On Wordle #262, Ukraine seige by Russia, and being Woke...

As Poirot would have it, it's good to get our Little Grey Cells working daily...

Wordle 262 4/6

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Much as I have ignored all Trump news (since he's irrelevant and his outrageous words/acts are not worth my time), I don't even bother much with those so-called negotiations with or grandiose statements from Putin, threatening the wider world to let him be, so that he can finish off with the Ukraine attack militarily. Likewise, it's a total waste of time to even bother with any statements from China's CCP propaganda machine (which in effect, twist every single facts to point fingers at others). In effect, anything that Putin and Xi accuse others of, they are describing themselves EXACTLY.  

Putin calls this a "peacekeeping mission." What a big fat fucking lie.

On a different note, I was reading this very verbose opinion piece on Bloomberg News about this biracical woman who was brought up and has benefited under the International Schools system, and then 26 years later, she now professes to "discover" the truth, and advocates more diversity on International Schools faculty. I'm in turn bemused, empathic, but ultimately can't help shaking my head while reading this young woman's account and lament. One can't get more Woke than this, waking up one day to suddenly realize that discrimination is - alas! - alive and well.

So, after being so dimmed for 26 years, she claims to have discovered how White the faculty generally is. She lauds the excellent education she's had, how diverse the student body is (even if faculty is far more homogeneous), and that most International Schools these days cater for local populations, with local parents demanding a faculty who are native-English speakers (and blond hair, blue-eyed preferably). She goes on to lambast the compensation disparity between "expats" and "local hire." 

In a way, we all knew this. She argues that International Schools administration needs to open up faculty to more diverse staff, yet she has not realized that she contradicts herself indicating that it's the students' parents (who are the ultimate "paying customers" of these very expensive schools) who are demanding a homogeneous faculty. What she fails to understand is that, when customers want it, schools deliver it. In that sense, she's barking up the wrong tree. Instead of accusing school administration for not being progressive enough, she should have accused and shamed the students' parents for being regressive. 

As a parent, what would be the motivation in upsetting the apple cart?  If the education is excellent (as the writer has admitted), if the school credentials give their children a leg-up in climbing the social ladder, why would a parent want to upset the system? 

But of course we knew that answer already. It's really those outsiders who are looking from the outside in, those who don't benefit from the system, those who can't get a lucrative job offer, they are those who lament about discrimination, or systemic racism. 

The irony is plain to see. While iterating the number of luminaries graduated from the International Schools system, including government presidents, scientists, company executives, from all over the world - and yes, with different skin colors - this is hardly a "racism" or discrimination in the traditional sense of the word.

What she should have been lamenting, is classism, inequitable social classes from around the world, rather than discrimination or racism based on simplistic skin colors. But, being as simpleton as she is, having being suddenly Woke, she hasn't even realized what she should actually be lashing against. All she could surmise, is skin colors. How quaint.

She is of course not the only one who wants to be Woke, not knowing what she actually be Woke for. 

It reminds me of how various industries want to jump onto the Woke bandwagon, one-upping each other to be more Woke than the next guy.  Just last month, Victoria Secret's has announced hiring a model with Down Syndrome. It is indeed historic. In a way, I'm happy to see more opportunities for more people, I truly am. Yet, I'm not really hopeful that this would change anything at all.

Why does a fashion company hire a model (or a movie studio hiring a movie star)? It isn't just about having a body to sling the clothing on, or some actor/actress telling a story. Nay, clothing has always been about selling an image, something that women can aspire to and men can fantasize with (in their wet dreams). In Victoria Secret's case, it's even more pronounced since they are lingerie, something that's inherently about selling a sexual fantasy (though it might be too politically incorrect to even utter these words these days). 

You would ask, what does that have to do with whether the lingerie model is Down or not? Well, it depends on whether that model can get other women (non-Down) to aspire to, and more men to salivate for. No one would say it out loud, and this 24yo young woman doesn't look Down at all, but my bet is, no one will aspire to a Down model. Civility would have us all to banish crass words and crude manners from existence, but it's all simply pushing everything underground. THAT, in essence, has become the cause of backlash of the PC culture (aka. politically correct), aka. Woke.

And I'll guarantee you, if you see far far far more success stories of Blacks making into the news, the kind of success that doesn't simply about being outrageous or outlandish (as, say, Kanye West and Kim K. do), something that people can aspire to, it'll be far more effective than pushing for having a black fashion model here or there, but ultimately it's just a token gesture that won't last. 

The same goes with movie studios. Movie studios ultimately wants a bankable movie (be it director, or actors/actresses), they don't care about being Woke, only to the extent that whatever Woke actions will bring in paying audience. 

A lot of empathic younger generations joining the Woke movement want to do the right thing, that's a totally good thing. But if they want to scorch earth, tear down the system to reestablish a new one, they would be hitting their heads on the wall. Case in point: The abject failure of BBB (Biden's Build Back Better bill). Far-left progressives want to put all the blame on Joe Manchin, but they fail to realize or acknowledge that Manchin has a lot of support from Independents and moderates, and they are in far far far larger numbers than the vocal but small numbers of far-left progressives. Just because you yell and scream the loudest doesn't necessarily mean you'll get your way. It would just make you look like that very cranky old man, Bernie Sanders.