1028 Trans increasing among Teens, especially girls; Cis Whites (heteros comfortable with their birth sex) are the Enemy

Trans increasing among Teens, especially girls; Cis Whites (heteros
comfortable with their birth sex) are the Enemy

Newsletter published on June 12, 2019

(1) Kids turn viciously against Parents; 'Cis Whites' (heteros
comfortable with their birth sex) are the Enemy.
(2) Trans increasing among Teens, especially girls; Cis-gendered people
are considered evil
(3) Vatican condemns Transgenderism as attempt to "Annihilate Nature",
deny sexual differences
(4) US embassies still hoisting rainbow flags, despite advisory from
Washington
(5) Gay conservatives join fight to kill liberal Equality Act, which
would force Churches to employ Gays
(6) Carol Roth: Dear militant feminists, stop messing it up for the rest
of us
(7) Liberals Cry Censorship after YouTube Demonetizing Frenzy hits SPLC
Content
(8) YouTube's purge of white supremacist videos also hits anti-racism
channels
(9) Pinterest bans Zero Hedge by adding to "Porn Domain Block List" used
to target Conservatives
(10) Soros Implementing His Radical Leftist Agenda By Investing In
Criminal Justice

(1) Kids turn viciously against Parents; 'Cis Whites' (heteros
comfortable with their birth sex) are the Enemy.

From: Eric Walberg <walberg2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: re trans

hi peter,
i was shocked to see 110 transwomen blacks murdered in US since 2014. i
tried to find stats on trans. they are spotty, but it looks like numbers
have increased significantly in the past decade.
mostly transwomen.

this is a good analysis, arguing the internet is the main culprit. kids
surfing the net, where there's lots of unregulated pro-trans youtube
videos. also the now strident gaylib lgbTq mantra. kids turn viciously
against parents

'cis whites' are the enemy.

it describes this as an epidemic of mass socio-genic illness.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/culture-mind-and-brain/201811/why-is-transgender-identity-the-rise-among-teens

eric

(2) Trans increasing among Teens, especially girls; cis-gendered people
are considered evil

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/culture-mind-and-brain/201811/why-is-transgender-identity-the-rise-among-teens

Samuel Veissière Ph.D. Culture, Mind, and Brain

Why Is Transgender Identity on the Rise Among Teens? A new study of
social contagion raises important clinical and ethical questions.

Posted Nov 28, 2018

Transgender identity* is characterized by experiencing distress with, or
an inability to identify with one’s biological sex, usually prompting a
desire to live one’s life as the opposite sex.

In the DSM-5, the standard classification of mental disorders used by
mental health professionals, this condition is known as "gender
dysphoria." Note that classifying gender dysphoria as a disorder does
not—indeed, should not—imply a moral judgment of transgender
individuals. Depending on the degree of social stigma associated with
it, transgender identity can be accompanied by very significant
distress. The point of the mental-health outlook is to help reduce
stigma and assist transgender individuals in leading good lives. The
role of social norms in this picture, however, remains unclear and hotly
debated.

The historical and cross-cultural record indicates that conditions akin
to what we now call "transgender identity" have been known to occur in
all societies, with varying degrees of acceptance, suppression, or even
encouragement. The widespread acceptance of individuals who were born
males and dress and live as females, such as the hijra in India, katoey
in Thailand, bakla in the Philippines, and travesti in Brazil, for
example, long predates the current transgender movement in the West.
Despite a longstanding recognition of their existence, transgender
individuals in those countries continue to face some discrimination.
Among the Kuna (also known as Guna) of the San Blas Islands in Panama,
transgender identity appears to have been fully accepted since
precolonial times. As a rare example of a matriarchal and matrilineal
society, names and properties are typically passed on from female to
female among the Kuna, leading to a cultural preference for having girl
children. In this context, male children were sometimes raised as girls,
thereby conferring families with a distinct social advantage. This gave
rise to a rare example of absence of cultural stigma around transgender
identities.

These examples are telling because they point to the importance of
different social norms in mediating gendered preferences and behavior.
They also introduce another piece in our puzzle: all the culturally
recognized incidences of pre-modern transgender individuals mentioned
above involve natal males who transition to female. In the DSM-5,
prevalence rates of gender dysphoria are estimated at 0.005 percent to
0.014 percent of the population for natal males, and 0.002 percent to
0.003 percent for natal females. The higher prevalence of males
exhibiting the condition is likely related to a higher percentage of
male homosexuals worldwide (3 to 4 percent) as compared to lesbians (1
to 2 percent). While these rates are the subject of debate, the higher
ratio of male homosexuals as compared to women is a consistent finding
across surveys.

As attested by current controversies, rates of transgender identity
appear to be on the rise, particularly among young people. Increased
social acceptance of a previously stigmatized condition likely plays a
role in this process, but other findings are clearly puzzling:
Transgender identity is now reported among young natal females at rates
that clearly exceed all known statistics to date.

In a recent survey of 250 families whose children developed symptoms of
gender dysphoria during or right after puberty, Lisa Littman, a
physician and professor of behavioral science at Brown University, found
that over 80 percent of the youth in her sample were female at birth.
Littman’s study reported many other surprising findings. To meet the
diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria, a child typically needs to
have shown observable characteristics of the condition prior to puberty,
such as "a strong rejection of typically feminine or masculine toys," or
"a strong resistance to wearing typically feminine or masculine
clothes." Again, 80 percent of the parents in the study reported
observing none of these early signs in their children.

The plot thickens again: First, many of the youth in the survey had been
directly exposed to one or more peers who had recently "come out" as
trans. Next, 63.5 percent of the parents reported that in the time just
before announcing they were trans, their child had exhibited a marked
increase in Internet and social media consumption. Following popular
YouTubers who discussed their transition thus emerged as a common factor
in many of the cases. After the youth came out, an increase in distress,
conflict with parents, and voiced antagonism toward heterosexual people
and non-transgender people (known as "cis" or "cisgender") was also
frequently reported. This animosity was also described as extending to
"males, white people, gay and lesbian (non-transgender) people." The
view adopted by trans youth, as summed up by one parent, seemed to be that:

"In general, cis-gendered people are considered evil and unsupportive,
regardless of their actual views on the topic. To be heterosexual,
comfortable with the gender you were assigned at birth, and non-minority
places you in the ‘most evil’ of categories with this group of friends.
Statement of opinions by the evil cis-gendered population are consider
phobic and discriminatory and are generally discounted as unenlightened."

Parents further reported being derogatorily called "breeders" by their
children, or being routinely harassed by children who played
"pronoun-police." The observation that they no longer recognized their
child’s voice came up time and again in parental reports. In turn, the
eerie similarity between the youth's discourse and trans-positive online
content was repeatedly emphasized. Youth were described as "sounding
scripted," "reading from a script," "wooden," "like a form letter,"
"verbatim," "word for word," or "practically copy and paste."

Littman raises cautions about encouraging young people’s desire to
transition in all instances.  From the cases reviewed in her study, she
concluded that what she terms "rapid-onset gender dysphoria" (ROGD)
appears to be a novel condition that emerges from cohort and contagion
effects and novel social pressures. From this perspective, ROSD likely
exhibits an aetiology and epidemiology that is distinct from the
"classical" cases of gender dysphoria documented in the DSM.

Littman hypothesizes that ROGD can be cast as a maladaptive coping
mechanism for other underlying mental health issues such as trauma or
social maladjustment, but also for other exceptional traits like high IQ
and giftedness. The peer support, prestige, and identity leveraged by
the youth who proudly come out as trans certainly appears to be
protective in their circles. As Littman’s study shows, this social
signaling strategy also comes with strong disadvantages, particularly as
it increases conflict between trans youth and the "cis" majority of the
population, which, tellingly, includes a majority of the LGBT community.

The notion reported by parents that the ROGD appears to be "scripted" is
also telling. Medical anthropologists describe the process of
outsourcing negative feelings to cultural narratives and systems of
beliefs as "idioms of distress." These beliefs can be partially grounded
in science and biology (as is the case with current brain-based mental
health culture), or not at all (as is the case in cultures that explain
mental illness through the idiom of spirit possession). When extreme
forms of distress and coping arise through novel social pressures and
spread through implicit imitation, strange epidemics of "mass
psychogenic illnesses" have been documented. These have extended to
dancing plagues, possession epidemics on factory floors, fugue states,
or epidemics of face-twitching. These conditions are described as
"psychogenic" (originating in the mind) when no underlying physical
cause can be determined. But the term "sociogenic," which highlights the
social context in which these conditions occur,  is a better description.

Risk factors for proneness to mass sociogenic illness remain hotly
debated. Tellingly, for our investigation, it is broadly recognized that
females, perhaps due to their higher sensitivity to social cues on
average, are overwhelmingly more prone to such phenomena. Once more,
this should not be read as a moral story. Medical sociologist Robert
Bartholomew, one of the world’s leading experts on mass sociogenic
epidemics, has long argued that phenomena that are still unjustly termed
"mass hysteria" should be renamed "collective stress responses."

It is clear from Littman’s study that the rise of rapid-onset gender
dysphoria, which seems to predominantly involve natal females, points to
a complex web of social pressures, changing cultural norms, and new
modes of distress and coping that warrant further investigation. For
parents, educators, and clinicians alike, caution is warranted in
dealing with this growing phenomenon.

*Note: an earlier version of this post used the term "transgenderism"
which, while often used to describe transgender individuals, is now
considered out of date and stigmatizing by many in the LGBT community.
"Transgender identity" is the community's preferred term.  The author
thanks the Human Rights Campaign for pointing this out.

*** Note # 2: I have received numerous private comments from readers
about this article. Some readers pointed out that I did not mention the
controversy and significant public backlash that ensued after the study
was first published in August 2018. You can read my discussion of this
backlash in this next post.

*** Note # 3: You may also read my third post, in which I call for
dialogue (not debate) and compassion between the different sides of the
ROGD debate

(3) Vatican condemns Transgenderism as attempt to "Annihilate Nature",
deny sexual differences

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-11/vatican-condemns-transgenderism-attempt-annihilate-nature

Vatican Condemns Transgenderism as attempt to "Annihilate Nature"

by Tyler Durden

Tue, 06/11/2019 - 15:05

As many in the world celebrate "Pride Month" amid a surge in demands for
acceptance of the idea that gender is more complex and fluid than the
binary categories of male and female, The Vatican has blasted modern
gender theory, claiming in a new document that it seeks to "annihilate
the concept of 'nature'."

The document, which carries the title "Male And Female: He Created Them"
was released by the Vatican June 10 without prior announcement.
Described as an aid for Catholic schoolteachers and parents on how to
address the topic of gender theory in line with Church teaching, the
document questions the motives of transgender people, saying their
gender transition is "only a 'provocative' display."

As NCR reports, the text opens by saying that society is facing "an
educational crisis, especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality."

It then claims that cultural "disorientation" has destabilized the
family as an institution, "bringing with it a tendency to cancel out the
differences between men and women, presenting them instead as merely the
product of historical and cultural conditioning." ...

"From the point of view of genetics, male cells (which contain XY
chromosomes) differ, from the very moment of conception, from female
cells (with their XX chromosomes)," ...

In cases where a child is born with ambiguous genitalia, it says "it is
medical professionals who can make a therapeutic intervention."

"In such situations, parents cannot make an arbitrary choice on the
issue, let alone society," it recommends.

"Instead, medical science should act with purely therapeutic ends, and
intervene in the least invasive fashion, on the basis of objective
parameters and with a view to establishing the person's constitutive
identity." ...

Finally, the document denounced theories that attempted to "annihilate
the concept of nature" and "educational programmes and legislative
trends that ... make a radical break with the actual biological
difference between male and female".

The Vatican says this "radical separation" between gender and sex has
the goal of achieving "a society without sexual differences."

As one would expect, Reuters reports that LGBT rights advocates
denounced the 30-page document as harmful and confusing, saying it would
encourage hatred and bigotry.

Groups that minister to LGBT Catholics immediately criticized the
document. New Ways Ministry, one such group, called it a:

"harmful tool that will be used to oppress and harm not only transgender
people, but lesbian, gay, [and] bisexual people, too."

The educational aid does not carry Pope Francis' signature, and the text
makes no reference of the pontiff reviewing the document, but Francis,
whose early pontificate was defined by his "Who am I to judge?" answer
to a question about an alleged gay priest working at the Vatican, has
made contradictory remarks about gender theory and transgender people
throughout his six-year papacy.

(4) US embassies still hoisting rainbow flags, despite advisory from
Washington

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/US-embassies-still-hoisting-rainbow-flags-13962586.php

Carol Morello, The Washington Post

Published 4:45 pm EDT, Saturday, June 8, 2019

Since the State Department began rejecting all embassy requests to hoist
rainbow flags outside the mission buildings during Gay Pride Month this
year, some U.S. diplomats have been finding ways to defy, or at least
get around, the new policy.

The facades of the U.S. missions in Seoul and Chennai, India, are
partially hidden behind large rainbow flags, while the embassy in New
Delhi is aglow in rainbow colored lights. The website for the embassy in
Santiago, Chile, shows a video of the chief diplomat raising a rainbow
flag last month for the International Day Against Homophobia,
Transphobia and Biphobia.

The Vienna Embassy's website features a photo of a rainbow flag flying
below Old Glory on a mast jutting from the building, a statement by
Diplomats for Equality and a story about a professor lecturing on the
visibility and growth of LGBT rights.

U.S. diplomats in Jerusalem joined a March for Pride and Tolerance, and
several ambassadors have tweeted photos of themselves in local Pride
parades or standing outside the embassies surrounded by employees
holding up letters spelling PRIDE.

"This is a category one insurrection," said one diplomat, who like
others interviewed about the sentiment over the rejections, which were
not made in writing, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of
being fired.

How the homophobic media covered the 1969 Stonewall uprising A practice
routinely approved for most of the decade at many embassies now requires
top-level approval from the State Department. But this year, as first
reported by NBC News, all requests were nixed.

The flap over the flags started when the State Department did not send
out an official cable this year with guidelines for marking Pride Month,
as it has in years past. In 2011, the Obama administration directed
agencies involved with foreign policy to promote LGBT rights, a striking
policy for an agency that, up to the early 1990s, considered
homosexuality a security risk and cause for termination.

The Obama administration's Pride Month guidelines included rules for
flying rainbow flags from poles outside embassies - they had to be
smaller than the American flag and fly beneath it. But permission was
granted with no fuss. By 2016, approvals were left up to each ambassador
or chief of mission.

That process changed last year, after Mike Pompeo became secretary of
state. An evangelical Christian who believes marriage should be defined
as between a man and woman, Pompeo has said gay employees will be
respected and treated like everyone else. But he has downplayed some
symbols of LGBT rights, while introducing several new panels and envoys
specializing in religious freedom issues.

The advisory cable that came out last year said diplomats are required
to obtain top-level approval from the State Department's Office of
Management to fly a rainbow flag.

The State Department declined to answer questions about the Pride Month
advisory and rainbow flag ban. But two diplomats familiar with the
events said all requests last year were approved.

This year, there was a shift. Embassies in Israel, Germany, Brazil and
Latvia, plus a handful of other posts, asked to fly rainbow flags. All
were denied, said a person at the State Department who was familiar with
what happened.

Although most embassies seem to be towing the line, the policy shift
appears to have sparked something of a revolt among diplomats.

Foreign Service officers have complained on a private Facebook page that
nobody should have asked for permission anyway.

Some embassies that have flown the flag in previous years opted this
year to commemorate the month by posting on their websites President
Donald Trump's statement affirming LGBT rights and inviting nations to
join a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality. The initiative
was the idea of Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, who is gay.

Some embassies got playful with the display of Trump's statement. In
Brasilia, for example, the statement is topped by a photo of two hands
holding six Play-Doh letters in rainbow colors: LGBTQ. But some did not
mention Trump's statement at all, an absence made more glaring by the
juxtaposition with statements by ambassadors and secretaries of states
left over from previous years.

Some gay employees in the foreign and civil service say the ban on
flying the rainbow flag is just the tip of an iceberg of slights.

Pompeo has not issued a statement for Pride Month, as he did last year.
He did not attend the State Department's annual Pride Day event for two
years running as his predecessors usually did, though he was traveling
in Europe this year. Instead, he dispatched Deputy Secretary of State
John Sullivan, a veteran diplomat who promised that the State Department
will advocate for gay diplomats and their families.

"Day by day, a death by a thousand cuts, our rights as lgbt+ Americans
are being eroded with the removal of a guidance here, the rewriting of a
policy there, or just the quiet disappearance of a web site," Robyn
McCutcheon, a transgender woman who has served in several posts abroad,
wrote in her blog "Transgender at State," lamenting what she has
observed throughout the government in the past two years. "It should
come as no surprise that this erosion would happen also at the U.S.
Department of State."

Some acknowledge that their worst fears have not been borne out.

The administration has appointed several gay ambassadors. Trump became
the first Republican president to make a statement celebrating Pride
Month. No one has been fired for sexual orientation, but some said they
have felt more vulnerable after Trump tried to ban transgender people
from the military.

Better, they said, to not even discuss LGBT issues publicly and risk the
consequences of drawing attention to themselves.

"We fly below the radar," one employee said. "We survive because they
don't realize we're here."

(5) Gay conservatives join fight to kill liberal Equality Act, which
would force Churches to employ Gays
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/gay-conservatives-join-fight-to-kill-liberal-equality-act?

Gay conservatives join fight to kill liberal Equality Act

by Paul Bedard

| June 07, 2019

Gregory T. Angelo thought he had the perfect plan after he resigned as
president of Log Cabin Republicans, the leading GOP LGBT group.

He turned off his email and walked away from his nonstop role as the
media director, fundraiser, and organizer of conservative gays after six
years in the hot seat.

Then the new House Democratic majority passed the Equality Act, which
guarantees added rights to LGBT Americans, and he went back to work, now
leading a coalition to urge the Senate to kill the liberal legislation
because it would force Christian businesses, churches, and
church-related colleges and institutions to cater to gays in violation
of their teachings.

"I’m not against equality. I’m against the Equality Act," he said.

What troubles Angelo and other conservative gays is that the Equality
Act forces gay rights across the board and breaks a promise he and
others have made in the past to also protect and enshrine religious freedom.

"Many like me who are gay feel very strongly about the negative
consequences if the Equality Act becomes law," Angelo, now working in
communications, said. "It betrays the promises we had made on past
campaigns and could destroy all the goodwill we built up with everyday
Americans, especially people of faith."

Since last May’s House vote, he has moved quickly to thwart Senate
passage, starting with a column in the Washington Examiner magazine that
warned, "Passage of the Equality Act would make liars out of the lot of
us. It would put the nonprofit status of religious charities at risk; it
would force mom-and-pop businesses to participate in same-sex marriage
ceremonies; and it would flout bedrock principles that have served as
the foundation of the American experience for centuries."

That column sparked a social media outcry against the Equality Act by
conservatives, gay and not, and prompted Angelo to seek supporters for a
petition to urge the Senate to kill the act.

In just one day, he said, he had 100 co-signers, including supporters of
President Trump. Others, such as Heritage Action for America, also
jumped to attention after the House vote.

"The Equality Act pretends to promote equality and fairness, but it’s a
cynical power grab to crush religious freedom and parental rights in the
name of political correctness," said Jessica Anderson, vice president of
Heritage Action. "Under the proposed law, religious charities in our
nation’s hospitals, churches, and schools would be forced to either
violate their beliefs or shut down, and parents would increasingly lose
the ability to make decisions regarding their children’s education and
health care."

Today, he delivered the letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell’s staff.

In fighting the act, Angelo faced hateful comments such as one on
Facebook telling him to commit suicide.

But he had been there before, regularly the subject of nasty social
media for clashing with the lockstep of liberal gay groups, especially
when pointing out the steps the Trump administration has made to push
LGBT issues and hire and promote gay aides and judges.

He hopes to push a compromise that provides for most of the protections
provided by the Equality Act without forcing Christian groups to cave in
to Washington.

For years, he said, the gay community said to straight America, "'Trust
us, we are no threat to you, your family or your faith.'" "Now we must
continue to keep that promise and offer legislation to provide
protections for LGBT while acknowledging people of faith. Let’s have
nondiscriminatory protections and exempt religious institutions," Angelo
said.

(6) Carol Roth: Dear militant feminists, stop messing it up for the rest
of us

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/carol-roth-restaurants-manners-etiquette-equality-feminists

June 8, 2019

By Carol Roth

My husband has opened the car door for me every single time we have
arrived at our vehicle since we met nearly 22 years ago. Colleagues and
strangers open doors and let me enter a building or room first. Other
work associates let me order first at the restaurant. And, here’s an
almost "secret"… I absolutely love it.

The website Eater, which describes itself a "the source for people who
care about dining and drinking in the world’s best food cities,"
recently ran an article that explained that many restaurants are doing
away with classic training and etiquette, like serving the women at the
table first and not using phrasing like "ladies" or "gentlemen" because
they are eliminating "soft sexism."

These are merely a few examples in a long list of grievances that are
good manners being killed because some women don’t understand what
equality or sexism really means.

A restaurant serving women first is a sign of class, elegance and
respect. If you are offended by that, have a hard think about why you
are so angry.

So, ultra-"feminists" here’s my request: be miserable if you want, but
stop ruining chivalry, manners and civility for the rest of us.

Equality is about being seen as equal in the eyes of the law. It does
not mean that we are all equal in talent, beauty, strength, material
possessions, free time, health, etc. Not only is that an unrealistic
objective, it certainly has nothing to do with basic manners.

I am very grateful to the women who came before me, who fought for my
and other women’s rights including voting and equal pay. While I
appreciate immensely their sacrifices and hard work, I also can relish
in the fact that because they have done so, there’s no other place or
time in history where it is better to be a woman than right now in the
United States of America.

There are women around the world who are truly oppressed, who aren’t
allowed basic human rights, who are caned for adultery, who can’t do
basic tasks without the accompaniment and approval of men.

We can continue to fight for them, while still appreciating the manners
of a man—or anyone, for that matter- who is holding the door open for you.

To dote on a woman and to raise her up on a pedestal is a signal of
respect, not a reflection of inferiority. While it may be a distinction,
it’s not a discrimination, as it certainly doesn’t hold a woman back.
And, while you may not want a man to offer up his seat on the bus while
you show your grit and determination to stand, I would welcome the
gesture, after a long day in four-inch heels, even if I ultimately
turned it down.

I appreciate the fact that when the Titanic sunk, the women and children
were allowed off first, and would appreciate the same courtesy today.

I am glad I was never eligible for the draft. I appreciate when a man
across the aisle of the plane lets me go first vs. the ones that jockey
with me for position -- or worse, hit me in the head fighting to be the
first to get their luggage down. I even give bonus points to the men
that offer to take my luggage down for me, almost always responding with
a thank you and "I am glad to see that chivalry is not dead."

So, to the women who are offended by civility and manners, I again
politely ask you to stop screwing it up for the rest of us and ruining
common courtesy in society.

And to the chivalrous men, your courtesies are appreciated by many. I
say thank you as I virtually curtsy in respect, not in deference.

(7) Liberals Cry Censorship after YouTube Demonetizing Frenzy hits SPLC
Content

https://breaking-news.ca/liberals-cry-censorship-after-youtube-demonetizing-frenzy-hits-splc-content/

Posted on June 9, 2019

AuthorQ

‘It is carpet bombing style censorship’

Source: Liberals Cry Censorship After YouTube Demonetizing Frenzy Hits
SPLC Content | The Daily Caller

Liberal activists are crying foul after YouTube’s demonetizing frenzy
slammed the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization known for
labeling conservative groups as hate groups.

A video SPLC published was among those nixed after YouTube announced
plans Wednesday to remove videos and content that promote white
supremacy. Journalist Max Blumenthal lashed out at the company after the
video, which reports on Holocaust denialism, was pulled for violating
the new policy.

"In @YouTube’s political purge, my video report for the @splcenter
exposing Holocaust revisionist David Irving as a fascist and fraud
historian was removed. This purge has already gone well beyond its
stated aim. It is carpet bombing style censorship," Blumenthal wrote on
Twitter Friday.

Max Blumenthal ? @MaxBlumenthal In @YouTube’s political purge, my video
report for the @splcenter exposing Holocaust revisionist David Irving as
a fascist and fraud historian was removed.

This purge has already gone well beyond its stated aim. It is carpet
bombing style censorship.
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tn-youtube-hate-extremism-20190606-story.html
…

YouTube used the new policy to demonetize conservative commentator
Steven Crowder, citing several inflammatory statements he directed at
Vox writer Carlos Maza, who posted several tweets before the policy
change urging the company to deplatform Crowder.

Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, mirrored
much of Blumenthal’s concerns. YouTube needs to weed out bad actors from
those who are trying to call out racism and white supremacy. She blamed
a sloppy algorithm for the problem.

"Companies that make billions of dollars a year can certainly figure out
a way to fix this," Beirich told the Los Angeles Times Thursday.
"Hopefully they don’t get caught up in this purge, but you could see how
they might … if you have a ham-handed process." (RELATED: YouTube To
Step Up Suppression Of Videos That Don’t Violate Any Rules, Promote News
Outlets)

Other activist and liberal journalists expressed their opinions.

"A policy that attempts to ban hateful content is only as effective as
the mechanisms implemented to enforce such rules," Color of Change
President Rashad Robinson said in a statement Friday. "If executed
poorly, this policy could contribute to even more harm for black
communities and other communities targeted by white supremacist ideologies."

Jordan Chariton, a journalist who formerly worked for The Young Turks,
also weighed in on the debacle. "This overreaction to individual
offenders to then destroy the livelihoods of those who cover war &
corporate power critically is absurd and polar opposite of what
YouTube’s mission once was. Punish INDIVIDUAL hosts if they are selling
shirts based on homophobia. Stop punishing others," he said on Twitter
Wednesday.

(8) YouTube's purge of white supremacist videos also hits anti-racism
channels

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tn-youtube-hate-extremism-20190606-story.html

By SUHAUNA HUSSAIN and SAMANTHA MASUNAGA

JUN 06, 2019 | 4:20 PM

YouTube’s campaign against hateful and racist videos is claiming some
unintended victims: researchers and advocates working to expose racist
hatemongers.

A video published by the Southern Poverty Law Center was among those
taken down after the company announced plans Wednesday to remove more
videos and channels that advocate white supremacy.

The civil rights advocacy group received an email notification early
Thursday that a video of journalist Max Blumenthal interviewing
prominent British Holocaust denier David Irving was removed from the
SPLC’s YouTube channel.

"We know that this might be disappointing, but it’s important to us that
YouTube is a safe place for all. If content breaks our rules, we remove
it," YouTube said in the email.

A video channel tied to Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study
of Hate and Extremism also disappeared from YouTube, the center’s
director, Brian Levin, said. YouTube declined to confirm whether the
dozen or more academic videos were removed as part of the recent
crackdown, but after the Los Angeles Times inquired, it said Thursday
that it had reinstated the channel.

YouTube’s moves to start banning content promoting bigotry were
"positive and well-intended," but the execution has been botched, Levin
said.

"Artificial intelligence has not been honed to the level where it can
distinguish between content that is promoting the most odious bigotry,
and that which is reporting and analyzing it," he said.

That organizations working to raise awareness of hate speech may have
been casualties of an effort to reduce the spread of hate speech was not
surprising to Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence
Project. That kind of ironic collateral damage has often resulted from
tech companies’ efforts to police their platforms with software that
relies on keywords and other ambiguous signals, backed up by human
moderators.

Another anti-racist group, One People’s Project, had an informational
video removed from its YouTube page after Wednesday’s policy change,
according to a report by the Daily Beast. A high school history teacher
and a South African blogger were among others affected while attempting
to counter white supremacy.

"It indicates that they have not refined well enough the difference
between someone who is exploring issues of racism and hatred and someone
who’s promoting it," Beirich said.

Other large internet platforms have fallen prey to the same types of
errors. Trying to curb anti-gay posts, Facebook accidentally censored
posts by LGBT users who use terms such as "queer." Last year, some LGBTQ
creators on YouTube raised concerns about their content being hidden,
restricted to adult users or demonetized by the company, the Verge reported.

Jessica J. González, vice president of strategy at the media advocacy
organization Free Press, said it’s important for tech companies to rely
on human moderators as opposed to algorithms to train staff in cultural
competency and to ensure their appeal processes are simple, transparent
and rapid.

González’s organization helped develop a set of suggested content
moderation policies. She said the suggested policies were informed by
the experiences of people whose posts have been taken down on Twitter
and Facebook for calling out racism.

"A policy that attempts to ban hateful content is only as effective as
the mechanisms implemented to enforce such rules," Color of Change
President Rashad Robinson said in a statement. "If executed poorly, this
policy could contribute to even more harm for black communities and
other communities targeted by white supremacist ideologies."

In the SPLC video, Blumenthal was exploring how people could believe the
Holocaust was a hoax and how that belief contributes to anti-Semitism,
Beirich said.

"YouTube saw someone speaking of Holocaust denial and assumed it was
promotion. But it was the opposite — it was exposure and condemnation of
Holocaust denial thinking."

YouTube said it posts clear policies on what content is acceptable and
removes videos violating those policies, but with the massive volume of
videos on the site, sometimes the company makes the wrong call.

"When it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed
mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it," YouTube said in a
statement. "We also offer uploaders the ability to appeal removals and
we will re-review the content."

Beirich said the SPLC’s channel also hosts videos training law
enforcement on how to identify lone-wolf domestic terrorists or Aryan
prison gangs, or what to do if a hate group comes to town.

"Hopefully they don’t get caught up in this purge, but you could see how
they might … if you have a ham-handed process," she said.

Beirich said the SPLC plans to appeal the video’s removal.

(9) Pinterest bans Zero Hedge by adding to "Porn Domain Block List" used
to target Conservatives
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-11/pinterest-bans-zero-hedge-adding-porn-domain-block-list-used-target-conservatives

by Tyler Durden

Tue, 06/11/2019 - 10:45

Documents leaked to Project Veritas by a Pinterest insider reveal that
the San Francisco-based social media company has blocked links from Zero
Hedge and several conservative or religious-based websites - adding them
to a 'porn domain block list' originally intended to keep the platform
free of sexually explicit material.

Veritas has published several internal documents and interviewed the
insider, who explained how the company with nearly 300 million active
monthly users censors pro-life and Christian content. The leak reveals
an aggressive campaign to censor conservative content under the guise of
'hate speech' and 'fake news.'

Pinterest added a pro-life group website (@LiveAction) and @zerohedge to
its porn list in order to prevent users for "pinning" or sharing the
websites

Consumers are being lied to. Terms of Services are being violated.
Antitrust bullying everywhere. pic.twitter.com/XnEiRDnObN

— Ali Alexander (@ali) June 11, 2019 Links to the leaked documents can
be viewed here, here, here, here, here and here. Of note, in February
the social media platform made headlines for blocking searches related
to anti-vaccination material. At the time, the company was criticized
over their seemingly random methods for determining offensive content.

"There’s a secretive process with no real appeal where people are making
extremely difficult subjective calls that have to do with politics,
culture and religion," said ACLU lawyer Jennifer Granick.

The insider who leaked to Veritas agreed, saying that they were "pretty
surprised" after discovering Live Action's inclusion on the porn list.

The insider explained that websites on a "domain block list" cannot be
linked in posts made by users. While investigating, Project Veritas
tried to post the LiveAction.org link on Pinterest and failed to do so,
receiving an error message that read, "Sorry! Your request could not be
completed." Project Veritas reviewed the list of websites from the "porn
domain block list" and was able to confirm that along with
LiveAction.org, websites like zerohedge.com, pjmedia.com, teaparty.org
and other various conservative websites were also listed. The majority
of the document lists pornographic websites. -Project Veritas

(10) Soros Implementing His Radical Leftist Agenda By Investing In
Criminal Justice
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-11/soros-implementing-his-radical-leftist-agenda-investing-criminal-justice

by Tyler Durden Tue, 06/11/2019 - 15:35 Via SaraCarter.com,

For many years leftist billionaire George Soros has used his wealth to
remake our society.

His latest area of focus is criminal justice. From Texas to Philadelphia
to Virginia, Soros has reportedly spent millions in backing candidates
for district attorneys or prosecutors.

"Philadelphia is the laboratory where this experiment of Soros funded
prosecutors is playing out," said William McSwain the US Attorney for
Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Tucker Carlson Show.

"Now the returns are in. Larry Krasner, the Philadelphia District
Attorney has been in office for about a year and half, funded by Mr.
Soros, and we can look at the data and we can see what is happening to
Philadelphia, where homicides have skyrocketed, shooting have
skyrocketed, the worst types of violent crimes have really gone up. And
in addition to that some of the low level and mid level crimes have also
gone up but they aren’t being reported. And the reason they are not
being reported is that DA has said that he is not going to prosecute them."