Elsewhere (242)
Ian Miles Cheong pokes through the literature of Antifa affiliate Redneck Revolt:
Much of the group’s official website includes rhetoric pulled straight out of Marxist publications, echoing various talking points about the evils of capitalism, property ownership, “artificial borders,” and basic systems of social order, including police, prisons, and courts. Redneck Revolt refers to these public institutions as “systems of social control [that] only exist to serve the rich,” and calls for the end of the “nation-state project.” It lists the US Armed Forces alongside the Ku Klux Klan as having “undermined the struggle for freedom among all people.” The “Resources” page of the group’s website offers a number of publications that promote violence, including a 36-page manual called the “Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla,” which advises readers on how to conduct urban warfare, with sections on “sabotage,” “kidnapping,” “executions,” and “terrorism.”
Related: “Violence can and should be… made commonplace.” And previously.
Ed Driscoll on Lena Dunham’s latest gratuitous attempt to signal her piety:
Dunham is now babbling “I live for my truth,” in response to being described, yet again, as a fabulist. In any case, as Ace of Spades writes of the above incident, the SJW crowd “are militant, they are dogmatic, they are intolerant, and they are vicious… They have convinced themselves that their Pleasurable Cruelty to people is justified because they act to vindicate the Righteousness of Strange Gods.” The incident may or may not have happened, but Dunham has chosen to position herself, as veteran journalist Kurt Loder tweeted, as “Lena Dunham, millionaire scourge of working-class women.”
Related, Iowahawk has an idea.
Toni Airaksinen on complaints that women are being held back in class by “white” and “heteronormative” mathematics:
In a recent article titled Unpacking the Male Superiority Myth and Masculinization of Mathematics at the Intersection, Professor Luis A Leyva argues that factors such as teacher expectations and cultural norms “serve as gendering mechanisms that give rise to sex-based achievement differences.” Citing the “masculinization of mathematics,” Leyva then suggests that the apparent “gender gap” in mathematical ability is socially constructed (as opposed to arising from inherently different cognitive abilities) and therefore a “myth of male superiority.”
Apparently, it’s “unfair” to hold all students to the same standards of proficiency, as this oppresses women. Or at least it oppresses feminists. And so mathematics must be corrected with “intersectionality theory” and lots of fretting about “whiteness” and “identity.” And very much related, this. Because the best way to teach engineering is to waste class time with lots of “social justice” hokum.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
In the same way a helicopter is described as ‘a collection if parts flying in close formation’ the misses Dunham, Penny and their ilk ( and never was the term ilk more appropriate) an be considered as a cluster of severe Personality Disorders traveling in a pack.
Actually, that “depressing” response to the Google affair is quite understandable, as 25% of the Google workforce (if not more) realize their jobs would be jeopardized if merit alone became the sole factor for their continued employment. This is the sound of deadwood squawking.
Well, make that “LGBT/feminist/BLM/Islamic deadwood” squawking. Precision counts.
I’m not sure Laurie Penny believes half this crap she comes out with. She’s a run-of-the-mill upper-middle-class woman who’s stumbled on a formula for making some cash, i.e. by spouting unsupportable nonsense to a band of sycophantic followers while pretending to be a rebel. If she’d given the polyamory thing a miss – which marks her out as a weirdo that few men would want to get involved with – she’d be like, as Daniel Ream says upthread – Lacie Green, who was coming out with boilerplate feminist shite right up until she got laid properly by some shitlord on the alt-right.
I was hardly surprised she got on well with Milo’s supporters: I suspect deep down she’s a lot more like them culturally and socially than her followers.
A Google software developer with a PhD in biology writes a polite, researched and politically centrist memo suggesting… that men and women on average have differing preferences and abilities, albeit with a large overlap,
Man states obvious. SJWs lose their minds.
Sun rises in East. SJWs lose their minds.
I’m not sure Laurie Penny believes half this crap she comes out with.
She does strike me as someone who’s fundamentally insincere. She opens her mouth and you can practically smell the bad faith. All that tedious signalling and in-group positioning. Though given how ignorant and obnoxious so much of what says is, does her insincerity count as a small blessing?
Speaking of the reborn Elfwick:
I seem to recall a bit of a kerfuffle a few years ago when that iteration of the social justice set was all a-fluff that some speak-and-play Barbie had the chutzpah to say, “Math is hard!”
I guess she should have said, Boys’ math is hard! We need a special version just for girls.”
Or something.
An actual empowered female — “he shouldnta brought his ass into my house.”
Speaking of the reborn Elfwick
I have to wonder, how long it will be before the Twitter Stasi discover he’s re-spawned?
More Lena Dunham:
One of the hallmarks of totalitarianism is that the officially approved truth was capricious and unpredictable, and that was on purpose. They wanted the approved ideology to change so quickly that there was no way to comply with it by sincere personal conviction. The only way to comply with it was out of a habit of obedience.
Via Glenn Reynolds.
Another one from the ongoing #GoogleManifesto saga:
Why, it’s almost as if there’s a pattern. Incidentally, Etiene Dalcol, the woman instantly blocking anyone who asks polite questions, is a feminist software developer. And yes, she has blue hair.
The #GoogleManifesto fracas is one of those things that would sounded like an absurd extrapolation a few years back: moderate skeptic politely questions the diversity party line while conceding half the game in the first sentence, totalitarian progressives have meltdowns about the FULMINATING ANTI-DIVERSITY SCREED and demand that the author be fired, nay, double fired, practically retroactively fired and then firing everyone who could have fired the author but didn’t. They must have been insufficiently zealous in the purging, you see. All while telling big fat lies about the content.
All while telling big fat lies about the content.
Brianna Wu isn’t an honest woman?
I think I need to sit down.
A mostly orthogonal observation about the #GoogleManifesto that I saw on (a sensible part of) Tumblr is that there are some engineers expressing the opinion that they wouldn’t want to work at a company which would fire the author of the manifesto, other engineers saying they wouldn’t want to work at a company which wouldn’t fire the author of the manifesto, and some engineers saying they wouldn’t want to work at a company where the culture resulted in the manifesto being written in the first place.
Which suggests that if a company wants to sweep a wide net for engineering talent, their incentive structure is to make everyone shut the fuck up so such matters are never raised.
Hmmm. I wonder where this will lead.
Hmmm. I wonder where this will lead.
It’s also interesting how so many of the expensively educated screechers, including some with STEM backgrounds, don’t understand even basic statistical concepts.
Which suggests that if a company wants to sweep a wide net for engineering talent, their incentive structure is to make everyone shut the fuck up so such matters are never raised.
This is what happens when your base is in Mountain View, CA: ground zero for leftist authoritarianism.
Which makes it highly amusing that Silicon Valley’s Second City (aka Silicon Slopes), is in UTAH, the reddest red state in the union. Mostly people don’t talk politics in our Utah office. And yeah, our HQ is in Silicon Valley. Writing under pseudonyms is the better part of valor.
“This is the sound of deadwood squawking.”
Let the company here assembled be witness, Burnsie is the coiner of the delightful term, “deadwood squawking”.
“[D]eadwood [S]quawking”
Country Western band name sorted.
Heh. Or deadwood squeaking, because I’d wager those having snits speak in annoying, high-pitched, children voices, especially the, erm, men…
Re: the (soon to be fired) Google chappy who wrote a well-reasoned, perfectly courteous and indeed highly pertinent ‘memo’ on the sinisterly rigid, monocultural environment now detrimentally pervading his employer:
In an exceedingly rare fit of masochism I had an ill-advised peruse of some of the responses his concerns had elicited across various, purported tech websites and as one might expect in 2017, they were rather sobering overall.
Though few will be in any doubt as to what the majority of these somewhat ’emotional’ responses comprised of the following conveniently summarises them:
(1) – ‘The heretical author demonstrably hates all women/never met an actual woman in his life.’
(2) – ‘He wants Google to be an exclusive haven for white male employees – no girlies or foreign types allowed.’
(3) – ‘Is likely a virgin (in a derogatory sense, obviously).’
(4) – ‘Deserves to be fired (that demand was particularly popular, unsurprisingly).’
(5) – ‘Is beyond doubt a generally a nasty/fascist/Nazi sort of chap by default.’
Only very occasionally did someone bother to contend something he actually said rather than what they’d simply decided he said….
Ah, the ‘enlightened’ times we live in.
‘Deserves to be fired (that demand was particularly popular, unsurprisingly).’
Never underestimate the reservoir of spite in human beings, or the ease with which leftism exploits it.
The whole Google Manifesto thing seems slightly…off.
I’ve interviewed (unsuccessfully) with Google’s Mountain View campus, a number of friends and former colleagues work there – I cannot fathom that the author of the manifesto didn’t know exactly how it was going to be received.
I find myself wondering if he didn’t already have an escape plan set up and this is a masterful troll job designed to get Google to self-incriminate.
Lordy. Game of Thrones. That was fun.
Daniel, the author may perhaps have had an escape plan, or been a deep cover operative, or one of various other funny imaginings.
But I think the more blunt take is that the author was simply naïve – as techies sometimes are, studying computers not people.
Partly from hearing so many promises about commitment to diversity and open debate and free expression, and taking them at face value.
Partly in misjudging just how far out the party line was being drawn, because if one READS THE GOD-DAMN MANIFESTO, one sees that it’s falling over itself to repeat progressive points throughout.
Some excerpts:
This was evidently insufficiently progressive.
Thus we get CNN’s take:
One is reminded of the old Soviet phenomenon “never be the first to stop applauding”.
The #GoogleManifesto reminds me of Larry Summers, a reliable Lefty who nonetheless was pilloried for daring to suggest that, maybe, possibly, there might be a genetic component contributing to the relative paucity of women in tenured science and engineering positions.
Nope, that was badthink and he needed to be punished for daring to suggest it was anything other than just straight-out discrimination.
The #GoogleManifesto reminds me of Larry Summers
We discussed that saga here many moons ago, when this place was still finding its feet. As with Summers, it seems possible that the author of the ‘manifesto’ simply didn’t comprehend the level of vindictiveness and dishonesty his suggestions would attract.
But I think the more blunt take is that the author was simply naïve – as techies sometimes are, studying computers not people.
I remain skeptical. The author has already been outed, by the way; I won’t repeat the name here, it’s easily searchable but he’s an SRE and has a PhD in biology (it would appear evolutionary psychology).
I find it beyond incredible that someone with that background working at Mountain View didn’t know exactly what they were doing.
Interesting fact: some people at Google took an internal survey (no information about distribution, etc. beyond sample size) but of ~275 people surveyed, somewhere between a third and a half of the people surveyed agree with the document. Over half disagreed that the document was harmful and should not have been shared.
We will see where Dr. Alt-Right Google ends up as a result of this, and that will indicate one way or the other his motives. But right now, I’m beginning to suspect there’s a culture war going on inside Google that’s going to make Windows Vista look like a minor typo.
The situation with Larry Summers came up in a conversation I was having with a psychiatrist around that time. I was informed that it was badthink and that I should be ashamed for daring to suggest it was anything other than just straight-out discrimination. This had something to do with the psychiatrist having had two daughters.
. . .there might be a genetic component contributing to the relative paucity of women in tenured science and engineering positions.
I defy anyone to find a STEM university or program within a university which will not bend over backwards to recruit distaff students. The amount of money available to female applicants is astounding. If a young women demonstrates any aptitude at all and a minimal desire to enter a STEM field, she will be feted like Sheba until she commits to the university or program. Nonetheless, such universities and programs still can’t hit more than a 60/40 male to female ratio of students. Whatever the answer is, it is not discrimination.
such universities and programs still can’t hit more than a 60/40 male to female ratio of students. Whatever the answer is, it is not discrimination.
I know I’ve made this point before, but after twenty years of such pandering, the ratio of female students in engineering at my alma mater has gone down.
That said, twenty years ago there was a lot of casual crudity and misogyny in that engineering school, and I expect that having to sit through twenty years of pandering hasn’t done much to change those attitudes. If anything, it’s likely strengthened them.
Imagine being told you are genetically unsuited to the job you love.
The whole attraction of computers is that it is the computer that decides who can program. You can’t suck up to it, you can’t threaten it, you can’t bribe it. And it’s decision is final.
That said, twenty years ago there was a lot of casual crudity and misogyny in that engineering school, and I expect that having to sit through twenty years of pandering hasn’t done much to change those attitudes.
As I mention upthread, my son’s favorite and most demanding maths professor is female. The students at his university respect competence. And they’re smart enough to avoid the crudity these days. Perhaps it is the respect for competence which is now defined as “misogyny” when criticism of incompetence is directed at the wrong class of people.
A useful few comments on the notorious Google Manifesto.
And…..he’s been fired.
God help us.
I defy anyone to find a STEM university or program within a university which will not bend over backwards to recruit distaff students.
A polyamorous transmasc queer programmer weighs in on how engineers should be trained.
Rehabilitation, natch. Like in a special camp?
Scratch a “Progressive” and a Fascist bleeds.
And…..he’s been fired.
Well, at least the brazen ubiquity of the misrepresentation may have opened a few eyes.
It’s possible, if baffling, that some people can be surrounded by colleagues mouthing ‘progressive’ pieties and being ostentatiously right-on, and come to assume that the guff about “diversity” and “dialogue” and “inclusion” is sincere. As opposed to, say, camouflage. Though when people loudly and competitively signal their leftist pieties, I’ve found it best to assume that something quite unpleasant may be rumbling underneath. There very often is.
And…..he’s been fired.
This one should probably be continued over here.
Microbillionaire:
Brianna Wu
@Spacekatgal
Writing a memo that says, “Women and black people are physiologically unable to be engineers” is an utterly fair thing to get fired over.
Here’s another ‘hatefact’ for John Flynt (‘Brianna Wu’) ” Men are physiologically unable to become women”.
Originally posted the 27th of July, since then we had Scaramucci’s rollercoaster ride to firing, Laura Loomer’s Tire, Lena Dunham’s Latest Codswallop, and the Google Diversity Manifesto, and I think there was some kind of Donald Trump scandal before that but it really just gets lost in the noise, doesn’t it?
Things get stranger, faster, as we approach some kind of singularity of beer-holding.
Australia’s LBQT… twits thank the rest of us for our support for same sex marriage http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/social/mia-freedman-panned-over-tonedeaf-attempt-to-support-marriage-equality-20170809-gxsapm.html