User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Steven N.'s avatar

Was this fiction, a parody or a recount of real events?

I can’t tell anymore.

Expand full comment
Russell Colt's avatar

My sentiment exactly. It is obviously real but it almost feels like its made up! Another fascinating write up by Common Sense

Expand full comment
Acastus's avatar

Agreed - the TGIF today confirmed it’s real. Fantastic reporting from Common Sense.

Expand full comment
T_rad's avatar

I showed up to a Antifa/BLM rally in my city. I stood on the sidewalk and started filming. That's it. I rode my bicycle there. I was wearing pink spandex. They physically shoved me when I refused to stop filming them. They hurled bigoted racist language at me. They also spray painted my home having find my address through a local news interview I gave of the incident. They're mostly playing revolutionary, but this ideology is infesting everything. One of the problems with is it prescribes destroying institutions without offering anything worthwhile to replace them.

Expand full comment
Just an observer's avatar

Reads like Aesop’s fable. Because this is happening on a much bigger scale everywhere. This is us (the West, the US) in a nutshell.

Expand full comment
James Mueller's avatar

I love the ACAB woman. It's a great idea to help each other so we don't need police. Maybe we could start with protecting those who can't protect themselves. In fact, the best way to do that is to gather up some people who are experts at using strategic force, but are bound to rules that everyone agrees on. Her idea is great: its having a police force.

Expand full comment
CC's avatar

Seems like the Progressives / Democrats have succeeded in their gaslighting project ! #1984

Expand full comment
Lee Morris's avatar

Right on, Steven. All it needed was a bit of Larry David and this could have been a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.

Expand full comment
Skinny's avatar

🤣🤣🤣Larry with a MAGA hat!!!

Expand full comment
Lee Morris's avatar

Now that would be..

Interesting.

Expand full comment
Dean R.'s avatar

I agree. I believe I have nothing in common with these people other than physical traits. If you can't punish anyone, then it is anarchy.

Expand full comment
Katie's avatar

Real. She’s a journal (a fabulous one!), not a satirist — though she is extremely funny in some pieces (clearly).

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

Poe's Law meets Substack.

Expand full comment
Jeff Cunningham's avatar

No one can make this stuff up.

Expand full comment
Brian Villanueva's avatar

I hate to say it, but our urban, uber-educated, upper-class deserve what they're getting. NY's finest should abandon these people to their own devices and concentrate on poor, immigrant neighborhoods who actually want and need their services. "Crime is a social construct"... give me a break. Call when you've been mugged enough times to want to join the real world.

As to the veracity, it's Suzy. She would say if it was a parody. I have no doubt it's accurate.

Expand full comment
Sumtingwong's avatar

I was going to say the same thing. South Park *is* real!

Expand full comment
Alejandra's avatar

Wokeness has amazing potential for satire. Hopefully the trend will pass and comedy writers will have great material with woke adherents acting like such caricatures in real life. Reading this article was not the first time I had this realization: we are so hungry for comic relief. Fingers crossed that is the direction we are heading.

Expand full comment
Jon's avatar

I made a comment last week that speculated that we've ignored half the humor for standup comics as anything left/woke, as ludicrous as it might be, are 'off limts' for the public. As much as I appreciate bill Maher's recent anti wokeness, his night political humor is "Lindsey clutches his pearls., Trump is evil, Republicans hate women' is all he's got.

Ignoring the rich material that Pelosi, Schumer, Naddler. Waters, Kamala and Joe provide, how could he (and the late night leftboyz not take advantage?

Check out Kyle Dunnigan on YouTube for the humor out there right now, especially his 'Biden does Slim Shady bit. LOL funny through the entire bit.

Expand full comment
Celia M Paddock's avatar

These people (and many more like them) are absolutely real. This nonsense started in Academia, then bled out into the rest of society, via Tumblr and also public school teachers who had absorbed it while in college.

At the root of all this is the concept that it isn't "fair" to punish people, regardless of what they do. It's a self-destructive parody of empathy, because the unwillingness to punish anyone means that criminals *have* to be allowed to harm others. That results in a bizarre lack of empathy for victims. Then you add in Intersectionality, so the criminal can be considered the victim. The irony is that this becomes the ultimate in "victim blaming" of the real victim.

What it boils down to is a complete lack of either logic or common sense. The whole reason we have rules ("constructs") in society is to negotiate and resolve the conflicts to which human beings are prone. Without those rules, the only rule is "might makes right."

The people who tried (comically) to form a neighborhood watch are conceding--whether they realize it or not--that, since they are unwilling to impose any other rules, they accept that might makes right. The criminals in their neighborhood are just fine with that.

I feel no pity for these people. They have tacitly accepted whatever ends up happening to them.

Expand full comment
Melissa's avatar

Very well said!

Expand full comment
Skeptical but Optimistic's avatar

Hey Celia saw this today and thought of this thread. It fits in perfectly. "systemic bicycle white supremacy" That quote is from the title! Don't drink coffee while reading this gem or you might ruin your keyboard.

https://thepostmillennial.com/san-francisco-bicycle-coalitions-tells-members-not-to-report-stolen-bikes-because-it-hurts-black-and-brown-people?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Expand full comment
Celia M Paddock's avatar

The racism involved in Leftist thinking is disgusting. All of these "don't report crime" messages not only make the *explicit* assumption that all criminals are PoC, but also make the assumption that "black and brown" people are mostly criminals. Leftists' excuse for this racist thinking is that white people have somehow magically *forced* PoC to become criminals, in spite of the many programs available to help avoid any need for stealing.

The most horrific part of all of this is that the people who are harmed *most* by the refusal to arrest black criminals are the many law-abiding black people who live in the same neighborhoods as the criminals. It's as if Leftists have set out to cause the maximum harm to PoC while pretending to be their defenders. Which is pretty much exactly what Malcolm X warned.

Expand full comment
Skeptical but Optimistic's avatar

It is the height of condescension towards people of color. I kept thinking that they're almost implying that if you are on a bike and you see a POC you should say "I know you're going to steal my bike and you have my blessing." It makes no sense but I have a feeling its what's being taught in many schools today.

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

The truth is more banal (and racist).

"I am a coward who is afraid (and thinks the worst) of black and brown people, and so scared that you're going to beat me up or kill me, so please, take my bike."

Expand full comment
Dano  Nerka's avatar

brilliant analysis thank you.

Expand full comment
Dennies's avatar

Welcome to woke America. Our woke masters will spread this dystopia to every corner of the country if they are allowed to. This has to be apparent if one simply follows the trajectory of woke totalitarianism. So who will stand up to this - only those aware enough to move to safer ground - red states. Those who stay have voted in the insanity and will live with it. There was not one person in the entire group that gathered who has the capability to fight their own delusional ideology. They live in a lawless "ghetto" of their own making.

Expand full comment
Terence G Gain's avatar

Kudos Celia M

I couldn’t have said it better myself. And that is the highest praise I can offer.

Expand full comment
Trollificus's avatar

You complimented her (and I agree) and yourself at the same time. Well done.

Expand full comment
Skeptical but Optimistic's avatar

This NYC man was back on the streets to do whatever he wants within hours. This is considered A-OK by these Park Slope citizens? Interesting that it happened at McDonalds so soon after their CEO made a public plea to the officials in Chicago about how crime is affecting his company.

https://news.yahoo.com/video/man-attacks-york-mcdonalds-axe-175628920.html

Expand full comment
milllionthmonkeytyping's avatar

Hopefully the 'axman' - apologies to guitar players - got a stern talking-to before they returned his ax and set him loose.

Expand full comment
GR's avatar

I wish "left of Lenin" guy knew how Lenin and other bolsheviks were dealing with people breaking communist laws!

Expand full comment
Bernd Fouquet's avatar

To the likes of him Lenin is just a meme, that has not much in common with the politician Lenin who ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist and created a police state that rivaled the police state of the tzar regime the Soviet system replaced. The historical figure Lenin would have had no trouble rounding up all kinds of criminals (and other "troublemakers") to send them to Labour camps regardless of race, religion or any other thing.

That's the fate of historical figures who got turned into memes. It's not just a thing of the left. The right has got their memes too that have nothing in common with the historical figures that once inspired them. Or what do You think Jesus would say to what hardline rightwing evangelicals pretend to do in his name? He would be as confused and bewildered as the real Lenin attending a meeting of this neighbourhood watch.

Expand full comment
Sally Sue's avatar

Amen. Real “communists” and “socialists” give zero human rights to the people. The people have no rights. If any minor offense is committed, you are whisked away to a harsh prison camp. Major offense---> Death penalty with No Trial.

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

The Democrat Party is heading in that direction. Bernie Sanders is a hard core communist and he chairs the Senate Budget Committee. The Dems would memorialize Stalin himself if they thought it would gain them one more vote.

Expand full comment
milllionthmonkeytyping's avatar

Left-of-Lenin guy doesn’t sound like a serious human being.

Expand full comment
DemonHunter's avatar

I dunno. He organized the meeting, sent email, and met with local elected officials. He sounds serious enough. But I think he got woke slapped upside the head and a bit shocked that he turned out to be the guy furthest to the right in that group. Which, gotta say, was pretty amusing.

Expand full comment
milllionthmonkeytyping's avatar

Good point - and yes there was the impression that he thought he was going to be something of a leader - maybe the Lenin of his time?

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

More of an asshole than a serious human being

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

Lenin slaughtered people like the "the left of Lenin" guy. He purged anyone that he, a sociopath, perceived as a threat. If you don't believe me, ask Kerensky and Trotsky.

Expand full comment
Just an observer's avatar

Sorry, bad example. Lenin and Co did murder lots of people but not Kerensky. Alexander Kerensky emigrated to Europe in 1918 and moved to the US in 1940. He worked for the Hoover Institute and lectured at universities. He died in 1970.

Expand full comment
DemonHunter's avatar

I always confuse Kerensky and Kamensky... both Alexanders. Ok, Alexander and Alexandr (not sure which is which).

For a fascinating article on what "Intelligentsia" meant to the Russians (nearly the opposite of how the word is commonly used) check article... Suicide of the Liberals. It's long but excellent history of Russian "woke."

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/suicide-of-the-liberals

Expand full comment
Just an observer's avatar

Thank you for the link. Great article.

BTW, Lenin had no intention to kill Trotsky. On the contrary, before his death, when he was feeble and not all there from multiple strokes and who knows what other illnesses, he started to realize the true nature of Stalin and attempted to warn his comrades by sending messages through his wife. Krupskaya. But it was too late. Stalin’s strongest skill or even talent was staff selection. He managed to surround himself with the most devoted and loyal like-thinking scum. And they made sure that Lenin was dying in a complete isolation. Notes Lenin wrote to the Politburo about dangers Stalin presented and promoting Trotsky as his successor were kept in secret and published only in the 1950a or 60s and included in Lenin’s complete works. That Lenin considered Trotsky his successor was the main reason Stalin hated him so much and needed to get rid of him.

Expand full comment
DemonHunter's avatar

True. Lenin left his, “Testament” which critiqued party members, gave advice, and most importantly (with the benefit of hindsight) warned against allowing Stalin (man of steel) to rise to power. And if Lenin thought Stalin too brutal…

Expand full comment
DemonHunter's avatar

Beria, under Stalin, as chief of the NKVD ordered the death of tens of thousands. At Katyn Forrest alone there were around 22,000 killed. Blokhin, head executioner for the NKVD personally pulled the trigger on over 5000. They were executed 1 at a time mostly with a .25 ACP (Walther). Took over 25 days (and nights) non-stop. But that pales when considering the forced starvations.

Expand full comment
Rick Coat's avatar

Lenin didn't have Trotsky killed that was Stalin. Lenin was no treasure either though.

Expand full comment
Shlomo's avatar

While Lenin was a sociopath, your examples are not really pertinent. Kerensky was not "to the left" and, while Trotsky was (to the left of) , Lenin was pretty "tolerant" to the lefties (by his own standards) since he knew that he can use them as "useful idiots" when needed. Lenin would marginalize them, send them to the most difficult and dangerous areas, demote them, etc., but kept them around just in case. Stalin would be a much better example.

Expand full comment
Katie's avatar

Which is one of the reasons Putin has no respect for Lenin. He was too “soft” and accommodating.

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

Both Kerensky and Trotsky had to flee Russia for the lives.

Expand full comment
Shlomo's avatar

U r right, so had the other from 2 to 5 million. The other 10-20 million had perished (executions, hunger, famine) during the building of the "heaven-on- earth" socialist experiment. But your examples are not precise and we need be very. We are in agreement, just the fact that I had spent many many hours learning the history of my country of origin (and not always voluntary), drives me to strive to be as precise as possible. Regards.

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

I wish you all the best in your studies. Where are you living now, what country?

Expand full comment
Shlomo's avatar

Splitting my time between between Midwest, West coast, and south east like GA and FL. You?

Expand full comment
Shlomo's avatar

...including those that were to the "left of them (the Lenin's group). But you are asking way-way-too-much.

Expand full comment
2 Cool 2 Fool's avatar

Snowflake Sky's statement that "...crime is a social construct..." reminded me of a famous quote by Mike Tyson: "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face".

Expand full comment
Scuba Cat's avatar

I'm thinking of A Clockwork Orange. These privileged little shits won't get it until something happens to them or their loved ones.

Expand full comment
DemonHunter's avatar

I'd love to think Iron Mike read von Moltke who said, condensed and refined over time, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

Expand full comment
William P Warford's avatar

I'm pretty sure that's where he got it. :)

Expand full comment
Skinny's avatar

Love Tyson comment it is so true though!

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Sep 20, 2022
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Cotton Mercer's avatar

Also Penny, not all Black Lives Matter. I live in Baltimore and trust me, no one is out protesting the 250 black men, women, and children murdered. It isn't even a blip on the national news scene.

Expand full comment
Pbr's avatar

Lived most of my life in Baltimore. Left five years ago. Miss the crab cakes, a few people, stoop chatter, but that is all gone now. I always hoped and thought it would come back better. It just did not. Sad.

Expand full comment
2 Cool 2 Fool's avatar

Penny - I'm guessing that satire is a bit challenging for you.

All Lives Matter. 'Black Lives Matter' has become a punch line as a result of the total disregard for 'black lives' by the left-wing morons running America largest cities. Example - so far this year in the City of Chicago: 2,691 people shot - 476 killed - 95% of the victims were Black or Hispanic - 95% of the assailants were Black or Hispanic. (Source: https://heyjackass.com/) Black Mayor - Black Police Chief - Black District Attorney. You're whining about a washed-up former boxer and ex-con who's been out of jail for 30 years - but I think it's pretty clear who doesn't give a shit about 'Black Lives'. Add the FBI, the DOJ and the Biden administration to the list.

Expand full comment
Chute Me's avatar

That sounds more like No Lives Matter.

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

Better watch out what you say. He might knock you into Bolivian.

Expand full comment
Skinny's avatar

Bless Mike he always had a short fuse, however I thought he was a great boxer!

Expand full comment
JTaylor's avatar

It’s a group of adults that grew up winning participation trophies who don’t understand that actions have consequences. What kind of parenting did they endure?

Expand full comment
MDM 2.0's avatar

I'm surprised there wasn't a mention of orange slices being handed out at the meeting...

Or has the word "orange" been deemed a triggering word now?

Expand full comment
Brian Katz's avatar

Yes, their logic causes them to self implode.

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

Logic is racist.

Expand full comment
Celia M Paddock's avatar

Exactly. It reminds me of sci-fi scenarios where a robot or computer is given a puzzle that is logically inconsistent, and it ends up freezing up or self-destructing.

Expand full comment
Richard Koffler's avatar

Like HAL in 2001 Space Odyssey or the droid in Alien

Expand full comment
Brian Katz's avatar

🤯🤯

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

We get the government we deserve. This doesn't apply to dictatorship because the populace can't vote but we can and NYC and California have the governments they voted in. They have no bail DAs. They have catch and release. In many cases the police don't even turn a criminal in because it is futile. Why turn the criminal in if they are just going to be released.

The article said: "Shahana Hanif, about the dangerous homeless man with the stick. 'They said their biggest concern is that the perpetrator is not arrested and sent to Rikers because they are concerned for his wellbeing!!!' he wrote in an email to the group." These clowns, snowflakes, deserve all that they get.

A few years ago it was popular with the left to protest capital punishment. The snowflakes would collect outside a prison to protest and execution of some sociopath murderer. You never saw them outside the victim's family house to give them emotional support for the loved one they lost to this sociopath.

Many of the blue states have defunded some of the police budgets. Portland defunded the police by 15 million dollars: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/protests/defunding-portland-police-city-council-budget-15-million-cuts/283-239c5e3a-cfed-4dce-8775-d2c52a9df9aa#:~:text=Portland%20City%20Council%20defunds%20police%20bureau%20by%20%2415,2020%20Updated%3A%206%3A33%20PM%20PDT%20June%2017%2C%202020

In cities across the nation, police retirements are up and recruitment is down.

I have come to the conclusion that the Democrats/Socialists are crazy and anyone who votes Democrat is an idiot.

Expand full comment
JD Cleveland's avatar

Unfortunately, in many cases we're left with two candidates when the general election rolls around. The Republican candidate is an ultra right-wing, Trump-supported nut job who believes that the 2020 election was stolen, and that no woman should ever have an abortion under any circumstances. The Democrat candidate is an ultra left-wing, AOC and Soros-supported nut job who wants to defund the police and cancel all student debt. It's a devils choice.

Expand full comment
Dennies's avatar

But one party's candidate controls our world, the other has little to no power. To question the election is not nutty. The fact you can now go to jail for it suggests something a little bit funny. Also, why would one think that a party with control of virtually every institution and governmental agency in America, and often populated with leftists who will tell you they do NOT have old fashioned white suprematist values such as honesty and integrity, NOT also control your county's registrar of voters office? Sure totalitarians beget people who are far to the right of you, but without a counter force in the US, we are China with a dying economy.

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

This web site validates my post.

https://babylonbee.com/news/nyc-police-to-release-criminals-onto-the-streets-faster-with-newly-installed-giant-slide

What is that you are saying. This isn't true. It's just satire.

Are you sure? It looks and sounds like it's true. I wouldn't put it past a Democrat official to do this. It sure sounds like it is something they would do.

Satire, huh?

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

But that's not really true. Most people, by dint of not "belonging" to a political party, don't get to vote for the candidates on the final ballot. The primary system, especially in New York, disenfranchises more voters than Jim Crow ever did.

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

There are two major parties and all others are just too small to matter. If the ballots had every small and sometimes nut case parties on it. The ballet would be as thick as a phone book.

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

the primaries don't have to be in the summer, nor do they have to be closed to non-party-members.

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

And who institute this voting scheme? The people in NY voted these morons in. That's who.

I rest my case.

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

Not really. The parties did on their own. The machines.

It's sickening, actually. "Nice election you have there, would be a shame if something 'happened' to it."

Expand full comment
PH's avatar

Honestly our choices regarding candidates for almost any office is pitiful. That’s a big problem.

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

Someone once said we would be better off if we chose our candidates at random from the NYC phone book. I am beginning to believe that is true.

Expand full comment
publius_x's avatar

It's a William F Buckley quote: "I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard"

Expand full comment
LonesomePolecat's avatar

You just can't beat Buckley.

Expand full comment
Joseph Kaplan's avatar

Babylon bee? Parody of Parody?

Expand full comment
Anthony's avatar

They have a separate publication called Not the Bee for this kind of story. They launched it a couple of years ago when their satire kept coming true.

Expand full comment
Mitchell Hoffmann's avatar

It’s mind-bending to read this. People need to learn how to be bored.

Expand full comment