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Thank You, Serena

Entry 1937, on 2018-09-24 at 18:47:32 (Rating 5, News)

I think all rational and reasonable people owe a lot to Serena Williams. Why? Because I think her recent behaviour - both on the tennis court, and in interviews after that - has finally shown how political correctness, rabid feminism, and all the other nonsense favouring so-called minorities has gone too far. She has shown that allegedly disadvantaged groups (such as, in her case, black females) are just as privileged, and often far more so, than the average white male. She has shown how truly dishonest and nefarious the current culture of political correctness has really become.

I have ranted against political correctness for about a year now. Or should I say, I have concentrated on the subject more than others in that time, because I have always been against PC to some extent. The reason for this increased resistance to it is that I think political correctness has arguably become the biggest problem Western culture faces.

I know that sounds bizarre. How can PC be our biggest problem when inequality, gun violence, homelessness, economic collapse, and intolerance seem to be so much worse? Well, maybe I am indulging in a certain amount of hyperbole here, but I think there is some merit in the idea. Many commentators agree, and think that the political correctness associated with Clinton's campaign was a significant factor in Trump winning. So, ironically, if you don't like Trump, blame political correctness, even though he is the least PC politician around!

So getting back to the specific case of Serena Williams. Despite being a black woman she is incredibly privileged and her outbursts are quite well known. Clearly she has an overbearing attitude of entitlement which is at least as bad as any white person or man I can think of. And when she was caught out exercising this privilege she dared to use the old sexism defence. Her dishonesty is just unbelievable.

In the past few people would have dared criticise her, because you just don't criticise a black woman if you want to avoid charges of racism and/or sexism. But this time the criticism seems to be everywhere. Even white male commentators are writing critical opinions and largely getting away with just minimal knee-jerk reactions, like accusations of misogyny.

Of course, there has been some support as well. But even an extremist like Germaine Greer has only stepped into the debate with accusations of racism on a peripheral issue, by claiming that a cartoon depicting Williams was (bizarrely) sexist. So most people are realising that when racism or sexism is claimed it often isn't real. So maybe radical feminism has reached its peak, at least I hope so, because I think it is one of the most destructive political forces in the world today, and is possibly the worst manifestation of political correctness.

Here are a few opinions on the Williams issue, which I find refreshingly honest...

Quote 1: "All players know that publicly attacking the honesty of the umpire is going to result in an immediate code violation. Ramos made absolutely the correct calls as a chair umpire in each of these three incidents."

Meaning that there was no reason to think that she had been treated unfairly because she is a woman, as she claimed. Of course the claim of sexism was somewhat absurd anyway because her opposition was also a woman. And the second claim of racism is almost as ridiculous, because her opposition was also from a "minority group" (Asian). Even more ironically, Asians are often disadvantaged by affirmative action policies in the US favouring blacks - because there is a lot of official racism there favouring blacks.

Quote 2: "This match was not Serena Williams' finest hour. She lost to a better player and in the process lost her cool in spectacular fashion. It is Williams who owes an apology to Ramos, not the other way around."

She has had so many "not finest hours" that to be her worst really takes some effort. Of course, I doubt whether the male umpire will even get the apology he deserves. But imagine if a male player had abused a female official like that. I suspect an apology would be an official demand in that case.

Quote 3: "Quoting sexism and protesting that male players don't get treated the same is a desperate attempt to hide your own faults. Male players over the years have definitely felt the wrath of officials. Note that Italian Fabio Fognini was defaulted from the US Open last year for verbal abuse of an official."

Here's another opinion from a male commentator saying something which might have been off limits in the past. And he's got it exactly right: claims of sexism have been an easy excuse for any deficiencies a person has had in the past, but it didn't work this time, and hopefully won't be such an attractive option in the future either.

Quote 4: "Her tantrum was calculated, cynical and selfish. She had lost the first set. Then she was penalised one point for being coached. ... Cue the outrage. Let's see if my meltdown will put off my opponent. It didn't work, thankfully."

Note that she was already losing before any penalties, so claims that she was robbed of the match don't make a lot of sense.

Quote 5: "The Herald Sun newspaper printed an edited portion of the cartoon — featuring 23-time Grand Slam winner Williams jumping on a broken racket during her dispute with a chair umpire in the U.S. Open final - among caricatures of other famous people Wednesday under the headline 'Welcome to the PC World'. The newspaper has defended its cartoonist Mark Knight's depiction of Williams and is asserting the condemnation, which has come from all parts of the world, is driven by political correctness."

Apparently depicting a black person as a black person is racist according to some people. As I have said in past posts: the word "racism" has really lost all usefulness because of over-use (as has sexist, misogynist, Nazi, alt-right, and a whole lot of others).

Quote 6: "At the 2017 French Open, during a fourth-round match between Nadal and Roberto Batista Agut, Ramos penalized Nadal for two time violations for slow play, the second of which cost Nadal a point. There are umpires who sometimes put more pressure than others, and you have to accept this, Nadal said after that match, which he won."

So that's how a reasonable person (in this case a white male, although to be fair there are plenty of them who have acted almost as badly as Williams) reacts when an umpire interprets the rules in a way which some might say is a bit too literally.

Quote 7: "Chair umpire Carlos Ramos, branded a villain by many tennis fans after he penalized Serena Williams in Saturday's US Open final, has the backing of international tennis' governing body. ... Some critics accused Ramos of sexism, suggesting he would not have handed out those code violations to a man. The ITF, in its statement, dismissed that."

And those "some critics" would be totally wrong, just like most critics who accuse people of sexism are grossly ignorant and intellectually lazy. If you're going to make a claim like that you need to check your facts, but very few of them seem to do that.

Quote 8: "In a fiery Q&A debate, the outspoken feminist [Germain Greer] claimed that while the world was discussing whether or not Mark Knight's caricature was racist, we should also have been asking whether or not it was sexist."

When you see the words "outspoken feminists" you might as well substitute "out of control crazy extremist". But everything is sexism to people like her. Maybe after this we will start ignoring these people, like we should have done all along. If there is genuine sexism it will be apparent to moderates, so the opinions of crazies like her really do have little relevance.

Quote 9: "I want my daughter and son to wonder at the soul and the world's possibilities, I want them to look at women and men with love and respect, ... It is time for our women leaders, starting with the prime minister, to take speak out against this shameful misandry that has taken root."

Yeah, right. A very politically correct prime minister saying something like that? I don't think so. As I have been trying to say in this post: we are making some progress against PC, but expecting our (New Zealand's) current PM to have a fair and reasonable attitude about this is unrealistic. By the way, I don't like the use of the word "misandry" there, but I think was used in more a rhetorical than a literal sense.

Quote 10: "Williams says on The Project: I just don't understand - if you're a female you should be able to do even half of what a guy can do. At a fashion show in Vegas Williams said: I feel it's really important to stand up for what you believe in. Especially if it can affect the future and affect a lot of people in the future. That's what it's all about."

So she is clearly unrepentant and determined to continue with the ridiculous charade. And the more politically correct programs, like the Project (which, if it is anything like the New Zealand version, is probably the worst program ever seen on TV), will probably let her away with it too, because fair and accurate journalism is rare today.

Quote 11: "US great Billie Jean King tweeted: When a woman is emotional, she's 'hysterical' and she's penalised for it. When a man does the same, he's 'outspoken' and there are no repercussions. Thank you, @serenawilliams, for calling out this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same."

Here we have another crazy feminist who doesn't let the facts get on the way of furthering her corrupt political views, because feminism is an irrational political view and one just as unprincipled as any other I can think of.

Finally: "Serena Williams, now the winner of the most Grand Slams in the history of professional tennis, is undisputedly the best player to ever step on the court."

No, she isn't. She is possibly the best *female* player but, compared with the best men, she is hopelessly inadequate. Women just aren't as good as men at most sports (there are a small number of exceptions) and pretending they are equal is another politically correct view which is simply wrong.

By the way, if you really think women are competitive with men at sport then I offer you this...

At the height of the Williams boom in 1998, an unofficial game took place in Australia after Serena and Venus claimed that no male player outside the top 200 could beat them. Up stepped a German known as Karsten Braasch who was ranked 203rd in the world and after first beating Serena 6-1, he then disposed of Venus 6-2. "I didn't know it would be that difficult. I played shots that would have been winners on the women's circuit and he got to them very easily," said Serena. "They wouldn't have had a chance against anyone inside the top 500 because today I played like someone ranked 600th to keep it fun," was Braasch's assessment.

Considering how much worse they are, why do women think they should get equal pay, and why do the PC brigade support this? Note that I am referring to sports with separate women's competitions here, I fully support equal pay for genuinely equal work.

So, in conclusion I say "thank you, Serena". Please continue to make a fool of yourself so people continue to see how corrupt you are, and how corrupt your politically correct supporters are. I hope this means that we can begin to eradicate political correctness, because it is without doubt a terrible blight on our society today.

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