Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray quotes

P 61 Here Murray continues to assess the jargon and elitist manner of speech used in the humanities. Inveterate and tested sciences, like physics, that have a proven and much needed utility, cannot waste so much valuable information by speaking in vague terms, or communicating ambiguously.

" ' if ones theory can't predict anything,' Peter Woit observed with some asperity, 'it is just wrong and one should try something else.'" P 61 "Any student wondering whether the world really works like this can be instantly presented with the library of intimidating evidence that the gobbledygook he is failing to comprehend is his fault and not the fault of the writer of the gobbledygook." P 61

P 134 Profesor Christakis of Yale looking back on a confrontation he had with various students using vitriolic language and intimidating/ threatening physical gestures simply because he disagreed with them.

" Disagreement is not oppression. Argument is not assault. Words - even provocative or repugnant ones - are not violence. The answer to speech we do not like is more speech." P 134

P 30 Nothing wrong with posing a simple question. Something that has hardly been explored, that which even the psychological community admits ignorance of, requires asking such questions to understand its purpose, or for what it serves... how does it feel? Most concur homosexuality is a combination of biological and postnatal environmental factors.

" Homosexuality could (from a reproductive angle, among others) be said to be inconvenient to society, and the question of what it actually is there for presents a perfectly legitimate question for society to be engaged with." P 30

P 43 It appears, according to those that espouse the prevailing social vision, that every group identity is accompanied by a set of rules to follow— codes, manners of thought, tastes and preferences— and if broken, the institutions (churches, if you will) that are attached to these groups, have the power to excommunicate or delegitimize someone's status as a member of this group.

" It is weather being gay means that you are attracted to members of your own sex, or whether it means you are part of a grand political project." P 43

P 22 The problem with dogmatically believing a new social order or system of belief that has yet to be tested, and hasn't had time to settle in. It is dangerous to display to great a certainty over questions that are still certain.

" One problem of changing societal positions so swiftly is that unexplored, even unexploded, issues and arguments are left behind in the wake." P 22

P 137 Check out the video, "What are White People Superior At." And after watching, explain how such racism is possibly auspicious in extirpating society of "wide-spread systemic racism."

" The ability to say racist things in pursuit of an alleged anti-racism — has become utterly normalized." P 137

P 247 Their nakedly hostile approach— labeling everything as bigoted, hateful, oppressive— is more congruent with the desire to destroy than to wish to improve.

" The aim of the social justice campaigners has consistently been to take each issue Dash gay, women, race, trans - that they can present as a right grievance and make their case at its most inflammatory. Their desire is not to heal but to divide, not duplicate but to inflame, not to dampen but to burn." P 247

P 138 To judge members of the past for not having been aligned with the social norms a century later is to invite future slander and tarnishing of yourself, in generations to come. Cliche as it sounds, we are products of our time.

" The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. It requires a level of naivety to imagine that a piece from a magazine published in 1916 would meet the precise social criteria of 2018." P 138

P 32 Again, understandable concerns, to dismiss them immediately as 'insecure' and 'bigoted' is to hastily assume that there is nothing up for discussing regarding homosexuality, when in reality it is a grey area. For those that may misunderstand what I'm trying to communicate, I don't mean in any way to express concerns some people have as my own, nor do I claim anything resembling a belief that homosexuality is a social pathology.

" What has become known as "homophobia" may be a consequence of parental concern that the emerging sexuality and their children maybe impressionable. Two demonstrations of this are higher concerned about homosexuals doing jobs which bring them into regular contact with children and, secondly, that once their children are grown up, they become much more relaxed about their being around gay people." P 32

P 7 Murray sheds light on the "StGeorge in retirement syndrome", how someone even as noble as st George could end up fighting straw-dragons.

" after slaying the dragon the brave warrior finds himself stocking the land looking for still more glorious fights. He needs his dragons. Eventually, after tiring himself out in pursuit of ever smaller dragons he may eventually even be found swinging his sword at 10 air, imagining it to contain dragons." P 7

P 205 Murray chronicles the story of James, a gay teen who decided he was in the wrong body, and began to take oestrogen and anti-androgens (hormone blockers).

" among the things that happened was that he became more emotional than he had been before. "I cried a lot." His skin began to soften and his body fat began to redistribute. But he noticed other things. The movies and even the music you liked began to change - as did what he liked in bed." P 205

P 97 According to French, the source of all evil is rooted in men, or more specifically, masculinity. Not only is this a strip of dissonance, because their is either no difference than men and women on a moral and competent level, (though perhaps different in personality characteristics on an aggregate scale), or women are somehow inherently and seraphically higher moral beings. "Toxic masculinity" is relevant here. Higher levels of testosterone are certainly strongly linked to higher capability of aggression. And since there is almost no overlap between quantity of testosterone in men vs testosterone in women, wouldn't that suggest that aggression are inherently associated with masculinity? What women lack in physical aggression and in the proclivity to engage in physical altercations manifests itself rather in their social relationships— ability to ostracize other women, the manner in which they impact others' social status, the stronger influence they have over their spouse than he often has over himself. All these traits in women could indeed reach a toxic degree, and yes they are associated with femininity, and to pretend that femininity hasn't had an immense impact on the development of the world— both for good and for evil—- is to deny what one sees everyday.

" but it is the dichotomy she insists on throughout which is most striking. Everything that is good is female. Everything that is bad is male. P 97

P 109 It is nearly impossible to have an honest, curious conversation in pursuit of truth, without encountering a trip wire that is nearly impossible to avoid, considering the hundreds of millions of people, some of them preparing themselves to be offended. Sadly, the consequences of running into a trip wire may prove fatal to one's career or social status.

" difficult and contentious issues demand a great amount of thought. And a great amount of thought often necessitates trying things out, including making inevitable errors. Yet to think out loud on the issues which are most controversial has become such a high risk that on a simple risk/reward ratio there is almost no point in anyone taking it." P 109

P 107 The impact of tech is immense, can explain such erratic swings in the mood of our society. The ability of news to be blown out of proportion, the lack of empathy, and the eradication of the space between public and private language.

" if we are already running in the wrong direction then tech helps us to run their exponentially faster." P 107

P 46 A quote from Bret Easton Ellis, describing what is actually means to be gay, in modern times. Lol There are alleged responsibilities that being gay brings with it.

" some kind of saintly ET whose sole purpose is to be put in the position of reminding us only about tolerance and our own prejudices and to feel good about ourselves and to be a symbol. " p 46

P 256 This is a great manner of division, isn't at all clear in providing a solution, or identifying a solvable problem. Merely just perpetuates chaos and hopelessness.

" to assume that sex, sexuality and skin color mean nothing would be ridiculous. But to assume that they mean everything will be fatal."

P 104 As much as many feminists would like to indict anyone "who supports equality among the sexes" as feminist— most of the general public doesn't perceive modern feminism in that regard. Noisy, rackety, and perturbable are better words to describe the general spirit of the movement- committing innumerable economic fallacies, making mountains out of mole hills, etc.

" when asked what words popped into respondents' heads first when they heard the word "feminist", the single most popular word that came to them - indeed to more than a quarter of respondents - was "bitchy". P 104

P 138-139 Examples of weird treatment extended towards blacks by freakishly sensitive and racially obsessed whites. A middle age white women goes to Twitter because she doesn't want her whiteness to impinge on black enjoyment of the movie.

""So I carefully did not buy black panther tickets for opening weekend because I did not want to be the white person sucking black joy out of the theater. What's the appropriate date for me to buy tickets? Is next weekend OK?" "Sucking black Joy" has quite a ring to it, suggesting that white people are not just monsters and racist, but vaguely vampiric to boot." P 138-139

P 185 Often what emerges is not anything willed. Intentions can often be completely meaningless in producing a better outcome. Murray imagining what the future generations may think of our lack of circumspection in performing irreversible sex-change procedures on people. This quote relates specifically to the story of Nathan/Nancy Verhlest.

"' so the Belgian health service tried to turn a woman into a man, failed and then killed her?' Hardest of all to comprehend might be the fact that the killing, like the operations that preceded it, was performed not in the spirit of malice or of cruelty, but solely in the spirit of kindness." P 185

P 148 Another example of lurid cultural appropriation. In all seriousness, in what twisted definition of racism would this be racist. If she has a particular taste that veers towards Chinese attire, is she barred from wearing such attire because she has the wrong DNA? Either these casual race-obsessed race baiters revert racism back to its original and serious definition, or they admit that racism is simply petty, not that big of a deal, and place an inefficient amount of focus on actions or statements that could only be racist when read in the most malign light.

"'Was the theme of the prom casual racism.' Asked one Twitter user. Others users poured into accuse the non-Chinese girl of cultural appropriation for wearing a Chinese inspired dress." P 147

p 123 Oxford University's description of whiteness studies. "Invisible structure", such vague verbiage is by no means productive nor helpful in identifying a clear problem, nor auspicious to proposing a solution.

"A growing field of scholarship whose aim is to reveal the invisible structures that produce white supremacy and privilege." P 123

P 78-80 The first quote quote refers to the fascination and adoration that favored 50 Shades of Gray. Quite an irony, if I do say so myself. The second quote refers to Nicki Minaj's music video of "Anaconda", in which she completely sexualizes herself— sucking on a banana and feeding "cream" to herself (I wonder what the cream is). Towards the end of a video, a man attempts to grab her ass but is rejected. (Serves that creep right!) The third quote is interesting. If this is truly the notion that the SJW vision wants to prevail, then there is no such thing as sexy to begin with. All bodily attraction is merely another another performative social construct. Men should remain indifferent to women flaunting their ass and cleavage— the fact that they aren't indifferent is a product of the patriarchy.

"A young man can go online or down to his local bookstore - if he can find one - and discover that the books which have been recently sold in the greatest numbers to women (including those of his mothers age group) or one centered around women's rape fantasies." P 78 "The demand is that a woman must be able to lap dance before, drape herself around and wiggle her ass in the face of any man she likes. She can make him drool. But if that man puts even one hand on the woman then she can change the game completely. She can go from stripper to mother superior in a heartbeat." P 79 "It is that a woman must be allowed to be as sexy and sexual as she pleases, but that does not mean she can be sexualized. Sexy, but not sexualized." P 80

P 144 An example of racializing/problematizing literally everything. Williams throws a tantrum, is penalized, then the ref who carried it out is charged with a 1-2 punch of sexism AND racism.

"According to Carys Afoko, the criticism of Serena Williams had a larger less Dash in that it had been a demonstration of "how hard it is to be a black woman at work". In the opinion of Afoko, "black women aren't allowed a bad day at the office. Or to be precise, if we have a bad day we can't usually risk expressing anger or sadness about it." P 144

P 132 Murray chronicles the events that transpired at Evergreen campus, where vast multitudes of students started a raucous after certain members of the faculty refusing to comply with the "white people go home day." This lead to professor Bret Weinstein having to leave his job and move away from campus, for safety reasons.

"All the characteristics of a modern campus outburst were there. The catastrophizing, the claims made which born no resemblance to provable facts, the unleashing of entitlement in the guise of creating a level playing field, the turning of words into violence and violence into words." P 132

P 50 As a heterosexual man, there is something profoundly beautiful about the mystery of women.. How do they feel, why do they operate the way they do? There are many other mysteries and questions regarding the other sex, too explicit to put down.

"All women have some thing that heterosexual men want. They are holders, And wielders, of some kind of magic. But here's the thing: gays appear in someway to be in on the secret. That may be liberating for some people. Some women will always enjoy talking with gay men about the problems - including the sexual problems - of men. Just as some straight men will always enjoy having this vaguely bilingual friend who might help them learn the other language. But there are other people for whom it will always be a nerving. Because for them gays will always be the people - especially the men - who know too much." P 50

P 159 Those that problematize everything, that read everything with the most malign set of lenses, don't deserve our propitiation. Twitter has the capacity of magnifying the most fringe thoughts of society into a supposed mainstream attitude.

"And so the collective ambition of public figures must become to ensure that they write, speak and think out loud in such a fashion that no dishonest critic could dishonestly miss represent them. It should go without saying that this is an impossible, and deranging, aspiration. It cannot be done. It cannot even be attempted without going mad." P 159

P 197 Murray chronicles the two types of transgenders, mentioning that yes sometimes autogynephilia occurs, and can reach such extremes as the compulsion to become the other gender, for the sake of arousal.

"As biological males attracted to other biological males it made sense for a particular type of gay man who could not attract straight men (due to being a man) or gay men (due to being too feminine) to pass as a woman, thus leading to more opportunities to attract the men who were the real object of desire." "This is a man who has always been heterosexual and may have even have married and had children: men who win they announce that they wish to become a woman shock everyone around them. While they may never have shown any hint of femininity and their outer life, such people having private found themselves sexually aroused by the idea of presenting as, or actually becoming, a woman. Bailey marshals a considerable amount of evidence to show that, of the two types of transgender is him he identifies, the first is more prevalent around the world" P 197

P 93 They are implementing affirmative-action like measures to promote ethnic minorities to higher positions simply to fill a quota, merely a symbolic gesture that hardly (if at all) improves the wellbeing of poor communities.

"As it is in politics, so it is in private and public companies. Fast tracked diversity may promote the people who are nearest to their destination already. Very often these are the most privileged people of any group - including their own.... While their companies have managed to increase female mobility and ethnic minority mobility their level of class mobility has never been lower. All they have managed to do is build a new hierarchy." P 93

P 39 It is very easy to ignore the moral force of groups containing "fetish sections" within their marches. Ironic, isn't the purpose of these movements to push for equality, acceptance, coexistence, or is it something more? Is it to create an entirely new subculture of what I consider a brouhaha of madness, confusion, and unbridled _____ fill in the blank.

"At almost any demonstration for gay rights today - most prominently the "gay pride" marches which happen around the world - the call for legal equality, now achieved in most western countries, is mixed in with things that would cause many homosexuals as well as heterosexuals to blush...... How the "dour gay políticos" would march past calling for civil rights, followed by "bare chested young men" dancing erotically, women with their tops off, fetishists with their leathers, sadomasochists flogging each other in the street, and then the slogan: "rectal pride", "vagina pride". The justification for this, put forward by the intersectional sociologists Arlene's Stein I'm on others, was that if gay people looked like everybody else then they would disappear." P 39

P 142 Just an example of how race and become superlative to talent in terms of casting a role. Another clear example of how one's racial identity is paramount to everything else, therefore a white person could never play the role of any one who's character was originally played by a person of color, even if the theme of the production has absolutely nothing to do with the character's racial identity. You can be color-blind or color-obsessed, but it probably cannot be both.

"Back in the 1970s the great American soprano Kathleen battle was appearing in works by Strauss Verde and Hayden. None of the roles have been written for a black singer, but there was no serious question of her suitability for the role and no negative comment about the casting. Likewise with Jesse Norman, one of the great Sopranos of recent decades. Richard Wagner did not specify that Isolde they should be black. But when Jesse Norman saying the music from Tristan and Isolde under the baton of Herbert von Karajan with the Vienna Philharmonic, nobody thought of ignoring the music and denouncing the casting for being racially inappropriate. We had all gotten used to this. But that was yesterday. Today it has become wholly acceptable to suggest that the racial characteristics of an actor or performer are the most important characteristic when they are cast. More important, indeed, then their ability at performing the role." P 142

P 203 Trans is not comparable to gay. What if trans, just occasionally, is just a phase? And what if this phase is realized too late? Labeling such concerns transphobic is making the situation very ugly.

"But there is one very significant difference. If a gay woman falls in love with a man or a gay man suddenly falls in love with a woman, or a straight man or woman suddenly falls in love with a member of their own sex, all of their existing biological hardware is still in place. A gay person who go straight or a straight person who goes gay is doing nothing that is permanent or irreversible. People expressing concern or urging caution in regard to transsexualism may not be "denying the existence of trans people" or claiming that they should be treated as second-class citizens, let alone (the most catastrophizing claim of all) causing trans people to commit suicide. They may simply be urging caution about some thing which is not remotely been worked out yet - and which is irreversible." P 203

P 166 Murray's response to Coates proclivity to putting the worst possible gloss possible on every controversy, including claiming that a conservative writer wasn't capable of seeing black people as fully realized human beings.

"Coates not only exaggerates hurt, but does so knowing that all of the weaponry is now on his side. There is a gun loaded on the stage, but it is not the white men who are holding it, it is him. When students starting out on campuses across the US wonder whether making insincere claims and catastropizing minute events can be rewarding, they can look to Coates and know that it is." P 166

P 146 Douglas describing post-colonial studies' newest enemy: cultural appropriation. What a devil. Another example of reading everything in the most malign light and then problematizing.

"Colonial powers had not just imposed their own culture on other countries but it also taken back aspects of those foreign cultures to their own countries. I've been nine reading of this could view it as imitation, and the sincerest form of flattery." P 146

P 167 Murray talks about how commonplace it is now to scour the past of its most ugly deeds, and make them emblematic of a country, and in turn indict the present. One consequence of this could be the normalization of vengefulness.

"Crucially they are a history for which she needs to go searching, returning from her endeavors to tell us how much worse the past was when we had imagine how much worse white people must be now as a result." P 167

P 168 Murray details some of the dilemmas confronting mankind now that many have realized God is a construct. How does a 3rd party surrogate decide what a man is worth? Remember the song " look to heaven's eyes." Far too difficult to take into account everything that can contribute to one's worth, or ones happiness.

"Equality in the eyes of God is a core tenant of the Christian tradition. But it has translated in the era of secular humanism not into a quality in the eyes of God with a quality in the eyes of man... People are not equally beautiful, equally gifted, equally strong or equally sensible. They are certainly not equally wealthy. They are not even equally lovable."

P 216 The clear dissonance and non-overlap between classical feminism and the transgender movement. Trans women aren't women, they can't possibly experience battles like batting off sexual advances from male strangers, going through child-birth and menopause. Biological women cannot be placed in the same category as "chicks with ducks". Additionally, yes, transgenderism reinforces extremely Victorian conservative stereotypes— "knitting, flaunting their perfect breasts"...

"Feminists like Bindle, Greer in Birchill come from the schools of feminism which remain concerned with matters of women's reproductive rights, the rights of women to escape violent and abusive relationships and much more. They are also women who believed in breaking down the stereotypes over what a woman should be or could be. Perhaps the most obvious point of non-overlap with the trans movement is that in many ways trans does not challenge social constructs about gender, but reinforces them." P 216

P 239 A list of paradoxical demands, impossible to obey, being made in light of the onslaught of social wokeness. Another one is that we must understand recognized minorities and shut up but at the same time we'll never be able to understand them. We can also be ridiculous and not be ridiculed. Cultural standards are the bedrock by which we define what is normal and what is ridiculous. If one is a member of the culture and has extreme difficulty following the standards, one might say his flamboyance or excessive extravagance might seem strange to the rest of society.

"From some of the most famous women on the planet we have heard the demand that women have the right to be sexy without being sexualized. Some of the most prominent cultural figures in the world have shown us that to oppose racism we must become a bit racist." P 239

P 35 Murray discusses the discordance and disassociation among the LGBTQ+ community, even among just the LGB portion. He observes the relationships and interactions between the 3 letters.

"Gay men often characterize lesbians as dowdy and boring. Lesbians often characterized gay men as silly and displaying a failure to grow up. Neither have very much use for each other, and almost none meet in any "communal" places." P 35 " bisexuals continue to be viewed not so much a part of the same "community" as gays as some kind of betrayal from within its midst. Gay men tend to believe that men who claim to be "bye" are in fact gays in some form of denial. And while a woman who sometimes sleeps with women will often get a hearing from male heterosexuals, few women react positively as partners to men who also sleep with other men." P 35

The lack of prudence in deciding if one is "in the wrong body" is stupefying. There is a reoccurring theme of a "lack of grilling", and eagerness to label one as "misgendered" simply because they bear some traits atypical of their respective gender.

"Gay rights campaigners have argued for years that anybody can be gay and that the historical view of gay people being effeminate men and masculine women it's not just outmoded an ignorant, but prejudiced and homophobic... The trans claim keep suggesting that people who are slightly effeminate or don't like the right sports are not merely gay but potentially inhabiting the wrong body and are in fact men, women, inside." P 209

P 150 Murray referring to Abdel-Magied's revulsion while watching a famous British author speak out against identity politics.

"Had she not felt the corners of her mouth turning down and explained to her mother that their mere presence in the hall "legitimized" the hate, then her opinion would have been no more valid (or public) than anyone else's. This is an important cog in the crowd-maddening mechanism: the person who professes themselves most aggrieved gets the most attention. Anyone who is unbothered is ignored." P 150

P 170 Murray giving his thoughts of Harvard admitting to routinely turning down Asian American job applicants in order to achieve more racial balance. Another example of rejecting racial-blindness in favor of race-obsession.

"Harvard like all other similar elite institutions has committed itself to presenting to the world not simply the best possible people, but the best possible people after they have been put through the selection trainer that is the institutions commitment to diversity. If Harvard did not deliberately disadvantaged certain groups and advantage others and it's commitment to "affirmative action" policies and diversity criteria in general, the products of Harvard might be worryingly non-diverse. Specifically they might have a student body which disproportionately or even largely consisted not have white Americans or black Americans, but of Asian Americans and Ashkenazy Jews. Here we get a glimpse of the worlds ugliest land mine." P 170

P 244 Motherhood is a concept that has been abandoned by feminists and patriarch obsessed members of the woke church. Is the primary purpose in life to make money? Do women truly believe that? Do women truly wish to leave that behind and or switch motherhood roles with their husbands? That strikes me as a bit incoherent to biology, but to each their own. Is the role of motherhood being severely underplayed. The ability to shape a life, wielding the power to have an everlasting impact on a human life which will in turn impact others.

"If it is assumed that the primary purpose in life is to make as much money as possible, then it is indeed possible that having a child will constitute a "penalty" for a woman and thereby prevent her from having a large sum of money in her bank account when she dies. On the other hand, if she chooses to pay that "penalty" she might be fortunate enough to engage in the most important and fulfilling role that a human being can have." P 244

All quotes from P 147. Just asinine examples of completely gratuitous claims where apparently foods and other cultural elements are only permitted to members of that culture. If an outsider dares to appreciate such foods, or certain elements of a certain culture, he must be castigated for such colonialism. He doesn't have the right.

"In 2016 a local woman open the bistro called saffron colonial. Furious mobs gathered outside the restaurant, accusing her of racism end of glorifying colonialism." "The worst, to localize, was that of people who had no right to be cooking the food they were cooking because their DNA was wrong." "In 2017 there was a case of a couple who opened a food truck selling burritos. According to the new local rules, this couple were guilty of cultural appropriation — specifically of "stealing" Mexican culture by selling burritos while not being Mexican. The owners of the food truck ended up receiving death threats and had to close all social media accounts and eventually their business." "Butler tweeted her disgust at the chef. She wondered whether Oliver (the cook) actually new "what Jamaican jerk really is? It's not just a word you put before stuff to sell products." She went on, "your jerk rice is not OK. This appropriation from Jamaica needs to stop." P 147

140. A bus crash occurred in Quebec, leaving 16 hockey players dead. Just an example of the toxicity of racializing everything. Thanks to the heavens that this sort of speech hasn't imbibed itself into mainstream society, but it's become more commonplace than one might imagine.

"In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy the Quebec city writer and self described "activist" Nora Loretto took to social media to complain about the attention paid to the dead hockey team by proclaiming, "the maleness, the youthfulness and whiteness of the victims are... Playing a significant role."" P 140

P 36-37 Murray distinguishes the gay rights movement from the queer movement, in the sense that one wishes for equal treatment, acceptance, and coexistence, while the other seems to wish to disrupt and separate themselves into their own order.

"It comes down to the unresolved question of whether gays are exactly like everybody else other than in one single characteristic. Or whether that single characteristic makes gay is utterly unlike the rest of society. It is a divide which falls into two broad groups." P 36 "Whereas gays may just want to be excepted like everyone else, queers want to be recognized as fundamentally different to everyone else and to use that difference to tear down the kind of order that gays are working to get into." P 37

P 233 Insightful commentary of Murray, addressing how the trans movement is extremely discordant to both gay and feminist movements.

"It has been estimated that roughly 80% of children diagnosed with what is now called gender dysphoria will find this problem resolves itself during puberty. That is, they will come to feel at ease with the biological sex they were identified as being at birth. A majority of these children will grow up to become gay or lesbian as adults. How is she lesbian women and gay men feel about the fact that decades after they came to be excepted for who they were a new generation of children who would grow up to be gay or lesbian or being told that their feminine traits make them women and their masculine traits make the men? And what are women to make of this? After years of establishing what their rights were as women, to be told what their rights are - including the right to speak - by people who are born male?" P 233

P 177 So much problematizing, desconstructing, shattering of grand narratives that at least provided us with a more structured and simple view of the world. Now with covid, along with the rapidity with which these social movements are advancing and becoming mainstream, young people struggle to even have any clue how to navigate through life, since the rules haven't been established, they have no clue what to anticipate, or if there is even the slightest bit of common humanity found throughout society. All is chaos.

"It is holy unsurprising that studies show an increase in anxiety, depression and mental illness in young people today. Rather than being a demonstration of "snowflake"-ism it is a wholly understandable reaction to a World whose complexities have grown exponentially in their lifetimes. A perfectly reasonable response to a society propelled by tools that can provide endless problems but no answers. And yet there are answers." P 177

P 154 There is an attached set of political views and grievances that are requisites to being a true "black", or a true "gay", or an other "true" recognized minority.

"It suggests that you are only a member of a recognized minority group so long as you except the specific grievances, political grievances and resulting elect Torel platforms that other people have worked out for you. Step outside of these lines and you're not a person with the same characteristics you had before but who happens to think differently from some prescribed norm." P 154

P 67 For anyone who considers Hollywood as a beacon of morality, just a couple out of countless examples of how the entertainment industries seems to highlight the confusion of the age. "Everything seems to swing between libertinism and prudery without finding any mean-like balance."

"It was the only industry in the 21st-century in which someone still on the run for child rape could be applauded, revered and even viewed as something of a victim by their peers." P 67 " only in Hollywood would a famous Director like Woody Alan separate from his wife because he has been caught having a relationship with her adopted daughter." P 67

P 100 Klein admitted he initially recoiled and felt defensive, but he eventually realized this was simply a way of women venting their trauma incurred upon them by pervasive sexism. How does a mainstream journalist try to defend or 'decode' such lurid rhetoric.

"Klein's discovery was that "kill all men" was merely "another way of saying "it would be nice if the World sucked less for women". A hell of a way to say it, but Klein went on, "it was an expression of frustration with pervasive sexism." P 101

P 254 Another unifying quote from MLK. There is no obvious tributary towards a raceless society from where we are at now, where race is an incredibly important variable.

"Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, "white power!", With nobody will shout, "black power!", But everybody will talk about God's power and human power." P 254

P 84 With respect to the first quote, I want to clarify that this is not simply whining and victimization, it is simply noting a power that women can have over men, that isn't one that men typically wield over women. Power in women, in patriarchal societies and other societies in which gender differences are more pronounced, manifests itself differently, in the form of being the wife that prompts her husband in all his deeds, the seductress that abets her suitors to her bidding. Many women prefer this power, the "behind the scenes" power. Regarding the second quote, attractive people, particularly women, typically manage to climb higher in their chosen profession than their unattractive peers.

"Many women have an ability that men do not. This is the ability to drive members of the opposite sex mad. To the range them. Not just to destroy them but to make them destroy themselves. It is the type of power which allows a young woman in her late teens or 20s to take a man with everything in the world. At the height of his achievements, torment him, make him behave like a fool and rec his life utterly for just a few moments of almost nothing." P 84 "Are they certain that she would have been able to raise an equally large amount of capital if instead of looking rather strikingly like an international model she had (while equally smart and savvy) more closely resembled Jabba the Hutt?" P 84

P 101 Just logical questions. In addition, prison inmates, bricklayers, and other menial positions and circumstances are exceedingly disproportionally made up for by men. Does that cancel out the privilege at the top? With every supposed cultural "benefit" endowed based on one's gender, carries with it a dispossession, as is true with anything.

"Might be said that the preponderance of males in the position of chief executive officer is an example of "male privilege". But nobody knows what the preponderance of male suicides, (according to the Samaritans, British men are three times more likely to commit suicide and women), deaths in dangerous occupations, homelessness and much more might mean. Is this a sign of the opposite of male privilege? Do they even each other out? If not, what are the systems, metrics or time span for doing so? Nobody seems to know." P 101

P 192 Some logical question posed by Murray. Is it always the best decision to begin hormonal treatment, which has life-lasting impacts? Or surgery? What are the prudent step in order to ensure that the patient truly is prepared to undergo such surgery?

"Nobody was sure of what it was that lead some individuals to want to change from one sex to another. Did it represent a form of mental illness? If not always, then made it on occasion? And if so, how could anyone tell the two states of mind apart?" P 192 "One was that the patient must in no way be psychotic. Secondly, by changing sex the patient must not be abandoning anybody who depended on them in the sex they were currently in. Thirdly, the patient should have been undergoing hormone treatment for a length of time. And finally the patient must have lived in the role of the gender they were adopting for a number of years." P 193

P 103 Again, back to the subject of "toxic masculinity". Interestingly enough, toxic masculinity seems to imply that at least masculinity isn't a complete social construct, and broadly speaking, gender is mostly binary? I could be wrong. That said, traits associated with toxic masculinity such as stoicism, over-competitiveness, and risk taking, also are incredibly beneficial. Murray surmises that perhaps it is impossible to dismiss such traits without recognizing their benefits, perhaps these traits are accompanied by positive and negative effects.

"Nor is there any sense before the concept of "toxic masculinity" is in bedded of whether or how it might work even on its own terms. For instance, if competitiveness is indeed in especially male trait - as the APA would appear to be suggesting - when is that competitiveness toxic or harmful, and when is it useful? Might a male athlete be allowed to use his competitive instincts on the race track? If so how can he be helped to ensure that off the track he is as docile as possible? Might a man facing in operable cancer with stoicism be criticized for doing so? And helped out of this harmful position into a situation in which he demonstrates less stoicism? If "adventure" and "risk" are indeed male traits then when and where should men being courage to drop them? Should a male explorer be encouraged to be less adventurous, a male fire fighter be trained to take fewer risks? Or male soldiers to be encouraged to be less connected to "violence" and be keener to show in appearance of weakness?" P 103

P 156 No further comment needed!

"On The View on ABC TV, Whoopi Goldberg defended Rachel Dolezal. "If she wants to be black, she can be black", was Goldberg's view. It seemed that "blacking-up" was not a problem on this occasion. More interesting was the reaction of Michael Eric Dyson, who stood up for dollars all in a remarkable way. On MS NBC he declared of Dolezal, "she's taking on the ideas, the identities, the struggles. She has identified with them. I bet a lot more Black people would support Rachel Dolezal then would support, say, Clarence Thomas." All of which suggested that black was not to do with skin color, or race. But only politics. So much so that a Caucasian wearing bronzer but holding the "right" opinions was more black than a black supreme court justice if that black supreme court justice happens to be a conservative." P 156

P 241 Vox writer David Roberts attacking Americans and defending migrants. What could possibly go wrong? Well, the same crowd he was trying to impress accused him of 'fat-shaming', which is NOT O.K. Perhaps another example of why it is more beneficial and less deranging to find a way to escape this maze of confusion.

"Sometimes I think about America's sudden Terry, heart disease, fast food gobbling, car addicted suburbanites, sitting watching TV and their suburban castles, casually passing judgment on refugees who have walked thousands of miles to escape oppression, and... Well, it makes me mad." P 241

P 127 Murray chronicles the ironic increase of caustic rhetoric, in the most unlikely of places and time periods.

"One of the fascinating things about the racism of the anti-racist is that it presumes that the situation of race relations is the same everywhere and always and that institutions which must be among the least racist in history are in fact on the verge of racist genocide. Catastrophizing has become one of the distinctive attitudes of the era. Just as women can be told that we live in a culture so rife with rape that it can fairly be described as a "rape culture", So two people behave as though they live in a society teetering on the edge of Hitlerism. One oddity in both cases Is that the most extreme claims are made in the place is least likely to experience and he's such a catastrophe. So where as there are countries in the world which might be described as having something resembling a "rape culture", where rape goes unprosecuted and indeed is sanctioned by law, Western democracies could ordinarily not reasonably be accused of being among them. In the same way we're as there are places in the world where racism is right and these are societies which could at some point Teeter back into some kind of racial nightmare, one of the places least likely to switch into ethnic cleansing in the style of the 1930s Germany must surely be a liberal arts college in a liberal state within North America." P 127

P 2 Murray talks about the sudden collapse and rejection of many grand narratives that seemed to provide a structure and order in our lives, and the need to fill these social constructs with something else. We are indeed living in a time in which grand narratives that were axiomatic 30 years ago are now fringe, bigoted, and shamed. You have to be damn reckless to lean this hard on so many untested heuristics your parents came up with in untested fields that aren't even 50 years old.

"People in wealthy Western democracies today could not simply remain the first people in recorded history to have absolutely no explanation for what we are doing here, and no story to give life purpose. Whatever else they lacked, the grand narratives of the past at least gave life meaning. The question of what exactly we are meant to do now — other than get rich where we can and have whatever fun is on offer — was going to have to be answered by something."

P 225-226 Murray responding to the levity displayed by One of the leaders in this field of trans surgery, Dr Olson Kennedy when discussing people making "life-altering" choices.

"Really? Where? How? Are people like blocks of Lego onto which new pieces can be stuck, taken off and replaced again at will? His surgery so painless, bloodless, seamless and Scarlet's today that anyone can just have breast stuck on them at any point and live happily ever after, enjoying their new acquisitions? A fairly typical male to female transformation does not only involve operations to change the genitals and breasts but also operations to shave bone off the chin, Nose and forehead which involves procedures where the skin is peeled off the face. And then there are the hair implants, speech therapy and much more. A woman who seeks to become a man must have an approximation of a penis constructed from skin elsewhere on the body. The subjects arms are often flayed to build this, with no assurance of success. And all at the cost of tens — often hundreds dash of thousands of dollars. It requires a specific level of mendacity to describe all this as an absolute doozy." P 226

P 173 Another madness siting. Robin Diangelo, author of white fragility, one of the best selling books of 2020, is race obsessed. What harm this can do to anyone, regardless of race, attempting to live a color-blind, apolitical life. Of course race can impact one's experience, but it certainly doesn't dictate it, and obsessing monomaniacally over it doesn't have any benefit. Identify specific causes that are objectively producing social pathologies, and correct them. Don't vaguely attempt to draw racial lines across society in an effort to "bring awareness" to White Privilege and the Patriarchy, which will somehow inevitably shatter them— complete non-sequitor.

"Robyn D'Angelo asks for forgiveness by stating, for instance, that, "I'd like to be a little less white, which means a little less oppressive, oblivious, defensive, ignorant and arrogant." To her audience in Boston she also explained how white people who see people as individuals rather than by their skin color are in fact "dangerous". Meaning that it took only half a century for Martin Luther King's vision to be exactly inverted." P 173

P 240 An example of impossible self-analysis performed by trans superstar Laith Ashley. Is this healthy, what is the purpose of this? Is this actually beneficial in progress towards the well-being of society, or is it simply another form of religious penance, almost like confession?

"So he had taken a couple steps further into the hierarchy by becoming a man, had taken a couple steps back by being a person of color, but a step further by being a light skinned person of color. And then he hit the negative of being a tractive. How can anyone work out where they are meant to be in the oppressor/oppressed steaks when they have so many competing privileges and their biography?"

P 86 Most studies find that 10-20 percent of people still find their partners at places of work. This relates to the muddled definition of sexual harassment in the workplace, but what Murray details below is indeed q modern representation of a workplace. Sexual harassment sometimes is reduced to petty terms.

"So is it entirely wise to cordon off this significant tributary of potential life partners? Or to limit it to the tiny slivers of potential permitted by their organizations chief people officer? To do so would be to demand the following: that every man had the opportunity to pursue only one woman in their work life. That that woman could be asked out for coffee or a drink on only one occasion, and that this sole shot must have an absolute, 100% accuracy rating on the one occasion on which it was deployed." P 86

P 62 Relating to spoofs conducted by Peter Boghossian and James Lindsey, in which they published a series of obscene, caricatured articles which included "The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct", (nominally self-explanatory), "Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks in Portland, Oregon", along with several others. The point is that anything can be said as long as it fitted into pre-existing theories and utilized similar language.

"So long as people were willing to claim that we live in a patriarchal society, a "rape culture", homophobic, trans phobic and racist culture; so long as they indict their own society and scatter in a smattering of admiration for any other society, from an approved list, then almost anything can be said." P 62

P 178 Petty atavistic tribalism at work— those who not only attack the living for wicked acts of their ancestors, but also attack the living who share merely racial characteristics with those who have committed loathsome acts. There should be no "your people", "my people", sort of verbiage habitually used in a a color-blind society. A healthy society has no room for primitive tribalism.

"Terrible things are done, by a person or people, but overtime the memory fades. People gradually forget the exact details or nature of a scandal. The clouds around a person or an action and then that too dissipates among a a mass of new discoveries and experiences. In the case of the worst historical wrongs the victims and perpetrators die out - the one who gave the offense and the person to whom offense was done. Some descendants may remember for a time. But as the insult and grievance fade from generation to generation those who hold on to this grievance are often regarded as displaying not sensitivity or honor but belligerence." P 178

P 96-97 Many describe the patriarchy as this transparent, ghastly and pervading force that's SOOooo deeply embedded in society to the point where it's utterly impossible to present any serious evidence for its existence, other than that it manifests itself in seriously oppressive forms, such as the wage gap, rape culture, toxic masculinity, catcalling, etc.

"The challenge to "patriarchy" by feminist is simply a demand quote to be treated as human beings with rights", including the demand quote that men not feel free to beat, rape, mutilate, and kill them". What kind of monster with a post that? And who are the members of this patriarchy feel free to eat, rape, mutilate and kill women?" P 96-97

P 233 Some of the dogma of this new great awakening. Plagued with internal contradictions, anti-scientific claims, and unstable cultural doctrine.

"The foundations are that anyone might become gay, women might be better than men, people can become white but not black and anyone can change sex. There anyone who doesn't fit into this is an oppressor. And that absolutely everything should be made political" p 233

P 16 A shrewd remark which also makes me think of process goals vs outcome goals. The process goal would be ensuring free speech for all, despite whatever radical nonsense one espouses. The outcome goal would be ensuring that any dissidents, if considered radical or hateful, be subject to ignominy, that only "good", "tolerant" speech be allowed.

"The manner in which most people and movements behave at the point of victory can be the most revealing thing about them. Do you allow arguments that worked for you to work for others? Are reciprocity and tolerance principles or fig leaves? Do those who have been censored go on to censor others when the ability is in their own hands?" P 16

P 60 Murray quotes Judith Butler, is such jargon too complex for the mortal mind? Murray says regarding purveyors of social justice ideology, "Their writing has the deliberately obstructive style ordinarily employed with someone either has nothing to say or needs to conceal the fact that what they are saying is not true."

"The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and re-articulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural tonalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony is bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rear articulation of power." P 60

P 55 It is commonly declared that 'working out' or 'being aware of' problems such as intersectional oppression or white male privilege will somehow lead to a healthier less tyrannical reconstruction of society. Speaking neutrally, this strikes me as a vague solution to vague or 'invisible' problems.

"The nature of these interlocking oppressions needed to be worked out. Always there is the sense that once they are unpacked and something wonderful might happen, though, as is common with utopians, the map of utopia is not included in the plan." P 55

P 222 It is habitual that clinicians will encourage parents to kowtow to their children's gender demands in order to prevent suicide. Many parents chronicle their children using extremely scripted language when expressing their feelings of gender dysphoria.

"The problem with the choice being presented this way - in the most catastrophizing light possible - is that it leaves no room for discussion or dissent. Instead, the moment that a child says they think they may be of the opposite sex, they must be greeted only with acceptance and from then on only with a set of life changing steps which an increasing body the professionals appear to want to encourage with his little pushback as possible." P 222

P 250 Many western people today imbibe themselves with the idea that 'primitive' societies had some special state of grave that we lack today— as though in a simpler time there would have been more female dominance, more peace and less homophobia, racism, and transphobia.

"The violent deaths [in these ancient tribes along the americas, New Guinea, and other places] range from almost 10 to 60% of males. By contrast the percentage of meals killed and violent conflict in the US and Europe in the 20th century is a single digit blip. If there is evidence that pasta sides would have been infinitely more tolerant of sexual and biological differences than we are in the 21st-century west, then it is incumbent on those making these claims to provide it."

P 235 Rachel Dolezal on The Real, being scolded (as she should) for her fraudulent trans racialism. If both race and gender are social constructs, what is wrong with switching them when feeling the desire to do so? Apparently race is more significant than gender.

"The women of color on that show made it clear to Dolezal that trans racial ism was not acceptable because a person who had grown up white could not understand what a person who had growing up black could feel like. They could not have had the same experiences. This was the point that second wave feminist were making at the same time about the transsexuals. But an argument that had worked with race had not worked for women." P 235

P 74-75 This strikes me just a tad bit disturbing. Ads in in the women's clothing market designed to sell items that make women stand out sexually to men. Makeup, clothing, gait, are all manners of attracting members of the opposite sex— most women practice the art of seduction, because it certainly carries benefits; that being said, these examples demonstrate extreme objectifying that should rightly disturb someone combating sexual harassment against women. The rules should be clearly established as to what constitutes sexual harassment, because they clearly aren't. There should be no illusions with respect to the reactions women attempt to get when dressing in such a provocative fashion. Degrees of women's tone of voice, manner of walking, degrees to which women put on makeup, wear particular kinds of clothing, are all signals to what sort of reaction they are inviting to occur.

"These babies are cheaper than implants, that's for sure! How do we put this... Freezing nips are the WMD's (weapons of mass destruction) of nipple erectors. They are potent. They are lethal. They'll cut through glass, steel, Teflon, you name it — while giving everyone at the party something to talk about behind your back — in a good way, OBV (they are so jealous). Pair with your favorite graphic T for that effortlessly sexy vibe models are always doing but let's get real you'll want them on under your tightest sweater for the hottest look in the game." P 74 "One of the greatest fashion worries that every woman experiences is the fear that their vagina isn't plump enough. Isn't visible enough to the public gays. You might have a nice bum and boobs... And brain, but if you don't have a bulging labia, what's the point? But good news my flat lipped sisters. If you've ever worried that you're vagina just isn't prominent enough through your shorts or yoga pants then worry no more. " P 75

P 53 Interesting observation, it is good to question dogma, but to seek to deconstruct everything simply because constructs are "inherently evil", seems to me a rash an untested idea. Interestingly enough, all grand narratives and constructs within a fairly prosperous society are labeled tyrannical, while ideas surmised within some of these intellectual circles are heralded as unwielding truth. I'm not exaggerating.

"They have absorbed the idea that the role of the individual is to see through and undo the web that the culture you were born into has wound around you...... Indeed, it is one curiosity of academia in recent decades that it has found almost nothing it does not wish to deconstruct, apart from itself." P53

P 232. The west is an inherently oppressive, racist, patriarchal structure..... compared to what? Some say that claims of human rights violations happen in exactly inverse proportion to the number of human rights violations in a country. Only a free society would permit - and even encourage - such endless claims about its own iniquities.

"They remain 73 countries in the world where it is illegal to be gay, and eight in which being gay is punishable by death. In countries across the Middle East and Africa women are being denied some of the most basic rights of all. Outburst of inter-racial violence occurring country after country. In 2008, 20,000 people fled back to Mozambique from South Africa after riots by South Africans against Mozambicans in the black townships left dozens dead and thousands homeless. Nowhere in the world are the rights of trans people to attempt to live their lives in the way they wish more protected under law than in the developed west."

P 135 The first quote precedes the second quote quite well. With respect to the first quote, this is an incredibly persistent fallacy— the idea that anything that has existed at the same point of white supremacy, must somehow be the foundation, catalyst, or auxiliary for white supremacism, and therefore must be dismantled. Because slavery existed at a time when western values were propagated, that must mean that all western values permitted slavery— when in fact they continually were a discordant enemy to slavery. The free market, systems of law and education, are all somehow foundations for white supremacy.

"This is the idea - which has been swelling around in black politics and black radical thought for years Dash that since everything is set up by the structure of white hegemony every single thing in that structure is waste through with implicit or explicit racism, and that therefore every single aspect of it must be done away with. If any of the existing system is allowed to remain then racial justice cannot be arrived at." P 135 " The caucasity lies in their immediate dismissal of any object that might pose a threat to the continued primacy of whiteness.... 'Diversity of thought' is just a euphemism for white supremacy". P 135

P 110 Social justice activism is the default setting among employers at Silicon Valley, this is not hidden news. There is indeed public support for groups that espouse radical ideology and obscene objectives such as "abolishing the police". Ironically, Google's staff is made up by 35% Asains, not an approximation of their representation in the entire population (5%). Interesting why such tech companies who've thrived off of "capitalism" are so eager to provide fuel to organizations seeking to deconstruct everything, capitalism included, for being the "foundations of racism, sexism, oppression and genocide".

"Those who have gone through the Google tests recount that there are multiple questions on issues to do with diversity - sexual, racial and cultural - and that answering these questions "correctly" is a prerequisite for getting a job." P 110

P 231 One of the mutual aspect between this trans movement and religious dogma.

"To raise the plight of women, gays, people of different racial backgrounds and those who are trans has become not just a way to demonstrate compassion but a demonstration of a form of morality. It is how to practice this new religion. To "fight" for these issues and to extol their cause has become a way of showing that you are a good person." P 231

P 124 Barbara AppleBaum outlining the objective of whiteness studies. Du Boi's 1903 observation was that the color line was a defining characteristic of American society. How are whites, as a collective, complicit in racism? Suppose that whites are beneficiaries of this invisible racial hierarchy, but are not racist, and even go as far as to condemn racism. What must they do abjure any complacency to racism? Apparently, they need to become aware of how they are complicit in racism, and only then will things precipitate towards "good". Where is the logic in this statement? Where does racism manifest itself in mainstream society? Because there exist so few examples of blatant racism in the main stream, words like "micro aggression" and "covert racism" have arrived surreptitiously and have been said to be the foundations of oppression, which is simply synonymous with "racial disparities."

"Unless white people learn to acknowledge, rather than deny, how whites are complicit in racism, and until white people develop an awareness that critical questions the frames of truth and conceptions of the "good" through which they understand their social world, Du Bois's insight will continue to ring true Of course it might be said that what will continue to ring even more true is that defining in entire group of people, their attitudes, pitfalls and moral associations, based solely on the racial characteristics is itself a fairly good demonstration of racism." P 124

P 58 Murray points to the dissonance of the check mark social activist crowd. Can someone who is gay decide later he is straight, or is it only a one way street, if anything? Additionally, transgenderism consists of the transitioning from one gender to the next, which is directly contradictory to gender-fluidity. They say, "I am a woman, born in a man's body", and vice versa. If gender is a complete social construct, then why even transition? Just some questions...

"Was it not hard to explain why some things that seemed fixed, (especially sex and race) were in fact social constructs, whereas other things that may have seemed more fluid, (not at least sexuality) had become viewed as completely fixed?" P 58

P 182 Speaking of Ezra Klein decoding slogans like "Kill All Men", and defending controversial NY Times writer Sarah Jeong, who has an obsession with giving white people what they deserve. This is not uncommon, it occurs on both sides.

"We forgive the people we like, or the person who's tribe or views most closely fit RN, or at least aggravate our enemies." P 182

P 118 Murray discusses Machine Learning Fairness program incorporated into search engines, how it over represents certain groups while underrepresenting white people, or white straight cis people, in particular. This isn't offensive to me, but I think it's damaging that in the attempt to weed out human biases, they create an entirely new unrealistic system of biases. Is it okay to sacrifice truth in pursuit of a political goal?

"What appears to be happening is that some thing is being layered over a certain amount of MLF: it is MLF plus some human agency. And this human agency seems to have decided to "stick it" to people towards whom the programmers or their company feel angry." P 118

P 195 Unfair to compare biologically and objectively provable states of beings with testimonies, which is we know are not always reliable.

"What is exceptionally hard Dash and what we currently have few means of knowing Dash how to navigate the leap beyond biology into testimony. Intersects is biologically provable." Trans simply relies on testimony, which isn't sufficient. P 195

P 18 John Stewart Mill, famously laying out the benefits of free speech in society.

"When a contrary opinion may be true, or true in part, and therefore may require to be heard in order to correct your own erroneous views; and even if the contrary opinion is an error, the airing of it may help to remind people of the truth and prevent its slippage into an ignorant dogma which made in time - if I'm challenged - itself become lost." P18

P 6. Interesting observation. Why discuss such petty issues. Ironic, that the patriarchy is the invisible and near-impregnable enemy when women's rights are the same as men's?

"Why, when women had broken through more glass ceilings then it any time in history, the talk of "the patriarchy" and "Mansplaining" seep out of the feminist fringes and into the heart of places like the Australian Senate?" P 6

P 95 Surprisingly, the verbiage and approach of the feminist movement of today has reached a far more mordant degree than in past years, despite obtaining all legal means of equality. They seem to fuel their movement while insistently espousing the paranoia that we are constantly on the brink of reverting to the patriarchy and subjecting women to domestic thrall on.

"With the major battles for a quality behind, it might have been expected that feminists would mop up the remaining issues that existed and that the fact that things have never been better with me at the pitch of their rhetoric matched this reality. Yeah no such thing happened. If anything ever picked up steam and careered off down the tracks just after having pulled in at the station, it was feminism over recent decades." P 95

P 72 Many such instances occurred of presumptions advances made upon men by women— Drew Barrymore to David Letterman, Jane Fonda to Stephen Colbert, and Mayom Bialek to Piers Morgan.

"in 2016 exposing your breasts was a "feminist"act. Exposing them to a man who had not asked to see them was an especially "feminist" act."

P 151 The ironies and contradictory programs being ran by the same woke crowd— they are incredibly dissonant. Another note on cultural appropriation. Imagine white nationalists fighting to ban entrance of people of other cultures into their own, simply because they don't have the correct DNA, or because they weren't born in the correct culture. Primitive tribalism at its finest.

"on the one hand there is the program which declares the world to be a place where oh well lived life consists of appreciating some thing from every culture and indeed making it easier to access those cultures. On the other hand we are running another program at the same time which declares that cultural boundaries may only be crossed under certain conditions.... There is also a program with recognizes that race and culture or not the same thing. And yet another — running concurrently — that says they are so much the same thing that encroaching on somebody else's culture is an act of racist aggression or "appropriation". P 151

P 49 Quote from Daniel Mendelsohn from his 1999 work, "The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity."

In a way, it is like the experience of Tiresias; this is the real reason why gay men are uncanny, why the idea of gay men is disruptive and uncomfortable. All straight men who have engaged in the physical act of love know what it is like to penetrate a partner during intercourse, to be inside the other; all women who have had intercourse know what it is like to be penetrated, to have the other be inside oneself. But the gay man, in the very moment that he is either penetrating his partner or being penetrated by him, Knows exactly what his partner is feeling and experiencing even as he himself has his own experience of exactly the opposite, the complementary act. Sex between men dissolves otherness into sameness, men into de, In a perfect suspension: there is nothing that either party doesn't know about the other. If the emotional aim of intercourse is a total knowing of the other, gay sex may be, in its way, perfect, because in it, a total knowledge of the other's experience is finally, possible. But since the object of that knowledge is already wholly known to each of the parties, the act is also, in a way, redundant. Perhaps it is for this reason that so many of us keep seeking repetition, as if depth were impossible. " p 49