Clown Quarter Contagion
In the comments, Farnsworth M Muldoon steers us to this unhappy development:
Male, pale and stale university professors are to be given “reverse mentors” to teach them about unconscious bias, under a new Government funded scheme. Under the project, white men in senior academic posts will be assigned a junior female colleague from an ethnic minority as a mentor… Prof Jon Rowe, who is overseeing the project at Birmingham University, said he hoped the scheme will allow eminent professors to confront their own biases and leave them “feeling quite uncomfortable.”
Professor Rowe admits that no evidence of “overt prejudice” against women and minorities has been found, but he nonetheless hopes to inflict discomfort on those deemed sufficiently pale. As if, in itself, this would be some kind of triumph. “We are mindful that previous attempts at addressing such imbalances have not been successful,” says the professor. And so, rather than revisiting his own egalitarian assumptions regarding the distribution of interest, aptitude and talent, he and his team will be searching for witches and racial ectoplasm.
It’s not unreasonable to suppose that the role of “reverse mentor” will attract people already sympathetic to the hokum being peddled, and intrigued by the personal leverage it affords, and who may feel an ideological obligation to unearth some damning but invisible sin, fairly or otherwise, if only to validate their own conceits. Which is to say, the so-called mentors – who’ve agreed to participate in a project that by definition assumes white guilt regardless of evidence or lack thereof – seem more likely to be racially bigoted than any random member of staff.
The speed with which patent woo can propagate among the supposedly intelligent is quite remarkable. The pseudoscience of “unconscious bias” testing and correction has been repeatedly exposed as both laughable and pernicious – a kind of diversity Scientology – and yet it spreads, thanks to ideological modishness and taxpayer funding. And when minority students reject the excuses and woo being peddled ostensibly for their benefit, they may find themselves denounced by their self-appointed saviours.
What’s objectionable, among so much else, is the conceit that these clowns, with their weird racial fixations, and other clowns just like them, have any business at all probing the unconscious of staff based on their race and sex, their maleness and paleness, in order to find bigotry that they assume must exist solely because of their skin colour.
It seems to me that when you’re reduced to hunting for “unconscious bias,” as supposedly confirmed by a person’s preferred charity or the random positioning of a chair, then you’ve crossed a line into something approaching hysteria. And a license for malice.
And yet we appear to have arrived at a point where people are expected to simply accept this kind of insulting presumption and intrusion, with an understanding that one mustn’t question the competence and motives of the clowns doing the ectoplasmic probing.
[ Expanded via the comments. ]
If a professor said he wanted to make minority staff ‘feel quite uncomfortable’ what would happen?
Wow.
They think they have won but have been shown insufficient respect. And so they insist on the right to publicly disrespect the losers and thus gain the face the losers have unfairly denied them.
These are evil people.
If a professor said he wanted to make minority staff ‘feel quite uncomfortable’ what would happen?
I somehow doubt that boasting about it would be acclaimed, or attract funding, or enhance his career prospects.
Do the “reverse mentors” get “unconscious bias” training too? Or is it just wypipo?
*crickets*
Translation: Birmingham University implies all its white male staff are racist and sexist.
Isn’t that a hostile work environment for anyone white and male?
Translation: Birmingham University implies all its white male staff are racist and sexist.
Isn’t that a hostile work environment for anyone white and male?
Quite.
Seems apposite, somehow.
The horror!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/10/driving-me-nuts-german-police-rescue-man-baby-squirrel
Do the “reverse mentors” get “unconscious bias” training too? Or is it just wypipo?
It’s not unreasonable to assume that the role of “reverse mentor” will attract people sympathetic to the hokum being peddled, and the personal leverage it affords, and who may feel an obligation to unearth some damning but invisible sin, fairly or otherwise. Which is to say, the so-called mentors – who’ve agreed to participate in a project that by definition assumes white guilt – are more likely to be bigoted than any random member of staff.
Young Girls Creeped Out By Older Scientists Constantly Trying To Lure Them Into STEM
Young Girls Creeped Out By Older Scientists Constantly Trying To Lure Them Into STEM
Heh.
As demonstrated in one of the supporting links to this post, anything can and will be used as evidence of “unconscious bias,” and thus, participating in such kibuki is a fool’s game. Still, such are the ways of all hysteriæ throughout recorded history.
The professors would be better off refusing to cooperate and demanding specific evidence of incidents in the classroom or among colleagues demonstrating bad behavior.
As demonstrated in one of the supporting links to this post, anything can and will be used as evidence of “unconscious bias,”
The random positioning of a chair, for instance.
R. Sherman, I agree. Any concession to these loons is effectively feeding the parasites. And when you feed a parasite it only gets bigger and hungrier. Unfortunately, too many serious academics have taken the line of least resistance and the pseudo-academic loons, effectively the parasites of academia, are taking over once serious institutions. The serious academics will have to grow a spine and stand up to the parasites before the host institutions are killed off. Unfortunately with the exception of Jordan Peterson, I don’t see much evidence of this occurring.
Which is to say, the so-called mentors – who’ve agreed to participate in a project that by definition assumes white guilt – seem more likely to be racially bigoted than any random member of staff.
That.
That.
As so often with these things, the opportunities for abuse and indulging personal grudges, and the kinds of personalities attracted to such opportunities, somehow passes without comment, along with the obvious public insult to white, male staff. As if those involved could only have the purest and most noble of motives.
@DrD
I’ve thought for some time that there will have to be a separation of the “hard” sciences from the humanities & “soft”/pseudo-sciences if the former are to survive. The latter need to be isolated in the modern equivalent of faith-based seminaries so as not to infect the rest of the academy. Dr. Deborah Soh’s travails recently mentioned on these pages are evidence of the need for such a separation.
The professors would be better off refusing to cooperate and demanding specific evidence of incidents in the classroom or among colleagues demonstrating bad behavior.
Report to the auditorium immediately for your Struggle Session, Mr. Sherman.
Why don’t we tend to see this sort of hokum pop up in Foreign Languages departments? Or, if it does, why doesn’t it appear to have taken hold to the same degree? I’ve trawled David’s posts to try and find evidence of this stuff in the languages departments, and I can’t seem to find many examples.
The professors would be better off refusing to cooperate…
As I said before, it is a Catch-22, unless they do this alle zusammen and damn the torpedoes, it would only be used as evidence by the U of B Academic And Workers Woke People’s Tribunal of bias. As DrD alludes, if there is one guy fearful of losing a job/pension over this, they are all up a creek in a chicken wire canoe.
What is interesting is that other than being a white male his own bad self, the U of B appears to have whitewashed (whitewash – I denounce myself) Mr. Rowe’s academic background, however, it appears from what paper citations can be found, he was not a Useless Studies graduate, so one wonders what is behind his motivation for promulgating this steaming pile.
Cue the harassment charges in 3…2…1…
The professors would be better off refusing to cooperate and demanding specific evidence of incidents in the classroom or among colleagues demonstrating bad behavior.
Refusing to cooperate is exactly what I and other functioning–and very irked—coworkers have done when we’ve had that nonfunctioning mindset turn up at one job or another . . . and the reaction from the idiots is often a shocked Um, err, um, wait, you’re not going along with the lies?!?!!?
It also didn’t and doesn’t help the opposing mindset on the occasion when something workable and helpful was actually suggested by one such idiot, and my immediate response was to agree and insist that the good idea be implemented.
My unconscious bias works as a warning system to remind to maybe not trust those black teens or muslim refugees on the corner and find another way to get where I am going. It never shuts down because we need to protect ourselves from the orcs who walk among us.
My conscious system has read countless reports of black teen and muslim refugee violence. That trickles down into my unconscious and works while I am busy doing other things than considering the well being of those who may not have my well-being in mind..
So we are relegated to pretend to take our ‘racist spirit guide’ seriously or lose out jobs? Is that it? That’s what it looks like to an intelligent person who also possesses common sense and a presence in reality.
From Jake’s Thing by Kingsley Amis: Jake, who was supposed to be taking the for side in a discussion on admitting women to his Oxford college, gets fed up and reveals his conscious bias…
. . . the “hard” sciences from the humanities & “soft”/pseudo-sciences . . . The latter need to be isolated in the modern equivalent of faith-based seminaries so as not to infect the rest of the academy.
Not too difficult, one would think. The latter are the exact same thing as all other faith-based seminaries . . .
Why don’t we tend to see this sort of hokum pop up in Foreign Languages departments?
The “problem” with languages over gibberish is that languages, and changes that occur in languages, is right there on the paper, and that documenting paper—and other forms of documentation—and its usage is all over the place and too difficult to be made to go away.
All that’s needed with and when in the languages is for someone to repeatedly just tap a finger on the documentation and point out that x remains x in this instance, it does not transform into a giraffe, nor has it ever been a watermelon.
“The mentor scheme is one element of a broader project aimed at challenging bias, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council…Prof Rowe, who is director of research at Birmingham University’s College of Engineering and Physical Science, said he hoped to interrogate the “underlying causes” that lead to the underrepresentation of female and ethnic minority academics at the top of academia.”
The cancer appears inoperable.
At least Prof Rowe was able to secure a research grant for himself and the University while they root out the “pale, stale” (i.e. stale because pale) white academics who have been standing in the way of female and minority advancements (by being in the jobs they covet).
Why don’t we tend to see this sort of hokum pop up in Foreign Languages departments? Or, if it does, why doesn’t it appear to have taken hold to the same degree? I’ve trawled David’s posts to try and find evidence of this stuff in the languages departments, and I can’t seem to find many examples.
I suspect that the effort involved in learning a foreign language to a level sufficient for advanced academic study is too great, and that the dim poseurs who just want a way to rationalise their grievances tend to get put off by the thought of all that work.
i.e. stale because pale
Stale because older than a millennial.
The twins start 10th grade tomorrow … and, of course, the ‘counselors’ changed their requested classes into a more “four year college course” rather than what each boy is leaning towards as a career.
I’m actually happy neither boy wants to go to 4 year college right out of high school. One wants military, the other into tech of some sort. Not only will they be avoiding debt but the fever swamps of identity politics.
We should decline to call them “reverse mentors” and instead insist that they be called by their true names: Kommissars (or Gestapo agents.) Only mockery and insults for those who call them “mentors”.
Why don’t we tend to see this sort of hokum pop up in Foreign Languages departments?
It does.
Words and Actions: Teaching Languages through the Lens of Social Justice
Multilingualism, Second Language Learning, and Gender
Of course the language departments are embedded among the “liberal arts” colleges so you get claptrap like this from LSU:
You just know from that any actual language instruction will be served with a heaping helping of SJW arglebargle.
Report to the auditorium immediately for your Struggle Session, Mr. Sherman.
Oh, I’ve “been there; done that” quite a while ago, actually. Americans of a certain age will recall the Satanic Child Abuse Hysteria which ran through the country in the ’80s. I was a freshly minted lawyer thrown into some of these cases as an appointed lawyer for children, and I have retained possession of a deposition from a national “expert,” proprietor of an “institute” at a major university which got lots and lots of grant money, wherein he opines that the presence of certain facts constitutes evidence of X, while absence of the same facts not only fails to refute X but also constitutes evidence of X. His conclusion (quoting from memory, because I don’t want to drive to my office and dig it up):
“Really, it’s the accusation that’s important.”
I shit you not.
My refusal to play along caused me to be summoned before our state’s children’s services bureau for a “come to Jesus” meeting.
Which is why I noted above that this “implicit bias” business bears the markings of other historical hysteriæ.
Why don’t we tend to see this sort of hokum pop up in Foreign Languages departments?
Adding to Farnsworth’s comment above, while the introductory and intermediate language courses remain relatively free of such stuff, the upper level courses have been changed from literature courses to “studies” courses in the politics and current culture and society in the target language’s country of origin. Thus, it’s now possible in places to get a German degree without ever having read Goethe or Schiller, or even knowing who they are.
Americans of a certain age will recall the Satanic Child Abuse Hysteria which ran through the country in the ’80s.
I was a young mom at the time … and I remember hearing such stuff as “children never lie about these things” and then reports of secret basements, underground tunnels and animal sacrifice.
The McMartin Preschool trial didn’t exactly cover the Los Angeles DA office in glory.
I remember wondering WTH was happening with people?
I remember wondering WTH was happening with people?
It was a wild and strange time, especially for an idealistic young lawyer who thought things like “evidence” and “court rules” were things to be celebrated. I learned early on, the fix was in and it was advanced by a cabal of academics and the ’80s version of SJWs and social engineers grubbing for government money without regard to quaint, “hundred year old” concepts like due process and “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
I recall a state attorney objecting to my cross examination of the person referred to above, not because it was legally objectionable, but because I was questioning Dr. X “is the nationally renowned expert in the field!” To which, I responded, “Why?” The judge smiled and overruled the objection.
And that’s how I knew the hysteria was subsiding.
As I said, the parallels with today’s racism hysteria are striking.
Because the same Marxian tripe is behind both.
who thought things like “evidence” and “court rules” were things to be celebrated
Like “objectivity”, that’s just your CisgenderHeteronormativeWhiteMale Patriarchy talking!
You know, this stuff would stop almost overnight if universities simply required martial-arts training for any type of degree. You spend 4 years in engineering studies, you spend 4 years in the dojo. You spend 4 years in Angry Studies, you spend 4 years in the dojo. The reason this would make a difference is that when your partner hits your foam shield hard enough to spin you around, when you know he’s holding back, feminist fantasies are immediately exposed for what they are (and you will spend the rest of your life laughing at grrrl power movies).
This is never going to happen, but if it did, reality would return to colleges in a jiffy.
…he hoped the scheme will allow eminent professors to confront their own biases and leave them “feeling quite uncomfortable.”
What is a sadist to do, if you think you can refuse?
R. Sherman, have you read Debbie Nathan’s book on the Satanic panic, and, if so, what do you think of it? Also, at about the same time we had the multiple- personality scam, did you encounter that?
For those unfamiliar with it, the multiple-personality scam worked as follows. Rich girl goes to psychiatrist. Psychiatrist convinces her that her problem is that when she was a kid Dad raped her, and she forgot all about it, but she developed other personalities who do remember. Threatening to go public with this charge, they shake down Dad for years of expensive “treatment.” Then, as fads go, it filtered down to the peasantry, and psychiatrists milked insurance companies. The beginning of the end was when insurance companies caught on and began refusing to pay claims.
you spend 4 years in the dojo.
During my few but intense years of receiving formal training in a martial art, getting paired off for sparring with one of the few females at the dojang was always a trial. What was I supposed to do? It was like stepping into a boxing ring only to discover, at the last second, that your opponent was a kitten. Short of outright throwing the fight, there is no way of getting out without feeling bad for either a) causing pain or injury to someone far weaker than you, or b) embarrassing them with a half-assed, no- or light-contact dance performed, quite obviously, in order to avoid hurting them.
We were light-contact. (Our stuff dated back to the samurai era, so with full contact you could have killed or maimed someone.). I think light-contact would be the way to go with the Pogonip Plan. When you know the guy’s holding back, that’s quite a sobering experience!
Short of outright throwing the fight, there is no way of getting out without feeling bad for either a) causing pain or injury to someone far weaker than you, or b) embarrassing them with a half-assed, no- or light-contact dance performed, quite obviously, in order to avoid hurting them.
I was doing student mentoring back when they first introduced co-ed wrestling since there weren’t enough females to make up a full team (go figure why). My male, 15 year old student was on the small side so he often was matched up against a female. This was such a bad idea in sooo many ways. And this was 20 years ago. Let’s face it, the stupid will drag us down until there is a very hard, very discernible crash.
Hey, do they have MAs in Britain, or does Bond James Bond train all by his lonesome?
I’ve always been curious about the European MAs, which seem completely ignored.
Short of outright throwing the fight, there is no way of getting out without feeling bad for either a) causing pain or injury to someone far weaker than you, or b) embarrassing them with a half-assed, no- or light-contact dance performed, quite obviously, in order to avoid hurting them.
If your partner connects with a knockout punch, cue you-go-girl crowing – I’m 98lbs but I’m hella fierce. If you connect with a knockout punch, cue speculation about your abusive tendencies – it’s only a training bout, it’s only a 98lb girl, what sort of toxic male are you?
A boy would be happier and surer of himself these days in a ballet class, where male and female dancers have delineated and complementary roles, than in Girlpower Fight Club with its double binds and moral hazards.
Girlpower Fight Club
Jane Austen’s Fight Club.
Prof. Rowe needs to consult a dictionary, ‘mentor’ is not the correct translation of zampolit.
I wonder how they will vet the prospective ‘mentors’? There will very likely be a traning session required to produce the correct level of resentful hate-filled bigotry.
And they will certainly report daily to the Central Committee so that each victim’s ‘wokeness’ score (according to that day’s ever-shifting prejudices) can be computed by the algorithm which I am certain is already written. Then comes monitors in each classroom, recording of e-mail, and listening devices in the office and at home. I’m sure there are manuals available from the Stasi.
“The pseudoscience of “unconscious bias” testing and correction has been repeatedly exposed as both laughable and pernicious – a kind of diversity Scientology – and yet it spreads, thanks to ideological modishness and taxpayer funding.”
In a related vein:
http://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2018/08/fireside-is-at-it-again-blackspecfic.html
The phrase in the “conclusions” I found most hilarious was:
“The field is segregated, and whether that’s due to variable submission rates, variable acceptance rates, and/or other factors, the data expose a clear instance of structural racism.”
Yeah.
Diane Abbott’s “Deep Thoughts”.
Thanks, R Sherman, I spit out a perfectly good cocktail at that bit.
Diane Abbott’s “Deep Thoughts”.
Well, allrighty then. a) I guess as long as Corbyn is around her employment is secure; b) I am glad to see the politicians over there are as messed up as a football bat as ours areand can give the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Hank Johnson a run for their money.
The beginning of the end was when insurance companies caught on and began refusing to pay claims.
As I Recall, one of the interesting occurrences was when someone(s) looked at the assorted numbers involved, with a resulting assessment of;
Hmmmm. This is fascinating. You say that these satanic cults have been sacrificing x numbers of people each year?
Yes!!!! It’s Horrible!! They murdered All Those People!!!!
That’s a lot of missing people . . . . Can you show me that matching number of missing persons reports?
. . . . crickets . . . . .
Translation: Birmingham University implies all its white male staff are racist and sexist.
Isn’t that a hostile work environment for anyone white and male?
They should sue the fuckers.
Translation: Birmingham University implies all its white male staff are racist and sexist. Isn’t that a hostile work environment for anyone white and male?
That the implied racial insult appears to have passed unnoticed, or been deemed unimportant, perhaps because of the party being insulted, does rather suggest a certain dogmatism. Indeed, the whole thing reeks of doctrinaire question-begging.
Professor Rowe says that the choices and career paths of “women and minority groups” don’t conform to his assumptions of gender “balance” and racial “representation.” He also says that “no one really understands why.” And yet he seems eerily sure that this supposed discrepancy is somehow, clearly, proof of “unconscious bias” and the complicity of white male employees, who must therefore be monitored closely and publicly insulted.
No evidence of discrimination has been discovered, of course, but apparently this detail doesn’t matter. Professor Rowe and his team will presumably continue their intersectional witch-hunt, at taxpayers’ expense, until evidence can be construed from an ambiguous glance, an unsuccessful joke, and particles of dust.
Americans of a certain age will recall the Satanic Child Abuse Hysteria which ran through the country in the ‘80s.
What’s ultimately objectionable is the conceit that these clowns, and other clowns just like them, have any business at all probing the unconscious of staff based on their race and sex, in order to find bigotry that they assume must exist because of their skin colour.
It seems to me that when you’re reduced to hunting for “unconscious bias,” as supposedly confirmed by a person’s preferred charity or the random positioning of a chair, then you’ve crossed a line into something approaching hysteria. And yet we appear to have arrived at a point where people are expected to simply accept this kind of insulting presumption and intrusion, with an understanding that one mustn’t question the competence and motives of the clowns doing the probing.
In graphic form:
Isn’t that a hostile work environment for anyone white and male?
Get with the program, comrade, true in Amerikkka, true in the UKKK.
They should sue the fuckers.
And then burn the place down. And then salt the earth.
there was some dispute over a water gun that led to shoving. Almost simultaneously my friend cried out “No shrinking violets” to her daughter as I yelled “We don’t hit girls” to my son.
Bonkers! ‘no shrinking violets’ works OK at age 7, not so much at 13. The patriarchy’s insistence that we don’t hit girls is not for the benefit of men.
I suppose this makes me a bad person, but I would love to see some non-white racists beat the shit out of K Thor Jensen. I might even join Twitter subsequently in order to lecture him about how it was all his fault.
I have a (modest) proposal:
STEM Equality Act of 2021: Until such time as the number of women / persons identifying as women reaches (at least) fifty percent of total persons employed full-time in STEM careers in the United States, ten percent of all women / persons identifying as women applying for university courses in arts, humanities, or gender studies shall be involuntarily reassigned to curricula in the (hard) sciences, technology, engineering, or mathematics.
Meanwhile, we will take a brief trip from Birmingham to sunny Australia for a dose of severely woke identity politics wherein we learn that a lesbian actress isn’t lesbian enough to play a lesbian Batwoman.
I guess being “gender fluid” means she is only a part time lesbian, and only a full time lesbian can be allowed to play a fictional lesbian character who was never originally a lesbian, but that is OK because reasons, or something. How these people come up with this stuff is a wonder to behold.
I guess being “gender fluid” means she is only a part time lesbian, and only a full time lesbian can be allowed to play a fictional lesbian character who was never originally a lesbian,
I’m assuming that this TV series aimed largely at children won’t entail Ms Rose actually shagging on camera, for real, and am therefore unsure why her real-life lesbianism, or intermittent lesbianism, is being viewed as a credential. Though I suppose this latest casting drama, like all the dramas before it, has one virtue at least – in confirming that the self-styled activists who shriek about these things are dreary and revolting.
Hasn’t K. Thor learned that in America anything is possible?
Don’t give up on that dream K. Thor! You CAN make racism against white people a ‘thing’. Believe in your possibilities, baby!
“…No evidence of discrimination has been discovered, of course, but apparently this detail doesn’t matter….”
Wake up man! The fact of no evidence is exactly what needs to be investigated!
How clever these unconscious racists think they are to not only provide no objective evidence of their malevolence, but to so thoroughly bend reality to erase any semblance of a trace of even a racist inkling.
Well, they have another think coming when Prof Rowe’s reverse mentors get to it.
Couldn’t the Batwoman writers make the character “gender fluid” thereby ending the conflict over the lead actor. Oh, maybe not…what if a gender fluid actor with a penis auditions for the role? He’d get the part because he has the part.
Come to think of it, why doesn’t the government set up gender credentialing bureau where people would apply for a certificate attesting to their gender for purposes of employment and appearing on TV panels, attending political townhalls, and the like?
Then they could have a gender registry and sociologists could study gender demographics and release Important Findings that there is a racial imbalance in the numbers of credentialed “other gendereds” compared to “questionings”. More research is needed to determine how much unconscious genderphobia is at work in society to cause these horrific results. A March on DC is planned for October.
It would make more sense for Prof Rowe to assign junior “faculty of minority” to senior faculty in standard mentoring relationships where the wisdom (and connections) of the old can be passed to the young, furthering their careers.
But that’s just old, white, male me thinking with my privileged heteronormative worldview, trying to stop the new world aborning.
imbalance in the numbers of credentialed “other gendereds” compared to “questionings”.
A few helicopter rides and I doubt you’d find all that many people claiming to be questioning their sexes, or claiming to be something other than what their chromosomes dictate.
A March on DC is planned for October.
???
DC Comics, or Washington DC, or, being fluid, alternately both?
Hey, do they have MAs in Britain, or does Bond James Bond train all by his lonesome?
a
Though I suppose this latest casting drama…
Speaking of drama, new in the world of racism is “traditional” theatre lighting.
Oh. Well, if experts have warned and an academic has said, case closed, man, case closed.
Hang on, if actors of color emit light on their own, I am failing to see why they need extra special extra lighting.
We used to just call them Commissars
“Of course not! Even the question is absurd! There are barely enough hours in the week for me to work on my research and writing, without adding another course to my workload. You’ll be hearing from the Faculty Senate about this!”
“Why of course! Even the question is absurd! There’s nothing would delight me half as much as having some child follow me around telling me that my life’s work was not just useless, but predicated upon the suffering of countless generations before me. Tell my new partner that I’ll be waiting for xit in my — no, our — office first thing tomorrow morning, or at whatever time xey can roll out of bed and stumble across the quad!”
this unhappy development
Here is a link to the university website where the university proudly announces the lunatic-Maoist program:
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2018/08/equality-diversion-inclusion-engineering-science.aspx
Here is a link to the university website where the university proudly announces the lunatic-Maoist program
I’m still not sure why we, the taxpayers stiffed with the bill, should be fretting about whether or not a given academic department “reflects” the country’s general demographics, as if it somehow should. Presumably, Professor Thornley isn’t troubled by the, as it were, overrepresentation of, say, East Asian students in my local university’s STEM departments, which don’t reflect the city’s, or the country’s, broader demographics. Should East Asian students be discouraged from applying, or steered forcibly into the arts, on account of being insufficiently brown?
I’m sorry, but uh, where I do I sign up to have a young, college girl mentor me for hours at a time.
Wait. We ARE using “mentor” as a euphemism, right? Right!?
Steve B: It appears that you are so in need of political reeducation that you will need to be assigned two “mentors”.
pst314: No. No. Please. Don’t throw me into that briar patch!!
😀
But I doubt that you really want to be, er, mentored by Maoists.
pst314: No. No. Please. Don’t throw me into that briar patch!!
I think you have misunderstood the nature of these “mentors”.
I’m certain that the ranks of primary school teachers also does not reflect the demographics of the UK either. I demand that enough women are fired and replaced with men until this heinous imbalance is redressed. The future of our children is at stake! We cannot wait for normal attrition to take place! We(you) must act immediately if not sooner!!!!eleventy!!
What’s that you say, that’s different because … reasons………..Well fancy that!
I’m certain that the ranks of primary school teachers also does not reflect the demographics of the UK either.
Neither does the ranks of the Royal Gurkha Rifles nor the SAS, so I expect the MOD to get right on this.
I see that Hungary is eliminating Gender Studies courses from state universities since they provide no economic value. I’d go further and say they are an economic and social negative.
Defend the border, no Muslim immigrants, and no Whiny Studies. Who would have thought that Hungary was going to be the lifeboat when western Europe goes crash?
Sometimes this guy makes sense and sometimes he’s off in another world babbling about patriarchy, so, travelers, peruse this, please.
https://eand.co/the-impossible-expensiveness-of-american-life-4d46668116a
Is it accurate?
“The Random Positioning of a Chair”
So Feng Shui is racist?????
Is it accurate?
No, and for the record, I have lived in Europe.
Tesco, now compare with your local prices, there is no appreciable difference with most things over our local expensive store, Wally World is cheaper for most.
Of course if the aptly named Haque is in his millennial way buying nothing but crap that is free range, cruelty free, organically grown with tears of blind Peruvian nuns in high cost areas in the uncivilized places like DC, yes, it is going to cost more than real food in real places, OTOH, even in California it won’t set him back $10/gallon for the gas it takes to get him to a store.
Hmmm. The cheapest car in the US at the moment (not counting rebates or incentives) is apparently the Nissan Versa, the base model of which is $12,310, but that is a manual, and it is safe bet this bozo can’t drive one so we have to go to the automatic version – that starts at $14,450.
Hmmm. Depends on where you live. $250K will get you you well over 2000 sq ft on an acre in many parts of the US, a closet in San Fransisco or NYC, or not much in much of Europe
This guy is just talking out of his tuchas with a typical ain’t socialism grand bash the US screed.
Thanks, Farnsworth!
I also sent that to my globe-trotting relative; will report back.
I looked at Tesco, a loaf of wheat bread came out to about 1.25 on today’s exchange rate, so maybe that guy’s not entirely wrong; it’s 2.99 here.
Now of course if he’s shopping at Whole Paycheck, anything, including gold-plated angel farts, will seem cheap by comparison.
I’m assuming that this TV series aimed largely at children won’t entail Ms Rose actually shagging on camera, for real, and am therefore unsure why her real-life lesbianism, or intermittent lesbianism, is being viewed as a credential.
Think of it as the sociopolitical equivalent of feng shui — rearranging society’s demographic furniture in order to, like, free up the inequitable energy flow and create good vibes of social justice. A prominent lesbian placed judiciously in the middle of a TV show can absorb and redirect the audience’s heteronormative qi, don’t you know.
Think of it as the sociopolitical equivalent of feng shui . . .
Bravo! I’m stealing that entire comment.
@Pogonip – Marks & Spencer is not directly comparable with Whole Foods. The M&S meal deal, which is great value, will not be a free range chicken or organic veg.
I think the writer is comparing organic, virgin-plucked, hand-polished, fairy dust-sprinkled apples with er… apples.
Real estate is vastly cheaper almost anywhere in the US than anywhere in the UK. A friend of mine recently bought a nice 2 bed apartment in a pleasant bit of Chicago for cheaper than similar properties would cost in my provincial home town, never mind London.
If a person buys an apartment, what happens if the whole building is sold?
As material for either mocking or to inspire despair, the Groan’s latest is suggesting video game deconstructivism.
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/13/video-games-are-political-heres-how-they-can-be-progressive
Because (stated in a fit of question begging) the current structure of a video game is too limiting, as Dickens’ novels were, video games need a new structure. Like Joyce. Because Dickens wrote books for people to enjoy, you see, and that was constraining.
What? Enjoyment? Whatever for? Folk will still buy the new contentless, structureless, aimless, and corrective entertainment just as before!
I’m aware that one of the lessons of GamerGate was “SJWs always double down”, but this seems extreme even so.
I looked at Tesco, a loaf of wheat bread came out to about 1.25 on today’s exchange rate…
I have no doubt that there are some things that will be cheaper, but to look at menu of arugula and creme brulee and come to the conclusion that the US is godawful expensive without taking into consideration all other expenses and factors is transcendently idiotic.
A couple of anecdotes, when I was in Europe, even though we were VAT exempt, we bought tires from the US because the exact same Michelins or Pirellis were a third of the cost. Rent for sq ft was astronomical, utilities a wash, but there were idiocies like regardless of condition, the entire place had to be repainted, carpet replaced and entire kitchen had to be replaced which would have been on my dime had I been a native. Gas at the time was four times the cost as it was in the US.
At any rate, it is obvious he is a bubble dweller who is unfamiliar with the concept that $100K/year is worth more in Mississippi or Nebraska than in DC or London, and he is basically comparing apples to entrenching tools.
Around here arugula is not that pipular and so is usually inexpensive at farmer’s markets towards the end of the day. Never priced it in winter as I don’t like it myself, too peppery. I’m happy with nice middle-of-the-road leaf lettuce, and iceberg for sandwiches.
To comment on the foods/etc, I’ve lived on regular grocery fare in Germany for a month and England for a week, and can report in neither case was it cheaper than the US. Far from it.
Not was it per se cheaper in South Korea, for that matter.Fast food noticeably more expensive in all three, as well.
A few helicopter rides and […]
See, you’re coming around.