Cultural appropriation, anti-bullying, and more

• Something Catholic: Why Christopher Dawson loved the church.
• Cultural appropriation. You want to respect your neighbors by not being rude, but of course some appropriation's fine: it inevitably happens when peoples of different cultures are forced to live in close proximity and a certain overlapping of cultural traditions results.
• That non-story about the Queen doing a Nazi salute when she was only around 7. The interesting thing is it matches the official unofficial story about Edward VIII, the uncrowned king. He was the Prince William of his day, very popular, so of course the British were upset he had to step down. So the government leaked a story about his really being a Nazi so it had to get him out of the way, to make them feel better. I understand the real story is much simpler: the Church of England said no way to his marrying a (weird, unattractive) divorcée. Historical irony: their traditional teaching on divorce and remarriage was still the same as ours.
• Anti-bullying by Pauline Hawkins. Yes. That said, kids know egalitarianism is nonsense and resist it, and being in school, by forming their own hierarchies. How about a golden mean between the well-meaning social-justice warriors and the kind of conservative who scoffs, saying some toughening up does a kid good? Ian doesn’t have to be friends with everyone, but he must be respectful to everyone. Children also need to know that there’s a big difference between wanting to be friends with everyone and picking friends wisely. Wanting to be popular will lead to bad choices and disrespecting other people to achieve that popularity. ...the unwritten social rules in school teach children the art of self-preservation — children figure out quickly who not to upset, how to stay under the radar and with whom not to be friends... A lot of that's just social skills in a fallen world. Keep your head down and get your work done. Some hard knocks are part of growing up (the case against helicopter parents and spoiled millennials) but of course adults have to step in before it turns into Lord of the Flies, because kids by nature aren't quite yet civilized.
• The fall of Gawker? Hope so.