The Cancel Culture

On February 19th 2021, I posted about Woke and its widespread current usage to describe a form of social awareness. I also described virtue signalling defined as:

the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue.

The term cancel culture is also now being widely used and this article sheds some light on its origin and meaning. 

When something is canceled, it is nulled, ended, voided. Done, over, no longer wanted, like a TV show or subscription. This sense of cancel is the basic idea behind the slang meaning of canceling a person. When a person is canceled, they are no longer supported publicly.

Canceling spread as a term and phenomenon in the public consciousness with the #MeToo Movement , as major public figures—from Harvey Weinstein to Matt Lauer to Louis C. K. and R. Kelly—were getting canceled due to credible allegations of sexual violence in their past. Other figures were getting canceled for past racist and anti-LGBTQ remarks, such as Shane Gillis and Kevin Hart, respectively.

Usually public figures are said to be canceled after it has been discovered that they have done something offensive. It involves calling out the bad behaviour, boycotting their work (such as by not watching their movies or listening to their music), and trying to take away their public platform and power. This is often done in a performative way on social media.

We should note that a variety of earlier slang senses of cancel can be found reaching into the 1990s. (One such vivid sense is “to murder.”) The spread of this slang sense is commonly credited to Black Twitter in the mid-2010s, which often used cancel about issues of discrimination and racism.

These figures—and many more—did lose their careers, reputations, or work opportunities after getting canceled. And with respect to #MeToo, many effectively lost their lives as they knew them. But in 2019, there was growing backlash against what came to be called cancel culture in the late 2010s. Culture refers to the shared attitudes and actions of a particular social group. Call-out culture is used in a similar way.

Criticisms of cancel culture centred on the feeling that people were becoming too keen to ruin lives over mistakes made many years ago. That people didn’t get a second chance. That social media is too quick to pile on and police increasingly high standards of political correctness and do so in a way that simply is virtue signaling and performatively woke. That canceling has gone too far and simply become a way of rejecting anyone you disagreed with or someone who did something you didn’t like. Former President Barack Obama notably criticised cancel culture (though not using the words as such), arguing that easy social media judgments don’t amount to true social activism.

Others, meanwhile, have criticised cancel culture for being ineffective or argue that it isn’t even real—that the likes of Louis C.K. still get a stage and an audience, if less than before, despite the sexual assault claims against him. That people still listen to Michael Jackson’s music despite the sexual and child abuse claims against him.

Yet others object to the name cancel culture, arguing that the label misunderstands that people are simply trying to hold people accountable for their actions.

Cancel culture started trending again in 2020 amid increased awareness of and opposition to racial injustice following the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd. Discussion of cancel culture flared up in the mainstream media after the publication of a letter criticising cancel culture in Harper’s Magazine and President Donald Trump compared cancel culture to totalitarianism. 

The ongoing protests also led to renewed demands for the canceling of already controversial things such as symbols of the Confederacy, statues of Christopher Columbus, and the name of the Washington Redskins football team, which announced it would change its name after intense pressure from team sponsors. 

From https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/cancel-culture/ 

At the current time, Dr. Seuss books are victims of the cancel culture and woke librarians are busy removing all copies from library shelves. Even the Sydney Morning Herald ran an article titled The cancel culture that stole Dr Seuss. There are no limits to this madness and anything ever written may fall victim to the purge if it is deemed to offend woke standards. The following excerpt from this article provides a good criticism of this insanity:

The National Library of New Zealand recently decided to dispose of 600 000 books including prized first editions of English literature classics  to make way for the growing New Zealand, Maori and Pacific collection.

This may be a budget thing: ’a not enough space’ type of argument but I smell cancel culture and the identity politics creed that has been woodworming academica and bureaucracy for some years now.

The rationale that has become fashionable since black lives now matter, is that policies, laws and icons that stem from the past must be eradicated. This is because the colonists, rulers, inventors and developers of the most successful technological societies in modern history were almost exclusively European males; now invalidated by the lack of indigenous participation.

It is propounded that the general oppression and inability of most people of colour from Africa and the Pacific to get rich, get educated and successfully contribute to society is directly attributable to and caused by these white despots.

Hence the re-writing of history and the toppling of statues, renaming of roads and places with European names.

Source

I posted the above graphic to Facebook with the comment "Surrender your spine and you become supine". A lot of effect that will have. Anyway, this post is about language rather than the polemics that I reserve for my Alternative Media blog.

My Facebook post even elicited a response from a friend who is normally at odds with my world view.

Pointing the Finger: Indonesian Style

Pointing is usually achieved with the index finger and there are two words for this finger in Indonesia, one is tunjuk and the other is tuding. The odd thing is that neither of these two words is used to actually refer to this finger. Instead, the term used is jari telunjuk. Figure 1 shows a graphic with the names of all the fingers:

Figure 1

I'm familiar with tunjuk but not tuding. As well as meaning index finger, tunjuk by extension can mean to point at something. Here are some examples of its use (source):

• Saya tidak tahu mengapa orang itu MENUNJUK saya.
  I don't know why that person POINTED TO me. 
  
  
• Bisakah anda MENUNJUKKAN kepada saya di mana kampung Melayu berada?
  Can you POINT OUT to me where the Malay village is located? 
  
  
• Nanti malam ada PERTUNJUKAN wayang di desaku.
  Later tonight there is a shadow puppet PERFORMANCE in my village.
   
• Jangan kau rubah PENUNJUK jalan ini.
  Don't change this ROAD SIGN.

The word tuding can also be used in the sense of pointing as in this example:

• Andi MENUDING lubang tikus di dapur.
  Andi POINTED AT a mouse hole in the kitchen.

The passive form DITUDING can be used to mean be accused of (be pointed at) e.g.

• Pria itu DITUDING mencuri.
  The man is ACCUSED of stealing.

However, there is another word that can be used for pointing at and accusing and that is tuduh. Here are some examples of its use:

• Tetanggaku MENUDUHku mencuri ayamnya.
  My neighbor ACCUSES me of stealing his chicken.
  
  
• Ini baru TUDUHAN pembunuhan tingkat kedua.
  This is just an ACCUSATION of second degree murder. 
  
  
• PENUDUHnya menghadapinya di gedung pengadilan.
  His ACCUSER confronted him in the courthouse.

Once again, the passive form DITUDUH means to be accused of e.g.

• Politisi itu DITUDUH menerima suap.
  The politician is ACCUSED of taking bribes.

That's enough for this post.

IPFS (Inter-Planetary File System)

I was reminded today of the Inter-Planetary System or IPFS today when I viewed this tweet shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1

I installed the IPFS desktop on my Mac and Figure 2 shows a screenshot of the about file:

Figure 2

It's important to maintain familiarity with this sort of technology as a future means of communication and file sharing when the Internet becomes totally balkanised and controlled. Here are some excerpts from the IPFS website:

Today's web is inefficient and expensive

HTTP downloads files from one computer at a time instead of getting pieces from multiple computers simultaneously. Peer-to-peer IPFS saves big on bandwidth — up to 60% for video — making it possible to efficiently distribute high volumes of data without duplication.

Today's web can't preserve humanity's history

The average lifespan of a web page is 100 days before it's gone forever. It's not good enough for the primary medium of our era to be this fragile. IPFS keeps every version of your files and makes it simple to set up resilient networks for mirroring data.

Today's web is centralised, limiting opportunity

The Internet has turbocharged innovation by being one of the great equalisers in human history — but increasing consolidation of control threatens that progress. IPFS stays true to the original vision of an open, flat web by delivering technology to make that vision a reality.

Today's web is addicted to the backbone

IPFS powers the creation of diversely resilient networks that enable persistent availability — with or without Internet backbone connectivity. This means better connectivity for the developing world, during natural disasters, or just when you're on flaky coffee shop wi-fi.

As I said, I've installed the IPFS Desktop:

Once installed, the interface is also accessible via http:\\localhost:5001\webui. Figure 3 shows the desktop interface:

Figure 5

It can also be added as a browser extension called IPFS Companion, which I've done using the Chrome browser. 

There is an IPFS tutorial on ProtoSchool that can be worked through for the more motivated.

Of course, most people do not have IPFS installed on their computers and so content can only be made available to them by using an IPFS gateway, defined as follows:

The ipfs.io gateway makes it possible for Internet users to access and view data hosted by third parties on the IPFS network. The ipfs.io gateway is a community resource run by Protocol Labs to help developers build on IPFS. Source.

Another important concept is pinning, explained as follows: 

Pinning services

To ensure that your important data is retained, you may want to use a pinning service. These services run lots of IPFS nodes and allow users to pin data on those nodes for a fee. Some services offer free storage-allowance for new users. Pinning services are handy when:

• You don't have a lot of disk space, but you want to ensure your data sticks around.
• Your computer is a laptop, phone, or tablet that will have intermittent connectivity to the network. Still, you want to be able to access your data on IPFS from anywhere at any time, even when the device you added it from is offline.
• You want a backup that ensures your data is always available from another computer on the network if you accidentally delete or garbage-collect your data on your own computer.

Pinata is one such service that provides one gigabyte free to new users.

The Brave web browser now natively supports IPFS:

Brave has integrated IPFS into its desktop web browser for Windows, macOS, and Linux. When Brave detects an address which is an HTTP gateway URL to IPFS content, or a native IPFS address such as ipfs:// or ipns:// it will prompt the user to install and enable the native IPFS node, or to use an HTTP gateway. The default gateway used is dweb.link, which is run by Protocol Labs. Users can also specify a gateway of their choice in the browser settings. You can access the IPFS administrative UI at brave://ipfs,, or enable IPFS Companion and select “My Node” button in the main menu. Source.

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Woke

It's only now, after hearing the term used repeatedly in recent weeks, that I've come to understand what is meant by "woke". Here is what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary had to say about the word (that was added in September of 2017):

If you frequent social media, you may well have seen posts or tweets about current events that are tagged #staywoke. Woke is a slang term that is easing into the mainstream from some varieties of a dialect called African American Vernacular English (sometimes called AAVE). In AAVE, awake is often rendered as woke, as in, “I was sleeping, but now I’m woke.”

It can be hard to trace slang back to its origins since slang’s origins are usually spoken, and it can be particularly difficult to trace a slang word that has its origins in a dialect. Woke’s transformation into a byword of social awareness likely started in 2008, with the release of Erykah Badu’s song “Master Teacher”:

Even if yo baby ain't got no money

To support ya baby, you

(I stay woke)

Even when the preacher tell you some lies

And cheatin on ya mama, you stay woke

(I stay woke)

Even though you go through struggle and strife

To keep a healthy life, I stay woke

(I stay woke)

Everybody knows a black or a white there's creatures in every shape and size

Everybody

(I stay woke)

Stay woke became a watch word in parts of the black community for those who were self-aware, questioning the dominant paradigm and striving for something better. But stay woke and woke became part of a wider discussion in 2014, immediately following the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The word woke became entwined with the Black Lives Matter movement; instead of just being a word that signalled awareness of injustice or racial tension, it became a word of action. Activists were woke and called on others to stay woke.

Like many other terms from black culture that have been taken into the mainstream, woke is gaining broader uses. It’s now seeing use as an adjective to refer to places where woke people commune: woke Twitter has very recently taken off as the shorthand for describing social-media activists. The broader uses of woke are still very much in flux, and there are some who are woke to the broader implications of woke:

“Woke” feels a little bit like Macklemore rapping in one of his latest tracks about how his whiteness makes his rap music more acceptable to other white people. The conundrum is built in. When white people aspire to get points for consciousness, they walk right into the cross hairs between allyship and appropriation.

—Amanda Hess, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2016

This excerpt from a Signs of the Time article puts it well:

The woke dictionary is a way to soften speech in our "fear of offending" culture. Calling out others for using "dated" and "problematic language" is how students can virtue signal by showing off how sensitive they are. If you prequel anything slightly controversial with "speaking from a place of privilege," there's a better chance your peers won't label you a racist. 

The term "virtue signalling" is described as:

the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue.

"it's noticeable how often virtue signalling consists of saying you hate things" Source

The term woke is included amongst "24 phrases millennials use all the time but no one else gets" and these phrases are certainly worth a look.

PRODOME

I came across an article today discussing whether some dreams can provide early warnings of physical problems in the body. Such dreams are described as prodromal and so I thought I'd create a post centred around the use and etymology of this word. As an adjective, it derives from the word prodrome that the Online Etymology Dictionary describes as:

1640s, "a forerunner" (a sense now obsolete); by 1834 in pathology, "a prodromal symptom;" from French prodrome (16th century) and directly from Modern Latin prodromus, from Greek prodromos "a running forward, a sally, sudden attack," from pro "forward" + dromos "a running".

In fact, words built from dromos include:

• hippodrome: horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words hippos and dromos. The term is used in the modern French language and some others, with the meaning of "horse racecourse". Source. In modern use, "circus performance place" (mid-19th century), and thus extended to "large theater for stage shows."
  
  
• aerodrome: a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither. In American English, the term is airdrome. Aerodromes include small general aviation airfields, large commercial airports, and military air bases. It's use has now been largely replaced by the word "airport". Source. The word derives from the Greek aerodromos meaning "a running through the air."
  
  
• palindrome: "a word or line that reads the same backward and forward," 1620s, from Greek palindromos "a recurrence," literally "a running back." Second element is dromos "a running" and first is palin "again, back". Source.
  
  
• velodrome: a track for bicycle racing, usually with curved sides that go up steeply. Source. The term derives from "a building for bicycle races, 1892, from French vélodrome, from vélo, colloquial abbreviation of vélocipède + drome". Source.
  
  

• dromedary: "thoroughbred Arabian camel," late 13c., from Old French dromedaire and directly from Late Latin dromedarius "kind of camel", from Latin dromas (genitive dromados), from Greek dromas kamelos "running camel", from dromos "a race course". Source.

• syndrome: a group of symptoms that collectively indicate or characterise a disease, disorder, or other condition considered abnormal. Source. It's etymology is:

"a number of symptoms occurring together," 1540s, from medical Latin, from Greek syndrome "concurrence of symptoms, concourse of people," from syndromos "place where several roads meet," literally "a running together," from syn "with" + dromos "a running, course". Source.

Figure 1 and 2 show visual examples involving the use of the word prodome.

Figure 1: source

Figure 2: source

Finally, Figure 3 shows an image of a seadrome:

Figure 3: source

Signal

Today I set up a Signal account on my phone. It was interesting to read the following from this source:

... what most people don’t realise is that Signal “phone numbers” are not really phone numbers. They are more like numeric user names.

Contrary to popular belief, your Signal account is not linked to your phone number, but rather to an automatically generated number called a private key. In order to make the app easy to use, this private key or cryptographic identity is then associated with some arbitrary other number that again, for convenience’s sake, just happens to be a phone number. The reason it’s a phone number is so that the Signal service can send you a verification code in a text message during the sign-up and account registration process. But there’s no reason you have to give Signal your real phone number.

By providing Signal with any phone number at which you can receive an SMS or text message, you can register a Signal account at that other phone number. For example, you can create a pseudonymous Google account, register a Google Voice VoIP number, and use that as your Signal number. Or you can even use a free throw-away SMS account and use that number when you sign up for your Signal account instead of your real phone number. The Signal service will happily send the throw-away number a text message with the verification code, letting you complete the account sign-up process.

I had tried to register using my Australian Skype number only to find out that such numbers can't receive an SMS. This was news to me and so I promptly cancelled my Skype number. The reference above to Google Voice VoIP number caught my attention but that's currently only available in the USA. 

Here is some more information about Signal:

For the past few days, WhatsApp is hitting the headlines as it is updating its terms of use and privacy policy. As it appears to be a concern for many, people are talking about the alternatives to WhatsApp. One of the most secure options available out there is Signal. Well, WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app that comes with features such as end-to-end encryption, video and voice calling support, simplified file transfer in just a single click and much more. However, it is not the only one offering such capabilities to users. There are a slew of messaging apps such as Telegram, Line, iMessage and more that provide similar benefits. 

Having said that Signal is a secure alternative to WhatsApp, let's take a look at the details of the app. 

What Is Signal? 

Signal is a messaging app with a great focus on privacy. Its tagline is 'Say Hello to Privacy'. It is an end-to-end encrypted service just like WhatsApp. Signal is available on Android, iOS and Chrome platforms. It is free of cost and comes with same features as any other messenger apps. While it exists for quite some time, the app has gained traction since the recent privacy policy change announced by WhatsApp. It received too much influx from new registrations across the world and crashed. Now, Signal is back in action and it accepts new registrations.  

Who Owns Signal? 

Signal was developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC and it is a non-profit company. Signal was created by Moxie Marlinspike, American cryptographer and currently CEO of Signal Messenger and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton. 

Which Country Does Signal Belong To? 

The Signal app's origin is California, USA. This rules out the confusion that many might have as it is speculated to be a Chinese company. Notably, the company has been termed Limited Liability Partnership. 

Is Signal Safe? What Data Does It Collect? 

While WhatsApp and many other instant messaging apps collect a lot of user data from your device such as performance data, device ID, advertising data, product interaction, payment info, location data, search history and more, Signal is claimed to be a secure app. We say so as the app does not collect any user data. It is claimed that Signal will ask only for your mobile number for registration. Apart from this, the app won't ask you to link your number to your user account.

Read more at: https://www.gizbot.com/apps/news/signal-messaging-app-who-owns-signal-which-country-does-telegram-belong-to-071992.html

Now what about Moxie Marlinspike whose real name is Matthew Rosenberg? Here is a link to a profile of the man. He is Jewish but I don't know if he has dual nationality (with Israel). The reality is that no United States software developer is allowed to rise to prominence if they don't acquiesce to the installation of NSA backdoors in the software. The richest man in the world recommending Signal should be a signal in itself that something's not right here. It's as if we are all being herded toward Signal but any hope of genuine privacy is a forlorn hope. End-to-end encryption of communications is not the future that is being planned for us. This article explores the issue in more depth.

Hand Idioms

I write an article now and then, just to keep my hand in.The Cambridge Dictionary had a useful blog post on January 6th 2021 relating to idioms that involved the word hand. Here are examples of the phrases that were described:

• Like all parents, I want to know that my child is in good hands.
  
  
• The new director is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands.
  
  
• We’ve got to do something to calm these kids down or we’re going to have a riot on our hands!
  
  
• Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about the matter now. It’s out of my hands.
  
  
• I thought I might try my hand at baking.
  
  
• Bored with journalism, he’s now hoping to turn his hand to politics.
  
  
• Just think of the suffering that animals endure at the hands of humans.
  
  
• We can’t ask Tom to help out. He’s got his hands full setting up the cafe.
  
  
• I mean, I’ll put my hands up. I’m not always the best at helping around the house.
  
  
• Suddenly, everyone wanted to buy their products and they were making money hand over fist.
  
  
• If you played her at tennis, you’d win hands down! 
  

I'd thought I'd add a few more to the list, not necessarily idioms but also aphorisms and compound words. Here they are:

• 
  The family was so poor that all the younger daughter's clothes were hand-me-downs from her older sister.
  
  
• The extra manpower ensured the project was completed on time. It was a classic case of many hands make light work.
  
  
• The two rivals agreed to discard their swords and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
  
  
• In golf, Ben has a handicap of twenty two.
  
  
• All Saul's business dealings were underhand and shady.
  
  
• This burglary is the handiwork of a professional.
  
  
• He's a real handy-andy when it comes to repairs around the house.
  
  
• "Why, you don't look your age at all!" came Gladys's deliberately back-handed compliment (or left-handed compliment).
  
  
• It's in God's hand now, there nothing we can do.
  
  
• Because of his former hubris, Alex blamed the hand of God for his accident.
  
  
• The family had little money and led a hand to mouth existence most of the time.
  
  
• He was caught with his hand in the till so to speak when discovered rifling through the pockets of coats that were hanging near the entrance to the house.
  
  
• Joe Biden is a hands-on type of guy where young girls are concerned.
  
  
• Life had dealt him a seemingly bad hand and so he was always disgruntled.
  
  
• "Look, hand on heart, I don't know anybody called Gemma", said my boyfriend.
  
  
• The nurse's hand-off at the end of her shift was rather long-winded. It seemed as if she didn't want to leave the ward.
  
  
• The handover of power following Trump's electoral defeat has not gone smoothly.
  
  
• "All assignments must be handed in by Wednesday", said the lecturer.
  
  
• 
  It was interesting to hear a first hand account of what had happened from an eyewitness. 
  
  
• Some of the guests drank too much and suddenly things got out of hand.
  
  
• I got the news second hand from my friend who knows somebody who was there.
  
  
• Information received third hand should not be counted on as reliable.
  
  
• "He wouldn't do anything like that. I know him like the back of my hand", said my friend reassuringly.
  
  
• Do you have anything on hand could serve as a leash for our dog?
  
  
• He was very off-hand in his reply to my question and this annoyed me.
  
  
• Can you give me a hand? I can't lift this by myself.
  
  
• If you want to succeed in politics, you'll have to get your hands dirty.
  
  
• The censorship was rather heavy-handed and there was an inevitable backlash.
  
  
• His wife waited on him hand and foot but he was never appreciative.
  
  
• I've washed my hands of the whole, sordid business.
  
  
• You take your life in your hands when you drive with him.
  
  
• If the police don't do something soon, I'm going to take the law into my own hands.
  
  
• The artefact was made by hand, there was no machining applied at all.
  
  

Pinterest is a good source of visual material illustrating many of these idioms. Figures 1 and 2 show two examples:

Figure 1

Figure 2