The basis of Carl Benjamin’s popularity on YouTube has always been his racism, sexism, outright misogyny, homophobia, antisemitism, and just plain nastiness to his ‘enemies’ on the left. It’s not as if he has any intellectual, artistic, or even thoughtful contribution to make — he’s nothing but a fart from the middle-class id. He has recently tried to make something more of himself (not much more, though) by running for the European Parliament under the banner of UKIP. Maybe he thought that since one crass, anti-intellectual, outspoken white nationalist had succeeded in becoming president of the US, the door was open for other dumbass thugs to rush in, too.
He’s run into an obstacle, though. The media have been exposing his YouTube career to the light. Buzzfeed ran a rather revolting review of his greatest hits which reveals why he hates “trigger warnings” so much, since any Sargon of Akkad retrospective has to be preceded by explaining that you’re going to see a lot of unpleasant racist, sexist filth.
Here's the BuzzFeed News video showing UKIP's star candidate Carl Benjamin – known as Sargon of Akkad – repeatedly using racial slurs in YouTube videos: pic.twitter.com/2zGNhKp5qB
— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) April 25, 2019
Here’s a fine example of the Carl Benjamin style. He made a response video to another video that was protesting hate speech. This, of course, simply prompts him to vomit up hate speech all over the place.
Another male actor then says to the camera, “It’s not acceptable to call me a kike.” The video pauses and Benjamin says, “I totally agree, absolutely unacceptable, how dare you.”
Anti-Semitic images are then overlayed on the screen, showing several different versions of hook-nosed caricatures.
The video ends on Potter, who has Down syndrome, asking not to be called a “retard”. Alongside her, Lynch says the r-word is like any other minority slur.
“Well then good job trivialising minority slurs, you nigger, spic, fag, chink, kike, retard,” Benjamin said, again pausing the video. “Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you think you’re my mum or something?”
I’m hoping that Carl Benjamin has just hit a brick wall that will kill his political career dead, but I don’t know — Trump could say “grab ’em by the pussy” and he got elected. Abusing children with Down syndrome is just another step in conservative devolution.
By the way, the other guy UKIP recruited to represent them goes by the moniker “Count Dankula”, and his sole claim to fame is that he trained his dog to do Nazi salutes. That’s it. That is all he has accomplished. This is the intellectual heavy artillery of the party, I guess.
The BNP leader Nick Griffin has managed to become an MEP before so I wouldn’t underestimate the racism of the british public.
There will unfortunately still be a lot of people who will vote for UKIP because they haven’t yet realised that UKIP has gone from a single-issue party of fruitcakes, racists and loons to a single-issue party of racists and Islamophobes. The party has sunk so low that the fruitcakes and loons have jumped ship, most of them following Le Grand Fromage to his new Brexit Party, where they will feel at home once more. With luck the existence of the two parties will split the pro-Brexit vote and minimise the number of MEPs each party gets, but the EU elections use a weird alternative vote / party list system that makes it pretty hard to predict the results.
It also looks like the same thing may happen to the anti-Brexit vote, since the various anti-Brexit parties (Greens, Lib Dems, Scots Nats, TIG, etc) don’t seem able to form any sort of alliance capable of gathering enough MEPs to present a challenge to the two main parties of the Conservatives (leadership nominally Brexit, membership tending towards Hard Brexit) or Labour (leadership nominally Soft Brexit, membership tending towards No Brexit).
The election of MEPs won’t by itself change the mechanics in Westminster, but the EU election numbers will be seen as a proxy for public opinion regarding Brexit. It wouldn’t surprise me if everyone ended up claiming victory in some fashion, but not in any sense that would actually advance their cause or help resolve the problems within the country.
???
This is true.
There are so many white supremacists among the GOPers elected to the US congress, that it would be easier to list the ones that aren’t white racists.
It would be a short list.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon who prefers to be known as “Tommy Robinson” (don’t think he likes being seen as the middle class twat he is) is also standing for UKIP, in my region. They are bringing out nastyiest of the nasties, I hope it will backfire, but am not confident that it will. Along with the platform being MEPs will give them and the damage they will try to do, I hate the thought of them getting the comfortable MEP’s salary and worse being entitled to the very good pension for the rest of their miserable lives after they stand down whenever that happens.
This will be an interesting test for Sargs as going low has always been his easiest option. And he loves those easy options, People accuse him of being a disingenuous troll and he just has to lean in to get more subs and likes and whatever else. UKIP might be a party of similar people at heart but they are better at sounding palletable and presentable more often. Sounding like a goddam Normie in front of his fans is going to huuuurt, baaaad.
You know, I think you can distill the entirety of libertarian/”classical liberal”/shitlord ideology down to one childish, petulant cry:
“YOU AINT THE BOSS OF ME!!!”
At least in the first portion of the video, that smug expression constantly on his face is the sort of thing that makes me wonder why he isn’t being punched out at least once per hour. It just seems like it’d be irresistible to many people.
Two hours later, and nobody’s called out Jazzlet’s coarse sexism @ # 4?!?
Where is the real Pharyngula Horde®, and what have you done with them?
jazzlet@4,
According to the BBC, Yaxley-Lennon is standing as an independent. And please, don’t use gendered insults.
Pierce, by coarse sexism, do you mean the use of the word “twat”? That’s not sexist, most British people use it to describe fucking idiots; with no idea of its original meaning. A twat is a twat. Twat means twat. Next, you’ll say “pillock” is a sexist slur. And… it probably was, back in the 17th century, but it’s not now. A pillock is a pillock. A wazzoch is a wazzoch. Kenneth Branagh, for example, is wazzoch, but he’s neither a pillock nor a twat, but he maybe a prat.
And no, using antiquated sexual profanities is not a symptom of culturally embedded masculinity, the word is divorced of its previous meaning, and now just means twat. Carl of Swindon is a twat.
Shorter diskgrinder.
“No! The word means itself! I don’t have to pay attention to people who are sensitive to the gendered history! It’s history vanished because I said so! Stop criticizing me!”
Fuck off snowflake.
Not any more, I’d say. Farage was canny enough to keep the outright fascists at arm’s length. His current successor, Gerald Batten, has effectively embraced them – notably in sucking up to Yaxley-Lennon. Why the latter is standing as an independent (and hence, in opposition to both UKIP and Farage’s new outfit), I don’t know.
diskgrinder@10,
Crap.
diskgrinder #10
So no one in Britain uses the word “twat” to refer to female genitalia?
The only usage is as an insult for stupid behaviour?
@Pierce R. Butler
I take it your talking about the use of the word twat? It’s very commonly used this side of the Atlantic and I think that people don’t really think of its original definition anymore. Insults using the other sort of genitalia are just as common anyway dickhead, cock, prick, scrote, ballbag etc.
chigau@14,
In case that’s not a rhetorical question, the word certainly is used to refer to female genitalia in Britain.
kingoftown@15,
Yes, and their use is also discouraged here. Jesus wept, I’m so sick of having to deal with this stupid excuse for misogyny.
@kingoftown
Are you deliberately ignoring the people who are sensitive to the gendered definition? Do you just not care?
It’s interesting how the people unaffected by the gendered slurs are somehow the ones that get the attention in a sexist society. It’s the opposite sensitivity to the one required to dismantle sexism in language.
KG #16
It was sort of rhetorical.
It’s interesting to witness doublethink in action.
@KG
Sorry, but I can’t see how it is misogynistic. I can think of swear words referring to genitals (of both varieties), the anus and various sexual acts. I think considering only the ones referring to vaginas to be offensive would be misogynistic while considering all of them offensive makes me think you are either a time traveller from the Victorian era or work for the FCC.
@kingoftown
Holy shit. Exactly no one is defending the male anatomy related slurs. Are you capable of responding to what is actually in front of you?
@brony
If you consider referring to both types of genital bad how can you say the reason is misogyny rather than prudishness?
@kingoftown
People who experience the gendered use of the slur experience misogyny. Getting reduced to your vagina is a hateful and contemptuous act. That’s what the gendered use does.
The experience of the person not targeted by the slur is not what determines the appropriateness of the slur. You’ve got a great formula for just letting people keep using bigoted social dominance language.
You’re a real help.
/s
@ kingoftown, #21
You’ve got it backwards; no one here considers genitals bad. The problem is gendered insults, which insults based on genitals are.
Those who use a genital-based insult are the ones who are saying there is something bad about genitals, or else it wouldn’t be an insult. Calling someone a “twat” implies that “twats” are bad, icky things, and therefore to be associated with one is insulting.
It’s a specifically misogynist insult, both for the reason I just gave and for the reason Brony, Social Justice Cenobite gives at #22.
@kingoftown
In addition, when applied the way it was upthread it attaches a negative value to a vagina as something bad you can attach to someone. It’s bad with the male version too and the difference in implied meaning is significant with respect to sexism in general.
@brony
Yaxley Lennon is a twat, as are Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins. I could also call them all dickheads or arseholes. All three are very common insults and aren’t directed any more often at women than men.
It’s cooties rules in an adult context. The best insults are SPECIFICALLY* descriptive of behavior, manner of thought, or beliefs and leave the body out entirely.
*Incompetent, ignorant… ablist ones are used by people incapable of articulating what they don’t like about someone, they’re incompetent and when confronted can’t tie diagnostic criteria to specific behavior.
@kingoftown
So you’re not going to give a shit about the people who experience the insults as gendered. You are going to continue to insist that the people who have been affected by the gendered use don’t matter because of people who haven’t had that experience.
At minimum it appears you will continue to avoid them and their experience.
At least you’ve implicitly given permission for people to ignore your sensitivities in places with moral symmetry to this.
Sure, I can see how it implies genitals are icky and it is a problem if it is used as a slur against a specific group in the way that say a homophobic or racial slur is. In my experience though “twat” is used equally to refer to people of both genders. It’s kind of like how the word fuck is still commonly used to mean “sex” but people don’t think of it with that meaning most of the times they use it.
@kingoftown
Did your experience magically make the experience of others vanish? Did they magically lose the gendered experience? It’s fascinating the way you keep avoiding the people with the relevant gendered experience.
Is it fear?
And fuck has inappropriate uses, “fuck you” being rapey.
@kingoftown:
Setting aside your “both genders” bullshit… Yes. It is an insult used to devalue men and to devalue women.
Men being called twat are made less than by being associated with femininity and the female body.
Women being called twat are made less than by being associated with … femininity and the female body.
s/ That definitely seems fair and without any implications for gender justice. Absolutely. /s
So is calling someone genitalia (of whatever variety) worse than calling them, say, shit or an arsehole? I don’t think anyone was trying to call Yaxley Lennon effeminate, would calling him a dickhead be associating him with masculinity and the male body?
If it is fear, then “cowardice” becomes a relevant insulting characterization. Our insults could be so much more useful if society got some fucking perspective and thought about it more deeply. But no, most just want be lazy and do what they’ve been doing without introspection despite the underlying reality.
Lazy fucks.
@kingoftown
Insults involving the penis usually convey aggression (“being a dick” or “dickhead”), or implicitly support homophobia (“suck my dick”, as if that were a bad thing).
You’re still avoiding the reality of people that experience the gendered uses. You haven’t even tried engaging with it. Coward.
The experience of people who haven’t experienced the gendered use of these slurs is irrelevant to the feelings of those who have. Their experience does not make the gendered experience go away. It provides nothing but attempts to refocus attention.
As the person who initially used “twat” I honestly thought it meant “A person regarded as stupid or obnoxious.” OED definition 1, rather than “A woman’s genitals.” OED def 2, which I can’t say I’ve heard before. You live and learn, sorry for any offence caused.
@kingoftown
I think the problem is that you are thinking about how those insult make sense to YOU.
In fact, I agree with you, I do not understand why people complain about, for example “cu*t”.
You opinion, or mine, is legitimate, but in this case is not really important.
What is important is how the slur is experienced by the victim.
You have to stop thinking about yourself, change perspective, and try to understand it from the point of someone who has had a very different life experience than yours.
If you have spent your life being devalued for being female, receiving (or witnessing) the use of a female-related insult builds on top of a long experience that neither you or I have.
So if they tell you that it hurts them, just trust them.
So I get called a snowflake by a twat. Twat is not a gendered insult in the UK. That you are offended by it because of its associations for you is your issue and you are welcome to call me out for it. Also, fuck you. All swearing is about shitting and fucking, a fact you learn after you have learnt the swear words. Your problem seems to be that you don’t like the nouns, but you’re ok with verbs. Exactly how is “fuck” any less offensive than “twat”? Pillock. Twit. Mendicant. They are all offensive because that’s the point.
And yes, I am sensitive to the use of the c-word, because that is very definitely gendered (although, ask an Australian, they may differ)
I don’t accept that twat is gendered. I do accept that UKIP is a bunch of twats, though.
Now fuck off, I’m having my tea and crumpets.
Awwwwww…. diskgrinder is a cute little coward too. No engagement with people who have experienced the gendered version, they’re reality Trumps everything.
The nouns and verbs are different, have different uses, and thus the problems be different. Actions and parts are different so it’s possible to have different opinions about them.
Lazy fuck.
Make that “…their reality…” in my last comment. “Trump’s” was deliberate.
Ok, brony. I’ll say this to you directly. You are wrong. Twat is not gendered in the UK. Is that ok for you?
Brony. You are not from the UK, clearly. You are clutching your pearls in the wrong direction.
Now where did I mention “the UK” as a block determining the feeling of an insult to a person who experienced it as gendered? That’s right, I didn’t. The experience of people who haven’t experienced a gendered insult is irrelevant to people who have.
I also don’t accept that anyone in America knows how to pronounce twat. It rhymes with hat, not hot. So maybe you should wind your neck in, brony, before applying your cultural norms to a country and culture you know nothing about. Am I engaging with you now?
@F.D.
I completely agree that if a person views a word as a slur it is wrong to use it against them. I don’t think Jazzlet intended “twat” as a gendered insult and it is commonly used in this part of the world without that connotation.
Brony, that you didn’t mention, “in the Uk” just shows you knee jerked and didn’t read my comments. Once again, in the culture I grew up in, twat is not a gendered insult. No one using that term is picturing a vagina when they say it. It’s a word that means itself, like chair, or wheelbarrow.
Can you not accept that your environment has needlessly freighted the word “twat” with a gendered baggage it simply does not have in the Uk? Where I am from, and you are not, don’t tell me how to speak my own dialect. Cheers ta.
Diskgrinder doesn’t think “twat” is sexist. How uneducated.
And, brony, one last little detail. I would bet dollars to groats you’ve never been called a twat.
Now think about this pattern.
Someone tells you they experience a slur or insult as gendered. You choose to tell them you’re going to keep using it anyway despite the fact that they had an experience of the world they can’t help, and is no less real than yours. In fact in their experience the slur or insult is part of how social sexism and/or misogyny is held together.
You are now engaging in a sex based dominance display. You are using a tool percieved as sexist or misogynistic by the person who objected to it. Your feelings are irrelevant to the experience of sexism and misogyny that you just created that was at one point accidental, and is now deliberate.
All because you couldn’t “Sorry about that, I was unaware that you experienced that as sexist/misogynistic. I’ll try to remember that you experienced that differently than me.”
Fuck off lofty. Your contribution is asinine.
Brony, now think about this. That you have defined the word twat as offensive to you, I don’t accept that definition. What if you told me you don’t like the word “umbrella” because it offends you? I don’t define these word umbrella the way you do, therefore I will keep using it to keep the rain off and you can do whatever you want with it.
Anyway, it’s late here in the United Kingdom of twats. I’ll say goodnight, without accepting your argument, your point, or your easy dismissal of a point of view that doesn’t chime with yours.
See the continual neglect of people who have experienced the gendered insult by diskgrinder? Pointing to the gendered experience is somehow telling diskgrinder about other people. Cowardice.
Face the actual situation under discussion diskgrinder. Coward on two counts. I don’t care about your irrelevant umbrellas.
Don’t know of him. Though he looks like a young Sebastian Cabot (Best known as the butler from Family Affair, or the narrator from the old Winnie the Pooh cartoons.) By the look of his repertoire Benjamin might have made a more meaningful contribution to society in voice over work than sociopolitical commentary.
Diskgrinder prefers to remain ignorant. What a surprise.
diskgrinder
The Oxford English Dictionary includes “female genitals” as one of two definitions of twat, therefore I don’t think it’s reasonable to try and assert that being asked not to use it to avoid upsetting others is, as you imply, American imperialism. It isn’t hard to say sorry for upsetting pepole, I managed it and it hasn’t hurt me. Try it, rather than being a slick of slug slime.
@diskgrinder:
And when I say that Jesus fucked an ass, all I mean is that obviously that ass got screwed when Jesus put all his weight on it for a miles long ride. No one actually thinks of sticking a penis in something when we say “fucked”. It merely means we gave someone (or some animal in this case) a raw deal. Words: they’re perfectly obvious.
In other news, I know you don’t speak using the same lingo in all situations. You almost certainly speak differently in different environmental contexts: you, if you are at all ordinary, switch your speech preferences in vocabulary, syntax, in/formality and dialect/idiolect for family situations, work situations, intimate situations, drinking situations, child’s birthday situations, and far, far more.
Just as it would be rude and wrong to speak with a work client the way one would with a drinking buddy while half in the bag, it is rude and wrong to use “twat” here in the pharyngula setting. This isn’t where you’re from, and your dialect doesn’t matter: the social rules for the Pharyngula-dialect don’t give a fuck.
Even if you can’t get your head around anything else, get your head around that.
Actually, I tell you what. Especially to you brony, that I have offended you, by using a gendered insult, then I am sorry. My intention was definitely not to offend. I can see now that my continued defence of that word, even though (I thought) it didn’t mean the same thing as you do, was, as you say, in so many words, inconsiderate and offensive in itself.
I’m sorry.
Crip dyke, the horse has bolted.
In light of my comment at 49 I wish to acknowledge Jazzlet’s comment at 35. They don’t match the general pattern I presented.
I’m fine.
I’m male. I’ve just been paying attention.
Well, I’m glad we’ve got that all cleared up. Peace reigns once more, etc.
So, um, does anyone have anything left to say about Carl Benjamin and/or the present fucked-up state of British politics? What might it take to eventually get things back to some approximate level of normalcy, where people with an actual interest in the detail and hard work of running the country consider running for office?
Ok, brony. I’ll say this to you directly. You are wrong. Twat is not gendered in the UK. Is that ok for you? – diskgrinder@41
diskgrinder, I am from the UK, have lived there all my life, and I’ll say this to you directly: you’re either a liar or a fool: “twat” is used as an insult precisely because it also means the female genitalia, hence it is a gendered insult , as are “prick”, “dickhead” etc.. It is true that “twat” is applied to men as well as (indeed, I’d say more than) to women. On the other hand, “prick”, “dickhead” etc. are very rarely, if ever, applied to women. Why don’t you spend a little time thinking about why that might be so?
I don’t think open fascists like Carl Benjamin and Stephen Yaxley Lennon will actually get elected (though I wouldn’t bet on it given the craziness of the last few years). The real danger is Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and the real threat of people like Carl Benjamin is making Nigel appear moderate.
Personally I think British politics is fucked for a long time. In the short term what we need is for Labour to properly back a second referendum to get out of this brexit mess and in the long term a fairer voting method so that the 2 party system can be broken. If not Scotland and Northern Ireland should jump ship and support Irish reunification and Scottish independence.
Kg, see above apology.
diskgrinder
Bless your heart.
@kingoftown #65:
Apparently 60% of Tory voters are planning to vote for the Brexit Party in the EU elections, so it’ll be fun to watch the Tory Party rip itself that much further apart. And, better still, there are even people like Anne Widdicombe who are going to stand for the Brexit Party yet not give up her Conservative Party membership. Next time she waffles on about millennial entitlement we’ll have to remember that she’s just demonstrated how much she wants to have her cake and eat it.
@Rich Woods
Yeah, it’s entertaining to see the tories getting torn apart on both sides by the Brexit Party and The Independent Group. I just wish Labour would get its act together and properly back a second referendum to unify remain voters.
It seems Ann Widdecombe has been expelled from the tory party. Apparently you can’t have your cake and eat it…
Oh gods, some arsehole making it all about himself because heavens forbid he be wrong
1) There are people here from the UK that have told you you’re wrong.
2) You are not on a “UK nationals only” blog.
In fact, you are on the blog of a US American professor with a pretty international audience. There’s at least 5 different nationalities that I know of in this thread, so even if twat had lost all gendered meaning in the UK, you’d still be wrong in claiming that it is not gendered.
3) As CD has already told you, language has different meanings in different contexts, which gets you this wonderful phenomenon called “code switching” aka “you wouldn’t use that kind of language with your granny”. If you misjudge the context, don’t keep on insisting that everybody else is wrong.
So, here’s a kind suggestion:
a) Put down the shovel
b) Lie low for a while
If you’re planning to keep commenting here it may be wiser to let people dissociate your nick from “complete idiot”. If you just want to stir shit, well, that’s your decision.
chigau @67, Giliell @71: Is it that you didn’t see diskgrinder’s apology @59, or that it was somehow deficient? To me, it seemed they had recognized that they’d chosen a crappy hill to make a stand on.
KG @64:
I only lived there for my first 14 years, but that was long enough to learn that a lot of people had an understanding of the etymology which turned out to be completely wrong, and I suspect that many did know, but had, in their own minds at least, divorced it from its genital connotations. Of course, both groups should know better, but do you really consider them all liars or fools?
is that a trick question?
uncle frogy
unclefrogy @73:
Is that?
If “should have known better” implies folly or mendacity, we are all fools or liars.
To quote chigau, bless your heart.
That’s almost a hat-trick* of “bless your hearts” for me, but it doesn’t really count unless it’s from The Enigmatic One herself.
*Unless I missed one…
Of course, both groups should know better, but do you really consider them all liars or fools? – Rob Grigjanis@72
When they insert themselves into an ongoing argument and assert a falsehood with great self-assurance, yes. However, I thank diskgrinder for their apology, and unreservedly, Jazzlet for theirs.