Perhaps It Was Revealed To Him In A Dream
Further to recent rumblings on assumptions of racism, this caught my eye:
Who needs evidence when you have faith? https://t.co/G8zdjcT5yP
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) July 31, 2023
Today’s word is mindset.
Mr Dettlaff – sorry, Professor Dettlaff – has a PhD in social work and “formerly served as Dean of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.” He uses the term “white supremacist” quite freely, and entirely without irony.
Apparently, the professor was removed from his position as Dean for demanding the “abolition” of policing and incarceration, and demanding a “new, liberated society… free from violence and oppression.” And in which habitual criminals and assorted sociopaths roam freely and unimpeded.
In Professor Dettlaff’s imaginings, a world without physical consequences for robbery and predation would mean “individuals have everything they need to thrive.” Except, of course, any third-party protection from the aforementioned habitual criminals and assorted sociopaths. This “new, liberated society,” in which policing has been “firmly disavowed,” will, he insists, “truly keep us safe.”
It seems that Professor Dettlaff was deemed too ideologically deranged even for a modern university. Which is quite the feat.
He’s a “thought leader,” you know.
Also, this:
💜 I prepared a curricular unit for a state initiative on childhood adversity with a slide that stated that colonization, white supremacy, racism, and oppression were the root causes of trauma and was asked to provide references for the slide. 😳
— Leigh Kimberg (@LeighKimberg) July 29, 2023
Ms Kimberg, above, is all about “compassion, healing, justice and equity.” She likes to announce her pronouns to random passers-by.
Update, via the comments, which you’re reading, of course:
Regarding Ms Kimberg, pst314 notes,
Pretty much. It has, in fact, been referred to as a laundering operation. But it seems that even this minimal requirement is far too strenuous and distracting when there’s a “new society” to invent. One in which everyone has everything they need, in which the concept of law-enforcement is a distant memory, and in which carjackers gambol about like newborn lambs.
And it’s quite something to have a supposed educator demanding that the editors of supposedly academic journals stop even the most basic attempts to ensure that key assertions in their publications are not just made-up or wildly delusional. But this, it seems, is where we are.
Update 2:
Somewhat related, on prison and recidivism.
Also, open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
“How are you real?” LOL
And so, we have self-styled “teachers” and bringers of wisdom who bitch about the fact that on rare occasions their dubious assertions – presented as fact and self-evident – receive some mote of pushback, some request for evidence. Or at least for a mention of someone else making the same dubious assertions.
Why, it’s an outrage. How very dare they.
Two things not compatible.
Indeed. Given that “equity” seems to translate as “equality of outcome regardless of inputs” – inputs including diligence, punctuality, conscientiousness, and cognitive wherewithal – it’s hard to reconcile that with the notion of fairness.
But it seems that if you indoctrinate young, impressionable would-be social workers to believe that that the fundamental issues are “colonisation” and “white supremacy” – as opposed to, say, neglect, absent fathers, consequent poverty and so forth – you mustn’t be expected to have anything approaching evidence to support your assertions, or even an example of some other woke dolt mouthing the same bollocks.
The customary solution is for one leftist to publish lies which other leftists cite in their footnotes. This is how all the academic journals of grievance studies are run. It’s a veritable round robin or circle-jerk of lies, but it provides a thin masking of pseudo-scholarship. Much like how cargo cultists build planes and other high tech out of grass and sticks.
One of the ways that leftists lie is to corrupt the meanings of perfectly good words.
Pretty much. It has, I believe, been referred to as a laundering operation. But it seems that even this minimal requirement is far too strenuous and distracting when there’s a “new society” to invent. One in which everyone has everything they need, and in which carjackers gambol about like newborn lambs.
It’s quite something to have a supposed educator demanding that the editors of supposedly academic journals stop even the most basic attempts to ensure that key assertions in their publications are not just made-up or wildly delusional.
But hey, progress.
Cute how they use that word,”abolition”. Yes. Just an extension of the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Yes. Yes.
[ Post updated. ]
A quotation from Alan Dettlaff’s article:
It’s certainly an inspiring vision: the idea that anything is possible if you simply refuse to believe that it’s impossible. Stand on the roof of the Empire State Building, shout ‘I can’t accept the impossibility of flying!’ and leap off. Your vision will sustain you! Until it doesn’t.
“cite in their footnotes”
I blame the 70’s. Sort of…
By the 90’s, “citation” became the only standardfor publication – one can cite reams of bovine excrement in favor of any viewpoint, and plaudits are given based on the number and “correctness” (which seems to change every few years) of said citations…
“Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element — direct observation.”
The Machine Stops
We’re at least half way there.
Well, we’ve seen some tantalising previews. And we’ve seen the kinds of people who would be most enthused by such developments.
All of these ridiculous buzzwords are the academic version of the Underpants Gnome Theory of Profit, only more stupid and in real life.
Step 1: Ritualistically chant a bunch of fancy-sounding words :
Colonialism!
Systems of Oppression!
White Supremacy!
Step 2:
Step 3: All the world’s problems are solved.
It would be funny, except that you can’t talk to anyone who believes this crap. They are Jim Jones-level cultists. Nothing penetrates. Not the inherent contradictions of their nonsense. Not the fact that it’s been tried and tried and has never worked. Not the fact that all their nonsense is literally making people stupider, angrier, and more deranged by the minute. Nothing.
We’re gonna need more helicopters.
I’m still waiting for an excuse to bicker with the patrons of this fine establishment.
[ Takes foil off last week’s tray of bar snacks. ]
[ Slides tray towards pst314. ]
“Stand on the roof of the Empire State Building, shout ‘I can’t accept the impossibility of flying!’ and leap off. Your vision will sustain you! Until it doesn’t.”
Well, duh.
It’s the EmpireState building.
If someone tries that and plummets to earth, it’s because the system was stacked against xem.
Bigot.
I bickered (ironically) with Sue Sims. Was that OK?
[ Nods towards snacks. ]
The scam isn’t limited to grievance studies. The climatistas have been running the same game for some time.
Such is the stuff of which nightmares are woven.
That’s more a provocation for brawling.
[ Steps away from tray. Opens coat to reveal dozens of packets of crisps. ]
Oh, how cute. They’re doing the wave.
Hide your raw data.
Hide your methodology.
Hide your climate model’s code.
Hide your correspondence.
…
Conspire to deny funding and even employment to anyone who disagrees.
I resent that.
Not unrelated, first the usual suspects were kvetching because not enough blacks or LGBBC2 in either Oppenheimer or Barbie, not to be outdone, now the
IndiansNative AmericansIndigenous are miffed.I’m pretty sure they have had movies, innerweb, and TV in Flagstaff for some time now, and equally sure they featured
IndiansNative AmericansIndigenous people. I’m curious as to how anyone anywhere strove to do anything prior being able to see themselves reflected in mass media. Sequoyah was unavailable for comment.RTWT.
Don’t forget putting fellow-travelers in charge of the peer review process.
Begay said this is an example of culture of poverty — if youth don’t see themselves reflected in mass media, they won’t strive to do anything
Nothing stopping the casino tribes from channeling of that money into media entertainment.
Didn’t stop this thing from striving to jump on the victim trolley.
Nothing stopping the casino tribes from channeling of that money into media entertainment.
Good point, and to my shock and amazement Mr. TwoSpirit (“transwoman” is language of the yte colonizers) and the others appear to be of the class that just likes to hear themselves whinge.
Of course that still doesn’t explain why there are no
Indian Native AmericanTransgender Indigenous Barbies in the film, and Mattel, talk about yte supremacy, this is the only Indian they have.appear to be of the class that just likes to hear themselves whinge.
Yep. Here’s a good one … black fragility over Barbie’s “too much whiteness”. He claims “whiteness” is “shoved down his throat every second of every day”.
But of course, never think he’s that guy who would tell movie and art makers how to do their art. Perish the thought!
He claims “whiteness” is “shoved down his throat every second of every day”.
Another guy who doesn’t watch any TV or movies. All I know is that I feel empowered, seen, and included now that there is a vitiligo Ken.
I heard a rumor that Lennon’s “Imagine” was satire. If not, it should have been. If it is human nature to oppress, why do they assume that it is not human nature to steal? It is less work than working and if someone dies, well, too bad.
It is interesting that in the 1950s, the rate of black marriage, church attendance, and even incarceration were very similar to whites in spite of much more overt oppression (for real oppression, not made up) and much lower incomes. Welfare and the drug war ruined all that.
If we truly could end crime by all being nice, great, but they think that the cops cause crime. Backward causation. It is like saying wet pavements cause rain. Similarly, they want to end fossil fuels without have the replacement available. Magical thinking.
This.
whiteness shoved down his throat? At 13% of the population, they get more than 13% of TV and movie time, including all-black TV channels, awards shows, and movies. Heavily over-represented in record sales and sports. This twit does not know how to use a channel guide.
As to native americans in media–since they have intermarried so much over the past 500 years and those who did not look just like Mexicans, how is one supposed to identify them? The ones I have known blended in and lived in the suburbs.
The explosion in drug use that started the war or drugs was a result of the Great Society programs making work optional.
Given the increasing level of crime, expecting people to walk any distance while burdened with packages seems delusional.
Related: Back in the “good old days”, before the advent of automobiles, most people relied on public transit and most retailers offered delivery services. Large retailers had their own fleet of delivery vans while small ones used third party delivery services.
I believe those delivery services were fairly reliable but do not have much personal knowledge as they were slowly disappearing in my childhood.
But today I mostly do not want to use such services, due in part to their unreliable nature: If it will fit in my car I can avoid the real risk of damage by unskilled and careless delivery crews.
For us, here, the issue isn’t crime – at least not on a pleasant summer afternoon – but simply the attempts to deter car-use, as if this didn’t have consequences for city-centre retailers. As if their customers, or potential customers, can be nudged, nagged and bullied with impunity.
As I said on Twitter (or ‘X’):
The city centre is, needless to say, in an obvious downwards spiral.
*puts phone down, looks around. Dang. Next he’ll say we have trucks and SUVs. Drat it*
(does that count as a bicker? )
For a few years, in my twenties, I lived in the heart of the city without a car. It was mostly okay but walking several blocks home with big bags of groceries was virtually impossible, necessitating smaller loads in multiple trips.
…but walking several blocks home with big bags of groceries was virtually impossible, necessitating smaller loads in multiple trips.
We had one of these:
https://zincera.co/collections/tools/products/portable-folding-personal-grocery-shopping-cart-with-wheels
Needless to say, we traded it for a car ASAP…
Back in the “good old days”, before the advent of automobiles, most people relied on public transit and most retailers offered delivery services
Once had a copy of the Sears Roebuck catalogue. A doorstopper if ever there was one. B&W etchings of every product known to man, for the convenience of folk in distant and remote parts of the US.
I got one too after a while. How could I have forgotten? Selective Memory of Past Trauma?
Useful for urban dwellers, too. My parents made extensive use of it and lived in the heart of the city.
The Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) estimates about 400 Indigenous news outlets—including print, digital and broadcast— operate throughout the United States and Canada. Their followers range from a few hundred readers or listeners to millions of online and television viewers.
Perhaps I’ll just leave this here. “Subscription fees” = monthly cable charges, for a channel you get whether you choose it or not.
Somewhat related, a thread on prison and recidivism.
As noted in the thread, there’s a reliance, especially among progressives, on the notions of deterrence and rehabilitation as being how one determines whether prison is fitting or effective. But an antisocial moron with poor impulse control is likely to remain so until he dies, or is killed while engaging in criminal activity.
The concepts of punishment and incapacitation – of stopping sociopathic activity and sparing others violation and misery, if only for a time – don’t seem to figure, or figure highly, in progressive circles. Where, as we’ve seen, all kinds of contortions are very much in fashion.
See also sports channels and live broadcasts of games. In fact, there are only a handful of cable TV channels that have anything I want to watch.
While I have no argument with this, I think deliberate attempts to mislead, obfuscate, and deceive shouldn’t be forgotten – especially when perpetrated by journalists.
For example, Emma A. Jane, a journalist and Associate Professor in Australia, included in her Misogyny Online: A short and (brutish) history:
To the unwary, the citation form gives the distinct impression that Blunden is a reliable source such as a criminologist or perhaps a government review.
But no.
In fact Blunden (2015) turns out to be a rather short Evening Standard article (Caroline Criado-Perez: How I won my banknote battle … and defied rape threat trolls), one very friendly to its subject.
The article includes the same claim about the 300 A4 pages.
But without any attribution.
As it seems fair to assume that had a representative of the Metropolitan Police stated this claim about the 300 A4 pages then this would have been made clear (e.g. “… confirmed Detective Smith …”), but it isn’t.
So where did it come from?
The only source I can find is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Criado-Perez herself:
I don’t actually doubt for a moment she really did receive online abuse – I’m almost certain she did – and probably even quite a lot of it.
But as a Devon Tracey (a YouTuber) once pointed out, people who post videos of kittens playing with balls of wool also receive the most stomach-churning abuse in their comments, too.
So it’s not always clear what receiving abuse might actually be a sign of and I suspect an orchestrated campaign of misogyny to come quite far down on the list and for alcoholism, unemployment, depression, poverty, loneliness, poor impulse control, and a number of other things to come much higher (Isabella Sorley and John Nimmo, the only two people I know of to actually be arrested and charged for sending online abuse to Criado-Perez turn out both to have been unemployed alcoholics living hundreds of miles outside London in small, run-down provincial towns).
So here’s a situation in which one London-based activist and journalist makes an extraordinary claim (300 A4 pages) for which as far as I can tell there appears to be no other corroborating source.
The claim is not only recycled in a sympathetic interview with a London-based newspaper (one with, I believe, a significant readership of young, professional women), but the attribution is removed so that it’s no longer a claim by the victim, but a fact that’s just out there.
That “fact that’s just out there” is then picked up by yet another journalist who repeats it verbatim in a book from a publishing house, SAGE, whose output is “Academic books, journals, reference and library products” in the “Social science, science, medicine, humanities, technology”.
Incidentally, I would not have known about Misogyny Online: A short and (brutish) history had it not been for a glowing endorsement from a Professor at the University of Oxford (the same university of which, possibly coincidentally, Criado-Perez is a graduate).
All of this is reminiscent of Christina Hoff Sommers complaint about the use of “the rule of thumb“.
…who has, by the way, done serious work investigating and debunking claims of anti-black racism in American police forces.
And speaking of that, see this new report from the state of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension which debunks those racism complaints, showing that blacks commit serious crimes at ten times the rate that whites do.
That.
I thought of BLM and the like. In connection with a potentially great convenience offered by such actions of such movements, supported and probably built on the theoretical basis of those similar to Professor Dettlaff. So, if you plan to build a super-observable and super-controlling society (more than now), such glaring and absurd examples, noisly brought into public view, could serve as very good occasion and basis.
Well, of course, that’s a bit extreme, and besides, it’s possible that “conspiracy theories” have come to me in more.:)
It’s an interesting thread, worth a peek.
Among the replies are some weird, but fashionable, suppositions. Say, that habitual violent criminals – say, the kinds of creatures who gleefully sucker-punch elderly women because they happen to be of East Asian descent – will somehow be morally redeemed by “affordable housing” and “access to healthcare.”
I don’t think the 85 IQ is all that relevant. People with much, much higher IQ’s also have impulse control issues as has been most broadly and clearly demonstrated since 2020. With very similar imperviousness to reason. Hence the calls by these very same smart…smaaaaart people to shut down free speech.
I think we’ll give that one a post of its own. Comments that-a-way.
On the general theme of ‘share ye links’, I keep coming back to this disingenuous review of three books critical of what passes for trans theory:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/gender-criticism-versus-gender-abolition-on-three-recent-books-about-gender/
At one point the author – a Grace Lavery, who I think may have been mentioned here before – actually derides Kathleen Stock for not being able to cite any philosophical justification for what he calls ‘gender theory’ (ie, a philosophical justification for transsexuality), and… well, that’s kind of a problem for your camp, Grace, isn’t it?
Majikthise and Vroomfondel, white courtesy phone, please.
And we’re getting comment spam. 🙁