We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners

George Carlin

30 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • That’s about as succinctly put as I’ve seen it.

  • CaptDMO

    Why doe it seem that political “corrections” ALWAYS call for a few brush strokes of White-Out?

  • bobby b

    George Carlin was mostly concerned that he be able to use his famous seven dirty words.

    His concern against PC never extended to allowing non-liberals to speak.

    Not a guy I would lionize.

  • Thailover

    Nothing quite so funny to me as when SJW’s in general or especially feminists in particular propose to lecture everyone else on the appropriate way to interact with one another, in order to preserve feelings, when they themselves are some of the most unpleasant, unempathetic and rude assholes on the entire planet.

    No one lacks self-awareness quite like a leftist can and does.

  • Thailover

    Bobby B, can you give an example of where Carlin attempted to restrict or “unplatform” someone whose views he disagreed with?

  • Laird

    Carlin wasn’t a doctrinaire liberal. He was a truly independent thinker; he challenged both sides. I didn’t always agree with him, but I did agree quite a lot and usually enjoyed him even when I did disagree. I miss him.

  • Rich Rostrom

    Thailover: he didn’t, but he never objected to it being done.

  • Not a guy I would lionize.

    SQOTD is about putting up remarks by people who say something interesting, regardless of the broader merits of the person who said it.

  • “You don’t want Jones back, do you?” is how the pigs in Animal Farm silence any objections to their tyranny. You don;t want to be an islamophobe / racist / transphobe / homophonbe / sexist / whatever is how modern PC seeks to silence objections. The names change, the methods remain the same.

    Jones v. the pigs in the book means the Tsar v. the communists in Russia. Russia’s per-capita production of grain and absolute production of meat was less in 1956 than in 1913 – and remained so for long afterwards. Industrial production was higher than 1913, but less so than it would have been if the communists had never been. (It reflects Orwell’s socialist economic views that Animal Farm, though cruel, is presented as not markedly inefficient compared to human-run farms.) Similarly, I think the state of society’s older prejudices would be better if the tyranny of PC did not exist.

    Sadly, PC can become an addition. Every conman knows the victim’s vanity is his strongest ally. Remaining the good guy in your mind is something which many a propagandised student will cling to for years. And the point of the bubble is not to know you are in it.

  • Nothing quite so funny to me as when SJW’s in general or especially feminists in particular propose to lecture everyone else on the appropriate way to interact with one another, in order to preserve feelings, when they themselves are some of the most unpleasant, unempathetic and rude assholes on the entire planet.

    Indeed, and having recently encountered one or two of them I have reached the conclusion that they mix in SJW circles because they are unpleasant and unsympathetic: they are the only social group that will have them. In at least one instance, I have found the unpleasantness/mental illness drives them into feminist/SJW circles and from there they adopt the political stance, not the other way around.

  • Alisa

    I found Carlin tedious most of the time – but he occasionally came up with some brilliant lines, and the one quoted above is certainly one of those.

    OT: Tim, am I the only one who gets a ‘malicious site’ warning every time I click on a link to your blog?

  • And the point of the bubble is not to know you are in it.

    Indeed, and it is very easy to not realise you are in a bubble: I know the oil and gas expatriates live in a bubble, and I do what I can to step outside of it – albeit with limited success. But I have noticed people tend to go apeshit if you tell them they live in a bubble, even if it is blatantly obvious to any outsider.

  • Tim, am I the only one who gets a ‘malicious site’ warning every time I click on a link to your blog?

    No, you’re not. I need to get that sorted, but I have no idea how! 🙁

  • Alisa

    OK, but still safe to click, right? 🙂

  • Patrick

    Tim,

    You need to make several posts saying something really really nice about Russia before the FSB releases its grip on White Sun of the Desert!

  • It should be! But I’ll clear the whole site out and reload it over this weekend, see if that will work.

  • Alisa, August 12, 2016 at 9:02 am: “Tim, am I the only one who gets a ‘malicious site’ warning every time I click on a link to your blog?”

    For the record, I clicked on the link Tim posted at August 12, 2016 at 8:57 am and did not get any warning. I also click on his name to go to top of blog and did not get any warning.

    It would be interesting to know if you always get this warning, or only when connected to a given provider, or in a given browser, or what. I see Tim is aware that others see it – there must be some commonality.

  • NickM

    On the subject of PC here’s a quote for y’all:

    When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights advocates, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities. … Those who are most sensitive about “politically incorrect” terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any “oppressed” group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual, white males from middle-class families.

    Guess who wrote that.

  • Alisa

    Good point, Niall – I just tried from the smartphone, and no problem there. FWIW.

  • PeterT

    It has an Ayn Rand feel to it, but I googled the paragraph and see that it was someone else. I think Perry’s point about the use of quotes is certainly apt in this case.

  • Alisa

    Tried different browsers, and it’s only on this one. I’ll stop here, Tim can ask me if he needs to know more.

  • NickM

    PeterT,
    Was that a reply to my comment? If you Gooogled it then you’re a naughty boy! I did say guess.

  • Alsadius

    Normally I hate Carlin, but he had a few good lines.

  • Eric

    I found Carlin tedious most of the time – but he occasionally came up with some brilliant lines, and the one quoted above is certainly one of those.

    I think Carlin saw himself as a social critic who had to throw in a joke every once in awhile to pay the bills, particularly as he got older. I caught him live in the early ’90s, and he was more bitter than funny. What you saw on television (and now on youtube) consisted of the funny bits of his long act with most of the bitterness cut out.

  • Alisa

    I think Carlin saw himself as a social critic who had to throw in a joke every once in awhile to pay the bills, particularly as he got older.

    Quite possibly, and that was also how I saw him. Problem is, I never cared much for his particular angle of social criticism, or the way he expressed it – except for those few lines I mentioned earlier.

  • That quote should be tattooed backwards on the forehead of every American politician who identifies as a Progressive, preferably in large, bold type so they can see it every time they look in a mirror.

  • Paul Marks

    Agreed Mr Carlin – agreed.

  • John Galt III

    Milwaukee – Summerfest – 1972

    I was sitting on the grass by Lake Michigan with a European friend from Spain, I told him that Carlin would say 7 words and get arrested.

    There were cops everywhere around the stage. Carlin walked on stage – cracked some jokes. and said the seven words and was arrested.

    Very short show, but glad I was there to see it. Early George Carlin was fairly clean and funny, but as time went by he adopted the “counter-culture” look and attitude. He became one his own characters: “the hippy dippy weatherman”.

  • Julie near Chicago

    NickM, very interesting. I confess — I cheated and Looked It Up, as I had no idea. I’ll have to read the whole thing. Thanks. :>)

    . . .

    As to Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Don Rickles, et al: If you got nuttin’ to say but the f-bomb, you ain’t got nuttin’.

    However, I did thoroughly enjoy Mr. Carlin’s relatively obscenity-free and dead-serious commentary on the movement to sanitize our discourse of any taint of Standard English.

    About the Early as opposed to the Later Carlin, I wouldn’t know. The Seven Words, ditto. Except, I presume, the f-bomb. Everyone knows that word now, of course. It’s become part of informal (and sometimes formal!) common conversation and writing. Of course, frequent use tends to inure us to both shock and the unacceptable, and not just in words; which is why the Shock Jocks and adolescents of all ages have to keep coming up with more not-before-the-children obscenties in order to grab public attention. Or to show how grown-up they are. Or how avant/with-it. (One of the problems with St. Milo of Y.; but he’s young yet and may grow out of it.)