Pathology Dressed As Politics
Via Darleen and lifted from yesterday’s comments:
What’s interesting about Antifa’s mob assault of the journalist Andy Ngo isn’t that an organisation premised on recreational thuggery has once again indulged in recreational thuggery. That’s why it exists. What’s interesting is that so many left-leaning journalists have been so eager to excuse or diminish that thuggery and to frame Mr Ngo either as the aggressor or as somehow deserving of assault by people with borderline personality disorders.
The implication being that the poor, put-upon Antifa goons, who are all terribly oppressed, felt threatened by the presence of the unimposing Mr Ngo, and therefore retaliated, albeit pre-emptively, by jumping him from behind, robbing him, and putting in the boot. That’s why they went back in time to stock up on iron bars, knuckledusters and, it seems, cement milkshakes. Obviously.
Previously in the not-at-all-sociopathic world of Antifa:
“Are you willing to die for YouTube shit? That’s what’s gonna come, man. Death is coming to you, dude. Real shit. Feel that energy? That’s why your heart’s pounding.”
“You’re inherently violent,” screams an unhinged blue-and-purple-haired woman named Hannah McClintock, while repeatedly spitting on people and trying to punch them in the face.
Update:
If you poke through the comments, you’ll find additional illustrations of the psychology of Antifa and their cheerleaders, including contortions by leftist educators and the morally ludicrous Laurie Penny.
Also, open thread.
Gotta push this thread onto page two. What to do, what to do… Ah, I’ve got it:
Jane, you ignorant slut.
Dan, you arrogant ass.
This not being the late 1800s, nope and Susikone seem a tad confused about current meanings of words.
Speaking of pathology, a STEAM student, which I guess means he wants to work on hot water radiators or an old train engine.
Overland Park, BTW, is basically a bedroom community for Kansas City, Missouri, is 84% wypipo, with a median household income of >$70K, so I can feel this hero’s oppression.
nope and Susikone seem a tad confused about current meanings of words.
The combination of confusion – and straight up bossiness (‘Mind your business’!) is kinda hilarious.
a STEAM student
It’s a particularly pathetic attempt by humanities students (the ‘A’ stands for Arts) to co-opt the STEM acronym. Everyone knows STEM is short for “degrees that will actually get you a job”, and humanities students are insecure about that. So they shove the A in there and try to claim that it’s as important as the other letters.
I have degrees in engineering and computer science, but I minored in classical studies/ancient history. A non-co-opted-by-clowns humanities degree isn’t a waste of time; I think there’s great value in learning the Western tradition. But it isn’t job training and lowering it to that level does the field a disservice.
(The PHIL 101 student in me wants to point out that ‘STEM’ and ‘A’ exhaust the available categories, such that ‘STEAM’ is a completely superfluous adjective)
It’s worth poking through the videos by Mr Ngo, on his Twitter feed, and by Brandon Farley, who also covers Antifa, and in which you’ll see all kinds of revealing behaviour. Like this scene here, narration of which might go something like this:
Equally telling, though, are less dramatic moments, which often feature a kind of ingenious malice. And so, for instance, you’ll see lots of “will we hit you or not?” encounters, in which groups of Antifa goons will encircle someone, isolating them, while savouring the implicit threat of violence that could erupt at any moment and from any direction. And you’ll find goons holding cups of unspecified liquid above the heads of anyone filming their delinquency, obviously enjoying their victim’s concern over what might at any moment be thrown at them, while mocking the target for being afraid of “just water,” which, by their own admission, may not actually be water. And doing this for ages, following their prey around, evidently delighting in the protracted harassment.
Which makes you wonder, what kind of personality would do this repeatedly, for fun, as pious recreation, then boast about it?
Antifa certainly don’t hate Jews
I’m guessing the Jews they don’t hate are the ones who constantly prove that they hate themselves.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/08/anti-israel-profs-organizing-antifa-campus-network/
I suppose that falls under the “I’m not anti-Semitic, I’m anti-Zionist”
Oh, that’s all right, then 🙂
So is Haaretz a communist organ or merely communist-sympathetic?
Haaretz is full-socialist, full-appeasement, but only communist-sympathetic. They don’t avow communism, but they won’t say bad things about it. They’re sort of like the strict vegetarian who is a bit envious of his friends who managed to go full vegan. He’d like to be there, he’s not quite there yet, but he knows he ought to be.
I’d be amazed if Antifa’s demographic didn’t include a remarkably high concentration of all cluster B disorders.
The cynic’s view of human nature would say that upon socially joining such a group, 9 times out of 10 a completely average person will display the typical traits of the group within a few weeks. The ones with personality disorders enjoy the exercise of arbitrary power, and keep trying to exercise arbitrary power even when it is destructive to their personal lives. The average person quickly learns to enjoy the exercise of arbitrary power, and yet it is entirely within his power to stop when necessary. This person will go on to lead a normal life, fondly recalling the naivety of his youth, when he tried to change the world by noble means, and when occasionally one of his friends would go a bit too far.
So you might find that the group only contains, say twice the average proportion of Cluster B personalities, even though when they act as a group, 90% of the individuals act like Cluster Bs.
Speaking of personality disorders, a recurring favorite weighs in…
Young Jackson above may be a parody, if not, he is going out of his way to hide it.
Speaking of personality disorders, a recurring favorite weighs in…
For those who missed Ms Rao’s earlier appearances, see here and here.
Which makes you wonder, what kind of personality would do this repeatedly, for fun, as pious recreation, then boast about it?
And also: what kind of personality would excuse and justify such behavior? Hence my conclusion that the”moderate left” isn’t.
It’s a particularly pathetic attempt by humanities students (the ‘A’ stands for Arts) to co-opt the STEM acronym. Everyone knows STEM is short for “degrees that will actually get you a job”, and humanities students are insecure about that. So they shove the A in there and try to claim that it’s as important as the other letters.
The first time I heard about this STEAM crap, Apollo 11 moon walker Buzz Aldrin was pushing it. Another milestone on the road to God Help Us. I blame the STEM, especially engineers for this crap. I’ve understood why the hoity-toity of the arts crowd and such, the hangers on/critics/fanbois and such not the real talented artists, have felt the need to ghettoize engineers. It’s simply fundamental human psychology. An envy driven by the insecurity that arises from being just barely smart enough to understand you’re too dumb to learn how to start a fire without matches or fix a leaky faucet. What ticks me off are the engineers who fall for this intimidation. I know quite a few very creative technical people, both blue and white collar, who have never read, nor know much if anything about, Gustav Flaubert nor ever attended a Shakespeare performance. Yes, arts are important but they don’t 100% make a human a human worthy of respect anymore than the inability to change the oil in one’s car obliterates their humanity.
I remember the first time I heard the word “humanities” used in reference to an academic domain. Stupidest use of language I had ever heard of. Once I read Orwell it seemed obvious to me what the intent of that label was, or at least its more modern usage.
Which makes you wonder, what kind of personality would do this repeatedly, for fun, as pious recreation, then boast about it?
Which makes you wonder why, just why all the anti-bullying efforts in our schools over the last 30-40 years have resulted in such behavior. Hah. Just kidding. Of course there’s no mystery. We’ve demonized and punished children for fighting back, shamed every ounce of honor and chivalry once prominent in our culture, made excuses for the bullying such that the victim is lectured on how the bully is really a victim of a larger polite/proper/civilized society (to which the target of the bully usually belongs) and ultimately done nothing more than given the bullies another tool, one now backed up by so-called authority, with which to bludgeon the victims, and ultimately society at large, even more.
Also, what Zionist Overlord said.
Matt Christiansen has more.
It’s a particularly pathetic attempt by humanities students (the ‘A’ stands for Arts) to co-opt the STEM acronym.
I can only speak from my own experience. My son was in the STEAM club at his high school. While “Arts” might be in the acronym, the full focus of the club for the past two years has been on engineering activities. The teacher sponsors are science, technology and math teachers. There’s not an arts teacher to be found. The only thing remotely arts related would be the product design work they did when they were learning about 3D printers.
In my experience, the arts teachers are in too much of a hurry to get home as quickly as possible at the end of day to be bothered with using the STEAM Club for propaganda purposes.
If everyone’s called a fascist, what words will we use when true fascists show up?
https://twitter.com/soniagupta504
It’s a particularly pathetic attempt by humanities students (the ‘A’ stands for Arts) to co-opt the STEM acronym.
Daniel’s correct. While a single extracurricular club may not have an active Arts component, there are more and more districts implementing STEAM as a regular academic program, part of the primary curriculum. Ironically, in some of the districts I’ve worked with, the initiative is actually blowing up in the faces of those who are trying to shoehorn the arty students in with those who can do math.
As it turns out, forcing STEM types to spend a few hours a week reading classical literature or learning to paint or play a musical instrument isn’t that big a deal for them. For many, it’s a waste of time, but they’re attending high school in a public school district, so they already have lots of experience with pointless wastes of time. For others, it’s a chance to stretch their legs a bit, and some find that they really enjoy music or painting or literature. (Hell, my degree is in Physics, and I can hold my own discussing literature with my lovely bride who graduated with honors in English Lit, and I enjoy noodling around on my guitar as a favored pastime.) In these cases, the STEAM curriculum actually does some positive good.
On the other side of the coin, you have the arty students who are expected to spend a few hours a week learning something about S, T, E or M. You might find this hard to believe, but in real life, it’s a lot easier for a budding scientist, engineer, or computer geek to write a paper about Shakespeare than it is for a budding interpretive basket weaver to learn the difference between a cosine and a tangent, or to work his way through a geometric proof.
In one district, I heard the argument made that painting a picture of a sine wave should count as partial credit toward a kid’s trigonometry requirement. Because our society really needs bridges designed and built by people who paint nice pictures of bridges.
In the end, mathematics will separate the wheat from the chaff.
what words will we use when true fascists show up?
We? Bullets speak louder than words.
Antifa? “Thank you sir, may I have another?”
I remember the first time I heard the word “humanities” used in reference to an academic domain. Stupidest use of language I had ever heard of.
Well, I prefer it to the more nebulous “arts” because it makes it clearer that you’re not just talking about the fine/visual arts.
…in real life, it’s a lot easier for a budding scientist, engineer, or computer geek to write a paper about Shakespeare than it is for a budding interpretive basket weaver to learn the difference between a cosine and a tangent, or to work his way through a geometric proof.
Yes indeed. Many scientists and engineers enjoy the arts and can talk intelligently about them, but the reverse is fairly rare.
I know–and know of–scientists and engineers who are not only writers but award-winning writers. Consider, for example, the inimitable Gregory Benford, or Gene Wolfe who has been called the Melville of science fiction and fantasy.
included a staff writer at Slate; a contributor to GQ; a senior reporter for Mother Jones… a writer for the Independent; and at least two Guardian contributors.
And NYT, Haaretz, HuffPo, Vox…
Thread.
https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1147688712119173120