Elsewhere (265)
Matthew Blackwell on empathy, asymmetries and “woke” hostility:
[Jonathan] Haidt and his colleagues… sought to discover how well conservative and what Haidt terms ‘liberal’ (i.e., progressive) students understood one another by having them answer moral questions as they thought their political opponents would answer them. “The results were clear and consistent,” remarks Haidt. “In all analyses, conservatives were more accurate than liberals.” Asked to think the way a liberal thinks, conservatives answered moral questions just as the liberal would answer them, but liberal students were unable to do the reverse… Haidt and his colleagues found that progressives don’t understand conservatives the way conservatives understand progressives… and it goes a long way in explaining the different ways each side deals with opinions unlike their own. People get angry at what they don’t understand, and an all-progressive education ensures that they don’t understand.
For further illustration, see this and this. Or poke through just about anything here tagged “academia.”
S A Dance on the horrors and hokum of grad school humanities:
I had never read Althusser’s Reading Capital and I had never read Marx’s Capital, which, perhaps, guaranteed my floundering in grad school given the pervasiveness of Marxist thought in the humanities… I went to graduate school because I found studying literature exhilarating and fulfilling. In my undergraduate honours thesis I analysed the significance of Herman Melville’s allusions to the Book of Job in Moby Dick. I wanted to do more of that: studying and understanding the great works of literature. Instead I was asked to understand how “The Althusserian ‘ideological interpellation’ designates the retroactive illusion of ‘always-already;’ the reverse of the ideological recognition is the misrecognition of the performative dimension.”
And Gad Saad on “toxic masculinity”:
Think of the male archetype in romance novels, which is a literary form almost exclusively read by women. He is a tall prince and a neurosurgeon. He is a risk-taker who wrestles alligators and subdues them on his six-pack abs, and yet is sensitive enough to be tamed by the love of a good woman. This archetype is universally found in romance novels read by women in Egypt, Japan, and Bolivia… Most of the traits and behaviours that are likely found under the rubric of “toxic masculinity” are precisely those that most women find attractive in an ideal mate. This is not a manifestation of “antiquated stereotypes.” It is a reality that is as trivially obvious as the existence of gravity.
See also this short clip of Jordan Peterson discussing women’s preferences in pornography.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
“Most of the traits and behaviours that are likely found under the rubric of “toxic masculinity” are precisely those that most women find attractive in an ideal mate.”
But, but….wait!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/08/women-are-having-different-fantasies-romantic-fiction-in-the-age-of-trump
““I woke up on 9 November and I was like, ‘I can’t write another one of these rich entitled impenetrable alphas. I just can’t,” says the New York Times bestselling author. “It was the story of that horrible impenetrable alpha evolving through love to be a fully formed human, which is a thing we do a lot in romance. And I just couldn’t see a way in my head that he would ultimately not be a Trump voter.””
“And I just couldn’t see a way in my head that he would ultimately not be a Trump voter.”
Truly, the burdens of the artist are heavy, and their suffering infinite.
I find the conservative/liberal empathy imbalance fascinating. I’ve noticed it throughout my polite discussions with friends; those who are big Corbyn fans take massive exception to any critisicm, while those on the right of me have no concern with my tilting at their sacred cows.
It’s become especially pronounced since I’ve started admitting to people that I voted for Brexit. Most right and centrist remainers have been understanding and interested in learning why. Those remainers of the left have gotten angry, called me a racist and unfriended me. I’m aware that I’m not alone in this experience.
this short clip of Jordan Peterson discussing women’s preferences in pornography.
LOL
I’m aware that I’m not alone in this experience.
Joe Concha, here.
LOL

In case you’re tempted.
“In my undergraduate honours thesis I analysed the significance of Herman Melville’s allusions to the Book of Job in Moby Dick. I wanted to do more of that: studying and understanding the great works of literature. Instead I was asked to understand how “The Althusserian ‘ideological interpellation’ designates the retroactive illusion of ‘always-already;”
Sure, Althusser is evil garbage. But that doesn’t mean that analysing the significance of Herman Melville’s allusions to the Book of Job in Moby Dick for three years in grad school is time well spent.
I’m aware that I’m not alone in this experience.
I think I’ve mentioned before a visit to a friend’s place, years ago, where a handful of other people had gathered – mostly people I didn’t know or didn’t know well. After maybe five minutes, one of the strangers suddenly, quite randomly, began a lengthy and impassioned political tirade, unrelated to anything else being said. I forget the particulars, but the general thrust of the young woman’s outburst was that conservative voters are bad people, driven solely and always by selfishness, wickedness, etc.
What struck me at the time – apart from the incongruity and randomness of the rant – was the evident assumption that the rest of us – including me, a person she didn’t know – would be in wholehearted agreement, or at least defer to the general sentiment. The woman’s tone and demeanour made it clear than any demurral or factual correction would likely result in a heated exchange. She was there to signal her piety; we were there to bear witness to her magnificence. And so, not wanting to further derail an otherwise pleasant gathering, I said nothing.
Maybe it’s a temperament thing, but when among strangers, it wouldn’t occur to me to launch into an unprompted political tirade of eye-watering length and questionable coherence, and in which I called half the population next of kin to demons. It would seem… rude.
that doesn’t mean that analysing the significance of Herman Melville’s allusions to the Book of Job in Moby Dick for three years in grad school is time well spent.
It does strike me as an expensive indulgence. Not terribly practical, shall we say.
Asked to think the way a liberal thinks, conservatives answered moral questions just as the liberal would answer them, but liberal students were unable to do the reverse…
– Having no idea myself, I ponder – are liberals more prone to group-think than conservatives, and hence easier to type-cast ( – and satirise? – )
Or is it simply explained by one of Charles Krauthammer’s quotes: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”
A penny for your 2c’ worth (as often as I can get-away with it)…
A penny for your 2c’ worth
Regarding the asymmetry, I think Thomas Sowell gets to the nub of it.
He is a tall prince and a neurosurgeon. He is a risk-taker who wrestles alligators and subdues them on his six-pack abs, and yet is sensitive enough to be tamed by the love of a good woman.

Male feminists seen in action on an earlier thread:
No wonder feminists seem so pi**ed off at men. They don’t know any.
It was the story of that horrible impenetrable alpha evolving through love to be a fully formed human…
Right, no conceit there, nosireebob.
Crossing the Line (Harlequin NASCAR)
Mass Market Paperback
from £0.01
OK, I laughed.
They say a picture paints a thousand words:

Women hit hardest:

More ‘peaceful’ leftists:
Armed communist group calls for “offensive attacks” and “revolutionary martyrdom”
“We have to initiate offensive attacks, as part of a larger defensive stage in our preparatory sub-stage of war. We have to hit. We have to hit hard. Women have to hit. Women have to hit hard. It is through severe punishment – but a revolutionary kind which we call revolutionary violence – that the enemy is subdued, even momentarily, or completely neutralized.”
Cue Media outrage about the dangers of communism….crickets.
In case you’re tempted.
Hahahaha! A bodice-ripper! Although in this one, it’s his own he is tearing open.
No romance novels for this woman – I prefer Tolkien or Heinlein.
Romance is one genre that SJW types haven’t managed to ruin yet, like they have SF and fantasy. Interesting point he’s making.
This is true wokeness:

via Battle Beagle
“The Althusserian ‘ideological interpellation’ designates the retroactive illusion of ‘always-already;’ the reverse of the ideological recognition is the misrecognition of the performative dimension.”
I could not have said it better myself!
‘A student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was recently barred from attending a religious studies class that he needs in order to graduate after he questioned his instructor’s claims regarding the “reality of white male privilege.”‘
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10622
“Corbyn fans (and leftists in general) take massive exception to any critisicm”
I suspect this is because their arguments are, as our host would say, not load bearing.
questioned his instructor’s claims regarding the “reality of white male privilege.”
I’d have thought that the people with grading leverage and other institutional backup, and who presume to be the unilateral arbiters of “privilege” – resulting in campaigns of gender and racial shaming aimed at other people’s children and without parents’ knowledge or consent – might also have some “privilege” worthy of scrutiny.
But maybe that’s just me.
Bret Weinstein on chickens and their residency.
Bret Weinstein on chickens and their residency.
“Freedom from intimidation and abusive acts,” says the pretentious, neutered wretch whose policies and personal behaviour indulged and encouraged narcissistic morons to the point where they lay siege to his office and refused to let him go to the toilet without their supervision.
The man, and the institution he supposedly runs, are unfit for purpose.
More from Julia’s link on Romance Genre in the Age of Trump [cue the screaming horses]
I never was a huge reader of this genre, mostly books that my friends shoved at me and said OMG you gotta read THIS! but the idea of blue-collar hero isn’t new at all.
1976 … my sister and I went to the movies more than once to watch Sam Elliot in Lifeguard
Another favorite of the era was a made-for-tv romance movie Hardhat & Legs … professional woman & blue-collar man
These just off the top of my head, but template of “roguish guy of less social status than uptight woman, wins her over” has long standing in the genre.
Funny how history for some always begins with their own birth.
After years of trying to bridge the gaps …. find common ground …. I have reached the point where I avoid any and all leftists. I will not befriend a leftist, I won’t talk or debate them as that is futile, for they are mentally and emotionally impaired. Perhaps not all of them, but I am not interested in weeding them out.
They have shown themselves to be violent for very little reason such as differing opinion or a Trump T-shirt.
They know not what they do, but I will not forgive them.
The civil war is coming. The time for talking to these zombies is over. They stopped talking to us a couple of decades ago and now scream obscenities at us at every opportunity. Facebook, Twitter, and Google-(youtube) regularly lock out accounts for speaking our minds. Many big left-leaning firms won’t hire or promote conservatives. We have been under attack (especially white conservative men & boys) for a long time and didn’t quite ‘get it’. Well, now we do.
I am not a naive, God-fearing conservative. I know what we are dealing with and it is dangerous to our freedoms … in the extreme. There are growing numbers who feel as I do. This shit we are living right now in American and Canada had got to be ended. A civil society cannot last with this level of animosity between its people. The EU is already gonzo so there’s no point trying to save them. Use them as an example to avoid at all costs.
Sam Elliot in Lifeguard
[ Googles “Sam Elliot in Lifeguard.” ]
[ Tries to muffle sounds of laughter. ]
Hey, what is not to love here? (the movie theater made a fortune off me & my sister in popcorn alone)
[ More muffled laughter. ]
[ Sound of wine being poured. ]
Parker Stevenson on the left. Kirstie Allie thanked him during her acceptance speech during the Emmy Awards for “giving me the big one”. And yes,she meant exactly what it sounded like.
Look on his face was …”Yep,you’re welcome”.
Romance writers may have to start their own publishing houses. As the Guardian article shows, the publishing field is infested with feminists, and if the books become too feminist-ized, women will quit reading them. Although I suppose the writers could turn to gay romances, all they’d have to do is change the sex of the heroine.
I think if I were to write a novel, I’d bypass the publishing industry entirely and just put it out there on Amazon. There’s a risk that you’d miss little mistakes, but it’s offset by not having your story forced into a stupid ideological box.
Once upon a time there was a blogger, (in)famous for his unbending policy of No Refunds, Credit Note Only. Then one day a handsome fellow wielding a kitchen blowtorch turned up, and…
The above illustrates the real problem with leftists: they’re boring. You and I could read the story of these two gentlemen and enjoy them as people. The leftists would turn them into stereotypes and have them oppressed by heteropatriarchy and blah blah blah.
“Romance writers may have to start their own publishing houses.”
Oh, they have, Pogonip. It’s called “indie publishing,” and romance writers make up the biggest percentage.
Romance writers are like rappers: They’re in it for the money. They love to tell the stories, but they love the chedder, too. Most of them are hip to the latest marketing trends, and they work the websites, the social media, and form alliances to provide marketing support for each other.
Having now Googled “Sam Elliot in Lifeguard,” “Hardhat & Legs” and various romance novel covers featuring billowy dresses and shirtless pirates, my browser history is looking more damning than usual.
romance novel covers featuring billowy dresses and shirtless pirates
And then there is the whole soap-opera industry! Much mocked but well-watched.
“See also this short clip of Jordan Peterson discussing women’s preferences in pornography.”
From the video: “five categories of most desirable male entity used most broadly in female pornography:…vampire, werewolf, billionaire, surgeon, and pirate”
I wonder if Dr. Peterson has heard of K/S (Kirk/Spock> porn, which is written by and for women. Would it make him laugh, wince, or both?
“…my browser history is looking more damning than usual.”
Wait until you see the ads that start showing up in your browser.
The Age of Travesties: https://www.city-journal.org/html/age-travesties-15750.html
Leading universities have turned themselves into hybrids of Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood and Mao’s Red Guards. They have become madrassas of identity politics, given over to dogmatism, indoctrination, the coddling of grievance, and the encouragement and manipulation of neurotic youthful insecurities for the purpose of consolidating political power. The effects of travesties being committed on American campuses, where the mind of the hard Left is embedded in faculties, administrations, and boards of overseers, will be felt for generations. The damage may be irreparable.
K/S (Kirk/Spock> porn,
Ah, slash fanfic. Kirk/Spock, Solo/Kuryakin, Harry/Draco … yep, mostly female demographic, but within that demographic majority non-heterosexual.
Various conservative figures have noted a plausible explanation for the liberal / conservative difference in understanding each other.
Conservatives are constantly exposed to, and must operate in the context of, a culture saturated in liberal ideas.
Liberals are not similarly situated.
Conservatives are constantly exposed to, and must operate in the context of, a culture saturated in liberal ideas.
“They have no politics.”
…filthy ads for things ending in “uck” like this and this. And other ads for things ending in “eer” like this.
feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Okay, you said “any subject”…
https://twitter.com/Mel_lific/status/972151221405605888
(from an @iowahawkblog retweet, so blame him. No, really!)
“The Althusserian ‘ideological interpellation’ designates the retroactive illusion of ‘always-already;’ the reverse of the ideological recognition is the misrecognition of the performative dimension.”
I’m reading that in English but it is somehow being translated into Swahili in my brain.
Can a native Swahili speaker please translate it for me? Pretty please?
Okay, you said “any subject”…
The word Burroughsian came to mind.
filthy ads
We may have to sedate Darleen.
Spiny Norman: “Hakuna bullshit.”
Burroughsian
Fleshy Dan?
If the pirate’s shirt has been pirated, he’s perfectly sensible to put on the billowy dress. You can get a nasty sunburn out on the open sea.
Its come to this:
https://pjmedia.com/trending/offend-diversity-lose-job/
perfectly sensible to put on a billowy dress
https://youtu.be/V36cnqFuVAA?t=49
Regarding the Haidt study and David’s subsequent link to Bidisha and Jeff Goldstein’s comments thereto, the current education industrial complex no longer celebrates examination of core principals with a desire to test arguments with the tools of logic, reason and evidence. Rather, there are now only received “Blessed Truths” which endlessly must be recapitulated, lest one be accused of heresy. Stated differently, we’ve devolved to a sort of Neo-Scholasticism. Is it any wonder that Leftists cannot accurately state classical liberal positions? Not only have they not been exposed to them, they’ve been purged of any ability to understand them when they’re heard. They’ve been conditioned to view such ideas as witchcraft. Knowledge now is not examination; it is repetition without comprehension.