In February, I wrote an essay for Quillette about the Durkheimian witch-hunting taking place on the picture-sharing platform Instagram, and how it was affecting the thousands of knitters, designers, and businesses who rely on social media for their custom. My article described how a blogger and online craft store owner was denounced for writing an innocuous blog about her forthcoming trip to India, and how the yarn dyer Maria Tusken was then harassed and accused of complicity in racism for objecting to the mobbing. Businesses were chastised for their failure to be “truly inclusive” or for apologising too late when they had put a foot wrong.
Since my article appeared, things have only got worse. Kate Davies became the next target for abuse. A well-known designer, yarn vendor, and owner of her own brand of knitwear, she set up Kate Davies Designs after suffering a stroke at the age of 36, which ended her career as a literary academic. Davies is based in the Scottish Highlands, where she employs a small team of people and has won awards for sustainability. She is also a campaigner for disabled people, having had to cope with disability herself. One might assume that people committed to social justice would look elsewhere for enemies.
Her crime? In the aftermath of the “conversation,” as the campaigns to root out supposed perpetrators of racism was called, the topic of “white silence” became widely discussed. Designers and others with large followings who had hitherto failed to speak up about how they were confronting racism were now urged to do so, lest they contribute to the perpetuation of “oppression.” In a post entitled “A Letter on My Not-So-“Cozy” Doocot Sweater: aka My First and Last Kate Davies Project,” Helen Kim (@keinhelm4 on Instagram, who describes herself as an advocate for antiracism and an astrophysicist), wrote:
As more and more voices in the fiber community discussed their concerns about racism and lack of representation, I patiently waited for the designers I respected to do the same. Days went by, weeks, and yet I naively found myself wanting to give these makers the benefit of the doubt for withholding their views while they continued to advertise their products and snowy winters.
When Davies did speak out, her statement was denounced as “very harmful” by Kim. “Your words are demonstrations of entitlement to racial discomfort and racial arrogance (see Robin DiAngelo’s work on white fragility),” Kim declared. “White privilege,” she added, “is a white problem.”
Davies deleted her Instagram account, which had 75,000 followers, and posted a since deleted statement on her blog on 14 February. An archived copy of Davies’s statement was retrieved and reposted by Kim, along with her own critical commentary. Davies had written that “real change and real action can be best implemented by me outside a particular social media bubble—in promoting and amplifying the voices of BIPoC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour] in our community by taking forward projects in writing, publishing, and design that are explicitly antiracist and inclusive.” But she said she would not participate in finger-pointing or shaming on Instagram, and felt “deeply saddened” about being misrepresented and misunderstood.
It is my own political decision to choose not to speak from the particular social media script that has repeatedly been presented to me (with various level of demand); to carefully listen to marginalised voices rather than to shout; to not participate in acts of shaming and intimidation; and to refuse to engage with those who insist that the only way I can effectively demonstrate my antiracist solidarity is by continually displaying it in my Instagram stories.
Criticism mounted. Ysolda Teague, an Edinburgh-based knitting designer and owner of online knitting shop ysolda.com, weighed in, telling her followers that she would no longer stock Davies’s books. Davies then withdrew as a speaker from the Edinburgh Yarn Festival citing health reasons following a campaign led by Kim to have her disinvited. Kim, who was probably Davies’s most vocal critic, concluded a story entitled “Call Out” (which can be found at the top of her Instagram profile) with the following:
To those who worry about [Kate Davies’s] career and the impact her own reactions have caused her, perhaps you should consider that historically BIPOC have been the ones who have been wronged and oppressed. Ask yourselves: in what ways do you hold power? In what ways do you hold power over BIPOC? How have you been complicit in that structure of power? How do your actions, inactions, and privileges reflect systemic racism? How do you want to acknowledge the system and your complicity? […] KD actively SILENCED those who are different from her and tokenized them. That is called RACISM and DISCRIMINATION. As a white woman knitwear designer with over 75K followers and international renown, Kate Davies was NOT vulnerable. Rather, she was in a position of power.
In short, even though she is a disabled woman, Davies was a legitimate target because she is also white, straight, and middle class, and her business is thriving, which implies a degree of affluence.
Many of the influential activists on Instagram are academics. They draw on the work of scholars such as DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility, and recommend Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad to those needing a lesson in “how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of colour, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.” Only by adopting the correct political views, espoused in precisely the correct jargon, can an accused person demonstrate to the satisfaction of her persecutors that she is now a “true ally” who has “done the work.” It’s all about as inspiring as it sounds.
Each fresh campaign would last a few weeks before moving on. Inevitably, some other company or individual would make some trivial but apparently unforgivable error, such as giving their pattern or yarn the incorrect name.
Madelinetosh Co. is America’s largest hand-dyed yarn producer, owned by Amy Hendrix. Her wool is sold in 800 independently owned yarn stores around the world. Their “Inclusivity” colourway was white, beige, brown, and black to reflect various skin tones, but it was pulled from sale after furious protests. In response, Hendrix posted the following note: “This yarn was developed by women of colour in our office together. We heard your concern and removed this colour from our site. All existing proceeds will be donated to the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Foundation.” In a follow-up post, Hendrix offered a more fulsome apology and explained why the colour had not been removed straight away: “Action was not taken sooner because I am indeed on a break working through a recent diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. I share this not for your empathy but only to explain why the colours were not removed. […] I stand with people of colour in the knitting industry, I stand with diversity.”
Needless to say, this did not satisfy her critics. @cdickdesigns, a knitting pattern designer with about 4,000 followers, said:
If a large company refuses to make a statement and refuses to moderate their own posts to protect people from vitriolic bigotry, and then make a colourway called “Inclusivity” it’s a straight-up fucking slap in the face for people like me and other people who are currently suffering in their private lives due to the pains we have shared publicly and openly.
It means that this “Inclusivity” colourway was developed solely for profit. It wasn’t created to help, educate or benefit anyone other than themselves. The colourway might as well have been called “All Lives Matter.” Right now, Madelinetosh is profiting from my pain. Madelinetosh has 95K followers and a following of cishetero white women who go into LYS [Local Yarn Store] and say things like “Do you have Madelinetosh? The only handdyed yarn I like is my Tosh!”
Laine magazine describes itself as a “high-quality Nordic knit and lifestyle magazine for knit folks.” A few months ago, it was criticized by Ysolda Teague, a stockist of Laine, for appearing to be…
…very white and that is extremely problematic. I appreciated how welcome lgbtq+ like me where [sic] in Laine, and I hoped they’d do better about representing POC. I made excuses to myself […] but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to upset the editors. That wasn’t good enough. I apologise for my silence. I’m taking my responsibility as a stockist, and as an advertiser and as someone who has been featured in Laine seriously […] I’m expecting to see changes, and I’m committed to supporting that, and being accountable if we don’t see it.
Then, a few weeks later, Laine magazine hired Ysolda’s fiancé, photographer Kate O’Sullivan, who is also a writer and social justice activist. O’Sullivan is white and this did not go unnoticed. “Six weeks ago,” wrote Kim…
…@ysolda posted in her stories heavy criticisms against Laine Magazine for not being inclusive of BIPOC. A couple of days ago, Ysolda’s partner, Kate O’Sullivan, announced that she had gladly accepted Laine’s offer to be their new regular photographer. […] In an ideal world, I would be able to ask: To what extent did Ysolda take advantage of her large platform, in voicing dissatisfaction, to allow someone close to her to personally gain from public criticism? […] Who gets to call themselves an ally and to receive the protection, and compensation, for that label? In an ideal world, no one.
Teague and O’Sullivan both posted grateful and self-reproachful replies to Kim. “Hi Helen,” O’Sullivan began, “thank you for once again holding this community to a high standard. You are right, my first commission for Laine was as a white woman. I pitched for somebody I knew I could interview nearby. This was back in Autumn as Laine publish biannually.” She explained that it was up to Laine to decide who to hire, and that she would put forward BIPOC designers for the magazine. She ended her comment by announcing: “I also wanted to be clear I’m private for our daughter’s safety as we had alt right pseudo journalists who live locally, targeting us this weekend over another issue.”
This sounds alarming. But it turned out that I was the “alt right pseudo journalist” in question. On Twitter on 19 February, I had pointed out that Teague and users on Ravelry.com, the biggest knitting community on-line, were participating in the hounding of Kate Davies, which had just erupted. I was then blocked by Teague and O’Sullivan. End of story. Nevertheless, if O’Sullivan’s tale was an attempt to solicit sympathy and alleviate the criticism she was facing, it met with some success. “I am sorry to hear that local alt right movement is threatening your safety,” a concerned @burrobird replied. “Please be safe.” Even Helen Kim thought it would be wise to step back in the light of this news. “I would like to reach out and apologize to @kateo_sullivan and @ysolda,” she wrote. “No one—NO ONE —should have to face threats and violence from alt-right supremacists. This kind of violence is sadly the reality of racism and white supremacy today, here in our very own community.”
It remains to be seen who will be the next object of the mob’s attentions. Sophia Cai (@sophiatron)—a Melbourne-based writer, curator and knitter and a friend of O’Sullivan and Teague—has begun compiling a list of local yarn stores and other knitting businesses which fall short of the standards of antiracism she expects from the community. She calls this list her “burn book”:
You might be surprised who is in this book. Many places with “inclusivity” statements or signs on doors or a token POC friend/employee/consultant. If there is one thing that unites yt [white] people it’s white fragility. To all the LYS and yarn businesses I have spent so much time speaking to over the last few months who still don’t get it. Who still think it’s a matter up for debate or further “consideration.” That’s fine. Take the time you need. I just won’t wait around for you. But maybe pay for the consultation and emotional labour.
Donations, she adds, can be directed to her Ko-fi account. A complete list of those included in her burn book can be obtained by messaging her, but they include “white feminists who don’t care about intersectional feminism,” “white feminists who are outraged by plastic straws but are quiet about white supremacy” and “people who don’t see colour or declare that ‘everyone is welcome.’”
These campaigns are risible, but they are also ugly. They license pettiness, cruelty, and ruthlessness in the name of causes they do nothing to advance. They threaten the businesses and livelihoods and professional reputations of good people struggling to navigate a dense web of ideological trip-wires. Everyone has to watch what they say lest an innocuous remark is seized upon as a new excuse to denounce and shame. And yet, this intolerable situation persists because everyone involved is silently complicit in the pretence that this is noble behaviour motivated by loving concern and righteous anger. It will only end when the revolution eats itself or when a critical mass of participants say, “Enough.”
Kathrine Jebsen Moore grew up in Norway, studied Media and Print Journalism in London, and worked at Bloomberg News until 2009, covering financial news, specialising in oil & gas and fishing. She now lives with her husband and four children in Edinburgh. She is a freelance writer and you can follow her on Twitter @moorjebsen
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Assuming we are not missing any material information here, I’m a little puzzled by the power of folks like Kim. Their targets seem to have followers in the tens of thousands, who presumably form the clientele of their business. I cannot believe that more than a tiny minority of those followers are participants in this kind of extreme call-out culture. Were the targets to ignore or denounce their attackers, how many followers would actually cease doing business them?
For a normal business youd usually be right, but this sounds like a pretty insular community made up almost entirely of progressives. Yes I’m sure the ultra extreme SJW types like Kim are a minority, but because the rest of the community is so afraid of doing anything that makes them associated with racism people like Kim have disproportionate power. That’s just my assumption though.
As a part of the “knitting community” I can assure you most of us are ignoring it or don’t even know anything about it. We aren’t afraid of these people, we’re pissed off at them and their willingness to destroy everything that is good about knitting in some political quest for dominance over the rest of us. Some people have left Ravelry’s boards and have set up shop elsewhere to talk politics and knitting. We mostly laugh at these people and their lunatic ravings. The problem is, they do have the designers and yarn dyers scared, because these people are rabid and have and will attack anyone and everyone they FEEL is a threat to their power grab.
Kate Davies wasn’t safe at all even after all she has done for people with disabilities and her own health issues. Instead people like Ysolda Teague and her ilk are allowed to run roughshod over everyone and when caught in their double standards claim they are being harassed by “alt-right pseudo journalists” and they are handed a Get Out of Jail Free Card by their leftist friends. More proof that it’s just a political ploy by these people to gain power and influence within the so called “knitting community”. Because now it’s violence to be asked to comment for an article about something you’re instigating and pushing. Yet, these people either don’t see their double standards or in the case of Ysolda and company don’t care and will use it to leverage power over others.
Where are these other forums? I only use Ravelry to check out patterns, I got out of their forums a long time ago, I also stopped listening to all knitting podcasts because they all went political.
Yes! Inquiring minds want to know!
Seems like a straight smash-the-competitors thing to me, to be honest. Seriously. Racism (this whole thing stinks of racism from Asian people towards white people) and SJW disapprobation can unfortunately be powerful forces and farces in the heads of the naive and manipulable.
It’s interesting to see how little pushback there was when Asian people coopted BIPOC, a term that originally was used to highlight the difference between black and indigenous POC who on average have measurably worse outcomes than white people in western societies and Asians who on average do as well or better compared with the white majority.
A look at the global power structure right now does not support a charge of ‘white supremacy.’
chairman mao is proud. although the little red book went awol.
That’s all it is. Envy-fueled attacks on more-successful competitors dressed up as a holy crusade for justice.
You’re not part of my ‘knitting community’ J. And for that I am thankful
Katie, give all your money and electronics to a trans BIPoC or STFU.
I think that the fact you use the term “knitting community” in quotes shows just how little you represent “most of us.” You certainly dont speak for me. A lot of us arent laughing and making fun. It cant stop till we stop seeing articles like this adding gas to the fire. There are a lot of us who dont enjoy the racism and bigotry any more than the mob mentality going around.
This article is an expose. The bullying and anti white stuff is woven in college curriculum and is institutionalized in hollywood and media. It is the m.o of the power structure. That taken with the massive demographic changes in nearly every for now majority white country on earth is cause for concern. The stats show whites are the least ethno centric. I think you need to open your eyes and decrease your soylent consumption.
I’d also add ive witnessed a similiar sort of thing happen in progressive internet communities I visited back before I became a diehard centrist. At first there’s just moderate SJW type policing of other people in the community but eventually it starts to snowball and people become so afraid olf being called out themselves that they go along with steadily increasing extremes of radical SJW thought policing. I think the leaders of these campaigns basically just get drunk on power and just keep pushing things further and further because they like the attention and feeling of power.
Saw this happen a few years back on an equestrian-sport chat board. It started with the correction “We are a COMMUNITY here,” rather than a bunch of worldwide randos writing under avatars, therefore contrarian opinions were making “the Community” “uncomfortable.
It progressed to the point where a contrarian opinion equated to “violence,” “damage,” etc. at which point I knew the place was some kind of wackos’ rabbit hole. This was before SJW was a common term, for a common concept. This was for us normals a new, weird, world!
I got piled-on and nearly doxxed for telling an anecdote that they judged “lacked empathy.” WTF? It was actually satisfying when I finally got BANNED later that year for the rather mild opinion that no matter what bathing suit he wore, Bruce Jenner is a man and always will be.
The mistake is to EVER engage with these nutjobs to begin with. Be an adult, run your business, refuse to comment, and let the concern trolls find another target. Better yet if possible, avoid social media altogether. Just sell yarn and avoid batty people.
The mistake is to EVER engage with these nutjobs to begin with. Be an adult, run your business, refuse to comment, and let the concern trolls find another target. Better yet if possible, avoid social media altogether. Just sell yarn and avoid batty people.
Yes, even when the ground shifts under you when your workplace adopts perplexing “diversity” activism. Of course your guidelines would apply in the best of cultural conditions as well.
The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15
I don’t get it either. Why delete one’s account instead of blocking the hyenas?
“outrage is a destructive drug that satiates our primal desire for group solidarity”
Vincent Harinam and Rob Henderson (2019) What Doesn’t Kill Us Brings Us Together QUILLETTE april 7
The triviality of the screamers cause is irrelevant it is the “2 minute hate” that satisfies.
The reason this is happening is highly specific. Knitting is a coping strategy replacing self-harm, binge eating, or whatever else, for people with Emotional Dysregulation Disorder. It soothes them because it is meditative but still controlling, which is part of the compulsion around the suffering (a need to control).
I have known many women who knit and it is always because they are progressive and have trouble self-regulating emotion. This is a new phenomenon.
Say what?
Kim & Co. are the type of KNIT-picking harridans who forcibly share their misery. They’re the kind of killjoys me ole Pappy would say “mucked-up wet-dreams.”
Can you imagine being married to such termagants? They’re literal partypoopers who climb chandeliers in order to drop deuces in punchbowls. They’re terrified that somewhere, somehow, someone is happier than they are.
These people are psychotic. That an activity as innocuous as collecting pretty yarn and making sweaters has been turned into an ideological nightmare by idiots like this is a tragedy. We are witnessing the end of civilization.
Go woke, go broke. That is what I wish on these people. I have been a knitter for years, I cheered when many women were able to turn knitting into a real career. I used to listen to some knitting podcasts, but they got too woke, didn’t talk about knitting, talked politics instead. What these people don’t realize is they are reliving the Terror from the French Revolution. Robspierre didn’t just get his head chopped off, his death was much uglier. I’m guessing something ugly will happen to that Kim woman at some point.
Where’s that famous knitter Madame Defarge when we need her?
Madame Defarge was an evil woman though, I’d say her list is much like the list that one woman Sophia Cai is making of business’ and dyers to avoid.
When the internet became a way of connecting with other knitters, sewers and quilters, many of us rejoiced. They always said they were the nicest people around. Even then I’d tell people that no, they are humans like all the rest. Then gradually I saw the SJWs take over, long before we had that term. For so many of these woman, they rely on the ‘community’ for their sales, it is just too small of marketplace to anger people. The people being harmed weren’t hurting anyway, until some butt-hurt SJWs decided to destroy lives. The power is intoxicating. Btw, one of the biggest voices in the knitting world, Heather Ordover has a literary podcast, she then published two books, ‘What would Madame Defarge Knit’. Tells you everything you need to know about the loudest voices in any of those small niche communities.
That sounds like an interesting book! Thank you.
Do you honestly believe that any of these targeted women angered more than a dozen weird people? One of them was targeted for being excited to visit the far-away country of India. Another, described in the essay above, was targeted not for anything she did or said, but for not saying anything on a particular topic. It’s really hard to believe that these women would have been harmed in the “community” if they had simply deleted the SJW’s comments, blocked them, and continued about their business.
Knitting for many, many people is a coping strategy replacing self-harm, binge eating, or whatever else, for people with Emotional Dysregulation Disorder. It soothes them because it is meditative but still controlling, which is part of the compulsion around the suffering (a need to control).
I have known many women who knit and it is always because they are progressive and have trouble self-regulating emotion.
During the Damore Scandal Google was also exposed as a business whose managers kept blacklists of wrongthinkers. These thought criminals were to be shunned, refused cooperation, and generally harassed. I think this is a general SJW tactic by now.
Predictable. SJWs won once, so now they believe knitting community has “a problem” that must be solved and they are using they standard tactics of shaming and silencing.
One day SJW idiots will stumble upon a person who have nothing to lose and can’t be shamed and silenced. Then they will finally find out how it feels to be punched back.
Also, someone should remind Ms. Kim that while current Brits are descendants of Normans, indigenous Scotish people were, of course, white.
“One day SJW idiots will stumble upon a person who have nothing to lose and can’t be shamed and silenced. Then they will finally find out how it feels to be punched back.”
And that man is Trump. Time to MKGA!
I am from Poland, but still laughing my ass off over how some Americans got salty because of election results. 😀
Yeah id imagine eventually someone like Kim is going to attack someone rich enough and crazy vengeful enough that they’ll do anything and everything in their power to make Kim’s life a nightmare. Possibly even hiring a bunch of people to do nothing but harrass and make anonynous accusations against her on every forum and social media outlet she’s a part of. Maybe even manage to find out her phone number, address and employer then harrass her endlessly through more real life means.
I don’t think anybody has to tell the racist Ms. Kim that the Scots are white. She knows very well. Why do you think this happened, in large part? Pure sneering, sniffy racism. You can insult only white people in the modern world and get away with it, and we all know it.
Well Graham. I’m sure the minority communities of Scotland would be delighted to hear they are actually white. And FYI, there’s no such thing as racism towards white people. It’s not a thing.
‘And FYI, there’s no such thing as racism towards white people. It’s not a thing.’ ‘For your information,’ like you are saying something sane and sensible. Utter drivel. I lived in America for years, experienced it first-hand. People like you do nothing but pollute public discourse. Anyway, according to your post further on below, I am an “idiot,” as is everybody else here, so why the Hell are you even talking to me? Go away with your third-rate gibberish and don’t bother me again.
Killer argument right there.
Some people “don’t see color”. And granted, that’s a problem.
Katie ONLY sees color. And that’s far worse.
Are you being sarcastic? Or maybe you’re high. Are dictionaries a thing on your planet?
So college professors openly calling for white genocide and the new york times running articles by charles blow asking if its ok for his kids to be friends with white people. Michelle Goldberg saying white people reproducing is white supremacy. Look up compilations of buzzfeed and salon anti white headlines. You can see endless clips of msm saying explicitly anti white things. White college kids are continually racially abused. This is the power structure this is the message of the oligarchy. You saying its not possible to be racist towards whites proves my point.
@Katie
Graham was referring to Aerth’s comment, who said “indigenous Scottish people.”
From Wikipedia:
The Scottish people (Scots: Scots Fowk; Scottish Gaelic: Albannaich) or Scots, are a nation and Celtic ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or Alba) in the 9th century. Later, the neighbouring Celtic-speaking Cumbrians, as well as Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons and Norse, were incorporated into the Scottish nation.
Katie: There’s also no such thing as race. Indeed, Scots are not white. Most have white teeth, though. Many have black hair. Some have brown skin. Others have pink eyes. If white skin was the determiner of power, all albinos would be Kings.
KATIE: I suspect “native’ Scots were being referenced by Graham, not recent Pakis selling haggis.
As for racism towards whites, on Earth (Visit sometime, you might like it!) dictionaries are a thing. They make no mention of “power” being required.
As for racism itself, blame blacks. As the first humans evolving in Africa, they created it…along with slavery, rape, theft, gluttony, and other sins large and small. Alas, they never got around to inventing the wheel.
What part of toxic social media is not clear, that people won’t just go and create a website for themselves. If one is going to have a business stop being lazy and market your wears on a platform that does not have the inbred toxicity as well as being able to have the authority to void out those who spew hatred.
The only way anyone is going to put a stop to this online lynching is by not putting themselves in such a position. Start reporting those who harass and bully to the social media platform and then advise them that you will no longer be able to continue using their platform. How else are they going to learn what’s going on. My best advice is to tell your subscribers why you are closing your account and then notify them of your new website that also does not have a venue to others to spew their verbal abuses.
I feel for these people, but everyone needs to realize that no one is forcing them to use a hostile platform. Soon the bullies will just end up eating their own when they are the only ones left.
Using your own website is orders of magnitude weaker than building a social media presence, though. Plus SJWs can go after your domain name registrar, your internet host, or your ability to process online payments.
I agree with your sentiment but reporting it to social media platforms will not work. Facebook Twitter and all the rest are 100% on board with the “sjw’s”.
bumble bee: Your “Let them eat cake” naiveté is showing.
Folks HAVE created new websites only to have cyberbullies ratpack them there, too. Others have tried creating YouTube-like platforms only to have Big Silicone (Google, YT, et alia)…
…force PayPal to stop processing their payments;
…convince advertisers to withdraw support, kaboshing creators’ income;
…intimidate banks to close checking accounts;
…shadow-ban published videos; or
…remove sites from search engines.
You sound like a WWII Jew who thinks the Gestapo won’t target YOU because you’re smarter than they are or one of the “good” Juden. Or that, worst case, moving East will save your chestnuts.
SJWs (from BLM to antifa) are vicious. Like Terminators, they never stop unless stopped. They are not nice people. You have to cut them (figuratively speaking) wide, deep, and frequent just to get their attention.
Karma needs to kick Kim’s nates through some razor-festooned goalposts ASAP.
Her and her ilk show no mercy. Offer them none in turn.
Who knew one could hallucinate without psilocybin? I suppose it’s easier when you have wool for brains.
The moment you apologize it’s over for you. These people aren’t pointing out peoples failings so they change, they are destroying lives because it makes them feel powerful.
It’s not just about feeling powerful, in the case of the denouncers mentioned in this article, it’s an old skool shakedown (ie: extortion).
“That’s a lovely little knitting business you have there, shame to see something happen to it. Buy my book and pay for this course in anti-racism and maybe you won’t be a target.”
Instagram should shut this sort of thing down, but they won’t because they are too cowardly to be seen not bowing down to the “anti racists” (professional grievance mongers).
What sucks is that knitting is a hobby where you can buy yarn from all sorts of cool small businesses around the world and therefore actually put your money where your mouth is by buying from minority owned businesses or small batch handmade yarn from the third world.
All this frankly puritan religious talk of “anti-racism” and flogging of middle-class white women is noise and it doesn’t lead to improving material conditions for anyone. Racism will always exist, but buying from minority owned businesses can actually improve the balance and quality of life for people now in a way that that all this talk never will.
‘Yarn Vendor’ is the perfect sobriquet for these peddlers of dubious metanarratives.
A nice one.
POTSH: “People of twisted sheep hair”
Brilliant article describing an absolutely terrifying world of pettiness ruthlessness and cruelty. Witchtrials, no less. These are truly repellant people. Thank you Kathrine Jebsen Moore.
Thank you Peter.
As an unapologetic male, I find this tempest-in-a-tea-pot fascinating…and pathetic. Who are these vicious knitters? Are they all women? Do they have husbands? On average, how many cats do they own?
It is indeed a luxury to indulge in such petty bickering. Perhaps only a middle-class white woman could immerse herself so completely in this protracted exercise of strenuous inertia. Although my sympathy lies exclusively with Kate Davies, I am impatient with her for humoring such needling cranks at all. Her tormentors are absolutely toxic in their woke fanaticism and they deserve far less deference than she gives them. They deserve gales of laughter and relentless derision. They deserve scorn and slight regard. They deserve to be driven back to that ignominious obscurity from which they should never have emerged in the first place…
Well, maybe not all that. But they deserve to be the butt of a joke or two.
Of course! It’s the cats! They’ve been behind every disaster in history since they took over ancient Egypt!
well, maybe not the cats by and of themselves, rather the Toxoplasma i guess:)
As if a cat would associate with this kind of wretch.
Absolutely right, and my 20 ferals agree. They love my knitting especially now that winter is starting to bite on this side of the world.
Being a knitter myself, a female and a former member of Ravelry I’d say it’s the feminist/leftist/over educated but not actually KNOWING anything mentality along with mental illness that has gotten these women into this kind of a tizzy. Everything they spew is political these days, they don’t really care about knitting or women’s issues unless Planned Parenthood is threatened. These women are willing to sell out other women for the sake of trans-women movement and any leftist/democrat male politician who wants a quick piece of rear-end without consent, but only if he’s a politician mind you who votes to keep Planned Parenthood funded. If their men do that, then they are allowed all sorts of liberties. They are a confusing bunch which is probably why a lot of them, that I have encountered, are over medicated and in of serious mental health intervention.
The same thing is happening with the Modern Quilt Guild, luckily there are plain old normal quilters out there.
You’d think they’d prefer the knitting needle to Planned Parenthood.
That made me laugh.
Education doesn’t equate intelligence. A lot of them have PhDs with no real life experience; only what they’ve read in their 1000-paged books on racism, etc. The so-called SJWs in the knitting community are mostly hypocrites, vicious and unkind people, and should stop destroying peoples’ lives in the name of SJ. How can they even bear to sleep at night knowing the harm they’re causing their fellow knitters? Stop speaking up for this black gal in the UK, you don’t represent me!
I think it’s the childlessness that does it. These women have no center to their lives, no children to devote themselves to raising, and yet they still have the boundless motivation that comes with our drive to reproduce. They’ve failed at it, so they direct their rage externally and ensure that nobody else will be happy, either. Every “I’m an ex-SJW” story I’ve ever read tells us that these people are miserable and unhappy. Misery loves company.
Aye, you have to wonder – who the fuck are they knitting booties for?
Thats right you never kowtow or apologize. Once these bigots get a taste of blood in the water they swarm. Truly amazing that they dont see that they are What they claim to fight against.
Having a family member with mental stability issues, I have been told that knitting is often recommended to help stabilize those that have difficulty controlling their emotions. I’m not surprised to see this escalated form of social justice nonsense from within this group, especially where that group intersects with academics.
Excellent point, Marko, hadn’t thought of that. I’ll be keeping an eye on the cupcake, sculpture, and crossword communities from now on.
It is a good point. And a very valid one. I have observed that several of these individuals have mental health issues.
“how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of colour, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.”
Swine, she wants to help white people do even better? Burn ‘er!
Do you honestly believe it is the intention of Kate Davies’ on-line tormentors to “help” in any way?
No, I’m just picking their nits, a la mode.
That was sarcasm.
The worst are unqualified to help anyone be better.
What did I just read? Some dystopian international knitting nightmare? I got “hooked”
into reading the whole thing hoping anyone would chime in and suggest they stop the oppression virtue signaling madness. These people use big needles, too.
Perhaps they can find some yarn manufacturing in sub-Saharan Africa?
I’ve tried to sell yarn from my country on the southern tip of Africa, it’s wonderful quality merino and mohair, and the response was meh. They don’t want our yarn, they want their virtue proclaimed from the rooftops.
Do you have a website or Instagram? My friend has a yarn store. And you won’t have to “proclaim her virtue “ 😂
As an IG illustrator I’ve been glued to the author’s two horrifying ‘woke knitting’ posts.
Can you elaborate?
You’ve passed through the Lockstep Phase, wherein nobody is allowed to voice a contrary view, and entered into to the Loyalty Oath Phase, wherein everyone is required to dutifully intone the correct view in loud and vigorous fashion, without the appearance of being prompted, or else be judged a traitor. This will lead to an escalating competition wherein the truest of true believers will try to outdo each other by stating the correct view in the most extreme terms possible, and by aggressively rooting out the insufficiently enthusiastic for censure. Elbows will fly! Grudges will be avenged! Competitors will be culled!
Certain entrepreneurial types will also attempt various forms of The Shakedown in this phase.
It’s the Cultural Revolution, and the SJWs are the Red Guards. Seriously, the parallels between these social justice call-outs and Struggle Sessions are striking. Even pledging yourself to the Party heart and soul and taking actions to back that up would not save you from being accused. You had to write a humiliating Self-Criticism, which is what the SJWs are demanding here. It’s eerie.
Never apologize to the mob. NEVER. They don’t care about apologies, only destruction.
Thank you, Kathrine. I think, your articles are among the most powerful published by Quillette.
Until nineteenth century, law in Europe did not see violence as a crime. If your purse was stolen, you were hit in the face and threatened with a knife; the thief would only be tried for stealing the purse. The casual everyday violence of the past is remarkable. The gradual criminalisation of violence was finalised by 1880. Law and law enforcement curbed violent psychopathy.
It is time to introduce LAW protecting online free markets against SJW abusive behaviour. Anti-competitive practices of bullying and mobbing as means to shut down more successful competitors should be BANNED BY LAW. Consumers right to choose the best – not politically correct manufacturers – should be PROTECTED BY LAW.
I detest SJWs especially of this extreme bullying variety, but what your suggesting would seem likely to run afoul of freedom of speech laws. Especially in the US where our 1st amendment and the relevant SCOTUS interpretations of it give us a greater right to free speech than basically anywhere else in the world.
Jeremiah,
If American Court of Law fails to distinguish between free speech and mobbing / harassment – what would protect yourselves against totalitarianism? Your guns?
Serentiny, it would be naive to think that harassment laws wouldn’t lead to totalitarianism. It is more likely the victims of this drama would be prosecuted rather than the mobbers.
Guns are essential, although we normal people need to carefully consider when it will be time to use them. And prepare.
Stephanie,
Correlation is not causation.
Lawlessness and imbalance of power breeds bullies, allows psychopathic trends to take over.
Bullying in the workplace is a widespread plague. “Over 1 million individuals are the victims of violent crimes in the work-place each year. This figure constitutes approximately 15 per cent of all violent crimes committed annually in the United States. It was estimated that aggression in the workplace caused some 500,000 employees to miss 1,751,000 days of work annually. This missed work equated to approximately $55 million in lost wages.” Peter Randall. “Adult Bullying. Perpetrators and Victims.”
The problem with legislation – it generally protects employees from harassment based on protected characteristics, such as race, colour, sex, etc.
While I don’t know about the UK, the part about violence being accepted isn’t true for central Europe. Lex Ripuaria dates back to the 7th century and defines, outlaws and punishes battery.
Johnny,
In my post I referred to Simon DeDeo’s study examined “The Proceedings of the Old Bailey,1674-1913” detailing criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court.
I should not generalise. Apologies.
That’s an interesting perspective. Thank you so much for your kind words.
Well said and I agree completely. It’s so obvious to me that this is rooted in money. Like tv evangelical preachers, it never takes long for SJWs to turn the conversation to “give me money “.
I understand the sentiment, but your suggestion has the same issue ‘hate speech’ laws have, there’s no way of getting meaningful definitions that wouldn’t reduce it all to being in the eye of the beholder and the very people you rightly detest would simply call any criticism of them ‘mobbing’ and ‘bullying’, and you’d still be locked in a race to the bottom. The point here needs to be to defend free speech and that means for everyone.
When does a series of individuals all expressing the same view point become mobbing and who get prosecuted? Everyone that’s taken part?
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
Tom Paine’s point remains valid, any failure to defend the free speech of even awful people inevitably will just get used against those you consider good.
The only solution is for what’s almost certainly the majority of decent people to push back, both in terms of refusing to be bullied (first step is for god sake don’t issue an apology) and also to push back against the ideology.
This only truly ends when these intellectually vacuous but poisonous theories are discredited, and that means the left doing it. It’s the left that’s allowed itself to get hijacked but the nonsense and it can only save itself. That will ultimately require change at an academic level as that’s where the bs started, but enough people in public life realising these aren’t valid ideas by well meaning but over zealous people, but ideologies that don’t stand up to intellectual scrutiny and whose impact is entirely antithetical to any kind of justice the left should believe in, will certainly help.
Sadly I don’t hold out much hope for the short term, although some like John McWhorer do believe the tide is turning and the push back is starting.
Andrew Miller: “When does a series of individuals all expressing the same view point become mobbing and who get prosecuted?”
Ability to distinguish between free speech and harassment / mobbing is of paramount importance.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental tenet of liberal democracy.
Grass-root mobbing is foundation of totalitarianism.
Bullying is the aggressive behaviour arising from the deliberate intent to cause physical or psychological distress to others. Mobbing, bullying by a group, always has instigators – entities or individuals who could be successfully prosecuted.
Couple of examples.
Last November a local antifa activists showed up outside Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s home and they had a message for him.
The group called Carlson a “racist scumbag” and demanded that he “leave town,” according to posts on Twitter. A woman was also overheard in one of the deleted videos saying she wanted to “bring a pipe bomb” to his house… “Tucker Carlson, we are outside your home,” one person [using bullhorn] could be heard saying in the since-deleted video… ‘We want you to know, we know where you sleep at night,” the person concluded, before leading the group to chant, “Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!”
Tucker Carlson commented: “They weren’t protesting anything specific that I had said. They weren’t asking me to change anything… They were threatening my family to get me to stop talking…this is a form of intimidation, so why are we describing it as a protest? It’s a protest in the sense that when the mafia tells your store owner, you know, I’d hate to have this place destroyed.”
Last Friday “Jury awards Gibson’s Bakery $11 million against Oberlin College.
In this case, a wholly innocent 5th-generation bakery was falsely accused of being racist and having a history racial profiling after stopping three black Oberlin College students from shoplifting. The students eventually pleaded guilty, but not before large protests and boycotts intended to destroy the bakery and defame the owners. The jury … accepted that Oberlin College facilitated the wrongful conduct against the bakery.”
In “Instagram’s Diversity Wars Revisited”
Helen Kim’s post: “KD actively SILENCED those who are different from her and tokenized them. That is called RACISM and DISCRIMINATION” – a libel and can be treated as a crime or civil wrong.
Sophia Cai’s invitation to ”pay for the consultation and emotional labour” to be excluded from her “burn book”, a list of “white feminists who are … quiet about white supremacy” and “people who don’t see colour or declare that ‘everyone is welcome.’” – can be treated as a blackmail, a criminal offence.
Interesting both those women are of Asian extraction. Anti-white racism is definitely a factor here.
Long line of sacred dogmas – supremacy of aryan race, hegemony of proletariat, white privilege, intersectionality, etc. – serve as a cover-up and operational framework for grass-roots psychopathic behaviour seeking to get rid of successful competitor, relieve a grudge or just indulge in malevolence.
Bullies, envious mediocrities and power freaks are endorsed, rewarded and provided with defenceless preys and sacred cause as a cover-up for back-stubbing, harassment and mobbing.
She apologized. NEVER do that. These “people” don’t want discussion, they want to shame others. They want the power that being “on the right side of history” gives them. If you are not willing to go all in and become a complete toxic NPC, sit down and shut up because they will NEVER accept anything less.
This is madness & extremely Orwellian, & unless we get a handle on it soon, it will destroy our civilisation, because what is excellently portrayed here is just one small & relatively unimportant example of what is going on throughout western society, one small growth of a cancer that our civilisation, including most of its vital organs, are now riddled with.
The question is, can we cure it, BEFORE it kills us, i.e. our civilisation? At the moment the prognosis looks pretty grim, which has caused many to go into denial about how serious our condition is. That’s a way of coping, but it is also our civilisation’s death warrant.
Our only hope of finding a cure, is to first develop an understanding of this socio-political cancer, which, like biological cancer, sits deep in our DNA. We have to approach it from an evolutionary perspective, which is what I have been doing for quite some time.
I’ve come up with lot of important findings, which I have yet to organise into a comprehensive scientific paper or monograph. All I have to offer at the moment are some Twitter threads, which I hope to get some academic help in putting into more presentable academic form: https://twitter.com/rogerahicks/status/1045233491875713024
Have you seen James Lindsay’s work on this?
I can cut to the chase without a scientific paper or monograph. It’s called “TRIBALISM,” and fueled by social media balkanization, the “tribes” are getting smaller and meaner all the time. The only solution is to unplug. The pre-digital equivalent was when we matured beyond high-school “mean girls” cliques. These people have only the power you willingly give them by engaging to begin with.
The short and idiosyncratic “SJWs always lie” and “SJWs always double down” by Vox Day are interestng reads. He explains the process of SJW bullying and gives some guidance about fighting back. Essentially, NEVER APOLOGIZE is the first one, and FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE is another. We normal non-insane non-SJWs CANNOT allow the bullies to win.
It seems fairly obvious to me that the best approach is to ignore the cultist-agitators. This is not a university or a workplace situation, where the target is captive and has no choice but to genuflect or be banished. This is the product of a few loons online. There is no reason to respond to them. The targets only get themselves in trouble when they engage.
This jihad began when a clueless blogger wrote about how excited she was to visit India. She wrote that, for someone who grew up in a small town in Iowa, the idea of going to a a far-away place like India seemed as unlikely as her going to Mars. I actually read through all the comments. As I recall, she got about 90 lovely, positive comments on her post. No one saw anything “problematic.” And then comment #91 (or thereabouts) was a wacko comment about colonialism and racism, etc. The comment itself did not even seem to be genuine. It had the exaggerated characteristics of a troll comment. But she couldn’t let it go. She had to engage, to prove her goodness to her accuser, by posting a lengthy explanation of what she meant and about her Iowa upbringing, etc. This only brought a second and a third SJW cult comment, and now they were genuine. Real SJWs, sensing a conflict over race and skin color (the pillars of their religion), could not resist. The author’s attempts to explain provided more material for further accusations. It ballooned from there into this extended crusade, still going months later and sustained by the same naive impulse to “reach out” to the accusers.
The lesson is: Do not engage with these hostile, damaged, deranged evil people if you don’t have to. They don’t want your explanations or your side of the story. They aren’t looking to solve any problems. They want to get you to submit to their power or, failing that, to demonstrate their power by wrecking you. In a postmodern cult, power and control is all that matters.
David, thank you for checking it out. You are exactly right. Her first mistake was to defend herself. Never.
Lydia
Yes, you should never defend yourself against these SJWs, but instead go on the attack against them. Call them communists and fascists. Do your best to get the majority to hound them out of the public square. It’s quite easy really, if only people had the guts to do it. I’ve done so 2 or 3 times now. The trick is being unreasonable to them, just like they try to be unreasonable to you. Call them out for giving offence by being offended when you meant no offence. They are the offenders and must be made to pay for their sins by being laughed out of the public square.
I think you are right about just ignoring this sort of comment. Dont feed the fire, stifle it by denying it the oxygen of publicity.
But replying in kind may be tempting, but it doesn’t sit well with the sort of people who tend to enjoy textile arts ( men and women….and probably trans knitters as well, though I wouldn’t presume to speak for them). Having once been the target of unexpected harassment and malice BTL ( and that was on a cancer carers website!), it is hard to convey the almost physical upset and distress it causes the victim. Really, better just to try to ignore it and try to forget it.
Most of the invocations of BIPOC I’m seeing lately are from asians. I am pretty sure they are running it as a cynical scam. A pity there’s still so many good-hearted but naive folk out there who fall into their traps.
Ah, the Nigerian gambit.
I never saw that acronym before until this whole knitting fight came up a few months ago, and now again in this new flareup of it. Its constant invocation here seems to be a sign that this group of activists are all getting their marching orders from one particular very narrow faction that happens to like that bit of jargon.
I noted the Asian thing above. I wonder how cynical it all is, based on racism or status jealousy or competitor-smashing.
Asians are def. not underprivileged. They are usually very well off, educated and get good jobs and way ahead financially according to USA census. In most places they encounter little or no racism and in many places such as where I live now, they are basically taking over everything. Our real estate sky rocketed after Chinese immigration. They are not a victim in any shape or form.
Some of these voices are Japanese who were never colonized by whites and aside from atomic bomb thrown at them, really shouldn’t play any victims. And the reason why a bomb was thrown was because ironically they chose to be sided with NAZI Germany during the WW2. Irony it burns! But all of these facts are conveniently forgotten by these SJW women who only look for power and an opportunity to promote themselves and their products.
Ysolda and Kate – for Ysolda it was simply the matter of eliminating a competitor when an opportunity presented itself. Simple as that. I knew she had it in her, she always came across as cunning and just not a good person. My intuition was right on the money.
And Laine hiring her gf…all of this is so unsavory and double-faced that I will no longer patronize Laine. The whole thing makes me cringe.
I’d happily make a large donation to the first person to reply to this insane bullying with:
‘Hi Red Guard, sorry but you can’t make me participate in your struggle session now please kindly fuck off. Oh, and btw ‘White Fragility’ theory is intellectually vacuous woo, it’s nothing more than one giant Kafka trap peddled by self righteous narcissists’.
It doesn’t happen because people understandably don’t want to appear racist or against fighting it, and don’t have the confidence to de-link the pseudo academic bs from any genuine opposition to actual real existing bigotry.
As a knitter who sells on etsy I’ve followed these exchanges with growing horror. I shared it to my country’s etsy group and got a stupefied silence. And now they’re coming for the yarn shops!! It should be hilarious, but for those who have bills to pay and an infrastructure to maintain, it’s downright terrifying. I would never apologise, but I have only myself to look after, pity those who have others to think of.
Thanks for this article and the previous one. I’m horrified that the SJW nonsense has invaded my “knitting world”. I’ve un-followed designers who bent their backs for this nonsense when it blew up a few months ago. I was sickened, but not surprised, when Ravelry hosted a special arena for discussing this B.S.
I had no idea it escalated. Ysolda Teague used to be one of my favorite designers, but her actions have hurt small businesses. I can’t get behind that. She’ll never see another penny from me.
I so agree. I don’t know who to follow anymore. I cannot believe politics has entered my calm, knitting world. I feel like looking for only yarn businesses that have stayed out of this and refuse to participate in this lynching, and just support those people.
Melody: ‘…but her actions have hurt small businesses.’ I get the feeling that hurting other businesses may just be the exact intention. Seriously. Monopolies get all the profit. 😉
As a non member of the fiber community and with almost every characteristic be it physical lifestyle and interest wise to characterize me as problematic, i to pursue reading this new this morning. It made my day.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/06/verdict-jury-awards-gibsons-bakery-11-million-against-oberlin-college/
And it isn’t done. There will likely be a substantial punitive damage.
It seems that not apologizing isn’t enough. Take legal remedies. Sue for libel and damages.
I have made a prediction here and elsewhere. Lawsuits and awards like this are going to characterize 2020. It will look like a mob, where lawyers see opportunity and deep pockets.
I was so happy to see the verdict in the Gibson Bakery case. Although they are a small business, they aren’t as small as a single woman dying yarn at home and selling it online. So it is a lot harder for them to actually sue. Sueing takes a lot of money
It does take money to sue, but there are solutions to that problem.
First, if the case is strong enough and if the defendant has assets, a lawyer will be happy to take the case on a contingency fee basis (i.e., he takes his fee out of the winnings, and does not get paid if he loses).
Second, if the case is not attractive to a contingency fee attorney but it is sufficiently outrageous to the public, crowdfunding can be a solution. We have seen crowdfunding used in a few cases involving Youtubers suing SJWs who assaulted them or interfered with their contracts with third parties.
And a third solution is to insist that the various “conservative” legal organizations out there start taking on cases against SJW bullies. You have extremely well-funded organizations like the so-called “Alliance Defending Freedom,” but for decades their major obsession has been attacking the rights of gay people around the world. Recently, they have taken on some free speech cases, and that’s a positive step. But they should be pressured to do more and to pursue actions in tort against the social justice cult.
It is a matter of finding some deep pockets that would interest a lawyer. In this case Facebook has pretty deep pockets.
If someone like this shows up issue a complaint against them on the instagram or facebook system. Don’t respond or get into an argument. If it continues ask why Facebook tolerates this type of abuse on their system. Document economic damages and responses. I suspect that the lovelies at Facebook will tolerate this woke garbage.
Every business with a public face and storefront needs thought out procedures in case of shoplifting or armed robbery. Every business on these platforms need thought out procedures to deal with these types of situations.
As a business you learn very quickly if you don’t know already that you are a target. If the platform weaponizes those who would attack you, there you have your deep pocket.
The fundamental realization that is slowly entering our consciousness is that these people are not acting in good faith. They are out to destroy you and will use any means at their disposal to do it. They have the fervor of a believer. It is like these shooters that show up in public spaces; they will shoot until they are stopped. There is no discussion, no middle ground.
So act accordingly.
I heard a story years ago about a scientist who has come up with a pain scale for insect bites. He is a bit nuts, he gets bitten and says, “that feels like an 8”. He was in some tropical forest and came across the hammer ant. If you get bitten by one of these things you will thrash around in agony for a few days. These insects are vulnerable to blundering beasts that will do them harm, so they have a bite that will stop them in their tracks, and they get left alone. The insects don’t go hunting for victims, they simply make sure that anyone who does them harm never does it again.
Not a bad strategy for a small business.
Calling someone racist is libel. It causes economic damages. The intent is very clear in these cases, they go about telling people do not do business with that racist. Time to get out the hammer.
Only in the mentally ill mind of the Left can “inclusiveness” equal
the ghettoization/segregation of people into ideologically-approved (only!) categories.
No thanks.
The Left has maxed-out its “War Is Peace” etc. etc. card.
“Social Justice”: white people have to virtue signal their loyalty to the religion of anti-racism in order to maintain their “supreme” position in society. It also helps to apologize for being white, and for taking up space that now belongs to brown people.
Any protest to this will brand the white person, in the words of NY Times Racist Charles Blow, a purveyor of “white panic,” a fear of a world run by brown people.
Anyone not willing to apologize for their skin color, the past sins of people (probably unrelated but who cares?) of the same skin color, is therefore “a racist,” i.e witch and must be burned at the stake or, given that we no longer commit such heinous acts as burning any longer, at the very least, their livelihoods must be taken away (never mind the reparations that this would justify) so that a brown person can take over that spot previously defined them because a white person occupied it.
In other words, the very existence of white people making a living is somehow denying brown people a living. White people are in a “panic” over giving up their livelihoods to brown people for some silly reason. The logic goes that as long as white people occupy these positions, brown people cannot occupy those positions.
The “justice” is that white people are removed and replaced with brown people. As this knitting debacle proves.
The refrain in Charlottesville began: “You. Will Not. Replace Us.”
Reporting from the center of this political madness, I must say, given the tenets of “social justice” I can certainly understand what they meant. The ideology literally sets out to replace whites with persons of color in AN INORGANIC WAY.
Wouldn’t a white woman living in Scotland be considered “BIPoC”.
Why are these horrible people attacking an indigenous person?
Depends on whether she is Caledonian/Pictish or Scottish. The Caledonians/Picts were the indigenous (as far as we know) people conquered by the invading Scots from Ireland.
What the Hell would an Asian American know about Scotland anyway? This is racism, pure and simple: “Smash oppressor whitey!” I wonder if they have friends or family in the yarn business who would benefit from their racism and hatred….
Seriously, is this whole yarn ‘yarn’ one big joke? Has political discourse in our society’s advanced age come to this? Do real people actually think like this and interact with one another like this? In an earlier day (not that freaking long ago) this wild fantasy would have been the stuff of musical comedy or mordant television satire. But here it is today organizing very dangerous thinking in our most trusted institutions and actually devouring very innocent people in its politically fanged maw. Is it so ridiculous and far fetched that it will burn itself out for lack of intelligent fuel or will it suck in ever more of the susceptible – those it claims to offer ‘safe space’ and inclusion? It is hard to believe that such weak thinking could actually pose a threat or even form a flabby movement, but our media and universities seem to have taken to it as though it is the settled future. I have a hard time doing it, but I guess I will have to take it seriously, which makes me question my own sanity.
The solution is to not pay attention to anti-social media. If you play in that game of ignorant hate-mongering in the name of niceness, they play and don’t worry. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
“Fiber community” says it all. If you allow a fill-in-the-blank “community” of strangers to make you cower and quiver before them, you deserve what you get.
I totally agree. I totally ignore the many baizou active in England and all over the West. They are useless human beings.
Thanks for that word. New to me.
Laine is a Finnish magazine.
If Finns were dark, the history of Finland and the entire Baltic region would be held up as yet another example of white colonial oppression, including slavery and genocide. Alas, Finns are pale, and so are lumped in as sharing the sins of King Leopold of Belgium, the Spanish conquistadors, and the Dutch East India Company executives. It’s infuriating.
Don’t you know all whites are the same?
I would have loved to have seen more indigenous Finnish designs in Laine. Instead we end up with more homogenized globalist claptrap.
Woke foke or wolk folk are making me so tired😴😴😴
Has anyone noticed how often this seems to be perpetrated by women (or girly-men) often against other women? It is very much like the much discussed girl version of bullying that is amplified by social media – mobs that seek to accuse, exclude, kill reputations. It’s the cyberbullying of the schoolyard writ large.
Lots of good people get destroyed by the social justice twitter mob. We should start a rumor that the twitter mob is actually astro turfed by conservatives. The movement would eat itself.
I took a while to ruminate over this one- because to made me spitting mad.
I think the observation that one should never apologise to these people is essentially correct, but would also like to suggest that the best way to beat them, is to spend them out of the marketplace.
They do, after all have massive student debt to pay off and have little money to spend on consumer goods. If someone kept a website of everyone who was denounced, and older, wiser people bought from this website every time they saw something that they were even remotely interested in, then the activist types would quickly rush off to a safe space and curl up into fetal balls as they saw their denouncements backfire spectacularly as sales to the denounced soared.
People might actually be willing to pay to be denounced, although it might make for some unconventional gifts at Christmas for friends and family.
How did knitting and yarn get involved with politics and race? The whole thing seems bizarre. I am interested in sewing and fabric rather than knitting and yarn. As far as I know sewing and fabric is so far apolitical and hopefully it stays that way.
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I have been thinking about this some more, and believe that the denouncers are engaged in the theft of reputation in return for a temporary boost to their status.
It’s not reputation theft per se, because a reputation earned pays a dividend in the form of admiration, trust and the desire of others to engage in voluntary associations of one kind or another. But the denouncer only achieves their status by tearing down the reputation of others and does so only temporarily- like the schoolyard bully who puffs themself up by making others feel small- only to be confronted by the empty hole within themselves.
Plus, as recent articles in Quillette have shown, when the only people whose esteem you earn from this kind of process seem to be the type that engage in circular firing squads or boards of excommunication, you have to wonder is it really worth it?
“As a white woman knitwear designer with over 75K followers and international renown, Kate Davies was NOT vulnerable. Rather, she was in a position of power.”
I’m so sick of these oppressive white woman knitwear designers ruling the world with their iron fists! How I long for the golden years when we were subjected to the rule of Big Oil and drug cartels. Simpler times…
I, for one, welcome our new macrame overlords.
FWIW, this knitter is making lists and taking names. If you’re participating in online bullying, doxxing, whatever, you do not get my business. If you’ve been a victim of these modern day Maoists, I’m giving you a second look when making purchasing decisions. My money has more power than these crybullies’ rants if I use it to support the livelihood of these small business people. Knitters of the World- unite to defeat this insanity!
Hmm. Forgive me for being cynical, but this strikes me as an interesting way to rid yourself of competition in your chosen business arena. Just cry ‘racism’ (a nebulous term that long since shrank into obsolescence and meaningless through overuse), start a frenzied, ‘high-minded’ online stamp-out campaign, and voila! Your rival’s career is destroyed.
Being Scottish, the experience Kate Davies had sounds like nothing so much as simple racism from an Asian person towards a white person, to be honest. Attacking a disabled woman (utterly vile – having worked with the disabled as a carer, I have a zero tolerance threshold for messing with them) for failure to sing from some American-minted extremist political songbook, beyond vile. My commiserations to Ms. Davies, and I hope she manages to maintain her business for quite some time, away from deranged American swill and the machinations of the hateful, blinded, supposedly-educated mindless.
As for Robin DiAngelo and her self-loathing White Fragility snake oil swill, well, I don’t agree with book burning, but in the case of that one worthless, damaging, braindead, racist tome (worshipped by self-loathing, self-flagellating white middle class Americans) I would quite happily make an exception. And roast marshmallows off the horseshit conflagration too.
Graham I am American and that’s something I’ve been ruminating on lately. All this garbage seems to originate in the USA, which in my opinion is a fucked-up non-nation that should be regarded by real nations as having worn out its welcome. It’s sad to see this affect Scots of all people. I guess the common language of the Anglosphere makes it easy for the disease to spread.
But yes, all this crap is as American as apple pie, and it mostly seems to originate in the USA’s hereditary upper-middle class, which over the past couple decades has solidified into a kind of neo-aristocracy.
Here’s a link to Kate Davies’ site, should you choose to shop from a disabled woman who was the target of racist online bullying from America for absolutely no reason whatsoever. And no, I do not know the woman, have never heard of her until right now. But I find this story of PC-justified cruelty to a disabled woman so utterly disgusting it has made my blood boil. Please support her.
https://kddandco.com/category/scotland/
It’s well seen that this is the only place you can get a gig. I am thankful that a real publication won’t employ you and only these idiots get to read your ridiculous views.
@Katie
Why are white women who knit among the most vicious and dishonest political activists at work in the West today?
Serious question. Even Vegans – most of them – aren’t this horrible. (Some knit, of course.)
They are all Madame Defarge at heart, obviously.
Morgan, the vicious, deranged woman attacking the disabled woman in this disgusting story wasn’t white. She was Asian.
I actually write for two other publications as well. But writing is not a full time job for me, which might be a lucky thing for you and your ilk.
What’s a real publication? CNN?
Could you specifically write what views the reporter wrote that were ridiculous? Yours is an ad hominem argument at this time, unless you provide specifics.
Why would you say that Quillette isn’t a real publication, in attacking Ms. Moore? That makes no sense.
I have looked at the Instagram accounts of the SJWs mentioned in the article. Interestingly, they are saying that there are death threats and threats of violence in these comments and that such threats are supported by the author of the article. I have reread comments and can see no such thing. Blatant lies to incite the SJW mob.
I noticed that as well! They’re also refusing to send people the article and are insisted that people not ‘ask questions.’ Several have made their accounts private and are telling people they’re worried for their family. As an American who believes heavily in free speech, it’s quite bizarre to see others insist that words can be equated with violence. And, of course, anyone who responds telling them this is instantly doxed and set up to be publicly crucified.
Seems another case of people complaining about this or that social venue being sabotaged by racial identity politics, when they’ve been willing to join in the game themselves by accepting a “racial identity” imposed on them by the racial ID people.
As I’ve said elsewhere on this site, I don’t identify myself by race as it means nothing to me on a personal level. Therefore I have no reason to participate in racial identity conflicts.
If others identify me by race and attach importance to that, I’m not obliged to join in their game. If the issue is pressed, simply state: “I don’t identify by race”, and ignore any further attempts at conflict.
@ C. You have it right and I am joining you…
I identify as a member of the human race.
@ c. You have it right so count me in…
Kate Davies should have taken a lesson from her compatriot and noted yarn spinner, Billy Connolly, and told them to fuck off.
Mobbing by various internet facilities could easily be stopped if the anonymity was removed. What many people like about Facebook, Instagram, Tweeting and so on give the kibitzers the opportunity to anonymously respond, or mob someone or something. Make identities all public and problem solved.
Many of them do use their real names and it doesn’t stop them. It’s the feeling of being in a mob, not the anonymity, that fuels them.
Did anyone else reading this have to keep reminding themselves that it’s not a parody? Knitters engaging in Maoist struggle sessions about their insufficient commitment to the Cause. World’s gone mad. People need stop caving in the face of these pathetic attacks. “Here’s some stuff I knitted. Buy it if you like. And let’s talk about knitting. That’s fun. But if you are going to demand to know anything else about my opinions or my life outside of knitting, please f$+*# off.”
Hellen Kim is a slanderous bullying racist and an intellectual coward, plain and simple. She is ignorant of history and the horrors produced by the Marxist philosophy she embraces.
All her targets should simply ignore and block her and her gang of online thugs.
If any local journalists publish Ms. Kim’s slanders, her target should engage the nastiest Lawyer you can find and sue the living crap out of them.
Never ever reply to them they will simply twist your words against you! Ms. Kim is simply ideologically possessed and can never be reasoned with.
Finally if be assured that if the likes of her ever take over the secret police will arrest her too one day for not being brown enough, Woke enough, or intersectional enough and she will be carried off kicking and screaming to the gulag by this same insanity.
Bob Benson
When a person derives their income and status from being offended, then you can be damned sure that they’ll find offence in anything. Do not engage with these people. Make no conciliatory statements…no explanations, no apologies. You haven’t done anything wrong. They will die by the same sword they wield so ignorantly. Just do your job and do it well.
Who knew there are racists who knit? I bet if you look really hard you will find racists even among the tailors and the quilters. We may have to go without blankets and sweaters and scarfs next winter.
World gone mad – Part 357
Sorry for being dense, but the article presumed some foreknowledge. Exactly what is the crime or crimes being committed by what I presume are ‘white’ knitters? I mean I can’t think of anything less political and benign than knitting, what am I missing?
There isn’t any crime, that is the whole point. Non-white people such as Kim are attacking white people such as Davies for being white. It may be hard to believe but that is literally what is going on.
At the university that I work, knitting is being promoted, along with mindfulness/meditation, as an activity that promotes mental health: We’ve seen a big increase in self-reported mental health issues amongst the student population. Assuming that some of these students have indeed taken up knitting, and reflecting on what the opposite of “mental health” is called, I think we may have here the root cause of the trouble in the knitting community. The mindfulness community is no doubt next…
Zero sympathy, many of these women are “soft Progressives” – the commentary by Davies is a perfect example. She goes along with the entire “anti-racist” agenda (what, is it 1936 Alabama, where Dems are still lynching blacks in her town?) but won’t speak publicly about it.
Many people like to be Progressive in a personal, internal, emotional and intellectual sense. But when it comes to actually being accountable for those ideals? Nope, in reality they live mostly like conservatives with respect to their behavior.
Davies agrees with these maniacs in principle. She and all the rest deserve everything they get.
People should not be bullied on a social media platform because they refuse to stick to the ‘script’ assigned to them by others. If people wanted to speak out about racism, great! If they chose not to utilize Instagram to do so, they should be respected for doing so.
NO! NO! NO! NO! You cannot kowtow to this sort of thing. Firstly, I do not – and have never – had accounts on Instagram, Twitter, or any of the others, and after a high school acquaintance located and propositioned me after I’d been on Facebook less than 24 hours, I deleted THAT account as well.
Now I am free to troll the SJWs at will. I active search for them. When they call me racist, misogynist, white-privileged, ableist, cultural appropriator, and anti-watermelon, I double and triple and quadruple down. I tease and poke fun at their SJW silliness. I can make them lose their minds. My goal is to induce as much coronary artery disease in these people as possible, and I am VERY good at it.
Join me in attacking this mob – as my old Daddy said, go after them like a duck after a June bug. What are they, in the final analysis, going to really do to you – spank you? LOL. They are cowards, and the last thing good people want to do is to try to explain or justify themselves to them. Let’s have some fun!
You miss the obvious Jim – you may not have these accounts but businesses, particularly small single-person online sellers, absolutely must. It is the only affordable means of bringing artisan small-scale product to market. This is the world such folk must inhabit – that it is becoming an unsafe one is a disaster for some and probably only able to be made remedied by legislative intervention.
@Jim
@George Hendricksen put it well, and I’m just here to underline his point. Being on social media is NOT A CHOICE today for a very broad swath of working people worldwide. And artists and craftspeople MUST be online.
The people who need to morally refocus are not Kate Davies or Maria Tusken but obsessives like Helen Kim whose insistance on seeing everything – past, present and future – through a prism of white racism is a clear a psychological crutch that is probably evidence of some form of displacement. There is something badly wrong with the mental health of people like Kim who need to demand the total adherence of everyone else to their personal worldview that flirts, in her case, with racial pornography. There’s something neurotically patronising about Whites caring so single-mindedly about their perception of the problems of coloured people than many coloured people do themselves. After reading Moore’s first article, I looked at a couple of Tusken’s Youtube videos including the one in which she recounted how shaken she was by her denunciation on social media. She’s very obviously the opposite of the Twitter-active SJW’s idea of a racist monster; in fact, Tusken comes across as a gentle, caring sort of person who is probably 100 times better balanced, nicer and more compassionate than Helen Kim and her allies. Whatever the real motives driving the obsessive-compulsive frenzies of the Helen Kims out there, it seems that what they all have in common is that they are nuts so devoid of self-awareness that they are unable to recognise their lack of any sense of proportion.
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Helen Kim all all others quoted here have nothing to reproach themselves. What I see here i a dangerous alt-right shit parade. You’re fooling yourselves into believe that you are good people. Calling out people for their problematic behavior is not fucking bullying, why can’t you all get that?
@genevieve
Explain how not responding to something — which is what kicked off Helen Kim’s struggle session — is “problematic behavior” (without using buzzwords like “white silence”).
Explain why I would waste my energy on lost cause of brainwashed alt-right too chicken shit to say his-her first name.
@Genvieve: How is not responding to something problematic behaviour? A good ironic question since you are not responding to Leftist’s query. Maybe Kate Davies also just figured it would be a waste of energy. Fair enough.
So not responding is a thought crime when Davies does it but perfectly fine when you do it. Plus a generous serving of gratuitous abuse when politely asked to support your claim. Standard SJW tripe. Must try harder.
What problematic behaviour was that exactly?
Since you’re posting here, I will try to explain reality to you
1. Blaming ALL white people in something that happened centuries ago and making them pay you is not going to cure whatever issues one has. It’s unfair to these people to pay and apologize for something they haven’t done wrong.
2. When said white people point that out to you, it’s not problematic behaviour, it’s reality.
3. SJW ask for money through their ko-fi. Their entitlement is over the top. If you don’t see it, then look harder
4. Lastly, SJW made several designers leave IG, actively abusing and denouncing their businesses. Tusken has been called nazi and white supremasist, which is pure libel and is asking for defamation law suit. Her behaviour was not problematic, she has done NOTHING wrong. Yet he mental well being an business suffered.
I feel sorry and fear for all of you, SJW who bought into this ideology. Many of you self admittedly have mental issues. Being active on IG and pointing fingers and bullying is not going to solve your mental issues. Look within yourself to solve them. Payment to ko-fi won’t help either as none of these SJW have balance and inner peace(but I guess it’s all white peoples fault right?)
The only problematic behaviour is yours. I haven’t seen a single racist comment from so called “alt right”. The only abuse, bullying and name calling and racism(yes racism against whites) came from SJW group. These asian SJW as well as su.krita is racists AF. Ever since this started, there is more division not less. I used to not care who to patronize. Now I do. And I will not patronize SJW owned businesses. Don’t think for a second, Geneviève, that your despicable behaviour has no consequences. It does.
Lulz.
Then allow me to call you and yours out for your problematic behavior. You willfully misinterpret content in order to justify the “call outs” that deliberately cause harm to others. That’s “fucking” bullying and it’s not OK. Have you no decency, no empathy either? Clearly your maligned virtue signaling— which helps no one — means more to your ego than common decency. I hope it happens to you!
This all makes me sick, and convinces me further that a massive shakeup of acadmia is necessary. But most importantly, people who are victimized need to stop accepting the premises of their attackers. Most of them seem already committed to the ideology even before they are mobbed, but even they can stand up and say that their attackers have gone off the deep end. I know it is difficult to stand up against the mob, but from the sound of things, it can’t get much worse for them.
Good point about not accepting their premises. We must get that lesson out there. Do not fall for their cloak of virtue.
so now they are claiming death threats via the comments section in this article, while carefully advising their sheep not to read the article. I hope that the outraged sheep DO look up this article and use intelligence to see how it really is. Instagram has become a niche bubble for these SJW, I have zero sympathy for these women, my sympathy lies with KDD, Tusken Knits (who has written a very wry blog about this in the last few days) PapercutPatterns, MadTosh etc etc and all the other businesses who have had to endure the public naming and shaming over the last few months.
sheep have little intelligence. The lies are just outrageous. And yes IG is an anger niche bubble. I met several of these SJWs in person awhile back and they seemed normal to me….I guess I was wrong. Many designers chose to leave IG in the last few months and combined with the IG recent changes, the knitting IG is sure not as lively as before. Oh well….we knitted before it and will knit after.
No surprise that they’re going after a small company like Papercut rather than one of the big 4. I’d love to see McCall’s lawyers eat these scumbags for lunch.
Blimey, the Tuskegee Knits stuff is bad. Calling her a Nazi because she said she was going to have a glass of Guinness? I think the suggestions of mental illness are correct. Which makes the slavish agreement of the would-be-woke even more unconscionable.
Tusken knits. Blimmin’ autocorrect.
How many white or white-ish people (come on- Arabs, Turks and Berbers are as white as anyone) think to themselves , “Privelege? Where do I get mine? I could sure use some of that privelege about now.”
This article illustrates quite nicely just what kind of sensitivity status competition is going on here with the whole call-out culture, given how inane all of their complaints are.
This: “And yet, this intolerable situation persists because everyone involved is silently complicit in the pretence that this is noble behaviour motivated by loving concern and righteous anger.”
It does feel like the tide is ever so slowly turning, though re speaking up. I have a feeling it will be a tsunami when it does.
If I was the CIA and other groups with a vested interest in chaos, I’d have thousands of operatives stirring up dissent online by creating false profiles like that woman. Such an effective divide-and-conquer tactic at the very time in our societies we need to be joining together in creating renewal
This miscreant group of SJWs are the same ones who launched an unbridled, vicious attack on Knitters Pride after one of their snivelers attempted to hijack a thread where a contest was being held and her comment was deleted. For those who aren’t aware, Knitters Pride is based in Jaipur, India and employs the very people these SJW say they want to elevate and protect. Over 700 BIPOC are employed at Knitters Pride. This company donates proceeds from each sale to provide education through APNA schools, also in India, where over 900 underprivileged BIPOC children have received an education and a chance at escaping poverty and the ravages of sex trafficking. This is not about helping BIPOC and it never was. The Knitters Pride debacle proved that loud and clear. This is about 1) getting attention, 2) getting donations on Ko-Fi, and 3) arming themselves with aimless sycophants who have nothing else going on in their lives.
That was pure circus and their apologies were golden after they realized that KP is in fact Indian based and owned. Pass on the popcorn!
I don’t agree with this author’s views. In my opinion, there is a vital and vibrant convo happening in the IG knitting community. It is not a witch hunt. Representation matters. Kindness matters. Racism is real and is both blatant and subtle. BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) are underrepresented and undervalued. BIPOC reactions range from whispers to screams, from animation to anger. They’re hurting. They’re speaking up. They’re calling out. I can only try to imagine how I would feel if a yarn shop employee or owner followed me around thinking that I might steal from them or said demeaning things like “I didn’t know you people knit!”.
India is not Mars. Black people do knit. Imagine being confronted by this type of attitude Every.Single.Day. It must get tiring, it must be exhausting to have to constantly affirm yourself.
Diversity and inclusivity matters. Careless words and shrugging dismissiveness only serve to be insidious and demoralizing. Silent inaction is passively inadequate. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Actually walk with them. Even talk with them. Go read their stories.
These are all my opinions expressed with candor and heartfelt earnestness.
They’re not your opinions. I’ve seen every one of your statements many times in SJW sites, not just in this particular confrontation You’re a parrot. Good parrot, here’s your cracker.
@Photondancer
You’ve seen this particular commenter/troll elsewhere? Please cite! Where? Very curious. Fascinated by this comment.
‘Shari’ is the perfect (and necessary) flip side of the hate-baiting, angry, violent ‘Genevieve’ and ‘Katie’ types who show up in earlier comments. ‘Shari’ is a faux-gentle foil and an essential part of the fascist life-cycle.
The ‘Sharis’ are the lap dogs and the ones who – compelled by their need for approval and to have ideologically ‘clean’ surroundings – turn their neighbours in to the Gestapo or Red Guard.The ‘Genevieves’ and ‘Katies’ are the sadists who then delight in the Maoist re-education sessions, Nazi torture, and ruin of others.
Knitters, with their murderous needles and binding yarn, are the MOST perfect metaphor for SJW culture. You can’t make these things up. Life indeed imitates art (and craft).
HI Sydney
I meant that I’ve seen every statement Shari made elsewhere, especially all that purple prose about ‘screams’ and ‘hurting’. I’m pretty sure Shari took that first paragraph almost word for word from someone else, it sounds very familiar.
Agree with you that the faux-concern doesn’t conceal the underlying corruption.
Is everyone here mental? I got to, but did not read that long paragraph by the aptly named Tosh – (madelinetosh) – about 300 comments above. Proust would weep reading a paragraph as long as that.
I’ve never been on Instagram, much less having any interest in knitting, but look forward when I retire (in July or August) to becoming a troll on knitting websites such as that.
…for starters, madelinetosh – what’s MLK got to do with Multiple Sclerosis? Lou Gehrig had his name written all over his eponymous affliction, but MLK never did.
Shari: you’re a sad (by which I mean perfect) exemplar of what it means to be progressive. You people believe in homogenization, not diversity, meaning ways of living other than your own. You and your kind don’t accept differences of opinion, just differences in skin colour, which is pretty superficial.
Signed, Troll.
Let me pick out some of the precious words in Shari’s last comment that tug at the strings of my stone cold heart: “…witch hunt …racism…BIPOC…whispers…screams…anger…hurting…demeaning…tiring…exhausting…diversity…inclusivity…careless…dismissiveness…insidious…demoralizing…inadequate…walk a mile… and (my favourite) India is not Mars…”
“These are all my opinions expressed with candor and heartfelt earnestness.”
Lord Have Mercy.
@johnhenry
Agree! That ‘Shari’ comment is award-winning SJW work. Absolutely riveting. If a developer is going to do Machine Learning algorithm on SJWs, that particular comment is linguistic gold. I can’t get over it.
Ladies and gentlemen
Welcome to feminine politics. Bunch of juvenile minded fools playing the mean girls hierarchy for status.
If you think real politics with quotas will end up any different – think again.
I am a long time student of the Reformation, so it was an unavoidable that I would run into the phenomenon of witchcraft and heresy trials and executions that blighted that period from 1550-1700.
War, uncertainty and and tumultuous change caused by the break up the Medieval world leading to brutally bitter warfare and repression as new religious and secular forces competed for power and the right to dominate the collective vision and redefine the future.
All the normal practical defences against both ruthless and hysterical outbursts of sub-conscious forces gave way to any opportunist with a good line and a forceful personality, as everyone around them was scrambling for footholds in a landscape that was shifting. And like all disturbed times where power, authority and legitimacy were up for grabs, it had a way of bringing out the best and worst….and witch hunting, along with the heresy sniffers, had a field day, along with their more positive and uplifting reforming and counter reforming evangelical counterparts.
There is a similar smell about this now as the humanist ascendancy starts to feel its own vulnerability, as its long and once dominant liberal tradition starts to unravel under a welter of its own postmodernist corruption; the eviscerating wear and tear of becoming a regime social administrative agency for deregulatory and privatizing Indulgence Capitalism; the signs of internal rebellion against its moral authority; its struggle to keep up with the increasingly totalitarian powerspeak of the corporate sector and global attack from new religious and secular forces that no longer accept its secular and laissez-faire nostrums…..inside a liberal democratic post WW2 world order that is starting to disintegrate.
Once they could win debates on the seeming virtues of their ideas, but that is no longer enough and the enforcement of conformity becomes politically necessary. And the thing is, this happens at both a grand and petty level. The wool handicraft trade for Chrissake! Who would have thought?
But that is the thing. Everyone becomes vulnerable to coming under inspection from the self appointed thought police, no matter how innocuous they are, because it is what they do not say as much as they do or are constructed to do that now matters. We all become bunnies to be driven down a wired in hunting run for the sport of who is the best ideological shot and can get the biggest bag for the day…. Ordinary people put on ideological uniforms to root out threatening heterodoxy and non conformity.
Insignificant mice suddenly acquire enormous power to wreck the lives of others. It was the same instinct that currently drives modern Germans to benignly report litterers to the municipal authorities, but which a couple of generations ago, moved them to report people hiding Jews in their homes, to the Gestapo.
And all this means war, as it did during the Reformation, of the nastiest, bitterest and most sectarian kind, where competing forces all assume that they represent the modern equivalent of the will of God and his/her/its one true faith….
Nothing much has changed Im afraid.
.
Perhaps it’s worth pointing out that heretics are always far more threatening to an established church than infidels, for the infidel might be converted but heretics can’t, as they already understand the orthodox faith and have rejected it.
And, yes, the Thirty Years War was arguably the most destructive war ever fought in Europe, at least prior to WWI. Yet it was not until after it had laid waste to much of central Europe that a negotiated peace became possible.
@Christopher Eastman-Nagle
“The wool handicraft trade for Chrissake! Who would have thought?”
I note in an earlier comment that fascist knitters are the PERFECT metaphor with their killer needles and strangulating yarns. Or, entwining their victims in organic, hand-spun, hand-dyed artisan yarn…just as the spider kills its prey. Life imitating art, craft, AND nature.
Good comment re Reformation. Thanks for that.
“White silence” is a subset of “no innocent bystanders.”
And because there are (it is said) no innocent bystanders therefore if you’re not with us you must be against us (aka “the enemy.”).
If there are no innocent bystanders you must be on one side or the other. Therefore, if you don’t agree to be conscripted into our army, we will make war against you.
At least, that would be my interpretation of “white silence”: it’s a demand for conscription: you will fight for us, or we will destroy you.
It is astounding that so few are willing to speak out against this obvious and extreme form of bullying. Only governments have the power to conscript (and even their right to do that is questionable). Who appointed you Generalissimo-El Gran Caudillo, with the authority to conscript me into your holy-justice war?
As they say, “you have the right to remain silent.” And if challenged you probably should do just that, as “anything you say can (and probably will) be used against you.”
If you question the SJW orthodoxy they will ask you what you have against social justice, conveniently ignoring that there are plenty of people out there who support the social justice part but don’t support the war.
Absurdity run rampant.
Me and the boys here in Chicago like the way youse guys think. I like the way the one broad threatened the owner and then said” Ya know,l my girlfriend here could maybe use a job working for youse”. And I like the way that Sophie chick said take all the time ya need, but maybe you wanna pay some consulting fees? Be a shame if anything happened to that nice little business of yours. There seems to be a lot of lightning around here from what I hear- ya know what I mean? .
Last week Sky Gilbert, now this. Another Quillette article where a former Party member in good standing is denounced by a few nut bars, then subjected to generalized public hate from the woke community, and thinks it’s all so unfair. This is turning into a genre. Of course it is unfair, but the targets of abuse should remember a couple things. First – demonstrable fact – they’re being vilified by idiots. Second – my assertion only – the vast majority of the planet simply doesn’t care about this internecine imbecility. In the case of knitting, I point to Madame Pman as an example of someone who knits with the enthusiasm of a Defarge yet is completely uninterested in this SJW insanity. I suspect Madame is among knitting’s silent majority.
(1) People learned to knit in COLD, NORTHERN countries because it’s COLD. They had sheep. They used the wool to make clothes. Who lived in the Great White North before the mass migrations of the 21st century? White people. Almost exclusively. Like, DUH. And this is a “problem,” WHY? Knitting became a native part of Northern European, Caucasian, cultures as a practical necessity. Today it’s relegated to a hobby practiced by a nano-minority. Most people buy their clothes ready-made.
(2) People who lived nearer the equator in tropical deserts had no need for thick, fuzzy clothes. Goats do better there than sheep. Therefore knitting is not part of their cultural tradition, as they had no reason to ever take it up. What, exactly, is the “problem” here SJW’s? That Eskimos don’t take up surfing? That Okinawans aren’t equally represented skiing in the Alps? That the Chinese don’t specialize in cheese-making? That South Africans aren’t wearing enough Canada Goose?
You’re welcome.
Jesus. This is enough to make me want to take up knitting JUST so I can patronize the businesses of Karen Templer, Kate Davies and Amy Hendrix.
For what it’s worth I’m a lifelong anti-racist liberal Democrat. And I feel like I have to say that, because I also have to say that this is just appalling.
What comes through most clearly with this mob of trolls is a strong sense of people with serious emotional problems, coded (in this instance) in terms of racial identity politics and an indelible feeling of victimhood, that they are venting, and encouraging others to vent, in a completely unfiltered way. To which the only possible response seems to be a sort of unconditional surrender: The target must repeatedly (almost ritualistically) admit wrongdoing and apologize and then shut up and go away. Period.
An exchange in which one party is, in effect, forced to recite a false, self-shaming confession, before sinking into silent oblivion, is not a “vibrant convo” (as someone above hilariously suggested). It’s more like a Stalinist purge.
@Elizabeth
Indeed! Woke knitter leaders need to name and introduce some new yarn colours, colourways, and accessories for their followers:
Stalinist Purge (red)
Maoist Reeducation (red)
Vibrant Convo (black)
Burqa Rights (variegated black-grey)
Ideologically Pure (white)
White Privilege Destroyed (grey)
Colonial Imperialist Jew (blue-white)
Free Palestine (green, for the billions in its leaders’ offshore accounts)
Hurt Feelings (pink)
Confess Your Wrongthink (indigo)
White Woman’s Tears (teal)
Nonbinary Pronouns (rainbow)
Diversity and Inclusivity (orange)
Stop Hate Speech (yellow, ie yellow journalism)
Accessories:
Dye Alt-Right (new brand of dye)
Social Media Safety Pins
No More Borders (knitting border kit for projects requiring borders)
So many more new products to dream up!
I like the way you think 🙂 except that ‘variegated’ sounds far too racy for a burqa. Solid colors only for the respectable muslima
“Vibrant convo” needs to become a meme.
Just tell the screaming cunts to go fuck themselves.
Never cave in before libs.
Quillette is a safe space for Nazi trash.
Claire Lehmann looks like the Platonic Idea of “I’m totally-not-a-Nazi-I-just-love-white-ppl”
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I’ve said all along, this whole thing has NEVER been about Racism it’s always been about POWER.
I dropped instagram and all Ravelry groups (never had Facebook) over this crap. Who needs that drama?
My pity is for the small business’ who rely IG for sales – hang in there they’ll certainly implode one day.
I’m just catching up on this… I was wondering why so many people I follow had simply vanished from social media overnight. There are a few more knitting designers who have silently removed themselves from IG where they had over hundreds of thousands of followers over this whole thing.
I remember waking up one day and finding my IG feed filled with apologies and statements against racism, as I happened to be following mostly knitwear designers and yarn dyers at the time. As I was scrolling down my feed, I kept wondering why everyone was in such a hurry to make all these public statements. I got annoyed at some point and told a designer that it was really tedious at that point and that actions mattered more than words, so why don’t they all get the BIPoC community more involved and stop all this non sense which doesn’t mean anything. It’s easy to write statements and much harder to actually get on with doing it. The answer from the designer was that i was clearly white and privileged to write this… this designer is white and clearly felt the need to put me in my place to prove herself to the social justice crowd. Shame.
In all fairness Kate Davies has a history of deleting comments she doesn’t like and block people online just because they don’t provide an echo chamber for her opinions. I once expressed my feelings on a picture she shared and I got deleted and blocked 🙄 I do think a lot of you have hit the nail on the head here regarding mental health issues. A lot of knitters, me included, end up caught in their own heads and run with their thoughts a bit too much while knitting frantically. While you engage in such a repetitive and quiet activity, your thoughts come racing and it’s easy to just buy into it 🙂 I’d love to be free from IG but find it hard to let it go. I got rid of twitter and fb but I find myself feeling isolated if i get rid of them all… everyone seems to be online these days… so many people are all opinionated and full on personality on social media and riddled with anxiety and so dull when you meet them in person 🙁
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As a representative of one of the businesses mentioned in this piece (Kate Davies Designs) I am writing to state our opposition to the author’s position, and to the despicable sentiments and views that underly this piece. As a lifelong socialist, whose feminism has always had an intersectional dimension, as well as someone who stands in firm solidarity and allyship with BIPOC, fully supporting the long-overdue and necessary conversations about diversity that have been taking place in the knitting and craft industries, Kate is appalled to have been mentioned by this author, and on this platform. While Kate refused to endorse the tone of some of the necessary conversation as it took place on Instagram – purely because of the rather toxic combination of public shaming and self-interest that engagement on that platform seems to promote – she fully supports the right of those who attacked her to attack her in the context of the bigger picture of the much-needed and important debates about diversity and representation that were taking place. As you may know, Kate’s has recently spoken frankly about her mental health problems – these include depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, and suicidal ideation – probelms which have been in no small part exacerbated by recent unpleasant situations on social media. In that very difficult personal context, we are particularly appalled that the author of this piece (and Quilette’s editorial team) failed to show Kate the kindness and respect of contacting her before mentioning her here. And I restate that if our consent had been sought to be included in this piece, we would certainly not have given it – for the protection of Kate’s mental health, our own firmly held political views, and our commitment to promoting and taking forward diversity in our industry. We conclude by restating – in the strongest terms possible – our opposition to this article, its author, your platform, and everything you stand for.
RE: The ‘Tom Barr’ comment (my comment isn’t on the individual he represents),
“…Quilette’s editorial team…failed to show [her] the kindness…”
Whenever intersectional leftists meow about ‘kindness’ I always think of Jordan Peterson’s quote, “Kindness is the excuse that social justice warriors use when they want to exercise control over what other people think and say.”
“…by restating – in the strongest terms possible – our opposition to this article…author…platform, and everything you stand for.”
This is particularly chilling and horrible, because this platform is about FREE EXPRESSION and FREE SPEECH. Socialism and intersectionalism are ALL about totalitarian control. (I was a socialist…until I grew up.)
In this issue, it’s about totalitarianism wrapped in pretty, cozy, hand-dyed, locally sourced, organic, artisan wool sweaters. Yikes. Might as well freeze naked in the Soviet gulag!