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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34984 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022

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Sam Brinton is in the news this week.

For those who don't know, Sam is the first non-binary, gay drag queen to hold a federal government leadership position. I know him for his distinctive appearance, with moustache, bald head, and typical cross-dressing clothing and makeup. Here's another piece about him, from several months ago. The culture war angle should be obvious, as this man was highlighted, along with Rachael Levine, as examples of progressive hiring in the Biden administration. Suffice to say that he is not the kind of person I can take seriously, and I do not think he should have been hired, and certainly shouldn't have been celebrated. But that's not why I'm posting.

Now, why was he in the news this week?

Brinton was caught stealing luggage from an airport terminal. I'll notice that this article has no pictures of him. A summary, from here:

On Sept. 16, a female traveler alerted the Airport Police Department at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport that she was missing a piece of luggage.

Law enforcement officers who reviewed surveillance footage that same day saw Brinton remove a navy blue, hard-sided, 26-inch roller bag made by Vera Bradley from Carousel 7, according to the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court.

The victim confirmed, through a digital still of surveillance footage, that it was her bag with total contents worth $2,325, according to the complaint.

The same style of Vera Bradley luggage sells for $295 from VeraBradley.com.

Law enforcement confirmed that Brinton arrived at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport at 4:27 p.m. Sept. 16 on a flight from Washington, D.C., and had not checked a bag when he departed Washington.

Law enforcement learned that Brinton stayed at the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront hotel, and video surveillance from that hotel showed Brinton checking in with a bag that fit the description of the stolen luggage.

So he's been put on leave, for now, and he's due in court on the 19th of this month. At first, I wouldn't have considered posting this, as I simply found it funny in an absurd way, but then I ran across what is really the reason why I posted. I ran across a thread on twitter explaining why this was actually serious, and reflected a dangerous escalation of perverse behavior. I'll quote the main points:

The public needs to understand that this sexual deviant did NOT accidentally pick up the wrong suitcase, as he checked no bags on the flight. This was likely a targeted attempt at gaining access to a woman's underwear. This is what the Biden Admin desperately wants to keep quiet.

With nearly 13K clinical contact hrs, over 14+ years, working in a clinical capacity with men who sexually offend... with men who've done very deviant and heinous things to women and children... I can assure you that, once you see a man steal female items, it's really serious.

Go ahead and read the whole thread.

I hadn't considered this angle, at first, but once it's been pointed out to me, I can't shake it. It's the most plausible argument I've heard of for why Sam would steal the woman's luggage, given that all others make no sense.

So, to wrap up, my questions. First, should he be fired for stealing? Second, how likely is it that Sam stole the luggage specifically for underwear? And third, does this move the needle for you in any way, when considering whether to trust, hire, or promote people like Sam?

I can confirm that thread dude is a loony, sadly. I thought it was going to be a paleofem, but he's just off his rocker if you look at all the other stuff

(ok he might have a point about 'uwu' being a paedo symbol, but his justification based on Japanese blush emoji being secret pedo spiral code wasn't very good. He's just seeing patterns in noise.)

Are you talking about Jon? I read through his feed, and besides retweeting more than I like, it seems pretty normal. Obviously he's got an angle, but there's nothing really loony about any of his posts.

This whole thread could be charitably just called wrong, but it's just kinda a mess of Chinese Cardiology, bad grammar, and pretty bad understandings.

It's not like there aren't problems in the furry fandom! But it's pretty much just word association, at that level.

Wrong is one thing, loony is another. I can argue with wrong, but loony is dismissive and demeaning.

He has an angle, but I don't see anything particularly loony about it. He's worked with many sexual predators and sees the same patterns there as he does in, this case, furries.

Driven, then, instead of looney. He’s found scary real pedophilic predators in the furry fandom, and is sounding an alarm. He has no idea he’s committing the Cardiologist Criminal / Catholic Priest Pederast / Chinese Robber fallacy because he’s never applied Bayes’ Theorem to the stats. To quote Scott’s tag on the end of the second Cardiologist blogpost:

If you read Part I of this post and found yourself nodding along, thinking “Wow, cardiologists are real creeps, there must be serious structural problems in the cardiology profession, something must be done about them,” consider it evidence that a sufficiently motivated individual – especially a journalist! – can make you feel that way about any group.

When confronted with a community that consists largely of men meeting up for sex while wearing animal costumes and is home to at least a few outspoken 'minor attracted persons' and animal enthusiasts, it seems reasonable to forego rigorous statistical analysis of exactly how likely one's children are to get raped and simply keep them away from furries instead.

It's a decision with virtually no costs and potentially large benefits, unlike the decision to avoid heart surgeons or Chinese people.

He misunderstands furries pretty significantly if he models the fandom as something which “consists largely of men meeting up for sex”. Fascination with the anthropomorphic body is not primarily a sexual endeavor, but one of identification. It feels right to many people with autism in a way human bodies feel wrong.

The fascination may become full-blown species dysphoria. As with transgender and apotemnophilia, simply cosplaying may scratch the dysphoric itch, and the number of actual fursuiters is heavily dwarfed by those who use art, fiction, and interactive roleplay to explore their furry identity.

This may be the first time many here have heard of this facet of the furry fandom, at least circa 2002 when I was stolen away from it by pressing human concerns.

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