Elsewhere (301)
FIRE report on the fallout of a class on global trade:
As it has in earlier years, [adjunct professor Richard] Taylor’s instruction focused on early global trade, including trade in silver and potatoes. As part of the class, he also covered the more pernicious aspects of early trade, such as slavery, the abuse of indigenous populations, and the spreading of disease. On his final slide was a discussion prompt: “Do the positives outweigh the negatives?” A lively discussion ensued. One student said slavery could never be justified. According to Taylor, he clarified that no one is justifying slavery and asked students to consider global trade as a whole, including lives lost to disease and lives saved from famine.
None of which proved sufficient to prevent Professor Taylor being removed from his classroom and found guilty of “bias” – without appeal, without reference to any specific violations of policy, and without seeing any evidence of misconduct. Activist students, who seemingly prioritised activism over learning, accused the professor of committing a “heinous crime,” and of posing a “threat to the safety of our BIPOC [black, indigenous and people of colour] community.” For which, they insist, he should be “terminated fully.”
At which point, readers may wish to consider the possibility that “social justice” activism – in this case, waging a spiteful, nakedly dishonest smear campaign in order to destroy a man’s livelihood and thereby feel powerful – is much more exciting than studying, especially if you’re not particularly equipped for academic activity – a demographic from which such activists are very often drawn – and much more likely to gratify any malevolent inclinations.
That left-leaning educators and campus administrators generally pretend that these aren’t the kind of variables to consider when weighing accusations of “bias” – and a somewhat improbable “threat to the safety of our BIPOC community” – says quite a lot about the kind of people they are too, and the kind of environment they inhabit.*
Thom Nickels notes a scandalous development:
Philadelphia Weekly, one of the city’s most venerable leftist “alternative” newsweeklies, has rocked the local journalism scene with its announcement that, starting next year, it will provide Philly readers with a different kind of alternative: it will change its editorial outlook from hard-liberal to conservative.
And Craig Frisby on what isn’t racism:
Modern progressives… interpret reality as if there cannot be any average differences between human subpopulations that have any relevance for social outcomes… Since this reality [of average differences] is unacceptable to progressives in America, then objective ability, behavioural, and skill performance standards must be maligned, lowered, altered, or abandoned altogether… in areas as diverse as higher education admissions, public school discipline policies, civil service exams, teacher certification exams, and gifted education entrance requirements in public schools. In some public schools, gifted education programs are simply shut down altogether because the racial disproportionalities in enrolment embarrass educators.
In the piece, examples abound. And regarding school discipline policies, this eye-widening illustration may be worth revisiting.
*Expanded via the comments.
As always, feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
leftist “alternative” newsweeklies
I think I see the problem.
Talking of school discipline, its been amusing to watch progressive heads explode over Katharine Birbalsingh’s gong. A justified and deserved reward.
leftist “alternative” newsweeklies
Alternative to what?
https://theintercept.com/2020/10/11/the-new-york-times-guild-once-again-demands-censorship-for-colleagues/
And again, here I am, a-settin’ in my redneck red state, watching people go about their lives without caring or even thinking much of racism, yet managing to live their lives in a relatively happy state. You know, just waking up and getting done what they need to do.
A new load of inventory needs to be booked into the system. The patient in Room 206 just rang her bell, gotta go see what she wants. Two eggs up, over easy for Table 6. Last quarter’s sales slumped 2% but this incentive program should bring it up. Let’s bring in a 6’ conduit alongside the access road. Can I help you, sir?
It must be nice to be part of the indolent class that has the time to create all these horrible societal plagues, and especially nice to have a media ready to help them. I’ve whittled my morning read down to.a few news outlets and blogs (this barge being one of them) because there is a growing chasm between what is reported and what I observe on a day-to-day basis.
Global trade has its pros and cons. The resistance to capitalism and the work to abolish colonialism is being tweeted on the latest iPhone assembled by Chinese workers while streaming Disney + to bored adults looking for something to watch while eating their chiccy nuggies.
Me? I got shit to do.
I guess the only solution is full-blown apartheid with sub-divisons according to the degree of “blackness”.
Great idea! We could call it the caste system. No-one would say a word against it.
here I am, a-settin’ in my redneck red state, watching people go about their lives without caring
Well, quite. Race isn’t a subject I find particularly interesting and people who do think about race a lot are very often unsavoury. And yet our woke betters have chosen to fixate on race, to a degree that seems demented, as if it were the primary defining attribute of a person, every person, and they apparently expect the rest of us to be fixated by it too. Which doesn’t seem wise at all.
BiND: ’… its been amusing to watch progressive heads explode over Katharine Birbalsingh’s gong.’
Oh, indeed! Extra helpings of popcorn needed.
the Philadelphia newsweekly item reminds me of a joke ….
Man to woman: “Would you sleep with me for a million dollars?”
Woman: “… mmm, probably”
Man: “Well, would you sleep with me for fifty bucks?”
Woman: “No! What kind of person do you think I am?”
Man: “We’ve already determined that, we’re only negotiating the price”
‘Do you want to supersize your shame and racism, ma’am?’
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/oct/13/ive-always-loved-fried-chicken-but-the-racism-surrounding-it-shamed-me
‘Do you want to supersize your shame and racism, ma’am?’
The self-involvement is strong with this one.
I like Deus Vukture and would like to subscribe to his newsletter.
There’s a small-time fantasy writer who got called out on his BLM video (yes, he lives in Portland, how did you know?) by a commentor. Admittedly, the comment was crude (yes, it was on YouTube, how did you know?) and the fellow, on reflection, decided to delete it.
Said author’s intelligent, measured response? (singsong)I screen-capped it, asshole!(/singsong)
I’m surprised he didn’t try to doxx the fellow. But he did advise: “Piss off, you’re not welcome. Don’t buy my books, either.”
Fast-forward: Fantasy author posts video to say he’s stepping away from doing YT videos because he’s only getting a few hundred views and not selling books.
Irony: In the last year he’s done an interview with a notable indie book blogger on how to reach fans through YouTube videos, and even contributed a class on the subject to the book blogger’s (paid) course.
your shame and racism, ma’am
And the cultural appropriation of things Japanese is her entitlement
FIRE report on the fallout of a class on global trade
‘After investigating Prof. Richard Taylor for a history question vaguely having to do with slavery, St. John’s, located in Queens, has now told other history profs they can’t even invite him be a guest speaker on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Taylor was a 9/11 first responder, spending 700 hours at Ground Zero, including digging through the rubble for bodies, and has spoken on it before’.
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/406497/
There are no grownups left anywhere. Not in the government, the universities, or the media. Not in local schools or police departments or City Council chambers. And increasingly, not at the dinner table in private homes, nor at the conference table in corporate boardrooms (and certainly not in HR departments!).
Our friends on the left smugly tell themselves that these are the marks of “Late-Stage Capitalism,” and that their great communist society is on the doorstep. I fear that as every engine powering Western Civ wheezes to a halt, the results won’t be anything like the utopian Star Trek-esque Luxury Socialism they dream about.
“Modern progressives… interpret reality as if there cannot be any average differences between human subpopulations that have any relevance for social outcomes…”
Modern progressives SAY they interpret reality as if there cannot be any average differences… Indeed, if you listen to them they’ll tell you there can not possibly be ANY difference between any two people, we’re all exactly alike – black, red, yellow (notice which one I left out?), religion – Muslim, Buddhist, Animist, Confucian (notice which two I left out?) and most especially, any gender (so long as we’re womyn or LGBTQRSTetc). In fact, all modern progressives divide the Race into two categories – (1) the fine people who agree completely with them, and (2) the appalling slime who don’t.
FIRE report on the fallout of a class on global trade
https://www.thefire.org/update-st-johns-limits-academic-freedom-of-history-department-in-ongoing-effort-to-punish-professor-for-asking-question/
Kafka’s “The Trial” wasn’t supposed to be a How-To manual.
FIRE report on the fallout of a class on global trade.
I mean, I get it. I understand the situation the school administration is in. If professors and teaching assistants start encouraging their students to weigh the benefits of global trade against the harms, they might come to the wrong conclusion. And from there, it’s only a few steps to weighing the beneficial outcomes of Western Civ against its blemishes along the way.
That way madness lies!
And yet . . . slavery was justified for millennia.
How dogmatic & hyper-present must one’s outlook be to assume values are constant & transcendent?
I fear that as every engine powering Western Civ wheezes to a halt, the results won’t be anything like the utopian Star Trek-esque Luxury Socialism they dream about.
It will be more like the societies which lived among the ruins of the Roman empire.
Incapable of maintaining the complex infrastructure- cities, roads, aquaducts fell into disrepair.
Provinces that had fed the empire reverted to subsistence agriculture.
Classical marble statues which were the product of a complex society and economy were burned to fertilise fields.
It’s worse than that; they insist that there can be no differences between human subpopulations, even when those differences are statistically-inevitable noise.
When your world has fossil fuels and internal combustion engines, nuclear power plants, steam and gas turbines, photovoltaics and semiconductors, it must be difficult to imagine a world where virtually everything must be accomplished with good old muscle power, be it draft animal or human (with the minor exception of wind/sail). Which makes it difficult to understand the concept of slavery, and why it once was as common as we have gas stations now. The alternative back then, of course, was to just slaughter your enemies wholesale, men, women, and children.
Elsewhere (301) . . .
Oh.
Missed this bit last month:
Ron Cobb, 1937-2020
On populations
“The alternative back then, of course, was to just slaughter your enemies wholesale, men, women, and children.”
– and ancient agriculture with only beasts-of-burden and no pesticides or chemical fertilizers being as labour-intensive and low-yielding as it was, there usually wasn’t any extra food available to do much else. Back when it took 26 men all day to thresh a ton of grain, it’s likely those 26 men insisted on being fed before any of it was handed-off to captives too young or weak to thresh grain.
I do wish someone from the woke/progressive ‘all people are equal’ [meaning the same] set would explain to me [a physical educator] why there is a preponderance of athletes of African extraction in sports requiring certain body characteristics including size/mass [height and weight], explosive power and speed, e.g. sprinting, US football and basketball, to the point one has to wonder if there is active discrimination against Caucasian athletes on the basis of race? Of course it may just be that those of African descent are really gifted in certain traits valued in those sports over and above many Caucasian athletes. If so, why and how did such traits develop? It may be that inherent ability actually counts on the field of play, notwithstanding all the social theories and indecipherable jargon uttered by those of a self-proclaimed socially just mien? I would love to hear an explanation – that matches reality. I suspect I would hear, as a distraction, that there is an active discrimination against those of African extraction in sports such as gymnastics, ice-dance, synchronised and competitive swimming and so on which require other inherent skills and abilities, e.g. gymnasts tend to be short due to the requirements of the various elements of the men’s and women’s events – I have never seen a very tall gymnast – it’s to do with levers and strength.
why there is a preponderance of athletes of African extraction in sports
White Supremacy.
Darleen I attended Indiana University [Bloomington] in the 1970s during the ‘reign’ of that famous basketball coach Bobby Knight. It was immediately obvious to me that basketball is a virtual religion in the Midwest – the recreational sports hall was always full of lads, especially those of African extraction, playing basketball on the many courts available for pick-up games. It occurred to me that if those same very athletic lads put as much energy into study they would do very well. I doubt that any ‘whites’ made them play basketball almost day and night. It was their choice.
Activist students, who seemingly prioritised activism over learning,
That.
That.
Well, “social justice” activism – in this case, waging a spiteful, nakedly dishonest smear campaign in order to destroy a man’s livelihood and thereby feel powerful – is much more exciting than studying, especially if you’re not particularly equipped for academic activity – a demographic from which such activists are very often drawn – and much more likely to gratify any malevolent inclinations.
That left-leaning educators and campus administrators generally pretend that these aren’t the kind of variables to consider says quite a lot about the kind of people they are too, and the kind of environment they inhabit.
[ Added: ]
It’s practically a signature of woke policy and woke environments, especially in schools and universities. In effect, it grants unilateral exemptions and leverage to identity groups deemed “marginalised,” and by implication virtuous, while pretending that no-one would ever take advantage of such things. And as we’ve seen, repeatedly, it provides a near-perfect cover for all kinds of obnoxious, even sociopathic behaviour, with proponents performing ludicrous contortions to excuse the consequences.
“… those of African descent are really gifted in certain traits valued in those sports over and above many Caucasian athletes. If so, why and how did such traits develop?”
– Lions.
“I am going to do everything morally acceptable to win. I will lie. I will cheat. I will steal. Because that’s morally acceptable in this political environment”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/guillotines-motherfcker-colorado-democratic-committee-member-caught-hidden-camera
…in this case, waging a spiteful, nakedly dishonest smear campaign in order to destroy a man’s livelihood and thereby feel powerful – is much more exciting than studying…
And it looks good on a resume…if BLM or Antifa are hiring.
Oh, who am I kidding it’s a requirement for the Democrat Party or a plum position in the mainstream media these days.
As our host would say “please update your files and lifestyles accordingly”…
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/406779/
As our host would say “please update your files and lifestyles accordingly”…
Heh. It’s quite strange, watching it happen in something close to real time.
So here’s an interesting thing I ran across today that’s only a little OT…For some (stupid) reason I feel the need to re-enter the professional world after being out of work and semi-retired since being COVID-retired back in March. I have a pretty decent resume and a number of remote-work opportunities popped up. Applying for one of them through their website I needed to fill out the usual diversity/etc. form asking my race, sex, etc. For almost all of these things I pick the “Choose not to provide” option. The only one that I distinctly answer is the veteran status to which I let them know that I am not a veteran. In the US there’s a separate disability form that you need to fill out. Perhaps this has been there on previous forms (been a couple years since I did this) but I notice one of the disabilities is now “depression/anxiety”. WTF? That’s a damn bit personal. Imagine having anxiety issues and someone asks you, in the context of applying for a job, if you have anxiety. How would you answer that? There is no way of knowing for sure if/how such information would be used. Which sure as hell would crank up the anxiety mechanism.
Imagine having anxiety issues and someone asks you, in the context of applying for a job, if you have anxiety.
“Are you a neurotic mess?”
Remind me who the Nazis are again…
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2020/10/14/rioters-trash-portland-restaurant-after-antifa-reviewers-target-it-but-the-black-owner-just-got-the-last-word-n1049560
Question asked.
Guillotines MFer
I’ve seen some delusional revolutionaries (usually through links here), but this guy is something special. He honestly seems to think that when the revolution comes, he’s got the upper hand in terms of organization and firepower. It’s like he’s never heard of the Cajun Navy, nor seen a small town in Iowa come together to shore up the river levy in the spring or to patch things up after a tornado in the summer.
Goes without saying that he’s never stepped foot inside a church, or he’d understand the organizing power of six church ladies in a church basement putting together a funeral luncheon for 350 people on short notice.
And that doesn’t even begin to address the numbers of us who hunt deer and ducks and pheasants and whatnot every year. I’d be willing to bet that our firearms are better maintained and our sights a lot more accurate than whatever cheapass 9mm they’re bringing to the party.
I realize that one should not interrupt an enemy when he’s making a mistake, but in the interest of heading off open warfare in the streets, I sincerely hope these clowns take a minute to understand just how effortlessly “the normals” will pull together to protect their neighborhoods should the need arise.
“… those of African descent are really gifted in certain traits valued in those sports over and above many Caucasian athletes.”
Evidence? Oh, empirical observations.
But Caucasians are not – and cannot be – really gifted in any respect over and above those of African descent, empirical observations notwithstanding, because in any context apart from sports, all humans are exactly equivalent.
I denounce myself, of course.
one has to wonder if there is active discrimination against Caucasian athletes on the basis of race?
I doubt it, but there is an expectation that blacks will be better athletes. I played on a geezer baseball team, run by an ardent liberal, when a black guy had signed up for the team.
The ardent liberal put him in center field, batting third (apologies to non-Americans, but basically the prime real estate on a baseball team) sight unseen.
It turned out he was a very nice guy, a very good teammate, and an OK ballplayer, but not great, and clearly hadn’t played in quite a while. In any case, he certainly was not good enough to warrant that kind of showcasing.
The ardent liberal apparently did not realize that awful position he put the guy into.
“Hey, everybody, can I have your attention? This guy is gonna be great, he’s gonna be fantastic, he’s gonna wow everybody, it’s gonna be something you can tell your grandchildren about! OK, over to you – no pressure!”
I actually felt sorry for the guy. Not so much for the ardent liberal, who in the event was actually quite racist, although he’d be horrified to hear me say that.
Lucy Kross Wallace, a sophomore at Stanford University, recounts her time as a “social justice” activist.
One has to wonder if there is active discrimination against Caucasian athletes.
You mean like the South African national cricket team when racial quotas needed to be filled to the detriment of superior white players? Nah.
On a similar note stories about straight ladies being unwelcome by the lesbian dominated WNBA also never happened. No sirree.
While accepting that Lucy Wallace has come up with a pretty good read let’s not lose sight of the fact that it can be condensed down to me, me, me, charting the development over a rather short period from plain old me to dis-satisfied me, realising what a victim I am me, what a great SJW I am me, I’m unhappy again me to finally back to where I started and didn’t I do well me. Not a thought about any damage she may have caused to others along this brief but eventful journey, but maybe that’s down to the autism.
I’m not sure I care to read about whatever happens to this self-centred and shallow person over the next few months. I guess it will be stunning and brave though.
let’s not lose sight of the fact that it can be condensed down to me, me, me,
Yes, self-absorption does seem to be a prerequisite. But hey, baby steps.
O/T, but this amused me:
https://twitter.com/FrPeterAnthony/status/1316634145674735617
But hey, baby steps.
Jobs. These people need jobs. Not the SJW look-at-me-me-me kind of made-up phony jobs but real jobs. Jobs with an objective purpose. Jobs that humble you with failure so you can learn that what is truly real is not connected to the nonsense you (and the education system) have filled your little head with for 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 years.
Re: Guillotines: “in the interest of heading off open warfare”
Heading off — heh, heh.
—————————
Re: Lucy Wallace and Autism.
Many, many years ago I was interested in autism as a possible research area. I saw that a local group was forming to discuss autism. I attended two meetings. The first included general public and some professionals who discussed what was known about autism at the time (not much). A few ideas emerged about what a group might do such as encouraging research grants and promoting public knowledge. All well and good. A second meeting was scheduled.
At that second meeting it became clear that radicals had heard about the group forming. As the meeting began one of these new attendees stood up and harangued the group about the oppression of children and the labeling of all differences as pathology. Other radicals wanted to immediately make the group into a revolutionary child advocacy cause which would use autism to push total societal transformation. By the end of the meeting, the group had decided to go the total revolution route.
Heading off — heh, heh.
I swear to God that was completely inadvertent.
By the end of the meeting, the group had decided to go the total revolution route.
I had a similar experience with a neighborhood group formed to work on a supplemental reading program for kids in our elementary school who needed extra help. We were quickly overwhelmed by True Believers who turned it into an advocacy group that spent all its time moaning about racial achievement gaps and demanding meetings with the Mayor and the Superintendent of schools.
I was lucky to have found four people in the early meetings who shared the original mission of the group, and we quietly went about recruiting some students from the local college to spend a couple hours a week reading to the younguns. It’s a very modest program, but I reckon it’s more effective than anything the noisy crusaders have done.
Of course, they’re the ones promoting themselves as Saviors of teh Chidrens, while I’m a heartless old bastard who wants kids to freeze to death in the dark because I won’t join their crusade. Not that I’m bitter…
By the end of the meeting, the group had decided to go the total revolution route.
Um, we have just received a message from Russia circa1916:
“For the love of God kill every Bolshevik you find”
Elsewhere (301)
Apparently way elsewhere . . .
Apparently a matter of putting one’s money where . . .
By the end of the meeting, the group had decided to go the total revolution route.
Where your probing finds strength, back off; where your efforts find softness, drive the blade in.
there cannot be any average differences between human subpopulations that have any relevance for social outcomes
“We do not and cannot accept the principle that incompetence justifies dismissal. That is victimisation.” – I’m All Right, Jack (1959)
Remember when that was considered a comedy?