You Will Pretend It Has Great Value
Or, Grifters Gonna Grift.
At Montreal’s Concordia University, even light is being “decolonised.” Because “colonialism in contemporary physics” is a thing, you see. No, really, it is. A thing that must be “countered” in the name of piety. By people with salaries and lots of taxpayer subsidy:
The project occupies the time of “equity, diversity and inclusion advisor” Tanja Tajmel and Associate Professor of First Peoples Studies Louellyn White, and draws on the magical almost-brownness of Donna Kahérakwas Goodleaf, a member of the Turtle Clan from Kahnawà:ke, and who was hired by Concordia to “facilitate anti-colonial training.” Combined, their efforts will be,
I suspect this is where the words bad whitey will be inserted. After all, there ain’t no grift in a context that isn’t heaving with pretentious guilt.
Apparently, “all physicists and other scientists” should divert time and effort from their actual work, the important stuff, the thing that pays the bills, in order to become familiar with indigenous “bodies of knowledge.” Presumably, on grounds that one simply can’t do physics or astronomy without a detailed knowledge of magical talking beavers and rival chiefs stealing the Moon.
This “indigenous knowledge,” the particulars of which are elusive and treated rather coyly, will, we’re told, be “elevated” – presumably, above its station – while “Eurocentric western science” – or, you know, science – will be “de-centred and scrutinised” for any residual wickedness. Any oppressive taint. And hey, what better use could there be of other people’s time and money?
The assembled scholars boast that they are “not seeking to improve scientific ‘truth’” and that the purpose of their intellectual toil is “not to find new or better explanations of light.” As if such gifts were theirs to give, or a remotely plausible outcome. Instead, they are vexed by the “social power relations” of scientific enquiry, its objectivity and usefulness, and the fact that the quantifiable and demonstrable tends to trump mythology and the adorable ramblings of one’s Very Indigenous Grandpa.
Apparently, this preference for things that actually work is terribly unfair, an affront to “social equity,” resulting in the “marginalisation” of those whose self-esteem is grounded in the obsolete and inadequate, and hence the imperative to “decolonise” All The Things.
And so, instead of all that incidental fluff about the role of light in quantum mechanics, and all those exhausting equations that enable us to do things, the focus will be on such burning scientific questions as “What person was Max Planck?” and, more importantly, “How was his work related to colonialism?” A term inflated, farcically, to include almost anything. On top of which will be piled the deep, deep insights of “feminist theory” and “critical race theory.” Yes, the very stuff of scientific breakthroughs. And these begged questions and dull, dogmatic witterings are framed as “part of physics in a holistic sense.”
As seen, for instance, here, where “Cree astronomer” Wilfred Buck – also an “astrologer” and “educator” – imparts his, er, wisdom regarding the cosmos. The drum-beating starts around five minutes in, in between the obligatory land acknowledgements and the confessions of colonial pallor.
I know, I’m sorry. It’s time you won’t get back.
The benefits of the “decolonising” project for advancing the frontiers of optics, astronomy and physics are, rather conveniently, left to the imagination. But then, that is the custom among peddlers of intersectional quackery and woo. The omissions do make the required pretending so much easier. I am, of course, assuming that one can’t actually summon the Aurora Borealis by whistling.
And yes, we’ve done this dance before.
And we doubtless will again.
The project occupies the time of “equity, diversity and inclusion advisor” Tanja Tajmel and Associate Professor of First Peoples Studies Louellyn White,
Actual LOL
But not unfair, I think.
turn off the power/heat to their dorms.
The assembled scholars boast that they are “not seeking to improve scientific ‘truth’” and that the purpose of their intellectual toil is “not to find new or better explanations of light.”
I believe them. But only on that.
Actual LOL
Hey, dummies and ignoramuses deserve tenure too!
They bang on about “indigenous knowledge systems” (details not forthcoming) and “alternate visions of how the world could be,” and ask, “What knowledge about light was disrupted by colonialism?” As if the properties of photons might somehow be different had they been discovered and measured by someone sufficiently indigenous. (Which an indigenous person would have done, obviously, had they not been so oppressed.)
Perhaps we’re supposed to believe that Planck’s constant and the relationships it describes are merely some artefact of having pale skin.
magical talking beavers
I encountered many woo-obsessed New Age fools back in the 70’s, but never dreamed that they would eventually take over academia.
“Mr. Wilfred Buck is from Opaskwayak Cree Nation. He is an Indigenous astronomer and author, educator, Sun Dance Chief, Knowledge Keeper, astrologer, artist, father and husband…”
Astrology, too. How about healing crystals and the reading of auras?
I’m just going to leave this here.
magical talking beavers
Band name.
Girl band?
I’ll let myself out now.
Indigenous Knowledge: an actual example is how the polynesians used the stars and winds to navigate. They had actual navigation schools. If you were wrong, you died. It was pretty amazing. HOWEVER, it does not inform astronomy or geography today. Native knowledge of plants (healing, poisons, etc.) in the Americas was eagerly sought and brought back to Europe, helping to establish many botanical gardens (mid-1500s). So that info is already incorporated. See Horizons by James Poskett. What this about is simply trying to demote those higher on the social status ladder. We cannot grant science a high place simply because it works. Oh no. Because we want to promote idiots to that high status based on membership in some protected group. Never mind that science and engineering grad schools are already dominated by asians and Indians–that brownness doesn’t count.
What this about is simply trying to demote those higher on the social status ladder.
That.
Over 30 yrs ago, there were declarations by feminists that math was patriarchal and they were going to develop a feminist math. hahaha. no. they did not. And cannot. An analytic solution to Navier-Stokes eqns is not more forthcoming simply because you are a feminist. Probability is not patriarchal except if reality is aligned with logic and logic is not accessible to feminists….oh, wait.
I know, I’m sorry. It’s time you won’t get back.
I just want to point out that this is what David will apologize for. Not naked fat ladies sticking their heads in buckets. This.
I mean, it did have to go to the judges, but still.
An analytic solution to Navier-Stokes eqns is not more forthcoming simply because you are a feminist.
I forget who it was who asked (rhetorically) “do feminist planes stay in the air for feminist engineers?”
asians and Indians–that brownness doesn’t count.
Individually, both of those ethnic groups now outnumber the native Indians[1] by a fair margin in Canada. The Indians, in particular, are starting to get more vocal about this bollocks. I suspect the increasing shrillness of Canada’s particular racial grifters comes from the accurate perception that their iron rice bowl is under threat. Currently our government is begin propped up by a Communist[3] party headed by a Sikh who is so reviled by his own ethnic voting bloc he gets booed on campaign.
[1] Redskins[2].
[2] Painted savages
[3] Not the Communist Party, just a Communist party; we have more than one holding seats in Parliament
Hey, I don’t make the rules.
This sort of woo is also a big deal in Australia, too. What do the woo-mongers do at the intersection of magical brown myths when they contradict each other? Isn’t that what we had in the Evil Old World with religion and science? Are atheists comfortable with magic brown religious beliefs? Why is Europe the only continent without magical indigenous people? Is the Old World so old that all the indigenous people have been colonized (by whom?) that they’ve come out the other side as colonizers? And isn’t colonizing, or more likely, simply conquering and subsuming, what the magical indigenous peoples the world over had been doing to each other long before any whiteys showed up?
What this about is simply trying to demote those higher on the social status ladder.
On behalf of those who are deservedly lower on the ladder.
This cannot be said too often.
An analytic solution to Navier-Stokes eqns is not more forthcoming simply because you are a feminist.
Remember when feminists claimed that progress in fluid dynamics came late because it involved fluids and those sexist men preferred things which were rigid? And progress would have come much earlier if moist women had not been excluded from the the sciences? Not because the mathematics of fluid flow is exceedingly complex and difficult?
The epithet “moist bint” comes to mind.
Strange women lying in Grievance Studies departments is no basis for a system of scientific inquiry.
I needed a laugh, barkeep. Your tip jar has been hit.
Bless you, sir. May you be pleased by the arrival of a new toaster. One that actually toasts all four slices evenly.
Nope. Reality is aligned with perceptions. Perception is a function of emotion. Of what people want to see. The rest is just bad luck.
It’s easier to pretend unfalsifiable myths & legends are equal, if not superior, to diligent research & concrete results.
Sort of like calling TV show gophers “producers” and know-nothing Excel warriors “project managers”.
Even back in the mists of deep time (1978), the efficient technique for locating young Mr. the Fourth in engineering classes at UC Berkeley was “scan the sea of black hair until you locate the red one”
good thing taxpayers have unlimited funds
good thing taxpayers have unlimited funds
I’m starting to feel a terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.
The history of science, and the many cutural perspectives on the subjects of science, are valid topics in the humanities. But humanities departments are underfunded compared to STEM; and students who major in humanities have fewer high-paying jobs to look forward to. And so we get the sleight of hand by which these would-be historians and sociologists insinuate themselves into Sci. and Tech. departments, where they pretend to be teaching hard science. And for such venal reasons university administrators pretend to believe them.
What would it take for the momentum to shift within academia? For the saving remnant there, who still have intellectual self-respect, to act on it and beat back this onslaught of degradation and decline? I ask because I don’t know what it would take.
Norwegian filmmaker faces up to 3 years in prison for saying men cannot be lesbians. For all that I rage against America’s gender nazis, at least the Constitution still provides some protection from these sorts of fascist prosecutions.
Translation: We need to attach ourselves like leeches to STEM because no-one in their right mind would sign up for our course for a six-figure tuition fee.
In a world where people pay $35-$40K to send their K-12 kids to a private school that proudly exposes them to groomers? Don’t bet on it.
In the field of astronomy and astro physics, the First Americans have a lot of catching up to undertake. The First Australians have been around much longer and their accumulation of knowledge in these fields has set many precedents.
And so we get the sleight of hand by which these would-be historians and sociologists insinuate themselves into Sci. and Tech. departments,
Actually most of them end up working for a government bureaucracy and it’s questionable whether they’re even qualified to do that.
Really. Care to cite one? I mean, one that isn’t woo wrapped in nonsense?
questions as “What person was Max Planck?” and, more importantly, “How was his work related to colonialism?”
They’re using ‘colonialism’ to mean anything they don’t like.
Really. Care to cite one?
i think that was sarcasm.
Translation: We need to attach ourselves like leeches to STEM because no-one in their right mind would sign up for our course for a six-figure tuition fee.
I don’t know if it’s still going on, but when the term “STEM” took off such creatures actually tried co-opting it as “STEAM” – for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math/Medicine”.
Since “STEM” originally meant “those degrees that aren’t the humanities[1]”, they’re right back to “any degree”. Without realizing the irony.
[1] And are therefore likely to actually get you a decent job
Pretty much. The term is deployed so carelessly, and to include so many vaguely tangential or entirely unrelated things, it’s laughable. Or shamelessly dishonest, depending on how you look at it. And so, it’s not unlike asking, “Who was Max Planck and what kind of toffees did he like?” And then claiming that a preference for one kind of toffee over another is damning evidence of colonialism, and also, simultaneously, “part of physics in a holistic sense.”
The Australian Aborigines claim to have been here since the dawn of time. An interval sufficient then for a boomerang to make several return trips to Proxima Centauri our nearest star. At only 4.2 light years, a mere walk in the park. Just citing a new addition to The Dreamtime for the sceptics among us.
Another thing is, by racialising the topic, and framing “white men” as if they were some uniquely pernicious beings, they’re pulling on threads that are, from their point of view, quite perilous.
Presumably, they’re counting on participants being so ideologically cowed as to avoid some fairly obvious questions. Including whether the ability to establish and maintain colonies in distant places, halfway around the world, might be related to, and even presuppose, a relative proficiency in science – developing the tools and knowledge to actually get there, say.
I’m guessing that any students sufficiently credulous to participate will understand that they probably shouldn’t, for instance, acknowledge the surprise of Nineteenth Century English colonists who encountered a Maori culture that was all but prehistoric.
Yep. And one of those creatures was astronaut, 2nd man on the moon Buzz Aldrin. Which was yet another sign how pathetic things were getting. But no one cared. So it got worse.
Related: Those Aboriginal Telescopes.
The Tomahawk nuclear warhead was the first indigenous science project to come to mind. Forward!
Attacking scientists because they are white and “colonial” is the classic logical fallacy “ad hominim” which even the Romans knew about. When they claim science is racist and all the rest, they do not mean that they have a better alternative. No. They actually intend to return to the primitive. It is more pure. So looting stores is more natural than paying for things. And lecturers in Australia may not imply that aboriginies arrived X years ago and they must acknowledge aboriginal astronomy as equally valid. Anyone studying the human genome or archaeology is at risk at any moment of getting fired for racism.
Well, I don’t wanna hear any more crap about what a bloody bigot I am. I just gave a Christmas card and 20 bucks to a Kike. Well, he’s a Mexican Kike. OK, he’s a Mexican named Kike. But still…
And I gave a wad of dollars to…a limey! If that doesn’t prove my bona fides I don’t know what would.
And I bet not one of these “indigenous knowledge” bullies would even consider making a place at the table for the Intelligent Design advocates.
And I bet not one of these “indigenous knowledge” bullies would even consider making a place at the table for the Intelligent Design advocates.
Not a chance. It’s in the same vein as every lifestyle, kink, fetish, etc out there is to be supported, celebrated even, as part of Inclusion, except for Christianity, conservatism, and these days, any thought to the right of Chairman Mao. Even sacred blackness, brownness, feminist-ness, and now even gayness won’t save you if you don’t mouth the current pieties correctly and with the correct level of enthusiasm.
It’s funny – Christians are juststraight-up evil bigots, it’s not anti-Semitism when it’s about Israel, but Islam, a religion several similar teachings to those of Christians and Jews, gets a pass. And rabid anti-theists seem to have no problem with religion in schools if its Indigenous Woo.
“woo” is my favorite new word I learned in this fine establishment. So many opportunities to say it!
Lens a whole new meaning to “pitching woo”.
Kind of ruins “wooing your girl”
except for Christianity, conservatism, and these days, any thought to the right of Chairman Mao
When you realize it’s not driven by any kind of principle but rather to destroy the West’s civilizational self-confidence so it can’t defend itself against the subsequent civil violence and “normalization”, it makes a lot more sense.
Similarly, they’re pulling on threads that are, from their point of view, quite perilous
Yes, but the inevitable race war is the goal. A society embroiled in a variety of micro-civil wars can’t defend itself against external aggressors.
A society embroiled in a variety of micro-civil wars can’t defend itself against external aggressors.
That is true of some on the left.
But more see disorder as a vehicle to impose tyranny: People who are in constant danger are more willing to accept tyrants who promise order and security.
And the vast majority on the left have no conscious goal beyond tearing down what exists.
the vast majority on the left have no conscious goal beyond tearing down what exists.
Of this I have no doubt, but what do they think their lives will be like under what replaces it? I’m pretty sure they think it will be something comfortable for them, with them at the top, but are they really assuming that when they’ve torn down Western civilization the lights will still be on? That food will be easy to find, that they will be able to procur enough of it? That garbage and sewage will continue to magically disappear? That there will be water, or anything else, that it will be safe to drink, and that they will be able to get enough of it? Maybe they think they can pull a Kim Jong-Un, but not all those lefties can be Kim. I can see them cowing the whites, but I don’t see them cowing the gangstas or the illegal immigrant gang members. And those people have had a lot more practice taking and keeping control in Third World conditions.
I’m pretty sure they think it will be something comfortable for them, with them at the top
Yes, but in my experience many of them aspire not to increased power and status but merely to greater security as proles whose needs are provided for and who no longer must make any decisions.
many of them aspire not to increased power and status but merely to greater security as proles whose needs are provided for and who no longer must make any decisions.
I’ll give you the last, definitely, but not the first, and the middle one pretty much ended when they got booted out of the womb.Greater security for the proles is a feature of Western Civilization, generally. The providing of needs is left up to the individual and if things are functioning well, their family, church, and/or community group. I truly do not understand people who want to tear down civilization and yet don’t want to be part of the new ruling class. Civilization is what is propping up their mommy governments that they expect to provide all their needs. Tear that down, and if you are not the warlord in charge, or one of his inner posse, your life is nasty, brutish, and short. Even if you are the warlord in charge, you are always looking over your shoulder for the wannabe warlord trying to take your place.
<i>Nope. Reality is aligned with perceptions.</i>
Not a concept I would take with me to the casino. (Not that I go to any casinos, since I am confident in my logical conclusion that they are just a way to fleece those that rely on their perceptions.)
I teach some students whose perceptions of their abilities is completely at odd with their actual abilities. It is a combination that rarely ends well. If you can’t do linear algebra, then all but the simplest calculus is beyond you. Yet I have a student that is about to waste a year finding that out.
In the end reality always wins. Perceptions, not so much.
See also Marxist economics, Freudian psychology, Feminist “theory” etc
I truly do not understand people who want to tear down civilization and yet don’t want to be part of the new ruling class.
They’re not smart enough to understand the dangers, that’s what I figure.
You’re thinking about this using too much logic and reason. Most people, the vast majority, are driven primarily by emotion. The stories, the narratives that they believe in are driven by an emotional connection to the outcome. The probabilities involved in getting to that outcome are not seriously considered because these people don’t have jobs nor lives in which objective inputs lead to discernibly objective outputs. Things will be because they will be and any charlatan or flim-flam man who tells them he can help move them closer to that emotionally charged outcome will do well for himself. It’s a self-perpetuating system. Until it isn’t.
You’re thinking about this using too much logic and reason.
[ Mister Spock raises an eyebrow. ]