You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

American comedian and actor Kevin Hart wrote a book called,  I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons. The things I am about to talk about is reported as truth, strange truth, and as the title of Hart’s book says, I can’t make this up. The title of this blog post, You can’t make this stuff up, is a common idiom. It is typically said when a situation, event, or action seems particularly bizarre, surreal, or difficult to believe. Personally, I (#blogger #blog #somseason #YA #authors) tend to use the idiom, You can’t make this shit up. Some consider it rude slang, but it is more my style. Never have these idioms become more relevant than in today’s world. Let me explain.

This past weekend, Mother’s Day was celebrated in Canada. What’s bizarre is a Manitoba school ditches Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to be “inclusive.” A memo sent out by the school said they encourage non-gender-specific observations of “all those who support our students.” Interestingly, the school’s vice-principal who sent the memo was asked whether parents or students had complained about the use of “Mother’s Day” and “Father’s Day,” but they received no response. It is not just Manitoba, as a Quebec school district apologizes after teachers cancel Mother’s Day & Father’s Day. Then there is a Toronto-area School that erases “exclusionary” Mother’s Day sign because a woke parent was offended. It’s bizarre, as Mother’s Day has been around since 1907 when American school teacher Anna Jarvis organized the first Mother’s Day in honour of her own late mother. In 1915, it became an official day of recognition in Canada. Mother’s day began in the USA in 1907 as well. It’s strange that this day is considered exclusive and there is an attempt to erase Mother’s Day. It’s difficult to believe but it is true.

These cancel culture movements happen because a small minority of people are offended. Orange book on Twitter says, “It’s impossible to never offend anyone, simply because some people will always seek reasons to get offended as a diversion from their reality.”  That is so true! Mokokoma Mokhonoana says, “Freedom of speech gives us the right to offend others, whereas freedom of thought gives them the choice as to whether or not to be offended.” Theses freedoms are no longer allowed is our country. Thomas Paine once said, “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” Exactly.  Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” What happened to “majority rules?” Isn’t that what democracy is based on? I recently saw a meme that said, “Why don’t the 99% of us who aren’t offended by everything, quit catering to the 1% who are…?” A great question. It is time to stop this nonsense and stop censorship.

A Boy is kicked out of school for wearing t-shirt saying ‘there are only two genders.’ What this 12 year describes is unbelievable. Watch the video.This never would have happened when I was teaching. Are freedom of speech and freedom of expression no longer valued? I taught Biology for 30+ years, and always taught my students that there are only two genders. If you have male genitalia, you’re a male and visa versa. You can claim to be female, you can dress like a female, but that doesn’t make you a female. Same is true for females who claim to be males. If you lack male genitalia, you’re a female. It’s simple biology. The fact is, as the old idiom says, if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it is a duck. In other words, if something has the characteristics of something, it is probably that thing, regardless of what it is called or presented as.

To expel a student for speaking truth reminds me of George Orwell’s book 1984, a book I studied in high school English. Orwell’s novel speaks of the Ministry of Truth which is really the ministry of propaganda. As with the other ministries in the novel, the name Ministry of Truth is a contradiction because it serves to do the opposite. It is responsible for any necessary falsification of historical events. Some want to believe that these things no longer happen in our supposedly advanced civilization, but it does. Joe Biden is under fire for ‘dystopian’ disinformation bureau for creating the “Disinformation Governance Board,” which is likened to Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. Canada just passed a law where  Truth will vanish with Canada’s internet censorship law. Need I remind you that Adolf Hitler had a Ministry of Truth and Joseph Stalin had a Ministry of Truth. Now Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau have Ministries of Truth. Governments now decide what is truth. You can’t make this shit up.

Many continue to trust the mainstream media, but the CBC admits that it spread disinformation on ‘Freedom Convoy,’ retracts false story. Furthermore, the CBC asked social media to censor users too many times to count. Censorship is bullying (#bullying, #antibullying) as bullying is a deliberate misuse of power in relationships. Now the Ethics Commissioner confirms CBC lied about Danielle Smith. I guess that is why 4 in 10 Canadians believe CBC is Liberal propaganda. It isn’t just the CBC, as Health Canada regularly asks Twitter to censor tweets. It is also reported that the Public Health Agency of Canada makes regular requests to Twitter to censor tweets from social media users for “offensive language.” Censorship is wrong in any context as it removes people’s right to think for themselves.

Here is some more from the world of the bizarre. NHL goes all in on drag shows at hockey games. Even political parties are embracing these shows as A drag queen performance occurs at an NDP constituency—a Canadian political party—annual general meeting. A teachers’ union puts up unauthorized Progress Pride stickers in Catholic schools — and the school board is too terrified to order those stickers to be removed. One of the more bizarre things I came across was J.K. Rowling calls out Canadian male politicians for prancing around in high heels. Yes, you read that correctly. The author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling, along with other prominent women called out Canadian male politicians for prancing around in high heels, which was their effort to raise awareness about domestic violence. I like to think I have a pretty good imagination, but even I couldn’t think of something that weird. A Transgender lawmaker proposes deregulating pedophilia. It is being reported that a transgender representative in Minnesota introduced a bill that removes language from the state’s Human Rights Act that currently declares pedophiles are not included in protections based on “sexual orientation.” So, this lawmaker wants pedophiles to be protected. Wikipedia defines pedophilia as a psychiatric disorder in which an adult has a sexual attraction to  prepubescent children. Let me get this straight. People who violate prepubescent children are protected? You cannot make this stuff up.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ponders ban of Fox News following complaint from LGBTQ lobby who claimed Fox host Tucker Carlson made ‘false and horrifying claims’ about transgender individuals.  Someone complained, so let’s ban Fox News in Canada. It seems Canadian and American citizens can say what they want so long as they don’t offend anyone. Then there is the Fury over World Health Organization’s (WHO) sex education about ‘early childhood masturbation and gender identities’ for UNDER-FOURS. Yes, we’re talking about children ages 1 to 4.  The WHO is giving guidance to schools about ‘sexuality education’ for young children, saying children under four should ‘ask questions about sexuality’ and ‘explore gender identities. Is this for real? That is just insane. Just when I think I’ve heard it all, then I read about Elizabeth Jean Carroll who Says ‘Most People Think of Rape As Being Sexy’ In Bizarre CNN Interview. This is the same E Jean Carroll who alleges Trump sexually assaulted her. I thought she said sexual assault was sexy. Why is she indicting Trump? You cannot make this shit up.

Ontario parents, teachers despise ‘woke math,’ but fear repercussions from public pushback. What is “woke math?” This stuff is hurting my brain. Then I read, Common sense labelled “unsafe” by radical school board. Common sense is unsafe? I don’t understand. The story is about a parent who appeared before a School board to express concern about teen boys who identify as female sharing an unsupervised non-gendered washroom with adolescent girls. It reports on the dysfunctional school board handling this parent’s address to the board. I’m still scratching my head.

Feminist group calls out Regina YWCA for inviting trans activist to lecture women. Now wrap your head around that one. A biological male who now uses “she/they” pronouns gives a keynote speech at a women’s awards night. That means a biological male is speaking to women who are celebrating women where one of the finalists for the Regina YWCA Women of Distinction awards is a biological male. You can’t make that up.

‘Trans Day of Vengeance’ cancelled, but Friday events still on. Apparently a “Trans Day of Vengeance” protest in Washington D.C. was cancelled because event organizers alleged there were threats made towards protesters. My question is: What is a Trans Day of Vengeance? It sounds frightening. Truth is stranger than fiction, I tell you.

Lord Byron, an English romantic poet once said, “Tis strange, -but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction…” It was Mark Twain who said, “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” The truth is, I can’t make this shit up because it is just too bizarre even for my mind. The world no longer makes sense to me. It seems many people choose to believe the fiction though, but maybe that is because fiction makes more sense to them.

Control is a form of Bullying

A commentary on censorship

The Guardian this week had a news article titled: Facebook and Twitter restrict controversial New York Post story on Joe Biden. The article says Twitter blocked tweets that contained links or photos to the New York (NY) Post’s report on alleged emails that show that Hunter Biden offered to introduce then Vice President Joe Biden, and now Democrat presidential candidate, to an executive of a Ukrainian gas company. Joe Biden’s son has faced accusations of corrupt behaviour from both Democrats and Republicans. Users attempting to share the story were shown a notice saying: “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.”  My question is: Harmful to who?

Facebook also took steps to limit the spread of New York Post—a newspaper that is part of the mainstream media—article placing restrictions on posts linking to the article, saying: “This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation.”  The article goes on to say that Republican senator Ted Cruz wrote Twitter saying: “Twitter’s censorship of this story is quite hypocritical, given its willingness to allow users to share less-well-sourced reporting critical of other candidates.”

Are social media companies censuring? I (#blogger #blog #somseason #YA #authors) personally have had Facebook posts that I shared declared “misinformation,” and YouTube videos which I saved to watch later to discover them removed from YouTube.

According to the NY Post’s article; Ted Cruz slams ‘unbelievable’ Twitter censorship of another Hunter Biden story, Twitter locked down some accounts of people who shared the report, forcing them to delete the story from their feeds. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to delete her tweet and remains locked out of her personal account, which has 1 million followers. The article also reports that Twitter blocked Ted Cruz from sharing the article. President Trump has had many tweets blocked by Twitter, and the company has even temporarily blocked the Donald Trump`s re-election campaign Twitter account (see US Election 2020).

A September 29th study uncovering global perspectives on online censorship using citizens in the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Russia, Norway and Sweden, showed large segments of people in each country do not trust the integrity of information they find online, and many suspect censorship is at play. The study reveals 37% of Canadians and 54% of Americans feel that they’ve experienced internet censorship. The Toronto Sun has an article: BIG TECH CENSORS: Social media continues to gag conservative voices, stating YouTube nixed thousands of videos under the pretense it was removing hate speech.

Are we being controlled? If we aren’t being controlled, then why are so many users unable to speak their truth without being censored? New Zealand-born writer, Juliet Marillier, says,  There is no truth on this island of yours. Rather, there are as many truths as there are stars in the sky; and every one of them different.” American photographer, John Szarkowski, says, “Because we see reality in different ways, we must understand that we are looking at different truths rather than the truth and that, therefore, all photographs lie in one way or another.” We all like to think we hold “the truth.”

We need to ask questions, such as: Have we been controlled and manipulated with the use of fear tactics to keep us silent and out of our truths? Let’s face it, if we are being controlled and manipulated, then we are being bullied. Bullies (#bullying #antibullying) intimidate and torment others to control them. Start asking questions. First ask yourselves: Who is doing the censoring? Why are social media CEOs censoring? Who is telling them to censor? Secondly, ask yourselves who and what are they censoring? Are they censoring people who are speaking truths that are not the truths of those doing the censoring? Are they censoring truths that they don’t want us to hear? I have to wonder why the social media giants are attempting to prevent a New York Post article about the possible illegal dealings regarding the Biden family from being read? I guarantee that if a similar article about Trump came out, it would not be censored. We’ve seen lots of examples of that. The third question to ask yourself is: What are those doing the censoring afraid of? After all, censorship is the voice of fear. What are they hiding? Who are they not censoring? Could it be they are not censoring individuals that have the same agenda as them? Are they allowing the truths to be spread that are their truths? I am merely asking the questions while remaining neutral as best I can. Do some research to find the answers to the above questions if you feel called to.

I was under the illusion that everyone had freedom of expression or freedom of speech in the ‘free wold.” The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects our rights and freedoms, including freedom of expression and the right to equality. It is part of the Canadian Constitution. The First Amendment of US Constitution guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.  

So, ask yourselves are we manipulated and controlled? Have we always been? An article titled: Fear-Based Manipulation: How Politicians, Marketers and the Media Create Panic to Control the Masses, explains how this could be done. Another article: How the Media Controls Your Reality explains how media could control our lives. I encourage you to read them.

American singer and songwriter, Jim Morrison, once said, “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” Soviet politician, Nikita Khrushchev, said, “The press is our chief ideological weapon.” Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister, says, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”  British television writer, novelist and non-fiction writer, Dresden James, once said, “When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.” Could that be true?

If we really do have freedom of expression, which our constitutions say we do, then we must respect and tolerate everyone’s truth. As German-born physicist, Albert Einstein, once said, “We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them as the richness and diversity which can lead to true intelligence.” We must remain neutral, no matter how difficult that may be, and stop labelling things as right or wrong. Really, there is no such thing as right and wrong. As Ufuoma Apoki, founder of Petra Ministries, says, “Right or Wrong, most times, merely depends on perspective. It takes humility (not necessarily logic) to let go of our egos to see through the other person’s eyes. But I guess even I, myself, can’t let go to see why you’d object.” In other words, right and wrong are relative.

Some people might claim there are absolute truths, meaning a truth that is true at all times and in all places; a truth that is always true no matter what the circumstances. Perhaps there is, but that would require more study.  

If we are ever going to live in peace and harmony, then all truths need to be respected and tolerated, and the use of censorship to control others needs to stop. Let’s face it, we live in a diverse world; a world with an infinite number of truths, and that is okay. I don’t have to accept your truth, nor do you have to accept my truth, but we do need to understand and accept that your truth may be different from my truth. When you attempt to impose your truth onto someone else, then you are acting as a bully.