to imagine any outcome that will make people happy based on these observations that doesn’t involve the end of Israel, and the killing of Jews to make it happen. That is what Israel is up against.
So are we all going to ignore the fact that Vance, who spent his time in the Corps editing Leatherneck magazine, and a man who sacrificed every singel principle he ever held for the sake of political power (Richard Rich, eat your heart out), decided to criticize a gymnast, winner of 7 Olympic gold medals, Catholic and homeschooler, when she took some time out because she was getting disoriented in the air and needed some time to get her game back together?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me we're getting upset about the wrong thing here.
We could certainly have a discussion about what happened in that Olympics, and the press’s universal insistence that there is nothing more noble and virtuous than giving up when the going gets tough. Everything in our society today more than suggesting that this is a modern core value.
DeleteBut the post is about Deacon Greydanus’s acceptance of the modern racism, and his Orwellian level of BS insisting that calling Vance out for being white has nothing to do with Vance being white*. When you have to appeal to that level of denial, it’s difficult to imagine that there isn’t an awareness of how racist it is to judge someone by their ethnic identity, even if it’s the same ethnic identity of the one judging. The same goes for his ‘of course it’s true, look at these academic thinktanks that say so.’ The ‘always trust the experts at the best parties for the truth’ should be weighed down by the historical problems with that approach. That is the point of the post.
*I realize that some leftwing “experts” insist ‘whiteness’ isn’t about skin color, but is an all-encompassing term meaning evil, or at least non-Left, thus evil. Hence African Americans or Arabic Muslims being linked to ‘whiteness’ or ‘white nationalism’, a development that has caused more than one in such groups to question their ongoing allegiance to the Democratic party in recent years. But since that transcends racism against whites to being racist and racially marginalizing toward anyone who dares deviate from left-wing activism, we’ll just assume it was Orwellian BS to dodge the obvious.
Golly. Greydanus is white. Mark Shea is white. Hillary Clinton is white. 'Mittens' Romney is white.
ReplyDeleteAnd I could go on for pages and pages.
If 'whiteness' is what these folks bring to the political marketplace then I do indeed loath 'whiteness'.
Racism is usually an excuse, or at least starts that way. In this case, it's a brilliant use of racism to more or less strongarm white Americans into being leftists - apparently the only thing that can redeem them for the inherent racism and evils that come with being born white - which may or may not have anything to do with being white. I've often had the gut feeling that it is also a way of saying 'thank you God that you didn't make me like all those other whites who simply aren't as hipster and holy as I am'. The same goes for liberal men trashing men, Americans trashing America, Christians trashing Christianity, and on and on.
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