Will Darden and his posse are keeping Southwest Portland neighborhoods safe from hurtful and unhelpful thoughts.
As a “lead” on Nextdoor.com, a social website where neighbors share information, Darden is doing his part to rid the world of people he considers homophobes.
With more than 10 million members, registered in more than 116,000 neighborhoods in the U.S., Nextdoor has become a useful resource allowing neighbors – who may never meet – to communicate on small and large issues. Things like lost and found animals or advice on local businesses. Know a good mechanic? A good hairdresser? Especially popular are the warnings on property criminals, who have become so pervasive residents are expected to watchdog neighborhoods themselves.
When you register with Nextdoor, you can designate areas of interest, including politics. Your comments are posted under your real name.
Several days before the Nov. 5 election, the subject of the Portland Public Schools bond came up. The conversation unfolded – pro and con. Those opposed generally cited Portland Public Schools’ poor track record of being irresponsible with money. A neighbor I did not know named Diane Schendel opposed the bond because of that history; she also noted that Portland schools were spending time and resources on sex education when they haven’t even mastered subjects like reading and math. She was explicit about what passes for sex education. She included references to body parts.
Her comment didn’t shock me. What did shock me was the Nextdoor pile-on, led by Darden – a Nextdoor “lead” designated to keep the conversation civil. He said Schendel’s comment represented a “distasteful” ideology. Others quickly joined in.
Typical was a comment by Mark VanderZanden, a Portland architect who denounced Schendel for being “homophobic.”
Her comment was removed, but VanderZanden’s slur was allowed to remain. These days, calling someone homophobic can be a career-killer.
I posted a reply to VanderZanden: “Your comment calling Diane homophobic is still up there, so you didn’t get censored. You, however, did succeed in getting Diane censored. Congratulations. You must feel proud of yourself.”
My comment was deemed hurtful and unhelpful by the Nextdoor Support Team. Likewise was my suggestion that the critics who attacked Schendel should check out a band called The Slants, who were going to be in town. When a bureaucrat decreed the Asian-American band’s name was unworthy of a trademark because it was disparaging and offensive, the band sued – and eventually won. The Supreme Court deemed the band had been the victim of “viewpoint discrimination.”
Schendel’s sin was possessing the wrong viewpoint. She is particularly critical of Common Core educational standards. Her comments are removed repeatedly by Darden and other Nextdoor leads.
Their overreaction to her reference to sex organs and sexual acts is ridiculous given the sex-saturated culture we live in. A few days after Schendel was condemned for being a homophobe, OPB featured interviews with a teacher, parent and school board member from the Hillsboro School District on the subject of sex education. Graphic body parts were referred to. It turned out these body parts are mentioned in class. Sex education now begins in second grade.
Yet adults on Nextdoor ganged up on a neighbor who said she didn’t think students should be learning about anal sex in class.
Several months ago, the Oregon legislature passed Senate Bill 52 – called Adi’s Act in memory of a Grant High School boy who wanted to be a girl and had adopted a female persona.
Adi Staub, 18, later committed suicide. SB 52 requires school districts to adopt a policy on student suicide prevention, with an emphasis on assisting students at high risk of suicide. The news coverage of Adi’s Act was deeply sympathetic. It’s a meaningful law.
What was not explored too deeply was what led up to this boy who decided he was supposed to be a girl. In a statement posted on the ACLU website, the youth’s mother, Christine Staub, said:
“My daughter, Adi, was 16 when she came out, She was attending high school in the Portland Public Schools District at Grant High School. Adi entered school a straight-A student and had a strong group of friends. After a health class video profiled a transgender teen, Adi finally understood the conflict she experienced since birth. Though a doctor assigned (Adi) to the male sex at birth, Adi knew that her honest authentic self was female. Her long time dreams of being a woman finally made sense to her.”
Out of all the important subjects students have to learn in school, why did a class feature a video on a transgender teen? Did it really help a confused youth? Or bring on even more confusion? Did it help when his mother immediately embraced him as “daughter?” Or did it make him think she actually wanted a girl all along?
Before Staub killed himself, he was featured as a girl in Grant High School’s campus magazine. This poor kid was surrounded by adults fixated on gender. Some of them seemed to be cheering him on in his new status as a girl.
“Across the country, transgender stories are increasingly being pushed to the forefront of news and media coverage as public transgender advocates, such as Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner, continue to bring attention to the issue…,” the story states.
“ ‘I think we have some work to do, ” says Grant Vice Principal KD Parman, who identifies as gender non-conforming but prefers female pronouns.
The story goes on to say, “Despite her personal progress, Staub still faces hurdles in her day-to-day life. She says that many of her close friends from before her transition have dropped off the map, saying that association with her would ‘threaten their masculinity.’ Since the beginning of the year, Staub has gone from skipping school intermittently, to only attending half of her classes a week, to not going altogether. Her motivation is at an all-time low, and school has become her last priority. ‘I’m just trying to get through this year mostly,’ says Staub, who stopped going to school a month ago. ‘I’m definitely at a point where I don’t care if I get all F’s in my classes; that doesn’t matter to me anymore,’ she says. ‘I used to care like a lot, but transitioning has been infinitely more important to me.’ ”
It isn’t surprising that some parents don’t want their children’s school delving too deeply into sex education. Look at the problems adults have. If you point this out, as Schendel did on Nextdoor, you’re called a homophobe.
Even former President Barack Obama is troubled by what he referred to recently as “call-out culture” or “cancel culture” where someone says something – usually on social media – and is denounced by a mob of woke conformists who virtually delete the offender.
Just like Darden and his pack ganged up on Schendel.
Eventually, this crowd of social justice warriors will likely direct their venom at the Nextdoor.com neighborhood itself.
A couple of years ago, the San Francisco-based Nextdoor made big news when it was valued at $1 billion and rising. It makes money through ads within the comments of its users on the more prosaic conversation threads. (One of the annoying features of Nextdoor is if your comment is at all business-related, it automatically asks you to tag a business by name.)
For all the wealth it has achieved, Nextdoor does not pay the leads like Darden for their service in censoring comments – and canceling certain commenters.
It’s becoming an old story: Nextdoor has made a few people at the top very wealthy. How soon before Darden starts to feel like an Uber driver?
You’ll be canceled, neighbor.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
Related:
I posted this on nextdoor regarding Will several months back, and the comment was taken down and I was “reported” (whatever that means) by Will to nextdoor.
He don’t take to kindly to being called out for doing what he does, I guess.
Here’s the post.
Based on Will’s responses to various posts down through time I’ve had to conclude his high and mighty sounding position he takes around the bias of other’s positions that may run counter to that of the “progressive” one shows his own deeply held biases despite his own claim at the “better informed credentials” he’s constantly claiming he has. The term that comes to mind is less that of a moderator but rather that of ‘tool’. Let people speak their mind rather than try g to direct the thinking of others.
https://capitalresearch.org/article/how-fascists-take-power/
You made reference to Aldous Huxley in one of your other replies. I always enjoy being reminded of “Brave New World.” In Will Darden’s position as lead, he thinks he’s Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. Actually he’s a Beta working in the Fertilizing Room.
I also posted this on the same thread that you are referring to in this article. I too have not so favorable opinions around common core, given its origins
“Common Core” is the latest extension of previous programs aimed at mind-changing compliance with UNESCO’s evolving guidelines. You may remember some of the past titles: Education for All, Outcome Based Education, Quality Learning, No Child Left Behind, etc. In the years ahead, new labels and propaganda will surely continue to push this global agenda forward until the world’s elite masters decide that they have reached their goal: total control of the serfs that serve them.
In a 2009 article titled “The Spiritualization of Science, Technology and Education in a One-World Society,” Dr. Martin Erdmann writes,
“Aldous Huxley envisioned a future world society totally controlled by an elite group of scientists. His best-known fictional work explicating this dire prospect bore the title Brave New World. Years later he would “revisit” his prognostications only to conclude that he had underestimated the rate of change realizing his darkest fears.”[3]
Aldous, brother of the prominent Julian Huxley who served as the first Director-General of UNESCO, had reason to be concerned. Raised among British socialist/globalist elites (some of whom funded Communism in Russia), he shared their vision and glimpsed their totalitarian goals. Of course, he didn’t know that more than half a century later, the global-minded Bill Gates would use his wealth to help establish that long-term vision:
“Gates’ astronomical wealth has persuaded millions that Common Core is the solution to education problems…But… the truth remains that whenever unelected philanthropists are permitted to direct public policy, the voting public gets cut out of the process.”[4]
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/common-core/1-common-core-lighthouse.htm
I have teachers in my family so there have been lively discussions about Common Core. Living in Portland, this line jumped out from the piece you linked to: “Like Nazi youth, they will be taught to react, not think… .”
Yesterday there was a walkout by 100 students in one of the area high schools. They were protesting mistreatment of “LGBT” students and apparently decided to react instead of think. There seems to be this assumption that all LGBT folks are on the same page. However, there are some L’s, G’s and B’s who are getting tired of the demands from the T’s.
It’s like the T doesn’t stand for Transgender. It stands for Tail, as in the tail wagging the dog.
It takes 4 leads to vote on whos comments get deleted and who gets suspended or removed from Nextdoor. In my neighborhood, Will Darden and his wife Emma are both leads and Don and Carrie Hopkins are both leads. So these two households wield complete power and they are all from the same political bent. I have had very hateful interactions through private messaging from them.
I have been bullied and targeted not only on Nextdoor by these individuals but it has carried over to the Multnomah Village Facebook page where Will reminded me as well as a couple of other reasonable ladies, “If you want to know what I really think of you guys and your ridiculous positions, this is the place to ask since I don’t have to be PC.” Well, Will is really not PC on Nextdoor either! Many have PM’d me who can see through his personal animosity against me and a few others based totally on ideology. Grow up Will.
Nextdoor Support isn’t any better. It is also run by those who have PC ideologies and they side with those they agree with.
I studied some of the screen shots you sent me. Darden’s personal attacks are blatantly in conflict with Nextdoor’s stated guidelines. Comments like, “(Y)ou don’t have a charitable or empathetic bone in your body. You are, in my experience, the (sic) exactly the kind of pestilent ‘Christian’ that knows and practices nothing of the Two Great Commandments. You are a walking advertisement for how utterly un-Christ-like humans can be. To call you a whited sepulcher would be kind… .” Whew.
Then two other leads joined in to throw stones. Their vitriol is over the top. I wonder if they all have “Love Wins” signs in their yards.
I had a run-in with Will at the farmer’s market a couple of years ago when I wouldn’t sign a petition he and his wife were circulating. As a policy I don’t sign petitions. I should say I’m female. He got in my face. When he realized I had a husband nearby he tried to joke it away. Will is a bully.
I like the way you ended this. He’s helping make money for Silicon billionaaires! He’s a tool for capitalists. I think the petition he wanted me to sign had something to do with taxing the rich. What an idiot.
Where to begin. The Grant magazine story was heartbreaking. Rejection is part of adolescence in many American high schools. Kids are ostracized for all kinds of reasons, like this fellow at Nextdoor has ostracized people he doesn’t agree with. You cannot force kids to like one another. What’s sad about Adi is he/she never got a chance to evolve into adulthood. I’m always surprised by the incredible adults some of my former students have become.
After I read the Grant story I asked myself if I would’ve wanted my children to attend a school that seems so consumed by distracting issues regarding students’ and faculty’s personal lives. So many issues are choking curriculum.
Calling someone homophobic does nothing to advance a conversation. My neighborhood Nextdoor is very different from the one you write about. I don’t know who the moderators are at my Nextdoor. I guess that’s the sign of a good moderator. You can mute people if you don’t agree with them instead of censoring them.
I think you’re wrong about Nextdor’s valuation. It’s more like TWO BILLION DOLLARS. It goes to show how badly Darden wants a soapbox for his politics. He volunteers his time so a wealthy quartet in SF can get richer. For me Nextdoor has been helpful with critter info and public safety. I don’t waste my time reading his progressive political crap. If I want to argue politics, my kids are smarter than Darden and more tolerant.
San Francisco? OK boomer:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-supervisor-leads-anti-police-union-F-the-14814220.php
That’s a mighty depressing turn of events. The situation is hardly better in Portland.
Two Sundays ago I attended a candidates forum held at the Unitarian Church for Multnomah County DA. The Unitarians turned over Eliot Chapel to every progressive, nonprofit, left-wing fringe group. The ones who think the only crimes that should be prosecuted are saying the N-word, insulting a transexual, directing a male gaze at — or brushing up against — a female body part.
The Unitarians have joined in the movement to end mass incarceration now, and they want a DA who will cooperate. We have to empty the prisons of violent felons to make room for the nonviolent offenders listed in the preceding graph.
Anyway, the three DA candidates in attendance did nothing to inspire confidence. Mike Schmidt, the worst of the three, wants to create a criminal justice environment where people stop calling the police. Kirsten Naito, who checks two major boxes — female and gay, believes that prosecutors should first and foremost “do no harm.” Finally, the presumed law-and-order candidate, Ethan Knight, is ready to take on the police union.
Afterwards, I emailed Knight and told him it looked like everyone was running for executive director of the ACLU.
One of the interlocutors at this forum was Donna Hayes, grandmother of Quanice Hayes, a young black man justifiably shot by police after he robbed a homeless man at gunpoint and tried to break into a woman’s home. When the forum wrapped up, I went up to the moderator — a strange young man who looked like a cross between a skinhead and a Nazi youth — and told him that none of the questioners represented crime victims.
He said they were there “for the community.” I replied that I was a member of the community and so are crime victims. Hayes was not a victim; her grandson had a gun.
“He was not armed,” he insisted. “That gun was only a replica.”
I pointed out that the victims thought it was real. I started to tell him to read the grand jury testimony of the victims, but he interrupted, “I’m not going to talk to you,” turned his back on me and walked away.
What does any of this have to do with Nextdoor.com? According to the Nov. 1 Atlantic, which delves into the case of a porch pirate who has been outed many times on Nextdoor, the situation with property crime is so bad in the Bay Area that “an organized group of San Franciscans also has taken to sitting in on burglary cases to show elected judges that voters are watching.”
It’s too bad petty tyrants like Will Darden use Nextdoor to trumpet their progressive politics. There are better uses that could have real impact on neighborhoods.
Well, the Nextdoor leads have canceled me again. I started a private Nextdoor group called “For Those Affected by the Cancel Culture”. I was inviting a fellow Non PC neighbor who commented about being bullied and I told him he was welcome to join our group where he would be safe from the “triggered Snowflakes”. That was deemed unacceptable. I responded that I did not personally attack or name anyone and that I had been called racist, bigoted, homophobic (and those comments remained after my initial comment was removed) simply because I objected to the schools spending too much time on social engineering like gender studies and comprehensive sex education. Will Darden said, “Diane Schendel, commenting on behavior that is racist, bigoted, homophobic is different than calling someone a racist, bigot, or homophobe. And those are still an order of magnitude less serious than using a term like “triggered Snowflake”. Seriously can’t make this stuff up. I’m in Nextdoor jail for 30 days because I’m soooooo naughty!!!
You should wear your 30-day sentence proudly, Diane.
This is how Nextdoor’s wealthy proprietors “pay” Darden: They let him shove his politics down neighbors’ throats. When the censorship starts costing Nextdoor revenue, or when it becomes so egregious it invites new competitors that won’t engage in political censorship, then Nextdoor will take an interest in Darden’s behavior. For now, censoring you is the only “political power” Darden has. He’s a white boy in progressive Portland; he has to toe the party line.
I run a business and know Will. When you’re in business everybody’s a friend.. Did you know that Will is a Mormon? That explains why he goes out of his way to be a vocal liberal. I saw him interact once with a group of blacks. He was scared almost, not in a physical way, afraid of saying the wrong thing. I don’t understand his dislike of Diane. She’s right about the schools. She ran for public office once so maybe he resents that. I think he’d like to run for something.
Will is at it again, the stalking continues on the Multnomah Village FB page. I posted an article about the vehicle registration fees going up to $245. The personal attacks and belittling began immediately. He rally’s the troops to participate in his gang mentality. He’s such a tool. The break from Nextdoor has been refreshing without Will breathing down my neck.
I went over and looked at the Facebook page for Multnomah Village. The story you linked to is a legitimate news item. A story about that tax was also featured on OPB. Many people now get their news from social media, so why shouldn’t you post a link? Had you linked to a news story that Will Darden and his progressive posse approved of, they wouldn’t have responded with insults.
I was just reading about a Japanese-American named Nao Takasugi who, as a young man, was interned with his family for more than three-and-a-half years at a World War II relocation prison camp in the Arizona desert. Like other Japanese-Americans, his family had done nothing wrong. Their ancestry cast them on the wrong side of a war. There were no hearings, no appeals. What’s especially revealing about Executive Order 9066 is that it was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat and liberal. It was endorsed by two of the great liberal thinkers of the day — William O. Douglas and Walter Lippmann.
The smuggest of liberals can react in tyrannical ways when their comfortable lives are put to the test.
Looking at some of the comments posted on Facebook, and recalling the censorship you have endured at Nextdoor, I have to wonder: If Will Darden and his gang could make you disappear into an internment camp, would they do so? They would probably think they were showing off their progressive bona fides. What they are really showing is their blatant hypocrisy.
By the way, Mr. Takasugi served for many years in the California Assembly as a Republican.
I know guys like Will. If he met me he’d start practicing his Spanish. I was born in California. I don’t do Nextdoor. My wife got into some trouble on there this summer when she got on there and described someone she saw stealing a bike. We got a lot of theft in our neighborhood. She said what the guy was wearing and that he was brown skin. She might’ve said he looked Latino. She mostly uses her real name which is anglo. A bossy lady from Nextdoor called her racist because of her description. My wife’s married to a brown guy!
There are things I like about Portland, mostly the weather and the safety, compared to where we came from. I’m sick of the mind control freaks. You better be liberal or else. They call Trump “cheeto” and automatically think you agree with them. My wife says they’re as smart as people who call Pelosi “helmet head.”
Everyone must see this movie. It’s playing at Bridgeport.
So pertinent to this whole conversation. It’s excellent!
https://nosafespaces.com/
Nextdoor being headquartered in San Fransicko, what else could be expected other than a snowflake cancel culture?
I just read a review of the “San Fransicko” book. I may have to read it since I live in another city being ruined by progressives.