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The rise of the Keffiyeh Karen
The Spectator ^ | 18 Sep 2024 | ZOe Strimpel

Posted on 09/18/2024 8:58:44 AM PDT by Rummyfan

The new generation of activists are workplace terrors

When Black Lives Matter created the figure of the Karen, it was a sign of that movement’s darker, bullying qualities. What exactly was wrong with a white middle-aged woman who asked to speak to the manager when things were unsatisfactory? The answer seemed to be in the white part and the woman part, and perhaps also in the middle-aged part. In short, the Karen was a racist, sexist, ageist construct, and as a middle-aged white woman myself, who makes her dissatisfaction known from time to time, I felt extra defensive.

But if that original Karen caricatured the wrong person, then there are some modern female types that deserve closer scrutiny. There is the person I like to call the Keffiyeh Karen — the female student with a bare midriff and her head wrapped in the black or red and white patterning of Palestinian liberation, yelling anti-Zionist slogans with manic passion on elite college campus quadrangles and lawns.

In her ready and confident fury, her rudeness, her iron-fisted appetite for confrontation over infractions of what she deems political and moral gospel, the Keffiyeh Karen is related to a broader epidemic of the Gen Z Mean Girl. These Mean Girls have graduated from running the schoolyard to terrorizing the workplace. If there is one type to be afraid of in modern offices, it isn’t the lech or the shouty, hungover male middle manager. It’s the twenty-three-year-old gluten-free vegan graduate, wet behind the ears. We know what these misanthropic misses are capable of — we’ve seen the Phoebes and Annas of Just Stop Oil chuck soup on Van Gogh.

(Excerpt) Read more at thespectator.com ...


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1 posted on 09/18/2024 8:58:44 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

BTTT


2 posted on 09/18/2024 9:01:34 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: Rummyfan
But there is something particularly humorless and stern about the self-styled progressive Lefty Lass — nothing is ever proper enough for her, or miserable enough, or righteous enough. Even when racism and transphobia have been stamped out in her sight, and microaggressions and misgendering slips of the tongue properly punished, she’ll mock you for forgetting for even a moment that the world is ending because of your climate profligacy. The revolution must come. Net zero needs to be achieved yesterday.
3 posted on 09/18/2024 9:03:09 AM PDT by Rummyfan ( In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.)
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To: Rummyfan

I had a Black friend whose name for the Black version of ‘Karen’ was the ‘African Queen’.


4 posted on 09/18/2024 9:03:33 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Rummyfan

“”””What exactly was wrong with a white middle-aged woman who asked to speak to the manager when things were unsatisfactory? The answer seemed to be in the white part and the woman part, and perhaps also in the middle-aged part. In short, the Karen was a racist, sexist, ageist construct””””

And as usual, many Americans fell for the left deconstructing another element of American culture, simple order and calm, even in a store, and the idea that white people culture of quality and reasonableness was racist and mean, even silly, and to be mocked.


5 posted on 09/18/2024 9:06:40 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Rummyfan

Orwell had them pegged back in 1948.

L


6 posted on 09/18/2024 9:07:01 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: Rummyfan

“I’m unhappy. It can’t be me. My parents and teachers always told me how smart and right I am.

It is other people making me unhappy.

It must be strong people.

Strong people are making me unhappy.

They must be destroyed!”

No self-examination with these.

None.


7 posted on 09/18/2024 9:08:40 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: Rummyfan

The original “karen” was a white woman with a wedge haircut and a job in her city government. When stopped by police for a traffic violation, she pulled the “do know who I am” nonsense on them ... unsuccessfully. Video of the incident was widely circulated on the internet.

Her actual name is “Karen”.


8 posted on 09/18/2024 9:10:16 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Rummyfan
We (Republican Party) gave them the vote and now college educated young women are destroying the republic in return. (Yes yes I know SOME young college ed women are fine and conservative). IMG-9882
9 posted on 09/18/2024 9:19:32 AM PDT by Phoenix8
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To: Rummyfan

Lol, the author of this actually is a feminist and a full bore Karen. Unmarried British woman in her mid-40s…


10 posted on 09/18/2024 9:20:11 AM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: Rummyfan

“ What exactly was wrong with a white middle-aged woman who asked to speak to the manager when things were unsatisfactory? ”

lol…. If we have to explain….


11 posted on 09/18/2024 9:39:46 AM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: Jamestown1630
I had a Black friend whose name for the Black version of ‘Karen’ was the ‘African Queen’.

Dirty little secret: A lot of black men would rather have a white male leader/president than a black female leader/president.

12 posted on 09/18/2024 9:42:13 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Tell It Right

Let’s hope that theory holds up in a couple months...


13 posted on 09/18/2024 9:54:48 AM PDT by Common Sense 101
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To: Tell It Right

My friend was a female. They don’t like the ‘African Queens’ either.


14 posted on 09/18/2024 9:58:42 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: ansel12
It started out as a particular haircut - the "can I speak to a manager" haircut. Google that phrase and you'll it. I'd say you could also call it the "strong, independent woman" haircut.

Even prior to the whole "Karen" thing, I thought women wearing that haircut were to be avoided.

15 posted on 09/18/2024 10:29:01 AM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: Rummyfan

Bkmk


16 posted on 09/18/2024 11:06:49 AM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: Rummyfan

BLM did not release the Karen.

It had already commenced attempted social domination of the countryside before BLM learned its name.


17 posted on 09/18/2024 11:09:53 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin

It’s the “I’m a total baeioutch” haircut.

Yes, the misspelling was intentional.


18 posted on 09/18/2024 12:19:48 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Disambiguator

The “no grabbable ponytail” haircut...


19 posted on 09/18/2024 5:49:31 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin
CanISpeakToAMgr
20 posted on 09/18/2024 8:55:32 PM PDT by MikelTackNailer (We can never stop failing for the minute we do, we fail.)
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