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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 02/05/2023 14:28, Ben wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.712.1683034087.847.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">>…Spike,
I think you're right. Everything seems to be classed as 'hate
speech' now, even the most innocent things. Actually, rather than
'neo-Victorian', I think a better term might be 'neo-McCarthyism'.<br>
…</blockquote>
<br>
And what could be more innocent than childrens dolls?<br>
<br>
Well, the idiocy has infected Blighty too:<br>
<br>
I just read on the BBC news that a pub has closed down because of
the harrassment they've had from suppliers and members of the public
since the news broke that police had confiscated some 'unacceptable
items' from a display that had been there for 10 years, and had been
inherited from the proprietors grandmother. What were these evil,
dangerous, hate-mongering items?<br>
<br>
Dolls.<br>
'Racist' dolls.<br>
Yep, good old Golliwog dolls. I remember them fondly from my distant
youth. There were even images on them on jars of Robinsons Jam Until
Robinsons got nervous and stopped putting them on the labels (this
was before Kleenex withdrew their "Mansize Tissues" because, you
know that's demeaning to feminis... I mean women. I mean people with
wombs. Or something.).<br>
<br>
Golliwog dolls were iconic. Jolly-looking things that never hurt a
soul. My sister had one when she was a kid, and inexplicably, it
completely failed to turn us into members of the Klu Klux Klan.<br>
<br>
But, a couple have been essentially forced out of their livelihood
because of these <b>dolls</b> that had been on display in the pub
for <i>10 years</i> before someone decided to be offended by them,
and called the police, who compounded the idiocy by actually
confiscating them, as if they were a health hazard or a stash of
class-A drugs. Then a bunch of people including the companies that
supplied the beer, and random outraged members of the public
persecuted the owners until they've now given up and are moving
abroad.<br>
<br>
I'm expecting museums to be targeted next, and then Al Jolson, and
the Black and White Minstrels to be removed from music history
books.<br>
<br>
So watch out, if you have any old heirloom dolls, don't let anyone
see them, lest they take offence, call the police to confiscate them
and make your life a misery. I mean who knows what someone might
find offensive now?<br>
<br>
How is AI going to cure this kind of insanity? I suspect it will
make things worse, instead, as long as we can give them
'guidelines'.<br>
<br>
Ben<br>
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