Elsewhere (205)
Kevin D Williamson on work and earnings:
The median salary for a women’s-studies professor is more than a hundred grand a year. The average hourly earnings for a graduate with a women’s-studies degree? Eleven bucks an hour, well less than you’d make working the car wash at a Buc-ee’s convenience store.
Marlo Safi on unknown history:
US history is not a staple course for history majors at most top universities, according to a new report from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni… Less than 20 percent of surveyed students could accurately identify in a multiple choice survey what the effect of the Emancipation Proclamation was, and one-third of college graduates were unaware that FDR introduced the New Deal.
Not entirely unrelated, Peter Wood on the fashionable conformity of student life:
Excluding people from a debate because you disagree with their views is an odd conceit, but odder still is that the practice has rapidly gained credibility on both sides of the Atlantic as morally valid.
Jonathan Haidt on the anti-rational rhetoric of “social justice” activism:
There are many beliefs [on the “social justice” left] that are so central, so foundational, that when you try to argue against them, we see students saying that this would “invalidate” their “existence.” So if you were to try to argue that some cause of prejudice or racism was not real, or that disparities by race or gender had other causes, some would take this as an existential threat, an existential attack. You would be trying to “invalidate” their “existence,” which is “an act of violence.” So your very efforts to persuade with reason are, they say, “violence.”
And Paul Sperry spots an upscale, ‘progressive’ middle school that’s probably best avoided:
The programme, these parents say, deliberately instils in white children a strong sense of guilt about their race. Some kids come home in tears, saying, “I’m a bad person.” Parents, moreover, say the classroom segregation only breeds resentment. Younger children, for instance, feel left out when the “kids of colour” come back to the main classroom munching on cupcakes they were given in their “affinity group.” The divisive programme is run by Anshu Wahi, a long-time “social justice” activist who’s held the title of “director of diversity” at Bank Street since 2013. She referred questions to the school’s communications office, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Not being overly fascinated by a person’s pigmentation is, says Ms Wahi, a “tool of Whiteness,” one that perpetuates “oppression.” Apparently, the way to get past small differences in physiology is to continually fixate on small differences in physiology – at least, according to our “social justice” educator, whose status and pay cheque – and whose opportunities to indulge in a little psychological sadism – very much depend on the children in her care being fixated by such things.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
The Bank Street School is pure evil. Why would anyone do that to children?
Excluding people from a debate because you disagree with their views is an odd conceit,
I will only debate people who already agree with me!
#TimeSaver
I will only debate people who already agree with me! #TimeSaver
I also quite like this bit:
Can’t help feeling it’s just a tad symbolic.
I have to repeat what SumDumGuy said. Are people choosing to send their children to these schools? I absolutely detested my Catholic school education, but … well, I’m glad there was no Sister Anshu.
In the Age of Click, academic freedom is mainly at risk from academicians.
hot damn, I’ll say it again … I hope to hell Melissa isn’t one of my relatives.
~~Darleen Click
Me. Me me me. Shut up! Listen to me! Me.
“one-third of college graduates were unaware that FDR introduced the New Deal.”
It’s stuff like this that makes me deeply suspicious of those polls that reveal that a certain frowned-upon political viewpoint (the most recent being Brexit) is predominantly supported by non-graduates, the insinuation being, “If you think this, you’re with the idiots. You idiot”. Tertiary educational credentials do not equate to a wide breadth of knowledge. Perhaps they once did, but not in the 21st Century academy.
I think it’s a function of universities becoming “tertiary education” in the first place, actually. Instead of promoting intellectual curiosity, and thus attracting the intellectually curious, as they did in their days as quasi-monastic repositories of knowledge, they’ve become glorified high schools, favouring those who keep their heads down and give the correct answers. It’s a very broad generalization, and I’m certain there are many worthy exceptions, but where they once produced leaders and pioneers, they now churn out followers and yes-men.
“Parents, moreover, say the classroom segregation only breeds resentment. Younger children, for instance, feel left out when the ‘kids of colour’ come back to the main classroom munching on cupcakes they were given in their ‘affinity group.’”
It’s hard not to conclude that the people who come up with this stuff actually want inter-racial conflict.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but that Wahi creature sounds as though it needs some serious psychiatric attention. Along with medication, lots and lots of it.
It’s hard not to conclude that the people who come up with this stuff actually want inter-racial conflict.
No they just want to wipe out white people. Refer to the Kalergi plan for the details for Europe for example…
Tertiary educational credentials do not equate to a wide breadth of knowledge. Perhaps they once did, but not in the 21st Century academy.
My grizzled old physics teacher from my secondary school, who had enormous influence on me, used to say “strip away everything learned in formal education, and what is left is a measure of how educated somebody is”.
It’s a very broad generalization, and I’m certain there are many worthy exceptions, but where they once produced leaders and pioneers, they now churn out followers and yes-men.
Perfect for the modern corporate world, then.
. . . I think it’s a function of universities becoming “tertiary education” in the first place, actually. Instead of promoting intellectual curiosity, and thus attracting the intellectually curious, as they did in their days as quasi-monastic repositories of knowledge, they’ve become glorified high schools, . . .
Becoming?
Bravo David – we need more of these useless degree failed career choice studies – if an honest study was undertaken regarding lifetime worth of a degreed study, we would find a significant negative economic incentive for the neoclassic Marxist disciplines.
The more I think about Anshu Wahi and other teachers like her, the more it seems that what they are doing is not educating “kids of color”. The intention is to “miseducate” white students. I’m reluctant to think that, though, because I hate what it says about me.
The Banks school is a private school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Wahi is merely indoctrinating sons and daughters of leftists in their racist secular religion, adults who have chosen to send their children there and paid handsomely to do so.
I may not agree with how leftists choose to educate their children, but I am reluctant to interfere with their choices (just another of the many ways I differ from leftists).
The more I think about Anshu Wahi and other teachers like her
Not sure the Wahi is actually a teacher.
Teachers tend to react badly to upsetting their students, so are rarely this direct in their discrimination. A “Director of Diversity” however has no blow-back, because they leave someone else to deal with the upset white kids.
Actually teaching is usually too much like hard work for the likes of Wahi. Their little idealised world falls apart when you have to deal with real people. (A lot of the more idealistic teachers move quickly into areas where they get to tell adults what to do, without having to actually teach very much themselves. Teachers Colleges are full of them.)
I’m a strong believer that in most schools and universities a great deal of the stupidest decisions would be avoided if the people making them had to deal with the consequences personally. They’d be less likely to blame poor behaviour on the teacher if they had to witness the crap dealt out every week.
Not sure the Wahi is actually a teacher.
Zampolit?
The intention is to “mis-educate” white students
The Bank Street School claims to employ a “novel approach to fighting discrimination,” when in fact it follows the template of manipulation and bullying used by Jane Elliott and other well-paid “diversity” hustlers. And so Ms Wahi claims that the solution to racism is “teaching white kids to see race in everything” – but only in the most question-begging, psychological harmful ways, and the children in her care must admit – i.e., confess – to the existence of “systemic racism” and their complicity in it.
As with Elliott, who famously took delight in seeing a small, outgoing girl rendered frightened, timid and humiliated, it’s hard to see Ms Wahi’s efforts as anything other than an exercise in sadism, a form of child abuse.
it’s hard to see Ms Wahi’s efforts as anything other than an exercise in sadism, a form of child abuse.
That.
I know that it has been said before, and probably better expressed, but in trying to rationalise the implications of Wahi’s philosophy in practice I can only conclude that (a) she and others of her ilk believe that white people are inherently superior (this inherent “privilege” which we all possess means that we end up doing down and beating the brown people at everything, everywhere, every time) such that (b) to even things up a bit you’ve got to put the brakes on by getting whitey to stop trying.
Unfortunately, the “privilege” is still inherent and will still mean that the ofays’ll come out on top, particularly if they take against the likes of Wahi’s efforts to demean and scold them just for being who they are; I believe that this is not an uncommon reaction amongst children. Eventually, this would lead to complete separation and end in apartheid.
That.
Well, I think you have to ask what kind of person would find it appealing and rewarding to, as Elliott puts it, “use participants’ own emotions to make them feel discomfort, guilt, shame, embarrassment and humiliation” by telling those participants, including small children, that they are guilty of collective sin – irrespective of their actual, individual behaviour – and that the only way to purge themselves of this racial wickedness is to confess, repeatedly, and to agree with her.
Of course, agreeing with Ms Elliott and her peers entails becoming either a fool or a practised liar. Such that, not only must the victim confess to being “privileged” and racist, an abuser of people with darker skin, they must also agree to a menu of absurd and ahistorical myths. Among which, that racism is a uniquely “white” vice invented by white people (who are “parasitic”), and that their culture, their language, in fact all civilisation, was “stolen” from browner, more noble people.
And so the relationship with children is exploitative and predatory. In much the same way that paedophiles will often search out jobs that offer opportunities for contact with minors – teaching, social work, etc., those bedevilled by urges to exert power over others will tend to seek out careers that allow them to enjoy their vices. And for a certain kind of person, what could be sweeter than a license to indulge in the psychological abuse of children who can’t fight back, with the blessing of the school, the blessing of the state?
These are malign, damaged people who wish to damage others.
I can’t understand how any parent of white children would allow them to remain for a second at the Bank Street School after learning about this poisonous nonsense. Wahi is clearly an evil hag, but what does it say about parents that they would leave their children at the mercy of such a person?
What does it say about parents that they would leave their children at the mercy of such a person?
At 112th Street, the Bank Street School is in the heart of a neighborhood that has only been gentrified in the past few decades. When I was in NYC in the 70s and 80s, only the bravest people of pallor would think of living north of 96th Street, especially with the high crime and murder rate of that era. Whites were not welcome, simple as that.
They are the interlopers, and they know it, so I suspect “quivering fear” plays a role here. Even today, this is not a neighborhood where you want to be tagged as a racist.
on work and earnings
Spanish council discovers two employees haven’t shown up for work in 15 years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/30/spanish-council-discovers-two-employees-havent-shown-up-for-work/
Bill Elder wrote: “We need more of these useless degree failed career choice studies”
I agree completely. As many have said before, most (if not all) of these “study programs” really only serve to hatch more budding angry, entitled yellers, activists and agitators determined to shut down the culture that permits them to behave the way they do.
We need more of these useless degree failed career choice studies
I haven’t read it myself, but this might address that need: Worthless: The Young Person’s Indispensable Guide to Choosing the Right Major
Spanish council discovers two employees haven’t shown up for work in 15 years.
Wow. Must be that public sector work ethic I hear so much about.
Speaking of which, on Sunday morning I went to the local NHS hospital to return a pair of crutches used by The Other Half after an accident a few months ago. I made my way to the main reception desk, behind which a large woman was staring intently at a celebrity gossip magazine. I stood directly in front of her, smiling expectantly. For several seconds, almost ten, nothing happened.
“Morning,” I said, still smiling. “I’m returning these crutches. Could you tell me where I can leave them?” The receptionist’s eyes moved, very slowly, from the magazine to me, but the enquiry was met with a blank stare. And an awkward pause. I assumed the receptionist hadn’t heard me on account of the gripping contents of her magazine. Just as I started to repeat the question, the large woman mouthed one word: “Hydrotherapy.” I looked around at the maze of doors and corridors, hoping for a sign marked ‘Hydrotherapy,’ to no avail.
“Sorry, can you tell me where I’ll find Hydrotherapy?” As I asked this, I sensed I was already testing the woman’s patience as her stare lifted again from the magazine. Another awkward pause, followed by a vague gesture in no particular direction and an irritated tone of voice: “Down that corridor, on the right.” “Thanks,” I said, determined to sound civil, albeit unilaterally.
The corridor in question was quite long with numerous right turns, none of which, it turned out, was marked ‘Hydrotherapy.’ However, after a walk of maybe 70 metres or so, I did spy a door on the left with a sign to that effect, through which I found another long corridor and, eventually, another reception desk, where three members of staff sat chatting in a near whisper. Again, I stood right in front of them, hoping to be noticed. And again, nothing happened.
“Morning,” I said, smiling with doomed optimism. Again, nothing happened. Evidently I was expected to stand there patiently until the chatting had reached a crescendo and the subsequent laughter had concluded. “I’m returning these crutches,” I said. “I’ve been told I should leave them here.” The second, equally blank receptionist glanced at the objects clutched in my hand, but not at me, then said, distractedly and apparently to the room in general, “There’s no-one here to take them. Have you tried main reception?”
To expand on academics, work and earnings, at the University of California Berserkely, economics professors railing about “income inequality” are pulling down $300,000/year.
According to the report this puts them in the top 2% of salaried employees of the university. Oops.
at the University of California Berserkely, economics professors railing about “income inequality” are pulling down $300,000/year.
See also Paul Krugman, whose “modest role” in CUNY’s “inequality initiative” banked him a salary of $25,000 per month.
See also Paul Krugman…
Having amassed a net worth of $4 million while either an academic or government employee, Robert Reich, who apparently teaches only one class, is yet another.
“Thanks,” I said, determined to sound civil, albeit unilaterally.
Don’t you dare complain about OUR PRECIOUS NHS! It’s the ENVY OF THE WORLD!
It’s the ENVY OF THE WORLD!
The third world, possibly.
Having visited the hospital several times, as next of kin rather than a patient, my impression of the place is that while there are competent and friendly doctors, surgeons and nurses, the admin staff is a very mixed bag and largely unfamiliar with notions of customer service or even common civility. Competence, too, is very hit and miss, and during my recent experience, an important appointment notification was never sent, a set of records was accidentally deleted, and a set of x-rays was simply lost, never to be found. None of which was regarded by the staff as particularly unusual or embarrassing.
And because the notion of customer service is apparently so alien, the result was of being made to feel like an inconvenience, as if we should be grateful for any attention at all, however inept, because they’re doing us a favour.
Lancastrian: “to even things up a bit you’ve got to put the brakes on by getting whitey to stop trying.”
Exactly. That’s what I meant when I said white children are being mis-educated.
Anything run entirely by the government seems to be a total disaster, if not an outright criminal enterprise. Witness the Veterans’ Administration in the US, which excused its long waiting times, during which patients actually died, with the fact that Disneyworld has long waiting lines as well. And this was said with a straight face by a person who not only is still working there, but probably got a bonus for putting the rubes in their place. In a different time, such people would have been run out of town on a rail. Now they are excused, if not downright lionized, by the mainstream press. For telling it to the man.
Steve Sailer has an alternative theory about why parents pay $45K/year for their children to be indoctrinated about their white privilege.
“Not being overly fascinated by a person’s pigmentation is, says Ms Wahi, a “tool of Whiteness,”
Like that famous honky Martin Luther King.
And this was said with a straight face by a person who not only is still working there, but probably got a bonus for putting the rubes in their place.
Worse, the clown who said it does in fact still have his job as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, i.e., the Grand Panjandrum hissef, but aside from having been CEO of Proctor and Gamble, an organization that should have some concept of customer relations, he is not only a veteran himself (though not a combat veteran) and a West Point and Ranger school graduate.
It is not clear who “others” are, but it apparently hasn’t been veterans.
QR-
I think Sailer may be on to something, but all that does is expose the whole edifice as even more of a hollow sham, taught by charlatans and paid for by hypocrites who are willing to let their offspring suffer abuse because it might gain them an edge in later life.
It seems to amount to nothing more than a 21st century take on the private education system in 20th century Britain- not something I experienced myself, but I did meet several ex-public/boarding school pupils on my own ascent of the white-dominated greasy pole of a professional career, and a fair proportion seemed to have suffered from the bad food/flogging/brutality and occasional sexual abuse which seemed to be intrinsic to the whole experience. And it cost their parents a shitload of money too, apparently.
Compulsory rugby, cold showers, fagging* and being beaten by a prefect for burning his toast have become replaced by mandatory political indoctrination designed to make you hate yourself. Never mind, it’ll do ’em a power of good on their way to that Wall Street partnership.
* For our American readers- not what you think. It meant a system where younger boys acted as unpaid servants/slaves for the older boys.
In the world of Victim Olympics, team BLM beats Canadian Pride
Victimhood.
Canadian Pride
Hmmm. Last year at San Francisco Pride there were shots fired on site Saturday afternoon(1)
This year, the entire celebration area and parade were absolutely matter-of-factly benign with everything running completely on time and on schedule . . . .
(1) In the video, if you look at what has the camera operator’s attention, it’s a set of slack ropes set up parallel to the street and sidewalk, and people are seeing if they can successfully work their way along the ropes. About an hour before the shooting, Pride Safety had to get sent out to Have A Talk with the hipster who set ’em up. The original layout was a near maze of ropes that zig zagged all over that section of trees, blocking traffic in all directions in that area of the trees.
The reminder of reality from Safety was not that people could fall off the ropes, the overall idea was perfectly fine. The reminder was that should something untowards occur, then when people will be running through the area, they’ll be running right into the ropes, knocking over themselves and those on the ropes, and the hipster would thus be extremely liable and all of Pride would just point and laugh.
The response from the hipster was just about literally, A) Oh, no, no one will ever run through here, they can see the ropes.
When reminded that sprinting people do not see minor obstructions like ropes until hitting them, the hipster tried B) Oh, no, my assistant and I will just wave them out of the way.
When reminded that sprinting people do not see minor obstructions like hipsters until hitting them, the hipster was then Informed that Ok, we are here telling you this so that you can have things your way, and what your way is going to be is that either you will start untying the blocking ropes now, or we have the permission of Pride to start cutting down the blocking ropes now. As, noted, we don’t care about the parallel ropes, we’re here to tell you about the blocking ropes that are going to come down immediately.
The hipster then tried C) a show of emphatic pouting, but we of reality still weren’t impressed, and he started taking down the blocking ropes.
Forty minutes or so later, about fifty to a hundred feet away and still between the two buildings there, the shots were fired. While granting the circumstances, there was much amusement in Safety regarding the hipster’s fortune in encountering only slightly delayed karma . . . regardless of the hipster’s opinion of that karma . . .
Well of course it’s a hollow sham run by charlatans and paid for by hypocrites, Mr. Oik. But I suspect that these hate-whitey struggle sessions are mostly about denouncing Bad Whites – southerners, gun owners, Republicans, etc. – so the psycholgical damage to the precious NYC snowflakes is probably minimal. They are just being indoctrinated as to who they should hate, and they are supposed to hate aren’t much like themselves, despite having the same white skin.
The people they are supposed to hate aren’t much like themselves, that is.
It all makes more sense when one realizes there are 4 races in America: Blacks, Good Whites, Bad Whites,and Miscellaneous.
Re Victimhood, I couldn’t find any contemporary translation of Khomeini’s declaration of Al Quds that reads that way. Though as usual for that crowd, any BS will do. They are the universally oppressed. If only the world would leave them alone. After all, look at how their increasingly uniform monocultures work so damn well internally.
the practice has rapidly gained credibility on both sides of the Atlantic as morally valid.
It’s always morally valid to prevent Nazis from poisoning the minds of the young.
In slightly parallel news, a group of US cub scouts have found a new sponsor.
that Wahi creature sounds as though it needs some serious psychiatric attention. Along with medication, lots and lots of it.
You’re giving her far too much credit: She’s not crazy; she’s evil, and you can’t medicate evil.
She’s choosing this, in other words, because it satisfies her vanity and lust for power.
I need psych attention and medication, and she ain’t one of us.
Crazy can be treated or cured; evil cannot.
As the entirety of human history demonstrates.
Guilty pleasures from @GodfreyElfwick
https://twitter.com/godfreyelfwick/status/750023119008571393
Guilty pleasures from @GodfreyElfwick
I am guessing the fetching lass in the video singing “Power to the People” failed to realize that is what happened. Unless, of course, “people” just means her and her pals.
Some of the other demands Chantelois agreed to are that the parade will no longer have police floats
To be fair, in the days before Stonewall the cops were often quite antagonistic toward gays. And in the Pulse shootings (well, in a lot of mass shooting events), the cops were happy to wait outside for hours and let victims bleed out.
And in the Pulse shootings (well, in a lot of mass shooting events), the cops were happy to wait outside for hours and let victims bleed out.
Not buying that leftist narrative for a minute. It’s another BS distraction from the motive of the killer, and his wife accomplice (gee, what media hole did she disappear into?), themselves. The cops did as good of a job as they were trained and capable of doing. I can criticize their lack of perfection in execution, but try getting all hands on deck at 2:30 in the morning to address a terrorist operation and see how well you do.
Please to be excusing me, I have been in your country only a very short distance now and am having many not understandings of new language.
Please to making undestandings of this very scientific and academical reading please.
In advance I am saying thank you very many.
Don’t miss Godfrey’s pinned Tweet: “I’m not sure calling people racist is working anymore. We’re gonna need a bigger slur”
Must see the accompanying photo for the full effect.
Please to making undestandings of this very scientific and academical reading please.
Ms Hammers (awesome name btw) is an amateur. Using big words and neologisms only makes you look like a try-hard.
The real masters take ordinary words and form a cocktail that is intoxicating, because you feel you should know what they mean if only you weren’t so stupid.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.47.2.10?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
“Slow.”
Oh, endless new realms of feminist angst:
Because we mustn’t run out of things to be neurotic about, and oppressed by, and then ostentatiously overcome.
“and made a point of defecating on his desk.”
Class.
‘Why are the results of science considered more reliable than those from other forms of human enquiry, like poetry or philosophy?’
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/opinion/there-is-no-scientific-method.html
Why are the results of science considered more reliable than those from other forms of human enquiry, like poetry or philosophy?
I’m not quite sure what point Dr Blachowicz, our professor of philosophy, is trying to make. Beyond hinting at some disgruntlement that, say, chemists and physicists are generally regarded as of more practical use than poets or philosophers.
In entirely unrelated news, a spacecraft launched from Earth has spent five years crossing almost three billion kilometres of space, at speeds of up to a quarter of a million kilometres per hour, and has just arrived in orbit around the planet Jupiter, exactly as predicted. So far as I can tell, it did not get there by means of poetry.
In entirely unrelated news…
Thank God no one was wearing an offensive shirt. They’ve obviously learned their lesson. I wonder if Matt Taylor spent the night curled into a foetal position in the basement with PTSD memmories of his night in the spotlight.
memmories or Mammaries?
I’m not quite sure what point Dr Blachowicz, our professor of philosophy, is trying to make. Beyond hinting at some disgruntlement that, say, chemists and physicists are generally regarded as of more practical use than poets or philosophers.
AFAICT, there is no point to modern philosophy. Various discussions that I have had with such people circle a vague idea but are abandoned any time you get within reach of a point. Questioning their assumptions simply leads to infinite hair splitting and ultimately a tiring argument. Kind of how Hillary deals with her various scandals. Drag things out until ultimately no one cares or even remembers the original issue. It’s what leftists “do”, for lack of a better word.
AFAICT, there is no point to modern philosophy
Well, in this instance, I’m still not sure what the point is, besides a note of status envy on the part of the author. Blachowicz asks, “How is it that the results of science are more reliable than what is provided by these other forms [i.e., poetry and philosophy]?” But the scientific method entails observing the world, quantifying aspects of it, formulating rules and making predictions. If, among other things, those predictions hold up repeatedly, the science is thought reliable, at least until more is known. But poets and philosophers don’t often deal with quantified variables, or make predictions about spacecraft trajectories, or drug efficacy, or much of anything. Does philosophy have “results” in anything like the same sense? Is poetry falsifiable?
The word “reliable” seems… odd.
Oh, endless new realms of feminist angst:
Stretch mark positivity. OK, yeah, sure, and no, almost everyone do not get them. If anyone had any lingering doubts about these peoples tenuous grasp of sanity, I give you another fine MS-Paint cartoon about tricotillomania and dermatillomania, evidently a major problem amongst their lot.
No.
I guess my technique of a DA sander is right out. Read the rest as the kids say.
Yes, but much like the potentially bottomless exploration “courage” in the piece, “reliable” can be taken apart endlessly and thus the philosopher wins. These philosophers are quite enamoured with themselves and thus the world and anything in it is an opportunity for them to put “philosophy”, and thus themselves, at the center of all knowledge. I’ve had this argument with one such narcissist. It basically boiled down to “philosophy is the root of all knowledge”. Which is an arguable point to some extent, but the process of the discussion and how it moved, the ego of the philosopher was really the driving factor of the succeeding discussions.
memmories or Mammaries?
Yes, I appear to have Dunning-Kruger’d myself. Curse my broken, internal spell-checker!
The urge to pull at your hair or pick at your skin – does this sound familiar to you or anyone you know?
Given the endless articles and cartoons of this type, published almost daily, on everything from self-harm to borderline personality disorder, it does seem that the readership of Everyday Feminism is largely made up of people with quite serious mental health issues.
“reliable” can be taken apart endlessly
Is that that famous ‘deconstructing’ or ‘unpacking’ I keep hearing about? Seems to be ‘problematic’ and ‘unsustainable’ and ‘unprecedented’, not to mention not ‘awareness-raising’ enough. BINGO!
Oh, and WTP, aren’t these people better called ‘philosophists‘?
The urge to pull at your hair or pick at your skin – does this sound familiar to you or anyone you know?
“Next week, an article for readers who spend their evenings eating tissues by the fistful and then being sick behind the sofa.” #GirlPower
#GirlPower
Snort.
…”Everyday Feminism” is largely made up of people with quite serious mental health issues.
Nonsense, it is completely made up of people with extremely serious mental health issues as every page links to more pages with some psychopathology.
Emotional warfare and body terrorism. QED.
On the indoctrination of high school students.
Yet in science, just as in defining a concept like courage, ad hoc exceptions are sometimes exactly what are needed. While Galileo’s law prescribes that the trajectory of a projectile like a cannonball follows a parabolic path, the true path deviates from a parabola, mostly because of air resistance. That is, a second, separate causal element must be accounted for. And so we add the ad hoc exception “except when resisted by air.”
I gave up at that point, because that is not an ad hoc exception, as a moment’s pause for thought would have made obvious. And whilst certain philosophical lines of enquiry might resemble the scientific method it doesn’t make them equivalent; on the other hand it could be argued that proper hard science is practical epistemology and therefore philosophical.
Oh, and WTP, aren’t these people better called ‘philosophists’?
Yep. That’s what I’ve been calling them generally. But then the argument descends into claims that sophistry is a philosophy. Which it is. By being an anti-philosophy. See, it never ends. Circle in a spiral. Windmills and all that.
The urge to pull at your hair or pick at your skin – does this sound familiar to you or anyone you know?
Thought that one deserved a post of its own.
“Power to the People”
Relevant
Please to be excusing me, I have been in your country only a very short distance now and am having many not understandings of new language.
It is all very simple. Follow these rules:
1. Make random singular nouns into plurals. The nouns may be abstract or concrete, as long as they’re supposed to be singular in context. (“Embodiments”, “sophistries”, “sofas”, whatever.)
2. Borrow scientific terminology, but be sure you’re not using it in boring scientific ways like those boring old scientists. Call your theory a “project” instead. Call your research question a “theory”. An idea should become an “economy”. The less sense it all makes, the better. (Be sure to apply Rule 1 with vigor here.)
3. Make any significant nouns into verbs instead. “Privilege” is a verb. So is “gender”. For bonus points, turn them into nouns again via gerunding, e.g. “genderings”.
4. Wherever you see that a word contains another word (whether this be a true portmanteau word, a word with a prefix, or a word that accidentally looks like another word), insert an inappropriate punctuation mark at the word or pseudo-word boundary. The slash is classic (“the/rapist”), but you can get more modern, sassier effects by using other punctuation (“punc(h)uation”, “sophis::try”, “idea%lize”, etc.) Let your imagination be your guide.
To regain the English from academese, simply reverse these rules. Remove internal punctuation from words, translate “project” back into “theory”, make most of the plural nouns singular, and so on. Even if you do this strictly mechanically and with violent inattention to the meaning (if present and divinable), you’ll almost certainly get something more comprehensible out the end.
A mathematician requires pencil, paper, eraser, and a wastebasket. A philosopher dispenses with the eraser and the wastebasket.
In entirely unrelated news, a spacecraft launched from Earth has spent five years crossing almost three billion kilometres of space, at speeds of up to a quarter of a million kilometres per hour, and has just arrived in orbit around the planet Jupiter, exactly as predicted. So far as I can tell, it did not get there by means of poetry.
And you’d be completely wrong. The probe’s Ionic Pentameter Drive is powered by hyper-speed recitations of Alan Ginsberg’s “Howl”.
Science is the cooking and eating of the dinner, philosophy is the conversation during and after. Religion is the brandy and cigars at the end.
an important appointment notification was never sent, a set of records was accidentally deleted, and a set of x-rays was simply lost, never to be found. None of which was regarded by the staff as particularly unusual or embarrassing.
That. My experience of NHS hospitals in a nutshell. Good surgeon, crap admin.
And because the notion of customer service is apparently so alien, the result was of being made to feel like an inconvenience, as if we should be grateful for any attention at all, however inept, because they’re doing us a favour
One or two NHS receptionists seem to have mastered the art of keeping you waiting just long enough for you to know that they’re in charge of the situation.
I dare say some of them are getting a hard time both from stressed doctors and from patients tired of being patronised & bossed around – but the fact remains that the interaction is occasionally initiated in a passive aggressive way.
And there’s usually a poster saying “we will not tolerate violence towards our staff”. The possibility you could be refused treatment if you’re not really, really polite is the icing on the cake.
Obviously I’m not bitter about this 🙂 Anyway, sounds as though you met this lady.
And there’s usually a poster saying “we will not tolerate violence towards our staff”.
Yes. On arrival I was slightly surprised by the poster. It’s one of the first things you see and you get plenty of time to stare at it. It doesn’t exactly buoy your expectations. But after a glance around, it dawned on me that these places do have a high concentration of the, um, less gifted population. I’m sure dealing with people in pain – and especially morons in pain – can get a bit wearing, which is partly why I was determined to be more agreeable than strictly necessary. But the whole admin system just seemed demoralised, unreliable and hopelessly inefficient – there was a jarring lack of initiative. And when things went wrong, the response by staff suggested this wasn’t at all unusual or noteworthy, or deserving of apology.
In contrast, a while ago I visited my father-in-law at a private hospital and the atmosphere was strikingly different – attentive and friendly staff, a feeling that you mattered, and no vital paperwork or x-rays got lost. It’s not just a matter of a nicer building or private rooms, it’s an ethos. And – perhaps unsurprisingly, given the difference in clientele – I didn’t see any posters warning that violence towards staff wouldn’t be tolerated.
John D quotes a sophist:
‘Why are the results of science considered more reliable than those from other forms of human enquiry, like poetry or philosophy?’
During this season’s NBA (Basketball) broadcasts in my area, an ad extolling the beauty of the videos, photos, and graphics producible on an Apple iPad came out. The voice-over was of some arts-professorial-type, going on about truth and beauty, who at some point declaims that “art is greater than mere engineering and science” (or was it “and medicine”?) Anyway, I choked on my chips at that remark.
Here’s a guy using and admiring the product of one of the most advanced bits of tech on the planet, the end result of hundreds of years of science and math, thousands if not millions of engineers, and an infrastructure and logistics scheme spanning the globe and costing many billions of dollars. It’s being advertised to the masses via ANOTHER similar bit of tech. And what does he say?
It’s all “Mere engineering.”
And so many folks nod their heads at the wisdom…
jaed’s suggestion for editors:
“violent inattention to the meaning”
I love it. I’m stealing it.
Morbid curiosity (I originally just wrote “curiosity” but that would have been a lie.) finally drew me to read Prof. B’s essay.
I now have an existence proof that one can make an adequate living, or at least be published in the NY press, with no more than the intellectual heft to be expected of a 16-year old.
What a mishmash. The bloke simply has no serious understanding of the historical science examples he mentions. Hell, he doesn’t even understand what “ad hoc” means – pretty amusing in an essay largely about meaning.
An artist opines.
Theodore Dalrymple ponders Brexit:
Worth reading in full.
Worth reading in full.
Indeed.