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Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Knitting Wars
Greetings fellow Ricochetti knitters (you know who you are). I just got fired from KnitCamp!
It’s a knitting community I joined only about a week ago, at the enthusiastic suggestion of my sister (former Lefty, now not-so-much) who really enjoyed it because the woman who ran it hadn’t gone woke and/or wasn’t bullying her customers about such matters. When I checked her website myself, I found that she did have an “all are welcome here because diversity” statement, but it was quite lovely, and not at all out of bounds.
My sister had found the site, and KnitCamp to be free of the “smell-me” politics that infect so much of the online knitting presence these days. It’s a fee-based membership, and the members support each other, and the lady who runs it (Marie Greene, an apparently lovely woman with a serious “Doris Day” vibe), creates and sells beautiful, well-fitting patterns, and works hard at this. One of the features of Knit Camp is the “knit-a-longs,” a phrase that will be familiar to knitters, where a group selects or is presented with a particular pattern, people sign up to knit it, and with regular (in this case, virtual) meetings, support, and encouragement, people find out that they can do much more than they thought they could do alone. Who knew?
So, I plunked down my $125 for a year’s membership, got the first free pattern for the Summer Knit-A-Long, and purchased the yarn to knit it ($62). And I was all set.
And then, yesterday, for the first time, politics in the Facebook group. Orders from HQ: Donate to the SPLC. We are all guilty. Check your privilege. Submit. Confess.
I wrote an (I thought) rather mild objection, which I eventually discovered through nefarious means (because, fired) that went as follows:
Sorry I signed up for Knit Camp now. I did especially to avoid this sort of partisan bullying. Lest you think I don’t believe black lives matter as much as white lives, I’d caution you that none of you knows anything about me, so you should not jump to conclusions. I was hoping that this site, and this community would offer a respite from the knitting wars. But it seems I was wrong. Were I a member of George Floyd’s family right now, I’d be asking for peace, and for people to stop rioting and destroying lives and businesses (many of which are owned by members of the black community whose lives don’t seem to matter much, at least to the rioters). To their eternal credit, that’s what George Floyd’s family is already doing. We should follow suit.
Want to make a difference? Go out and talk to people in your community and find out what you can do to help. Invest your money in your own communities, rather than sending it off to a bunch of national groups with no interest in your neighbors, and with a political and social agenda that may be nothing like yours. And stand up to the bullies telling you what you must think, how you must act, and what you must do. I’m willing to bet that everyone who’s reading this is already a kind, decent, caring human being (after all, we’re knitters, right), who doesn’t need orders from headquarters to know the right thing to do. So just go out and do it.
Well, apparently this was disturbing to some (although not all, b/c I did get some high fives from others in the “community.”)
So I subsequently got an email from Marie Greene as follows:
I understand that these are difficult times and that differing opinions often clash when important issues are at hand. Based on your Facebook comment about regretting Knit Camp, I feel it’s only right to offer you the option of a refund if you’d like to cancel your membership. I know you’ve only recently joined and wouldn’t want your annual membership to be a waste if you don’t feel it’s the right community for you. I don’t typically offer refunds, but I think community is really important and I don’t want you to feel like you’ve wasted your resources on a community you don’t want to be part of.
Either way, I wish you well.
Thank you,
Heh. I may have been born at night. But it wasn’t last night. I ain’t jumping. You’re going to have to push me. So I responded:
Hi, Marie. Thanks for your kind offer. I think I’ll stick around. I’ve already ordered the yarn for the KAL sweater, and assuming that KnitCamp stays apolitical, I don’t have to go look at your other sites, and what you do and say on them is up to you. (I believe I first ran across your “Enough is Enough” post in the “Student Lounge” which says it’s a private group.)
If you think you can keep the politics out of KnitCamp, then good for you! I hope so. I’m less optimistic today than I was a week or two ago, and Knit Camp was promoted to me by one of its members as “there are no politics,” but we’ll see. Financially, with the discount, it’s not the end of the world if I bail at some point. I have absolutely no objection to being around or spending time with people who disagree with me politically, but I am tired of people virtue-signalling that they’ve suddenly gone “woke” and have all the answers, and that the rest of us are a bunch of clodhoppers who just don’t get it. I think your previous statement on your website about inclusivity covers the subject perfectly.
My heroine in this matter is the YarnHarlot. She and I could not be more different in our political leanings, and she writes about what she’s doing (PWA, Doctors without Borders) all the time. It’s a personal thing for her, and although she invites people to contribute to causes she supports (and I have, to both of them), there’s no pressure and no shaming if you don’t. And although she makes her own political and social persuasions and commitments known as she writes, again, there’s no pressure and no implication that the rest of us don’t get it or that there is something wrong with us. She tells us what she’s actually doing to make a difference, sets an example, and doesn’t nag us about what we ought to do ourselves. I admire her greatly.
Your patterns are lovely. Your site is lovely. KnitCamp appears to be lovely. I don’t expect to participate much by video because my internet connection (satellite) isn’t very good, but we’ll see.
So thanks again. But, no.
And, this morning, I got the email I expected:
Your refund has already been processed. I wish you well.
My final answer:
I cannot say I am surprised. Once again, disappointed, but not surprised. My experience of the newly woke is that they are some of the most intolerant people on earth.
Know that, at the suggestion of David Dorn’s family (he’s the retired St. Louis police officer killed by a howling mob a couple of days ago while his shooting, and his death agonies were jubilantly celebrated and jeered at via live stream on the Internet), I will be donating my “refund” to Backstoppers, an organization which supports the families of fallen heroes.
I do this because, you see, David Dorn’s life matters to me.
Don’t bother to reply.
I’ve already made my donation. And I asked them to send the acknowledgment to Marie Greene.
Commitments matter. Don’t run. Don’t hide. Don’t back down.
I have my hands completely full in my real life right now, which is the only reason I’m restricting this to the member feed. But I wanted you to see how very little it takes to be jettisoned as the “wrong sort of people” by the newly-woke.
I don’t want to start a flame war. I don’t want to destroy this woman’s life and career. I can’t help thinking she’s already been “got at” by those who’ve threatened her with annihilation if she doesn’t give in. It’s not like that hasn’t happened before.
So I’m not cross-posting this to my new blogsite.
Yet.
Crimenutely. And for Heaven’s Sake. Can we just get real?
Published in General
We must all be the same in celebrating our differences.
Some were, some weren’t. In 2001, I spent some time with Francis Cammaerts, a British SOE officer who had been in charge of organizing/assisting resistance activities across a wide territory in southern France. He spoke very highly of most of the people in that area, especially the women.
I received an email from GoFundMe that they are creating a Justice and Equality Fund to help solve deep structural issues in our society, to make our society more equitable. Not sure exactly what that means. I have only ever used them once to contribute to a family in my neighborhood in dire need. I will be reluctant to use them again.
He’s right about that.
That makes me want to use foul language that embarrasses me. I know that it actually means YOU Fund ME. Whoever the sponsor is. I don’t think one should ever participate in that process.
Yes, I believe that to be true. As for Charles de Gaulle, other than his determination to prevent the UK joining Common Market in the 1960s (wish we had taken the hint and retired from the field of battle), I can’t really think of anything nice to say.
The Common Market was and is a capital idea. It was all the crap bolted onto the Common Market that made the EU intolerable. Note that when they want to keep member states in line, the only thing they can threaten them with that actually means anything is the Common Market.
I received this in an email today:
It is easy to feel hopeless right now and many people are waking up to how systemic racism and violence are impacting people of color and don’t know how to use their voices to promote change. If you are new to the conversation, that is OK. Take YWCA’s 21-Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge and build your anti-racist foundation. We want to empower you to take action.
My reply:
If you care so much about Black lives, how about listing all of the truly innocent Black people murdered by other Black people. Why isn’t David Dorn’s name on your list? A real hero, gunned down during these fake protests.
Hypocrites. You celebrate criminals but not the true innocents.
Disgusting.ALL lives matter, particularly those of the innocent.
YWCA? Christians? Liars.
Leave me the hell alone.
She, You are MUCH nicer and more patient than I. Good on you.
Edited to try to fix formatting, but without success, I suspect.
She, you’re a girl with moxie. I like that. I didn’t know you had a blog. I followed your link, and, as you might expect, I enjoyed you discussion of literature in particular. I will return.
Did you see my photo of Bob playing the recorder? It’s crude, I know, but I thought you would find it cute. Those are Marie’s hands. She’s hiding behind Bob.
Thanks for standing up for all of us. That’s what you’re doing, you know. Conservatives like me usually keep our mouths shut.
So thanks.
She, I recently decided I’d like to learn how to knit. I’n showing my mother how to use WhatsApp and she’s showing me how to cast off. Neither of us are showing much aptitude.
Oh, I am happy to hear that @marjoriereynolds! Don’t lose heart, either you or Mom. (I’m not a huge WhatsApp fan, although my siblings and I use it to stay in touch). But stick with the knitting. It will get easier. And try and relax your shoulders (just a guess, but when I was regularly teaching knitting classes I think the biggest challenge was getting people not to tense up in their shoulders and hold the needles in a death grip). It should be a relaxing and enjoyable pastime, so relax and enjoy it, and don’t worry about a few mistakes to start out with.
Thanks She😀 I had a breakthrough, I figured out why on some rows I was mysteriously gaining or losing stitches.
Rod Dreher is correct: the essence of totalitarianism is that everything is political and nothing is private.
“Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”, as Mussolini notoriously said in a speech in 1928–and at that time Mussolini and his fascist movement were still popular among American Progressives who were themselves enthusiastic about schemes to reorganize all of society along military lines.
A crowd of typical American Progressives:
I am not saying that your typical American Progressive wants to kill you (as happened to August Landmesser’s wife in a death camp and as happened to August Landmesser after he was drafted into a penal battalion of the Nazi Wehrmacht) as most Progressives prefer shaming, deprivation of employment, fines, and prison terms of various lengths–not to mention, of course, prohibition of speech. On the other hand, Progressives do support groups such as Antifa and BLM which do want to kill you.
Thank you! Many like to dismiss the “knitting wars” as just a bunch of old ladies (of both sexes) getting their panties in a bunch over something silly, but I think it’s more than that. To me, it’s an indication that absolutely everything has been politicized and that there’s simply no escape, almost anywhere.
The day that I’m sitting on a hay bale as my neighbors and I discuss the best way to stuff an everted uterus back into a prolapsed ewe and how to get it to stay put, and I find that I’m not woke enough to continue the conversation with them is the day that I really will throw in the towel. Living where I do, though, I think there’s still considerable elbow room before we get to that point. ‘Murica. (h/t @bossmongo, who taught me that term).
The tone of smug righteousness with which I was lectured by this person that because she is “a woman of conscience” she simply must acknowledge, blablabla . . . is annoying in the extreme.
Guess what? I’m a woman of conscience too. I’ll put my conscience up against hers, any day. But she doesn’t want to have the debate. Case closed. Cancelled. End of story. Sigh.
On their About page. They literally have a “Manifesto”.
@She, I thought you wanted to keep this page on the members-only part of the site??
Thinking about linking it in my ‘worthwhile reading’ roundup, and wanted to be sure first that you’re not trying to keep it restricted-reading.
Why can’t people just, you know, do things they enjoy and let that be all. Why does there always have to be a political angle or a social justice angle or a let-me-explain-how-you-can-rectify-some-of-your-obvious-personal-failings angle? Don’t these people ever get tired?
This is their religion. Social Justice is their God. It’s like puritanical people trashing secular music for only being fun, or a maoist struggle session. Social justice is more important than their job, their family, their friends – for some, even their life. Could you imagine being as devoted to a stupid idea like social justice as martyrs are to their faith?
By the way @she you are remarkably tough, given everything you have to deal with. I absolutely hate the politicization of hobbies. It’s an act of evil fanaticism, wannaben totalitarianism, and the people doing it should be driven from the hobby.
Two thumbs up to you @caryn – great response!
@kentforrester has a penchant for girls with moxie – I have a penchant for cute dogs with big noses………actually love both!
@She – Did you hear the shoutout they gave you today on the Ricochet podcast about this very OP?
I just read it. She’s very full of herself.
@she, I sent this to a non-member and liberal – then I saw where you restricted it to members only. Could you possibly release it to the main feed?? It should be there anyway! It speaks volumes.
No! Thanks for letting me know. And thanks, podcast!
Thanks for the kind comments, and yes, it’s on the main feed. I changed my mind somewhere, some number of comments ago.
Linked at ChicagoBoyz
I’ve run into this problem in my FB professional photography groups- incredibly valuable groups that I’ve learned a tremendous amount from. The vitriol and intolerance I read on Monday and Tuesday was nothing short of scary, and I haven’t returned since.
One group after the other, the admin posted something in support of BLM, and then expressed something along the lines of, if you don’t vocally support them, you are part of the problem. One man bravely spoke up, and made a reasonable comment about hoping to be able to keep the discussion in there photography-related. What happened to him? He was attacked, and in a follow up post, the admin apologized for him and said he had been removed from the group, then made a statement about not tolerating people like that in her group. Lots of praise comments followed.
What is happening here? I’ve never seen or felt this sort of totalitarian group-think pressure before. I’m actually thinking of closing down my IG photography page, that I need to market my business, because I’m afraid I will be sought out and attacked because I’m not conforming. This is terrifying.
Even more frightening a development- when they are told they are making this political, or talking about politics, the response has become, “candidates and elections are politics. [BLM, LGBTQ, etc] are human rights.”
So if you have a reasoned statement to make that isn’t in complete agreement, you are against human rights. And what could possibly make worse person? Being against human rights means you must be more than dismissed or disagreed with – you must be silenced.
I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’m frightened. I’m not even sure I want to have a business anymore – if becoming successful means I’m visible, then I’m sticking my neck out. The next thing comes along, I’ll be destroyed for not conforming, for not expressing the correct viewpoint.
One more comment. (I feel I can talk safely in here – I’ve been staying away from FB because of the scary things I’m witnessing).
An old college acquaintance (white, Christian) made a post about how we were not to judge the rioting, because we were coming from a place of privilege, and we had no right to tell someone how to grieve all their hurt and frustration. One of her friends made a perfectly civil and reasonable comment about how the rioting could not be supported, for one because it was actually hurting innocent black business owners – hurting their own communities. He was roundly attacked by her other friends (also all white). Her last comment in the post was her apologizing for his comments and behavior, and stating that she had unfriended him.
I have never seen this level of viciousness and intolerance. It is nothing short of deeply distressing.
As Rod Dreher keeps noting – radical revolutionaries don’t need to be the ones to shoot you or dox you or un-person you, they can simply rely on your radicalized or terrified neighbors to do it for them.