Elsewhere (277)
Mark Bauerlein on Jordan Peterson and the hive-mind media:
These cases typify what we might call the Peterson Effect. Peterson brings social science findings to bear on thorny matters of men and women. Those findings run against the progressive goal of eliminating male-female differences. The journalists are unaware of the science, but they are steeped in [progressive] ideology. It’s an obdurate mix of ignorance and certainty.
As we’ve seen, more than once. And which may in part explain why Peterson’s interviews often strike a chord with a wider public, in that they tend to reveal an eerie uniformity of assumptions and begged questions, and vanities, among the media class.
Heather Mac Donald on “diversity” and dishonesty:
Every remotely selective college is desperate to admit as many underrepresented minorities as possible, and brags openly about its diverse student body in marketing literature. Application forms solicit students’ racial identity not to exclude underrepresented minorities, but to favour them… Far from being a handicap, being black or Hispanic is usually worth at least a standard deviation in test scores and GPA in admission to selective colleges… At Harvard, test scores and a GPA that would give an Asian-American applicant only a 25 percent chance of admission provide a 95 percent admission guarantee to a black high school senior, according to data in an ongoing discrimination lawsuit against the university.
Victor Davis Hanson on calculations of “white privilege”:
[In the world of “diversity,”] politics had something to do with skin colour, but how and why was inferred rather than defined. If a white-looking second-generation Arab American put on a head scarf and declaimed against U.S. policy, and if she had a name that was clearly not European in origin, then she too was a “minority” and could advance claims against “white privilege.” But should she dress in assimilated fashion and voice support for the state of Israel, then she probably possessed “white privilege” and joined the victimisers rather than the victims.
And Matthew Blackwell on the megalomaniacal horrors of the Khmer Rouge:
In her book First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung… describes… citizens who cheered the grinning Khmer Rouge soldiers. That celebration lasted only a few hours, until the Khmer Rouge ordered the immediate evacuation of Phnom Penh’s two million people into the countryside. Some people didn’t take the order seriously, especially the elderly who couldn’t walk. But the seriousness and severity of the Khmer Rouge soon became apparent. […]
Cambodia was to return to ‘Year Zero,’ and recover its former glory, removed from the modern world and the unnecessary corruption of its influences. In order to facilitate the eradication of capitalism, the National Bank was blown apart and all forms of money were banned. Marriages were now arranged by the state, and children were taught to obey the government instead of their parents… By May 1978, the effort to produce a communist system of agriculture had failed utterly and the population was starving… Throughout this period, the emptied city of Phnom Penh stood as a ghost town, a reminder of a lost civilisation of business and commerce.
The academic left’s inevitable, rather twisted apologia, mouthed from a safe distance, is also explored.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
Heather Heying on toxic femininity.
Would-be robber chooses wrong restaurant…
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/302202/
Would-be robber chooses wrong restaurant…
It’s nice to see someone receiving an education.
Much of the Left opposed the Khmer Rouge. The hard-line Stalinists for a start, because of their belief in the peasantry rather than urban proletariat.
It’s saying something that even Stalinists have more idea of how an economy works than the Moaists!
The real supporters of the Khmer Rouge weren’t “The Left”, but the revolution loving, anti-everything Western crowd.
Chomsky isn’t FOR anything. He’s against a whole lot though, which is why he is worse than Jeremy Cornyn (who I can’t stand, but is at least for some things and actually engages in politics rather than sniping superiority from the sidelines).
You can tell the sort. They are the ones who won’t admit anything good about their own country. They’ll support Palestnian rights for an independent Palestine, while simultaneously decrying Trump for his “xenophobic” nationalism. Look, you are either for national identities or you aren’t. You don’t get to pick based solely on being the opposite of the US and still say you have a coherent political position.
The real Left aren’t pro-Islam, because medieval views don’t build a progressive industrial society. If your position is pro-Islam, then you are faking being on the Socialist Left.
It’s one reason the biggest poseurs are “anarchists”. Then they really stand FOR pretty much nothing.
I have no idea what ‘the real left’ is any more.
The real Left aren’t pro-Islam, because medieval views don’t build a progressive industrial society.
The problem with this statement is twofold:
1. Left-Right terminology is unhelpful in trying to understand the modern progressive
2. The people on the left who agree with you are: isolated minorities (see Nick Cohen, Harry’s Place et al), dead (see Norman Geras, Christopher Hitchens) or mugged by reality. Unfortunately, the “real left” is what those who call themselves left believe, and not some mystical true version.
Question asked.
Question asked.
They always assume the rules don’t apply to them.
Question asked
An old-fashioned answer:
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
They always assume the rules don’t apply to them.
They, being so fabulous and enlightened, should somehow be exempt. Apparently, reciprocity is only for suckers.
See also Laurie Penny.
And these preening, would-be parasites call other people selfish.
The real supporters of the Khmer Rouge weren’t “The Left”, but the revolution loving, anti-everything Western crowd.
Chomsky’s collaborator Edward S. Herman wrote a snotty letter to the NYT.
Trans: “Even when we’re about as wrong as it’s possible to be, we’re still right”.
Aaarrghhh.
Sorry. I denounce myself.
Aaarrghhh.
[ Quietly extinguishes raging dumpster fire of HTML. ]
Andrew Klavan on leftism and thuggery:
See also this.
As an aside to the Blackwell piece, my youngest is off to his freshman year in college and as part of his admission to an honors program is required to read First They Killed My Father. It’s the only book to be discussed during the Freshman week seminar. I was somewhat surprised, wondering how a college leftist was going to sugarcoat the Khmer Rouge, but perhaps I’m not imaginative enough.
Much of the Left opposed the Khmer Rouge.
Haven’t investigated much of this but I do recall a good amount of support for Pol Pot at first from the left in the US…
http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/1998/04/30/american_leftists_were_pol_pots_cheerleaders/
I specifically recall support from Chris Dodd, more so than the pacifist statement from him later in this article, just don’t recall it exactly. Just that whenever I hear about the Khmer Rouge, I am reminded of CD.
The UK too. Don’t forget Malcolm Caldwell, WTP. Murdered shortly after a meeting with Pol Pot, under dubious circumstances. Reality can be a real bitch sometimes.
Today’s word is journalism.
…run by some of the best-educated, most able intellectuals in Cambodia.
Good Lord, that’s a statement to scare the bejesus out of anyone with a lick of common sense, and it’s more galling coming from a man who lived through the damage caused by McNamara’s ‘Whiz Kids’ in the Pentagon. Perhaps being on the same side of the political aisle induces short term memory loss?
Today’s word is journalism.
And in a continution of today’s lesson, Exhibit B: https://twitter.com/HuffPost/status/1018290098503340033
…since the rebels are unlikely to kill more innocent civilians than are being slaughtered by the rockets promiscuously hitting Phnom Penh.
Wow.
His Wikipedia entry is silent on Mr. Karnow’s political views but as he wrote occasionally for the New Republic I’ll guess they were left of center. He lived until 2013 so I wonder if he ever saw the photos of the literal piles of skulls left behind by the Khmer Rouge and whether he ever felt shame for such a fatuously stupid remark.*
*currently scanning my own memory for same, but as I’m not a journalist I haven’t committed them to paper for posterity.
Malcolm Caldwell
Was not aware of Mr. C, thanks Captain Nemo. Odd that, eh? Can you imagine a philosophical f-up like that happening to a conservative? Say being murdered shortly after meeting Pinochet or Franco, and it not being something repeated ad infinitum in Teh Narrative?
@WTP et al.
I, too, recall a great deal of celebration among leftists in these parts when Lon Nol took a powder. To my knowledge, none of those reveling in the Communist takeover of Cambodia ever publicly put on a hair shirt and confessed their complicity in the murder of millions. That’s not surprising, of course, inasmuch they can fall back on the all-purpose indulgence of “that wasn’t real communism/collectivism/socialism,etc.”
The real supporters of the Khmer Rouge weren’t “The Left”, but the revolution loving, anti-everything Western crowd.
No true Scotsman would ever support the Khmer Rouge.
Meanwhile, two eternal questions.
The real supporters of the Khmer Rouge weren’t “The Left”, but the revolution loving, anti-everything Western crowd.
So then…they were “The Left”? “Revolution loving, anti-everything Western” seems to sum up today’s Left pretty well.
No true Scotsman would ever support the Khmer Rouge.
Way back in the day, I knew this singer of a slightly-famous goth band and his younger girlfriend. At some point, I heard through the rumor mill that she only allowed him to have anal sex with her so that she could technically still claim to be a virgin for whatever reason.
(Hey, I don’t know; it wasn’t like I was asking to be kept apprised of this stuff.)
Anyway, my point is, it’s amazing the rationalizations people come up with to claim that Marx’s moral virginity remains pure. Entire nations may have gotten brutally reamed, but true Marxism was never officially consummated.
In other news, Theodore Dalrymple has a modest proposal to make the world of theater more inclusive.
Meanwhile, two eternal questions.
One answer, this is Jif.
Let me know when someone devises a jraphics interchange format.
First Elle, now Teen Vogue. Are fashion magazine readers the new proletariat or something?
Graphic Image Format. Not Giraffic Image Format.
So hard “G”.
One answer, this is Jif.
So it’s a filth-blasting kitchen spray that’s also great on toast?
Today’s word is journalism
http://www.unz.com/isteve/vox-lessons-from-female-spotted-hyenas-for-the-metoo-era/
“Good Lord, that’s a statement to scare the bejesus out of anyone with a lick of common sense”
Just what I was about to say, Tom. And the thought occurs to me that the correct, classically-derived, name for such a régime would be “aristocracy”. Funny old world, isn’t it?
“No true Scotsman would ever support the Khmer Rouge.”
They weren’t Real Socialism™.
“So it’s a filth-blasting kitchen spray that’s also great on toast?”
Except that’s been “Snickers”… sorry, “Cif” for about twenty years. Which might explain the odd smell…
Ash Sarkar is modeling a pose for young teens to reflexively imitate. She also indirectly makes the case for never allowing teens to vote.
So it’s a filth-blasting kitchen spray that’s also great on toast?
It’s a dessert topping and a floor wax !
She also indirectly makes the case for never allowing teens to vote.
Well, to her credit she did call Morgan an idiot, so she may be capable of learning.
Regarding everything else here, one would almost get the impression that people who have done nothing but read books and write papers for their entire lives have no idea how the world, or people actually in it, actually works.
one would almost get the impression that people who have done nothing but read books and write papers for their entire lives have no idea how the world, or people actually in it, actually works.
Sadly, the “done nothing…” bit describes my life fairly well, yet I hope I have some idea how the world, and the people in it, actually works.
Probably a large part of the problem is *what* people are reading. I’ve just checked out _First they killed my father_, about the Khmer Rouge. _Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s secret Famine_ was another book I’ve read (mostly…got really depressing after a while and I couldn’t finish it). Not the sort of thing I was ever assigned in High School for some reason.
Just sent a student home with F.A. Hayek’s _The Road to Serfdom_, so hopefully some good is being done there.
jabrwok –
I was referring to the apologists for the Khmer Rouge, and all the other academics who never quite get cause and effect regardless of what pet cause they are trumpeting, not anyone commenting here.
She seems like a charming person: https://twitter.com/rebeccarmix/status/1018336544808153088
And if you’re a man and you disagree with her premise, and call her out on her obnoxiousness, you have “fragile masculinity” apparently.
She seems like a charming person:
I’ll go with, “What are things that never happened? Alex.”
OTOH, I’m not a waterbending slytherpuff, so what do I know.
She seems like a charming person
“waterbending slytherpuff”
Pretty much all you need to know right there.
This actually ties in to the previous post:
in that once upon a time, fantasy and SF writers had actually Done Something with their lives prior to settling down to write – military service, or diplomatic work abroad, getting smuggled out of Russia in a suitcase, or being part of a Jewish street gang. Their work was often allegorical and incorporated their real-life experiences.
For at least a generation now, fantasy and SF has been written by authors who have done nothing except attend university and read other fantasy/SF novels (and more recently, watch staggering amounts of anime). The result is fiction which is increasingly shallow and tediously bourgeois, looking more and more inward and recycling the same tropes over and over again like an ourobouros consuming its own tail – and outside of the same privileged middle class bubble, completely unrelatable.
I was referring to…not anyone commenting here.
I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. Unfortunately I do rather exemplify the “done nothing”. Fortunately that includes genocide among the things I haven’t accomplished:-).
Meanwhile, via Ace, the the War to Destroy Title IX and Women’s Sports obtains some unexpected allies. I can imagine high school football coaches in, say, Texas to remain resistant to such entreaties.
From the above linked article:
In that article, Walton-Fisette highlights the emerging field of social justice gym pedagogy, and calls upon gym teachers to impart social justice issues into gym lessons, such as sexism, body image, religion, socioeconomic status and motor elitism.
Because how can you learn to hit a jump shot if you haven’t studied the efforts of the early reformer Jan Hus?
And,
Team sports, such as lacrosse and badminton, are discouraged too, as they encourage competitiveness and are often “white-oriented” or otherwise racially stereotyped.
I’m sure the Iroquois are shocked to hear about lacrosse. And fancy team games encouraging competitiveness. Who’d a thought?
Speaking of being totally divorced from the real world and doing nothing real, via Ace and PJ Media, please let me introduce Jennifer L. Walton-Fisette, who “…highlights the emerging field of social justice gym pedagogy”.
Yeah, that last bit sounds as it will always be totally bias free.
Drop and give me twenty quotes from Mao and Chomsky !
the emerging field of social justice gym pedagogy,
At which point, sarcasm seem unnecessary.
Oh, and a Bosch progress report. Now on season two. Something tells me Jeri Ryan is up to no good.
At which point, sarcasm seem unnecessary.
Sarcasm is never unnecessary.
While you are viewing Amazon productions, unless you hate Billy Bob Thornton, give Goliath a go.
unless you hate Billy Bob Thornton, give Goliath a go.
Thanks for the tip. I don’t think I have an opinion on Billy Bob Thornton. I do, though, tend to binge on one TV drama at a time. If I lose momentum or get distracted by some other show, or just other commitments, my interest fades. There’s the entire second season of Westworld still untouched. I seem to have ‘fallen out’ of it, as it were.
For anyone who enjoys reading the Harry Bosch novels, I heartily recommend as well the Dave Robichaux series by James Lee Burke and the Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith.
https://www.google.com/search?q=dave+robicheaux+series+in+order&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab
https://www.google.com/search?q=arkady+renko+series+in+order&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab
The real Left aren’t pro-Islam, because medieval views don’t build a progressive industrial society. If your position is pro-Islam, then you are faking being on the Socialist Left.
So what might be some good examples of the “real left”? Preferably where they are, or were, in power so that I can judge them by their actions rather than their words.
Bosch.
As a mea culpa for the earlier fire, may I also recommend Justified and Animal Kingdom as well as contributing towards the cost of dry cleaning the curtains.?
*mutters*
That was well overdue anyway.