U.S. Society

Ethics Mash-Up! Combine Bud Light, Disney And Baseball, and You Get…Ethics Dunces: The Los Angeles Dodgers

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

What a mess.

Blinded by wokeness and desire to pander to typical Californians (if not typical baseball fans, which is, after all, their market) the Los Angeles Dodgers invited the group ‘The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’ to the team’s Pride Night this year, coming up fast on June 16. The group mocks religious objections to certain sexual practices and orientations by satirizing religious imagery and employing cross-dressing. They have been fairly described as flamboyantly anti-Catholic drag queen nuns. Recognizing that this may not have been the wisest move (a low level LGBTQ staffer seems to have sneaked the group on to the list of invitees), the Dodgers retracted the invitation. You know what that meant: there were screams of bigotry and protest from left-wing activists, including a teachers’ union that warned that refusing to honor the drag queen nuns “will lead to more deaths.” That’s the ticket these days: anything short of full endorsement of fringe sexual groups makes one complicit in theoretical hate crimes. Being weenies, Dodger officials went into full grovel mode. They offered their “sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and their friends and family.”

Now religious fans and Catholic groups are upset. This is a binary situation: the Dodgers can be targeted by the anti-religions, LGBTQ+ zealots as bigots, confident that local news media will support them, or it can honor a group that is openly hostile to people of faith. Good job, Dodgers!

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I Have To Ask: What Is Disney Doing And Why?

/ Jack Marshall / 57 Comments

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been planning a long post examining what Disney’s mission and methodology need to be in 21st Century America. Walt’s creation faces an important challenge and a difficult one, and I would hope that the people responsible for guiding a company whose role in shaping U.S. culture has been both successful and beneficent as well as profitable are up to the task. They had better be, for the sake of the culture, not merely stockholders.

I was well on the way to devising a post I felt would be perceptive and provocative when I saw the video above. That stopped me cold. I wasn’t exactly optimistic about Disney, which has been a major positive influence in my own life, being able to safely navigate around the cultural icebergs in the roiling societal seas ahead before I watched the thing, but now I am as confused as I am depressed.

The classic starting point for ethical analysis is “What’s going on here?” In this case, it is more appropriate to ask, “What THE HELL is going on here?”

I’m open to suggestions.

Depressing Ethics Notes From The Education Apocalypse, Part I: Graduation Follies

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

Let’s begin with the first of four troubling graduation tales, this one involving the rampant narcissism that social media and the popular culture imparts on our youth, aided and abetted by educational professionals.

Above is a newly-minted University of Arizona grad, known online as “Rachel Davenpole,” who donned a pair of see-through platform heels and a red thong to pose in a stripper-style split on a pole she had erected on campus for the task. Her erudite response to social media critics who found her photos inappropriate was was: “Graduated Magna Cum Laude (3.8 GPA) and received over $40,000 in scholarships … let’s get u a mirror so we can see who this tweets about babes.” Her non-sequitur defense was sufficient to inspire the New York Post—there are some good reasons why the rest of the media doubted you on Hunter’s laptop, guys—into giving Rachel even more of the publicity she craves with a news story.

Now watch Rachel be shocked when the employer who hires her for her first adult job thinks sexual harassment is appropriate…

Next, there is Marlin High School near Waco, Texas. According to a statement posted to Facebook, it has postponed its graduation after just five of 33 seniors could meet the requirements for graduation because of grades or attendance problems. The school says it will reschedule the graduation until June so students will have more time to qualify. But the problem isn’t the students, is it? Here’s a chance to re-post one of my favorite Charles Addams cartoons:

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Today’s Lesson In Life Competence: Know Your Yogi Berra Quotes

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

In this case, “It ain’t over til it’s over.”

How embarrassing. Palmyra-Macedon (New York) was trying to become Section V Class B1 high school baseball champion for the second straight year. The Red Raiders were facing defeat, trailing Hornell by a run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, with two strikes on their last hope batter. Palmyra-Macedon also had runners on second and third base, with no runner at first base. The umpire called the next pitch strike three, but it was a wild pitch that got past the catcher. Baseball rules hold (I hope you know this) that the batter can run to first base in such situations if first isn’t occupied, and has to be thrown or tagged out.

But instead of racing to retrieve the ball and throw to first base, the Hornell catcher ran out to the mound to start celebrating. His team did the same, and while they were jumping up and down, the Palmyra-Macedon batter ran to first and his team mates on second and third ran home, scoring the tying and winning runs.

Palmyra-Macedon had a stunning 6-5 win, and they celebrated, this time appropriately.

I’d say “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” also applies here, as well as another alleged Yogi-ism (though it isn’t), “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” these are important life lessons, but what a brutal way to learn them.

Morning Ethics Warm-Up, 5/29/22: Memorial Day Weekend Edition [#3 Corrected!]

/ Jack Marshall / 13 Comments

May 29 is the anniversary of the moment when, at 11:30 a.m. in 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, became the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the exclamation mark of Hillary’s remarkable and ethically admirable life. He was the first admittee into The Ethics Alarms Hall of Heroes as an Ethics Hero Emeritus. His story is republished (from the defunct but still available Ethics Scoreboard), here.

1. About that cartoon…Ethics Alarms mentioned the hypocrisy of the despicable Memorial Day Weekend cartoon inflicted on the nation by the Washington Post, which ham-handedly compared Republicans to fascists authoritarians. Authoritarians hold power by fearmongering and falsehoods, and any defender of cartoonist Ann Telnaes‘s juvenile drawing (using the hallowed graves at Arlington National Cemetery as a cheap prop) will have to explain away Chuck Schumer’s nicely-timed slap at the single branch of the government which currently stands in the way of the numerous Biden Administration incursions on the Constitution. In Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Court unanimously held that the EPA had exceeded its authority (as a part of the executive branch, that means the Biden Administration) by forbidding an Idaho couple from building on their build on land near Priest Lake under the Clean Water Act. The court said that the land does not constitute a wetland under the CWA, and made it crystal clear that the words of the statute demanded that decision. Yet even though the decision was unanimous, the Democratic Senate Majority Leader attacked the decision this way on Twitter: “This MAGA Supreme Court is continuing to erode our country’s environmental laws. Make no mistake—this ruling will mean more polluted water, and more destruction of wetlands. We’ll keep fighting to protect our waters.” Two Obama appointees and Biden’s SCOTUS appointee joined in the ruling, but Democrats want to represent the unanimous decision as “MAGA.” In this case, at least, it was—if MAGA means not allowing the government to break laws and exceed its authority because it has decided it’s for “the greater good.” The White House also attacked the decision, neatly avoiding the matter of all 9 justices concluding that the EPA was violating the law and infringing on the property rights of American citizens. “It puts our Nation’s wetlands – and the rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds connected to them – at risk of pollution and destruction, jeopardizing the sources of clean water that millions of American families, farmers, and businesses rely on,” wrote Joe’s puppeteers. It’s all Trump’s fault! These MAGA fanatics like Justice Sotomayor seem to think that the government, which knows best, should follow laws before doing by edict what it deems wise!

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Ethics Quote Of The Month: Heather Mac Donald

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

“When government abdicates its responsibility to maintain public safety, a few citizens, for now at least, will step into the breach. Penny was one of them. He restrained Neely not out of racism or malice but to protect his fellow passengers. He was showing classically male virtues: chivalry, courage and initiative. Male heroism threatens the entitlement state by providing an example of self-reliance apart from the professional helper class. And for that reason, he must be taken down.”

—Heather Mac Donald, in her scorching essay, “Daniel Penny is a scapegoat for a failed system”

That paragraph continues,

A homicide charge is the most efficient way to discourage such initiative in the future. Stigma is another. The mainstream media has characterized the millions of dollars in donations that have poured into Daniel Penny’s legal defense fund as the mark of ignorant bigots who support militaristic white vigilantes.

There is no way law enforcement can or should avoid at least exploring a manslaughter charge when an unarmed citizen is killed after a good Samaritan intervenes in a situation that he or she sees as potentially dangerous. Nevertheless, what appears to be the planned vilification of ex-Marine Daniel Penny by Democrats and the news media to put desperately-needed wind back in the metaphorical sails of Black Lives Matter and to goose racial division as the 2024 elections approach graphically illustrates just how unethical and ruthless the 21st Century American Left has become. (I know, I know, we don’t need any more evidence…). Mac Donald’s essay is superb, as many of hers often are. Do read it all, and them make your Facebook friends’ heads explode by sharing it.

Here are some other juicy and spot-on excerpts:

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Unethical Quote Of The Month: Pope Francis

/ Jack Marshall / 12 Comments

“Never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others…”

—Pope Francis in Canada  last July 22, in an irresponsible statement that is now being circulated and quoted in furtherance of ethical relativism.

Running across this quote has already ruined my weekend. Pope Francis has made a lot of dumb statements in his tenure, and dumb things do a lot of damage when coming from the mouths of those who carry great influence and power, and who are invested with moral authority. That is why they should be careful. Francis isn’t careful, which makes him an irresponsible and reckless Pope.

“Never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others” was the first part of a sentence that concluded with “or that it is legitimate to employ ways of coercing others.” He was in the midst of a grovel tour in Canada, self-flagellating for the still ongoing Catholic Church sexual predator scandal as well as allegations of Catholic Church abuse of indigenous peoples in North America. I guess he got carried away, because the “all cultures are equal” claim is absurd and dangerous, as well as factually wrong.

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Ethics Observations On The Machete-Wielding CUNY Prof.

/ Jack Marshall / 29 Comments

Does anyone recall anything like this happening in previous crazy times, like the mid-Sixties? If you somehow missed this episode, “listen my children and you will hear…”

Shellyne Rodriguez was an adjunct art professor at CUNY Hunter College in New York City. When she saw a group of pro-life students, members of Students for Life, distributing anti-abortion materials on campus earlier this month, she attacked, throwing their pamphlets in the air and screaming at them, saying,

“You’re not educating shit! This is fucking propaganda! What are you going to do like anti-trans next? This is bullshit! This is violent. You’re triggering my students!”

After a shaken student tried to babble and apology (for existing?)Rodriguez responded, “No, you’re not! Because you can’t even have a fucking baby. So you don’t even know what that is…Get this shit out of here, fuck this shit!” Then she threw the group’s pamphlets off their table.

Hunter’s pro-choice student group, CUNY for Abortion Rights, tried to defend the indefensible, thus destroying their own credibility, stating (falsely)

“Hunter College adjunct educator Shellyne Rodriguez approached the display, constructively critiqued the group members, and eventually physically took down items from the table.  Her actions to shut down the tabling were fully justified, and are part of a long and celebrated CUNY legacy of confronting groups such as military recruiters who disseminate misleading information. Anti-abortion groups are in collusion with anti-queer and trans, anti-labor, anti-Palestinian campaigns, in a larger [sense] violate people’s bodily autonomy, economic well-being, and collective determination.”

The statement was co-signed by the Palestine Solidarity Alliance.

But wait! There’s more!

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Easy Call: The Target Boycott Is Unethical

/ Jack Marshall / 55 Comments

Most boycotts are unethical; the threatened Target boycott is worse than most.

Target is one of the largest American general-merchandise retailers, with more than 1,900 stores nationwide. Every year, for more than a decade, it has offered products celebrating Pride Month. This year, taking advantage of the pro-trans fad, it is selling female bathing suits with a “tuck” feature to accommodate biological men identifying as women—you know, like Lia Thomas.

Ew.

However, such products are legal, and if Target offers them and customers buy them, it is not the business or concern of customers who don’t want to buy them. Yet this year’s Target collection has generated threats of a national boycott as well as, according to Target, actions rsiking the safety of its staff. The company told the Wall Street Journal that people have confronted workers in stores, knocked down Pride merchandise displays and put threatening posts on social media using video recorded from inside stores.

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Ethics Dunce: Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy [Link Fixed]

/ Jack Marshall / 9 Comments

There is no way not to take yesterday’s public warning from the nation’s top health official as ominous, indeed sinister. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy expounded on the risks of social media to children and teens, citing possible “harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” The remarkable 19-page advisory, begins by acknowledging that the effects of social media on adolescent mental health are not well understood, and even that social media can be beneficial to “some users.” It then goes on to argue ,“There are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

And thus the U.S. Surgeon General lays the groundwork for government censorship, despite admitting that there is insufficient hard data to support his conclusions. Parental supervision is not enough for this government, as we have already seen in multiple settings. After all, “it takes a village,” the village that one side of the current culture wars is trying to define includes treating words and expression as “harm” from which people must be kept “safe.” Predictably, the near-completely compliant national news media is behind such government appropriation of parental authority, in this as well as other matters.

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