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.
*mutters*
That was well overdue anyway.
Er, I think you’ll find that particular style of drape – singed and suspiciously stained – is very fashionable right now.
Right, I’m outta here. There’s Bosch to watch.
Play nicely. Use coasters.
They weren’t Real Socialism™.
The only difference between Socialism and Fascism is that nobody claims Real Fascism has never been tried.
If we are not going to teach about social justice issues, then who will?
Can you imagine the junior high where the gym teachers are the first, last, and only source of social justice
educationindoctrination?“Singed”?
Did the Incinemarator get loose again?
Can you imagine the junior high where the gym teachers are the first, last, and only source of social justice
educationindoctrination?Actually junior and senior. As ours was a retired Navy Chief, yes, we were all equally worthless, without regard to race, creed, color, religion, class, physical ability, or political affiliation. That is true social justice.
They weren’t Real Socialism™
The KR’s genocidal campaign against the Khmer Viet Minh and other ethnic minorities, plus their expansionist dreams means you could toss them in with the National Socialists, thus preserving the purity of Real Socialism™.
WTP,
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.
It’s a bit ironic that the anti-war left’s biggest complaint about the non-communist governments of Indochina were that they were “corrupt”, and Chris Dodd ends his political career as the most personally corrupt member of the US Senate. Retired to great fanfare, too, not hauled off by the police.
Hi Farnsworth,
My dad was a drill sergeant! 😄
Pogonip,
Much respect – being on the trail takes a special kind of toughness.
Let me revise and extend – physical and mental, particularly the latter, the movies don’t come close to showing what the Drill Sergeants (or service equivalents) have to do.
My dad was a drill sergeant!
My dad was a DI at Fort Ord during Korea.
There’s the entire second season of Westworld still untouched. I seem to have ‘fallen out’ of it, as it were.
Rewatch the last episode of season one, then strap in. It’s excellent, and builds on the themes of first season and straps a JATO rocket to them. Fantastic television.
Let me follow up the Justified recommendation with Banshee, The Americans, and Hell on Wheels. If you need a palate cleanser after all that, Chuck is some silly fun.
What being a communist means.
Ms Sarkar, quoted, is a “broadcaster and lecturer,” and “a senior editor at Novara Media.”
Not entirely unrelated.
A little more close reading would go a long way.
I didn’t say no-one on Left supported Pol Pot. Only that many actual Leftists were bitterly opposed to him. Pretty much every Communist party in the West split into Leninist and Maoist, and they did not get on.
Pol Pot’s politics have pretty much nothing in common with that of Khrushchev, say. Industrialisation, education, money, family, ideals, … The only thing they have in common is state control of the economy.
I utterly despise people who think common ownership is an acceptable way to run an economy, but that doesn’t mean that everyone who does so is basically the same. There’s no monolithic “Communism”, any more than there’s a monolithic Christianity.
Can I name Leftists who oppose Islam? Sure, that would be pretty much every Left wing party in a country with established Islam. The USSR, Mao, the original Baath parties, before they faded to dull personal dictatorships. Because Islam is resolutely opposed to them, they are resolutely opposed to Islam.
Until recently the Left in the West was anti-Islam. As the old hard-core Socialists have been replaced by the new breed which is merely anti-everything Western, they’ve been turned.
But this cannot last. The deep progressives are basically anti all religion, Islam only gets a pass while supporting it is being anti-Western. Their position on it is incoherent and cannot go the long distance.
I think everyone on this board can see that even moderate feminism and Islam are incompatible. Eventually they must come to blows. Already there are feminists from the Islamic countries being increasingly rude about the idiotic positions of their Western counterparts.
It survives thus far only because the modern Left pretty much has nothing that it is for. Hence incompatible positions don’t cause the trouble they did in an era when they had a (admittedly stupid) agreed plan. They’re an enormous protest movement, not a coherent whole.
Team sports, such as lacrosse and badminton, are discouraged too, as they encourage competitiveness and are often “white-oriented” or otherwise racially stereotyped.
Ollamalitzli.
On behalf of the followers of Quetzalcoatl, one should always begin and end the day with a grateful heart.
Pretty much every Communist party in the West split into Leninist and Maoist, and they did not get on.
Two fellows stroll into a pub.
Not entirely unrelated.
So much for following the facts wherever they go.
So much for following the facts wherever they go.
It’s the Long March in action. And so we get grad students complaining, proudly, about expectations of meticulousness, detachment and objectivity – on grounds that such things are insufficiently glamorous and statusful compared with activism and declaring one’s “political commitments.”
Ms Sarkar, quoted, is a “broadcaster and lecturer,” and “a senior editor at Novara Media.”
I like that Novara’s website is already selling “I’m a Communist, You Idiot!” t-shirts for the proletariat-friendly price of 20 pounds. Reminds me of Jay-Z selling Occupy Wall St.-branded shirts, as if he would ever want to live in a world run by Zuccotti Park protestors.
…one should always begin and end the day with a grateful heart.
Preferably someone else’s. Ba DUM Tissss….
RE Westworld, I have to disagree with the distinguished Mr Ream. Strap in for season 2 because it’s a trainwreck. They’re clearly making it up as they go along and there’s no real protagonist since all characters – robot and human – are murderous garbage. Plus the whole “why don’t they just use a helicopter” plot hole is getting distractingly large.
The only thing they have in common is state control of the economy.
I utterly despise people who think common ownership is an acceptable way to run an economy, but that doesn’t mean that everyone who does so is basically the same. There’s no monolithic “Communism”
The porcupine knows one big thing.
com·mu·nism
ˈkämyəˌnizəm
noun
a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
They’re clearly making it up as they go along and there’s no real protagonist since all characters – robot and human – are murderous garbage.
That’s not what “protagonist” means. There are certainly no heroes, but there’s absolutely a protagonist. It’s Ford or Bernard, depending on exactly which definition of protagonist you’re using. And I disagree that they’re making it up as they go; there was too much foreshadowing in first season.
Plus the whole “why don’t they just use a helicopter” plot hole is getting distractingly large.
[minor spoiler]
They don’t use a helicopter because, as has now been revealed, the park isn’t all that large, helicopters make a lot of noise, and if you’re trying to enjoy the ambience of the post-Civil War American Midwest that whup-whup-whup sound will really ruin the immersion.
If you don’t think that’s a good enough reason for corporate to decide not to have them on site, you’ve never worked at a theme park.
That’s not what “protagonist” means.
Fair enough, but there’s nobody to root for IMO. And the central question of “are they alive or just robots” is clear cut to me (robots), so Bernard is the only one who comes close to being likable.
And though I’ve not seen the very last episode I never got the sense that the park is anything but gigantic, at LEAST as large as the Disney property. It’s possible I dozed off during that reveal.
The “helicopter problem” is shorthand for the major plot hole surrounding technology in the show. One one hand it’s such an advanced society that, eg they can create lifelike robots, terraform in weeks, curate EVERY BLADE OF GRASS etc…yet a little drone with a gun is beyond comprehension? You’re saying the events of season 2 DON’T warrant corporate sending something more effective than a dune buggy? Aren’t we well past “let’s not bother the guests with whup-whup-whup” at this point?! Sorry, for a show who’s premise is centered around tech advancement I can’t let that go.
This:
https://usa.spectator.co.uk/2018/07/why-does-teen-vogue-applaud-when-ash-sarkar-says-shes-literally-a-communist/
This:
In a saner world, declaring oneself “literally a communist” would result in the kind of opprobrium currently enjoyed by people who kick dogs for fun.
nobody claims Real Fascism has never been tried.
Well the argument can be made that it hasn’t. The two big tries were short-circuited via invasion by the Allies after all.
China seems to be making a go of it now though.
Fair enough, but there’s nobody to root for IMO.
I don’t think there’s supposed to be. This isn’t a space opera or a superhero movie; it’s fairly old school hard SF in the Asimovian mode.
And the central question of “are they alive or just robots” is clear cut to me (robots)
The question isn’t whether they’re alive; it’s whether they’re human. And that’s not at all clear cut. You may have a strong opinion on that question, but the answer isn’t universally acclaimed and that’s what they’re exploring.
And though I’ve not seen the very last episode I never got the sense that the park is anything but gigantic, at LEAST as large as the Disney property.
I’m trying very hard not to give away any spoilers here, but based on what was explicitly shown on screen in season one, Westworld is ten times the size of Walt Disney World (500 sq. mi to WDW’s 47 sq.mi). That makes it…25 miles across. It’s not even worth the time to do a preflight check to fly that short a distance.
yet a little drone with a gun is beyond comprehension?
The genre Westworld is part of is entirely about technology getting away from its inventors in ways they couldn’t or didn’t predict. If you go back and watch Jurassic Park the script makes it clear that the park designers covered all the predictable bases – it took a confluence of black swan events to cause the catastrophe. In both Westworld and Jurassic park, the primary problem is internal sabotage. If the person you’ve trusted to build your entire attraction suddenly decides to burn it all down in pursuit of a decades-long hidden agenda, there’s very little you can do to safeguard against that.
You’re saying the events of season 2 DON’T warrant corporate sending something more effective than a dune buggy?
I’m saying the events of season two make it clear that corporate has no idea what’s going on, the park is extremely isolated, communications have been cut off, and the internal command structure was neutralized early on. Corporate is doing what makes sense given what they know about the situation. A friend of mine programs microcontrollers for factory robots, which in theory could be programmed to go berserk and start murdering people. But that’s not a failure case they consider or plan for, and if head office heard that was happening they wouldn’t respond by clusterbombing the factory.
Civil aviation helicopters have a range of about 250 miles. There and back again means the park can’t be more than 125 miles from an airfield (less, if you assume they want to use the helicopter to do anything once it gets there).
…that whup-whup-whup sound will really ruin the immersion.
That raises the question of why damn near every time they have to use a sound effect for a helicopter, they use a Huey ? Sure it is an iconic sound, but the only thing that sounds like a Huey is either a Huey or a Cobra (depending on the main rotor blades on the later, and not the four blade variants of either).
The question isn’t whether they’re alive; it’s whether they’re human.
Do they have human DNA? If so, human, if not, not. Now they might be *people* depending on their degrees of self-awareness, but absent the correct biology, they can’t be *human* people.
“Alive” is yet another issue. What kind of self-repair mechanisms do they have? Can they reproduce without any significant infrastructure to assist them in doing so? Can they derive their operational energy and material needs directly from their environments, or do they require an elaborate civilization for that purpose? Etc, etc.
via Old Holborn
“Amazon Studios is to produce a big-budget series based on Swedish artist’s Simon Stålenhag’s work set in an alternative version of rural Sweden where science has taken over.”
https://www.thelocal.se/20180718/amazon-to-make-big-budget-tv-show-based-on-swedish-artists-hit-dystopian-books
Westworld:
They’re automatons – not human, not alive, not sentient. Yes, the show is exploring that but IMO to no avail – they’re only as “human” as the magical programming (this show is as much fantasy as “hard SF”) allows. No doubt it’s an interesting question asked by many SF works but I can’t get engaged with how WW is asking it. To each their own.
And calling BS on the explanations for the complete lack of military technology, sound strategy, or tactics. The sabotage does explain some of the incompetence but the show uses intelligent people acting outright stupidly as plot devices. It’s a dumb and annoying crutch at this point. There’s only so many times supposedly crack mercenaries get out of their dune buggies and walk slowly up to the enemy while firing until my suspension of disbelief is totally broken. If this isn’t a space opera they should leave out the stormtroopers.
Anyway, I’m glad you like the show – it’s just all stylish, pretensious guff for me.
To each their own.
You’re all being terribly reasonable about this. Though based on the above, I still don’t know whether to commit to season two. I think you’ll have to decide the matter by flicking peanuts at each other.