Free Republic

HALIFAX -- The women's march in Halifax was roiled by divisions, as members of an offshoot event showed up to call for the recognition of marginalized groups after some people said they felt unsafe at last year's gathering. Throngs of people returned to Halifax's Grand Parade square on Saturday for a rally on the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president. People held up signs on issues ranging from worker's rights to the jailing of a Palestinian activist during an event that included a Mi'kmaq prayer, a Chinese lion dance, a traditional Indian dance and a drumming performance....

Imagine you’re a single guy. You meet a woman who appears to be sane and nice. She’s not sporting the signature rainbow hair, “statement” glasses, and hallmark sour, judgmental scowl that seems to be endemic to crazy third-wave feminists (but I repeat myself) today, and you decide to meet for a first date. You gallantly hold the door open for her, and pull out her chair, because, you know, respect. She twists her lips into an acerbic scowl, but says nothing. You figure maybe she got a splinter from the chair, or maybe she has indigestion or something, so you...

As a queer femme of color, I keep close relationships with people who go beyond allyship; they’re true accomplices in the fight against white supremacy, queerphobia, and misogyny. If you’re not going to support marginalized folks, then we can’t be friends, let alone date. The personal is political. Beyond the lovely cushioning, happiness and support that we receive from our platonic relationships (which are, in all honesty, soul-feeding and essential), feminists also date! But there are questions we have to ask before we get close to someone. The following list of questions is applicable to all relationships — certainly not...

The pink knit cap made famous by last winter’s Women’s March on Washington is already an anachronism. Not more than a couple dozen or so of the eye-catching toppers bobbed among the 4,000 or so activists attending “Women’s March Presents: The Inaugural Women’s Convention.” And those few “pussy hats” stuck out like embarrassing artifacts, reminders of the high hopes many on the left held for an anti-Trump feminist revival just 10 months ago. These three days at Detroit’s Cobo Center are billed as a chance to “Reclaim Our Time” and “March On” in the momentous spirit of the post-inaugural protests....

The psychosis of intersectional theory creates a terribly destructive pathway, and one that is duty-bound to ensnare those who participate in it and those who try to politically benefit from it. This will lead us directly to what may be a tributary in the river that could actually drown the Democratic Party as we know it today. Intersectionality is the delusion positing that in the daily operation of life, there are only the innocent oppressed and the evil oppressor. The always-oppressor is white males. All other categories are varying degrees of oppressed, and derive grievance authority depending on the intensity...

It’s strange but true: One of the greatest advantages you can now possess in America is to be a card-carrying member of an officially disadvantaged group — race, gender, gender preference. It’s the intersectionality imbroglio in operation in daily life, where there are only the innocent oppressed and the evil oppressor. The oppressor is white men, and all other categories possess varying degrees of oppressed, grievance authority. This holds true from racial preferences in hiring and college admissions to legal protections and extra status in society. It’s not at all as the personal liberty-minded framers envisioned things. They wanted people...

Universities are now factories of conformism; only the brave and resilient will survive them In a few weeks, a new intake of students will arrive, all fresh-faced and excited, at universities around the country. They’ll be thrilled at the prospect of escaping the wagging finger of mum and dad, eager to absorb new ideas. But I’m afraid they are in for a rude awakening. Unless they’re very fortunate, they will soon find themselves enveloped in a world that’s more censorious than stimulating and taught not to question ideas but to learn by heart the progressive creed. It will take...

Free speech is under assault because of a three-step argument made by the advocates and justifiers of violence. The first step is they say that the validity or invalidity of an argument can be judged solely by the ethnic, sexual, racial, or cultural identity of the person making the argument. The second step is that they claim those who say otherwise are engaging in what they call “verbal violence,” and the final step is they conclude that physical violence is sometimes justified in order to stop such verbal violence. So let’s examine each of these three steps in turn. First,...

Last week the NY Times published a piece titled “When is Speech Violence?” which purported to show that speech can have real world health consequences. If words can cause stress, and if prolonged stress can cause physical harm, then it seems that speech — at least certain types of speech — can be a form of violence. But which types?This question has taken on some urgency in the past few years, as professed defenders of social justice have clashed with professed defenders of free speech on college campuses. Student advocates have protested vigorously, even violently, against invited speakers whose views...

What do the terrorist group Hamas and the anti-violence group Black Lives Matter have in common? What does the democracy of Israel have in common with the antisemitic Ku Klux Klan? What does the Islamic Republic of Iran, which throws gays off rooftops, have in common with gay-rights activists? What do feminists have in common with radical Islamic sexists who support the honor killing and genital mutilation of women? Nothing, of course. Unless you subscribe to the pseudo-academic concept of interesectionality. Intersectionality – the radical academic theory according to which all forms of social oppression are inexorably linked — has...

If you’re not an American millennial or university professor, you might be confused by the concept of “intersectionality.” First coined in 1989 by race theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, it has become a left-wing buzzword to define the lumping together of all self-described “oppressed” groups under a single umbrella. According to proponents of this radical fad — which amounts to an elimination of independent critical thought — not only must a person toe a particular ideological line, but he may never slip, even accidentally, into the realm of nuance or distinction. Someone who supports gay marriage, for example, has to oppose...

We’ve heard a great deal recently about candidates for the Chair of the Democrat National Committee and the contempt they have for members of the White race. During the DNC Candidate Forum last week, Sally Boynton Brown, Executive Director of the Idaho Democrat Party, stated that Democrats must “train” Americans “how to be sensitive and how to shut their mouths if they are white.” Of course it’s just possible that this attitude among Party representatives had something to do with the stunning defeat of their shoe-in candidate last year. But I won’t suggest that hostility toward some 78% of the...