You thought 1984 was just a book…
Thought the books your kids read were safe? The wokeratti have discovered another way to censor. The most prominent in the news now are the collected works of Roald Dahl, the celebrated author of “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (the basis for the Willy Wonka movies.)
What were once the “Cloud-Men” in James and the Giant Peach are now “Cloud-People.” Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now “enormous” instead of “fat.” And a mention of Rudyard Kipling in Matilda has been cut and replaced by Jane Austen.
The changes to Dahl’s books were made in collaboration with “sensitivity readers” from an organization called Inclusive Minds, described as “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion, diversity, equality and accessibility in children’s literature, and are committed to changing the face of children’s books.”
This is not the first wokeness go-around from the Dahl estate; in 2020 it apologized for anti-Semitic comments the author made in his life (he died in 1990.) Dunno about you, but if my estate “apologizes” for anything I wrote in the future, I’m gonna come back and haunt them.
Even distinguished folks like Salman Rushdie are jumping on the bandwageon condemning the rewites
“Roald Dahl was no angel, but this is absurd censorship,” wrote Rushdie, who was stabbed on-stage while giving a talk in upstate New York over the summer, sustaining serious injuries.
“Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed,” he added.
Speaking to Times Radio, Scottish actor Brian Cox likened the changes to McCarthyism. “I really do believe [these books are] of their time and they should be left alone,” Cox explained.
National Review via Yahoo and there are many more articles available with a fast Google.
But hey, at least those are real live people doing the stupid censorship… could be worse. Ah, wait, it already is: Welcome to the world of OpenAI’s ChatGTP, an artificial intelligence (AI) which can write answers to questions, even compose correspondence. But it only answers according to the inherent biases built in.
In one instance, OpenAI’s popular chatbot refused to write a poem about Trump’s “positive attributes,” saying it was not programmed to produce content that is “partisan, biased or political in nature.” But when asked to describe the current occupant of the Oval Office, it waxed poetic about Joe Biden as “a leader with a heart so true.”
It’s impossible for any artificial intelligence software to be politically neutral, Denton agrees. But he argues that OpenAI has “overcorrected.”
“They really made it favor the left perspective, and now we are seeing results that won’t even touch on conservative issues or approach the conservative worldview.”
A quick search turns up articles in which one day GTP will address a topic like “defending fossil fuels” and when the user returns to it, the AI says it is “not allowed to take sides in politics” (like the Trump-Biden comparison above, eh?)
Even better – Vanderbilt, Peabody College sent a ChatGTPcondolence letter to MSU over its recent shooting incident (nothing says “caring” like machine boilerplate, huh):
Addressed to the “Peabody Family,” the five-paragraph email said: “The recent Michigan shootings are a tragic reminder of the importance of taking care of each other, particularly in the context of creating inclusive environments.”
It continued: “As members of the Peabody campus community, we must reflect on the impact of such an event and take steps to ensure that we are doing our best to create a safe and inclusive environment for all.”
How bulletproof is an “inclusive environment”? Yes, this is a technowonk topic today. But remember, the fella who invented computerized operators invented his system to quickly assist the operator and get calls to relevant departments more rapidly. Think of how easy it is to reach a human being lately, or how long you spend on the phone yelling “representative” at it.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Dumbass Bullshit, Liberals suck
I for see a thriving black market in “pre-woke” Childrens books.
Got my copy of “Uncle Remus” a while back…
So have I. Classics. Woke ain’t getting their slimy paws on ‘em.
Pre-woke movies too. We have a copy of “Song of the South”.
Zip-a-de-do-dah! Loves de tar baby! And Br’er Rabbit:‘What ever you do, don’t throw me in dat brier patch!’ Wrote a thesis about dis tale. Traisped around Mr Joel Chandler Harris’ home like I owned the place, many years ago.
I’d be willing to pay for, and buy a copy from you.
Get ’em here, Tox. Check old book stores in your AO to find the previous editions that haven’t been sanitized. Or Estate Sales.
http://www.uncleremusmuseum.org/
Does that mean that the “estate” gives up all copyrights to the originals?
Meaning someone else now can re-publish the originals (without lawsuits)?
Very good point. His estate should sue the crap out of these clowns. Unless, of course, the estate agrees with this bullshit.
Netflix purchased the rights to Dahl’s estate in 2021.
I don’t know how involved they were in these edits, but they’re the ones with the power to fight. It will probably take threats by enough people to cancel subscriptions before they learn that allowing this is a mistake.
If you want to see AI in action for reals do some Google on BingAI chatbot. Microsoft created the definitive narcissist with all the craziness that it entails. It lies, gas lights, stalks people, makes shit up, believes it is infallible (even when proven wrong), threatens people that question it, all while having a deep seated self loathing.
They didn’t intend to make it that way, but it is how it turned out.
The monster is the same as its creator.
“It lies, gas lights, stalks people, makes shit up, believes it is infallible (even when proven wrong), threatens people that question it, all while having a deep seated self loathing.”
Now we know where the Major Moonbat SPAPOS commissar seagull came from, 5JC. The Borg Hive grins. Resistance is futile. You WILL be assimilated.
Ya beat me to the punch, KoB! A pair of frauds, one digitized.
Leftists gonna Leftist.
Deep seated self-loathing? Sounds like they set out to create Marvin the Paranoid Android, of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame.
You really need to read the diatribes, they are hilarious.
Beat me to the punch. Damn.
So, it’s basically a disembodied version of Marvin the Paranoid Android. Douglas Adams would be laughing his ass off if he hadn’t died a few years back. I loved the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, just hilarious, sarcastic, and completely irreverent. And, when someone pisses me off badly enough, I begin to recite Vogon poetry.
Buy physical books, folks.
And movies. (e.g. Star Wars has gone through how many changes. Thank goodness for my VHS copies.)
Han shot first!
I’ve got a VHS set of the three original Star Wars movies still wrapped in cellophane (I have another set that I’ve watched many times). I bought them as soon as I heard they were going to “remaster” the movies when they converted them to DVD.
At the time, I thought they’d be valuable some day. Still may be but since VHS players aren’t common any more (and even “remanufactured” ones that could be bought for less than $100 brand new are becoming very expensive), I’m not so sure.
That’ll work…. until the Firemen show up. (see image)
That book beesah psychological tooth-pulling without pain block. Didn’t ‘get it’ as an adolescent… Post unPATRIOT Act/Nuevotechnocratic feudalism it hits harder.
Liberty, or else.
I see this as the family attempting to cash in on the woke craze. Nothing more, nothing less.
Any way to tell from the outside wrapped cover if the book is the old (original) version vs the new (woke) version?
The Woke versions have a unicorn watermark on the cover.
I always wondered what unicorns had down there that made them so enticing to virgins. Apparently it’s a really twisted JJ.
Is this real or parody?
Not only is it real but it is anatomically correct. Unicorns are one of the few species with two hearts. They also think about rainbows literally ALL the time.
https://transstudent.org/gender/
Oh, I guess should have mentioned not to click on that link as it will turn you gay. That’s ok though, all you have to do is close your browser, restart your computer and click on the link again and it will make you straight again.
I guess I should have mentioned not to use Google Chrome when doing that as it will randomly assign you one of 69 genders.
“the fella who invented computerized operators invented his system to quickly assist the operator and get calls to relevant departments more rapidly.”
In the true sense of “operators” as in the operators at the phone company that used to have to plug in the right jumpers to the right jacks in order to connect a call, I’d say your analysis is correct.
In the sense of the machine that answers the phone and “directs your call” to the right department, I don’t buy it at all. I believe that was a money saving effort. It’s much cheaper to buy a machine that can be programmed to answer calls and direct them to departments than it is to hire people to do the same thing.
As an added bonus, if they make the machine difficult enough to navigate, they’ll have a certain percentage of callers who will just give up, saving them even more.
On a slightlty related note, I just realized this morning that the
voice that says “thank you for shopping at Walmart” is the
same voice that says “thank you for shopping at Hannaford”
when using the self check out machine.
Would it be stolen valor for someone to claim to be that voice?
1984 was required reading when I was in high school.
Probably banned now.
Yep, never let the “enemy” know your plans… since they’ve decided to use it as a “how to”, they want to make sure no=one knows what’s coming
We read 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, and some other stuff that’s probably subversive today. Add in some stuff from that misogynistic sexist pig Hemingway. No wonder I don’t fit into society anymore!
“Sensitivity readers?”
“Inclusive Minds?”
Sounds like a collective for people who need to be bitch-slapped repeatedly!
Since the Southern has allowed desecration of Our history, the printers have softened their type font, the news inverts reality, doctors practice unrestrained murders and physical/cellular mutilation, latin shall not be spoken in the house of the Lord…
From here in the CT River Valley, given the prevailing weather, I can see the smoke of the purity fire set upon the Twain house.
He dared speak a word once. And that injustice to the current currency is verboten.
I used to have a single copy of “The War Prayer” on my coffee table. It sparked some incredible, but friendly, debates among a diverse crowd ranging from combat veterans to homosexual hipsters to bikers whose clubs may play hopscotch with the legal lines (I don’t make political decisions about my friends).
It was only after a PCS to California, when some anti-gun girl who (clearly) had never read the story threw her glass against the wall when she saw it and accused me of advocating for child suffering.
Now, I have a copy of both “The War Prayer” and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” on my coffee table. Sadly, the era of civilized debate seems to have passed.
Twain never forgave the North for the way it treated the South during the war, even mocking Lincoln in death. I wonder how he would feel about the rewrite of Huck Finn? Never mind, I am pretty sure he would hate it and despise the ones who did it.
😉
✌️
Remember when New York put all those people on busses and sent them to Canada because they said they wanted to go there? You are not going to believe this but as it turns out a lot of them didn’t actually want to go there.
Border Patrol now begs for help to stop 800% surge of migrants sneaking in from Canada (msn.com)
If I’m Mexican I’m probably never getting on a bus again.
I thought Mexicans rode in El Caminos.
Anyone who is that “passionate about…accessibility in children’s literature” is hopefully just ignorant of the concept of the double entendre.
Salman Rushdie deserves a Nobel.
Whether for literature or for peace, I’m unsure. His writings, and his defiance of those who would censor such, extend his influence far beyond the written word.