Toronto-based animator and video wizard Kevin Parry has gone mega-viral for his mind-boggling collection of videos where he turns himself into random objects.In a series of quick clips he changes into everything from a pumpkin to a bright yellow banana and in most of the videos‚ he appears to suffer a ridiculous death. The videos combine studio trickery with a magician's flair.Parry is a self-taught stop-motion animation expert who cut his teeth working at Laika‚ the animation studio best known for films such as "Coraline‚" "ParaNorman‚" and "The Boxtrolls." But he's had so much success on social media he moved back to his hometown of Toronto to "do the YouTube/Instagram thing."Parry told Newsweek that the secret to his videos is speed."The inspiration for these transformations was to create the shortest possible videos with the most impact‚" he said. "I specifically made the balloon one to be 4-5 seconds long but to be as shocking and surprising as possible. That's why it starts with me falling—I thought what could be more scroll-stopping than someone falling face-first into the floor."This article originally appeared on 2.15.22

No room for joy in metal. The post The classic Metallica song that sounded too “happy” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Last week‚ I watched Laura for maybe the twentieth time‚ during Turner Classic Movies’  glorious annual 31 Days of Oscar marathon. The 1944 film-noir gem is a master class in the lost trade of screenwriting and film construction. People forced to endure the slop that passes for cinema today have little notion of the labor and artistry that went into movie production under the studio system‚ beginning with the dramaturgy and very much including the now forgotten music score. And they can start by helping girls resist the anti-man crap being thrown at them by Democrats and Disney. As marvelous as is every aspect of Laura‚ David Raskin’s haunting theme for the picture — about disparate characters affected by the murder of a dynamic beauty is a stand apart symphonic classic. Last week‚ the industry newspaper Variety took a break from hyping this year’s Oscar junk to cite great film scores snubbed by the Academy. Laura was number one. (READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: The Conservative Writer’s Block) It’s a testimony to how much the old filmmakers respected their audience‚ and how hard they worked to entertain it. Compare the lovely opening titles of Laura to any modern movie‚ which routinely omits the main credits in a hurry to start the dreck. Or the very first line of the picture to anything written today: “I shall never forget the weekend Laura died.” The lowest listed crew member in Laura and his or her successors will forever have something to be proud of — the family name on a masterpiece. Boy‚ could Hollywood ever use this lesson‚ having just suffered another disastrous weekend at the box-office. The tally was down 32 percent over the same period last year to a total of $64 million. As Breitbart’s John Nolte brutally put it‚ “That’s not what one movie earned this weekend. This is what ALL the movies earned.” Every filmmaker who contributed to this catastrophe should be strapped to a chair and forced to watch Laura — only in a soundproof screening room to silence their triggered screams. Yet there’s another group that would most benefit from watching Laura — feminists. Anticipating the ridiculous Hollywoke mandate that only women can fictionalize women — by which they mean feminist women — the writer of the novel and the movie‚ Vera Caspary‚ created a memorable one based on actual female nature not progressive fantasy. Caspary’s Laura Hunt is herself a feminist‚ at least initially. Though unlike the bitter‚ angry‚ deliberately ugly modern incarnations of this errant ideology‚ she’s an enticing‚ feminine‚ and thoroughly believable girl. As the Amazon book blurb describes her‚ “Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful‚ elegant‚ highly ambitious‚ and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charms — not even the hardboiled NYPD detective sent to investigate her murder.” And Caspary was a good and true enough writer to make her male characters just as three-dimensional. They included not only Laura’s two beta male suitors — Waldo Lydecker and Shelby Carpenter — but tough cop Mark McPherson‚ a “toxic male” by contemporary standards whom no Hollywoke screenwriter‚ female or male‚ could approximate today. Otto Preminger’s brilliant film version brought these characters to immortal life‚ especially with his perfect casting of the stunning Gene Tierney in the lead. If feminists could get over their indoctrinated revulsion to grace and beauty‚ and their antipathy to real men‚ they might gleam something of value from Tierney’s Laura. Such as in one scene with Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews in one of two classic roles along with The Best Years of Our Lives). In the kitchen with the sophisticated‚ alluring Laura‚ McPherson acts surprised when she takes over the stove. “Don’t tell me you can cook‚” he says chauvinistically. Laura answers‚ “My mother always listened sympathetically to my dreams of a career‚ and then taught me another recipe.” This simple perfect line may be offensive to the feminist brain‚ but it offers profound wisdom to the rare open mind — and threatens one insane political party and its media lapdogs. (READ MORE: The Decline and Fall of Hollywoke) Former Democratic Senator and current MSNBC analyst Claire McCaskill bridges both dystopian worlds. Last week‚ McCaskill demanded that the liberal press cease even its reluctant fact checking of Joe Biden because it might help Donald Trump. “I move that every newspaper in America quits doing any fact checks on Joe Biden until they fact check Donald Trump every morning on the front page‚” she said. This prompted a response from normally measured Dilbert creator and persuasion expert Scott Adams. “Batsh_t crazy women have taken over the Democratic party‚” he posted on X. “None of this looks like politics to me. Looks like organized mental illness.” Adams may be on to something‚ according to a new Gallup survey. The survey found that young women are increasingly moving left‚ and are 15 percentage points more likely to identify as liberal than men in the same group. The gap is five times larger than it was in 2000‚ with social and mainstream media leftist propaganda cited as chief factors. Yet men subject to the same influences have become more conservative. Consequently‚ it will be up to them to rescue the damsels in disorientation. (READ MORE: The Woke of Zorro) And they can start by helping girls resist the anti-man crap being thrown at them by Democrats and Disney‚ and getting them to watch fine art like Laura. Until the shrews and wimps brainwashing them can only whine the way Waldo Lydecker (played brilliantly by Clifton Webb in the film) does after losing Laura to tough guy McPherson. “It’s the same obvious pattern‚ Laura. If McPherson weren’t muscular and handsome in a cheap sort of way‚ you’d see through him in a second.” One second is all it takes to start a family and exit madness. The post <;i>;Laura<;/i>; and the Feminist Delusion appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

On February 24th‚  the Russian war to conquer Ukraine passed the two-year mark. Actually‚ no. It marked — imprecisely — the tenth anniversary of Russia’s military takeover and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula as well as the date on which Russia attacked Ukraine again. As the Russian war on Ukraine passes into its third year‚ we can’t give up on Ukraine. The outlook for Ukraine is pretty bleak. Ukrainian forces are low on artillery ammunition‚ Russian forces — which hold about twenty percent of Ukraine now — are taking back some of the gains made in Ukraine’s 2023 counter-offensive. The U.S. Congress has delayed‚ and may deny‚ further aid. The European Union’s parliament has approved more financial aid to Ukraine but the EU alone can’t possibly make up Ukraine’s munitions shortfall. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Putin Loves Biden) What have we learned in the past two years or the past ten? Not much. It’s no surprise to those of us who have been paying attention that Russian President Putin wants to conquer Ukraine to re-assemble the former Soviet empire. His ambition has been plain since at least 2005. We’ve known that Putin’s belief that Ukraine is essential to that restoration because his “philosopher” — Alexander Dugin — wrote in his “Foundations of Geopolitics” that unless Ukraine again becomes part of Russia‚ Putin may as well not bother with the other nations that escaped Soviet rule. The hollowness of Russia’s army is an ephemeral lesson. Putin has shifted Russia’s economy to a wartime status and his military is still a threat to every NATO nation. Putin’s conscription of troops‚ while unpopular‚ may sustain the Russian army for years. Many commentators say that Putin is weaker than he was before he launched the invasion of Ukraine. The facts dictate otherwise. He survived the one-day coup launched by his Wagner Group commander‚ Yevgeny Prighozin‚ whose death Putin subsequently arranged. The death — probable murder — of Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison camp is another demonstration of Putin’s ruthless power. It was a surprise that Russia didn’t establish air supremacy immediately and that Ukraine was able to score well‚ in the war’s early days‚ in air-to-air combat. But Ukraine has too few combat aircraft and too few anti-air defenses to take away Russia’s advantages in the air or to kill Russian artillery. What we have also learned is that some — too many — Republicans have blinders on. They see Ukraine aid as something Biden wants without any other value. They created a straw man about border security to block further aid to Ukraine. It was a nice try but failed because Biden refuses to make any pretense of securing the border against illegal immigrants. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La) may not bring the Ukraine aid package — which also contains aid funds for Israel — to the House floor for a vote. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Oh) tried to justify blocking aid to Ukraine by saying last week that further aid won’t change the situation on the ground or give Putin a reason to negotiate a peace deal. Vance’s reasoning is circular. The aid package Biden has proposed certainly won’t bring about Ukrainian victory but the absence of it is forcing Ukraine to retreat in the face of Russian advances. (READ MORE: Ukraine Is Stalemated Again) Ukraine abandoned the city of Avdiivka last week because it lacks airpower and artillery ammunition to stave off the Russian advances. To restore the Russian empire to its Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe‚ Putin needs to break NATO. NATO’s failure as an alliance is foreseeable‚  forced by several circumstances. First and foremost is the fact that NATO is unwilling to support its own defense. Former president Trump was right when he bashed the NATO members who haven’t spent two percent of their Gross Domestic Product on defense.  That failure goes deep and has become obvious even to some liberals in the media. Even The Economist — a traditionally liberal newspaper that has gone nuts in support of “climate change” — has noticed. In its most recent issue‚ an editorial says the restoration of NATO’s strength is essential but nearly impossible. It wrote‚ “That means raising defense spending to a level not seen in decades‚ restoring Europe’s neglected military traditions‚ restructuring its arms industries and preparing for possible war.” That’s because as long as Putin is alive … he won’t end his war against Ukraine. War with Russia is far from the minds of European governments. As that same Economist editorial pointed out‚ twenty percent of NATO defense budgets are supposed to be spent on weapons. The shortfall of European Union NATO members (plus Norway) has amounted to $600 billion since 1991. Trump is adding to the problem by saying that he won’t defend a NATO member that hasn’t spent enough on defense. Bizarrely‚ he went further saying he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that don’t meet NATO’s defense spending guidelines. Russia isn’t about to attack the nations among the worst in failing to spend enough on defense. To reach Germany‚ Italy‚ France‚ and Spain — four of the worst — he’d have to first go through most of Eastern Europe‚ nations which for the most part are spending adequately (or more) on their own defenses. But what would Trump do if‚ for example‚ Russia attacked Germany or one of the other worst defense spending offenders? Any of them would immediately invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty‚ requiring all other NATO nations to come to its defense. Would Trump abandon our obligations under the NATO Treaty and fail to come to their defense? If he or any U.S. president failed to meet our mutual defense obligation under the NATO Treaty‚ that act would break NATO and achieve one of Putin’s most important goals. On the other side of the coin‚ NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg — who has been saying Ukraine could become a NATO member — said last week that Ukraine’s NATO membership is “inevitable.” It isn’t and shouldn’t be. (READ MORE: Wars Raise Two More Critical Issues) That’s because as long as Putin is alive — and as long as his thinking is dominated by Alexander Dugin — he won’t end his war against Ukraine. After most of the former Soviet captive nations have joined NATO‚ Putin must be thinking as did Kaiser Wilhelm II in the years before World War One. Wilhelm believed Germany was being surrounded and diminished by other nations’ alliances‚ especially Britain’s. Ukraine should not be made a NATO member while Putin lives‚ and probably not after he goes. So what is to be done? Ukrainian corruption is a frequent reason given by Republicans for refusing more aid. But the European Union gave Ukrainian President Zelensky seven policy goals to achieve in fighting corruption. In Zelensky’s very recent interview with Fox News’s Brett Baier‚ Zelensky claimed to have satisfied all of those goals. Are those acts enough to placate congressional Republicans? Probably not because they pay no attention to them. Ukraine’s forces are‚ we know‚ terribly short of artillery ammunition. More needs to come from the U.S. as should the financial aid Biden promised. If congressional Republicans want Putin to win his Ukraine war‚ they should continue to block the aid. If they want Putin to lose‚ they should approve the aid Biden wants and do more. Two points need to be made. First‚ as I’ve written repeatedly‚ we have no vital national security interest in Ukraine’s survival so we should not go to war in its defense. Second‚ our derivative national security interest in Ukraine demands that we support its war of survival to thwart Putin’s aggression because we have a significant interest in so doing. As the Russian war on Ukraine passes into its third year‚ we can’t give up on Ukraine. Our solipsism has immersed us in news of nothing else than the 2024 election. We need to walk and chew gum at the same time. Our global responsibilities demand that attention be paid to the wars we are engaged in albeit peripherally‚ even if that means giving Biden a small win on Ukraine.     The post Ukraine‚ Putin‚ Congress‚ and Trump appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

A ruling by the Government Accountability Office allows Joe Biden to keep Julie Su in charge of the Labor Department without confirmation by the Senate. Before Biden tapped her for the post‚ Su headed California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA)‚ which oversees the Employment Development Department (EDD)‚ responsible for unemployment claims. [T]he state budget deficit for the 2024-2025 year has increased from previous estimates of $58 billion and $68 billion to a whopping $73 billion. On Su’s watch‚ the EDD sent more than $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims to California‚ out of state‚ and out of the country. Scammers and convicts‚ file hundreds of fake claims‚ with no accountability in evidence. That problem did not disappear. (READ MORE from Lloyd Billingsley: Still Looking at You‚ Kids: Congress Aims to Extend Warrantless Surveillance for the Foreseeable Future) As the California Globe reports‚ “Bank of America quickly decided to get out of providing unemployment benefits‚ because of their part in the $32 billion in fraud and giving out outdated cards with no fraud prevention chips.” EDD has now turned to the Money Network for unemployment‚ disability‚ and Paid Family Leave debit card payments. As it happens‚ the Money Network also handled California’s middle class tax refund (MCTR)‚ a program also rife with fraud. “Scammer may have snagged your California Middle Class Tax Refund‚” NBC Los Angeles reported last July. The Money Network‚ the contractor hired to run the program‚ will receive $25 million‚ but California isn’t tracking how much fraud occurred. Californians waited for their refund to arrive‚ then learned that the card had been stolen and used at a convenience store ATM. Other problems were soon to follow. “Hackers took their Middle Class Tax Refunds and now victims are getting a tax bill‚” ABC news reported. Many Californians found out they might have to pay income taxes on money they never received. California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned of “scammers targeting California’s middle-class tax refund‚” but did not indicate how much fraud his office had prevented‚ or how much money had been recovered. Despite this record‚ the EDD turned to the Money Network‚ paying around $32.3 million over the next five years to cover the costs of direct deposit transactions alone. According to the EDD‚ “Money Network customers get the benefits of embedded microchips and state-of-the-art encryption for making contactless payments.” Based on their experience with the Money Network and state government‚ the “customers” can have more than a reasonable doubt. As they understand‚ the original $32 billion EDD fraud would not have happened if Julie Su had implemented proper safeguards. She didn’t‚ and unemployment fraud was not her only problem. (READ MORE: Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom Team Up Against Voters) Su was a prime mover of Assembly Bill 5‚ a frontal assault on independent workers. In the style of Marxist scholar Saule Omarova‚ Biden’s pick for comptroller of the currency‚ Julie Su‚ was the worst possible choice for Labor Secretary. A federal “accountability” office allowed Biden to keep Su in the post‚ but her absence from California did not end the state woes. According to California’s independent Legislative Analyst Office‚ the state budget deficit for the 2024-2025 year has increased from previous estimates of $58 billion and $68 billion to a whopping $73 billion. That massive deficit is due in part to workers and businesses moving out of state. In 2021‚ for the first time in 171 years‚ California lost a congressional seat while Texas gained two. According to U-Haul‚ 2023 marked the fourth consecutive year that more Californians rented one-way trucks to leave California than residents of any other state. When Attorney General Bonta was a member of the state Assembly‚ he backed a measure that would continue to tax people for ten years after they left the state. “We believe we can do that‚” Bonta told reporters. “We think it’s a sound approach and has a strong legal foundation.” As the Yale law alum should know‚ it doesn’t. The Bay Area Democrat was undeterred. “I don’t think the image of folks fleeing has panned out‚ I don’t think it’s historically true.” (READ MORE: The California Exodus Gets a Gag Order) It certainly is now‚ as the numbers confirm. Even with Julie Su in Washington‚ California’s waste‚ fraud‚ and abuse is likely to get worse. Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland‚ Calif. The post Biden Labor Secretary Left California a Mess appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

What the pluck? Is that still a question? Or‚ is it now a matter of who gets to do the plucking? An insidious ensemble is strumming American heartstrings. Dictatorial DJs are calling the tunes of public emotion. They only bring one record to the national sock hop. Side A bleeds for the casualties‚ or purportedly wounded‚ with gushing excess. Side B doles out the grief for those found less worthy like Scrooge at a foreclosure. Which side gets play‚ after unfortunate events‚ is decided at a tier above all pay grades. There are people who can be fooled all of the time. Their slice of the pie chart widens as Alphabet Corporation and other search engines keep reshuffling the deck. The spinning industry finds itself confronted with constitutional crisis when crowds won’t sway to the choreography they’ve plotted. Kirk Van Houten only asked to borrow a feeling.  Modern media minions insist “feelings” must be permanently inflicted. The ruling professoriate has a score to settle with anyone unmoved by official tear-jerking. They want straight-shooting stoics‚ poor‚ unheard‚ dehumanized and unfriended. The panic about artificial intelligence is churning out of an artificial emotion industry. Shouldn’t we all have been blubbering like Jacob Frey at George Floyd’s casket based on editorially mandated cues? What kind of skeptic would accuse the Minneapolis mayor of chewing up scenery for the camera? What kind of imbecile could have seen anything else? Does any honest human really buy that people make off with flat screens or cases of Belvedere because of how dear “justice” is to their hearts? Whatever anyone actually “feels” … our betters prefer an environment where it’s unsafe to speak it out loud. (READ MORE: ‘Free Media’ for Trump Feels Like 2016 Again) Little Landen Hoffman took the plunge from the third tier of the Mall of America down to the first 40 feet below in April 2019. A man named Emmanuel Arranda tossed the 5-year-old over the rail. It got its ration of ink back then. Was it adequate? There is no official manual prescribing the proper dosage of copy for such a case. All we know is that the news cycle failed to stall or even speed bump over the story. Reporters did not obsess on the background details of the culprit. Something toxic about noting the demography looms between the lines in certain cases. It’s as strangely toxic as not noticing in a case like George Floyd’s. Do incidents with the gravity of Landen’s get slapdash coverage by accident? Do other‚ qualifying or disqualifying‚ factors bear on what evolves into mass perception? Major media has been grappling with what is in or out of “context” since at least 1961. That was when “The Young Savages‚” a film distantly based on the Salvador Agron case‚ pulled an inexplicable identity switch. A character based on Agron‚ the Puerto Rican killer‚ was made the injured party. Anthony Krzesinski and Robert Young Jr.‚ the actual dead boys‚ were packing DNA Tinsel Town found unwelcome in the victim class. That was over half a century ago. So‚ the bad guys in the movie had to be made to look like the fatalities instead of the actual killer. Otherwise‚ Joe-Twelve-Pack might fall prey to disinfo‚ misinfo‚ propaganda and fake news that might conform to physical reality. Making narratives match up with facts on the ground can equal heresy in Hollywood. It was all in an honest day’s work. Somebody has to be a gatekeeper‚ a filter‚ a digestive interlude between nutritional truth and what is fit for the palates of deplorable slobs. A distant professoriate will rule on demographic entitlement to any sense of grievance. What goes on in the world is irrelevant. You can bet the farm that if Landen hadn’t been white and the guy who tossed him over had been‚ the child would be more renowned than George Floyd today. The WilmerHale law firm‚ according to Lauren Hirsch at the NYT‚ prepped University Presidents’ Claudine Gay‚ Elizabeth Magill and Sally Kornbluth. They represented Harvard‚ UPenn‚ and MIT respectively on December 5‚ 2023 in a Hill hearing that focused on anti-Semitism. All three wielded brand name doctorates. Mere laymen would expect those credentials‚ bolstered by the counsel of a global law firm‚ to keep the trio’s guards’ up to buck-in-season levels. Anyone who saw does-in-headlights instead must have been guilty of homogeneity‚ inequity‚ and exclusion. (READ MORE: Supreme Court Should Reexamine New York Times v. Sullivan) In the peasant world‚ it’d be a chore finding someone who doesn’t know to duck when a question including the words “Jew” and “genocide” come at them in the same sentence. We might have been spared incomprehensible drivel about “context” if Archie Bunker was getting grilled. Psychopathic-babble has replaced Latin as lingua franca in Ubermenschenstan. The follow up question that should have been put to the professoriate testifying before the House on December 5‚ is this: “In what “context” would advocacy of lynching be acceptable?” Claudine Gay’s answer to that while still in the hot seat is sorely missed. Elected officials rarely muster the wit of Bill Maher‚ Groucho Marx‚ or Al Jaffe going after their prey. Media motives in what violence it chooses to graphically describe can be valid and humane. Not providing tinder for kindling lynch mobs comes first on the list. We are dangerously past the point where the excesses and restraints in the literalism of copy are doing more harm than good. Any editor‚ writer‚ reporter‚ broadcaster‚ news producer — whatever — who continues to see the consuming public as a tabula rasa to etch upon is not only unfit for post‚ but a major threat to the whole industry … and society at-large. This shortlist leaves off hundreds‚ if not thousands‚ of allies fighting on the side to abridge both “the freedom of speech” and “of the press.” There are people who can be fooled all of the time. Their slice of the pie chart widens as Alphabet Corporation and other search engines keep reshuffling the deck. Tracking down factual details that aren’t convenient to certain perspectives can often be sped up using a library and no electronic sources. Do news industry suits actually foresee a day when info-hungry peasants will feed from a single trough? Who will do the slopping? Someone with the integrity of Claas Relotius? The world wariness of Sabrina Erdely? What if people like them and Jussie Smollett never got caught? Silicon Valley and the DHS could be on the lookout for “journalists” with the stealth of Kim Philby going by what we saw in the Hunter laptop suppression incident. It was Joseph Goebels who said: “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly — it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” Whatever academic doctrine reigns at the Columbia School of Journalism these days‚ it’s the Nazi numero duo’s M/O that flies in corporate suites. At the top of the info industry food chain‚ other items on the Third Reich’s informing agenda have been known to apply. Remember when Hillary Clinton’s emails hit Wikileaks? It was when Chris Cuomo told the world: “Also interesting is‚ remember‚ it’s illegal to possess these stolen documents. It’s different for the media. So everything you learn about this‚ you’re learning from us.” It’d be nice to know how many executives in the Fourth Estate estate were nodding along as Chris said this — and if any of them has wised up since.  What was “interesting” was a Fordham law grad making so silly a statement. He publicly embraced a feudally archaic legal theory of entitlement. It is tiresome to continue reciting the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion‚ or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech‚ or of the press” to make a simple point. “Freedom of the press‚” said A. J. Liebling‚ “is guaranteed only to those who own one.” A man who died in 1963 couldn’t have foreseen the reach that would be accomplished by those with less means in the internet age. Some see Liebling‚ including Jack Shafer‚ as the greatest media critic yet known. Does that really stand in the present media era? Was the word “press‚” in Amendment one‚ ever referring to an entitled class? Wasn’t “press” rather‚ simply a contraption that facilitated access to a mass audience? Liebling constantly complained about the concentration of ownership. Internet access‚ at one point‚ had gone a long way toward resolving that complaint. Google‚ Facebook‚ Amazon and Microsoft are doing their damnedest to reverse that and recentralize the newsfeed. They’d gladly reincarnate Colonel McCormick and Cissy Patterson today if it would rescue them from the plague of the plebian voice. The idea that you have a right to be heard has been contested by The Atlantic Council‚ The New York Times‚ The Washington Post‚ The Los Angeles Times‚ Facebook‚ Twitter‚ The Democratic Party and‚ particularly‚ the Biden administration itself. This shortlist leaves off hundreds‚ if not thousands‚ of allies fighting on the side to abridge both “the freedom of speech” and “of the press.” That is‚ if the modern equivalent of a “press” is something a yokel can get his hands on. (READ MORE: The New York Times Attacks Musk‚ Hires Antisemites) When Philip Bump tells us‚ “Doing your own research is a good way to end up being wrong‚” it’s mighty hard to resist adding the letters t-i-o-u-s to his surname. And guess what? Phil was able to find a study that confirms his conclusion. Is there any contention that falls under the rubric of “sociology” that hasn’t been proven by a paper cranked out of a higher education mill somewhere? The Washington Post cites scores of unnamed experts on some news days. Vetting the flows of spurious contention from the “experts” cited across legacy media would require an office and full-time staff. The cost of diversity‚ equity and inclusion in reporting is not hard to compute. The demographic majority in the U.S. is losing its foothold in lifespan‚ wealth‚ and contentment.  And‚ while Harvard may have gotten a flash of color into its presidential pan‚ the overwhelming majority of the black population in the U.S. hasn’t gained a meaningful step in decades. All the “concern” pulsating from plush academic lairs‚ Wall Street boardrooms‚ DC double-think-tanks and media conclaves‚ for Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth‚ isn’t raising any oppressed group upward. It is simply reducing more and more people into the realms of serfdom. The zero-sum game being described is the very bludgeon knee-capping general opportunity. The elitist version of “truth” isn’t freeing any souls. It is solidifying a caste system far worse than the one Isabel Wilkerson imagines. The post The Media Control of ‘Context’ appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.