Elsewhere (245)
Jonathan Haidt on the academic heresy of defending bourgeois values:
[Law professor, Amy] Wax was correct, based on the available evidence and expert opinion, to argue that “a strong pro-marriage norm” would reduce poverty and blunt or reverse the pernicious social trends she described at the beginning of her article… Marriage, and norms promoting marriage-like behaviour, are among the most powerful known antidotes to American poverty… Now Wax is being pilloried for… saying that marriage and culture really matter, and that some norms, some cultures, are more conducive to success in modern America than others. Does anyone seriously believe that all cultures are equal – either morally or as packages of norms and practices that are likely to lead to success?
Somewhat related, this item from the archives, and this one too, and contrarily, this interview here. Readers will note which of the authors favours evidence over rhetorical breathlessness.
Bob McManus on the consequences of race and gender quotas:
[Federal judge, Nicholas] Garaufis declared the New York Fire Department “a stubborn bastion of white male privilege.” He ordered that two of every five new city firefighters be black and one of every five be Hispanic. The jurist also ordered the FDNY to pay $129 million in retroactive salary and benefits to unsuccessful black and Hispanic recruits. The results of all this quota-setting and bean-counting were predictable. FDNY insiders say that the department struggles to fill the minority quotas despite degraded hiring standards. Standards for women have grown so lax… that one female recruit failed entrance exams six times and was hired anyway. Nine felons — each a beneficiary of Garafulis’s quotas — graduated in a class of probationary firefighters from the city’s fire academy last November.
And via Darleen, another ‘progressive’ experiment in crime prevention:
After a violent weekend of suspected gang-related shootings, Tuesday the Sacramento City Council took action to reduce the bloodshed. It approved a controversial programme called Advance Peace, which offers cash stipends to gang members who remain peaceful… The programme targets key gang agitators, offering them cash stipends to graduate school and remain peaceful.
We’ve been here before, of course, and claims made for the effectiveness of similar programmes – using taxpayers’ money to bribe local vermin and assorted sociopaths, with each receiving up to $1000 a month – were, shall we say, somewhat overstated. A scheme in Pittsburgh initially coincided with an increase in the murder rate; one in Chicago has been “overshadowed by escalating homicide numbers,” and a project in Boston is described as “ending disastrously.”
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Thank you Mr Thompson for sending Laurie Penny to our part of the world. We in Australia are much more richer for the experience.
Well, now you understand why we prefer her on the far side of the planet’s molten iron core.
“Fuck capitalist property.”
She seems nice.
She seems nice.
Well, indeed. A keeper. And note the obfuscation, the sly reframing of a person’s property as not being theirs. It’s “capitalist property.” And so stealing that phone or that 4K TV, because it can be stolen, isn’t a violation, because, by Laurelai’s reckoning, it doesn’t belong to anyone.
I wonder if Laurelai’s smartphone and hair dye are likewise up for grabs.
Quoted from https://poipoipoi-2016.tumblr.com/post/164995148187/the-nyt-we-should-import-millions-of-immigrants-a :
Oh definitely. Look at her ‘pinned tweet’ https://twitter.com/stuxnetsource/status/902007205544824832
Three speech bubbles followed by violence.
Look at her ‘pinned tweet’
“Anyone who disagrees with me or makes me feel unhappy is a Nazi, a fascist, a white supremacist.”
“Anyone who disagrees with me or makes me feel unhappy should be clubbed unconscious in the street.”
“No, of course I don’t have a mental health problem.”
Salon (!) recommends giving up on identity politics:
https://twitter.com/Salon/status/903937837627838464
As others have seen, maybe Trump is nailed on 2020…..
Daniel, I’d never encountered either of those shows before but, from their Wiki pages, they do seem needlessly complex; is ‘easy to follow’ derogatory in US TV circles? Or is it just a case of ‘never mind the rules, look at the bitchiness’?
“No, of course I don’t have a mental health problem.”
Every other tweet is about punching people.
Every other tweet is about punching people.
Yes, the lovely Lorelai does spend an awful lot of time insisting, quite vehemently, that people should be kicked, bludgeoned and spat upon. And the definition of which people should receive this treatment, and why, and under what circumstances, isn’t terribly clear.
What was I saying about Laurie?
She’s always coming out in support of “women of colour” or some other minority group she’s chosen to champion, throwing out soundbites which she hopes will resonate with the people whose approval she desperately craves.
From Black Ball’s link:
Before I answer, I’d like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land we’re meeting on. I’m really hoping I’m going to say this right! The Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and pay my respect to their elders past, present and future.
I bet she’d never even heard of these people until she touched down in Sydney. If you read the rest of the transcript, she’s mainly talking about herself, as usual.
What was I saying about Laurie?
She’s basically a cartoon. A tangle of affectations and neurotic tics.
She’s basically a cartoon. A tangle of affectations and neurotic tics.
Do you think a laurelei tingle is the larval stage of a Laurie Penny?
She – twinkle, not tingle. Oh heavens, how does one keep up these days?
She’s basically a cartoon. A tangle of affectations and neurotic tics.
It’s why I’m not 100% sure she’s genuine. If one were to set out on a career saying precisely the right things and ticking the right boxes without any pretence of ensuring they were consistent or even made sense, just to see how far you could push a career spouting baseless bollocks, you’d come up with Laurie Penny.
It’s why I’m not 100% sure she’s genuine.
In my experience, bad faith has been a recurring, defining feature of leftism. It inclines one to dishonesty. Whether it’s the feigned and erratic compassion, or the pantomime of victimhood, or the pretensions of collective guilt, or just indulging envy and spite as if they were somehow pieties. Or Laurie feigning to care about the ways of Australian aborigines – the “traditional owners” of a land that, had a much better culture not been introduced, Laurie would never wish to visit on a book tour. Not least because of the lack of any written language.
[ Edited. ]
Wasn’t sure where to put this…..
https://twitter.com/nontolerantman/status/904846212142161921
Is there a category for un-self-aware ingrates?
I suspect Laurie is a bit like a priest who joined up full of youthful fervour, and is now trapped. She can’t afford to lose her faith because it’s her livelihood and she doesn’t know how to do anything else.
A Modest Proposal:
We pay key gang agitators cash stipends to kill each other, with onerous penalties for killing innocent bystanders. Even better, we can fund the program by filming it in real time for a “COPS” type TV show. I’m going to trademark “Street Survivor” just in case.
Back to the interestingly named Choeurlyne, and FDNY: can anyone on this thread run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes? That’s 18 kph, more like the speed of a professional runner.
On that Lorelei person, s/he’s a pre-op transexual with form. Google s/him and follow some of the links. S/hehas a bizarre history and has pissed off heaps of folks including fellow leftist luvvies.
Forse
is ‘easy to follow’ derogatory in US TV circles? Or is it just a case of ‘never mind the rules, look at the bitchiness’?
The latter. North American audiences want conflict and melodrama. When Big Brother was brought here, the first season failed miserably. When they changed the format from “the audience votes out housemates” to “other housemates vote out housemates”, it took off.
Look at the complicated rules and challenges on US reality shows as ways to stoke conflict among the cast. They serve a secondary purpose of maintaining an interesting mix of castmembers (if too many women are getting cut, they’ll introduce challenges the guys will likely lose, etc.)
can anyone on this thread run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes
That’s not terribly difficult. High school records are under 4 minutes. Girls run about 4:30 at the top end. I seem to recall running a 6 minute mile at the end of a triathlon 20 years years ago and thought myself lame. I’d like to believe even in my mid-50’s I could crank out a 7 minute mile. 12 minutes for 1.5 shouldn’t be that hard for someone, even a woman (*ducks thrown rotten tomato*), in half decent shape.
can anyone on this thread run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes
That’s not terribly difficult.
For logistical math, when I see something to get to being about a mile or something away, I’ll budget about ten, twelve minutes or so for the stroll.
“…they seem to value these virtues more – on average – than Yanks do. Bad news for USA”
–from a comment above
And you think it’s any different in Western Europe, Canada, Australia or New Zealand? We have the same problem here in Europe.
I’ve also noticed (at least in Sweden) that media types pretend like what happens on the Korean Peninsula only worries, or should worry, the United States and the neighbours of North Korea. As if we in Europe and other parts of the West (sans the US) don’t have to worry about a maniacal Stalinist regime threatening other nations with nukes… “It’s America’s problem” seems to be the view over here. Do we think that what happens around the world only affects the United States?
No it isn’t. 1.5mi = 2.4km, 12min = 1/5hr, 2.4*5= 12kph.
Progressive academia, 2017. Some context here.
And note the comments from musician, activist and self-styled “change agent” Lee M Williams.
I suspect Laurie is a bit like a priest who joined up full of youthful fervour, and is now trapped. She can’t afford to lose her faith because it’s her livelihood and she doesn’t know how to do anything else.
That’s an excellent analogy.
As if we in Europe and other parts of the West (sans the US) don’t have to worry about a maniacal Stalinist regime threatening other nations with nukes…
According to the privately-educated wealthy middle-classes I’m (for now) friends with on Facebook, it’s mainly Trump’s fault.
And note the comments from musician, activist and self-styled “change agent” Lee M Williams.
“Lefties project.”
“Lefties project.”
And note the imperviousness, the air of lecturing the world from a position of self-satisfied ignorance. It’s a conspiracy theory in a posh frock.
Speaking, as we were, upthread, of lefties giving really terrible advice, here’s another example:
So again, the eternal question: stupid or malevolent?
So again, the eternal question: stupid or malevolent?
Embrace the power of “AND”.
Jordan Peterson on the problems of “safe spaces” and those who demand them.
Communism…
https://twitter.com/notwokieleaks/status/905255829888172032
For people who don’t want to grow up.
Communism…
For people who don’t want to grow up.
Every once in awhile there is just a bit of hissing and spitting regarding the idea that the National Socialist German Workers’ Party could have the slightest inclination towards being left wing.
I’m currently reading a biography of Alec Guinness, just finished reading of John Gielgud, where one of Gielgud’s early favorite directors was a fellow named Theodore Komisarjevsky . . .
From Alec Guinness: The Authorized Biography:
The footnotes cite The Theatre, 1929. While the ongoing focus is actors and theatre of various sorts, along with noting the name order of Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, there isn’t any commentary that amounts to Hitler and Mussolini being the least bit politically vs the other guys . . .