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      "body": "Congratulations @ceit-e! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@ceit-e/birthday3.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 3 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@ceit-e) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=ceit-e)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "Congratulations @ceit-e! You have received a personal award!\n\n[![](https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@ceit-e/birthday2.png)](http://steemitboard.com/@ceit-e)  2 Years on Steemit\n<sub>_Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor._</sub>\n\n\n> Do you like [SteemitBoard's project](https://steemit.com/@steemitboard)? Then **[Vote for its witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1)** and **get one more award**!",
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      "title": "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS; or, \"THE ART OF BEING NICE\"",
      "body": "@@ -25,16 +25,22 @@\n to find \n+a new \n Pat Cond\n@@ -43,16 +43,22 @@\n Condell \n+video \n waiting \n@@ -92,70 +92,8 @@\n feed\n- (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4E8vypb5xo&feature=youtu.be)\n . Fo\n@@ -3369,57 +3369,10 @@\n ness\n-%E2%80%9D ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67k9eEw9AY )\n .\n+%22\n  No \n",
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      "title": "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS; or, \"THE ART OF BEING NICE\"",
      "body": "I awakened this morning to find Pat Condell waiting for me in my Facebook news-feed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4E8vypb5xo&feature=youtu.be). For me, personally, this is always an excellent way to begin the day as I greatly enjoy his videos; they are intelligently articulated and contain a wonderful mix of humour and relevancy while covering the more “uncomfortable issues” that most people would feel better simply ignoring for the sake of “political correctness”.\n\nToday's video was on the subject of “political correctness” itself. It seems Pat has recently been accused of being “unhelpful” for speaking bluntly. Referring to the savagery that goes on in Iran, and other countries which are heavily populated by radical Muslims, as “savagery”, and the people endorsing and committing these atrocities as “savages”, apparently greatly offends people.\n\nIt's a common complaint now, you’re likely to hear at least one example every day, someone repeating these standard battle-cries of the “P.C. Crowd”:\n\n“He's so mean”.\n\n“That's not nice”.\n\n“I'm offended”.\n\n“You could get through to more people if you just softened your approach”.\n\nOr the default fallback of: “That's not politically correct”.\n\nWhen did we, as a society, become so hung up on the idea of niceness? How did we get to the point where we will reject the message based on the delivery? Why is it that we would prefer a pretty, feel-good lie, over a hard truth?\n\nNiceness now carries more weight than honesty. Let's stop for a moment and take a look at a few descriptions of “nice speech” that it would appear a great majority of us have forgotten in recent years:\n\n\n”Silver-tongued”: Able to speak in a way that makes people do or believe what you want them to do or believe. Marked by a convincing and eloquent expression. Example- “A silver-tongued politician” -Merriam-Webster Dictionary.\n\n“Snake-oil”: Speech or writing intended to charm and deceive .\n\n“Beguiling”: Misleading by means of pleasant or alluring methods.\n\n“Wiles”: Devious or cunning stratagems employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what one wants.\n\n“Wheedle”:To employ endearments or flattery to persuade someone to do something or to give one something.\n\n“Cajole”: To persuade someone to do something by sustained coaxing or flattery.\n\n“Butter up”: To flatter with the intention of getting something.\n\n“Sweet talk”: To insincerely praise someone in order to persuade them to do something.\n\n\nHave we had enough yet? I would like you to take a minute and study each of those definitions very carefully. Does being “nice” in order to accomplish your goal really sound like a GOOD idea? Does it strike you as an HONEST and/or SINCERE approach? Now, I would like you to stop and try to recall previous situations where you may have heard these words or phrases used, and think about WHO they were being applied to. A few common examples that everyone should be immediately familiar with are: Politicians, lawyers, used car salesmen, telemarketers, con artists, television evangelists. If I asked you to describe the character of any of the above list, would the adjectives that you choose be positive ones? Would any of the attributes that come to mind be ones that YOU would personally aspire to possess?\n\nAfter watching Pat Condell this morning I was reminded of another video, a personal favourite of mine, George Carlin's take on “Soft Speech/Political Correctness” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67k9eEw9AY ). No one wants to hear the so-called “hard truths” anymore. We want to be let down gently, we want a nicer picture painted for us, a prettier face put on these otherwise “icky” realities that we are forced to deal with on a day-to-day basis. We WANT to be lied to. We want this SO badly, in fact, that when faced with the ACTUAL truth, most of us suffer from such intense cognitive dissonance that our brains physically recoil in horror and we conjure up some imaginary defence to counter it. Typically something along the lines of “I'm OFFENDED!”, or a variation thereof.\n\nThe thing about the truth is, it doesn't need any helping hands. Truth is supported by reality, backed up by evidence and cold, hard facts. It doesn't need to be toned down, it doesn't need to be made “nicer”. The only thing that you need to sugar-coat in order to convince the average person to swallow it, is fraud.\n\nThe other thing that triggered the motivation to compose this piece, was the reaction to something that I wrote the other day. It wasn't a masterpiece of literary achievement, I'm certainly not expecting a Pulitzer to arrive on my doorstep, but it was something that I both felt strongly about, and thought had a relevant point. To say that said-article was not well-received would be a gross understatement. And not for any of the reasons that you might think! It had nothing to do with the content, the tone of the writing, or my ability to express the concepts covered. In fact, at least one person openly admitted that they had not even read the article before commenting on it. My writing was immediately dismissed for one simple reason. I dared to mention, and draw comparisons to, someone else who believes firmly in honest, straight-forward communication.\n\nThe person in question is constantly accused of “not niceness”, and is commonly labelled as being simply “arrogant”, or “egotistical”. This reaction, while wholly inaccurate, is at least fairly understandable. Living in a society where we have come to rely on and expect this duplicitous “niceness”, this “feel-good, sugar-coating” to our daily interactions, it can be shocking at first to encounter such refreshing, blatant honesty. Someone who is not afraid to openly call bullshit when presented with erroneous information. Someone who both knows exactly WHO and WHAT they are, and has the utmost confidence in their knowledge and abilities. Such a thing is so rare these days that the only way that the average mind can interpret it is as “ego”, and “arrogance”. We don't WANT to be told that we are wrong. We want to be coddled, we want to be soothed. We want a pat on the head and a gold star for participation. This is just one small part of the larger “dumbing-down” initiative that is taking place. “Adequate is the new excellent” (quote from Tara Duncan) no longer applies, we're aiming for “mediocre” now with “defective” not far behind.\n\nWith only minimal research, it's not hard to see that the current global state of things is pretty grim. Corrupt political bodies, in almost EVERY country on Earth, are generally screwing the people in every imaginable way. The reason that things have gotten to this point is largely due to our desire to keep swallowing these “pretty lies”. The government is a mess? Well THIS electoral candidate promises to change ALL of that, just as SOON as you vote him or her into power. Oh, gee, it looks like they lied! Oh well, that's okay, you obviously just made a poor choice this time. That's not YOUR fault, right? I mean, all YOU did was trust that what you were hearing was the truth. I'm SURE you will choose more wisely next time, and oh look, another election is coming soon! And on and on it goes in an endless, repetitive cycle.\n\nWe form our opinions of people based on their words and their actions, we trust the things that they say and accord them certain privileges because of it. But when their words turn out to be false, do we hold them accountable? No. Do we stop and examine the situation, consider how and why we were fooled, and learn from our mistakes? No! We greedily open our mouths and wait for the next honey-coated lie to be fed to us. We don't want to admit that we've been fooled, we don't want to stop and consider that MAYBE the problem lies with US for being so credulous in the first place.\n\nBeing wrong doesn't feel very good,it's all so much “nicer” to be able to shuffle the blame onto someone else. But if any of us EVER want change to actually occur, the first big step is realizing and admitting WHAT the problem is. Complacency and acceptance changes nothing. Being “nice”, in “peace and harmony”, changes nothing. How effective was the peaceful, hippie-protest movement in affecting ANY sort of change during the Vietnam War? Looking down over Yonge-Dundas Square here in Toronto, you can watch some sort of organized protest take place MULTIPLE times a week, EVERY week. Exactly what do you think you are accomplishing by holding up traffic and peacefully marching through the streets? Do you think that the people in charge are saying “Shit, they've got banners and bullhorns, and are being peacefully escorted down the street by armed police thugs, with their pre-approved “protest permits” in their pockets. We've got a real problem on our hands here, things are getting crazy, we better make some changes, and fast!”? If you honestly believe that, you should just go kill yourself now. Your death, in protest, would have a MUCH larger impact than what you are currently doing ever will.\n\nThe only way things will ever change is if EVERYONE starts waking up. Start THINKING! Start asking questions! Use that brain in your head, begin applying logic and reason to your everyday life. Employ Critical Thinking in ALL things. Learn how truly offensive the concept of “I'm offended” really is. Words have no more weight and meaning that what WE choose to give them. To claim that something is “offensive”, that an idea, image, or words can “harm you” by “hurting your feelings” is just plain dumb. If someone is actively seeking to “hurt” you through their speech, giving them the reaction that they desire means THEY win. The only thing in this life that you truly have power over is yourself. You can choose how to react to things, you can choose how you think about things. No one can MAKE you feel something. The concept of “Free speech is good, but you shouldn't say THESE things” is ludicrous! “Free” means COMPLETELY free, without restriction. The idea that “you can only say certain things if your skin is a certain colour, and saying them otherwise makes you a racist” IS racist in itself! I'm not going to dive any further into the “race issue”, since after the mapping of our genome, we now SHOULD all be aware that “race” is just something that we made up. There IS only one race... THE HUMAN RACE.\n\nWow, this turned out much longer than I expected. I guess the whole thing has just been stewing in my brain for the past year, building with each new occurrence of idiocy that I encounter, until it finally reached a tipping point. (Thank you, to Pat Condell, for inadvertently triggering this outpouring. It's been therapeutic to get it all out.) In closing, FUCK nice. Haven't we all had enough of the lies, even the “little white ones”? How about, as a short-term experiment if you like, we all try switching to a steady diet of cold, hard reality for a month. See if you can put your rose-coloured glasses back on after that",
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      "title": "Comedy, Censorship (and the end of all life as we know it) ...",
      "body": "An article by Ceit Butler(c), under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.\n\nI have hilariously witty friends. My day-to-day life is filled to the brim with bouts of hysterical, comedic genius. I cannot count the number of times each day that we all burst into gut-busting laughter, the kind that ends with tears streaming down our cheeks, in response to something brilliantly funny that one of us has said. It doesn’t matter what personal challenges we’re facing, it doesn’t matter whose turn it is to be the butt of the joke; the ability to poke fun at anything and everything - most importantly ourselves-  brings laughter and joy to our lives. It lifts us above the petty miseries that bog others down, it renders impotent the daily strife that comes of existing on this planet, the trivialities that the majority give such importance and weight to. We soar on the wings of humour, we rise above the insignificant; we weed out the inconsequential and look to the bigger picture.\n\nThe inspiration for this piece is derived from an amalgam of events, the most recent being a conversation that I participated in earlier this week. It was a variation on a theme that pops up with escalating frequency, generally trailing behind moments of comic artistry like an annoying little dog yapping rabidly at one’s heels. I’ve touched on the topic of “political correctness” before but given recent events, both around the globe and closer to home, I feel that it’s time to revisit the subject for a more thorough exploration. We’re going to look at great comedy, sensitive global issues, censorship and the whittling-away of your personal freedoms, the very real threat that lurks behind the words ”I’m offended”, the future of the human race - and how all of these things are connected.\n\nI’d like you to take a minute to compile a mental list of your favourite comedians. Now, examine what it was that made each of them great. I bet that you find they have one defining characteristic in common - they cover current hot topics, but in an accessible way. They strip away the anger, the resentment, all of the negative emotions that controversial social and political issues carry. Things that you can’t say among friends, family members, or strangers, without starting an argument that could escalate into violence, you can get away with saying on the stage of a comedy club. Humour bridges the gap, it temporarily disconnects from the severity of the topic, allowing people to detach personal bias and emotional reactions from an issue and laugh freely without reservation, guilt, or hate. It opens a dispassionate dialogue on what would otherwise be considered emotionally-charged subject matter.\n\nThis may sound silly, but I feel that a great deal of the future of our species as a whole pivots on everyone developing a sense of humour. The words “I’m offended” appear innocent on the surface but the harm is not in finding something offensive, it comes in the aftermath. If you offend someone, have you actually caused them any harm? No, the only wound is to their pride, or “honour”, things that don’t actually exist. Somewhere in the world, as I type these very words, people are being physically harmed, tortured and killed, for “offending someone’s honour”. Men, women, and children are suffering and losing their lives over immaterial, non-existent injuries. Some of these events, such as the recent tragedy in France at the offices of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo”, are paraded across the media and become a national debate. Others are mostly ignored, like the “honour killings” of Muslim girls who dare to refuse to enter into an arranged marriage, attempt to seek a divorce, or “allow themselves” to be raped; the journalists, bloggers, and social media users who have been flogged, imprisoned, stoned, and beheaded for the “crime” of speaking their minds and holding an unpopular opinion towards their government or religion. In all of these examples, physical harm is inflicted as punishment for an imaginary crime. How different would life be for everyone if no one ever resorted to violence as a response to hurt feelings? Adults and children around the globe are killing people - themselves and others - over words.\n\nAs a result of pandering to hurt feelings, blasphemy and “hate speech” laws are gaining popularity with each passing day. They’re sold to us under the facade of “protecting the public”, as if we are so collectively weak and defenceless that we must be saved from ideas and words. Words; a string of letters, syllables, and sounds. Words cannot actually hurt, only the manner in which you choose to react to them has that power. Imagine if, while on your way out today, you found yourself riding in an elevator with a total stranger; someone whom you’ve never seen before and, likely, will never see again. If that stranger made an unfavourable comment regarding your appearance, what would your reaction be? Would your feelings be hurt? Would you dwell on it for some undetermined period of time; the rest of the day, maybe even the week? Could the opinion of someone that you do not know, whose company you spent mere seconds in, and who will never impact your life in any measurable way, affect you in the slightest? Would it have the power to change how you see yourself? To toss out the offending article of clothing, invest in new beauty products, diet, exercise, or go under the knife to alter the maligned physical feature, all the while ignoring your own personal opinion of it? Is your self-concept so fragile that this meaningless interaction could prompt it to shatter, causing you to doubt and question every appearance-related choice that you make from here on out? Do you really care what a complete stranger thinks of you? Sadly, if polled, most people would say yes. Sadder still should be the realization that you made those choices on your own. At no point did this snarky stranger put a gun to your head, hold a knife to your throat, or physically impact you and your decision-making process in any way. You chose to have an emotional reaction. You decided that your feelings had been hurt, and the only remedy for mollifying your bruised ego is a complete overhaul. Remove the possibility of anyone saying mean things to you again! But what if tomorrow, the situation plays out again, different elevator, different stranger? You’re never going to be able to please everyone and, really, why would you want to try?\n\nThis is a disturbing concept that has been slowly drilled into our heads; the idea that we are in need of hand-holding and protection from every facet of the big, scary world around us. Each generation grows up a little more coddled, more emotionally inept than the last, with our benevolent government leaning closer and closer, watching over us all for everyone’s safety. No need to worry our innocent little heads over the nasty problems of the day, let the people in charge take care of that mess. As judicial supervision gains an ever-tightening grip on all of our lives, the result is not a perception of safety but the exact opposite. This all serves to foster the global victim mindset, the sense of being powerless, unable to deal with or even be aware of the reality of the world we live in. This is helped along by the media’s constant fear-mongering, amplifying the impression of helplessness and dread. If we are told that we need to be protected from something and it’s important enough to enact legislative control over, the average opinion is that it must be dangerous.\n\nEveryone has the right to their own opinion, but not the right to force others to share it. If you find something offensive, you have the right to choose not to watch, listen, or participate. As long as no one is being physically harmed as a result of the offensive material in question, this is where your rights end. With the total population of the Earth currently sitting at over 7 billion and rising, the odds of everyone agreeing on everything are too infinitesimal to even contemplate. Either we legislate absolutely everything out of existence so that no one is ever offended by anything again, or we grow up and get over it - there really are only two choices here. You can spend your days stopped by every minor annoyance, inconvenience, or offence that you encounter; you can live out the rest of your life in a constant state of emotional panic, but know that you are falling directly in line with the prescribed program. While you’re busy worrying about all of the extraneous minutiae, other people are making the important decisions that influence your life. Amusement and dismissal is a far more effective response. The confidence which comes from being truly comfortable in one’s skin, paired with a fabulous sense of humour, is the perfect counter. No emotional investment means there is no dwelling on the issue. Your mind is unclouded and better able to focus on the things that truly matter; reacting to insecure behaviour only validates it. The easiest way to defuse a bully is by not reacting in the manner that they are expecting; take control of a situation instead by responding with the amused derision that is so justly deserved.\n\nIn closing, I’m going to leave you with these words to live by:\nLaughter really is the best medicine.",
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      "body": "An article by Ceit Butler(c), under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. \n\nSome things have unfolded over the past few days on Facebook. The catalyst for these events was an invitation to a social event. Glancing at the event page, I learned that there was going to be a show in a gallery next week featuring over-sized photos of the female form in all its glory. The shots of nude women are well-executed and tastefully displayed. The problem became apparent when I moved on to the description of the show. The theme is loosely styled after Greek goddess mythology, and states that the goal is to empower women by promoting a healthier mindset towards personal body image. The write-up also mentioned that the show was inspired by the unsuccessful  ‪#‎bringbackourgirls‬ campaign to rescue the Boko Haram sex slaves.\n\nMy friends and I made some thoughtful and salient comments as to why this is a futile and rather silly effort. These were met with immediate hostility. I was told that I was a misogynist, that my male brain was incapable of viewing women as anything more than sexual playthings for my own amusement, and that I was simply shaming women for daring to display their bodies. \n\nThis is both funny and sad as even a cursory inspection of my profile would reveal that I am; (a): a woman; and (b): my profile picture contains a nude model - and not just any nude model, it's a photo of me. I pointed this fact out, along with my prior occupation as an Exotic Dancer. Despite the assertions of the nouveau-feminist hordes, these experiences leave me in the unique position of actually being the MOST qualified to have an educated opinion on the subject. I have always been quite comfortable in my skin, and find no shame whatsoever in the nude human form. I am also painfully aware of how unempowered I was at that time in my life. Loving my body as it was, comfortably shedding my clothing - none of it brought any personal power into my life. \n\nTo imply that the nude female form is a symbol of empowerment is still reinforcing the unhealthy mindset of tying your sense of worth to your physical appearance. A photo of a naked woman, no matter how tastefully executed is still presenting her as nothing more than an ornamental object. You know nothing of her character, her personality, her intellect or achievements; instead she is reduced to an aesthetically pleasing visual. This is the point that we repeatedly tried to make yesterday, and were met with angry assumptions rather than any intelligent consideration of our words.\n\nThe single event that has drastically changed my life was meeting Scott and Tara Duncan. In an act of incredible kindness they took me in two-and-a-half years ago and have invested countless hours into round-the-clock instruction. Their unfathomable patience and reiterated lessons and direction are responsible for the confident, strong, and empowered woman that I am becoming. \n\nStudying Computer Science is teaching me to think logically and approach problems in a logical and computational manner, rather than being overwhelmed by emotional reactions. \n\nStudying critical thinking and the Scientific Method is teaching me to recognise logical fallacies - both in myself and others - and to work to remove personal bias and seek peer-reviewed, verifiable sources for any and all information. I've learned to spot little white lies when they're sold under the guise of \"Political Correctness\", and to point them out for the whitewashed bullshit that they truly are. \nStudying Neurosciences, and Neuroplasticity in particular, is teaching me that the human brain is incredibly powerful, and that we are the ones driving - be it consciously or otherwise. I've learned that everything that we think of as our feelings, opinions, and personality traits, are really nothing more than learned behaviour, and are mutable and entirely under our control. A certain event triggers a certain pattern of thoughts, which lead to a certain reaction. In reality, these are nothing more than a pattern of neural connections and as our brains are inherently lazy they will default to the familiar, well-worn neural path. With deliberate intent, we can build new connections and think about things in different ways. We can reign in the thought processes that lead to damaging, negative, biochemical responses, pull our thoughts away from the Limbic System, and engage the logic portions of the brain. Just like a computer, we can re-program ourselves to be whatever and whomever we choose.\n\nKnowledge is empowering. Learning a skill, taking pride in your abilities, this is what builds confidence and leads to self-actualization. One of the two people responsible for guiding me to this state is the man who was referred to yesterday as an abusive, childish, ego-driven, misogynist asshole. How do you rationalize that conflict? How could an \"abusive misogynist\" be responsible for building confidence, knowledge and skill, and empowering women (I say women because I am by no measure his first and/or only student. This man has single-handedly altered the lives of hundreds of people, both male and female). If the accusation is true, why would a misogynist be interested in, or even capable of,  such a feat? \n\nLet's take a moment to explore this accusation a little. Why is it that referring to a woman who is blind to reason, and thinks that outer beauty is important, as a “Bimbo” makes you a misogynist, but referring to men as “Assholes” is perfectly acceptable? Why is it okay for women to refer to other women by derogatory terms, but it's deemed “abusive\" when the same words are uttered by a man? This is the hypocrisy that abounds in the Modern Feminist's world. These women do not want equality, they want a special set of rules that only apply to them. Which if you're capable of critical thought, is blatantly the OPPOSITE of being equal.\n\nI was told by someone yesterday that I should “stop standing up for abusive assholes.” This is offensive on so many levels. It is offensive to the man in question, who truly respects women more than any man I've ever met - the caveat being that he respects them for their merits, and has little respect for women that forgo that effort and expect to coast through life on the “Chick Card” - and it is offensive to me personally as it implies that I lack the intellect and moral character to accurately determine who is worthy of my support. \n\nIn the end, we were banned from the page, and all trace of our conversational contributions were scrubbed from the dialogue. The message seems to be, in my interpretation anyway, that women should be strong and confident… but if they don't agree with the status quo, they should probably just meekly keep their opinions to themselves.\n\nThese are simply my thoughts on the aftermath, take them as you will. After all, what do I know anyway? I'm just a girl…",
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