[Misc] John Cleese Blacklists Himself From Cambridge University Event

[Pretty pink fairy]

No idea what that even means

Tho endgame is students get to cancel any form of genuine debate and just get to listen to their own personal echo chamber

Good luck with that when they finally take a walk in the real world

There isn't a real world for them they're permantly in la la land after being brainwashed and yes it is a concern that people end up like this

A small minority trying to dictate to the majority can't be right

Regards
DF

 

[Seagull58]

This whole story is just Cleese drumming up free publicity for his documentary on Woke culture That's why he was going to Cambridge in the first place. As for the original blacklisting, he has admitted to having a couple of glasses of wine beforehand and getting a bit carried away whilst not being sober. Considering his whole position was attacking anti-semitism and racism I think the students have got this wrong, especially the fact that they are contacting other student unions to try and widen the blacklisting. This is way over the top.

 

[JC Footy Genius]

I stand corrected, certainly more information in the article you have posted there.

More information about what was actually said too.

So he wasn''t black listed for doing an impression of Hitler, he was black listed for paraphrasing his deplorable words about Jewish and black people.

I wonder if John Cleese has also done this?

Was the impression and paraphrasing necessary I wonder?

Actually, I think he was 'blacklisted' because the Cambridge Union president was fine with what he said (even joked about it) until some students complained, then he went for the cancel culture option to cover his own backside/fear of being cancelled himself.

You would think the Cambridge University debating society which supposedly aims to promote free speech through discussion, debating the concept of good taste, would be ok with hearing a few unpleasant words.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Blacklist?

 

[JC Footy Genius]

This whole story is just Cleese drumming up free publicity for his documentary on Woke culture That's why he was going to Cambridge in the first place. As for the original blacklisting, he has admitted to having a couple of glasses of wine beforehand and getting a bit carried away whilst not being sober. Considering his whole position was attacking anti-semitism and racism I think the students have got this wrong, especially the fact that they are contacting other student unions to try and widen the blacklisting. This is way over the top.

The person admitting they had the wine was Cambridge Union president Keir Bradwell, the guy chairing the debate ... the one who was initially fine with what was said, joked about it then eventually decided to blacklist the guest speaker and others after a number of complaints

 

[BadFish]

Actually, I think he was 'blacklisted' because the Cambridge Union president was fine with what he said (even joked about it) until some students complained, then he went for the cancel culture option to cover his own backside/fear of being cancelled himself.

You would think the Cambridge University debating society which supposedly aims to promote free speech through discussion, debating the concept of good taste, would be ok with hearing a few unpleasant words.

I don't think he was banned because of the change of mind of the president. I think you are making assumptions here.

I am not sure his motives were to ''cover his own backside' where did you find this information?

I would have thought is was part of a president's role to respond to the concerns of their members. Especially when they felt like their judgement may have been impaired by alcohol and when the numbers of complaints were higher than usual.

do you have a link to the 'few unpleasant words' you describe here. I have not seen a video or transcript of the presentation so do not know what was actually said.

When you say 'supposedly aims to promote free speech' do you have a link to their charter or mission statement than states this? Again I haven't seen this information so find it tricky to comment.






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[BadFish]

The person admitting they had the wine was Cambridge Union president Keir Bradwell, the guy chairing the debate ... the one who was initially fine with what was said, joked about it then eventually decided to blacklist the guest speaker and others after a number of complaints

The idea that we are not allowed to change our minds about something when faced with new evidence is a dangerous one.

The idea that we are not allowed to change our mind when we sober up? Even more so.

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[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The idea that we are not allowed to change our minds about something when faced with new evidence is a dangerous one.

The idea that we are not allowed to change our mind when we sober up? Even more so.

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The first requirement for mind changing is possession of a working mind.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Blacklist?

Tremendous band from the late noughties

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VfNj4lfhLU&t=30s

 

[BadFish]

There's an interesting twitter feed: https://twitter.com/ClassicShowbiz it posts pictures from the past regarding tv controversies, feedback etc. there are so many posts about comedy.

These first two seem highly relevant:

[tweet]1457052952141570053[/tweet]

[tweet]1456889997148057600[/tweet]


But then there's also these, full of quite familiar arguments

[tweet]1452062382847500291[/tweet]

[tweet]1449807205134262273[/tweet]

[tweet]1458217628535648259[/tweet]

[tweet]1458205446246846465[/tweet]

[tweet]1453803526270771202[/tweet]

[tweet]1452296577150750732[/tweet]

[tweet]1451357311293820935[/tweet]

[tweet]1453753434830737408[/tweet]

[tweet]1453710924666191893[/tweet]



Plus ça change...

This is all very interesting. I must admit that the powerful narrative people love to latch onto that we are living in an age were people are more 'woke' and cancel culture is worse than ever before remains unproven.

I have seen no worthwhile statistics that more show, more people and more events have been cancelled than ever before because of people getting offended.

It may be the case but I've never seen the evidence that backs it up. I am suspicious that the narrative is compelling for some people and they run with it. Perhaps it will serve to stop another bloody minority from complaining when we are unkind about them.

Further investigation is required.

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[JC Footy Genius]

The first requirement for mind changing is possession of a working mind.

The second is to engage and listen to other arguments rather than try to cancel them or put them on ignore ....




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[BadFish]

The second is to engage and listen to other arguments rather than try to cancel them or put them on ignore ....




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Unless, or course, they are people complaining about being offended by stuff.

No free speech for them.

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[Seagull58]

The person admitting they had the wine was Cambridge Union president Keir Bradwell, the guy chairing the debate ... the one who was initially fine with what was said, joked about it then eventually decided to blacklist the guest speaker and others after a number of complaints

Yes, you're right. I misread it whilst drinking a glass of wine.

 

[London Irish]

'John Cleese has cancelled an appearance at Cambridge University after a visiting speaker was banned for a Hitler impression.

The star, who said he had done a similar impression on a Monty Python show, said he was "blacklisting myself before someone else does".'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-59237741

Wonderful so are we going to have to put up with him complaining about being cancelled, megaphoned from every single media outlet in Britain

 

[dsr-burnley]

I don't think he was banned because of the change of mind of the president. I think you are making assumptions here.

I am not sure his motives were to ''cover his own backside' where did you find this information?

I would have thought is was part of a president's role to respond to the concerns of their members. Especially when they felt like their judgement may have been impaired by alcohol and when the numbers of complaints were higher than usual.

do you have a link to the 'few unpleasant words' you describe here. I have not seen a video or transcript of the presentation so do not know what was actually said.

When you say 'supposedly aims to promote free speech' do you have a link to their charter or mission statement than states this? Again I haven't seen this information so find it tricky to comment.

https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/22398

He was quoting Hitler's words (or rather, a translation, and possibly a paraphrased translation) because he was using Hitler as an example of why there can be bad taste in art and how (in Hitler) it led to genocide. The problem wasn't the words he was using, it was that he spoke them in a German accent, which meant that he was pretending to be Hitler and that is a Bad Thing.

I don't think even Oxford Univesity students would claim that quoting Mein Kampf as an example of evil, is a no-no. It was the German accent that threw them.

 

[sydney]

Thin Lizzy never helped to dismantle the non-racial Cape Franchise in the name of White supremacy though, did they?

Wait...

No. No they didn't. Still not forgiving all the overdubs on Live and Dangerous though.

cough , cough !! cape bushmen ...!! cough...!! The cape area was very sparsely populated by the bushmen with the more robust tribes being concentrated mainly in the are that is now KZN. Cape Town itself was mixture of Chinese , Malay , Indian ,Portugese , Spanish and just about any other nationality that could steer a ship. Rhodes was a crackpot who almost definitely died of a chronic STD but he was a visionary and an empire builder , despite the current trend men like him should be revered imho.

 

[The Clamp]

cough , cough !! cape bushmen ...!! cough...!! The cape area was very sparsely populated by the bushmen with the more robust tribes being concentrated mainly in the are that is now KZN. Cape Town itself was mixture of Chinese , Malay , Indian ,Portugese , Spanish and just about any other nationality that could steer a ship. Rhodes was a crackpot who almost definitely died of a chronic STD but he was a visionary and an empire builder , despite the current trend men like him should be revered imho.

To be fair, Rhodes, tamer of savages and sodomiser of boys had been re-thought long before "woke" was herd of. Long, long before.

 

[BadFish]

https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/22398

He was quoting Hitler's words (or rather, a translation, and possibly a paraphrased translation) because he was using Hitler as an example of why there can be bad taste in art and how (in Hitler) it led to genocide. The problem wasn't the words he was using, it was that he spoke them in a German accent, which meant that he was pretending to be Hitler and that is a Bad Thing.

I don't think even Oxford Univesity students would claim that quoting Mein Kampf as an example of evil, is a no-no. It was the German accent that threw them.

I am at work so haven't watched the video but I find it hard to make this conclusion from what is written the article.

The point that I am trying to make is that we are all making assumptions about what occurred and why people were upset by the incident based on very little actual evidence.

JCFG said this

The second is to engage and listen to other arguments rather than try to cancel them or put them on ignore ....

Can any of us say that we have properly listened to the complaints from people to find out why this guy was blacklisted? Your article added a few more voices but I feel like these don't offer much depth and may well have been cherry picked to add to the narrative.

Many conclusions have been drawn and assumptions made based on nothing but the 'woke' and 'cancel culture' narrative that we use to judge all these situations.

"There is another example of . . . " "Of course that's what happened, it always does with that lot".

It is the same every time and we don't distinguish between actual examples and perceived ones.

One thing is for sure the media will always paint those that complain as 'woke' or oversensitive, offended by nothing types.

I can't help but wonder why?

 

[Bakero]

Plans for a blacklist of speakers have been scrapped, with Bradwell, president not the union, saying, “Obviously announcing a U-turn looks silly. I was just a 21-year-old who tried to make the situation better. There is no policy to ban anyone for what they are going to say – it’s a free speech institution.

“If there is a dichotomy between free speech and offence, I would defend free speech. I don’t want to create an impression that the union is against free speech.”

 

[Sid in the Sharknado]

cough , cough !! cape bushmen ...!! cough...!! The cape area was very sparsely populated by the bushmen with the more robust tribes being concentrated mainly in the are that is now KZN. Cape Town itself was mixture of Chinese , Malay , Indian ,Portugese , Spanish and just about any other nationality that could steer a ship. Rhodes was a crackpot who almost definitely died of a chronic STD but he was a visionary and an empire builder , despite the current trend men like him should be revered imho.

The 1904 Cape Colony census (quoted on Wikipedia) reports the population was 59% "black" and 16% "coloured", so regardless of any arguments about who "originally" lived in the area, by the time Rhodes was Prime Minister he was presiding over a country where the majority were black Africans.

I'm sure he had a very clear vision for lining his own pockets with the proceeds of the diamond monopoly he helped build, and for taking away peoples' civil rights. That's not a vision I or the majority of people who don't have a spanner lodged in their brain share. I'd say he should be dug out of his tomb in Zimbabwe and tossed in the sea but he's so rancid I'd be worried that the ocean would vomit him back.