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Enough with attacks on free speech - by BOTH sides. Posted by greenman on November 10, 2025, 8:49 am Valued Poster This is largely a criticism of 'the Left,' but the Right has caught up and is burning (so to speak) books - and authors - regularly. https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/activist-witchfinders-still-rule-the-book-world-c96t9trq9 In 2021, when lockdown was driving people insane, (author Kate) Clanchy’s 2019 book about working with children, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, was suddenly derided on social media as racist, because she used physical descriptions like “chocolate-coloured skin”. The charge was led by three women: Monisha Rajesh, Sunny Singh and Chimene Suleyman, all middle-aged, middle-class writers, like Clanchy. Pan Macmillan, Clanchy’s publisher through its Picador imprint, abjectly apologised to them and parted ways with its writer. But apologies never satisfy witchfinder generals like Rajesh, Singh and Suleyman because, as one children’s author (who is still too scared to give her name) said to me last week, “They don’t want to fix problems, because their entire brand is outrage. That’s how they promote themselves.” Another excerpt: Clanchy’s story is now told in the BBC podcast Anatomy of a Cancellation and her career is back on track — but she is the exception. Because she was far from the only author whose career was turned into roadkill by online bullies. Philip’s books for kids were so popular that she had done international tours. In 2020 she tweeted her support of JK Rowling for questioning gender ideology and was subjected to a barrage of abuse. Her publisher and agent knew Philip’s husband had died the previous month, but they dropped her anyway, saying it was inappropriate for her to tweet political opinions, “although they didn’t mind when other writers wrote anti-Trump tweets”, Philip notes. Realising that her writing career was over, she passed her HGV (truck driving) test the following year: “And my bosses here are fantastic. Publishing could learn a lot from trucking.” Ursula Doyle, an editor who felt hounded out of her job in 2024 after publishing Kathleen Stock’s feminist book Material Girls, says: “There had been highly political issues in publishing before — cultural appropriation, Brexit, MeToo, Black Lives Matter. But never anything before like the trans issue, where even to question it meant you were an evil person.” She settled with her former employer, Hachette, in June this year. The last line says it all about the 'race,' 'gender,' and feminism industries, and has since the '70s. When the Left turns from equality, the needs of the working class, and anti-war aims to suppression of 'disapproved ideas,' it's as bad as the Right, IMO. RESIST!

Good points Posted by Skye on November 10, 2025, 12:31 pm, in reply to "Enough with attacks on free speech - by BOTH sides." Valued Poster PC gone amuck... I think a lot of people got fed up with the hypocrisy and hypersensitivity, and thus... along comes someone like dt to tip the scales the other way, telling people lies like... their children are going to school and coming home a different gender, and crap like that. Of course, antisemitism has been playing that game, too, for decades upon decades after the holocaust, many of whom continued to milk it for all they can get, too. So of course, dt the opportunist, is still milking that cow, too... but he likes to play both sides as well, with the dog whistles and such. We all know that there have been and still are very real wrongs against just about every 'group' at some time or another... but racism, misogyny and anti-LGBTQ pretty much tops the list, IMO, as the most common forms of on-going damaging prejudice. Religion is there, too, but not as prevalent, IMO, especially if they don't wear it on their sleeve. However, dt and others are always there to cash in on the current anti-whatever sentiment, but it's always easier to make villains of minorities or those who are least able to fight back, while pretending that Jews, Christians and white males are the current victims taking the brunt of abuse. It's a very tangled web when people, sometimes justifiably, tend to nurture their worst fears or prejudiced notions or tendencies... while playing the victim and demonizing those others that they fear or don't like. I think that is why PC came about in the first place... to try to remedy some very obvious wrongs and attitudes... but you can't put a muzzle on people's minds. The best remedy, IMO, is just be kind to the person next to you, no matter who they are or how they are dressed. Maybe even listen to them and their story??? It's just that many get tired of hearing the 'victim' story, especially if they are feeling more like victims or competing for 'victim status' themselves?

In Anthony Simonsen's 2025 USBC Masters match Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on November 10, 2025, 4:44 pm, in reply to "Good points" On his tenth frame ball Simonsen rolled a Greek Church. That a 4, 6, 7, 9, 10. The hardest spare to make. You must angle into the 4 and 7 with enough force to make the 4 hit the curtain and come back out on the deck to take out the 1, 9, 10. His response was "fvck fvck fvck fvck fvck fvck fvck fvck fvck fvck!" Can you say that on television now? We must get rid of thr felon and MAGA. That is the Dems top and sole priority. If peripheral issues like gender identity language resumes center stage, that will immediately reinvigorate and strengthen Vance, Johnsin et al.to make a comeback. "They" came back after Nixon when Carter, a nice guy who surrounded himself with idiots, was followed by Mondale and Dukakis. After Nixon the GOP should have been dead a long time. It took just one presidency- Carter's, for it to roar back to life with Reagan and Bush. I read all these democratic accolades about Hakeem Jeffries. Obama had and haa charisma. Jeffies is Black. So are charcoal briquettes. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony

Oh yeah.... Posted by Skye on November 11, 2025, 11:01 am, in reply to "In Anthony Simonsen's 2025 USBC Masters match " Valued Poster I watched Colbert's monologue last night, and he showed how the crowd reacted to dt's appearance at the Commanders/Lions game in DC the night before. His editor had to blur out all the middle fingers from the crowd, but they didn't blur out the boos. Poor dt... I guess he wasn't all that successful at 'cleaning up' DC as he thought!

LOL! I can't get Colbert live on Roku, Sling, Apple, Disney, HBO Max, Hulu Plus,, Posted by Sia on November 11, 2025, 1:10 pm, in reply to "Oh yeah...." ADMIN Brit box, Paid: CNN-Go, NetFlix, MSNBC, Showtime, Bravo free, Tubi free, Plex free, Fubo free, Pluto free, or any of the other apps we have on our Roku TV. CBS is the only station we cannot get live. The others are available on Sling or another of our paid or free apps. Pluto free offers it on a 1 week delay, but really? A week is a long time! I'm just not going to pay a bunch for another service just to get that one show.

Don't you get Utube? Posted by Skye on November 11, 2025, 1:58 pm, in reply to "LOL! I can't get Colbert live on Roku, Sling, Apple, Disney, HBO Max, Hulu Plus,, " Valued Poster I just looked it up and found it there, too. We live close enough to KC to be able to get all the main stations on open air. We have an outside antenna on a pole (not on the roof) that connects to all the TV outlets in the house. We don't even have cable or satellite service anymore, but we do have Netflix and streaming if we want to pay per play or whatever. Our computer is hooked up to a DSL, and we pay for that separately.

I can get YouTube, yes. Is it live there? Posted by Sia on November 11, 2025, 7:10 pm, in reply to "Don't you get Utube?" ADMIN

Colbert comes on after the 10 o'clock news.... Posted by Skye on November 11, 2025, 9:13 pm, in reply to "I can get YouTube, yes. Is it live there?" on channel 5 (CBS), but if I don't want to stay up that late, I can just pull up his monologue from the night before on the computer the next day, just by googling... or with YouTube or whatever. Same with the Kimmel monologue, since he and Colbert come on at the same time each night. YouTube is handy.

I didn't realize they only had a few hours delay before it's available! Posted by Sia on November 11, 2025, 10:48 pm, in reply to "Colbert comes on after the 10 o'clock news...." ADMIN Thanks!

Yeah, it's convenient Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on November 11, 2025, 10:55 pm, in reply to "I didn't realize they only had a few hours delay before it's available!" ADMIN And timely. We're having an event. The northern lights are visible right now in the northern sky. A shimmering curtain of pink and red. I wonder if the felon knows what a charged particle is? Possibly thinks its some legal term for one of his many crimes? You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony

It sounds lovely! We rarely get a glimpse of that. Posted by Sia on November 11, 2025, 11:46 pm, in reply to "Yeah, it's convenient" ADMIN

I wish that people would watch... Posted by Skye on November 11, 2025, 10:55 am, in reply to "In Anthony Simonsen's 2025 USBC Masters match " Valued Poster this Kimmel monologue to Republicans that he made about a year ago before the election. It is excellent and so true and spot on... and even more important for people to see now, looking back on all the crazy stuff Trump has said and done, and continues to do.

I wish they would have watched it before the last election.. Posted by Sia on November 11, 2025, 12:52 pm, in reply to "I wish that people would watch..." We wouldn't be here right now! I just don't get why so many people don't see him for the corrupt charlatan that he so obviously is! Then or now! I'm glad that many now do, but it's a day late and $100 short. EDIT fixed charlatan that autocorrect changed on me to Charleton.

So.... Posted by Skye on November 11, 2025, 2:09 pm, in reply to "I wish they would have watched it before the last election.." Valued Poster Hb just went out to lunch today with the 'old car' guys... that he normally does on Tuesdays. Most of them are probably MAGA guys. They don't talk about politics much, but once in awhile someone will say something and most just kinda ignore the subject altogether. But today, it being Veterans Day and all, they were talking about those of us who served during the Vietnam war... and one of them said something negative about Muhammad Ali for refusing to serve. So then hb said, well at least he served his prison time and didn't try to run away... and the guy said, well yeah. Then hb said, and I suppose you like Trump with his bone spurs?! And the guy said, "What?! I didn't know anything about that!" Then another guy piped up and defended what hb had said, and how a lot of rich kids got out of serving during that time. LOL... I just cannot believe that anyone would not know anything about dt's bone spurs?!? At least hb did his good deed for the day, because he had the perfect opening to do so. LOL

Good for him! it is surprising what folks don't know that they should, but also Posted by Sia on November 11, 2025, 7:15 pm, in reply to "So...." ADMIN understandable. There's only so much time in a day and folks generally don't wanna spend it researching political figures. In fact, I know folks who will not listen to ANY political talk whatsoever. NONE. Yet they still vote.

Felon's re election proved to the world we deserve all the American jokes they can make up Posted by Pikes Peak 14115 on November 11, 2025, 4:20 pm, in reply to "So...." Poles and Italians are grateful because we replaced them at the bottom for title of world's dumbest people. NASA is going to the sun. We're flying at night so its cooler. While the American scientist who knew the recipe for ice died, all our big cicites have uch ICE, they'll never run out. Singers sing. Ringers ring. Trump has a fing, and when he shows it, he's a finger. Rewmember the first time he read the word "groceries" on his teleprompter? He had to sound it out, like he attempted with acetomeniphen. Betcha he can't spell it. He is pardoning every insurrectionist so in 2026 and 2028 they can do it again. How will Mike Johnsin delay the vote on the Epstein File release? You know when that happens, the felon will sh!t his pants. Again. You can look away from a painting, but you can't listen away from a symphony

I like Newsom, personally…. Posted by Skye on November 10, 2025, 7:40 pm, in reply to "In Anthony Simonsen's 2025 USBC Masters match " Valued Poster I think he has more charisma and personality. That’s what we need, along with integrity and intelligence of course.

He's the default Candidate now, I think Posted by greenman on November 11, 2025, 5:02 pm, in reply to "I like Newsom, personally…." Valued Poster The enemy of my enemies is my friend.. RESIST!

Yeah, I hate this sh*t too! It is just nutzo when certain Posted by Sia on November 10, 2025, 9:53 am, in reply to "Enough with attacks on free speech - by BOTH sides." ADMIN topics take on such volatility that no one can write or talk about it from a certain POV else they risk cancellation, or worse, by crowds with torches and pitchforks! Grow up people! There has to be oxygen in the room for opinions on topics that might offend someone's sensibilities. Just because "you" have strongly negative feelings about something doesn't mean you have the right to silence voices who disagree.

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