The RBG Leadership Awards are Rescinded

A few days I go, I blogged about the rather insensitive action by the Dwight Opperman Foundation to award the RBG Leadership Awards this year to a bizarre list of honorees: Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Martha Stewart, Michael Milken, and Sylvester Stallone.

On Tuesday, then Foundation backtracked and cancelled this year's award ceremony "after facing blistering criticism from her family and friends over this year's planned recipients," in the words of the NY Times.

A good move; if I'm going to chastise them for screwing up, I should applaud when they recognize their mistake and try to put things right.

Comments

[Theendoftheleft]

What was the mistake?

Were any real reasons given for the rescission?

[Estragon]

“Keeping in mind that our goal is only to do good, the Foundation is not interested in creating controversy. It is not interested in generating a debate about whether particular honorees are worthy or not.”

Well— they screwed that up!

[Michael P]

What was the controversy? As the ACLU reminded us, RBG told us:

The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a [person's] life, to [their] well-being and dignity. . . . When government controls that decision for [people], [they are] being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for [their] own choices.

That's consistent with recognizing these extraordinary leaders, people who are trailblazers in their fields and inspirations to the rest of us.

[Estragon]

“inspirations to the rest of us”

You people truly get the heroes you deserve

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Elon Musk? Rupert Murdoch? Michael Milken?

Inspirations?

Among stale-thinking misfits who aspire to be liars, criminals, and stains, perhaps.

[Theendoftheleft]

My favourite part of On the Basis of Sex was when Martin had to step in to save the trial because RBG was fucking it up.

[Krayt]

They threw in Martha Stewart and Sylvester Stallone to complete the joke.

I cannot believe someone wasn't pulling a fast one here.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

This seems to have involved a cranky, obsolete, MAGA-addled widow who figured she'd flash a figurative middle finger at the modern American mainstream by using her inherited station to mock former Justice Ginsburg, announcing a bunch of clingers as awardees.

When those who loved the former justice expressed objection to the insult, either the old crank relented or better minds persuaded her to change course. Not much left to see here.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

The decision to kill a child, now that is a decision

[Rossami]

The award was established to "recognize an extraordinary woman who has exercised a positive and notable influence on society and served as an exemplary role model in both principles and practice."

Parsing that out, the 'woman' part of the criterion would seem to automatically exclude four of the five recipients. The only one remaining is a convicted felon and pretty hard to argue that she meets the 'exemplary role model' clause.

And even if you want to make silly political points about 'who's really a woman', few would consider the four men to be especially good role models, either.

[Bwaaah]

The award was established to “recognize an extraordinary woman who has exercised a positive and notable influence on society and served as an exemplary role model in both principles and practice.”

Well...a right-winger couldn’t possibly qualify for *that*. I’ll see your good taste, and raise you one milquetoast.

[grb]

Let’s consider an opposite scenario: Suppose I, a reliable Leftie, inherited an award dedicated to (say) Antonin Scalia – as the MAGA widow did similarly in this case. I might hand the running off. I might consult allies of the late Justice on worthy candidates. I might even push the bounds of those nominees a bit towards my own perspective.

But I wouldn’t outright troll. That’s what the MAGA widow did here. She didn’t even try to disguise it. Once you subtract the awards to Martha Stewart (member of last year’s committee) and Sylvester Stallone (whose wife was a member of last year’s committee), what’s left is as crude and obvious a bit of juvenile trolling as you’ll ever see: Musk, Murdoch, Milken.

It had been a perfectly ordinary award recognizing women’s accomplishments. The late husband had been an extremely close friend of Ginsburg. But that didn't matter. In the end, Trumpites beclown everything they touch.

[Estragon]

Complete with the Trump-style random capitalization in the PR statement!

[Formerly Known as Stash]

And the Anton Scalia award goes to...George Soros, Bill Gates, Marc Rich, and Hillary Clinton! Who would quibble with that?

[grb]

Alas, Saul Alinsky is dead and the Anton Scalia Award is never given posthumously...

[Theendoftheleft]

‘But I wouldn’t outright troll’.

Doesn’t that describe all RBG’s jurisprudence, though, to a T?

The awards seems fitting then, no?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Former Justice Ginsburg's views have won in modern America. Thanks to people like her, gays, women, and other traditional targets of conservative bigotry are treated better; it's the bigots who resemble former Justice Scalia who are closeted and cowering these days.

[Theendoftheleft]

RBG's jurisprudence is almost universally rejected in more civilised Western countries. Whilst most judges support her policy preferences, they reject her charlatanism and lies ('jurisprudence') that helped her advance those preferences. She used to come to Europe every summer and basically no one talked to her.

Don't take my word for it, of course. Verify this for yourself, if you can abandon your parochialism for even one moment.

As for the gays and women, the latter don't meet replacement rate and the former champion the mass importation of millions of religious uneducated breeders who will---at best---put the gays back into the closet once they have significant power. Modern America is a demographic disaster, amongst other things.

Choose reason and progress, AIDS: abandon your inferior, superstitious ideology (the cult of pseudo-equality) and admit that your cult's time is over.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

You are the Volokh Conspiracy’s preferred kind of bigot . . . and the reason UCLA is preparing a celebration.

[Theendoftheleft]

You are Ingsoc’s preferred form of automaton: in Pavlovian fashion, spew out charges of ‘bigotry’ and ‘ignorance’ when you suffer cognitive dissonance and cannot respond on the merits.

Bloodbath, AIDS-Somin. Bloodbath.

[Davedave]

You do come up with some nonsense. RBG is one of the very few Americans (dead, or alive) respected in civilised countries. She's a shining example of how someone can rise above their origins in a barbaric, semi-feudal failed nation and become a real person, worthy of respect.

[Theendoftheleft]

Want to bet? Ultimate courts of appeal outside the USA have basically never adopted her reasoning or arguments in their decisions. You could easily cite to them were this so. You don’t know too many Continental or English judges, do you?

She used to go to Austria every summer. No one important gave a damn.

Are you saying New York City is/was a barbaric semi-feudal failed nation? No disagreement there.

[I woke up when Hillary talked about Reconstruction]

This is a good playpen for those who don't work for or care about things that matter. Worth a picosecond's attention and milliwatt of effort

[Michael P]

RBG has been cancelled by the RGB / ROY G BIV mob.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

I see from Wikipedia that Andrew Dice Clay is still around.

[Bwaaah]

He said he's not taking any dead-crusty-bitch awards this year. (ouch)

Maybe she's got a granddaughter who knows how to STFU and bend over? (double-ouch)

(look...it's a taste in humor that's not for everybody. gimme a pass...I'm just probing the edge to see if it's safe yet to go back into the world)

[Dan Schiavetta]

He was rather charming in “Casual Sex?”

[Bwaaah]

I honestly don't know any of his material. But for the few minutes I take in every time I see him, he kills me. No woman deserves to spoken of like that. And then spoken to like that. And then he hits it again, like wrong isn't wrong. You gotta love humor, or purgatory, or some eternal doghouse in between where you can admit, "It may be Dice, but it's no Hitler. Anyway, where da chicks?"

Shtick. Low, low shtick, just a cut above some Blahblah Award.

[Frank Drackman]

He needs the money

[Bwaaah]

Enough with these high performers. Back to a diverse selection of people.

[Davedave]

Why are this year's 'winners' any worse than previously? We've had Queen Elizabeth the Evil, and the woman best known for the stupidity and ego that led to the Streisand Effect being named after her; the married-someone-famous fashion-groupie is practically unobjectionable in that company, but a ridiculous person to be linked to RBG in any way.

(For all that Streisand's a nasty piece of work as a person, at least she is famous for her own achievements, unlike the other two in that list.)

[Roger S]

Funny how no one wants to explain the issue. RBG was a left-wing feminist, and none of the proposed recipients are left-wing feminists. But is the prize intended only for left-wing feminists?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

What would you think of a group of Phyllis Schlafly Award winners consisting of George Soros, Ru Paul, Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, and Pete Buttigieg? Or Hilary Clinton, Stormy Daniels, George Santos, Liberace, and Billy Porter?

If you don't object, we could arrange an award ceremony and press release without delay.

[Drewski]

If you need the issue explained but are familiar with the people involved, then you may be suffering from a serious cognitive disorder and should speak to a doctor immediately.

[lyly]

It's refreshing to see accountability in action. Admitting mistakes and taking corrective action is essential, and it's commendable that the Dwight Opperman Foundation Retro Bowl responded to criticism by canceling the award ceremony. It's a reminder that listening to feedback and making amends is crucial in any situation.