Today’s blacklisted American: Garden hoes banned by Facebook!
According to Facebook, a garden hoe apparently represents evil
and the worst of white supremacy.
Today’s blacklisted American, garden hoes, is meant more to illustrate the utter brainlessness of the blacklist culture, and why every intelligent American should refuse to bow to it in any way.
It appears that Facebook has been repeatedly flagging and then blocking posts on a gardening group because those gardeners periodically make reference to the gardening tool called a “hoe.”
A group called WNY Gardeners has been repeatedly flagged by the social network for “violating community standards,” when its more than 7,500 members discussed the long-handled bladed implement, which is spelled with an “e,” unlike the offensive term.
When one member commented “Push pull hoe!” on a post about preferred weeding tools, Facebook sent a notification that read, “We reviewed this comment and found it goes against our standards for harassment and bullying,” a moderator said.
“And so I contacted Facebook, which was useless. How do you do that?,” Elizabeth Licata said. “You know, I said this is a gardening group, a hoe is gardening tool.”
Nor has this been Facebook’s only “hoe” error. It had also been routinely flagging posts that referred to the English seaside community of Plymouth Hoe.
Facebook of course never responded to gardening group when they complained, as is usual for these inhumane big tech companies. However, when this story began appearing in the press, it told the AP that it was sorry about it, had corrected the algorithms that had caused the problems, and had assigned a real human to monitor the gardening group to make sure it is not censored for ordinary gardening discussions.
Hah! That didn’t work. The gardeners soon found themselves censored for writing about the various techniques they use for battling the Japanese beetle, a destructive pest to “flowers, trees and shrubs, fruits and vegetables, field crops and turf.” When on commenter suggested that gardeners should “Kill them all. Drown them in soapy water,” and “Japanese beetles are jerks,” the posts were blocked by Facebook.
It seems Facebook employees really don’t know how to read. Instead, they work eagerly to silence anyone for any statement they think should be silenced, without thought.
Throwing away the Kerwood Derby
All this reminds me of the short clip below from the early 1960s cartoon show, Rocky & Bullwinkle.
The show was mostly silly humor that was also sometimes brilliant, but in this particular clip expressed a bit of profound wisdom that applies directly to Facebook and all the petty dictators worldwide who are oppressing people for the stupidest reasons.
Thanks to reader Wayne DeVette for creating the clip for me.
The bad guy, Boris Badanov, has gotten control of the Kirwood Derby, a hat that make whoever wears it the smartest person in the world. He puts it on, hoping it will tell him how to conquer the world. When it instead tells him that being a bad guy is stupid, that he would be better off learning a real trade and being an asset to society, he immediately throws the hat away in horror.
As one of the Moon men then explains, “Some people just can’t stand being smart.”
His partner asks, “How come?”
“Because they can’t admit they were ever dumb.”
I think that is a great thumbnail description of today’s left and their supporters. In the past decade they have adopted increasingly foolish positions. When those positions have routinely been revealed as idiotic (such as demanding people wear cotton masks all the time, even when home alone) or false (such as the claim that Trump was colluding with the Russians), rather than admit they were wrong they double down, inventing even stupider claims (such as demanding you not only be vaccinated against the Wuhan flu but also still wear masks and still social distance) in order to justify their earlier idiocy.
They have now reached the point where no rational discussion is possible, since their positions have become insane. Gardening hoes must be banned as well as any discussion by gardeners about killing garden pests. The use of any offensive words in any context cannot be tolerated at all, and must be silenced. Even referring to great historical men from the past (such as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson) must be blocked because those men did not embody perfection, as defined by these leftists.
In other words, the left long ago decided to throw away the Kerwood Derby. They can’t stand being smart because it would force them to admit they once were dumb.
Be prepared. We have not yet reached the full level of foolishness that the left will impose upon us. To get an idea, however, you might want to do some web searches about communism in Soviet Russia or socialism in Venezuela. The left’s policies imposed there were equally insane, but the consequences for ordinary people was deadly and horrific.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
According to Facebook, a garden hoe apparently represents evil
and the worst of white supremacy.
Today’s blacklisted American, garden hoes, is meant more to illustrate the utter brainlessness of the blacklist culture, and why every intelligent American should refuse to bow to it in any way.
It appears that Facebook has been repeatedly flagging and then blocking posts on a gardening group because those gardeners periodically make reference to the gardening tool called a “hoe.”
A group called WNY Gardeners has been repeatedly flagged by the social network for “violating community standards,” when its more than 7,500 members discussed the long-handled bladed implement, which is spelled with an “e,” unlike the offensive term.
When one member commented “Push pull hoe!” on a post about preferred weeding tools, Facebook sent a notification that read, “We reviewed this comment and found it goes against our standards for harassment and bullying,” a moderator said.
“And so I contacted Facebook, which was useless. How do you do that?,” Elizabeth Licata said. “You know, I said this is a gardening group, a hoe is gardening tool.”
Nor has this been Facebook’s only “hoe” error. It had also been routinely flagging posts that referred to the English seaside community of Plymouth Hoe.
Facebook of course never responded to gardening group when they complained, as is usual for these inhumane big tech companies. However, when this story began appearing in the press, it told the AP that it was sorry about it, had corrected the algorithms that had caused the problems, and had assigned a real human to monitor the gardening group to make sure it is not censored for ordinary gardening discussions.
Hah! That didn’t work. The gardeners soon found themselves censored for writing about the various techniques they use for battling the Japanese beetle, a destructive pest to “flowers, trees and shrubs, fruits and vegetables, field crops and turf.” When on commenter suggested that gardeners should “Kill them all. Drown them in soapy water,” and “Japanese beetles are jerks,” the posts were blocked by Facebook.
It seems Facebook employees really don’t know how to read. Instead, they work eagerly to silence anyone for any statement they think should be silenced, without thought.
Throwing away the Kerwood Derby
All this reminds me of the short clip below from the early 1960s cartoon show, Rocky & Bullwinkle.
The show was mostly silly humor that was also sometimes brilliant, but in this particular clip expressed a bit of profound wisdom that applies directly to Facebook and all the petty dictators worldwide who are oppressing people for the stupidest reasons.
Thanks to reader Wayne DeVette for creating the clip for me.
The bad guy, Boris Badanov, has gotten control of the Kirwood Derby, a hat that make whoever wears it the smartest person in the world. He puts it on, hoping it will tell him how to conquer the world. When it instead tells him that being a bad guy is stupid, that he would be better off learning a real trade and being an asset to society, he immediately throws the hat away in horror.
As one of the Moon men then explains, “Some people just can’t stand being smart.”
His partner asks, “How come?”
“Because they can’t admit they were ever dumb.”
I think that is a great thumbnail description of today’s left and their supporters. In the past decade they have adopted increasingly foolish positions. When those positions have routinely been revealed as idiotic (such as demanding people wear cotton masks all the time, even when home alone) or false (such as the claim that Trump was colluding with the Russians), rather than admit they were wrong they double down, inventing even stupider claims (such as demanding you not only be vaccinated against the Wuhan flu but also still wear masks and still social distance) in order to justify their earlier idiocy.
They have now reached the point where no rational discussion is possible, since their positions have become insane. Gardening hoes must be banned as well as any discussion by gardeners about killing garden pests. The use of any offensive words in any context cannot be tolerated at all, and must be silenced. Even referring to great historical men from the past (such as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson) must be blocked because those men did not embody perfection, as defined by these leftists.
In other words, the left long ago decided to throw away the Kerwood Derby. They can’t stand being smart because it would force them to admit they once were dumb.
Be prepared. We have not yet reached the full level of foolishness that the left will impose upon us. To get an idea, however, you might want to do some web searches about communism in Soviet Russia or socialism in Venezuela. The left’s policies imposed there were equally insane, but the consequences for ordinary people was deadly and horrific.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
A nit – “demanding people where cotton masks”
I lived In Punta Gorda Florida a few years back. My Amazon Alexa would not say the word Punta, it would bleep it out. For instance I would ask the weather and it would say “The Weather in ***** Gorda today is… ” I contacted them several times and finally I got a hold of someone that actually change it and unblocked my town. The contacted me a few days later and told me it was taken care of and I checked and it was.
I have since moved, but if you live in Punta Gorda and you can now hear your town from Alexa, you can thank me. (G)
Santa’s going to have some ‘splaining to do.
I sympathize with criticism of the degree of hysteria around COVID from American progressives, but why is combining vaccination with masks and distancing dumb, exactly?
The double dose of vaccine seems to be harmless to countless millions including me, and does seem to provide very good protection overall, but I’m not assuming it’s perfect [none are] and not making too many assumptions about its durability or whether I might need a booster at some point. And even if it is near perfect at preventing death or serious illness from COVID, delta and mu need to be considered as well as any future variants, and frankly I’m 50, diabetic, have HBP, and might be asthmatic, so I’m not going to screw around with a respiratory virus for which these are identified vulnerabilities. And I at least know I have these and the two I have for sure are medicated. They are very common conditions in North America and most don’t know they have them.
I appreciate, too, that masks are no panacea, but they do seem to be a modestly useful, cheap, harmless mitigation that cost me a financial pittance and nothing else. They seem to do no harm, I’m not sure what harm they could do, and if they actually cause anyone breathing problems then that person ought to be more worried about catching COVID than about the mask, because they must already have a fairly serious respiratory problem. I suppose if wearing one makes one less cautious otherwise, but then that kind of harm is caused by the lack of caution, not the mitigation tool.
I concede I am the wrong person to talk on social distancing. Easiest thing in the world for me, insofar as the amount I have had to change is not great, the isolation I have had to do in no way unpleasant. I have been at my office minimum of 2 days a week to 5+ through the whole pandemic, mixed with teleworking when not. I’ve walked there, taken buses. I’ve been on patios and occasionally in restaurants indoors when lawful, and probably as much as I ever was. I’ve had ample human interaction, for me. There was usually someone at work. If not, some peace and quiet. The one time I had to isolate due to workplace exposure I got tested within a few days, negative of course, then relaxed for the rest of it. Keeping a decent step count was the only problem, ultimately unsolved. One can only pace across a tiny apartment so much. I want a world with restaurants and such, but I can do without indefinitely. I actually made a point of using them more when I could, just to support locals. I broadly support a thriving city around me, but I do miss empty buses and deserted streets. They did make me feel slightly safer than crowded buses full of sweaty breathers.
All in all, I do not think I have been at all overpanicked, or terribly worried at all, by COVID. I have just taken it seriously as a broadly Spanish flu-comparable event. Not just seasonal flu, and frankly I don’t want that either. I’ve been out and willing to be at work the whole time, and done more restaurant going than ever. Never afraid of the supermarket. And so on.
I have not ragged on people who have chosen not to be vaccinated, but I am puzzled. These same people that might accuse me of being too frightened of COVID, a charge which my conduct does not support, have performed a risk analysis different from mine and decided the vaccine is more dangerous than COVID, which strikes me as wrong and itself an example of fear and fear mongering. And even if there eventually turn out to be more side effects in more people, it would have far to go to be comparable to COVID itself. So even if we were to have a reasoned dialogue, I’d have to get past the hurdle of occasionally being accused of being afraid without awareness of any potential hypocrisy. Similarly, I have thought all my life that vaccination is a normal part of health care, have had many, so without some serious evidence to counter the millions of successful doses, I can’t buy the idea it is the real threat. But then I always just assumed that vaccination would be the way out, and am one of millions thinking it something of a miracle anyone could produce it so fast.
As I am rambling, it being 1730 where I am and I’m now working up the will to leave my desk and walk home, I’ll wrap up. Here in Ontario, the combination of vaccination, masks when moving about in indoor public spaces, and social distancing is what we hope will keep restaurants and stores open instead of having another lockdown. They’re harmless, cheap and easy. I am most annoyed by having to have a digital vacc passport by October, frankly, but lord knows digital payment already tracks my whereabouts anyway. So I can tolerate even that for a time. Perhaps my mind has been shaped by another factor- to my ongoing surprise, Canada and Ontario have actually been less hysterical overall than much of the US- we have never had to wear masks out in the street, nor at home, most notably. Well, the latter if you have an active case in the home, of course. But that was it. It all seemed so easy to me.
Thanks for hearing/reading me out on this. I’ve been troubled to be on the wrong side of so many whose thoughts I respect on just about anything else, and more on side with those who I disagree with on everything else, and even on this I find too over the top much of the time, but the basic precautions just seem correct and low-effort to me.
What about spades?
Have fun with that one!
Icepilot: Oy. Fixed. Thank you.
Graham: You wonder what harm masks could possibly do. Read this essay, paying close attention to the guidance provided by the WHO as to how to use masks properly.
Of course, we all know that everyone does it as the WHO advises, right?
You also might want to read this post about the risks of mask wearing, which you so nonchalantly brush off, for those with serious other health problems.
Graham: I must also add that because I do have those other health problems and will not wear a mask because of them, I have been denied health care from most of my doctors for the past year. They would rather follow insane mask guidelines than actually treat patients properly. See this essay for the details.
It’s great seeing Boris and Natasha again. We all know that “derby” is a type of hat.
But, back in the 1960s, “Kirwood Derby” was a spoonerism for Derwood Kirby, who
was regularly on Garry Moore’s TV show, at the time.
tempus fugit
DonM: I was wondering who would be the first to mention the 1960s joke relating to the name of the Kirwood Derby. You are the winner!
Rap music lyrics continue to be fine. B**ches and non gardening hoes
My beloved United States of American is quickly becoming a loony bin and a world-wide laughing stock. So sad that many have willingly emptied their brains out and replace them with Leftist talking points and “feelgoodism”, so quick to appear wise that they have become fools.
I thought the actual, real, “offensive” term, was spelled with a “w?”
{‘Kwanza,’ is a made up word as well.}
“1984” (1984)
“So, the Revolution will be complete, when the language is perfect?”
https://youtu.be/KEU-t-ANpdY
0:56
John–
->intro & outro by Desi Arnaz, for what became The Twilight Zone…
“The Time Element” Rod Serling
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (11-24-58)
https://youtu.be/W9y8z2L4bxw
54:52
Dirty Harry is wiser than the Left … for he acknowledges that “a man’s got to know his limitations”.
The Left does not acknowledge that … they believe that Leftists are the smartest people in any room they enter and therefore should dictate what YOU do, even though they can’t tell YOU apart from a statistic, and don’t even live up to their own diktats.
But C. S. Lewis had them pegged, decades ago …
That last sentence, reveals the self-righteous bigotry of the Progressive Left.
Jordan Peterson –
“Nihilism, Totalitarianism, and The Divine Individual”
https://youtu.be/MdsVC_qR4t0
5:33
And Newest Progressives Angst is….
Wait for it……
52 Billion disposable masks were made in 2020:
COVID-19 Facemasks & Marine Plastic Pollution – OCEANS ASIA
Dec 7, 2020 — Our oceans will be flooded with an estimated 1.56 billion face masks in 2020 says a report released today by Hong-Kong-based marine
https://oceansasia.org/covid-19-facemasks/
I’m reminded of a decades-old joke about a teacher describing gardening/farming tools to her students.
One replied, “My sister’s a ho’ and she don ‘t look like that.”
1.) First Amendment-protected free speech.
2.) Anecdote, not opinion.
Who gets to decide comedy’s boundries?
Who was elected to make the call?
Why is “Redneck” not on the list of prohibited words? Because Leftists use it to to denigrate a cn entire class of their fellow citizens based on their where they live and what they do for an occupation. Read any leftist track and the word is tossed around with distain. Yet, they are “The Party of the People”
Personally, I use “trollop” when discussing horrors in polite company.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Horror Speech
https://youtu.be/mPPGMNOLaMw
4:47
Pink Floyd
Live At Pompeii (1972)
“One Of These Days, I’m Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces”
https://youtu.be/l6-doD3VpyA
5:41
Redneck? Colonel, I resemble that remark, and wear it with pride,
Or perhaps I should insist upon my proper title, the way that some insist upon being called “Doctor” …
… Ambassador of Flyover Country culture to the Over-Civilized.
As for denigration … that is precisely the reason I refer to Progressives using another term they have hijacked for the denigration of others: fundamentalists. And with good reason … for they have such a blind faith in their own omniscience and infallibility – in the face of human nature and human history – that they make fire-and-brimstone Baptists look like loose-topped libertines out for beads at Mardi Gras.
Progressives are EVERYTHING they decry others of being. Even racist – because for all practical purposes, it’s only Progressives/Democrats who care about skin color (with so few actual white supremacists out there, they have to fake “hate crimes” to meet their outrage quotas).
OTOH, if Facebook applied their standards to gangsta rap lyrics, that would be “racist” … hence their double standard here.
I remember Rocky and the Kirwood Derby, and the foofuraw that ensued. LO! those many, Many, MANY years ago…
Crazed networks!!!!!!!
Those Rocky and Bullwinkle puns and word plays were sooo clever. I too remember the announcer on the Gary Moore Show whose name was Durward Kirby . . . hence Kirwood Derby !! but was not the first to call it out herein.
And one that stills get me was the little sign next to a lake that read “Lake Dinkawawa” . . . ugh ! If you have had children, you will get this jewel, translated, “drink of water”.
If the censorship is working…
(From two years ago)
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/02/shocking-new-study-finds-twitter-censors-conservatives-over-liberals-at-a-211-ratio/
Double down on the effort…
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/alec-schemmel/2021/09/21/53-1-big-tech-censors-gop-members-congress-tons-more
The brave new world of technocracy will be shoved down our throat’s.
They’ve shown to have all the power to do what they want, to whom they want, when they want without consequence… (Just like the unproven vaccination making billions without liability) Openly defying equality of individual rights for a moral outcome of their choosing no matter who gets hurt. The consequence? The unraveling of our social order to bring down the greatest country on earth so it can be punished for being so great… And so decadent. People are actually embracing the new dark age. Go green, outlaw carbon, everyone eat dirt!
Resistance is futile. Stupid is winning.
For Graham;
https://1000covidstories.com/
THE WORDS OF A POLITICAL MORON (ITS ALL RELATED)
Below are the words of Congress person, Pramila Jaypal (D).
“My parents, FOR WHAT EVER REASON, believed that America was a place where I was going to be able to have a different kind of life- an opportunity,” Jayapal continued. “And I did … I went from nothing in my pockets at 16 by myself to actually sitting in the Oval Office with the president as the first South Asian American woman in the House. This isn’t just about numbers. This is about real people getting opportunity and transforming their lives,”
(“For what ever reason”??? Seriously? If you are so disillusioned about why you were brought to America by your own parents, why do you not just move back to the country from which you came?)
Jaypal in her moronic, Liberal, Leftist “Progressive” logic believes that every one, all 7.5 BILLION people around the world should be able to pour across America’s borders and not enter the country in a legal and proper manner? A legal manner like her parents who brought her here to sit in the Oval Office did?
Why do you need to destroy what has been so enriching for you and your family? Because that is exactly what you propose.
The Liberal, Leftist, “progressives” Democrats in America are essentially treasonous and that is clearly demonstrated by their Socialist / Globalist agenda of chaos.
ALL in the pursuit of installing eternal political power and domination for the Democrat party leadership. And they are pushing it as far and as hard as they can before they lose their power. And that is coming soon.
Your a Democrat? You consider yourself a patriotic American that wants to preserve America and its Constitution that makes your good life possible? Do you support these people who have a desperate need to destroy what you want to preserve? What in the hell are you going to do?
Def: “Moron”: A stupid person.
Political suicide is not an option, this is the face of political treason.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.QStNyB0607ZfbtJ_evEURAHaDt?w=324&h=175&c=7&r=0&o=5&dpr=1.25&pid=1.7
YOUR A DEMOCRAT? (Its all related)
“The legislation, while limited to permanent residents and those with work authorizations — meaning those with Temporary Protected Status or in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — would enfranchise some 900,000 New Yorkers. If passed, the bill would offer a significant boon to a growing national movement around expanding ballot access to immigrants.”
Noncitizens May Soon Be Eligible to Vote in New York City (theintercept.com)
And you wonder why the Democrat party machine has opened the borders to one and all who walk across it? You think the vote tabulating systems in America are suspect now? If authorized a valid legal opposing vote will never again count for anything.
At the point that non citizens vote (and you know the voting will not be limited to those listed above with work papers) they will eternally vote in lock step with the Liberal / Leftist Democrats and vote themselves the money directly from your bank account. This is but one of the methods of wealth redistribution and eternal Democrat political power control in NYC and where ever else this kind of Globalist / Socialist, America destroying law is passed.
And you thought the border was open by mistake? Open due to incompetence? How naive are you? Very? Your a true believer?
Note to self: ONLY LEGAL CITIZENS OF AMERICA SHOULD BE LEGALLY ALLOWED TO VOTE IN ANY ELECTION IN AMERICA. And I do not care how much in payroll taxes they might pay. I welcome and support LEGAL immigration. Voting is for citizens.
If you are a Democrat and you see yourself as a patriot that values the Constitution and America’s sovereignty and you continue to vote for this kind of leadership, you are officially a Socialist. Are you a Socialist? If so you are a growing danger to yourself and others.
Strategic proposition:
Democrat Party Machine long term agenda: Force a “Vaccine” mandate upon certain public employee’s having to do with policing, law enforcement, healthcare and education and replace them with a more compliant group of people who will do as they are told without much push back, work for less and be very much on board with enforcing the stated Federal / state / municipal Leftist / Socialist agenda.
Create more fear and chaos in the minds of the public and garner more of the publics support? Its a theory, like I have said many times before regarding S.O.M., all and everything is justifiable and possible in order to retain or acquire more and more political power and control..
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/09/27/massachusetts-state-police-covid-vaccine-mandate-resignations/
When it comes down to all the marbles expect anything.
Dean Hunt, I agree with your post with one exception! It’s the democrats/rinos who are responsible for our situation! Most of us decent people only want to live our lives and let others live their lives. We work, support our families, stay out of trouble with the law, support our Military, and pay our taxes. All we ask of anyone else who is mentally or physically able is to do the same. We’ll take care of our business and you take care of yours. Now we have an overbearing deep state that wants to rule because there are so many sorry, lazy people being PAID to be sorry and lazy! We need to end all welfare except for the mentally and physically disabled (with a special exemption for the turnip in the White House) and those who can work had better get a job! Now we can “ease” them off the democrat welfare plantation, but quickly! Oh and another thing, I think I know your brother, Mike!
Hey Zuckerberg, do something to get your company’s stock price back up. You got me in the red!
“Mark Zuckerberg: Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and the Metaverse | Lex Fridman Podcast #267”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zOHSysMmH0
Gonna be hard now that Russia is blocking Facebook. It appears he does not want the anti-war protestors within Russia to have a voice.
China already blocks them.