Monty Python’s Life of Brian is, by the day, looking less and less like a satire than a prophecy on a par with 1984 or Brave New World. But then, Huxley’s masterpiece was also intended as a satire. It’s just that reality seems determined to outdo satire in its absurdity.
Not only did Brian anticipate the rise of loony transgenderism, with Stan/“Loretta”, who “want[ed] to have babies”, but the People’s Front of Judea – meant as a satire of 70s left-wing radicals – look like a model of normality in comparison with the reality of the Democratic Socialists of America. Welcome to 2019.
The Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, annual conference was heavily regulated to minimize “triggering” events, but it wasn’t enough for some participants.
As the event began in Georgia this weekend, one of the organizers took the podium to establish some ground rules…“We have a lot of disabled comrades,” he explained. To avoid “triggering” those with “invisible disabilities,” participants must refrain from clapping, cheering, hissing or conferring in any way with those around them, he said.
The organizer also shared that DSA had set up a “range of options” for “quiet rooms,” where participants could go to escape noise “so that people aren’t going to get triggered.” But he asked that participants wearing perfume not enter the quiet rooms, as the “aggressive scent” could be triggering.
“We don’t want to put people in stressful situations that they don’t consent to,” the organizer said on the issue of perfume avoidance.
Apparently having the state seize the means of production and private property doesn’t count as a “stressful situation” to these smelly loonies.
Despite all the rules, the convention went off the rails when murmurs from the audience reached a level that was simply intolerable to one participant. Outraged, the man interrupted a female speaker to declare a “point of personal privilege.”
“Guys, first of all, James Jackson Sacramento, he/him,” the man began, introducing himself and establishing his gender identity.
“I just wanna say, can we please keep the chatter to a minimum? I’m one of the people who’s very very prone to sensory overload. There’s a lot of whispering and chatter going on, it’s making it very difficult to focus.”
However, another participant immediately stood up to declare that he was triggered by the first man’s trigger warning. In particular, he objected to the use of the word “guys.”
If all that wasn’t ridiculous enough, there was the unintentionally hilarious sight of delegates silently waving jazz hands in lieu of applause. The few reprobates who actually put their hands together were quickly brought to heel.
Meanwhile, other socialists took to Twitter to complain that the no clapping rule was not being followed strictly enough.
“Dear delegates: Please respect the repeated requests to use ASL applause! Please stop clapping!”
Naturally, conservatives were beside themselves with mirth.
Fox News host Jess Watters joked on “The Five” talk show Monday that the man who complained about gendered pronouns was too good to be true.
“I don’t think that was an actual socialist,” he said. “I think that was a conservative comedian pretending to be a snowflake socialist for laughs. There’s no way that could have been real!”
Students for Trump also enjoyed the socialist conference. The group tweeted Monday that it was feeling pretty good about 2020.
pluralist.com/democratic-socialists-of-america-annual-conference-videos/
Honk-honk, indeed.