Reheated (71)
As I expect to be busy over the next few days, some items from the archives.
Urban Studies lecturer bemoans litter inequality, suggests bulldozing homes nicer than his own.
Our postcode class warrior also thinks that “deprived” and “marginalised” communities can be elevated, made less dysfunctional, by “the provision of services… such as… street cleaners.” Meaning more street cleaners, cleaning more frequently. He links to a report fretting about how to “narrow the gap” in litter, how to, “achieve fairer outcomes in street cleanliness.” But neither he nor the authors of said report explore an obvious factor. The words “drop” and “littering” simply don’t appear anywhere in the report, thereby suggesting that the food-smeared detritus and other unsightly objects just fall from the clouds mysteriously when the locals are asleep.
The report that Mr Matthews cites, supposedly as evidence of unfairness, actually states that council cleaning resources are “skewed towards deprived neighbourhoods” – with councils spending up to five times more on those areas than they spend on cleaning more respectable neighbourhoods. And yet even this is insufficient to overcome the locals’ antisocial behaviour. A regular visit by a council cleaning team, even one equipped with military hardware, won’t compensate for a dysfunctional attitude towards littering among both children and their parents. And fretting about inequalities in litter density is a little odd if you don’t consider how the litter gets there in the first place.
The Dunning-Kruger Diaries, Part Two.
Behold the creative outpourings of Ms Angeliki Chiado Tsoli.
Ms Tsoli unleashes a fearless, selfless, and terribly radical “intervention” at a crossing on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Said intervention, titled Attempting to Reach Equilibrium in Times of Dystopia, is of course crammed with aesthetic value. A particular highlight occurs around 2:30 when a passing police car stops, resulting in a need to explain that what is happening is actually art.
Thinking Like Children (And Expecting Applause).
On nihilism and looting, and when wokeness is antithetical to reciprocation.
Right from the off we’re informed, firmly, that any perceptible reservations about looting and rioting, or reservations about the Black Lives Matter movement – say, regarding its demented far-left agenda, its racial tribalism, and the stated goal of abolishing capitalism, prisons, and the police – must be taken as an indicator of being “kinda (or definitely) racist.” Wokeness is not, it seems, a recipe for cognitive subtlety. “Some people,” we’re told, “appear to be far more worried about the fate of a Nordstrom or Target store than that of the actual human lives of protesters.” Again, one might deduce that only those protesting with, shall we say, physical enthusiasm have “actual human lives,” unlike their victims, whose hopes and livelihoods can be gleefully destroyed as an act of righteous liberation. From local amenities.
There’s more, should you crave it.
Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
‘Please don’t ask awkward questions about why these people seek asylum….from a European country.’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/28/the-guardian-view-on-asylum-challenges-dont-scapegoat-albanians
The report that Mr Matthews cites, supposedly as evidence of unfairness, actually states that council cleaning resources are “skewed towards deprived neighbourhoods” – with councils spending up to five times more on those areas than they spend on cleaning more respectable neighbourhoods.
Social SCIENCE!
Social SCIENCE!
Well, not only did Dr Matthews (pronouns he/him) seemingly not read the report that he waved about in order to leverage sympathy, but he, like the authors of the report, shows a remarkable lack of interest in a rather obvious cause of litter inequality. By which I mean a kind of careful avoidance.
Social SCIENCE!
Well, he is an urban studies lecturer, so we can’t expect him to be honest or intelligent.
Well, he is an urban studies lecturer,
Now a senior lecturer. Telling the young and credulous how it is.
–or even a human being, as illustrated by his desire to bulldoze the homes of good people.
The rich have become a luxury WE can no longer afford.
oops.
I was going to suggest that we drive the left out of the universities and into the potato fields.
But we could divert a few to Typepad, to spend the rest of their lives fixing un-closed italics.
I’ll just leave this here.
Brobdingnagian singer is oppressed. Please clap.
Brobdingnagian singer is oppressed. Please clap.
Do we ever learn which particular laws are oppressing her?
Do we ever learn which particular laws are oppressing her?
It is straight up racism when Trump has a 757 and she has to settle for a G5.
I can’t help but get the feeling that Salon doesn’t understand the meaning of “indigenous”.
Brobdingnagian singer
She doesn’t seem to have enough breath to be a singer the way she is panting.
Do we ever learn which particular laws are oppressing her?
The law of gravity would be my first guess.
Urban Studies lecturer bemoans litter inequality, suggests bulldozing homes nicer than his own.
That.
I enjoy your personal posts. Have left something in your tip jar.
I enjoy your personal posts.
I don’t know about them being especially personal – the observation isn’t exclusive to me. I’m sure countless others have similar experiences. But the avoidance of such things by those like Dr Matthews who pronounce on social policy, and whose blatherings influence students and steer them in what to think, and what not to think about, is rather odd.
[ Added: ]
As I said in the original thread, the primary difference in terms of residential neighbourhoods and littering seems to be one of attitude. Of being, dare I say it, a little bit bourgeois. And yet this isn’t mentioned, and the omission isn’t registered as significant. Evidently, quite a few people, especially left-leaning academics, don’t wish to acknowledge certain obvious differences in behaviour. To the extent that a report on, as it were, litter inequality somehow fails to consider any agency on the part of the local population. And so, the reader is left to imagine that nobody is dropping the litter, no-one is responsible. It just appears, mysteriously, like overnight snow.
Have left something in your tip jar.
Bless you, sir. May you never find yourself spending far too much time trying to decide whether to watch a bogglingly detailed two-hour YouTube analysis of a film you like, or to just slap on the goddamn film.
When I was a child, a nearby garden, one that was clearly looked after, was targeted for littering and abuse…
That could easily be a quote of Theodore Dalrymple. He has made very similar observations.
He has made very similar observations
Yes, absolutely. Again, I don’t think the recollections above are in any way unique or exceptional. At the time, they felt pretty commonplace and routine. Which makes the omission of such things, along with the lines of thought that might follow from them, all the more curious.
She doesn’t seem to have enough breath
At first I read that as ‘breadth’ and was like huh?
Did someone mention gardening? I hope not, it’s loaded with cultural baggage.
Reclaim? No, decolonize, Wong needs to get with the times.
Which makes the omission of such things, along with the lines of thought that might follow from them, all the more curious.
Understatement.
Did someone mention gardening?
I saw it this morning. I suppose it was inevitable. They must be running low on things to find problematic and agonise about. As is the custom, no explanation is offered for how, exactly, anyone is not being “allowed to participate” – a curious choice of words – in a spot of gardening, even on a modest scale. There will, of course, be people with no garden, and the bedridden, and those in high-security prisons may have somewhat limited access. But the idea that word gardening is itself some crushing obstacle and an obvious cause of exclusion is faintly silly, though par for the course, I suppose.
Previously in the land of the pretentiously fretful.
Envy, whether bulldozing nice neighborhoods or littering in nice gardens, is the response of the lazy. Anyone can get ahead (by which I don’t mean becoming a billionaire). The following are necessary:
Choices: of career (catering to one’s strengths for example, and one that pays well), or major in school, of where to live, of jobs. For example, looking for a job that allows for promotion vs being a dead-end. Many US companies promote from within. KFC franchises are mostly owned by people who worked at one for years (not rich people who bought one).
Luck: some people get lucky–this is no reason to hate them.
Effort: working hard is always required to get ahead
Time: I was poor at 25 but kept working. For most people their peak income and wealth come in the years close to retirement.
Lazy people and those dedicated to the idea of oppression reject all of these things. Failure is then guaranteed.
Gardening: 30 yrs ago I lived in a small town in the US South. I would go running through a sort of poor black neighborhood (small homes, not public housing). What I noticed was that the yards were tidy and had a few flowers. No one seemed to have told them that they couldn’t garden because they were oppressed. huh
They just can’t help themselves.
https://twitter.com/BloodyRedBaron/status/1563873221027307520
Previously in the land of the pretentiously fretful.
James Wong, discussed here before on European gardening being problematic because it gives Europeans a license to think about concepts that it should be forbidden for Europeans to think about without supervision, concepts like rootedness, a people’s relationship with their plot of land, native vs invasive species, and so on.
“native vs invasive species” saw a Wokie argue that we should not be biased against invasive species (like Dutch elm disease) because they are just trying to make a living and have a right to come here. FFS
Wait till the end: bipedal urban debris.
Via Holborn: How many countries do we want to offend simultaneously?
Did someone mention gardening?
And note the sly framing as a question: “Is it time we ditched the word ‘gardening’?”
“Should the elderly and disabled be stabbed in the face? Turn to page 4.”
Effort: working hard is always required to get ahead.
“Hard” isn’t even the requirement. Working steadily, reliably, consistently, combined with minimal financial prudence – i.e. not wasting money on needless purchases – is all that is really necessary.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/06/10/showing-up/
“Hard” isn’t even the requirement. Working steadily, reliably, consistently, combined with minimal financial prudence
Remember the black woman in Georgia or Alabama who worked all her life as a “mere” cleaning lady and left a half-million-dollar bequest to a local college?
The one thing that stands out to me in reading any (all) of these left-wing articles – regardless of the author or the subject – is that these people would rather rule over a kingdom of shit than be anonymous in a fantastical paradise.
Since 1970, worldwide extreme poverty has fallen from some 60% of the world to single digits. Lifespans have doubled and more. Quality of life has increased immeasurably. World population has roughly tripled in 1oo years. Knowledge and information has been democratized and is available to nearly the entire planet for very little cost – give it a few years and it will be truly available to anyone, everywhere, at any time, on a handheld device. By EVERY measure, nearly every single human on Earth is better off than they were the previous decade and that trend has continued for the last 60 years.
And yet, despite all that progress, rather than continue on that path, these insufferably arrogant, unaccomplished, ignorant twats who inherited their wealth want to wreck it all simply to bolster their egos. They need to disguise the fact that they’re embarrassed by who they really are, behind the facade of luxury values.
Das: it is not sufficient that there is all this progress–since they are not living the perfect life they want to burn it all down. And I mean literally.
Gardener Wong asks, Why are we having so little success getting people interested in gardening? The key word there appears to be “we”, because next moment he says lots of people are finding their own way into gardening, and connecting with each other, swapping plants and know-how, organizing get-togethers…. But they’re doing it themselves: we aren’t introducing them to gardening.
And this is a problem why?
It’s clearly not a problem for the gardeners. It’s a problem for we. Who the hell is we!?
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz
Wait till the end: bipedal urban debris.
I hope she has a lifetime to reflect on it.
But they’re doing it themselves: we aren’t introducing them to gardening.
I am an enthusiastic if inexpert gardener. It has crept up on me over the years to the point where I happily spend most of my non-working daylight hours gardening in spring to autumn and spend some of the dark winter hours planning and preparing for spring.
I used to watch as many gardening programmes as possible and to read the gardening columns in magazines and newspapers. No more. Most have become unbearable- climate change, organic, peat-free, mental health, plastic-free, anti-grass lawns, Gaia, contemptuous of the suburban style of gardening of my childhood etc.
The enjoyment of seeing a beautiful garden or getting good advice has been swamped by the preaching.
If I want advice now or inspiration I go to the gardening discussion boards or watch clips on Youtube.
If I want a sermon, I go to Mass.
Canticle…
A favorite. I must have read it a dozen times. And given current trends, perhaps I should brush up on my booklegging skills.
bipedal urban debris
Band name
Canticle…
A favorite.
“Bless me, father. I ate a lizard.”
I hope she has a lifetime to reflect on it.
I would like it to be a short lifetime, but New York does not have the death penalty. May she reflect on it in prison for the rest of her life.
Remember: These are the vicious animals that liberals want roaming the streets.
“Hard” isn’t even the requirement. Working steadily, reliably, consistently, combined with minimal financial prudence – i.e. not wasting money on needless purchases – is all that is really necessary.
Not even that. Seeing a legitimate angle that others do not see, which is often a result of not caving in to believing what the crowd believes. That can be quite valuable as well. Financial prudence is fine but if you let it get in the way of exploiting an opportunity you may find yourself working harder than you otherwise would have. Some “needless” purchases are not so “needless” if/when conditions change.
But any/all of these approaches are far, far superior to sitting around talking about why you can’t do something instead of going out and at least trying. Again actions > words.
Since 1970, worldwide extreme poverty has fallen from some 60% of the world to single digits. Lifespans have doubled and more. Quality of life has increased immeasurably. World population has roughly tripled in 1oo years. Knowledge and information has been democratized and is available to nearly the entire planet for very little cost – give it a few years and it will be truly available to anyone, everywhere, at any time, on a handheld device. By EVERY measure, nearly every single human on Earth is better off than they were the previous decade and that trend has continued for the last 60 years.
Per Jack Kerouac’s shortened version of what Dostoyevski said, give mankind his Utopia and he will destroy it with a grin.
Not even that. Seeing a legitimate angle that others do not see, which is often a result of not caving in to believing what the crowd believes. That can be quite valuable as well.
Except, of course, for how one still has to put in the steady, consistent, reliable commitment of time and attention.
Financial prudence is fine but if you let it get in the way of exploiting an opportunity you may find yourself working harder than you otherwise would have. Some “needless” purchases are not so “needless” if/when conditions change.
Those goalposts aren’t yours, so put them back where you found them.
[rolls eyes]
Special person. Speeeecial.
I ate a lizard…
My favorite was, where is the squirrel, in the squirrel cage drawing?
Those goalposts aren’t yours, so put them back where you found them.
I didn’t/don’t move them. Life does.
Except, of course, for how one still has to put in the steady, consistent, reliable commitment of time and attention.
The greatest return I ever had in life was on a $2800 investment that I turned into a few hundred thousand. I worked hard, very hard, elsewhere in life. But seeing that opportunity and keeping an eye on it, adjusting it a couple times, took very little effort relative to virtually every other endeavor I’ve taken on.
Which makes the omission of such things, along with the lines of thought that might follow from them, all the more curious.
They’re too busy telling us people who litter are deprived and marginalized.