RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/03/21/the-sweater/

In 1980’s “The Sweater,” an animated short that gets its title from the traditional term for a hockey jersey in Canada, a boy in Quebec accidentally receives a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey rather than the Montreal Canadiens No. 9 Maurice Richard jersey that his mother had ordered, and the jersey all his friends wear. As a Quebecois, he is humiliated by the Toronto jersey and benched by his coach. The peer pressure he feels to fit in is enormous.

Now in the 2020s, the pressure from radical activists and the corporate cowards who take a knee to them at every opportunity is on players to wear jerseys during warmups that celebrate the ​​LGBTQIA+ community.

But even in 2023, when so many among us are either part of the social bullying culture or so fearful of it that we’ve surrendered to it, there are still men of strength and principle. On Jan. 17, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov declined to wear a pride jersey in warmups, citing his Christian (Russian Orthodox) beliefs. So he sat in the locker room, banished, while his teammates took their pre-game skate.

“I respect everybody, and I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov said after the game. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

He mistreated no one yet he was viciously maligned by those who self-identify as inclusive, tolerant, and righteously fair.

However, within days, No. 9 Provorov game replica sweaters were selling out on the NHL Shop and at Fanatics, indicating that despite the hatred that was heaped on him – shameful hockey media hack E.J. Hradek suggested that Provorov return to Europe and “maybe get involved” in Russia’s war in Ukraine, while sports writer Cyd Zeigler huffed that “Proporov chose to embrace prejudice” – not just a few appreciated his position.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/03/16/federal-court-rules-against-ny-worker-fired-for-refusing-to-attend-lgbtq-training/

On Monday, a federal appellate court ruled that the firing of a New York man who refused to attend a pro-LGBTQ training session was legal.

As reported by the New York Post, Raymond Zdunski argued in his lawsuit that his employer, the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), attempted to “change his religious beliefs about gender and sexuality” by forcing him to attend a diversity training session focused on people who claim to be LGBTQ. His employer refused his request for a religious exception, citing his Christian beliefs.

Zdunski subsequently sought $10 million in damages, as well as reinstatement and back pay. The lawsuit was originally dismissed last year by District Judge Geoffrey Crawford. The recent ruling by the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Crawford’s original decision, supporting BOCES’ decision to fire him.

In both cases, the judge and the court claimed that Zdunski was wrong to claim he was the victim of “unlawful religious discrimination.” Crawford’s original ruling specifically noted that BOCES was required to provide such diversity training by a state law, the Dignity for All Students Act, and thus claimed that to give Zdunski an exemption would be committing a state crime.

“It just seems like the country is against the Christian way of life, and it’s for everything else,” Zdunski said in response to the latest ruling. “We’re not allowed to practice our way of life but anyone else can, it seems.”

The company issued its own statement after the court’s ruling, saying that “we agree with the decisions of both the United States District Court and the Court of Appeals, and remain committed to fostering a safe and supportive environment for all students and staff.”

https://amgreatness.com/2023/03/09/white-house-gives-international-womens-day-award-to-biological-man/

On Wednesday, the Biden White House celebrated International Women’s Day by presenting an award to a biological man who believes he is a woman.

The Daily Caller reports that the Woman of Courage Award was given to Alba Rueda, who serves as the Special Envoy for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In that post, he is responsible for Argentina’s adoption of a policy known as the “Transgender Labor Quota,” which mandated that no less than one percent of all public sector jobs be held by people who believe themselves to be “transgender.”

“Now in its 17th year, the Secretary of State’s IWOC Award recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity – often at great personal risk and sacrifice,” the White House said in a press release announcing the award for Rueda, who was born a male.

“In Argentina, Alba Rueda is a transgender woman who was kicked out of classrooms, barred from sitting for exams, refused job opportunities, subjected to violence, and rejected by [his] family,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, as the award was presented to Rueda by Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/19/the-rewriting-of-roald-dahl-should-disturb-us-all/

It’s easy to become inured to the madness of the culture war. Stories of Peter Pan being slapped with trigger warnings or God going gender-neutral are 10 a penny these days. They can sometimes wash over you. Not because they are unimportant – far from it. But because they are so ubiquitous. Every institution from the Wellcome Collection to Splash Mountain has fallen to some flavour of woke regressivism. Language is warped to flatter a few narcissists. Old art works and new are censored at the behest of hysterics. Such cases don’t surprise us anymore, no matter how deranged and illiberal.

But once in a while the authoritarians who make up our cultural elites outdo themselves – and remind us how much is at stake in this thing we call the culture war. The rewriting of the late Roald Dahl’s books is one such story. When the Telegraph revealed yesterday that Puffin, Dahl’s publisher, has made ‘hundreds of changes’ to his beloved children’s books, in line with suggestions from so-called sensitivity readers, the response was one of horror and disbelief. An author beloved by generations of children for his magical, spiky and sometimes sinister work has had his literary edges sanded off. All new copies will feature the newly cleansed text. Dahl’s words and stories will be changed forever, no longer truly his own, all because some weirdo with a red pen thinks they know better. The philistinism, the cultural vandalism, is stunning.

And what is it that so upset them? What is it that made these sensitivity readers conclude that Dahl’s books must be changed, so they ‘can continue to be enjoyed by all today’, in the words of Puffin? The word ‘fat’, for one. That’s gone from every book – sparing the blushes of characters like Augustus Gloop, the fat lad from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Oompa-Loompas are now no longer ‘titchy’ or ‘tiny’. Just ‘small’. They’ve also gone gender-neutral for good measure, with ‘small men’ swapped for ‘small people’. Perhaps most outrageously of all, whole lines have been rewritten and brand new lines added, seemingly to pre-empt any prejudice that might otherwise curdle in the minds of young readers. In The Witches, a line describing a witch posing as a ‘cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman’ now casts her as an aspirational girlboss, ‘working as a top scientist or running a business’.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/02/12/actor-idris-elba-under-fire-from-left-for-rejecting-black-actor-label-n1669976

In a recent interview, famed actor Idris Elba said that he no longer wants to be identified as a “black actor” and that he wants his talent to be recognized regardless of his race.

“As humans, we are obsessed with race. And that obsession can really hinder people’s aspirations, hinder people’s growth,” Elba told Esquire UK. “I stopped describing myself as a Black actor when I realised it put me in a box. We’ve got to grow. We’ve got to. Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin. Rant over.”

While many believe Elba should be applauded, his comments have drawn criticism from the identity-obsessed political left.

“There’s an innocuous way that Black folks in Hollywood like Idris, Terry Crews, etc—play the ‘good colorblind negro’ to have individual success,” tweeted screenwriter Kellee Terrell. “Meanwhile,Black folks like Gina, Gabrielle, John Boyega, etc, reject that bulls*** to ensure COMMUNAL SUCCESS.”

“Whether he defines himself as a Black actor or not, film directors and studios do. Does Idris transcend stereotypical roles absolutely, so does Denzel, Poitier, etc.,” tweeted Democrat strategist Ameshia Cross. “Something about Idris’ commentary here doesn’t sit well. I get where he’s going, but he took a dangerous path.”

Dangerous path? Really? How sad.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/01/26/come-see-the-racism-inherent-in-the-paint-industry/

It sounds like a bad joke about woke gone amok, but it’s not. Norway’s University of Bergen is sponsoring research into tackling the burning question of whether and how white paint contributes to white supremacy and why Norway should feel guilty about it because of its role in it.

It turns out, you see, that Norwegians were behind the innovation of titanium white paint, which is considered pure white.

The university wants researchers to explore “the cultural and aesthetic changes instigated by titanium white … and how can both the material in itself and these changes be conceptualized and made visible?”

This story quickly made the rounds in conservative circles. But let’s take a closer look. And, holy cow, does racism in the paint industry run deep!

Examine with us, if you will, the color wheel of Sherwin-Williams, the largest paint manufacturer in the country and brags that it covers the earth. There are literally dozens of variations of white, all of them with names such as:

Greek Villa
Pearly White
Extra White
Pure White
Reserved White
Incredible White
Nice White
Windfresh White.